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Erick Rodriguez is a Colombian-American e-Commerce seller and public speaker.

Raised in Deland, Florida, he was an ambitious and driven child. In elementary school, he won awards for book reading and chess. Eventually, he joined the Boy Scouts of America, achieving the prestigious position of Eagle Scout at 13 years old (same early age as Sam Walton, founder of Walmart).

At the age of 13, he started selling on eBay. By the time he entered college, he’d already sold $100,000 in merchandise including but not limited to phones, laptops, electronic accessories, and even the occasional car. He sold merchandise on Amazon and Craigslist as well.

Erick graduated from the Warrington School of Business, University of Florida. While in college, he helped the college win many accolades and awards, such as the Student Organization of the Year. He also won the Student Leader of the Year.

He convinced the University of Florida to allow him to embark on distance learning. For six months, he lived in China, where he learned manufacturing and sourcing on the ground. This trip resulted in his very own eCommerce business — the first of many. Over the next few years, Erick would build and sell three eCommerce businesses, obtain a purchase order for 1282 Walmart stores, and become a speaker at many eCommerce conferences.

Currently, he resides in Manila, Philippines, where he runs a team that launches and maintains his eCommerce businesses. He also travels around the world for speaking engagements.

Early Life

Rodriguez was born in Long Island, New York. He went to Freedom Elementary in Deland, Florida, where he won the Elementary School Chess Champion Award twice and the Book Reading Champion thrice.

All the while, Erick was involved in the Boy Scouts of America, which he credits for shaping the initial character traits that would propel him later in life. When he was 12 years old, he received annual recognition twice as the top-selling candy bar salesman. Selling more than 1,600 candy bars in 60 days. At 13 years old, Erick obtained the position of Eagle Scout, after years of camping, volunteering, and exemplifying leadership. A position that only 4% of boy scouts attain. For Erick’s Eagle Scout project, he directed over 50 volunteers, and a bulldozer, in the construction of a 4,000 square foot nature/fitness trail at Blue Lake Elementary School in Deland, Florida.

Education

The University of Florida

Erick was accepted to the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida. His program of choice was the Bachelor of Science in Business Management. As a freshman, he co-led a semester-long business class. He would lecture 2 ½ hour-long classes, implement lesson plans, and assist in the educational processes of 25 students. He also mentored 20 students in their career and future goals through various one-on-one meetings.

In his sophomore year, he became the teaching assistant of Professor William J. Rossi under the Principles of Entrepreneurship classes. He assisted with classes of up to 900 students by grading essays, holding office hours, and proctoring exams.

Google

In (2014), he attended the Google BOLD Immersion, where students receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Google’s headquarters. He was amongst a group of 70 college sophomores picked by Google for outstanding achievement.

In 2016, he got accepted into the summer internship program of Google. He served as a Google AdWords account manager for small & medium-sized businesses, helping them to  their revenue through Google Advertising. After three months in sales, Erick scored in the Top 3 nationally amongst new hires (interns and full-time hires) for sales.

The Startup Life

Erick’s early exposure to selling on eBay awoke the spirit of entrepreneurship in him. In his second year of college, he participated in a Startup Weekend competition, a 54-hour competition where groups of startup enthusiasts pitch ideas, form teams, and work to develop a prototype, demo, and presentation for the final hour/

In the same year, he was hand-selected to compete on the StartupBus North America, which is one of the most immersive entrepreneurship competitions worldwide.

Harvard Business School

In his third year, he was invited to attend a week at the Harvard Business School. Erick attended an undergraduate summer program meant for prospective Harvard MBA students. The program is an immersion to the life of a Harvard MBA student. Erick engaged in daily case study classes with Harvard Business School professors and participated in a class of 80+ hand-selected students.

University of Florida Entrepreneurship Club

In his junior year, Rodriguez was elected president of the UF Entrepreneurship Club, at a time when the organization was at a “low point.” It was considered the least admirable of clubs due to low attendance, poor quality of speakers, and overall substandard organizational management. Within a year and a half, Erick turned the organization around. The club eventually got recognized as the top student organization in the Warrington School of Business and runner-up for the #1 entrepreneurship club in the nation in 2015.

During his term as president, he convinced many speakers to share their knowledge with club members at no cost to the university, including Rob Carter (co-CEO of FedEx), Kevin Turner (former COO of Microsoft), Bo Peabody (Founder of Tripod.com), and multiple ABC Shark Tank competitors. 

By the time Erick graduated in 2016, he had won the Student Organization of the Year award, Outstanding Program of the Year award, and the Warrington Student of the Year award.

Business Career

eCommerce Seller

Erick has designed and filed numerous copyrights, trademarks, and patents. He bootstrapped an Amazon business that earns 7 figures annually with only two employees. He also successfully got a product into 1,282 Walmart stores nationwide.

He also built and sold two eCommerce product-based businesses.

Rodriguez also shares his eCommerce journey with others as an eCommerce conference speaker. Attendees to some of these conferences average 7 figures in annual sales (based on conference organizer surveys). He has spoken at conferences held in Hong Kong to Las Vegas on many of the best practices that help sellers increase revenue and conversions. 

Furthermore, he guested on Robyn Johnson’s podcast Best From the Nest about Amazon product photography and graphic design

Virtuous Graphics

As Erick was well on his way in creating his eCommerce businesses, he recognized the need of Amazon sellers to have strong support in terms of photographers, designers, copywriters, overall creatives. With that in mind, he founded Virtuous Graphics, and over two years, built it to be a 25-person company that serviced Amazon sellers’ creative needs. Helping everyone from the beginner Amazon seller still in college, to the established sellers filling up the Top 500 Amazon Seller ranks.

As a serial entrepreneur and builder of businesses he intelligently implanted an operator that he mentored and coached to run the business on his behalf. With this, he assimilated 5 hours a week schedule in his company.

In 2009, Alpha Rock Capital bought Virtuous Graphics from Erick.

For more information about Erick or to get in contact with him feel free to visit his website.