Entrepreneurship, with its shiny veneer and hyper-sensationalized reputation, draws in countless individuals to try their hand at building, launching, and scaling their idea into a profitable and impactful endeavor. Most startups, unfortunately, end up crashing and burning, often due to the founder’s lack of skills, expertise, and experience. Some of these fatal outcomes could have been avoided.
Perseverance and Dedication
Entrepreneurial success requires sheer perseverance and dedication to overcome adversity despite the odds. There are a thousand reasons why an entrepreneur should give up, shut down, and move on. It is up to each entrepreneur to find that one reason to keep on going, to keep trying, iterating, and innovating, even when it seems that failure is inevitable. Historically, we can see that some of the world’s best companies were launched, forged, and refined during economic downturns and hardships.
The Catalyst
Each business, each product, service, and entrepreneur has a story of origin. Many are riddled with complexities, challenges, and inspiration. A common theme for most is that there was a pressing problem that needed to be solved. This unquenchable desire for resolution can serve as a powerful catalyst for the entrepreneur to make the leap and dive head first into building a business to address the burden on their shoulders.
The Journey Begins
Farshad Yousefi, an Iranian-American, like many entrepreneurs, found himself longing to build startups that solve problems that affect millions of people. He embarked on his entrepreneurial journey in 2018.
The journey began with his best friend, Masoud Jalali, Ph.D., building Visionful, a technology company that provided intelligent parking and mobility for smart cities. Yousefi led the team at the venture-backed company from zero to a seven-figure revenue within a short time. After operating the company for a few years, the team exited it in a multi-million-dollar deal, being acquired by [Cloudastructure.com] in April 2021.
The Next Venture
During his time building Visionful, supporting clients around the globe, Yousefi experienced firsthand just how difficult it was for new investors to get started in real estate investing. Through his analysis and research, he found that the common barriers for most people to start real estate investing were: a high-cost barrier, the overall complex process, and the lack of liquidity. Upon winding down their time at Visionful, it became evident to the two co-founders that they had stumbled across their next venture in making, Fintor, the app to democratize real estate investing for all.
The Fintor Team
Despite not having a personal background in real estate, Yousefi knew that this was a space that needed positive disruption, given the countless millions of people in the US who are sidelined from accessing this asset class. Coming from a low-income immigrant family, he knew firsthand what inaccessibility felt and looked like. This deeply rooted conviction and desire to help the less fortunate continue to spur Yousefi on in building out the Fintor team and product.
Conclusion
Today, the company is valued at over $100 million and is among the fastest-growing startups in Silicon Valley. Farshad Yousefi has maintained his course on his journey and is on his way to building a solution that will help millions of lives every day by enabling new people to start investing in real estate with just $5. The democratization has begun.
