Rodrigo Barros, CEO of Handson.tv and a former soccer player, shares lessons on building winning teams. He runs a Brazilian food chain with 33 restaurants and 450 employees, and emphasizes discipline, focus, and finding co-founders who complement your strengths.
Chapters
I'm going to give you some of my background. He already said I was a soccer player. And nowadays I run— I mean, I run Hands-On TV as a CEO and founder. And I'm a part of 3 other companies. So we have a food chain back in Brazil with 33 restaurants, 450 employees. We're going to generate this year $50 million. That's a lot of food. R$50 million in revenues. I'm also part of a university back in Brazil. So I bought this university in 2010. It was a great experience for me. So we are a business university. And we're not as cool as Draper University. Looking forward for a partnership. So yeah, Tim Draper, for you. So, and I'm part of a digital agency also back in Brazil. Where we do web development, mobile, and we do also storytelling, micro content productions. Okay? And Hands On TV, we are a video platform focusing on entrepreneurship, and we are a vertical. Also, we curate content. So if you check handsontv, I think you'll like it. Also, merchandising now about my social media is Rodrigo Barros TV. Follow me on Twitter and we'll keep talking. So now let me go back in my story. I was a soccer player and the 2 big lessons for me as a soccer player was, first of all, you don't win as an individual. You only win as a team. That's the big one and I can tell you that For my entrepreneurial journey since I started in 2004, these have been a very powerful thing. The second thing is discipline and focus. You know, there are many things in the world that is really, really cool to do. But you really need to do what you have to do. You need to focus and have the right discipline for something that you truly believe. And here is another thing. I was a center midfielder as a player. I never in my life tried to be a goalkeeper because I suck. So this is a lesson for you. Focus on your strength and not on your weakness. Because your weakness will take you anywhere. Your strength can take you. With discipline, focus, and hard work at Draper University like I am today. Okay? So focus on your strength, not on your weakness. And then soccer, it was great because I knew when the ball was going to my goal, I had a great goalkeeper. So bring somebody to be with you that can complement your weakness. And here is the great thing about entrepreneurship. I really empower people to have co-founders. When you have a co-founder, you have somebody that dreams the same thing, believes in the same thing, but have different skills, but have different talent. When you do this for entrepreneurship, it's great. I myself right now, I have 9 different partners. 9 in my 4 companies. Okay? So I have 4 companies. And people say, Rodrigo, you have 4 companies, so you talk about focus, you're not focusing. I am. I do the same thing in the 4 companies. Besides Hands On TV. And when people say, what are your, like, what's your job on Hands On TV? I'm the CEO, right? I'm the believer. Of the vision. So I do have the vision that the entrepreneurial mindset is going to drive the future of the world. It's been driven already, but it's becoming every time more powerful. And that's what I truly believe. And that's what I share with people. That's my real vision. And what I do is empower those people to do their best job in anything they're doing. So what's the most important thing that you've learned in your career?
