Meet Carlos Rodriguez | CEO

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

Hi Carlos, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
That’s a tough one. There’s a fine line between the amount of enthusiasm going into a project and our own ability to be critical from every angle. We tend to become emotionally attached to our endeavors in a way that is not always beneficial. Passion is an asset and success certainly requires persistence in the face of repeated failures, but the thing that pushes you forward should be more than just a desire. Over the years I’ve had businesses where I’ve had to walk away for one reason or another. Those experiences taught me both what I did want and what I did not want from a business. By the time I started Koala Tools, I had a fairly solid sense of what my type of business would look like.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
In the beginning my day job as a freelance graphic designer afforded me the autonomy to be able to ease into a new business rather than just cutting the cord and diving in cold turkey. After I knew I had the month’s expenses covered, I would get to work designing my own products, filing patents, sourcing manufacturers, and doing the things necessary to build a viable, scalable brand. I was aiming for a business model that would be able to sustain a relatively consistent revenue based on simple innovations in a niche market. That doesn’t sound very exciting, I know, but once you get some traction and start moving your creations out into the world, they become like your little babies that will go find a home somewhere. And those babies grow into little salesmen for your products. It’s quite the beautiful symbiosis. But it wasn’t always clear skies. Nothing came easy in those early days. It was that struggle to find a balance– the ability to stomach uncertainty without forsaking the possible– that pushed me forward. The greater the obstacle that I would have to overcome, the more forged in fire I would be on the other side of it.

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?
Being stuck in quarantine has really helped me to distill the essential local spots for our household. That list looks something like this: Katana for sushi, The Greek Place for gyros, Andiamo for pizza and Sazon on Collins Ave for Cuban. Then maybe Monty’s for live music on the waterfront.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My beautiful wife and awesome kids are my most precious treasure and biggest motivating force. Becoming a father absolutely changed the game for me. When the stakes are higher I tend to perform better.

Website: koalatools.com
Instagram: koalatools