Today we’d like to introduce you to Nelson Pizarro.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Nelson. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Since 2010 my father had a dream of wanting to start a business with his kids. I was the only sibling interested in business so my father pitched me ideas for about 2 years until we found a cool product similar to what is now what we created called SlickyNotes. What are “SlickyNotes”? They are an alternative to Post Notes or Sticky Notes – the difference between our product and the other is that SlickyNotes only have static and NO GLUE.
With the static charge, we add to the material you’re able to put the sheets on any clean, smooth surfaces like walls, paper, wood, computer screens and windows to name a few.
By 2012 we founded our company EcoStatic Inc. and for the next 2-3 years, we worked tireless days and nights to create the whole manufacturing process from building a custom machine that adds measured static through the material, adding covers, cutting to different sizes and finally creating a profession packing. Now that we have perfected the manufacturing we create the following products – SlickyNotes, SlickyBoards and SlickyPaper. During the creation of the product, we also educated our self in creating websites, SEO, social media campaigns, find our market customers and most importantly where to sell the product.
Fast forward to today – customers such as students, teachers, business coach, executive administrator, professional facilitator; an agile, scrum or business models can purchase our products from Officedepot.com, Staples.com, Walmart.com, Target.com, Amazon.com and our website ecostaticinc.com.
Castelli Family Vineyards:
Owners & Winemarkers – Mike Castelli (Father In Law) – Nelson Pizarro II
My wife and I got married in December 2008 at an Italian vineyard in Escondido. The owner of the vineyard enjoyed our family, the wedding and our personalities so much so that they recommended to my Mike that he should plant a vineyard on his property. After everything slowed down Mike asked me if I would help plant a vineyard on his property. I, of course, said sure how hard can it be to add a couple of vines, poles and wires on your land. Little did I know Mike doesn’t do anything small, and I found myself helping plant around 3,000 vines on 3 acres of land.
Almost ten years later we have made vintages from 2012, winning Golds and Silver for award-winning wines from very big wine competition (FingerLakes, San Francisco, Orange County), to building a 1,600 Italian style wine cellar where customer can come to enjoy the atmosphere and growing our wine membership (which is limited due to the small volume we produce). What started as a hobby has grown into another family business.
To summarize my small journey I believe I/we got to where we are is because of hard work, learning from your mistakes, time, having trusted inner circle and believing in your faith!
Has it been a smooth road?
For both business the biggest challenges are:
– Capital
– Time
– Customers
You have to be prepared to spend money on machines, employees and marketing. Also, time is something you really can not put a value on which means you sacrifice time to get ahead of the game. Finally customers, at the end of the day you need to build a big book of business but it takes TIME and CAPITAL.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with SlickyNotes and Castelli Family Vineyards – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
What we do is we manufacture an alternative Post-it Note or Sticky Note without using glue on the sheets.
We are known for being another option for the customer to buy a sticky note. If you think about it there is Post It notes and Sticky Notes both have glue some last longer then others but at the end of the day, they are small. For the past 50 years, there hasn’t been an upgrade to the sticky note until SlickyNotes.
The thing that I’m most proud of is the fact that I created something from scratch to make it to reality. The biggest thing that sets us apart is the fact that our sheets only have static and no glue but you can use it like a post-it note.
Castelli Family Vineyards:
What we do is farm grapes to create award-winning wines. You can say we specialize in giving the customer the best customer service they ever had at a winery. We want they feel like family and not a random person.
We are known for make a unique Pinot Noir in the Valley. What I am most proud of is farming the land every year and being able to have a crop to create a wine with.
I would say there are two thing that sets us apart:
– Our customer service, we want you to leave and say “Wow, this is a beautiful cellar with a knowledgeable staff that made me feel like I am family”.
– Our wines, we take our time aging in French/America/ European barrels for 20-24 months at a time and then aging the bottles for another 12-14 months before we have any customer taste the wines.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I enjoyed creating slickynotes and wine. It’s fun for me to see if I can make the product faster or taste better. I’m always looking to grow and be challenged.
I really try not to dislike something I do. I try to look for the positive out of all situations.
Pricing:
- Castelli Family Vineyards – our average bottle is $44 per bottle
Contact Info:
- Address: 17872 Oak Grove Road Ramona, Ca 92065
- Website: www.ecostaticinc.com / www.castellifamilyvineyards.com
- Phone: 619.997.5141
- Email: n.pizarro@ecostaticinc.com / nelson@castellifamilyvineyards.com
- Instagram: @slicky_notes / @castellifv
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/slickynotes/ / https://www.facebook.com/CastelliFamilyVineyards/
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