School dropout shares how he founded successful Vaughan-based IT company

Michael Contento started My Blue Umbrella when he was 21.

Yorkregion.com
August 13, 2019
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Proud father of three, Michael Contento is the 45-year old founder and CEO of the Vaughan-based My Blue Umbrella, employing 40 people and reaping over $12 million in revenue annually.

At 21, Contento created My Blue Umbrella, which offers tech management and consulting services to some of Canada’s highest-performing companies in a nutshell.

Unlike the traditional route of graduating from high school then heading to college or university, Contento opted to pursue his solo path of initially exploring and then charting his way to be an IT entrepreneur.

“There was something missing,” Contento, the youngest in an Italian family of six children whose breadwinner at the time -- his father -- was a butcher, said when recalling school. “It wasn’t my call.”

Instead, he attempted a grass cutting business but soon he realized he had seasonal allergies. “It was a short lived experience I did for two years.”

He explored his options when he flipped burgers and worked as a movie attendant in Cineplex. With every job, however, Contento gave his best and that’s one of his biggest pieces of advice.

“I had one manager telling me, don’t leave, you’re a real good worker. Because no matter what job I took, I want to excel in it.”

He finally found his calling at clothing retailer Club Monaco, which he dubbed as his “first stepping-stone.”

“I really enjoyed talking to people and trying to convince this person that a $150 sweater looks great on them,”

After Club Monaco he went to Humber College, where he didn’t finish his degree in general arts and sciences but he finally found what he wanted to do: IT.

When joining Humber College, he joined the student council where he was given the role of running the computer lab. “The lab was just a very basic environment.”

“What I did is I brought in more services like developing resumes and helping print resumes because I was able to increase the volume at that computer lab, another computer lab within Humber College was opened.”

This opened the venue for Contento to work as a computer technician after leaving Humber.

While working as a technician full time, Contento began his company Amista Technologies Inc. He was 21.

“I hired my first employee, and when it kept on growing, I hired my second employee when it became sustainable enough to to accommodate me, I left my position as technician.”

It was also the same age when he left his parents’ house.

“I was one of the first to move out,” he said, explaining how he had to “always work” while some of his friends had to “take partying to an extreme.”

“Entertainment was how to grow business,” he said. “I know it may not sound fun, but it was fun to me. I love creating something. One of the models we work by at My Blue Umbrella is the art of the possible.”

After about one year and a half, the company was renamed My Blue Umbrella. Speed forward to 2019, it’s now hiring 40 people with the average salary of $80,000.

And like those who don’t continue education at institutes, Contento is disciplined and self-taught.

“I'm a big believer that I get to choose my own destiny,” he said of his can-do attitude. “Don't get me wrong. Once again, I think schools are extremely important. But it just wasn't calling me, it wasn't teaching me what I needed to know.”

His go-to book is Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t by Jim C. Collins, which was published in 2001.

My Blue Umbrella also has an affiliated charity, Do Amazing Things, which gives back to families in the GTA to overcome hardship.