Today we’d like to introduce you to Carlos Banks.
Hi Carlos, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My entrepreneurial journey started in a barbershop in Kendall about 3 years ago. I arrived and let my barber know that I was there and waiting. After waiting for 45 minutes I started thinking “there has to be a better way to do this.”, and that’s when CLYPR was born. Prior to being a tech entrepreneur, I had been a Mechanical Engineer for over 10 years. I graduated with my Bachelors and Masters from FIU and immediately started working. But when I had the idea for CLYPR, I knew I had to pivot and start learning how to write code. That’s when I discovered a free online bootcamp called Lambda School. I immediately signed up for the part-time Full Stack Web Development program where they taught me how to build websites and web apps. I graduated after a year a half and I was building CLYPR along the way. 6 months later, we officially launched and started signing up barbershops. We have a small team now and we are growing every day. If you’re interested in joining our team, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram @CLYPR.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are always ups and downs when starting a business. Ask any entrepreneur if their journey has been smooth and they will tell you the same. Some things that I experienced while building CLYPR are: dealing with bad business partners, dissolving the company, starting the company again, learning how to code, and much more. It has been a great journey filled with many lessons learned. I truly believe that the best teacher in life are the mistakes you learn from along the way.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Before building CLYPR. I had been a Mechanical Engineer for over 10 years. I worked in the automotive industry, medical device industry, and military industry. I specialize in 3D CAD design, stress testing, 3D Printing prototyping, and lean manufacturing. My passion for solving problems and my ability to get teams to work together toward a common goal definitely set me apart from other engineers in my field.
Since I decided to start focusing on CLYPR, I have learned how to wear many hats to build a tech company. Some things I learned so far are: how to build websites, write Android and iOS apps, how to optimize websites with SEO, perform A/B testing with Facebook and Instagram, and much much more. Being a founder really means you have to figure things out on your own to get them done. It involves lots of researching and experimenting until you start seeing things going in the right direction. Once you see things going well, just double down on that and keep it going.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I think the pandemic in 2020 really accelerated barbershops to go digital. Contactless payments and appointments are here to stay. I think the future for barbershops is extremely bright, especially for barbers as they see their customers getting more tech savvy and they starting to use apps to run their day-to-day business operations. We plan to be at the forefront of these changes in the barbershop industry to ensure we are providing the best software solutions for our customers.
Pricing:
- Basic Barbers – $1 / month
- Supreme Barbers – $5 / month
Contact Info:
- Email: cbanks@clypr.co
- Website: www.clypr.co
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/clypr
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/teamclypr
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarlosBanko
Image Credits
Enrique Sanchez Revived Barbershop Briam Garcia
