Sandro Roco, Founder & CEO @ Sanzo
Sandro Roco is the Founder & CEO of Sanzo, the 1st Asian Inspired sparkling water made with real fruit and no sugar. Prior to founding Sanzo, Sandro spent 5 years as head of growth and then chief-of-staff at Bombfell, a twice venture-backed personal styling service for men. He previously worked in investment banking at J.P. Morgan and as a nuclear power engineer for Exelon.
Sandro is also a board member and founding member of Naturally New York, which brings people, products, and passion together to strengthen and build the New York natural products community.
In this episode, we spoke with Sandro about:
Why the biggest thing he learned in his twenties was how to reframe risk
How he thinks about the idea of authenticity for Sanzo
Why it’s detrimental for founders to be massive generalists when trying to build a successful startup
You can listen to him below, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts.
On reframing risk
To me, the concept of risk is wildly misunderstood. Whether it is choosing a college major or even my job out of college, I was optimizing for title, salary, and benefits. I didn't really ask myself what I was going to learn there. Is this what I even wanted to learn? Is this going to help me build, create, and be in my best long-term interest?
I look at what my parents did and it is kind of funny that there is obviously preaching of de-risking from them. But they traveled halfway across the world with no network, no job, and raised three kids. I think when I unlocked that notion it opened my eyes up to see the world on a completely different day.
The biggest thing that I tell folks, especially coming out of college, is hey, you grew up in a great environment. Hopefully, your parents love you. When looking at a potential job opportunity it is important to take a step back and actually understand the risk. The biggest thing I learned in my twenties was to actually reframe risk.
Reflections on crypto’s recent popularity
Everyone in their mother is buying up NFTs or heavily in the crypto space. I have seen people leave different worlds and get themselves into crypto. This is not an indictment on the world of crypto. I am very long myself. Although what I have learned is that the best use of my time is actually going a lot deeper into what I am currently building.
It is unique to every founder, but I do get a little wary when I see folks who are founders and are also working on a bunch of different side projects. I can barely balance multiple things at the same time. I find that usually most others cannot as well. I feel like there is a move towards even founders being massive generalists. I think general interest in crypto is awesome, but I’d also think through your fiduciary duties as a founder to your shareholders. Is investing in crypto the best use of your time?
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Until next time,
Jay and Angie