The post Digitized Asset Businesses Value Creator Fried Thiel Show 045 was first published on mitchellchadrow.com
0:00you’re listening to the listen up show
0:01dart of entrepreneur podcast I’m
0:03Mitchell Chad row your hose we’re here
0:05with red teal today on show 0 for 5 what
0:09you will learn on today’s show we talked
0:11to Fred to him about the Internet of
0:13Things find out how he’s actually
0:15created hundreds and millions of dollars
0:17in shareholder value we’ve talked to him
0:19about smart systems and some of his
0:21companies like he’ll advisors Len tronic
0:24information technology talks to us a lot
0:27about staying connected and digitized
0:29assets and grand partners we also talked
0:31about local corporation he tells us
0:34about some of his challenges and how
0:36he’s actually been able to create value
0:38he talks to us about products and
0:40solutions and how to actually be
0:42creative when it comes to developing
0:44your own solutions and your own products
0:46as it relates to connectivity and
0:49today’s new new economy for today show
0:51node head on over to Mitchell Chad Road
0:54comm slash show 0 for 5 and allow red to
0:58help you with all of his expertise for
1:01those who will connect with him directly
1:03to help them with their own ideas their
1:05own products their own solution for a
1:07complimentary 30 minute telephone call
1:09so at the end of the podcast
1:12why don’t you connect with Fred thanks
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2:05so much today for joining us on yet
2:08another listen up show and the Mitchell
2:10Chad Road podcast where it’s all about
2:12star
2:12UPS entrepreneurs business owners and
2:15those with careers who deep down inside
2:17really do want to start off and now onto
2:21the shelf we’re here today on show 0 for
2:245 with Fred teal Fred how are you doing
2:27excellent thank you how about yourself
2:28I’m doing wonderful no relation to Peter
2:31teal correct well my oldest brother is
2:33Peter keel but he’s not that Peter teal
2:36he’s a different can you tell us how
2:37you’ve been able to basically create
2:40hundreds and millions of dollars in
2:42shareholder value for the companies that
2:44you’ve managed over these decades sure
2:46it’s really a question of understanding
2:49transformational value creation which
2:52sounds like a mouthful but it’s really
2:54value in a company is created in a
2:57number of ways it’s not just top-line
2:59revenue it’s not just cash flows in
3:01yourself but it’s about strategic value
3:04and how do you make a company really
3:07valuable so that a buyer feel that they
3:12need to pay a premium price for the
3:14company so as an example I got involved
3:19with a company number of years ago
3:21called bland tronics they were in the
3:23printer server and console serving space
3:26of commodity technology company and they
3:30had been approached by a strategic buyer
3:33who wanted to buy them for about twenty
3:37million dollars and the owners didn’t
3:39feel it was really a good value for the
3:42business because the business is doing
3:44about two times that in revenue and they
3:46felt that it could be more valuable
3:49potentially if the company could grow I
3:51became CEO shortly thereafter and with a
3:55mandate to try and create some value in
3:57the company after evaluating product
4:01lines who they were selling to what was
4:03going on in the industry put in place a
4:06strategy that had the business growing
4:09within less than six months and within
4:1324 months we went public on the Nasdaq
4:15there were 350 million dollar valuation
4:17did a secondary offering the following
4:20year and enabled the common shareholders
4:23to take a substantial stake off the
4:25table
4:26that’s one example another example is a
4:30digital media company that was ventured
4:33back to doing about 10 million of
4:35revenue losing about a million and a
4:38half dollars a year and they’re the
4:41founder really wanted to see what could
4:43be done with the company because the
4:44venture capitalists at the back the
4:46company weren’t willing to put more
4:47money into it and they had about a year
4:50of runway left there was a question of
4:54again understanding market looking at
4:57the products that they offering what
5:00consumers were converting on and
5:03rationalizing some product lines
5:05focusing the team we had the company
5:08profitable in under 90 days had it
5:11growing at an 80 percent year-over-year
5:14growth rate within six months had
5:17strategic offers and discussions
