School for Startups Radio: Full Episode

Mike Smerklo – Co-Founder and Managing Director at Next Coast Ventures

For every business or venture, someone has done it before you.
Go find someone who can give real advice and feedback. 

Mike Smerklo

Mike Smerklo is the co-founder and managing director of Next Coast Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs building disruptive technology companies and has backed more than 40 companies across two funds. Mike is an entrepreneur, investor, and business leader driven by the desire to turn ideas into reality. Prior to Next Coast Ventures, Mike bought a small technology services company, ServiceSource, and ran it for 12 years, scaling it from a small startup to public company with over 3,000 employees around the world. Mike Smerklo went through the many challenges in building ServiceSource into a successful public company, not the least of which is actually learning how to control the ever-present doubting voice inside himself. In his new forthcoming book, Mr. Monkey and Me: A Real Survival Guide for Entrepreneurs, Mike Smerklo ditches the usual platitudes of business memoirs to offer an honest look at the mental toughness and grit it takes to start, grow and operate a successful business. Through an actionable methodology called the SHAPE formula, he helps readers step up and pursue their dreams with confidence by developing a mindset that supports success in any scenario.

 
 
Nir Bashan – Founder and CEO of The Creator Mindset Consulting

When you are able to change your mindset into something
creative, you will then come up with and you will learn
how to make ideas.

Nir Bashan

Nir Bashan, the Founder and CEO of The Creator Mindset LLC, is a world-renowned creativity expert. Nir has spent the last two decades working on a formula to codify creativity. Through his workshops and consulting, he teaches business leaders how to harness the power of creativity to improve profitability, increase sales, and make work more meaningful. His clients include AT&T, Microsoft, Ace Hardware, NFL Network, EA Sports, JetBlue, and many others. He has also worked on numerous albums, movies, and advertisements, winning a Clio Award and receiving an Emmy nomination for his creativity, and was one of the youngest professors ever selected to teach graduate courses at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Nir is the author of the latest marketing book, The Creator Mindset: 92 Tools to Unlock the Secrets to Innovation, Growth, and Sustainability, in which he draws from years of experience in advertising, entertainment, consulting, keynote speaking, and teaching to show you how to use creativity as a decision-making tool, and do so every bit as confidently as you use spreadsheets and data analysis.