Matt McGunagle
- Co-founder and CEO
- StrengthPortal
School Information
School: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
College Major: Business
Years at College Works: 2009 to 2010
Career Information
Working For: StrengthPortal
Title: Co-founder and CEO
Industry: Software
Brief Description of Duties / Responsibilities:
Product Management and Company Growth. As CEO I do whatever the company needs at the time and work to position our company where we want to be in the market.
What Has Been Your Proudest Accomplishment Post-CWP?Graduating college and building a business that can help trainers around the world, but most importantly, it can help my brother and girlfriend who are both personal trainers themselves.
College Works Career Impact
In one sentence, what has CW meant to you?
College Works Painting gave me an opportunity to build something of my own and showed me that I could do much more than I ever though possible.
How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?
College Works Painting taught me how to listen to customers and work hard to deliver a quality, personalized service to each individual. It was never about the numbers to me, instead I learned an incredible amount about how people work and what they are really looking for. The confidence gained from the experience continues to help me with opening new doors and opportunities. I took this to heart early since I did College Works Painting as a freshmen and sophomore and was looking to build a business of my own even before graduating.
What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?
Each customer wants something slightly different. It’s up to you to figure out what their needs are and how to best solve them. I learned that it was better to make sure that your were the right fit for potential customers and that if you weren’t there was nothing wrong with being honest with them about this. There was always another door to knock on and another road to look for new relationships.
Advice
What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?
The experience gained while working with College Works Painting can positively effect every facet of your life if you put the work in. Don’t be slowed down or dwell on minor setbacks. There is opportunity out there if you have confidence in yourself and good intentions to deliver an amazing service.
What’s your best advice for someone interested in entering your career field?
Health and Fitness seem to outsiders as fairly simple problems to solve. Everyone knows that you should eat well consistently and, in general, try to move more. In reality, these problems are much more complex than meets the eye. The industry craves quality personalized expert service, instead of the products that have been sold for years through misinformation and unethical marketing strategies.