5:20underway within nine months and in month
5:2313 we sold the company for four times
5:28revenue eighteen months later the
5:30company was sold again for a
5:32substantially higher price this was
5:34GameSpy something that you were involved
5:36with before lynn Tronics correct after
5:38lunch on do that our startup around for
5:41all your hosting needs head on over to
5:43Mitchell Chad Road comm slash hosting
5:46Mitchell Chad Road comm flash hosting
5:49for all your web hosting need who do you
5:51use to host this website so take us to a
5:54little bit Bill 2014 when you basically
5:56got involved with with local court and
5:59tell us a little bit about those
6:00challenges well in the case of local it
6:03wasn’t so much a turn around as it was
6:05trying to save an asset you know local
6:09wasn’t the story of transformation in
6:12the positive way it really was a
6:13question of how do you get the company
6:17through some pretty sticky financial
6:20situations get the assets sold and make
6:24sure that the shareholders you have an
6:29outcome of sorts can you tell us a
6:31little bit about some of those
6:33challenges
6:33sure in the case of local corporation
6:36you had a company whose
6:38really had two businesses one was
6:40focused on the arbitrage or Google
6:42search terms and the other was a
6:46syndication of a search feed from Yahoo
6:49Microsoft both of those businesses were
6:52businesses that you know you’re dealing
6:54with one major partner and that major
6:58partner is very focused on trying to
7:03really you know minimize your
7:05profitability because you know as I’m
7:08sure you can imagine Google doesn’t like
7:09the fact that something to take
7:11advantage of an inefficiency in the
7:12system to do arbitrage and make money at
7:15it and at the same time Google is very
7:18focused on a consumer experience and in
7:21the case of the Bing search feed the
7:23local had you’re basically sub
7:26syndicating that feed to other third
7:28parties who are then driving traffic at
7:31it and this was right at the beginning
7:33of the period of time where there
7:35started becoming a lot of fraud in the
7:37industry around search and click fraud
7:41click bought from trouve if you follow
7:43the internet in digital media
7:44advertiser lee for you see that that’s a
7:47Multi multi billions of dollars of fraud
7:49go on in that industry year so to
7:52businesses whose primary owners if you
7:56would didn’t want local in the business
7:58so with local we innovated to new
8:01businesses within the company one around
8:03programmatic trading of ad impressions
8:07and one around search as a platform for
8:12mobile carriers got both of those
8:15businesses up and off the ground in
8:17under a year but part of locals
8:20challenge was also they had a need for
8:22financing they had debt that was due
8:25which they couldn’t refinance easily and
8:29it was really more of a question of how
8:31do we unwind this business and sell it
8:36to a new stakeholder who could take the
8:39assets and do something with it I’ve
8:40given all of these challenges which
8:42could be you know an undaunted task for
8:45someone coming in like this to tell the
8:47audience how you were able to sort of
8:49down all of these various challenges and
8:52issues and I think it is also helpful
8:54and sight for for themselves in their
8:57own dealing with their own business
8:59problems and how you were able to
9:01methodically kind of go through sort of
9:03peel back the onion and sort of take
9:05each one as as it approached sure so the
9:08situation is obviously very different
9:10where you have a company that is burning
9:13money versus pumping that’s generating
9:15because you have different runways and
9:18you have obviously different priorities
9:21in the case of a company that’s growing
9:23it’s really about understanding how can
9:26you accelerate that growth and looking
9:29at the marketplace the products why
9:31people are buying how how the flowers
9:34are being sold what the go to market
9:35model is and look where there is this
9:39friction in that model
9:40how can you remove friction can you do
9:43something to make the products more
9:45relevant to the customers which will
9:47drive activation and drive them to buy
9:50more product or use the product more if
9:51it’s the usage based product if it’s a
9:54case of um you know finding other ways
9:59of bringing the mark the product to
10:01market to remove friction for the
10:03customer
10:04you know it’s evaluating channels you
10:07know how are sales people selling the
