He did make the team, which was undefeated. Although, as a pre-teen boy, he never asked his coach why he was chosen for the team, he intuited that the coach had two reasons: to inspire others on the team to work harder and to score points like everyone else.
What playing on the team ultimately told him, he says, was, “I can make it in the world. I may have to work harder. But people are going to give me the opportunity to do something.” Serafini attended college at the University of Chicago—inspired by an English teacher who wanted him to become a writer and loved the English program there—and then went on to the George Washington University School of Law. He discovered he didn’t have a passion for law as a career—“I was profoundly allergic to it,” he says—but stuck it out. However, when it came time to apply for jobs after school, felt the call of entrepreneurship.
They did all of the networking they could to find their first customers, and the business began taking off in 2007. But by 2009, the country was in a recession. “We had that moment of not knowing if we were going to make it,” he recalls. “We decided we were going to go high-end or close.” He and Marcelo now aim to build the company to $4 million to $6 million in annual revenue. “I definitely see the benefits of doubling or tripling in size,” he says. “But we do not want to sacrifice the experience of working with us. We don’t want to feel corporate.”