In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Hirbod Bigvand, the founder and CEO of Surfboard, a geolocation application startup. Bigvand shares his immigration story from Iran to the United States, emphasizing the abundant opportunities the country offers. He discusses the critical role of speed, mentorship, and resources in building a successful startup, especially in the app industry. His general business advice centers on persistence, dreaming big, and staying focused without distraction. When asked about advice to his younger self, he encourages early entrepreneurship, noting there is no age limit for starting a business. Bigvand defines happiness as being authentic—doing what truly makes you happy—believing that financial success will follow. He cites the book "Seeing David in the Stone" as a key influence, highlighting the importance of perceiving hidden potential in everyday things. His favorite quote, from entrepreneur Naveen Jain, is "The sky is not the limit, your imagination is the limit," reinforcing his belief in dreaming big. Finally, he provides his social media handles (@HerbodBigBand) on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for listeners to connect with him.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Herbod Big Van with us. He is the founder and CEO of Surfboard. So welcome to the show.
Hey, thank you, glad to be here.
Of course, we're glad to have you on, man. And we'll dive into the first question. The first one I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Wow, this is a really good question. I like this. To be honest, getting the opportunity and coming to United States. This country is full of opportunities. I'm originally from Iran and I moved here 5 years ago and just getting the privilege coming to this country and exploring the opportunities and how much endless opportunity you can explore and grow in this country is just amazing. So overall, having the privilege to live here and grow and starting a business or startup has just been amazing so far.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Good question. We are about geolocation application. So what really makes app industry valuable is how many mentors and how many resources do you have so you can move faster. In a startup, what is the most valuable aspect is the speed. As long as you have enough resources enough, basically enough mentors that can help you and guide you to not make mistakes, that definitely is valuable.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?
Just keep going, you know, in businesses the one who wins is the one who doesn't give up, you know, just keep going, believe in your idea, Just basically keep going, make bigger goals, dream much bigger, and just keep going forward with no distraction. Just keep going one and one and after.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Pretty young, but, uh, I wish I opened a startup in high school because when I was in high school, I thought startups for the people in college, you know, all those startups starting dorms or garages. But if my younger one would be, there's no such as age for starting a business. There's no such as age to learn, or there's no such as age as limits. You know, the younger you are, the younger you get to businesses, the faster results you can have.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
This is such a hard question. Key to happiness is Me and my father, he's a huge mentor to me. And we always talk about these things because the thing is this, everyone looks at happiness in different aspect. To me, what happiness is, is to you, Taylor, is so much different. But overall, if you ask me what is the number one thing to happiness, I say just do you. People right now in our generation, people fall into so much things. Things they don't like, but they keep doing it. For example, they don't like their job and just keep going to work every day. They don't like that particular person, but they keep hanging out with that person. Just do you, do what really makes you happy. And overall, the biggest prize, the money will follow you. It sounds so ambitious to say this, but literally keep going. You do you, just do what makes you happy and eventually you will be successful in it.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Best book, I'm a bachelor's reader, I read all the time. This is extremely hard question for me to answer. This is so hard because I can't give you top 20, but the best book I ever read, I can tell you the first best book I read, that's not hard to think about. The first best book I read was seeing David in the stone. It's about seeing things that you don't see. For example, like Michelangelo see David in a piece of marble. You see just a huge piece of marble and he saw David in it. So it's all about the things in your daily life you don't see, but if you just pay a little bit more attention and if you have a little bit more fun with it, you could make a craft out of it. And that's valuable, especially in business and startup. That's the most valuable thing.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
Favorite quote and why? Very good question. Favorite quote. I would say there's this big entrepreneur named Naveen Jain, and he's a big idol to me. I always follow up with him, what he does every day, and just overall fall in love with him. And one of his quotes, he said, The sky is not the limit, your imagination is the limit. The bigger you dream, the bigger you think, the bigger you work hard. You just gotta dream big. If you don't dream big, you are not gonna get it. And whatever that thing is, you're not gonna get it because you just don't dream that big.
Thank you so much for coming on, man. The last question I have for you—
Thank you so much. Yeah, go ahead.
No worries. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
I'm on Twitter and Instagram. My handle is @HerbodBigBand, just H-I-R-B-O-D-B-I-G-B-A-N-D. You can just reach out to me. I'm active on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Perfect, man. Thank you again for joining us. We appreciate it.
Yeah, pleasure to have you. Thank you.
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