I recently gave a speech at the MBA program at Pepperdine University on “How to Break Out of the Pack”. It was a talk to a large group of budding entrepreneurs who were looking for some advice on what exceptional business leaders do to distinguish themselves from everyone else. The follow presentation is a set of 10 lessons I’ve learned. The presentation covers the main topics and quotes I put together on the subject. The video (to be added soon) will include the full talk.

How to Break Out of the Pack

I recently went back to the University of California at Santa Barbara to give a leadership talk to about 250 students. I put together a presentation (embeded below from Docstoc) on the 21 Golden Rules of Entrepreneurship. Its a collection of life & business lessons that the most successful entrepreneurs have applied to achieve amazing feats. I wrap these lessons in my own personal journey (so far). My thought is to turn this into a book, with more examples and make the use of fictional characters / plot that pulls this all together in a really easily digestible and actionable format. Here is the first pass, hope you enjoy!

An Entrepreneurship Fable

These are the core questions that I ask every person that I interview. I’ve narrowed the list down to the top 7 questions I ask from a list of hundreds I have tried. Hope this helps. And as a bonus threw in a video for those folks looking for a job on the best way to get that interview.

What’s the one most important thing for your startup or small business?  I don’t know!  But I do know THERE IS ONE MOST IMPORTANT THING.  Here is how you make that one thing matter most.

One of the most common themes I talk about is starting a new business, and among that topic answering the question of Why.  A lot of us naturally ask things in the beginning like “what should I do” or “how do I do that”, but those aren’t the most important questions to ask.  Here is my explanation of why WHY is the most important questions when starting out.

Whatever else I accomplish in life, I certainly hope I keep my non-douchebaggy status.  Treat each person you meet with respect, kindness and thoughtfulness.  It’s a standard we can all strive for, but some seem to fall extra short.  So here are my muses on the types of Douchebags you can run across in the tech world, and how not to be one.

1.) CEOs Whose Cockiness is Just Dickiness

Who Are You: You bark orders at waiters and never say thank you or please.  Your sense of entitlement is only outweighed by your rudeness.  Some small measure of success has made you actually believe that you’re better than other people so you treat others like 2^nd class citizens and tend to be a glad-handing sycophant by day and insecure sad little child by night.

What’s the Remedy: This is a tough one.  Typically the only remedy is a visit by the Ghost of Christmas Future or your own financial demise.  Vito Corleone was feared but he was also loved.  Mark McCluskey (the police captain in The Godfater) was simply capped in the head.  Remember that the next time you give some waiter your attitude at an Italian joint.

2.) The Self Aggrandized Investor/Venture Capitalist

Who Are You: Well Mr/Mrs Money Bags, you’re the person who only takes time to talk to someone when they are already a big shot.  You only hobnob at parties with CEOs who have had (& will have) multi-million/ billion dollar exits and treat the little guy like they’re invisible.  You never take time to ask others questions and listening to the sound of your own voice is like masturbation… you get off on it, but really no one wants to be around you when it’s going on.

What’s The Remedy: At social mixers make eye contact at least 20% of the time with people who approach you; temper negative feedback with some positive reinforcement on the struggles of trying to come up; don’t treat people differently based on the amount of money you think they can make you.

3.) The Uber-Annoying Service Provider

Who Are You: You corner us at mixers and tell stories about all the great things you do and how wonderful you are, without having any idea if we need your help.  You’re persistent past the point of pestilent, and you have the tact and self awareness of a sledge-hammer tainted with cyanide.

What’s The Remedy: Don’t bother asking yourself if people like you, they don’t.  Ask yourself if you’d want to spend 5 minutes with you, you wouldn’t.  Being a service provider is one of the greatest professions and one that should engender a great deal of trust and always start and end with solving other people’s problems.  Don’t be that problem.

4.) The Ineffectual Executive

Who Are You: In an 5 minute conversation you say the words Strategy, Strategic, & Strategizing over 3 dozen times.  “I bring a discipline of strategizing over strategic strategy”.  You take credit for items as absurd as the exploits of the Most Interesting Man in the World.  And you’re a big fan of the dropping the phrase “I’m not scared to roll up my sleeves” – who would ever be scared of that….

What’s the Remedy: Learn & apply any current marketable skills.

5.) Business Dolts Who Devalue Engineers

Who Are You: You throw around the phrase “Code-Monkeys”.  You consider it a badge of honor that you’re too important to know the difference between AJAX and Windex.  You take no interest nor show any curiosity in how technical systems are built or maintained, and Engineering is the least valued/respected part of your organization.

What’s the Remedy: Have a conversation a day with a techie for 30 straight days.  You’ll realize they’re smarter than you, more passionate about what they do, more engaged in their work and solve more interesting problems.  If you still want to dis on engineering after that at least you should have some more tech slang to give you street cred.

