Marcello Cantu: Project Wifi — The World’s Most Valuable Birthday Gift

Out of all the ways that someone could come up with a business idea, Marcello Cantu’s story is definitely one for the books.

He was just a child when his grandfather introduced him to the world of entrepreneurship. His grandfather founded a family-run auto-upholstery that lasted over three decades.

Cantu loved the idea of owning his own business and always looked up to his grandfather. He is the one who inspired him to chase after his dreams even if that meant not working for him alongside the rest of their family.

Instead, Cantu went to school and earned a degree in marketing at the University of Texas in Dallas. With a quick move from Texas to California, Cantu found himself learning from young entrepreneurs like himself at his first eCommerce conference. It was here where he met his first business partner Andy Ta Kong.

The two connected instantly and Ta Kong invited him to his birthday party. At the party, the two spent the entire night talking about the possibility of partnering and creating a business, while over 100 guests searched for the man of the hour.

Ta Kong introduced Cantu to his roommate Paul Parker who valued the business plans the duo had been creating and wanted to join. The duo became a trio.

Cantu attended a second conference featuring a presentation from ATM business tycoon Mohammed Shakaoat. Cantu had no prior plans of working with him but he couldn’t resist utilizing Shakaoat’s vast entrepreneurial repertoire.

The four partnered and created Project Wifi, a business offering a variety of dropshipping mentorship and Amazon management in exchange for shares in their businesses.

They now help over 55 clients exceed their business goals and have amassed over $19,000,000 in revenue shares with all of those companies combined. Project Wifi appeals to those who wish to build their own online Amazon business while working from their laptop anywhere around the world.

“My business idea started at a birthday party. It’s insane when I think about it now. It was the first time we had hung out and we were in his room upstairs talking about Amazon and partnering up together for an hour while about a hundred people downstairs partied and were looking for him the whole night,” he says.

Cantu credits Project Wifi’s success to capitalizing on each founder’s set of skills that help grow the business to where it is today.

“I am very good at strategizing and planning ahead,” says Cantu. “I realize now that it’s not the smartest, sexiest, or hardest working people that succeed — It’s the people that can adapt.”

If you would like to keep up with @marcellocantu and his upcoming projects, feel free to give him a follow on Instagram.