Kyle Samani is an entrepreneur, intellectual, capitalist, writer, healthcare technology pundit and public speaker. He has spoken at HIMSS, HealthSpottr, SXSW, TEDx, DEMO, Rutberg. Follow him @Kylesamani.
Who is your hero?
I continue to be amazed by Larry Page and the work he’s doing at Google. He has an astonishing ability to predict and create the future. He is remarkably patient and prescient, allowing crazy ideas to prosper (Android, Maps, Gmail, Chrome, YouTube, Glass, Fiber, self-driving cars, etc). He is one of the few CEOs in the world investing on 10- and 20-year timelines.
What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?
Throw yourself out there and you will find a soft landing. The volume of people and resources available to help entrepreneurs succeed is incredible. If you’re not an engineer, you should be figuring out how to find and leverage all of the resources available. Just get out and meet successful people.
What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?
The biggest mistake I made was seeking venture capital funding too early in my company’s life cycle. I spent an enormous amount of time fruitlessly pitching VCs long before Pristine was ready. I should have focused exclusively on angels until we achieved product/market fit.
What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?
I’m generally in a meeting. Many days, we hold our management meetings first thing in the morning.
What’s your best financial or cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?
Join the Capital Factory incubator in Austin. It is incredible. You can receive over $100,000 dollars in free rent and hosting credits from Rackspace, AWS, Azure, Google, etc. for just 2 percent equity. This implies a $5M valuation on an idea.
While pitching angels, sell the dream. Dreams are powerful; traction is generally not.
Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?
Learn to sell. Persuasion is everything all the time.
What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?
There won’t ever be a point in time when we’ve “succeeded.” Rather, we take on a more micro-view of success. We measure success by measuring our clients’ ability to create value for patients using our solutions. We measure success on a client-by-client basis. Only when our clients call to let us know we’ve succeeded are we successful.
