CEO SPOTLIGHT

Stefano Brighenti

Company: Pro Web Consulting

I was born in a small village called Cantalupa, in Turin’s province, so removed from the rest of the world that for many years there was not even a connection to the internet. As a boy I was never very social  and that is why I preferred spending my days reading all kinds of books and magazines and playing with the most disparate PC games.My love for computers and technology in general further intensifiedduring high school, which was later followed by a brief periodat law school that my parents had heartily recommended me to attend.Obviously, for a young technology enthusiast with a passion for computer programming, thesubjects studied at law school were nootherthan boring and repetitive to the point that I decided to interrupt my studies to launch myself into more interesting projects.

At the age of 20, in fact, I createdan online forum aimed at technology enthusiasts, which quickly became the national reference forumin terms of visits and usage and allowed me to earn my first real money after having sold it to a private company interested in the leading positionit had gained.
This event definitely sets the foundation of my passion and marks my involvement with the web world. Thanks to this bit of luck I was able toentirely dedicate myself to my passion that was slowly turning into an occupation and, consequently, I furthered my professional education by attending specialization courses on web related activities, SEO optimization and Management at the Bocconi University of Milan.

Thanks to my acquired SEO skills, I next created a network consisting of 5 between websites and forums dedicated at a particular niche of the financial market that I was able to positionextremely well onvarious search engines.
The result achieved was fantastic: through all the main search keywords directly related to the market, my network appeared in the top positions.
Shortly afterwards, this huge visibility wasalso noted by many brokers in the financial market who started placing ads within my network.  Needless to say,those ads began producing an allied income that allowed me to self-finance my activities.Then one day I was contacted by an Israeli multinational corporation determined to buy part of the network forindependently planning their own ads,as it considered the network that I had created one of the bestavailableat that time in Europe.That was the turning point.  In 2009, I set up Pro Web Consulting and even today I continue to dedicate part of my time tostudy and createnew in-house projects that will allow the market to evolve in terms of visibility and innovation.

Tell us about your background and your role in the company.
Different to most of the brilliant minds that this market can claim, I have never followed anactual academic pattern but I have studied with zeal and determination anything that I considered useful for myselfand for my work,while at the same time adopting a consistentandmaniacalmethod.
To date, I cover the position of CEO of Pro Web Consulting and I believe that the success of this firm, even if initial,is largely due to the highlytechnical and skilled team that I was able to slowly put together over these years. I do not believe that a good CEO can be such unless he can rely on a trusted and capable team with whom to share the problems and successes that have to be faced with the daily work, but above allwith whom to grow up together, not only in a professional way but also as a way of life.We are all very young and whilst there is much more that we have to learn, unlike many other agencies we lovewhat we do and it is precisely this passion that drives us every day to improve ourselves in order to compete with the best.

What are your main services?
We are a web agency specializing in prime visibility and in managing the online reputation of international companies requiring an attentive and structured planning for the different countries. Over the years we have developed specific skills and know-howswhich have brought us significant results thanks to some important SEO projects purposely developed for companies operating in highly competitive online markets such as finance, gambling, etc.;all projects that have resultantly allowed Pro Webto receive important international recognitions.We also have an internal department solely dedicated to the design and creation of digital products, which isfundamentalin wanting to offer our clients a bespoke and comprehensive service.

What makes your firm different from other companies competing in your industry?
Results, just plain results; obviously verifiable and indisputable. Thanks to the skilled professionalism and expertise of our team we can confidently meet the requirements and terms agreed with the client.  This I believe itto be a fundamental and distinguishing qualitysinceby working closely with the client and his associateswe can add a constant and tangible value to his business.


Tell us more about your firm’s success story.
I created a network of websites, blogs and forums pertaining to a specific financial market niche and had them positioned as prime organic search results on some search engines. In other words, if you were searching with any keywordassociatedto the market segment, among the first results always appeared one of the websites belonging tomy network.  Soon after I was contacted by a multinational corporation wanting to buy part of the network to use it as a media planning platform for itself and its own clients.It goes without saying that this operation allowed Pro Web Consulting to organize its structure and to invest on a very challenging case history in highly competitive markets where only few agencies can promise and achieve concrete results.

According to you, what are the most important questions a potential customer should ask a company before choosing a vendor like you?
There are several activities characterizing a web marketing project studied for a client, but I believe thatthe SEO activity is without doubt the one setting the standard as the most qualifying and exacting.  Thus, if I were a client,the oneand most important question to askfor correctly choosing a partner would be: “Are you able to position me in the TOP 5 results for the related keywords?”

How do you develop your skills in this continuously changing environment?
I continually try to keep myself updated by studying and attending training and specialized courses. Our market is an industry where everything is constantly and rapidly evolving and the only secretrepresenting a real competitive advantage for your clients is the continuous innovation and updating.

What do you see as the future of the industry? What will be the challenges? Do you anticipate any drastic changes?
The only and truecontent value that exists in the web world is represented by the information.  In the same way as Google has globally and literally changed the search and utilizationmethods forthe information, I believe it is possible that someone one day will further refine this tool;perhapsthrough completely different logics that todayno oneis able to conceive.At this point the activities for promoting the online visibility of a company couldnolonger have a sense for the way we know them and, while this need would continue to subsisteven though the satisfying dynamics could be entirely redesigned, the only suppliers able to survive could be those capable of adapting to such change.

Where do you see your firm in the next 5 years? What about you personally?
I do not honestly know what will happen within the next 5 years, especially when considering the speed with which today’s trends are changing;events and situations take place and the dynamics change. The only thing I know is that I will continue to improveand refine our work in order to always represent a certainty for our clients; namely a professional and reliable partner capable of providing the support needed in an ever increasingly faster world.