10:10product how is marketing promoting the
10:11product and then understand what can be
10:14done to incrementally enhance the
10:16product and then what can be done as a
10:18big move to either shift the focus of
10:22the product just the value move up the
10:24value stack in the industry and become a
10:28more valuable player so if you look at
10:31what happened in the case of LAN tronic
10:34it was identifying a need in the
10:37marketplace for a different use of the
10:41technology and as soon as we identified
10:44that it was very easy to put together a
10:47strategy that allowed us to reposition
10:51go after the market that way and drive
10:54some very rapid revenue and value growth
10:56and because the repositioning of the
10:59company was now viewed as strategically
11:01much better
11:02from potential acquirers and the
11:04customers the valuation went up much
11:08faster than the revenues did you have
11:10your own company teal advisors and I
11:12know that you work with private equity
11:15and venture capital and you you work
11:17with a number of boards it can give us
11:19specific examples in terms of how you
11:21can apply that with with the various
11:24solutions or products were related to
11:26digitized asset businesses like for
11:28example I know you’re involved in the
11:29Internet of Things and you know machine
11:31and machine and of course you know smart
11:33systems and maybe by giving us some
11:35concrete examples there in terms of what
11:38you’re doing currently would be helpful
11:39sure so as you look at for example one
11:43of the big issues related to the
11:45Internet of Things is security how can
11:48you ensure that somebody’s not going to
11:49hack into a product and use it for a bot
11:54network or use it for appropriate uses
11:57or take it hostage so for example if
12:00you’re a manufacturer of medical devices
12:03the last thing you would want to hear is
12:05that somebody’s hacked into your system
12:08and all the insulin pumps that you
12:10manufacture have been hacked and
12:12somebody has the ability to literally
12:14make the products do things they
12:16shouldn’t do and so now you have a
12:17patient Bishop and potentially a you
12:20know a major issue so there it’s a
12:24question of identifying you know there
12:25was a gap in the marketplace relative to
12:28being able to secure products in the
12:31internet of things working the private
12:33equity firm came down to finding a
12:38platform company that had a product that
12:40could be used to solve this problem help
12:43position the products in that
12:46marketplace and then begin to grow the
12:49market from there and that’s one example
12:54another example a little bit more
12:56generic maybe easier for people to
12:58understand is if you think about one of
13:01the big reasons people are interested in
13:03the Internet of Things is to be able to
13:04better manage their assets their
13:06factories their plants things like that
13:09and if for some reason something breaks
13:13down on an assembly line and it shuts
13:15down the assembly line
13:16or a pump shuts down an oil refinery or
13:20an oil rig these are tens of millions of
13:24dollars of cost today for downtime
13:25especially when it’s unplanned and there
13:27are costs related to restarting the
13:29processes once you fix your problem and
13:32so if you could just decrease the
13:35incidences of unplanned downtime you can
13:38optimize the profitability of that
13:41factory manufacturing process and you
13:43know guaranteed consumers that they’re
13:45going to get their product on time so
13:47there are certain components in an
13:50assembly line that are very low cost but
13:54when they fail they shut the whole
13:55assembly line down so if you look at
13:57some things like that an electric motor
13:59on a conveyor belt in a factory if it
14:02failed it can shut down that factory for
14:05a day until a new motors found and
14:07installed but imagine if the motor could
14:10tell you when it was going to fail so
14:13that you knew a month in advance that in
14:16most of all they only had about six
14:18weeks left of usable life and so you
14:21could order a part plan to replace it
14:23during a maintenance window when the
14:25factory would be shut down anyway and
14:27not run into this unplanned downtime and
14:31you do that by adding some Internet of
14:34Things technology to the motor that
14:36allows you to track the rate of change
14:39of vibration and temperature which are
14:41early indicators of a potential failure
