Gregory Shepard and Amir Emadi discuss starting a business in San Diego. They focus on finding underserved markets and solving specific problems rather than chasing trends. Both emphasize bootstrapping and note that San Diego's investor landscape differs from Silicon Valley.
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Thanks so much, Dave. Okay, listen to this. Starting your own business can be difficult, but there's no better place to do it than right here in San Diego. Here to give us some more insight on the best way to get your business rolling are entrepreneurs Greg Shepard and Ammar Mahdi. Good morning, gentlemen.
Good morning.
You know, as I've been sitting there talking with you, I want to get right to the good stuff, which is how did you come about to be an entrepreneur? In other words, give me your, your backstory.
Yeah, so I came from a priest and a nun who I'm a child of 2 left the church, adopted children, fostered. We were really poor. We lived in tents for a while. And I decided I wanted to help entrepreneurs from, you know, going back and, you know, because I had a real hard time. I'm also dyslexic and autistic. So I have a— I had a real— a lot of challenges. And so, but I made it, you know. And so I dedicated my life to helping other people with challenges like me.
Well, with that kind of a resume going in, you know, you said you're living in a tent. You have no money. 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, you know. So I ran an asthma with— I ran a marathon with asthma, and now I'm doing a 600-mile bike ride. I've climbed El Capitan. So I tend to like to overcome obstacles.
So in other words, just tell you you can't do something and you're gonna prove me wrong, right?
Okay.
I mean, So, Peter, let's talk about your story. Where did you come from?
Iran. So my parents were freedom fighters against the current dictatorship in Iran, and they faced persecution, so they had to escape to Iraq. They took me to Iraq, and then they sent me to the United States for my protection because it was just a war-torn area. And I was adopted in a family out here that helped me stay connected to that cause and helped me realize the value of helping people. And, you know, in this case, now it's entrepreneurs. You know, I kind of went into the business route. Now my passion is to help the people of Iran, And to help misguided and underserved entrepreneurs.
All right, so you both have great can-do attitudes, and you're saying San Diego is a place that you can do and start your own business. Give me the whys. Why is San Diego so welcoming?
You know, you have these underserved markets, right? So you have, you know, there's certain markets like San Diego, and then you have like the Silicon Valley, right? Well, up there, there's a lot of competition. Because there's a lot of competition, competition, the cost of starting a business is really steep. And because there are so many opportunities, the investors, you know, have the ability to pick and choose what they want to do. Down here, you have a limited number of opportunities and you have focused entrepreneurs and focused investors. And so it changes the landscape dramatically, you know. And the other thing is down here, the cost of getting involved in a deal is substantially less. I mean, not just the cost of living up there, but also the cost of valuations on businesses and stuff. So down here is— these underserved markets are the new gold rush markets for entrepreneurs getting business started. All right.
So give me a sustainable business model. What are the actual tangible steps that someone can take?
I think number one is find a big problem. The bigger the problem, the better the opportunity. And I call it an inch wide, mile deep. So the opportunities that are mile deep, it means everybody sees them and they're shallow because of that. Inch wide, mile deep means that everybody goes over them looking for The mile-wide ones, the inch-wide, mile-deep means that you can go down into an opportunity. Those opportunities are the best ones. They have a lot of depth to them, but they're very shallow. So things that I invest in are things that everybody else misses. You find that little thing and you're like, okay, that's one. These big ideas that everybody knows about, those I pass on.
Okay, but Amir, you came here with not too much money. So what about the money side of it? How much money do you actually really need?
Well, it's always good to bootstrap, which means try to to grab your bootstraps, you do it yourself, right? And some of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs say they face is trying to raise money. And finding the right kind of investor will help you raise the capital that you need in order to build your business, but you need to build the business first. So going back to what Greg was saying, is identify a clear problem in the market, and then talk to the customers in that market so you can really drill down into that problem and find a good solution that fits them and that fits a good business model that's sustainable.
It seems so simple, Well, when you guys put it that way. All right, you know, like I said, I could sit here and talk to you for a long time. I know you've got a TED Talk coming up a little bit later, and you've got a book coming in, so we're gonna have to have you back so we can talk about what kind of businesses to start here in San Diego and keep going with this.
Thank you.
Congratulations to both of you, because I also know that you give back a lot to entrepreneurs trying to get things started. All right, find a problem, find a problem, put your boots on. Got it, guys. All right, the City
