Background
Mario & Tina Barrett, Co-Founders Sockwork
Mario Barrett is the Co-Founder of Sockwork with his wife Tina. Mario grew up in a small town in Texas. His father was an Air Force Academy Graduate. Mario is a graduate of West Point and be came a Combat Engineer in the U.S. Army. He was deployed to Afghanistan 8 months after graduation and was responsible for building combat outposts in the mountains.
Transition
After leaving the Army, Mario attended the University of Texas to get his MBA. He started two companies while he was at business school. Both of those companies failed.
Entrepreneurship
Mario came up with the idea for Sockwork when he began working in a corporate environment. He was in a meeting and realized he was still wearing the same socks he was issued as a Cadet at West Point. He contacted the founders of Cratejoy, and they helped him get his company off the ground very quickly. He then became a portfolio company of The Bunker @ATX, which is focused on incubating veteran owned companies.
Quotes
Sockwork is the third company that I started, but really the only one that proved to be successful. I learned a lot of lessons based on failing on the previous two…..just like in the military when you deployed, you figured out what was important for your training cycle when you got home. I was able to skip steps….I knew there were things that just didn’t matter. I didn’t need to spend months on a business plan….get a minimum viable product and go figure out if this is something people want to buy
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