PROFILE: Lew-Port graduates return home

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March 30, 2007

Lew-Port graduates Karen and Alessandro Renzi took the trail of the Internet boom to Boston and back to Youngstown

By Aaron Besecker/beseckera@gnnewspaper.com The Niagara Gazette Fri Mar 30, 2007, 07:31 PM EDT

They traded life in the big city for a place close to home thanks to the power of the Internet.

Starting their own design and marketing firm in the Boston area, Karen and Alessandro Renzi decided in November 2004 to return to the community they grew up in.

The couple, both 1994 graduates of Lewiston-Porter High School, operate Beyondus from their Youngstown home.

The company was founded in 2002 in Salem, Mass. It employs a dozen consultants who are scattered across the country, including three in Western New York.

Everyone at Beyondus communicates via the Internet — transferring files as well as utilizing Internet phone and fax.

“We like to say that the business was portable, so we could pretty much move it wherever we want it,” said Karen, 31.

The couple were just friends during high school, and began dating while in college. They were married in Niagara Falls in 2001.

They recall their time in Massachusetts as a successful period — except for his first job there.

Alessandro, 30, took a job as a temp in a Boston University administrator’s office when the couple first arrived in Massachusetts in 1998.

Unfortunately, the official liked to handle every smidgen of the work and left nothing to the eager assistant.

“After two days of doing nothing, I went crazy,” said Alessandro, who moved from Italy to Lewiston with his family at age 8.

That’s when he went out and bought a computer programming and Web design manual.

Both then worked at a Boston-area startup company for several years.

In 2002, Alessandro thought he needed a change. He started Beyondus, and his wife joined the firm two years later.

The name of their firm relates to the way its founders view customer service.

“You have to kind of go beyond personal interests as a business,” Alessandro said. “You have to branch out and work at what works for your client.”

The company’s clients, like its consultants, are located across the United States. While many are still found in the Boston area, many are also Niagara County and Western New York businesses.

Neither Karen, whose maiden name is Nelson, nor Alessandro were deterred by the area’s economic image when they thought about moving their business.

In an area that has bled young people, the Renzis said they found potential and opportunity.

Alessandro said he sees that in area residents, and it can be found in the people he meets on trips to the grocery store.

“You have the people here who are willing to make things work,” he said.

Karen said she and her husband made the conscious choice to become active instead of just sitting back and complaining about the way things are going.

“We really wanted to make ourselves part of the community and do what we can to drive it forward,” she said.

Sandra Hays Mies, executive director of the Lower Niagara River Region Chamber of Commerce, said the area business community feels fortunate the Renzis have chosen to come back to the area.

“Karen and Alessandro Renzi typify the quality of young professionals that we want to attract not only to the River Region, but certainly to Western New York in general,” Hays Mies said. “They have invested in our community, have chosen to raise a family here and they are rising to a leadership position through their volunteer service.”

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