Los Angeles entrepreneur Barak Diskin has led the development and acquisition of more than $1 billion in real estate and has invested in successful ventures such as FabFitFun, MeUndies, and CloudKitchens, the latter two of which he co-founded. After the launch of CloudKitchens in 2015, Barak Diskin served as its chief operating officer for three years, then took over as head of global real estate. In this role, he leveraged tech and financial modeling to source suitable properties for the ghost kitchen food-service company’s global expansion efforts.
Mr. Diskin co-founded MeUndies in 2010 with childhood friend Jonathan Shokrian. He spent three years as CEO of the subscription-based e-commerce company, playing a key role in securing capital from high-profile investors like Marcy Venture Partners and Winklevoss Capital. With a focus on strategic direction, he helped the company grow beyond $100 million in annual revenue.
Barak Diskin began his career in real estate, working as director of acquisitions at the multibillion-dollar firm Decron Properties. He is a cum laude graduate of the University of Miami, where he earned a bachelor of arts in finance.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
During the week, I wake up, shower and get to work. I start by going through my inbox, but also like to schedule meetings for first thing in the morning. I typically schedule slots of time to go through my inbox so that I’m not continuously checking emails throughout the day. I try to make it a point to be home to put my kids to bed around 7 pm. Then I eat dinner and spend a couple hours catching up on anything I may have missed or not gotten to during the day.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Draw the road map and execute. Create aggressive deadlines and then fight like crazy to hit them.
What’s one trend that excites you?
AI. There’s no close second.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
Keeping my phone face down and on silent.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Buy Nvidia stock, don’t send out emotional emails until sleeping on it, have tougher conversations on the phone or live versus on email or text.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?
One thing I believe that many people may not agree with is how much luck factors into financial success. Hard work, optimism and persistence are key, but luck is also critical.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Meditate… It’s a life changing exercise.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
I like to go for a walk or spend time with my kids. They are 4 and 8 years old and watching them or interacting with them slows things down and puts stuff into perspective.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
Hiring the best talent you can find for everything you do and not trying to take on everything yourself. Knowing how to scale is rare, and it starts and stops with hiring and retaining best-in-class talent. One needs to first think through the skills and qualifications needed for a position, be thoughtful about where to find that person, and motivate that person to want to join the cause. It’s not all about offering them the most amount of money either. You should be willing to pay whatever you have to for top talent, but you also need to make sure you’re not hiring mercenaries.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
The only failures in my career have been letting ventures that were not successful get to me. Some things are going to work, and some things aren’t. It’s all about putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
An AI tool for drawing and coordinating construction drawings.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
I love Coggle because it helps me organize and look at ideas. I find mind mapping very helpful.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?
I love listening to the All-In podcast. I learn about current events, business, tech, and science and get very different viewpoints.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I’m really enjoying White Lotus season three. I love the dialogue and the interaction between the characters.
Key learnings
- Stay optimistic and grateful.
- Hard work is critical, but it’s important to pay respect to the element luck has in being here and getting to where you are.
- Don’t ever sacrifice on hiring and brining in best-in-class talent to help scale a company. The saying that A’s hire A’s is not true… B’s hire C’s and D’s and destroy companies.
- Being an entrepreneur is hard – there are a lot of ups and downs. It’s critical to stay balanced and not let things that have happened get to your head, good or bad.