6.) Tech Snobs Who Look Down on Business

Who Are You: Do you have a disdain for making money?  Are words like “Conversion, Sales, Revenue Optimization” dirty language at your parties?  Then you may be afflicted by the common disease known as Imtoocoolformyowngooditis.  It’s dumb to bite the hand the feeds you, and even more lame to spite it with disdain.  Sales and making money is the purest exchange of value, and without that no great tech invention would be a permanent fixture in our lives.

What’s the Remedy: Don’t be too smart for your own good.  A students get great jobs, but hustling C students hire A students.  Take time to learn how business leaders are able to affect people both one on one and in masses and you’ll see how to unlock the true potential of your inventions.

7.) The WannaBe Board of Advisor

Who Are You: You offer your board advisory skilz up repeatedly, but the only stock you have is in your brother-in-law’s startup up investment bank and a German foreign language film site that specializes in off color humor flicks.  You’re a BIG fan of telling other how you can help them raise money and make connections.  And sometimes you even generously offer up your part time CEOs services, and tout how you do the same for 6 other companies simultaneously.

What’s the Remedy: Don’t ever offer to be a Board of Advisor unless you’re asked first.  If you’re services are actually in demand they will be sought out Casanova of Board Advising.

8.) Self-Entitled Social-Media HotShots

Who Are You: Your license plate reads “SCLEXPT”.  You spend all day teaching the most computer illiterate people how to create a facebook page and twitter loggin and you mock anyone who doesn’t spend 3 hours a day updating their FB status or tweeting photos of their lunch. You have about as much “expertise” as 24-hour online certified priests, but tout your un-knowledge like a peacock on parade.

What’s the Remedy: Make somebody money.  I’m offering a $1000 bounty for the first social media expert that has ever made money with their social stream.  Here’s a tip: if you have more friends online than you do in real life, and they’re people you’ve never met, become more of an expert at forming real life relationships.

9.) The Wistful WouldhaveShouldhaveCouldhave ByStander

Who Are You: Have you said this phrase in the last week “Oh, I so had that idea two years ago”.  Congratulations, as my dad would say “I’ll give you a shit medal”.  Are you really going to tell me you could have done a better job creating Groupon?  Oh yes that’s right you still live at home in your late 30s but are the captain of your weekend league ultimate frisbee team.  You may have been the first of your friends to create an online bulletin board, but let’s be honest, it was just to download porn.  Congratulations you still do that very well.

What’s The Remedy: Stop talking and start doing.

10.) The Hatter Trolls

Who Are You: You’re free time on work breaks, of which you take 15+ throughout the day because you hate what you do, is spent online talking shit about the accomplishments of others.  You feel better for knocking down others while never putting yourself up to the light of scrutiny.  You leave comments on blogs as Anonymous or MrBombastic.  And you don’t just relegate your hating to online forms but take every instance to talk shit behind someone’s back, while praising them to their face.

What’s the Remedy: Drink Your Own Haterade.  Sure there is plenty to criticize, just look at season 5 of Happy Day.  But I personally think Jumping a Shark on waterskis and in a leather jacket is badass.  You don’t get to be cool by talking shit about others unless you are the creator of American Idol, have a British accent and launch the career of a portly Irish woman who sings I Dreamed a Dream like an angel from heaven.

This month’s Startups Uncensored will be on “How to Build a Great Internet Company”.  It will be an open and frank town-hall conversation with the Docstoc Family.  I’ll be interviewing different team members of Docstoc to talk about the specific tips and advice on topics such as Product Management & Design, Web Development, BizDev, Content Creation, and much more.  This will be a unique one of a kind session showcasing many different members of the Docstoc team talking about specific best practices they’ve developed in each of their disciplines.

Here is the video from the event:

This month’s session will be hosted by Jason Nazar (CEO, Docstoc.com), and we will be joined by an all star group of Docstoc team members.

TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT: http://www.startupsuncensored21.eventbrite.com

This month’s event will be held at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica by the 3rd street promenade. The venue holds up to 300 attendees. Registration on Eventbrite is required to attended, however due to popular demand we cannot accommodate all requests.  There will be a waiting list for the overflow, that will be accepted on a first come first-serve basis.

The event is free and is followed by a reception/mixer at the Milken Institute.

Thursday April 21st, 6:30pm – 8:00pm (Townhall)…. 8:00pm on, Reception
Cost: FREE
Confirmation will be required or your spot will be given up for our waiting list.

Milken Institute

1250 4th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401-1418

We would also like to welcome our sponsor Microsoft Bizspark, please take a moment and check out their amazing resources of free software for startups and entrepreneurs:http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark.

