Lisa Falzone didn’t grow up wanting to be an entrepreneur. She was a competitive swimmer at Stanford and helped the school win back-to-back swimming titles in the Pac-10 Conference. But there was a time when she wasn’t all that thrilled about being a swimmer.
“I was 5 years old and I hated it,” Falzone says of the age when she was encouraged to try swimming. “I was pushed into it too early. Everybody was like, ‘You’ll never be a swimmer,’ and I hated the water. But then I ended up falling in love with it.”
When her swimming career ended, it was time for Falzone to find a new passion — the launch of her own business.
“When I went to Stanford, I thought in order to be an entrepreneur, you had to be a computer scientist,” Falzone says. “It’s a great place because it teaches you how to think. It’s not like a vocational school, so it doesn’t give you a how to guide. But it teaches you how to learn and gives you those intangible skills that you can really apply to anything.”
Falzone and co-founder, Chris Ciabarra, who she met through a blog she wrote on inspirational quotes for entrepreneurs, founded Revel Systems in 2010.
“He ended up commenting on the blog and is a perfect complement to my skills,” says Falzone, who serves as CEO. “So we started working together talking to restaurant and retail owners trying to sell them this ordering app for the iPhone. We realized the ordering app was not the problem, it was the point of sale, which had archaic technology.”
Falzone and Ciabarra regrouped and built a secure iOS-based POS system that combines cloud-based technology and the mobility of the iPad, providing a solution for any kind of business.
In the innovation age, Falzone says the customer must always remain in view as your business takes shape.
“If you’re resolving a problem in the market that people are facing, you’re actually resolving a true problem and a true issue and there will be demand for your product,” she says. “They’ll seek you out.”
Revel is privately held and does not disclose revenue, but the company has more than 300 employees and had received more than $100 million in VC funding as of last November. The company has four offices in the U.S., as well as locations in Australia, Lithuania, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The fact that Falzone graduated from Stanford has definitely opened doors, she says.
“The credential really helps,” Falzone says. “When you’re going out to raise funds, it’s like a stamp of approval.”
At the end of the day, however, it’s on the entrepreneur to turn ideas into businesses.
“People want to hear your passion and they want to hear how excited you are and how much you believe in it,” she says. “That’s really what you have to focus on. People want to see and investors want to see authentic founders that are incredibly passionate and have this belief that they are going to make it happen, no matter what.” ●
