Interview with Antonio Chirato, CEO of Fluvio
June 1, 2022
Interview with Antonio Chirato, CEO of Fluvio, the startup dedicated to all the aquarists.
According to recent estimates, more than 30 million fish swim in our homes inside more than 3 million small and large aquariums. Today, home aquariums, available in many sizes and types, are a piece of furniture on the one hand, and represent a real passion for aquatic biology on the other. In fact, there are many aquarium enthusiasts, experts in fulfilling all the roles that nature usually plays: recreating a marine or lake environment in an aquarium does not mean only, as unfortunately many think, put the water in a container and put a fish in it. In fact, it represents the action of recreating habitats that are as similar as possible to those where the inhabitants of the tank would live. For anyone who is or inspires to be an aquarist, it’s time to discover Fluvio!
What’s Fluvio
Fluvio is the advanced aquarium platform that offers articles, videos, courses, news, support and live shows with the best experts in the field. Inside there is a training area where videos, articles, podcasts, books and training courses are published to deepen your knowledge. At the same time, you will have at your disposal a personalized support of experts and professionists, for management, maintenance, creation and installations problems, but also much more.
On Fluvio you need to subscribe to one of the two available profiles, choosing between Basic or Premium. The Basic plan is a plan that is, and will be, free forever, while the Premium plan is a paid plan, which cost only 5 euros per month and which gives, of course, the access to a much wider offer than the Basic.
To learn more about the startup, we interviewed Antonio Chirato, CEO of Fluvio.
Hello Antonio, thank you so much for this opportunity. It is really a pleasure to meet you. Tell us more about Fluvio
Fluvio is not only a digital platform but also a community of passionate people. For us it is important the human contact between users, in fact we often organize live based on comparison.
How and when was the idea born?
I am an aquarist and computer engineer and when in October 2021 I decided to set up my aquarium, like everyone else, I started looking for information on industry sites, youtube, social groups and forums. The main difficulties that I have found during the setting up and later in the maintenance, were about finding concordant opinions, verified news and support from really experienced people. Above all I can’t reach an organized, intuitive and simple reference point. So I decided to create Fluvio to solve these difficulties, that, then I discovered, to be the same of many aquarists.
How did you launch your startup? Did you use crowdfunding campaigns?
The official launch on the market of Fluvio was on 21 March 2022 and we announced the platform on the web by organizing a live event on Youtube for a presentation of the co-founders. We have not used crowdfunding campaigns or other types of funding, but also our savings; as they use to say in the jargon of startups: family and friends.
What team’s experts are available on the platform?
The team of experts currently consists of 11 people with proven experience in different areas of aquaria: fresh water, marine, aquascaping. Anyone who wants to join the Fluvio Experts team must take an entrance test. We are always ready to welcome new experts who would like to join the team.
What are the differences between the Basic and Premium option?
The Premium allows access to extra training content, advantageous discounts on support sessions and the opportunity to participate in live comparisons with experts on various topics; with the possibility to review in deferred any registration. The Basic account allows access to limited training content, news area and support sessions but without the premium discounts.
Future developments?
For the future we plan to expand our aquarium community and our team of experts. We are designing new services that will be added to the platform for the benefit of both users and experts. We are also starting to design a new section of Fluvio for companies and shops in the sector.
Curiosity: what advice would you like to give to a novice aquarist?
To confront experienced people and never stop studying, if the goal is to improve personal knowledge in this wonderful hobby
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