We were lucky to catch up with Dylan Davino recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dylan, thanks for joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

When I graduated from high school, I went to Uconn to study engineering. This was during the COVID lockdowns, and I never saw campus once. Schooling was all virtual and I quickly became frustrated with this experience. I had high hopes for my classes and the social experience of college. Once the semester started I found out that college was not at all what I hoped it would be. No one had a social life at the time, and the professors linked us Youtube videos to prepare us for exams. I was frustrated by the fact that tuition was the same price as in previous years when there were real classes and lectures.

After one year of this experience, I decided to drop out and start doing freelance web design. At this time, I realized how important the internet is to society and knew that I wanted to start a business that could capitalize on the digital revolution. I figured that this would be the perfect industry to enter since every business needed a strong online presence and website.

Dylan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Dylan Davino, I’m 20 years old and started my own business “Davino Digital” building websites. I have been doing it for two years now and I’m passionate about running my own business. I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur and after one year of college, I knew that this was what I wanted to do.

After dropping out of college, I spent 6 months putting my head down and learning web development, sales, and marketing. After that, I started putting all of my efforts into finding clients. I tried a lot of different strategies like cold calling, and visiting local businesses, with not much luck.

After the first year in business, our growth accelerated as I got better at finding clients, and our clients started referring us to more clients, so the snowball started to grow exponentially. At this time I also landed my first large project, which was building an e-commerce website with over 150 pages. I also started a Youtube Channel to talk about web design and the journey of growing my business.

What separates us from our competitors is the platforms we use and the capabilities we have because of these platforms. We build websites with Webflow and Shopify, and we offer a unique solution that allows us to build highly custom e-commerce sites. By combining Webflow with Shopify, we can build websites that look amazing and have advanced e-commerce functionality with the backend of Shopify.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I dropped out of college, this was a major pivot in my life. I never thought I would drop out of school. My entire family went to college and graduated from Uconn. When I decided to drop out, there was a lot of pressure from family and friends. Nobody understood my decision at the time, but I knew deep down that it was what I needed to do. I realized that I wasn’t passionate about engineering, and the online schooling during the COVID lockdowns made it that much worse. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay on that path. Over time my family and friends became more accepting of the idea, especially when I started landing new projects and money was starting to come in. This taught me to trust my gut, even when everyone around me is telling me otherwise. I knew it was the right decision once I made it, and decided that I wouldn’t give up regardless of what people said. It was mainly a matter of doing something I am passionate about.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The Third Door – This book has played a large role in the way I think about success and entrepreneurship. The story is about a college dropout named Alex Banayan. He was under a lot of pressure from his parents to go to school and become a doctor. When he decided to drop out he had a mission: to research and interview the world’s most successful people and find out how they started their careers.

It was really fascinating and inspiring to hear the stories of how successful people launched their careers. The title “The Third Door” represents the path that most of these individuals took to achieve success in their life. In life, there are three ways to achieve success. The first door is where 99 percent of people wait in line, hoping to get in. The second door is the VIP entrance where billionaires and celebrities enter. The Third Door is where you run into the alleyway, open a window, and sneak in through the backdoor.

Over the course of the book, he shares his failures and successes in making this vision come to life. During his interviews with the world’s most successful people, he realized that almost all of them took the Third Door.

Contact Info:

• Website: DavinoDigital.com
• Instagram: dylan_davino
• Youtube: @dylandavino (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHXEKJ5Tyf6hBq4topC9hIw)