The Founders
thenewlook
ofnetworking
Michael Aharoni graduated Hofstra University in the spring
of 2008 with a dual major in speech communication and
radio marketing and was ready to take on the world. He
knew he wanted to work with people and he knew he
wanted to stay in New York – above all he knew he wanted
to work for himself – but in the field that he chose to study,
there wasn't much room for entrepreneurial growth.
In August of the same year, it happened that Michael met
the girl of his dreams. He fell in love with her and her family
and developed a deep respect for her grandfather who
happened to be in the insurance industry. Michael saw a
huge potential in insurance. He realized he could own his
own company all while helping people.
He dove head first in the industry and retooled himself. He
took classes, studied up on life and health insurance, got
his public adjustor's license, became a notary public, and
passed his series 6 and series 63 licenses to become a
licensed insurance broker – and all in record time. He took
courses at Nationwide Insurance and Penn Mutual
Insurance. He worked with them, learned the industry, and
then he started his own company, The Coverage Group.
Being so young, Michael didn't have a sphere of influence
or a peer group to access initially to help build his business,
so he knew he had to develop leads and business another
way. And so he did.
Everything happens for a reason and so it did. During a
networking event that Michael Aharoni attended, he came
across William Swiatkowski, a fellow entrepreneur and
successful business owner. The two shared their
backgrounds, their business models, and took a chance
on sharing their thoughts for their next “big idea” projects.
Sparks flew and by the time the two sat down for their
second meeting they were finishing each other's sentences
and creating the framework for a national platform that
would generate leads, create a barter bank, and
provide a platform for virtually
limitless marketing programs and
highly targeted lead generation.
To the team, William added the passion of a true creative
designer and artist. In addition to his creativity, William, like
Michael, also had a strong drive and desire to own his own
business. His confidence and courage was so strong that
when he got his first job offer right out of school, he decided
to pass up the offer from Disney in pursuit of building
something on his own in New York.
Out of high school, William worked with top designers for
Bloomingdales, Macy's, Tommy Hilfiger, and other
well-known brands. In his first successful business venture
he opened a design and signage shop that provided an
outlet to create visual branding for other noteworthy clients.
But William also saw a larger vision and in 2010 he
launched a trading barter company to put a different twist
to things. His company NY Saves Money was launched to
provide an alternative to the way that he felt business,
community, and local politics were working together. His
business model made it easier for people and businesses
to purchase things and to grow. This is where networking
and bartering met for Bill. He was helping people and
creating a win-win for everybody. They were saving money,
they were networking, and they were able to build their
business all at the same time.
In 2010, Michael discovered “Networking” when he came
across a company called 516 Ads and met its founder,
David Gussin. He attended one of Gussin's networking
events, joined his group amongst a host of other networking
groups on Long Island and strategically began the process
of building relationships that would lead to closing accounts.
Event by event, Michael was able to make introductions,
As part of the bartering system, William worked with
develop leads, create contacts, and close deals to build a
consultants to create a detailed and comprehensive
profitable business.
“monetary” system that could show you everything you put
into the account, what you took out, what you bought, and
Never letting the grass grow under his feet, Michael
provided a dollar for dollar account of service and product
realized that the networking world was flooded with
transactions. He even incorporated financial background
insurance brokers and financial advisors so he vowed to
checks for participating vendors to make sure what was
be different. In March of 2012, he made a bold move and
being done was regulated properly.
created his own organization called LIME Social – a new
networking organization that gave attendees a free forum
William's brother-in-law Michael Gold, owner of the
to share their elevator pitch with event attendees.
#techdrinkup events, really pushed William into networking.
LIME Social grew within a year to one of the largest
As William started to attend more and more events, it