Meet Desmond Beristain: CEO & Co-Founder of Festiie

We had the good fortune of connecting with Desmond Beristain and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Desmond, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I wanted to take everything I had learned through the game of basketball and apply it to the world of startups. The hard work, sacrifice, vision, and attention to detail during each step of the journey. I vividly remember hearing how 9 out of every 10 startups failed and when I compared that statistic to the odds I had overcome in order to become a pro basketball player ( where 3 out of every 100 high school athletes go on to play college, and even less percentage of college athletes make it pro), I had a strong sense of confidence in pursuing this new venture. Although this would be considered my own business, I knew that the ultimate success of my mission would be based on team efforts, just like in basketball. So as long as I could draw the parallels between the business world and basketball, I could transform the world of startups into my new basketball court.

What should our readers know about your business?
I am the CEO and Co-Founder of a tech startup company called Festiie, the festival smartband. We created and patented an IoT wearable device that allows people to stay connected at massive events such as festivals, theme parks, and crowded locations without the need of cell phone reception, wifi, or data. Festiie devices also pair with the Festiie app to allow for additional offline connectivity features between group members. Our idea morphed from a piece of paper to a proven concept and was fueled by our passion of attending music festivals. We truly wanted to give back to a community that has provided us with some of the best moments of our lives. Our goal with Festiie is to keep those good times going by providing peace of mind in the form of a simple fashionable device made for festival-goers by festival goers. There were plenty of challenges along the way (and there still are hurdles we deal with as any company would), but we believe that authenticity and remaining true to yourself (in this case our company’s identity and what Festiie stands for) through the ups and downs will ultimately lead to inevitable success. We self-funded Festiie for the first year and a half before raising an angel round as college students. We built our team, adding festival-goer engineers, and learned the art of pitching your company and the process of building an MVP (minimal viable product). Our first prototype test video proved our theory and generated over 1 million views on social media in under 3 days, which built a community around Festiie and validated what we were thinking– the festival world needs this! We would continue to push forward and bring our community along for the journey. We launched the Festiie podcast during the pandemic in order to stay connected with our community and provide positivity in the form of festival stories. We have received two granted patents for our technology and design in 2020, and although most festivals are currently on pause, we remain extremely optimistic for the future of festivals, which will include Festiie! From bootstrapping an idea, proving a concept, fundraising a while in college, and all the life lessons in between, the excitement continues!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If it’s festival season, best believe I’m taking my best friend to any music festival around! If we are staying in the city and exploring cool spots, I would take my best friend to DONUT FRIEND for sure! I’ve been vegan for almost two years and these are some of the best plant-based donuts around! The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Huge shoutout to my parents, family, and friends for supporting my “crazy ideas”. I’ve always been a person who truly does what he says..meaning, if I have an idea that I firmly believe in, I’m probably not going to stop until that goal is realized. My parents, family, and friends continue to trust in me and inspire me to continue moving forward. I’d also like to recognize someone who I never had the pleasure of meeting, but feel deeply connected to as his story and approach to life continues to play a huge mentorship role in my journey into new business ventures as well as my previous overseas basketball career– Kobe Bryant.

Website: www.festiie.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/dez360_

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/desiberistain/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/festiie

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Festiie/

Youtube: youtube.com/festiie

Other: https://dez-360.com/ https://instagram.com/festiieofficial youtube.com/dez360