14:43so you could take a $5,000 electric
14:46engine add a hundred dollars of
14:50technology to it and now that $5,000
14:53electric engine could be potentially
14:55sold for $10,000 because the
14:59implications of using this engine mean
15:01you will ideally have less unplanned
15:03downtime and if you do that across
15:05multiple components of your factory you
15:07can decrease your overall in planned
15:09downtime and save millions millions of
15:11dollars potentially a year sponsored by
15:13Inc pedaling over at Mitchell Chad Road
15:16comm / nd to start your business LLC S
15:19corporation C corporation or even a
15:22non-profit you’re a startup entrepreneur
15:24you’re a sole proprietor wanting to take
15:26your business to the next step or
15:28transition from a career
15:29to entrepreneurship you want more
15:31information on the different types of
15:33business entities so again
15:35just head on over to Mitchell chadroy
15:37comm flash Inc i NC so now this is one
15:41of the examples for four conveyor
15:43systems because I know that you were
15:45involved with Dorner manufacturing
15:47corporation and one of the portfolio
15:49companies there with e e QT partners so
15:52is this a specific example that you’re
15:55using you know based on your own
15:57experience or in terms of if you can
15:59provide some additional concrete
16:01examples I think that would that would
16:03help the audience’s welder yeah so this
16:06is a hypothetical case that we are
16:10applying at Dorner gift but it has been
16:13applied other places before I sat on the
16:16board of a company called prediction
16:19software whose product was effectively
16:22the predictive analytics software that
16:26you would embed in that electric engine
16:28- was sold resold prediction about a
16:32year and a half ago but so it death
16:36technology which is called riot allowed
16:37you to embed predictive capabilities
16:40into end devices and also in the case of
16:45another company where I was chairman for
16:48a while before we sold B&B smart works
16:50which was owned by brand partners
16:52particular for them out of Philadelphia
16:54at B&B the sort of whole concept was
17:00around how do we take a company that is
17:03selling a fairly commodifies product
17:07into the manufacturing world and make it
17:09much more value additive and so we
17:12leveraged a lot of Internet of Things
17:14concept to build gateways and
17:18communications devices that provide an
17:20additional value allowing to better
17:22monitor and manage the systems they were
17:24connected to and it allowed B and B to
17:26move from being a provider of commodity
17:29technology that was more often than not
17:30an afterthought now being a key
17:32component in an operating technology
17:35solution for a factory and that
17:37dramatically stepped up how people
17:40viewed the company the value those
17:41products provided
17:43and was a great example of value
17:45creation now you’re still involved as a
17:48senior advisor with grand partners yes
17:51yeah I’m in a vital keg number
17:53privatized newsrooms okay yeah just
17:55because you know I’m right outside the
17:57Philadelphia area bored amazed and so
17:59I’ve been involved with you know
18:01companies private equity venture capital
18:04and a lot of the entrepreneurs a lot of
18:06the startups you know come out of you
18:09know Drexel University and temple at
18:10diamond ventures we’ve had people on the
18:13show who have startups oh how are you
18:16working with maybe some of the tri-state
18:18local you know young entrepreneurs and
18:21basically helping them take their
18:22businesses to the next level
18:24sure so I had limited bandwidth for
18:29startups so I severely work with no more
18:31than four or five startup teams and or
18:35startup companies or CEOs in mentoring
18:38them in really understanding how to
18:41achieve very rapid product market fit
18:43and then innovating to eventually what
18:47becomes the kind of final product that
18:49you’re building and releasing I’ve
18:51developed over the years of framework
18:53that I call the six days just because a
18:58is an easy letter to remember and
19:00they’re just happened to her
19:01it’s where does this start with a that
19:03make up this but if you think about as
19:07most people say the old adage goes you
19:10know begin with the end in mind so if
19:12you’re building a product which are
19:13really trying to do is solve a problem
19:15remove an inefficiency remove friction
19:17from some process or some transaction or
