(gentle music) (soft tense music) - Eye on Education.

I'm Fred Martino.

My guest today just debuted a website, Farout.store.

It's geared toward people 55 and older, and while it includes products for sale, there are also sections to find a job, socialize and more.

It's also a story about education because my guest received help to start his business from the incubator at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

I'm pleased to welcome Jorge del Carpio to Eye on Education.

Jorge, it is great to have you with us.

- Well it's an honor to be here.

It's an honor to be here.

- It's an honor for me.

And it's because of your story.

It is so inspiring and amazing.

Many people think about retirement when they turn 65, or even younger, even younger than that.

But you were thinking about starting this business.

And I want you to tell me about that to start.

- I will say, Fred, it's a little bit of a tricky question.

Thing is that I applied for a job.

See, we are planning on moving with my wife, Isabel, to the US and what a better way to come to the US with certain experience, a college education, than applying for a job, a tech job, for which I was elegantly rejected.

I say elegantly because he said, "Hey, you are overqualified."

Being overqualified is my problem, it's not their problem.

Whether I want to wash windows or not, it's my problem.

But what I really read in between the lines is, "You are too old."

And then later on, I did some research.

After doing some research I found out that robots will really, really screen you out in terms of your age.

Nobody will admit it because it will be illegal.

However, yes, they will say, "You're overqualified.

Thanks a lot."

They are right.

Maybe they don't want to take me on Friday afternoons with the guys for drinks and stuff.

Or maybe I'm a little bit too cranky.

You know, we boomers are known to be cranky.

We are known to have our own personality.

But that is what inspired me.

And I told Isabel, I will mention her many times today.

- [Fred] Isabel's your wife?

- Isabel is my wife.

And today, well, today is the 14th, I think it is.

St. Valentines.

- Yes.

On our tape day, yes.

- Our tape day.

Well, anyway, and I said, "Hey, Issa, if I cannot get a job I'm gonna make, I'm gonna build my own job."

And she goes, "Oh, not again."

I've been an entrepreneur for many years in my life although I have some experience in the corporate world.

I worked for Caterpillar, for John Deere as an engineer.

And then probably the most exciting experiences that I introduced cellular communications back home back in the nineties.

- So you started other businesses.

What was your most successful business that you started?

- An operation that's quite unique.

The US Embassy had a call for bids to provide meals to the Coca Eradication Troops, Bolivian Coca Eradication groups in the middle of the jungle under harassment from the cocaleros or the drug dealers, or the drug producers.

And here I was preparing and delivering meals for these troops, which are Bolivian.

15 million rations after seven years.

We had to quit because this new regime came into office and well, they didn't agree with this.

- [Fred] Amazing.

- And so I started another operation another startup in Chile where I was invited by the Chilean government under a program called Startup Chile for entrepreneurs from all over the world with innovative ideas.

And so I introduced these fibers from llamas and alpacas.

I developed a method to produce very, very, very fine, technically amazing fibers.

And I allow the Chileans to export fibers that they never thought they could.

- And what were the fibers used for?

- Well, normally fibers, alpaca fiber are used for clothing.

- [Fred] Clothing, okay.

- Except this, the ones that I developed were used for specialty clothing, like outdoor and stuff like that.

- Okay.

So was an innovation that you made to make that work.

- Yes.

- What diversity, I mean from the food delivery that was in particular very, very meaningful because you were serving troops in Bolivia to going to developing fibers for clothing, special fibers.

Now you're starting a website in the US.

And when people hear this, I'm sure they're wondering they're thinking, what an amazing diversity of different things that you've done and different businesses you've started.

What kind of personality does this gentleman have who is this ambitious to start such an amazing diversity of businesses?

And in three different countries?

- That's another tricky- - We didn't even mention that.

- That's another tricky question.

It's called imagination.

It's called creativity.

But creativity- - [Fred] And motivation too.

- And motivation for sure.

But creativity and imagination.

You see, one thing is that when we were little we had great imaginations.

We played with everything.

- [Fred] Yeah.

- I will pick up a used toilet paper roll and pretend it's a rocket.

What happened to us, Fred?

We forgot how to play.

We forgot how to imagine things.

Imagine!

And imagine is a word that I use a lot to myself and say, "Imagine if," and then how an idea.

Now where does the inspiration come from?

- I think you've hit on something there though, haven't you?

That you know, I'm not a boomer.

I'm Gen X as they call it.

I'm a little after the boomer, but not much.

