Meet Dustin Ross | Entrepreneur & Technologist

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

Hi Dustin, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I actually started this with a friend as a side project. We were hoping to make a little extra cash on top of our day jobs, this was 2007. It originally coincided with the massive crash of 2008 but luckily we had hit a niche that wasn’t affected too badly by the housing crisis. So, at the same time that my day job had to stop paying me, I was lucky enough that this project started to gain traction and generate some revenue. In hindsight there was a combination of luck and skillful strategic thinking here. We certainly were luckily that our idea worked at a time when things were looking bleak, but good ideas are good ideas. Combining smart strategy with some elbow grease, resolve and hard work will always reap rewards.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m most grateful that I was able to create a scenario where I was creating my own work destiny. It’s hard to imagine going back to a rat race situation after a decade of working for myself. When Covid-19 hit and we lost all of our live event work it was a daunting time. But we quickly set our minds to work on pivoting into virtual events and after a few months of super hard work have developed an incredible new platform with Afterparty.live. The lesson here is that even when you’re knocked back it’s possible to begin again and create something that will work. The business landscape is always changing, and a lot of forces are out of our control. It’s how you react to these forces that are important. Always be willing to evolve what you are doing.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Ha, right now this is a little tricky isn’t it? I haven’t had a friend visit since last fall… We also just had a baby which makes this pandemic extra difficult. For now, I’d say Point Dume area in Malibu. Getting outside is the best medicine for a quarantine.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I owe a great debt to my business parter Dan Eckstein, who had put in a huge amount of work to this project. Without him we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are now. I also want to give a shout to my amazing network of collaborators, designers, tech nerd genius and friends. In this game we are truly a sum of our network.

Website: www.afterparty.live
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afterparty.live/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/53239770/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/afterparty_live
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aftrprtylive