Gustavo Serafini has built his dream business around the work he loves. He is the co-founder of PureAudioVideo, a Fort-based high-end home theater equipment reseller. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Film fans and his co-founder and brother Marcelo create elaborate home entertainment experiences for tech, film and music lovers. Serafini also hosts Enabled Disabled Podcasts with the goal of shifting disability stories and empowering people through hands-on advice and stories.
Founded in 2005, PureAudioVideo joins a small cohort of entrepreneurs with annual sales of about $ 2 million, currently 9 employees, and SMEs with annual sales of over $ 1 million. doing.
Serafini has built a business while living with a disability. He was born with a localized defect of the proximal femur (PFFD). This is a rare non-hereditary condition in which the femur is shortened and a customized prosthesis is worn. He has also lost his right arm. (He is one of the entrepreneurs to speak at the upcoming Thursday, July 28th, at noon EST at a free community event on entrepreneurs and disabilities at the New York Public Library. [on Zoom]Moderate. )
Gustavo Serafini has incorporated a passion for the movie watching experience into the installation business. … [+]
What spurred Serafini through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship was the belief of “choosing oneself,” like “this is what I want to be in my life.” This is the way I am going. These are the sacrifices I’m willing to pay, “he explains. “If you don’t have the courage to choose yourself, nothing happens.”
Serafini has adopted this idea from an early age. “The first time he really remembered choosing himself in his limbs was when he played basketball,” he says. “I decided to try 8th Grade team.I was shorter than anyone [who was trying out] And it will be late. Everyone was kind and basically told me, “Gustavo, you’re not going to get it done.” I don’t think it’s the best idea you’ve ever had. My reaction was that it doesn’t matter if I achieve it. I want to test it myself. I want to see what I can do. “
He created an undefeated team. As a pre-teen boy, he never asked his coach why he was selected for the team, but he knew he had two reasons for his coach.
“When I played, the coach changed the attack system,” he recalls. “It didn’t matter if we went up 20, 30, or 50 points. If I didn’t perform, he immediately pulled me. I made myself and his look I was given the opportunity to improve, otherwise I would be out of the game like everyone else. “
The experience was very motivating for Serafini. “For the first time, he realized that the limits he thought he had were wrong,” he says. “The real limits were far farther and much darker than I knew. Expanding the world in front of me was life-changing.”
Playing as a team finally told him, “I can accomplish that in the world. I may have to work harder. But people I Will give you the opportunity to do something. ”
That experience led him to coach at a basketball camp. The head coach found out that he had a complete understanding of sports. “It was another beautiful experience,” he says. “I learned a lot about motivating myself and leading friendships with my team. All of this led to entrepreneurship.”
Beyond that, coaching was an opportunity for personal growth. “There was always joy and motivation to go against expectations,” he says. “If someone told me I couldn’t do this, I challenged them to prove they were wrong.”
Serafini attended the University of Chicago and wanted to be a writer inspired by an English teacher and loved the English program there. After that, she went on to George Washington University Law School. He found that he had no passion for law as his career. “I was very allergic to the law,” he says, but he found it. But when it came time to get a job after school, he felt an entrepreneurial call. He asks himself, “What can I do to control my life and my interests?” He concluded, “I should own my business.”
His brother Marcelo shared a similar desire. “We loved the film music experience,” he says. They did some research and decided to start Pure Audio Video a year and a half later, but didn’t look back. They initially started marketing services to audiophiles and then refined their business model. The company works with customers to plan theaters and sell audio and video systems, as well as related electrical work and cybersecurity. Over time, they turned their attention to servicing serious audiophiles in home theaters.
“This was patience, a quest for the soul, an exercise to understand who we want to serve and who we are for,” he says. “We wanted to enter the high-end, luxury custom home market, which is very difficult to enter. Builders control much of that work.”
They networked as much as they could to find their first customer, and the business started in 2007. But by 2009, the country was in recession. “There was a moment when we didn’t know if we were going to get it done,” he recalls. “We decided to go high-end or closed.”
Finally, the builders they knew gave them the opportunity to bid on jobs at the NFL player’s home. They won the bid and the builder held a barbecue to celebrate his deal. “Opportunities began when people knew we were working on the job and he was willing to talk to them,” says Serafini. By raising all projects to the highest level possible, we have built positive reviews that will help the company grow.
“The creative things we do with pure audio / video really pay homage to the artist,” he says. “Creating a cinema room that exceeds the expectations of people in the industry shows that you’re doing the right thing. Personally, you can sit in a great theater with your friends and do what the artist intended. I love watching what I know to be close. Thousands of people are working on big budget movies. How often can you evaluate these nuances and special effects? At best, it’s It’s transformative. ”
He and Marcelo are currently aiming to set up a company with annual sales of $ 4 to $ 6 million. “We definitely see the benefits of doubling or trebling the size,” he says. “But we don’t want to sacrifice the experience of working with us. We don’t want to feel the company.”
For Serafini, much of the joy of building a business was the learning process. “The idea of mastering something, spending a very long time doing it for myself, and enjoying the joy of seeing what I can do is very motivating for me.” Serafini says. “What can I do if I apply myself to this?”
A little over a year ago he started podcasting. Since then, he says he has opened up about his disability and made it much more comfortable to talk to. At one point he worked with an old couple, where the man noticed his disability and asked him, “What happened?” When Serafini told his story, the man’s wife shared their own story that they had lost two children. “Deep relationships and trust have been built,” he says. “If I hadn’t been open to being defenseless, that wouldn’t have happened.”
Serafini discovers that disability is part of his identity, but everyone is shaped by many different experiences, and in different situations, different things work in both his business and his rest of life. Did.
“Disability is part of us,” he says. “Sometimes that part dominates the rest. Sometimes it’s in the background. It depends on where you are and what you’re doing in life.”
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