Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Estela Duarte.
Hi Maria Estela, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Hi, I’m Maria Duarte.
It’s been a long journey to get here, and I couldn’t be more excited to share my story with you.
Four years ago, I was in a corporate job that I’d been in for seven years and it just wasn’t fulfilling me anymore. I started to get a little burned out. So, I decided to take a 6-month sabbatical to try something new and to explore online business opportunities that might be right for me. Out of curiosity, I reached out to Aqua Property Development—a company that specializes in property management—and they offered me a position in their Utilities Management department. I had the incredible opportunity to work alongside mentors who made me feel like family.
Things were going well until Covid hit and our biggest contract was canceled. It was heartbreaking. But, as they say, it can be both a blessing and a curse in disguise. My time at the Utilities Department taught me so much about what it takes to run an online business and how important it is to understand your target audience’s needs when developing software or services. Those learnings helped us create Utility Junction, which solves all of the pain points we experienced while managing utilities for real estate investors.
For some more context, Utility Junction is the easiest way for small businesses to manage their utility invoices and payments, connections and disconnections—all in one place. It’s super easy to use too! Just sign up to our service on our website (http://www.utilityjunction.com) or through the Google Play Store, then fill out your account details in a secure form (just your name, email address, and password) and start tracking your bills!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When I started Utility Junction, I had no idea what to expect. To be honest, it’s been the most challenging professional experience of my career so far. We’re building a Software as a Service (SaaS) company, and it isn’t easy. But every hard decision we’ve made has paid off when we get feedback from our customers about how we’re helping them save time, money, and letting them focus on their core skills.
There are so many learnings along the way that they never end! There’s always a new feature we want to build to better serve our customers or the difficult decision of allocating resources. We work hard to make every dollar count for our clients.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We’re a technology company committed to making utility billing easier, more affordable, and more productive for our real estate, property management, and homeowner customers.
We came up with Utility Junction because we were frustrated with the existing options out there. At that point, there weren’t many digital platforms available, and most of them made it difficult to stay organized and on top of your bills. Plus, we didn’t want to pay late fees—or any fees at all! So we took matters into our own hands, and created a platform that’s simple to use, affordable for everyone, and has an outstanding customer experience.
Utility Junction is a digital platform that helps people, real estate investors, and companies stay organized and on top of their utility bills. If you’re moving, we’ve got you covered as well—we’ll help you connect/disconnect utilities and help you shop for the best rates in the market. We offer an “a la carte” service for all your utility needs.
We offer a variety of services based on your needs and budget—whether you need help with your electricity or water bill, or just want to organize your utilities digitally so you can stay on top of everything.
We have created an outstanding customer experience and are most proud of providing our customers with time and money-saving solutions.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Diversity. It’s what makes our city so great. We have the fine arts, quality museums, an aquarium, NASA, most of the major sports, one heck of a rodeo, outstanding shopping, and a thriving nightlife scene. If you can learn to handle our many hates (you know about them: traffic jams, mosquitoes galore, and the fact that we’ve never been able to get anything done at City Hall), you might just like it here.
Contact Info:
- Email: maria@utilityjunction.com
- Website: https://utilityjunction.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/utilityjunction
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/utilityjunction
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/UtilityJunction
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMJYAkJ3JAF1JqHT7TJTdcQ