- [Jorge] I know, I know.

- And you're right.

I mean, when we were kids, you know, we made our own fun.

Whereas today there is this proliferation of screen time and that there may be, as a result of that, a little bit less in the way of nurturing the creativity that you're talking about.

And this is exciting in terms of the transition to what I wanted to ask you next.

- Yes.

- Is that you wrote recently in an article that cites research showing that seniors actually have a higher success rate starting businesses.

- Yeah, yeah.

Startups or entrepreneurship not only requires an idea.

An idea can be very good except that an idea that doesn't sell, that doesn't have a market or there isn't people willing to pay for that idea, whether it's in money or some other ways.

Okay?

It's not good.

Therefore, what makes me think what makes me think that this idea to write something is that I observed there was a need.

Either you are an entrepreneur because you discovered the need for something, you found a problem, or you found an opportunity.

You see, life is not only problems and there's a lot of people who have no problems but they would like to gain something.

And that's when entrepreneurs say, "Hey this might be a good idea."

- So what did the researchers determine as to why they thought- - Okay, okay.

- Seniors actually had a higher success rate starting businesses.

- Back to your question.

- Yes.

- Is that seniors do have quite a few years of experience dealing with ideas and converting them in value.

You see, that's a big difference.

We do have, we have gone through that.

Number one, we have quite a bit of relationships.

We have quite a bit of time, but what we have more is an ability to assume risks intelligently because we've been through, we've made the mistake.

- We've had the experience, you've made mistakes, and you've learned.

And the key, the second part is the key, is you learned from the mistakes.

You know, the other thing about your story that's so impressive and inspiring to me is that you have made some real sacrifices to do this.

You referenced your wife.

Isabel, correct?

- [Jorge] Isabel.

- She is still in Bolivia where you used to live and work.

You went to college in the United States.

Tell me about the decision to come back to the US as a senior.

- First of all, why taking, why making such a big "sacrifice."

It's no sacrifice to me although I miss my family.

- Of course.

- But everything is defining four words, for magic words: no pain, no gain.

- [Fred] Okay.

- It took a big sacrifice choosing the US.

Number one, I have a daughter in Wisconsin from a previous marriage and I needed to reunite the family.

But this was the opportunity to try a startup that may be very useful.

- [Fred] Yeah.

- Very good, very beneficial to this community, to this culture.

And that's why Farout was developed.

So I took the risk, and Isabel knows this.

Our kids are in college.

They're going to university in Mexico, in Monterey.

And Isabel and I are left and we said, "US."

I am here first to try this out to hopefully build a business and then bring Isabel.

- Well we're gonna talk specifically more about the business coming up.

- [Jorge] Sure.

- But another point that I want to get to, because it relates to the previous one.

We were talking about research where researchers found that seniors have a high success rate starting businesses.

There's some other research, a lot of research actually, that has shown that immigrants are more likely to start a business in the US.

And the most recent study on this was a very good one.

And it's really stunning when you look at the percentage, 80% more likely to start a business than people who are born in the US.

This study, recent study, was co-authored by an MIT researcher.

- [Jorge] That's correct.

- Why do you think that is, as an immigrant entrepreneur, why do you think immigrants are so much more likely to start a business?

- We left our comfort zone.

That's the key.

We left our comfort zone.

We are here either we look for jobs.

Let's not talk about legal and illegal immigration.

Okay.

Just leave that to the side.

But either I have the possibility of finding a job, you know, moving boxes or doing this and that, which will not guarantee that I may grow if I work hard enough.

Whereas if I start my own job, there is the better chance that I may, hey grow, multiply, number one.

Number two, that will require family involvement.

I will need their help.

And it will keep our family working together.

She will bake the tortillas.

I will do the meat.

And we both will sell.

And we are used to, and especially in South America, you know that the job occupancy is very low.

We are basically an independent business type of thing.

- [Fred] Yeah.

- We are entrepreneurs.

- [Fred] Yeah.

- For need and some for opportunity.

But we are entrepreneurs.

- I think this is such an important story to tell because many of us have family and many people watching have family who came to the United States who had a dream some of whom started businesses, some who worked for companies to build some of the great companies in US history.

- [Jorge] Yeah.

- Great organizations in US history.

And it's something to recognize and honor and talk about.

And it's so exciting to me to highlight that in this conversation with you.

I also wanna highlight something else because there is a resource available at the university where the television station is located where WSIU is located.

Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

And this research has helped you.

The resource has helped you.