19:20some aspect of people’s lives and a
19:24product is only successful when users
19:27activate the product meaning they use it
19:30if you can drive user activation in the
19:33online world it means you’re getting
19:35people to subscribe to your product or
19:37your service in the physical products
19:40world that people are buying your
19:41product and not only are they buying it
19:43but they’re actually using it and so if
19:45you were Netflix for example user
19:48activation is a combination of how many
19:50people have signed up and then how many
19:52hours a month are they watching on the
19:54platform to get
19:57customers and users to activate they
20:00have to be amazed they have to have had
20:01a really amazing experience because
20:04there are all sorts of competitors out
20:05there but can offer similar outcomes and
20:09it’s a question how do you provide the
20:12best outcome for your target consumer
20:14for example if the uber app were kludgy
20:18to use and inefficient they would never
20:21have gotten where they are today but
20:23what uber did very successfully was they
20:26realized that all they had to do was
20:28make it effectively commoditize the
20:32ability to get a hold of transportation
20:34in a very user friendly and efficient
20:37way that provided a high degree of
20:39certainty that you get a car would be a
20:41nice car and you get to where you’re
20:43going and then the rest was simply
20:46execution in providing the service so if
20:50you can provide an amazing user
20:52experience you can activate users and
20:55drive revenues so how do you create an
20:57amazing user experience but you have to
21:00look at whatever process you’re dealing
21:02with and remove the manual steps forget
21:05to automate it
21:06you have to accelerate it which is
21:08shorten the time it takes for a user to
21:10get value out of it you have to make the
21:12product anticipate what the user is
21:14going to want or need to do so that you
21:18can make it even more of a surprising
21:21experience for the user
21:22for example if companies like Amazon and
21:26Netflix that have huge pools of content
21:28didn’t have recommendation engine that
21:30told you what you might want to watch or
21:32what you might want to buy based on what
21:34you are watching or are buying then it
21:38would be much more difficult for people
21:40to transact business because they’d come
21:44in buy one product and leave and then
21:45this way now those services can upsell
21:47people to other programming other
21:50products et cetera
21:51and grow the bit so what are some
21:53products and solutions you’re working on
21:55right now that that integrates the
21:58predictive type of model to to basically
22:02create a better experience for for those
22:05consumers out there sure so one example
22:09is a
22:10safety product for distracted drivers
22:14and if you can imagine that the there
22:20are two kind of people who are very
22:22focused on not wanting to have
22:24distracted drivers when our parents
22:25don’t want their teens being distracted
22:28when they drive because distracted
22:29driving is one of the single highest
22:31causes of traffic fatalities and team
22:35the other our commercial fleet owners
22:39people who own fleets of vehicles or who
22:41have fleets of vehicles driving on their
22:44behalf whether it’s for delivery or
22:45service who want to remove the liability
22:49of a driver potentially being on their
22:51phone looking at snapchat or Facebook
22:54and running over somebody in a crosswalk
22:56and then having that person’s family sue
22:58the company whose truck that person was
23:00driving because they were on the clock
23:03so to say while they were driving and
23:05they were a distracted driver so the
23:07distracted driving industry is one more
23:11there’s a lot of value be provided if
23:13you can find a way to create a friendly
23:16experience for the user so they don’t
23:18feel that somebody has put handcuffs on
23:21them and so I’m working with a company
23:23that will be announcing this products
23:26very shortly where it’s physically we
23:31designed a product that makes it very
23:34simple to define the driver’s seat if
23:38you would in a vehicle so that you can
23:40differentiate between somebody who’s the
23:42driver and some who’s a passenger and
23:44then automatically switch the
23:47capabilities on their phone so that they
23:51either are warned and you report back to
23:55the parent and/or employer anytime that
23:58person uses an app or handles the phone
