Interview with Naeem Zafar, Partner at Concordia Ventures

BrownHEN interviewed Naeem Zafar, Brown '81, Faculty at Haas Business School, University of California Berkeley, and Partner at Concordia Ventures, Cupertino, CA.

1. Naeem, you have had a highly respected career as a serial entrepreneur. You were CEO of six different companies, I believe. How are you finding being CEO of a consulting company, Concordia Ventures?

I worked at six startups and I was CEO of three of them. One went public and others went through various traumas and exits. Concordia is aimed at transferring my life experiences to other entrepreneurs. I am trying to bring several accomplished entrepreneurs from various disciplines to join me at Concordia where we can advice advise other entrepreneurs who are at the early stage of their learning curves. My work at Berkeley feeds directly into what I do at Concordia. It is liberating to be running Concordia. It is much less stressful than being the CEO of a venture-backed company, yet it is even more exciting and engaging. It is a tremendous learning opportunity as I meet the best and the brightest from all new technology areas. 

2. How can an entrepreneur gain the most benefit from a consultant?

Each consultant offers some area of expertise. As an entrepreneur you need to be able to listen to advice from various sources but you must have enough conviction of your own so that you can evaluate and select what works for you. All of us have our own life experiences. That is why entrepreneurship is not a cookie cutter recipe. It is our own journey but a consultant, once carefully selected, can accelerate our learning and reduce our risk in this journey.

3. The United States has a reputation for being especially entrepreneurial. Is this reputation deserved? If it is deserved, how can it be maintained? If it is not deserved, what should be done?

It is well deserved. There are four key factors that contribute to this and if we maintain these factors we will continue to have the edge and the well-deserved reputation.

a) No stigma of failure. Unlike most places in the world there is very little stigma associated with failure, In Silicon Valley there is no stigma. A failed entrepreneur is more valuable as she/he is not likely to make the same mistakes again – someone else has paid the tuition for his/her learning.

b) Access to capital. It is much easier to raise venture or angel capital in the U.S. than anyplace else. Partly because sharing risk as an investor is in the American psyche. This is how we grew this country ahead of Europe in the 20th century. There are many entrepreneurs who made it big and now are willing to invest to help see new technologies take hold. They understand technology and risk. They help with capital and advice. Our venture industry is the most evolved in the world.

c) The eco-system. The process to start a venture is much easier in America and especially in Silicon Valley. At a well-attended party any Saturday night you probably have all the people you need to start a company. From techies to experienced CEOs, to marketing experts to lawyers and accountants—all have strong networks; and within two degrees of separation one can assemble a team in no time. We take this for granted but it is very unique to us. The systems are set up to make it easy to start companies. The way we can grant stock options attracts a lot of talent.

d) Excellent Brain trust and access to markets. We are lucky that we have an excellent higher education system. Not only do we pour well-trained people into the workforce each year, we attract the best and brightest from all over the world. The U.S. also have the homogenous market of 300M people that is unlike anyplace in the world. If you can sell a product here it gives you the scale to be able to sell it anywhere in the world.

Obviously our immigration policies can put the kibosh on some of these factors. That can hamper our future growth. Changes in taxation can impact our venture capital activity and our ability to grant stock options. These stock options are the essential currency that drives millions to work 70 to 80 hours per week for years and break all the rules needed to achieve new breakthroughs.

4. I believe you arrived at Brown three days after coming to the United States. What was your biggest surprise about life in the United States?

We all grew up watching American TV and movies in Pakistan so much of what we see in the States does not shock us. Nevertheless it was surprising to see that America was not like NYC or the Wild West. People were simpler, happier, unpretentious, and welcoming. People were warm and willing to help. But perhaps the biggest surprise was to get used to people smiling and saying hello in the street for no reason at all. This was not normal to see for me. I was always trying to draw a deeper meaning into each hello and sometimes giving a more complete answer to each “hello, how are you” then was expected!

5. You teach entrepreneurship in the MBA program at Berkeley. A common piece of conventional wisdom is that entrepreneurs are born, not made. What aspects of entrepreneurship can be taught?

Many traits of what makes an entrepreneur are innate. But the method still needs to be learned. We teach about the method (the process) of starting businesses. We teach how to reduce your risk by doing your essential homework. How does an entrepreneur approach various aspects of business versus a professional in a corporation? The to-dos include a long list that starts with doing basic research on your idea, developing a scalable business model, hiring, financial planning, and thinking about exits. We arm the entrepreneur with this knowledge and our own experiences to help him/her be more successful with fewer hiccups.

6. Your companies have been in several different high technology fields and you have written scholarly articles about starting small businesses. You seem to have time to be involved in professional activities. What is your secret about learning new ideas quickly?

Asking a lot of insightful questions and listening well are essential to fast learning. You must also be very good about time management and selective consumption of information. If you are not careful you can drown in too much information. You must develop a technique to quickly compartmentalize and index information in order to be able to access the information that you gathered.

7. Do entrepreneurial opportunities still exist in electrical engineering / computer science fields?

Is this a trick question? Of course, we have not even scratched the surface yet. We are now in the field of EE and CS where we were in 1920 about automotives and aviation. You have seen nothing yet. We still think of computers as things like we looked at internal combustion engines in 1920s. Today we don’t talk much about engines but we deal with myriad things that use engines. The same thing will be true about computers. There will be hardly a discussion about computers. There will be convenience appliances, highly connected and consumers of information that will make our life easier, more connected and our work processes automated.

8. What are the top five qualities you would ascribe to an entrepreneur?

• Perseverance
• Clarity of objective
• Resourcefulness
• Strong desire to bend rules or make your own rules,
• Salesmanship at all levels.

I describe an entrepreneur as a person who is willing to pursue an opportunity with the resources that he/she does not currently control. This definition says a lot. It is about being persistent and finding ways to go around the walls that will come in front of you. Salesmanship comes in various ways. It is about selling your vision to other employees and team members, to selling your ideas to investors to selling your value proposition to customers.

9. Would you speak about fear as a motivation or hindrance toward accomplishment? How has that played a factor in your path, if any?

Fear can be a motivator or a hindrance – sometimes both, depending on your personality and the situation. My biggest fear is usually letting my investors down or the people whose livelihood depends on my decisions. The families of employees all depend on your actions and results of your decisions. But you must get over your fear, otherwise you will be paralyzed. This is when I seek out my mentors and get advice from people that I trust. You always get through it.

10. As you know, the entrepreneur’s path is filled with trials and errors, and also failures. What’s a valuable insight for entrepreneurs to keep in mind when they’re experiencing setbacks?

Analyze the situation. Post mortem is key. Figure out what did you do wrong or what you could have done differently. Talk to others and your mentors. Improve thyself. Stop feeling bad and get back in the game. Remember getting a gym membership is not enough to get fit or lose weight – you must participate in the game.

11. What is the latest insight (about life, work, play) that you picked up and would like to share with BrownHEN?

The latest insight is about getting intensely productive with your time. This is your most important asset. Constant email is a terrible thing to distract you and Instant Messaging (IM) is even worse. I want to automate things in my life and get control of my time so that I can use it to do things that excite me and are rewarding. Limiting distractions, limiting meaningless television, unnecessary meetings and conversations that are pointless must be limited and eventually eliminated. I am reading this book, Four Hour Work Week, which speaks to me and what I had been trying to do for the last couple of years.

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