Gregory Shepard sold his company to eBay and now mentors entrepreneurs. He describes his BOSS program for business support, explains how to align your customer profile with execution, and argues for investing in places like San Diego.
Chapters
That moment is something where you took something of vapor, an idea, a vibration, something that doesn't exist, and created something that was so valuable that somebody was willing to pay millions of dollars for it. If you believe you can make this stuff happen, you can actually make it happen. You have to have a plan, you have to be able to execute, but you can pull this stuff off. It's very, very visceral when you challenge yourself with things that you think are impossible. When I sold my company to eBay, I remember they told me, this is the best-run company we've ever seen. I want the minnow to swallow the whale.
Now, according to investor Greg Shepard, that risk is low and opportunity is high here in San Diego.
Investors like me now are looking at places like San Diego where you have really talented entrepreneurs with really good ideas. I've spent the last 25 years studying all the different systems that are out there. I've combined all these into a program, and over 25 years I tested every single one, And when I tried this process out, I learned a lot about what is really important. And I put this together in what I call BOSS. BOSS stands for the Business Operating Support System. Think about this for a second. Somebody had a vision, and somebody drew the plans, and then people executed on those plans, and now we have a school.
4 student groups pitched their businesses to a panel of expert investors. Greg Shepard, leading the way with these kernels of wisdom on how to succeed in this market, this unpredictable market. Students taking their businesses to the next level thanks to his guidance. It was a great event.
Your ideal customer profile and your ideal buyer's customer profile should be the same thing because the idea is to align yourself. Everybody's got an idea, everybody's got a vision. How many people actually have the ability to put together a strategy, a plan, to tell you step by step what you're supposed to accomplish? I've made a life out of doing it for myself. And now I've dedicated my life to giving it to others to help everybody in this room take a little bit of that money that is just stagnated up at the top and spread it down to you folks that are working your ass off to earn it.
Well, with that kind of a resume going in, you have no money, you've got some learning disabilities, and you didn't let that stop you. You know, what made you go, you know what, I can do this?
I think that, you know, you just put horse blinders on and you just say, I'm going to do this.
