Meet Marc Yannaco | CEO of Bongoze.com

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

Hi Marc, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I was a bond trader on Wall Street for two decades, where risk taking was inherently a large part of the job. I had to determine when to buy bonds and take on a substantial amount of risk or sell bonds when the market sentiment was heading lower. Wall Street is a zero-sum game as a trader. If you’re right, you keep your job and get paid. If you’re wrong, you’re fired. I was lucky enough to be surrounded with a great team and able to navigate the highs and lows of the market for a long time.

That collective experience allowed me to take on the biggest risk of all, and that was to leave Wall Street and become an entrepreneur.

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?
Bongoze was conceived by an encounter with a college friend who owns an insurance agency. He explained to me the perils of today’s marketing landscape. He was spending thousands of dollars each month on social media ads and SEO with few results to show.

I asked him if he knew how many inbound sales calls he was missing each month. But he couldn’t answer as he did not have systems in place to track this information. I told him I thought I could help. So, The Call Catch System, a supercharged answering/messaging service, was born. This system caught every single missed call sent to our service, including callers who hung up without leaving a message or abandoning the call. After some trial and error, a viable service was built, and my friend started using this in conjunction with his marketing. He was surprised by how effective it was. Now, he and his team can call missed prospects back in real-time and close the customer. He continues to close multiple customers a month with The Call Catch System and his professional sales team.

The call answering industry does not necessarily strike anyone as a sexy business at first take. While the idea may not be sexy, there is a high demand for this service, especially amongst independent insurance agencies. By implementing the Call Catch System, we can help make a difference to their bottom lines. I am very proud of what we’ve built and excited for the future as the word gets out there.

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?
Wynwood – We’ll spend an afternoon admiring the street art over in Wynwood, followed up with some Mediterranean small plates at Doya. But a trip to Wynwood is not complete without spending a night at Gramps. One of my favorite bars in the city, which is known for their pizza, craft cocktails and excellent service.

Beach Day – My favorite beach in Miami is Crandon Park located on the island of Key Biscayne. I’d consider it a local’s only beach as it does not get overcrowded with tourists like South Beach. The magic of Key Biscayne is feeling like you are hours away from the hustle and bustle of Miami, yet only 15 minutes away from the city.

South Beach – A week in Miami isn’t complete without at least one day/night in South Beach. We’d start the day relaxing on the beach at South Pointe Park, followed up by some lunch on the patio at Smith and Wollensky and then make our way over to Sweet Liberty for some of their world-famous cocktails (not to mention the caviar and onion dip with chips).

Breakfast – El Bagel: purveyors of the best bagel in Miami. I personally go with the Proper Sausage egg and cheese sandwich. They don’t have too much seating, so we’ll take it to go and have breakfast on the balcony back at home.

For some culture, we will spend an afternoon wandering around the grounds and gardens of Vizcaya (also where my wife and I had our wedding ceremony). Then follow it up with some fish dip, peel and eat shrimp and rib rolls at the Flanigan’s in Coconut Grove.

After all that, we’ll be pretty wiped out. Time for an Uber Eats order from the Mexican restaurant Tacombi. One of the tastiest burritos in Miami.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Without the support of my wife, Bongoze would never have existed.

First, we met and fell in love in Dallas, TX. It is her hometown and I happened to be working there at the time. A year into our relationship, I got an opportunity to work in South Florida which would require us to move there. She had never lived outside of Texas and had only been to Florida once in her life. After some discussion, she took a leap of faith and moved to South Florida with me. Thankfully it all worked out as we got married and she loves Miami!

Second, she supported my vision to build a business from the ground up. It’s not every day that your partner is on board with your dreams to become an entrepreneur. I’m grateful that she was.

Website: https://www.bongoze.com/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/bongoze_

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/marc-yannaco-6090ba150

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bongoze

Image Credits
Lucas Klappas