24:01in a way that could be deemed as
24:03distracted driving so that the parent
24:07and/or employer can go back and tell the
24:10person who’s using the phone hey you
24:12know you used your phone 16 times today
24:15we were driving at the moment
24:18additionally the product can effectively
24:22block the user
24:23if you want to take that much of a
24:26stronger position on it and this is a
24:29great way to provide an ability for
24:32increase safety in team drivers in less
24:36distracted driving and commercial
24:37drivers to reduce overall access and do
24:40it in a way so that the parents and the
24:43employers through behavioral tool can
24:47re-educate the drivers
24:49it also lets them control the drivers
24:52access to apps what they can do all
24:54their driving and the same thing when we
24:56applied in classrooms church offices
25:00meetings wherever you want as just a
25:02question of defining what area you don’t
25:04want somebody being distracted in and
25:06the service can do that but the key is
25:09very simple to configure very simple to
25:12use focus on really the social pressure
25:19and sort of neuro marketing aspect of
25:21how do you get people to change your
25:24behavior simply by them understanding
25:26they are being inspected and then
25:29through another old adage and people
25:30respect what you inspect and if the
25:33driver knows that every time they
25:36accelerate that’s being tracked when
25:38they brake that’s being tracked when
25:39they turn this being tracked and so you
25:43know you can tell if somebody’s driving
25:45distracted mode and you can also by
25:48understanding what somebody is doing on
25:49their phone at any given moment as the
25:52car is in motion and they are in the
25:53driver’s seat and they happen to be
25:54looking at snapchat you know all that
25:57information and you can choose to either
25:59block it effectively make the app
26:03unusable while the cars moving and
26:05they’re in the driver’s seat or simply
26:08report it and let the driver as well as
26:10whoever’s responsible in the other end
26:12know hey you don’t use the app while
26:14you’re driving shouldn’t do that you
26:16know one point off whatever it might be
26:17and then the responsibility I’ll come
26:22deal with it and whatever mode they want
26:24to deal with if you’re a lot of interest
26:26some insurance companies a lot of
26:27interest from fleet owners a lot of
26:29interesting parents obviously drivers a
26:31few organizations any of you car
26:33manufacturers love the idea because you
26:36know they clearly
26:37I would love to have a world where
26:40people don’t die driving the cars
26:41absolutely our Fast Pitch Mitchell Chad
26:45Road comm slash books for books
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26:54sponsors are fast pitch my book club
26:58recommendations I get Mitchell Chad Road
27:00comm slash books to see more of my
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27:10resource for book reviews and
27:12recommendations in this next round we
27:14actually call it our Fast Pitch where we
27:16ask you some fast questions to get some
27:18fast answers and it gives us another
27:20dynamic of who you are read as not only
27:23as a business person but maybe you know
27:26personally and life in general so can
27:28you tell us the best business advice
27:30you’ve ever received the best business
27:33advice I’ve ever received a mask
27:36questions don’t tell people what to do
27:40great and as far as success goes you
27:44know everybody defines success
27:45differently a how do you define success
27:48and then B can you tell us someone that
27:51you kind of look up to that maybe you
27:54know you’ve modeled after or you’ve
27:56gained some insight from in terms of who
28:00you consider to be successful
28:02sure so this is a very big topic but
28:09I’ll try and make it right
28:15success for me is being able to live an
28:22executor purpose that might just be a
28:26journey it might not be an end goal and
28:29being able to do that live or executors
28:33perfect for me is great definition
28:37success whether it’s raise a set of kids
28:39that are balanced whether it’s create a
28:42company that’s very valuable
28:43whether it’s provide a service to
28:45society that helps people and lets them
28:49out of poverty or
28:50helps educate them whatever the the
28:53journey is being able to do that and
28:56make progress on that journey is sort of
28:59what I view as depressing yeah sure and
29:03as far as someone successful that you
29:05kind of have admired or you know kind of