The incubator at SIU Carbondale has helped you start this business.

Tell me about the kind of help they offered.

- Okay.

Without getting too religious here, it's my temple.

It's a place where as soon as you get there you get to the parking lot and you find this inspiration.

All they talk about is startup innovation, imagination.

Yes, you can get out of the box.

Come in here, we welcome crazy ideas.

As a matter of fact, they asked me the same question and they said, "Why are you here?"

And I said, "Because I'm crazy."

"Bravo!"

Right?

(Fred laughs) Immediately, once you get involved they give you a place to work.

Something that will be very hard for anyone who wants to start a business because home is not always enough.

- [Fred] No distractions too.

- [Jorge] Yes.

- [Fred] Yeah.

- Yes.

So they will give you a place to work.

Very accessible, right?

And then there's gonna be a bunch of people, a team, in this case the SBDC, Small Business Development Center, that has experts in just about every single area who will be available there.

Meaning once you get started, you can run and knock at any anyone's door and say, "Hey, I need help in marketing, finance, taxes, setting up a company," or whatever and they will be right there.

- [Fred] On site.

That's huge.

- On site!

Now that is amazing and that's very important.

Okay.

You don't have to drive, you will be there.

Secondly, these people have a special vocation.

They're like monks, you know?

And they are there to really inspire you.

- [Fred] Yeah.

Well, your success is their success.

- Yes.

- If your successful, they're successful.

- It's reciprocal.

Right?

So that is what research park is about.

Now, what's an incubator?

It's exactly what the name sounds.

It's like you incubate an egg to turn into a little chicken.

There's also accelerators that once you have something and once a chicken is born, they will accelerate it's, excuse me, it's growth.

These people have this talent, this magic to help you to make you feel good, to be with you in terms of good and bad news.

Right?

They are terrific.

Honestly, I don't know whether I would've done it coming straight to research park was the softest landing I could expect in the US.

- Alright.

And tell me, how did you find out about the incubator?

And people may be wondering why you chose to start your business in southern Illinois.

- Okay, great question.

I know a guy whom I've known for many years.

He's the chairman of the Department of History.

His name is Dr. John Bean.

We became friends as a result of something in my previous life as an entrepreneur with feeding troops for the US government for the US Department of State in Bolivia.

- [Fred] Okay.

- Something happened.

- [Fred] So a faculty member here?

- It's a faculty member.

We became friends and he reviewed my article and says, "How's it going?

What are your plans?"

And I go, "Well, I would like to go there."

And then I researched a little bit where he lived.

Marion, Iowa.

Wow.

Interesting.

And then Carbondale.

Carbondale is a very, very intriguing place.

Remember, there's thousands of universities in the United States, and there's lots of places where you can incubate your idea.

But this was especially good.

It's location, location.

It is character.

This place is full of character.

It has an amazing story starting in the sixties.

Carbondale itself is an amazing story.

How it got started.

And the things occurring around in rural America.

It's Carbondale, Marion, and all these areas where you see, for example, the effect of internet on small businesses on small main street businesses.

And how is the thing going?

You see a very interesting ethnic mix here.

You see different cultures.

So I said, "Wow, that might be the place."

How many people of older age?

I'm not gonna call them seniors.

- [Fred] Okay.

- I don't know what I'm gonna call 'em.

I'm gonna call them boomers are there.

- Okay.

And your website calls 'em boomers.

- Yeah, it's okay.

As long as I don't say, "Okay, boomer."

- Okay.

- I estimated about 34,000 in the metro area of 135,000.

I said, "Okay, 25%.

That is good."

- [Fred] Okay.

- And then I learned a little bit about theory.

And this is something I would recommend entrepreneurs get very, very well informed.

- [Fred] Yeah.

- It's gonna help.

- [Fred] Yeah.

- It's gonna help a lot.

- So yes, some things attracted you about southern Illinois, about the history here, about the history of the university, about the history of the area, but also the demographic makeup.

And I want to ask you about that because for your business in particular you talk about the silver economy, you say that marketers miss a very important demographic when they forget about folks who are 55 and up.

- Okay.

Let's talk about the senior or the longevity economy.

Okay?

A subject of study of AARP, MIT, they have an age lab and a lot of other organizations because we have something big.

We are talking huge numbers of seniors producing huge numbers.

Think about 8 trillion dollars contribution that back in 2030 is gonna be 15 trillion dollars.

That's a lot of zeros!

- [Fred] Well, we have an aging population, so I guess- - We have a population that's living longer.

