The Fire of Entrepreneurship: Alumnus Raymond Bartolomucci
Raised on the outskirts of San Francisco, California, Raymond Bartolomucci graduated from JCU in 2017 with a B.A. in Business Administration. He is the co-founder and CEO of Roopairs Technologies Inc., a platform that helps commercial kitchen repair companies streamline communication.
Raymond Bartolomucci
Tell us about your background.
My father has owned and operated a series of Italian Restaurants in the Bay Area for over 37 years, so I was born into the restaurant industry. I played football and baseball growing up and then received a college scholarship to play Division 1 baseball in Indiana. After two years in college, I felt like I wanted more for my life, so I started to research schools and coincidentally, John Cabot University popped up. I instantly gravitated toward the opportunity to move to Rome, so I packed my bags and left.
You’re the co-founder and CEO of Roopairs. Tell us about the company and where you got the idea for it.
Roopairs was born out of the pain and frustration of dealing with equipment breakdowns in my dad’s restaurants. We noticed that repair companies were using old technology or pen & paper to run their business operations. The $30 billion market of commercial kitchen equipment repairs is vital to the restaurant business, but I realized the process of fixing the equipment was outdated. That’s why I created Roopairs, to provide an interconnected and modern dispatch platform built for the commercial kitchen repair industry.
What are the challenges and rewards of founding and running your own company?
The biggest challenge is staying consistent. There will be many challenges and obstacles that arise during your entrepreneurial journey, but if you never give up and stay true to the process, you will eventually be successful.
Your company recently received investments from venture capitalists. Tell us about the process. What advice would you give to an entrepreneur who is looking for investors?
We did raise institutional funds from venture capital firms. My biggest advice to any founder is to bootstrap as long as you can and seek out a network of trusted advisors to help guide you in the right direction. Create a proof of concept, gain user feedback/traction in the market, and ensure your unit economics scale. Raising capital from VCs is an intensive and formal process, so make sure that the VC model is the path you want to pursue. Other models worth considering are bootstrapping or acquisition/partnerships via private equity once you reach a certain revenue threshold.
How did your studies at JCU help you in your entrepreneurial journey? What class and/or professor had the most impact on you the most and why?
John Cabot instilled an entrepreneurial spirit in me. My favorite class was the senior capstone project with Professor Silvia Pulino, where we had to create and bring a business idea to life. Professor Pulino impacted my life the most during my studies at JCU and she instilled the fire of entrepreneurship.
What are your plans for the future?
I plan to continue developing Roopairs. Down the road, I would like to take over the family restaurant business. As I think about my future, building companies will always be something I am passionate about.
