At first glance, or second or third for that matter, Daniel Pacchioni may not look like a visionary, a guy who wants to change the world.
As he stands at the Starbuck’s counter waiting for his drink order, in hip clothing, very modern haircut, his image fits with the millions of other young 21st century adults you might find at the popular cafes, waiting to gossip over a Mocha Frappuccino and dive into their IPhones.
Daniel, however, has quite a distinct vision, and is eager to tell all about it. The slogan for the website Daniel founded, Local Heroes Today, is “Saving the World One Word at a Time.”
“I wanted to create a platform where writers could be creative as they wanted,” says Daniel. “Local Heroes Today is basically a blogging community. I believe we can achieve greater things working as a community rather than doing things solo.”
Pacchioni got the idea and name for the site from the radio show he hosts called Local Heroes. The show exhibits local musicians, actors, and entrepreneurs. With a background in music, Pacchioni was always interested in the arts. He hosts many local art and music events but always felt that writing was an art that deserved more attention.
“There are only a few well known writers in our community, unlike any other scene like the art scene, music scene, or the theater scene. The only well-known writers are the ones that belong to newspapers or mainstream blogs. This is what really encouraged me to make an outlet for indie writers.”
Even though the site covers a wide range of topics; music, movies, fashion, art, current events, the emphasis for Local Heroes Today was always meant to be on the writers. “Creative writers don’t have that rock star status they deserve,” Pacchioni said. “Much like an independent musician, a writer needs a venue to perform, shape and master their craft.”
After a few months of development, Local Heroes Today launched in January 2013.
“I did pretty much everything for the site, trust me it wasn’t by choice but necessity,” Pacchioni said. “There were many days of no sleep involved.”
Daniel’s vision might have been pretty well set out but he also needed people to make the project work. Among his team are a current UCF student and one alum.
The ‘Saving the World One Word at a Time’ slogan is actually UCF Ad-PR major Cesar Vallejo’s brainchild. Vallejo also designed the sites logo.
“I can see the site becoming a creative hub for all types of local bloggers and writers,” said Vallejo who wants to become a copywriter at an advertising agency with his UCF degree. “A place writers can come to unload any written word they lust to release into the world that more conventional outlets might not allow.”
Music is what led Pacchioni to UCF Creative Writing graduate Tyler Martin. Martin learned about Pacchioni’s vision in the parking lot of a venue where he had just played. “I was immediately sold on the concept of Local Heroes Today and verbally signed up on the spot.”
Writer, Kristen McKosky covers music for the site. “I had an interest in covering local music, so we agreed that I would head the music section,” McKosky said. “I graduated with a
degree in Journalism, but hadn’t been doing much writing, so this was an opportunity for me to build on my portfolio.”
The young website is currently sparsely populated with content but the members of the team seem to share a common vision for what they want Local Heroes Today to become.
“Imagine the quirkiest food or movie reviews and weirdest blog reels, musician interviews, that all relate to Orlando,” Vallejo said. “That would be a site I’d like to visit.”
Advertising is also noticeably absent from the fledgling site. “I like the fact that we are non-profit and don’t answer to any advertiser, free to be creative as we want,” Pacchioni said. “However, as the site grows we will have to monetize to self-sustain.”
“In the future, I would love to see readership for the site multiply, bringing opportunity for advertisers and more writers,” said McKosky. “While we all love and are dedicated to what we’re doing, a growing list of contributors will allow the site to grow into something much bigger.”
“Once the word gets out and people start to recognize its potential entertainment value I feel like the site will really start to shine along with its content providers,” Martin Said. “Right now we’re just a group of people that enjoy writing about things that interest us, and hopefully a year from now we’ll be doing that with a larger staff and audience alike.”
With high hopes and bulging enthusiasm, the team is all depending on the hipster in line at Starbucks to make it happen, but no worries.
“Daniel is a jack of all trades who likes to dabble in more than one thing at a time. Which is good and bad,” Vallejo said. “If anyone can make a startup site a success, it’s him.”
