Meet David Castro of IceBrekr

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Castro.

Hi David, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I remember just a short period of time as a kid when my dad had a boss. We lived in a nice middle-class neighborhood and I remember my first couple of years of elementary school during that season. It was stable and abundant economically. Life after that would be part 2. We moved into a fixer-upper, and my dad was a co-founder of a services business that depended on his skills. He often returned home in the early hours of the morning, and sometimes I wouldn’t see him at all until the weekend. Grandparents would bring food over in paper bags. Despite the challenges, like a cold house in winter and being fully clothed with my winter coat on under the covers, I respected and admired my dad’s grind. I understood the vision.

Fast forward to adulthood and a move to Nashville that seemed like a good move for my family of a wife and daughters. For me, having grown up in the Washington, DC area, the smaller city of Nashville was a big change. It was also a big change from a career in enterprise software sales to Federal Government accounts which I had enjoyed success in for over a decade as well, and the income I was used to. It wasn’t long before I decided there is never a perfect time to start a business and dove into a business idea I had along with a partner.

I had a bit of a Cinderella story with finding co-founders and skilled employees and was able to find product market fit quickly, and eventually sell the young healthcare software product company to a local billion-dollar company.

The latest chapter in my story begins after this. Having gone through a divorce and being in a town that I was relatively new in, with few friends other than business contacts, I was starting over once again. It was a season to start over as a single creating a new network of friends, starting over meeting business contacts based on what my next business would be, and building my resources again in pretty much every other way.

Driving down the road while connecting my phone to my radio, I noticed the phones of drivers in other cars driving by were showing up on my discovery screen. This began the journey into making IceBrekr a utility that could connect people in proximity without contact information, but who have other shared interests. The emphasis is on meeting people in real life, and especially the connections that you are looking for because I believe the life we each are dreaming of will be built through the connections we make.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Building a first-in-kind software product business, while supporting a family of 5 daughters is challenging in itself. There is never an “ideal time” to begin entrepreneurship. I would say that one of the biggest challenges was the COVID-19 pandemic. I was building a product to facilitate meetings in person.

While the product used in Proximity Mode has a real value in that socially distant type of event, I was also able to find the proverbial lemonade in the lemons, by creating a Virtual Mode for IceBrekr as well. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we have found features that are naturally connected with this feature that enables a better networking experience on Virtual/Hybrid/ and Web Meeting events.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
IceBrekr began as a cool idea, a cool utility. It has now become a little bit of a mission, a vehicle to create the thing that people want. Connection. As I say often, the life you are dreaming of, both personally and professionally, is built through the connections you make!

IceBrekr is a utility that allows you to connect with other IceBrekr users within eye-ball distance when your app is turned on or is in the background. Imagine walking into an event where you know based on the content or speakers that there will be people there that you will want to meet for various reasons, to network with, partner with, or potential clients. You can turn your IceBrekr app on and have your Filter set for the keywords of your ideal connection, and when that individual is in eyeball distance, IceBrekr will notify you, and you can walk over and introduce yourself based on their profile info in the app. Or, if you are in a seminar you can scan the profiles of people around you and then beeline for them during the break.

We do the events to get content sure, but we can get content from YouTube, books, and event replays. Folks want to connect with other people because the power of the tribe, the power of the network, and like-minded people working together, is partly what has made the human species the most dominant force on planet Earth.

Today there are more significant capabilities in IceBrekr and we are constantly streamlining workflow and features, so feedback is welcome! We are a must-have for use at any size event, providing a one-of-a-kind capability described, as well as sponsor banner ads, event schedules, and speaker bios. The app is useful every day for the consumer as well, with settings to just filter and connect with your buddies when you are at an event, being notified that one of your connections is there too. There is also a great Digital QR Business Card feature in the free version, that alone is a great reason to download it.

Pricing has been at introductory levels as we are looking to maximize product market fit but this may change in the near future.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I actually just mentioned a little about that in part of the IceBrekr story. However, another thing I learned during the Covid-19 season is that so many of us had not spent enough time with just ourselves. I have heard stories, and I have my own, of people who found the downtime and alone time caused them to get to know themselves and learn to love themselves more.

To also discover what we really want in life, what we truly hold dear and how we want our lives to go, what we want to do, and the kind of people we want in our lives. I really believe this is a practice that we as a society don’t do well, and until we love ourselves in these ways I don’t think we will have as much to give or will be giving the best of ourselves when we are with others.

Pricing:

• A Free Version! Almost All Features
• $1 Eliminates Ads
• $1.99 Allows User To Create Virtual Networking Rooms
• $15.99 Annual Subscription

Contact Info:

• Website: https://icebrekr.com
• Instagram: @icebrekr
• Facebook: facebook.com/IceBrekr
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/icebrekr
• Twitter: @icebrekr
• Youtube: youtube.com/icebrekr_