29:08have looked up to possibly over these
29:10decades sure different people for
29:15different things um you know I am a huge
29:20fan of Winston Churchill oh yeah ability
29:24to motivate people and get people around
29:30a common goal who otherwise might not
29:33have common interest and get them to go
29:36over and above the call of duty to do
29:39what’s required to achieve that outcome
29:42provided it’s the right thing for
29:44society good for the people involved etc
29:46you know war is never a good thing but
29:48Winston Churchill was amazing at
29:51motivating people and being a leader
29:53well you know that kind of takes me into
29:55my next question because and I think you
29:57know you could use anything as an
29:59example although I’m sure you could
30:01probably find a lot of good examples
30:02using Winston Churchill but how about an
30:05inspirational quote or some type of a
30:08mantra that you you always kind of go
30:11back to in times of challenge or just to
30:14kind of be mindful or resourceful um
30:19well I mean something that I always
30:21think about and it’s not a specific
30:23person I can contribute a quote to but
30:26more concept that I have sort of found
30:30in listening to a variety of people and
30:33that is that we fear that which we don’t
30:37know but once we know it we know we can
30:42overcome it and so instead of being
30:46afraid and worrying apply that energy to
30:51finding the answers to the questions
30:53that you don’t have answers to that
30:55would help you figure out is it a threat
30:58isn’t it how big of a threat is it or
31:00not what are things you could do to
31:03eliminate the threat and so if you ask
31:05yourself questions you can focus your
31:08mind in the areas we’re going to be most
31:11productive and make the most headway so
31:13not getting tied up in being afraid or
31:16paranoid but rather asking yourself
31:19question of what do I know what don’t I
31:22know what do I need to know to be able
31:24to do whatever it is I’m doing and
31:26whether your competition is hammering
31:30you in the marketplace if you don’t have
31:32data you can’t act you need data to act
31:35go find the data then you can make
31:37decisions it’s you know combination
31:40military and corporate strategy kind of
31:42all go on together but yeah you have
31:44data there’s no reason to be afraid
31:46because you can act I love it it’s great
31:50Fred know that that’s terrific and I
31:52think that a lot of the entrepreneurs
31:54startups and those that are on the fence
31:57you know with a side hustle and deciding
31:59you know to sort of you know make that
32:01leap I think that they can really draw
32:03on a lot of those things that you’ve
32:06just mentioned can you tell us a book
32:09could be in business family or life that
32:12that you always sort of go back to that
32:15you that you really have enjoyed I love
32:20only the paranoid survive by an Baba
32:22yes mr. Andy groves and I’ve not only
32:28read that book but I love the name of
32:30that book yeah it’s you know it’s on
32:34that theme that we just talked about um
32:37so that’s clearly one and then really
32:43you know Purpose Driven Life I think was
32:45a great book not because of its
32:48religious overtones but more just
32:50because of the fact if you you know you
32:52can have material goals you can have
32:56physical goals but if you have a purpose
33:00you never really get it’s not a place
33:03you get to it’s a lifelong journey and
33:06so if you can figure out what your
33:08life’s purpose is what your career
33:10purpose is then it’s very easy to find a
33:14way to be satisfied and really drive
33:17the outcomes that you want to achieve in
33:19life as opposed to just seeking material
33:23goals where you know if you talk to most
33:25successful people when they were at
33:28their most successful is when they kind
33:30of felt the emptiest because they have
33:32reached the end of a journey and they
33:34didn’t know where to go or what to do
33:36but if you really understand what your
33:38purpose is then it’s a place you never
33:41get to you it’s a journey that you live
33:44and we’ve talked a lot about of smart
33:47systems when we talked a lot about
33:48Internet of Things I know that you even
33:51referenced apps so if you could tell us
33:53an app that you could recommend to the
33:56audience I think that would be that
33:58would be great doesn’t have to be just
33:59productivity it could be an app whether
34:01it be in business family or life I mean
