Listen to Paulo Orione (Decora) on Inevitable Podcast

Inevitable Podcast
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To the third episode of the Inevitable Podcast I invited Paulo Orione, Co-Founder of Decora. You can watch it on YouTube or listen on Spotify, PocketCasts, and other apps.

Paulo is an authentic and unapologetic founder and definitely fits the “inevitable founder” ethos I always talk about. He bootstrapped a company that had global clients from Brazil. He travelled the world to sell to customers such as Home Depot and Lowe's. Most of their customers were in the U.S., and the contracts worthed more than $500k. Paulo’s story is fascinating and I learned tremendously from him.

In the episode, I asked him questions such as:

  • When you were a kid, you didn't like school. Yet, your father encouraged you to read, and you became an avid reader ever since. So much so that at college you were kicked out of the classroom because you were reading during the class. How did reading make you embark on your entrepreneurial journey?
  • The original idea for Decora was to build a B2C marketplace of interior design projects. After trying to validate it, you realized the model wasn't right, so you pivoted to a B2B company that provided 3D modeling for retailers such as Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Tok&Stok. How did you manage to keep a small ego and avoid getting too attached to the original idea?
  • After selling Decora, you became an executive at CreativeDrive. How was the process of transitioning out of the business you founded?

I hope you enjoy the episode as well.

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