An Entrepreneur is someone that has the ability to find and act upon opportunities and transform inventions or technology into disruptive products. The individual is able to organize capital, talent and other resources that turn an invention into a commercially viable innovation.
One such exemplary entrepreneur is Eric Simon, who is the Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Skydeo, a mobile data platform based in New York City. Simon worked at several prominent startups in New York City before starting Skydeo. These companies include Yieldmo,where he served as EVP of Operations and General Manager. Simon also led media and business operations for [x+1]..
Entrepreneurial Spirit since Childhood
Eric grew up outside Columbus, Ohio. His first entrepreneurial endeavor involved a plum tree. When he was about 8 years old he picked the plums and brought them to the garage and washed and polished them. Then he put them in paper bags and into his wagon and went around the neighborhood selling them door to door for $2.00/bag. This was his first experience adding value and providing a service, while at the same time putting a little change in his pocket. Since then it’s been quite a journey across many sectors and industries including retail, web, marketing, gaming and internet and mobile technologies.
A Reservoir of Ideas
According to Eric it is essential to resource ideas appropriately by getting the right people on board for the journey. If not, those ideas will remain on a piece of paper, or it may take a very long time to move forward.. Eric has always been interested in choosing the right idea and trying to implement it with the right people.
Wealth of Experience
Eric had been a part of many startups where he was an individual contributor. This was an essential path for him. Because being part of a winning team showed him not only how important it was to have a solid business strategy, but that no one person could drive the success of the business, and that includes the CEO. So building the right team, which equates to hiring and keeping the right people on board, is probably the biggest and most important lesson he learned.
Essential Traits for Entrepreneurs
According to Eric entrepreneurs must have a lot of different attributes in order to be successful, but especially the ability to be scrappy and flexible. There are so many hurdles and obstacles to getting a business off the ground and one needs to call upon many different skills in order to break through. .
Eric equally values the quality of resilience.
Ahead of the Competition
With technology, finding a balance between working with one’s competition and identifying them, has been a critical lesson for Eric.
He advises not to be fooled or trapped by intermediaries and competitors. And not to get too comfortable with any one partner or have too much business concentration risk with a single account. Many companies that currently rely on Facebook as their core strategy for distribution are perfect cautionary tales.
Understanding Customer Needs
Skydeo is on the leading edge of mobile-first data companies. Depending on the Brand that one is working with, there are many ways a client can benefit from Skydeo’s mobile data offering. Understanding those use cases is an integral aspect to building products and services for its customers.
For example, consumer banks have entirely different needs than Travel and Entertainment companies. According to him they can all benefit from more data but properly packaging data is essential to their ability to understanding its value.
Looking To The Future
Right now, Eric is laser focused on building his business. He has an aspiration to one day move into more of an advisory role with other companies and entrepreneurs so he can transfer the knowledge he accumulated along the way of his own path.
Source: The 30 Most Influential Entrepreneurs to Watch 2018
