As a business entrepreneur adversity is inevitable. Anthony Citrinite, the developer of the Meethook app knows this truth all too well.
For our fourth installment of #OperationEntrepreNATION we got the chance to speak with Anthony and he shared with us many of the obstacles he faced building his app.
Anthony grew up in the musical world filled with professionals, managers, and instruments always at his disposal. His father worked in the industry and would often take him out to concerts and events.
As a result, he was blessed to exchange life-changing conversations with musicians familiar with the business. He was himself a musician, a drummer, and a lot of what he learned from these professionals changed the trajectory of his career.
While blessed to experience this he recognized that not everyone has access to professional musicians as he did growing up.
This inspired the development of Meethook, an app that connects amateurs and professionals to have meaningful conversations about the biz, share tips, and help shape their perspective on the music industry. His goal with this revolutionary app is “to help others the way I was helped.”
Envisioning the app and watching it come to life has been truly fulfilling for Anthony “I love helping people, I love creating something people can use to sustain their careers and learn more about what they want to do” but he has certainly had his share of adversity. He described that assembling a team around him to realize his vision was the most difficult for him.
“You have to trust resumes and recommendations but at the end of the day you take a leap of faith because people lie”. He went on to explain how many employees would make themselves appear more experienced than they were and when it came to completing a project they would disappoint.
He’s witnessed firsthand people with a “fake it til you make it” mentality that ended up cheating him. “Day-to-day as an entrepreneur it feels as though you’re often up against the world.”
While he has had his share of adversity, there have been some precious moments that have made all the obstacles worthwhile. Anthony shared a story where he traveled to a convention in California after the launch of MeetHook in Apple’s app store.
At this convention he found it exhausting explaining his app to potential users who weren’t quite understanding it, he describes that one girl just immediately got it and praised him “You are single-handedly revolutionizing the education of the music world.” The experience was fulfilling to know that someone understood and valued his vision.
Valuing his vision and wanting to make it a reality is not something the team working around him always shared. Still, Anthony says the case was the exact opposite when working with Jungle Communications. “I’m not just saying that just because you work there. Truly, you guys were professional and knew what you were doing and the bus came out better than I expected”.
MeetHook was able to drive their fully wrapped, MeetHook branded tour bus cross-country to California and similar conventions and when not in use he parks it strategically to catch passerbys eyes. “it’s a moving billboard. It makes the business larger than life, it makes a statement.”
Anthony offers the advice to “Surround yourself with people that know things that you don’t know because you’re going to need their advice and pool their resources. And do something for your business every day.” Networking and productivity are obvious tools needed to grow a successful business.
Meethook can be found in the App Store or GoolePlay, on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter but he encourages everyone to download the app even if they’re not a musician and just a music lover, it’s resourceful to everyone, to say the least.