Whereas the newer pop, the newer segments are not having children the way, I wouldn't say it was expected, there's gonna be a crisis, a population crisis soon, in the next 10, 15 years.

- Another important reason to talk about immigration and the need for immigration.

- [Jorge] Absolutely.

- As far as our workforce as well.

- Absolutely.

We do not need to scare away foreign scientists and stuff working at Apple, working at Tesla, et cetera, number one.

Number two is that yes, we are modeling what's coming up.

Meaning those businesses who are ignoring us because they are ignoring us, Fred.

You see, although we produce 50% of all the purchases only 10% of the budgets go to the marketing for seniors.

- Isn't that interesting?

- You want to hear something more interesting?

I made myself available on the net and you know how it works.

You watch things, you do things just to let the net know that you are old, that you're this, that you're that.

Okay.

And then you start getting advertising.

- [Fred] Yeah.

- What do you think is most advertising things I get?

What do you think?

Can you imagine?

Insurance, maybe?

- Yeah.

- Diapers, Fred.

- A lot of life insurance.

- Yes.

- I get a lot of life insurance.

- Yeah, but I get diapers.

- But let me ask you this 'cause we're gonna run out of time.

- Yeah.

- And it relates to the next question.

- [Jorge] Okay.

- Your website, Farout.store - [Jorge] Yeah.

- [Fred] Tell me about the sales part of the website.

- [Jorge] Okay.

- [Fred] What you sell on the website because it relates to what you're asking.

- [Jorge] It goes back to the diapers.

I don't sell diapers.

- [Fred] No, okay.

Good.

- At this generation, we consume everything, Fred.

We drink, we eat, we drive fast cars, et cetera.

And we can take certain privileges, like good stuff "buy me once" type of stuff.

And that is what I offer.

I give you the opportunity to explore a line of products in 19 different departments.

- Okay.

What are the biggest areas where you think you'll be successful?

- Well, that's about us that's important.

There is an area for cooks, magic cooks.

There is an area for gadget wizards.

There is an area for gearheads for gentlemen and ladies, you know apparel.

- [Fred] Apparel as well, so a mix.

- Just about everything.

- A mix of different things.

- [Jorge] Yeah.

- That you think may be interested to the core demographic of 55 and up.

- [Jorge] Yes.

Yes.

- So that's one part of the website.

You also though, besides sales, you have links on finding a job.

- [Jorge] Yes.

- [Fred] On socializing.

When people hear this they may be surprised because they may think, well, I go to certain websites to buy things.

They don't have those links.

- [Jorge] No.

- Why is he doing this?

So tell me about that.

- Because it's a community, what I'm building.

- Community.

- I'm building a community around the marketplace.

Like in the old thousand year old European cities people met in the marketplace where they can talk, they talk about work, they see stores they see a carpenter, and they see a shoemaker.

And that is exactly what Farout is.

- [Fred] Okay.

- Where people can express themselves freely.

- And so that was the idea.

This is so interesting to me.

- [Jorge] Oh, thank you.

- I, of course, spend as many people watching the show do, spend a lot of time online and have experienced what you're talking about.

That we know that as we spend time online we're being watched as to what our interests are.

And we notice targeted advertising toward us.

- [Jorge] Yes.

- So this is kind of interesting to me.

You're flipping this on its head and creating something online that you hope people will discover things that they want to purchase, but also discover ideas and ways of living, ways of getting to know each other.

What's been the most challenging part of developing this website?

Because this sounds to me like an enormous challenge.

I mean, there's so many elements of challenge here.

- Oh my goodness.

Taking a risk is always the most challenging part for anybody who wants to start a business.

It's uncertain.

It's uncertain and that brings fear of failure.

- And what's your recommendation in our last 30 seconds?

If somebody- - Do your research, do your job to reduce the chances, reduce the chances of risk.

I mean the level of risk by informing yourself by working with an incubator.

- Research, research.

- Help.

- And lots of work.

- And lots and lots of work.

- Jorge, what a delight talking to you.

I wish you the best of luck and I thank you so much for sharing some of your story with us today.

- Fred, it was too short for me.

- [Fred] It was great!

- And I thank you so much.

- [Fred] It was great.

- Thank you so much.

- My guest was Jorge del Carpio.

He is the owner of the website, Farout.store.

He started the business with help from the incubator at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

That's Eye on Education, I'm Fred Martino.

For all of us at WSIU, thanks for being here and have a great day.

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