Brian Prete · 20-year accountant, Utah
Building a four-store portfolio
Twenty years doing taxes and four kids at home. Brian wanted his money working without becoming the operator himself.
Read Brian's storyCapital To Deploy Without Another Hands-On Business
Niko Celentano is a managing partner in a 20,000-square-foot supermarket in New York. His wife directs HR for a home healthcare company. He had extra capital and wanted a new revenue stream—something that could outperform a money market or traditional stock allocation—without becoming another full-time operation. He is used to being hands-on. The last thing he needed was a side business that ate every evening.
No Get-Rich-Quick Pitch—Just Straight Answers
Niko talked to quite a few other operators before choosing Ecom Accelerator. What stood out was comfort with the team from day one: examples he could review, questions that all got answered, and nobody selling overnight wealth. "I like to think I'm a pretty good judge of character," he said—and he kept getting a good feeling when he spoke with the team. That honesty is what separated the partnership from the other opportunities he screened.
Two Stores, Gradual Growth, And 95% Hands-Off
He and his wife each opened a storefront—two businesses, one friendly competition (Niko still leads after a head start from an existing eBay account; she is catching up). They signed in April, completed onboarding in a couple of weeks, and went live in May. Through the first four months, sales scaled gradually month over month—the pace the team set on purpose so stores would not trip marketplace red flags. Day-to-day, Niko estimates he does almost nothing: about 95% hands-off. Order notifications still ping, and he and his wife still laugh about whose phone rang and how wild the product mix is—but the team runs the stores. Support tightened after early feedback on response times. Looking ahead, he is hopeful about the next few months into year-end as the stores season into Q4.
“If you're looking for a better return than you're gonna get in a money market account or a stock market... and you're gonna be hands-off, you don't wanna be involved with the day-to-day operations of something, it's something I would definitely look into.”
Niko Celentano
This is one partner's experience. It is real but not typical, and it is not a guarantee of your results. Stores can lose money. See our earnings claim statement for average results.