34:04there are a few of them one is headspace
34:07which is a meditation app that takes you
34:09through guided meditation ah you know it
34:12meditation is really all about healthy
34:15still the mind get the squirrel off the
34:18wheel if you would and allow you to
34:21focus and you know there are two things
34:24if you’re in business that are important
34:27one is resources and the other is time
34:31you can always get more resources you
34:33can’t get more time and so really making
34:35good use of time is critical for an
34:38entrepreneur no matter what size of
34:40business it is is critical for a parent
34:42or critical in any role in life our
34:44wrap-up round
34:45Mitchell Chad ro comm slash photos for
34:49all your graphic design needs we’d like
34:52to find out from your perspective three
34:54main takeaways and then how everybody
34:57can stay in contact with you sure though
34:59I think three main takeaways so one is
35:02get data ask lots of questions
35:04don’t make assumption why is that
35:07important it’s important because if
35:09you’re sitting around the conference
35:10room table and people are telling you
35:12what they think versus what they know
35:14and you can only say you know something
35:16you have the data in front you’re going
35:18to get ability uh policies in the
35:22summons going to get true fact and
35:24you’ll likely make poor to search a lot
35:27of questions get the data then
35:29that’s definitely one take away the
35:31other is there is always a way to create
35:33value in anything you do whether it’s
35:35having a conversation with somebody on
35:38the subway or whether it’s turning
35:40around a company or building an amazing
35:43enterprise or raising the family if you
35:48approach life from a focus of how do I
35:50add value in all aspects in any
35:53conversation and interaction no matter
35:55what it is you will always come out
35:57feeling on positive having experienced
36:01some growth and you’ll have made a mark
36:03on a person accompanying society or the
36:07world as a whole um and then lastly
36:10realize that everybody is fallible
36:13nobody is perfect least of all yourself
36:16and that the only way to really advance
36:18is through failure failure is a very
36:20good thing you should embrace it so
36:22those are three three core takeaways
36:24I’ve said I’ve certainly learned a lot
36:26from so Fred everybody wants to stay in
36:28contact sure I’m you can either follow
36:31me on Twitter at F G teal the letter F
36:35looking Fred G like and George and then
36:37th AE L you can find me on LinkedIn my
36:41email address is spread at teal advisors
36:44calm and th IE l AG bi fo ra pom-pom and
36:51through any one of those three you can
36:53get ahold of me and be more than happy
36:55to engage and other conversation Fred
36:57there’s been so many awesome value bombs
37:00that you provided our listen up audience
37:02and we just want to thank you so very
37:03much and we can’t wait to find out some
37:07of the other things that you’re working
37:08on and we’ll we’ll definitely be in
37:10touch thanks again for everything we
37:11really appreciate it thank you hey you
37:13take care now bye bye bye so listen up
37:15last show that’s Mitchell Chad wrote
37:17calm slash shows you’re overworked and
37:19get the show notes and resource links go
37:22to Mitchell Chad wrote calm flash show 0
37:25for 4 with Nancy May until next time
37:28take care everyone in closing let me
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38:35until next time
The post Digitized Asset Businesses Value Creator Fried Thiel Show 045 was republished on startupssmarter.com
FRED THIEL – Advisor, Board Member, and Value Creator
Fred has spent his career creating and helping others create and grow their businesses. Along the way, he has generated hundreds of million of dollars in shareholder value for investors and founders —
Thiel Advisors focuses their efforts on advising private equity and venture capital firms, investors, boards of directors, founders and management teams on trends and innovative avenues and strategies for growth and value creation.
Fred is also a frequent speaker and writer/blogger on the topics of business strategy, value creation, digital transformation, innovation as well as the disruptive waves of technology and how they impact all businesses regardless of size or location.
Some technologies that he is particularly focused on and that we discussed on the show include IoT (Internet of Things), as well as predictive, collaborative and autonomous systems.
