Dan Aziz, President of Luna Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is originally from Toronto, ON, Canada. Dan left his home country to study commerce, entrepreneurship and organizations (CEO) at Brown University. While there, Dan developed the idea for a powdered prenatal vitamin to replace the current prenatal vitamin “horse pill,” as researched showed nearly 96 percent of woman who took these essential vitamins hated the pill delivery system. Dan’s concept, Premama, went on to win the 2011 RI Business Plan competition. The company has gone from one product and six stores in 2012 to four products and 3,000 stores in 2015, as well as international sales. Follow him @drinkpremama.
Who’s your hero? (In business, life, or both.)
My father is my hero. I’ve never met a smarter, wittier and more thoughtful person whom I try my best (and fail) to emulate each day.
In business, my hero is Richard Branson. No one else has started so many successful companies in so many different fields. His passion for extreme sports is something I can relate to, and aside from Donald Trump, I don’t think anyone has better hair!
What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?
Try to always stay even-keeled. Do not get too excited when things are going great, and don’t get down when things don’t work out as planned. Entrepreneurship is full of a lot of ups and downs, but moving forward is all that really matters.
What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?
I went too big, too quickly. I brought on an account that I knew I could not support, but I relied on others to come through in the time of need with an investment. The investment took six months longer than promised, and we lost the vendor. So do not count your chickens before they hatch, and do not rely on others to come through for you.
What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?
I always start by going to my local coffee shop for a large dark roast red-eye, and then I scroll through my emails (sometimes I have 100+ new ones a day) to see what takes priority. Then I begin tackling my plans I set for the day from the night or week before while attending to those most crucial emails.
What’s your best financial/cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?
Keep general and administrative expenses very low as long as possible. Don’t take a salary or a very big one until you can afford it. Don’t rent expensive space or put money into trivial things that don’t directly increase the value of your business until your business has significant value.
I worked my first year with no salary and the following two below minimum wage. It was not until I raised over $1 million that I took a salary, and not until then that I brought on anyone who deserved a high salary. I find you can get a lot done by being scrappy, so by the time you take a real salary, your investors feel you deserve much more and are shocked by how far you’ve gotten with such low cash burn rate to date.
Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?
Start it! So many people have ideas, but only a very few actually take the action to bring it to market — whether that means designing your app, having prototypes of your consumer goods made or bringing on your first clients in a service industry. Stop discussing and start doing.
What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?
Success for me will be giving my investors a return on their investment and improving myself as an entrepreneur and person. If I can make some money in doing so as well, I won’t complain!