DocStoc – Entrepreneur (3/23/11) from OC Creative Media on Vimeo.

Here was a recent video interview I did for Entrepreneur Magazine.  Its a short clip talking about Docstoc and my philosophy on how to break out of the pack by focusing on the “most important items”.

Its a common mantra I preach to our team.  There is an incredibly small number of items we work on that actually drive the great deal of our progress, we all know this as the Pareto Principle or the 80-20 Rule.  Our challenge and opportunity as business leaders is to identify those critical items and execute amazingly on that 20% of work that drive our business.

Ask yourself each day you come into the office, before you start your day – “what’s the one thing, that if I get done today, this week, this month, will have the biggest effect on my business”.  Write that down, and then look at those item(s) and check yourself to see what percent of your time you’re actually dedicating towards those efforts.

Many of us of have a tendency to work the LEAST on the items that will drive our businesses the MOST.  This is simply because those items usually take more planning, thought, time, or are simply harder to accomplish.  But, by consistently identifying and focusing on the most important things in business, and by prioritizing them to get the majority of our energy and time, we’re sure to break out of the pack and continue to see growth and success in our businesses.

I recently hosted a panel at the Twiistup Conference about LA tech companies.   I asked the panelists (David Travers, Brian Norgard, Fouad ElNaggar, & Demian Sellfors) about the specific challenges that we face down here in Los Angeles as opposed to Silicon Valley.  I have some pretty specific thoughts on the differences between companies in the two cities, as I wrote about in my previous post A Tale of Two Tech Cities.  But I thought I’d take some more time here to expand on what I think are the challenges, and opportunities, of starting a tech company in LA.

Challenge #1 – Tech Companies are Not Typically Started by Technologists.

In the bay area it’s quite common for the entrepreneurs starting a company to be developers or technologists who can build the first versions of their products.  That’s typically not the case in Los Angeles.  Here it seems that entrepreneurs are coming out of business school, transitioning from corporate life, or hail from the entertainment industry.    Whereas in Silicon Valley, you can have a V.1 of a product up and running in a few months weeks getting thousands of users for next to no capital, in Los Angeles many folks will take over a year and spend a million dollars just to get a beta product ready.

A perfect case in point is Mark Hendrickson the founder of Plancast.  He worked for me at Docstoc for a brief stint (and did an awesome job) after being a writer at TechCrunch for a few years.  When he had the idea for his company, he didn’t write a long business plan or try to raise money to hire an agency to build a website for him.  He just pounded out design and code for a few weeks and got Plancast up on the web and users adopting his product right away.

In Los Angeles we are at a disadvantage because the founder(s) often have no experience in building consumer web applications.  This makes it infinitely more difficult  to bring our ideas to life, to quickly iterate on the inevitable misdirections that happen early and often, and to raise capital to continue building our companies.

Opportunity #1 – Tech Companies are Not Typically Started by Technologists.

Entrepreneurs that start companies in LA are often focused on revenue and business models.  If you can create such a virally popular product that it reaches millions of people… yes, you can put off worrying about business models and revenue, but this isn’t the case for most of us.  The fact that we’re focused on building great businesses and not just great products, give us our own advantages.

While we often lack the technology and product depth of our counterparts in the Bay, I would argue that entrepreneurs in LA would thrive if you dropped them into any industry.  We tend to be better at things like team building, negotiations, sales, and fundraising – which are arguably the most important skills entrepreneurs should posses.

Challenge #2 – There is Not Enough Great Tech, Product and UI/UX Design Talent in LA .

Simply put LA has a lack of GREAT product, UI/UX, and design talent.  I know because I’ve spent the last three years trying to hire these folks.  Many of the product managers/designers in LA come from the entertainment industry, which doesn’t lay the foundation for how to build an addictive interactive consumer experience.  You’ll often find folks that are great at big glossy designs, but who lack the depth and experience to build a seemless user experience that just feels intuitive to the person engaging with the website.

Opportunity #2 – There is Less Poaching of Great Tech, Product and UI/UX Design Talent in LA .

On the other hand, if you are able to build a great product team (like we have at Docstoc) then you are much less susceptible to have these folks poached away from your company.  In the bay area you have Facebook stealing employees from Google, Zynga stealing from Facebook, and some new hotshot startup ready next in line to pounce.  Loosing talent is a HUGE problem and the reason why Google will give big bonuses and cash to keep their teams in tact.

Challenge #3 – There Needs to Be More Institutional Capital in Los Angeles .

There simply are NOT enough venture capital firms in the Southern California.  In the bay area there are dozens of firms that are actively making investments.  In LA there has typically been a small handful of firms actively making investments in tech, they include: Rustic Canyon, GRP Parners, Clearstone Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Mission Ventures, Anthem Venture Partners, Greycroft, Crosscut, Palomar Ventures, and Rincon Ventures.  It’s a chicken and egg problem.  If there were more great companies coming out of LA then it would create more demand for high quality VC firms.  But there are also less great companies in LA, BECAUSE there is less access to sophisticated capital.

