1. The easiest way to explain Maestro Market is…
I like to say that Maestro Market is a unique and first-of-its-kind platform that connects people with their ideal experts, or even their heroes. Our site facilitates a variety of engagements, whether in-person, over Skype, via telephone, etc., between talented experts and anyone interested in learning a skill, solving a problem, getting inspired, gifting an experience or indulging a desire. Maestro Market’s experts, all of whom we vet and most of whom were invited to join based on their high reputations, span numerous categories including parenting, writing, women in business, social media, blogging, entrepreneurship, and many more.
2. The idea came from…
The idea was shaped by a kind of experience that I think is familiar to most people. You want help with some problem, and you feel like there’s someone who really knows a lot about that subject and would be able to help—if you could just talk to them. Maestro Market makes that not only possible, but simple. For example – I wanted to learn more about Twitter, so that I could participate in Maestro Market’s social media. But googling “how do I Tweet?” just frustrated and confused me. So, I searched the site and found Becky Robinson, who specializes in social media for small business. I scheduled a call with her over the platform, and she worked with me on how to Tweet – a live demo, basically, and a how-to workshop that included all the lingo and the techniques a business owner needs in order to participate in a company’s social media. It went way beyond googling the answer to a question—it was a personalized interaction that taught me far more than an article ever could. That was and is the genesis of the site—the idea of, why shouldn’t you be able to talk directly to an expert who can help you with anything you want to know or improve in your own life?
3. In your opinion, what is the secret sauce of Maestro Market?
The secret of our success is undoubtedly, 100%, our experts. These are people who can handle an incredible array of situations and do it at the highest level. For example, most people let their resumé get out of date, and then realize they need to fix it up quickly. You can book Melissa Llarena, a career change counselor, for an hour to whip it into shape. At the other end of the spectrum, if you have decided that you would like to build a world-class wine cellar, but you know literally nothing about wine, we have the nation’s leading wine consultant Judy Beardsall to take care of all of it for you, from finding and buying the wines to storing and caring for it and even telling you when and how to drink it. She is essentially your personal wine partner and advisor. And then again, if you have a baby that won’t sleep (and what new parent doesn’t?), you can literally solve that problem in a one-hour consultation with a world-class child sleep expert. We put time and effort into finding the right people for our platform, and we work with them, and with our customers, to facilitate a truly productive exchange of knowledge.
4. The biggest challenge to overcome is…
Maestro Market has created a new platform for interacting with experts in many categories. Whereas many people are used to accessing experts and advice through the recommendations of friends and family, or by looking just in their local neighborhood, Maestro Market now consolidates the nation’s best experts in one online location. While the team is seeing that consumers are beginning to use the platform to search for and interact with experts, we also recognize that our customers will need to adapt to moving these kinds of interactions online. That’s why we’ve built our platform to be as user-friendly and intuitive as possible. The simplicity of the platform will help people to discover that their access to expert knowledge is both less restricted, and more reliable, than was previously possible.
5. Favourite success story so far…
Anthony Crisafulli and Jeff Adelung were two first-time authors, neither of them professional writers prior to this, who wanted to produce content and music together. Both are strong believers in seeking out expert advice, listening, and applying insights to the projects they were undertaking. Having already written a short story, they reached out to David Sterry, author and publishing expert on Maestro Market to get his feedback on what they had written. David reviewed their work and recommended that they not only make their story more character-driven, but also move away from the short story format and instead develop a longer, fiction-based piece. The meeting completely changed the focus of their work and they began developing a story set to music that they call “Tony Town.” It’s in its final stages of completion and soon they will begin shopping it around to producers. Jeff and Anthony both say that their experience with David and with our platform helped to shape their project and gave them the insight they needed to move forward in a more informed way.
