How A Window-Screen Entrepreneur Created An Amazing Online Brand - a podcast by Blake and Jacob Morgan

This week we are joined by Joe Altieri, the creator of FlexScreen, a cutting-edge invention that Joe took to Shark Tank and he ended up getting a deal with Lori Greiner. The company is now five years old and it is a multi-million dollar brand.

Joe actually started his journey as an independent sales rep in the window and door industry. And he found that the window screens he was selling had been unchanged since the early 1900s and customers continuously complained to him about the product. 

He decided to go into his garage and try to come up with a solution, just as a hobby. He wanted to come up with a screen that wouldn’t get damaged as easily, something that was easier to take in and out, and something with new technology and he came up with a prototype. He brought the prototype to some people in his industry and they thought it was great, so he got in touch with a patent attorney, got some investors together, opened up a manufacturing plant and the rest is history. 

Joe believes that every entrepreneur needs to be in the content creator business first. When he first started the business he and a young guy he had hired would spend three hours filming content--funny, crazy, catchy stuff--with an iPhone in front of a pipe and black drapes in order to sell their product. It was easy, it was basic--but it was effective.  He says the key is being vulnerable and getting your message out there, even if you don’t have top-end technology and resources. 

As Joe shares, “I was also willing to be vulnerable. That's another thing that a lot of people that I've talked to, they're just not willing to do that. You know, putting yourself out there be a little bit silly, or not be silly, whatever your personality is, let people get to know you and not try to put some sort of face out there that is hard to keep up through the months, the years, you know, that type of thing. I mean, now people don't want to buy off of a company, they want to buy off of a person, a brand, you know, they want to understand who you are as a company, not just your product.”

Tune in to hear what it was like to go in front of the famous Sharks, Joe’s advice to entrepreneurs on how to best pitch your product to investors, how he has created a successful brand, what Joe’s greatest joy in life is, and much more. 

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