Opportunity #3 – There is Plenty of Capital for Great Team/Products .

Despite the above, great entrepreneurs, teams, companies in LA can always find capital.  They’re the ones that rise to the cream of the crop and get the attention of the folks that are investing in LA, and they often have Bay Area or East Coast suitors who want to invest in their companies.   If you’re complaining that its too hard to raise money as the founder of an LA tech company, stop bitching about a lack of funds and focus on being a bigger badass.

Challenge #4 – We are Divided by Our Geography.

LA is really a collection of many different cities, that depending on traffic, can be anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours away from each other.  There’s Santa Monica, Westside, Hollywood, Downtown LA, the Valley, and Pasadena.  This dispersed geography prevents entrepreneurs from easily meeting up for both formal functions and the informal drinks/dinner that so often lead to great ideas and partnerships.  In San Francisco, you can walk out of your office and within a 1 mile square radius you probably have 12-24 other tech founders working alongside you.

Opportunity #4 – We are Building our Own New Tech Hub – Silicon Beach

I may be biased, but it really feels like downtown Santa Monica is becoming the tech hub of LA.  In fact Paige Craig has coined it Silicon Beach.  There’s a fast growing group of tech companies including: Docstoc, Demand Media, BetterWorks, GoodReads, Mahalo, Beachmint, Campus Explorer, DECA, eHarmony, GumGum, Savings, Shoedazzle,  Business.com, FamilyFinds, Affordit, Bestcovery, JibJab, CoLoft and many more.  I still consistently work very late nights, and one of my favorite parts, is that I can email any number of other founders that are doing the same and walk out of my office and go to dinner/drinks with amazing folks in the tech space right next door to me.

Challenge #5 – There Hasn’t Been Enough of an Organized Tech Community

From what many people have told me, in past years there simply were not many high quality tech events where someone new on the LA tech scene could break in and meet other connected folks.  That’s no longer the case….

Opportunity #5 – That’s No Longer the Case…..

LA is now filled with high quality tech events, mixers, meetups, and a thriving community.  I’ve been leading the charge here with Mark Suster (read his blog BothSidesofTheTable).  In the past 2 years I’ve now hosted 20 Startups Uncensored Events that bring out the best CEOs and VC in LA, and at our last event we had 1000 RSPVs.  Some of the past events & videos are linked to below.  And Mark Suster has been fostering an environment to help find and grow the best and brightest new LA tech companies with LAunchpad.   Plus there are amazing LA tech events put on by DealMaker Media, DigitalLA, Twiistup, and many more.  To see a great list of LA tech events check out the event calendar on SocalTech, Nicole Jordan’s Blog, and the newly revamped LaLawag.

Past Startups Uncensored LA Tech Events

http://www.jasonnazar.com/2011/02/15/online-subscription-businesses-startups-uncensored-20/

http://www.jasonnazar.com/2010/09/22/bootstrapping-your-business-startups-uncensored-19/

http://www.jasonnazar.com/2010/06/22/how-to-become-an-entrepreneur-superhero-startups-uncensored-18/

http://www.jasonnazar.com/2010/05/04/how-to-raise-venture-capital-startups-uncensored-17/

http://www.jasonnazar.com/2010/03/02/how-to-persuade-people-startups-uncensored-15/

This month’s Startups Uncensored will be on “Online Subscription Businesses”.  It will be an open and frank town-hall conversation with some of the most successful founders and operators of web based subscription business talking about the keys to success to building & growing online businesses that are driven by subscription sales.

This month’s session will be hosted by Jason Nazar (CEO, Docstoc.com), and we will be joined by Josh Meyers CEO of People Media a subsidiary of Match.com and Jeff Tinsley CEO and Founder of MyLife.

More panelists may be added and there will be a large showing of the Los Angeles venture and angel community in attendance.

TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT: http://startupsuncensored20.eventbrite.com/

This month’s event will be held at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica by the 3rd street promenade. The venue holds up to 275 attendees, we expect a full house, but there will be room for all attendees. The event is free and is followed by a reception and mixer at the Docstoc Offices in Santa Monica by the 3rd Street Promenade.

Wednesday March 2nd, 6:30pm – 8:00pm (Townhall)…. 8:00pm on, Reception
Cost: FREE
Confirmation will be required or your spot will be given up for our waiting list.

Milken Institute

1250 4th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401-1418

We would also like to welcome our sponsor Microsoft Bizspark, please take a moment and check out their amazing resources of free software for startups and entrepreneurs:http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark .