![]() ![]() He pitched reporters himself, and landed stories in top national outlets. Instead of shelling out for an expensive marketing and public relations campaign, he researched web video techniques and shot his own video content. "I was always focused on where the money was going." This demanded a strategic approach to expenditures - he wasn't playing with an influx of corporate funds or a bank loan, this was money that belonged to the people he cared about most. He borrowed money from friends and family, and put up his own cash to cover startup costs. Rather than seeking outside funding - an often quixotic and grueling quest for entrepreneurs with an unproven idea - Kuadey elected to bootstrap his new company. #PRONS AND CONS OF CARDRESCUE FULL#When he lost his job at Citigroup as a result of downsizing in the wake of the financial collapse, he realized it was time to pursue his idea full time. Kuadey used the safe haven of business school as a testing lab for his new idea, running it by professors and treating it as his independent project. He came up with GiftCardRescue - an online trading post where the owners of languishing gift cards can trade them in for cash, and shoppers in the market for gift cards for their favorite shops and restaurants can score them at a discounted rate. Kuadey immediately looked into the gift card resale market, and realized he had found an opportunity. He told Kuadey that he wished there was a way to sell them, instead of being forced to use them in the shops and restaurants where they had been purchased. The problem Kuadey was waiting for arrived in a conversation with a friend who was lamenting his stack of unwanted gift cards. ![]() "I was waiting for the right opportunity."Īs any successful entrepreneur will tell you, the best business ideas are solutions to existing problems. "I was convinced I wanted to do my own thing," Kuadey says. He wasn't interested in paying his dues for 20 or 30 years in order to move to the next level professionally. After graduation he began working for Citigroup as a compliance manager, but he couldn't shake the feeling that working for someone else was keeping him from realizing his full potential. Inspired, Kuadey enrolled in the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business to pursue his MBA. But instead of following trials, Kuadey read Inc., Fast Company, and other business magazines voraciously. Friends and family insisted he should go to law school. In 2001, Kwame Kuadey was fresh out of college and contemplating his next career move. ![]()
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