Len Lodish discusses how Diapers.com went from zero to $545M

Posted on Leave a commentPosted in business advice, free business advice, Marketing

Len Lodish, Vice Dean, Program for Social Impact and Samuel R. Harrell Professor in the Marketing department of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was my guest on The Free COO radio show on May 3, 2012.

Two of Len’s students from Wharton San Francisco’s MBA for Executives program founded Diapers.com while in school. Len was an investor and on Diaper.com’s Board of Directors. He discusses how the company went from a startup to its acquisition by Amazon.com for $545MM in just five years. Here how Diaper.com started in a garage, sourcing supplies from Costco in order to test their theory and market potential. Then learn how their customer service totally delights their customers.

Dr. Lodish also helped two other students get www.milo.com off the ground and sold to eBay.com in less than three years.

In this amazing interview we’ll explore Len’s career, his courses at Wharton, his own fantastically successful startups, his Global Consulting Practicum and how he and his wife complete a 1,000km unassisted tandem bike ride somewhere in the world each year to raise funds for the ALS Association of Philadelphia.

You’ve got to hear this interview end to end.

For more information about Len or to contribute to his annual 1,000K fund raiser visit these links:

Wharton MBA for Executives

Len Lodish’s profile

The Free COO airs Thursdays on Speaker.com. You can also hear replays on Facebook and iTunes.

Vish Mishra of TiE and Clearstone Ventures talks about his career

Posted on Leave a commentPosted in business advice, free business advice, Getting Started

Hear this great interview where Vish Mishra of TiE and Clearstone Ventures talks about his career. Starting as an immigrant from India, Mr. Mishra became a serial entrepreneur and founder of companies such as Excelan and Telera. Excelan went to an IPO and was purchased by Novell and Telera was purchase by Alcatel.

Today Vish is a Venture Director at Clearstone Venture Partners and is also a Charter Member and President of TiE Silicon Valley (the Indus Entrepreneurs).

Vish offers tons of great advice for aspiring entrepreneurs from how to chose a product to how to create an executive summary that can be presented to venture capitalists.

You can find out more about Vish at:
TiE Silicon Valley – sv.tie.org/
Clearstone Venture Partners – www.clearstone.com

The Free COO airs on Thursdays at 4:00pm Pacific Time on www.Spreaker.com.

Chad Lynch – networking maestro of Orrick Total Access

Posted on Leave a commentPosted in free business advice, Networking

Chad Lynch is the Director of Corporate Business Development at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. In our interview on August 12, 2012, Chad discusses how he developed his Total Access program at Orrick. Total Access is a series of workshops, panel discussions and networking events that take place on weekday mornings in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Chad is an important figure in the Silicon Valley and has brought together some of the brightest and most successful people in the history of the Bay Area to share their insights and knowledge with other entrepreneurs.

Chad is an entrepreneur himself and talks about his career and why he chose the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe to be his home for his outstanding programs.

For more information about Chad and Orrick’s Total Access program follow these links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orricktotalaccess
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/OrrickTotalAccess
Blog: http://orricktotalaccess.wordpress.com/

Additionally, you can find most of the links on Orrick’s website at www.orrick.com/totalaccess.

Nataliya Anon discusses outsourcing IT to Ukraine

Posted on Leave a commentPosted in Outsourcing IT

If your company is thinking of outsourcing software and IT work then consider the Ukrainian talent of US based Svitla Systems, Inc. Svitla’s founder and CEO, Nataliya Anon talks about the pros and cons of outsourcing, her career as a serial entrepreneur and everything you’ll need to know about choosing and working with an foreign outsource service provider.

I have worked with Nataliya for almost five years as of the time of this post and can attest to the fantastic team she has assembled.