[quote style=”boxed”]I’d focus more, shoot for the moon and gather the best “crazy” people to make things happen fast and right.[/quote]
Pooya Kazerouni is a serial technology entrepreneur who’s obsessed with solving problems using inventive technology. He launched his first startup in Iran at age 18, a teenager driven by his family’s entrepreneurial spirit but also by his own vision of business. Pooya started several companies and faced many failures, from which he learned a lot and created success. He has been a broke entrepreneur, a millionaire investor and everything in between. Pooya loves to build and help build companies. He’s fascinated by new technologies and cloud/mobile innovation.
Because of North America unique environment for starting world class companies with universal impact, he decided to leave his home country and move to Canada. In Vancouver, Kazerouni founded Linquet (pronounced Linket) and with his team, have been building incredible technologies to pioneer the greatest industry of the future; “Internet Of Things”. He started Linquet with one mission in mind: “Linking Everything”. They want to connect/link the real world to the virtual world to make the world more secure, more fun and much much better.
Kazerouni and his team have initially started with solving an old but frustrating problem for the 1+ billion Smartphone users. And, that’s just tip of a very exciting iceberg. Linquet has an insanely passionate team that is following ambitious goals by building awesome products and solving real big problems to realize their vision of a truly “linked” world. Pooya and his Linqueteers plan to build a global IOT giant and push the mankind forward.
What are you working on right now?
The amazing Linquet.
Where did the idea for Linquet come from?
We’re all losers! Linquet is the result of our long-time obsession with solving the simple yet huge problem of “losing/misplacing our phones and valuables”.
How do you make money?
Linquet has a creative business model which makes it really affordable for everyone. Instead of selling a Linquet for $100+, we’re giving it away for free and just charge users $2.99/month.
What does your typical day look like?
In one word :MIH (make it happen). Running a startup (specially a lean could-base hardware startup) means you have to get 3X more things done and in one third the time. And, as the founder, the most important thing is to make sure your team is crystal clear on the vision and super focused on your goals. So, basically everyone on the team should constantly:
Focus
Hustle
MIH
How do you bring ideas to life?
I start from the end. We strongly believe in the notion that “UX is King!”. So, we always start by imagining what a great user experience would be like and what would be possible in an ideal no-limitation world. Then, we try to close the gap between reality and that unrealistic fantasy. It’s a very exciting challenge and could be unbelievably hard, but if you could make that gap small enough, you’d end up with amazing products.
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
Other than a few short part-time jobs, I have always been an entrepreneur. But, the most painful lesson I’ve learned is that I should never ever lose my focus.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
I’d focus more, shoot for the moon and gather the best “crazy” people to make things happen fast and right.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Learn! Learn as much as you can, as fast as you can and as inexpensively as you can (aka from others). Then apply those learnings in order to make yourself, your company and your industry better.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
I have had many failures and also have had success. But, I always reminded myself that any failure is an opportunity to learn and grow and come back stronger. After all, success is not final and failure is not fatal, it’s the courage to continue that counts.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Remote Wireless Charging. It’s a Trillion dollar opportunity. Many have been working on it, but no one has nailed it yet.
If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be and how would you go about it?
I’d eradicate wars! And the way to do that is by educating people and nations.
Tell us something about you that very few people know?
I’m a lazy person and that’s why I always think about an easier, faster and better way of doing things.
What are your three favorite online tools or resources and what do you love about them?
1. Twitter: keeps me up to date with the things I like and from the people I’m interested in
2. Dropbox: they do online what Linquet does in the real world: Help you “keep your stuff” all the time.
3. Pivotal Tracker: to manage and track our team progress
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
Business At the Speed of Thought– by Bill Gates, a “real’ revolutionary, also the greatest entrepreneur and philanthropist of modern age.
Three people we should follow on Twitter and why? (please don’t include yourself)
1. @sacca – A guy who went from millions of dollars in debt to creating a billion dollar portfolio and is now the force for good.
2. @levie – A funny kid who’s built an impressive billion dollar enterprise
3.@mcuban – Mark Cuban. Do I need to say more?
Who is your hero, and why?
I’d say first Bill gates and then Jeff Bezos. Both are “real’ revolutionary visionaries, unbelievable entrepreneurs and are tirelessly changing the world for the better.
What is your long-term vision with Linquet?
Right now we’re at the infancy of mobile industry and exciting trends like “internet of things.” In three years, we’ll have more mobile devices than the Earth population! And, we’ll have more than 50 billion linked “things.” Just to put that number into perspective, Facebook has only around 600 million mobile users. So, the opportunity before us is unimaginably great and Linquet wants to be a pioneer in shaping that future and linking everything. In the process, we hope we can also build a tech giant with a wide global impact.
What advice do you have for anyone reading this?
Your path to success is unique and it’s never like you think it’d be. It’s never as easy as you think and as hard as they say. So, shoot for the moon and push the mankind forward.
Connect:
Pooya Kazerouni on Twitter: @kpooya
Pooya Kazerouni on LinkedIn:
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.