At Morning Donuts we’re all about the hustler, side-projecter, and straight up unemployed entrepreneur, which is why we sat down with Pete Mastrella, co-founder of Stickface, a startup based in New York City that prints out mini to life-size pictures of notable figures and glues them onto sticks to be used for events, parties, and celebrations.
Multiples Stickfaces on the set of national radio show Boomer and Carton.
Pete and I met back in November when my company, Handsome Wolf Creative, created an event called FrancesaCon. A few months later, here we are with Pete to discuss the ins and outs of Stickface, giving 30 days notice for the job he dislikes, and the steps he’s taken to grow his business. Enjoy:
Tell the world a little bit about yourself, where you’re from, and your background.
I grew up in Floral Park which is a small town on Long Island, on the border of Nassau and Queens. I went to Providence College and graduated in 2007, then moved back in with my parents as a rite of passage. After 4 years of living at home as a pseudo-adult, I cut the cord and moved to Murray Hill in Manhattan. The location is perfect for me since my “real” job is up in Connecticut so I need to be close to Grand Central.
How did Stickface get started?
Stickface really started back in January 2012 and was inspired by the back cover of the New York Post, which featured Eli Manning’s head on Rambo’s body, on the Friday before they played the Packers for the Divisional Playoff. It was a classic Manningface, to which they added a blue headband and the title “Rambeau II,” and it just hit me – this needs to go on a stick and be paraded around New York City. That Saturday myself and a few guys including Ryan Clark, my partner at Stickface, spent the entire afternoon drinking at a friend’s place in Brooklyn and slapping Eli’s face on a stick. We also made a few stickfaces of some of our other friends for good measure. We distributed them at a bar in Manhattan the next day and they were a huge hit, then the
Co-founders Pete Mastrella and Ryan Clark working out of a tiny NYC apartment.
Giants spanked the Packers and went on to win the Superbowl. Fast forward about a year and a half – I’m unhappy in my career and I’ve always wanted to work for myself, so I just decide to try and make a business out of it. It’s now been about 7 months since we got started. I still have the original Eli face hanging up in my apartment…
Talk about your full-time job? How many hours a week to you spend on side hustling for Stickface?
I work in finance and have since I graduated college, but I never felt that it was right for me. That’s why I started Stickface after all. To date the amount of time each week I spend on it has varied, but in weeks where we have an event coming up or a few orders to fill, I might work 10-20 hours on it when all is said and done. It’s a lot in addition to my “real” job, but what I get out of it makes it worth every second. I find myself wishing there were more hours in the day so I could accomplish more each week.
Describe the feelings you had within the first few hours of giving notice at work, and how do you feel about it now? Whether it be the same feelings or different.
Do you know that scene from Shawshank Redemption of Morgan Freeman skipping parole to cross the border to see his friend and feeling anxious? Can’t sit still, type of feeling only a free man can feel. I feel the same way, it’s nerve wracking because I don’t have any source of income from StickFace.
Yeah that whole income thing is important. What if anything will you do to keep yourself afloat?
StickFace is generating some revenue. FrancesaCon jump started a lot of things for us. A couple hundred dollars a month, couple orders here and there. I’ve made all the investments I need to make where I can start turning a profit and I’m hoping that picks up and make some more money out of it.
I worked at Saloon two Fridays ago and going to be working there next weekend. Maybe I’ll go to a temp agency. Anything, really, to pay the bills because I don’t want to get a full time job right now.
How has giving your notice job affected your company?
It has where now I feel more urgency because I’m out of a job in two weeks. I’ll have a lot of time to devote to it. I need to build a website, better market ourselves, market our brand. I have a list of 20 things that I need to hit the ground running.
I like having my back to the wall. My partner was in the same situation and has been doing the odd jobbing thing and working for himself ever since. That was inspiring to me.
Can you give an overview of the production process?
My living room is the main production area. There is a gigantic printer that sits on my desk and was a big investment for us. I print them here and we use spray glue to card stock (thick paper) then glue it to a stick. The cutting and the gluing part takes place in the living room.
FrancesaCon was 175 in 3 days. It was like an assembly line?
Have you promoted your company at any events, games, or online?
For the first few months we would go to bars in Manhattan that were associated with various NFL teams and brought stickfaces of guys like Russell Wilson, Colin Kaepernick, and Andy Dalton, and handed them out to see if people liked them (they did). It was a lot of fun but we quickly realized we needed to reach a wider audience. Enter Francesacon, where we first met you guys. That was our first big event and it was total success. We gave away 175 faces, gained a lot of followers on social media, and met a bunch of people that have helped us to generate business and grow the brand.
Yours truly holding a Stickface at FrancesaCon.
Basically everything that we have going on right now has its roots in Francesacon, including this interview. Since then we have done some other events at Saloon including Wrestlemania and SeatSwap’s Cups For a Cause, for which we made 3-feet tall Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton faces. We were able to have Boomer and Carton sign the faces and they actually used them on the show for a whole segment, which was amazing. So I guess you could say that Stickface owes much of its (limited) success to Handsome Wolf Creative and FrancesaCon.
I’ve seen athletes’ heads on sticks all over TV and at sporting events. Are they yours? If not, what sets you apart from the competition?
No, they’re not, we’re just getting our feet off the ground and haven’t penetrated the market yet.
The main competition is Fathead, but they don’t make life-size ones on a stick. Another company does, but they aren’t well-known yet. Ours is cheaper, is available in a couple days, and very high quality. We’re easy to deal with and kind of exploring the market and looking to promote ourselves in anyway possible.
All of our orders have been for birthday parties, engagement parties, private events. StickFaces of their brother or friend or sister. Our product transcends the sports world. Political campaigns, marathons, appropriatye for almost any occasion where you’re celebrating one person or occasion. That’s what sets us apart.
What has been the biggest challenge in growing your business?
One of the things I struggled with right off the bat is “Is this a dumb idea?” I can’t help myself a little bit, but every time I go out and give out the product they love it and it keep pushes me to move forward.
That should do it for this time. I’d like to thank Pete and Ryan for their time and wish them the best of luck moving forward. We’ll be sure to keep up with them and what they have going on. In the meantime, give our friends a follow @mystickface and if you’re interested in some Stickfaces for yourself, custom orders can be made via mystickface@gmail.com.
The post Hustler Spotlight: An Interview With Stickface’s Pete Mastrella appeared first on Morning Donuts.