We had the good fortune of connecting with Joe Fod and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joe, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Entrepreneurs with a software product idea need help with strategy and the software development for their product.

The strategy in developing software is at least as important as the service of software development. We help entrepreneurs understand the choices and tradeoffs in their path clearly.

When people come to us with an idea for a technology product, we coach them on their path to success. The path to a technology product is different from main stream products and services because of the ease with which a technology product can be utilized by millions of people. Services like barbers and hoteliers are limited to a small radius around them. E-Commerce products are limited by their inventory. Neither inventory nor distance are limitations with software products. This means that reaching the most number of users is a critical factor in success. Conversely, people have been trained to pay very little for software products. So, reaching a large number of users is a matter of survival.

We help entrepreneurs reduce risk by taking baby steps and leveraging their success in one step to attract investments and resources for the next step.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I came to the US because of a generous research assistant for the Robotics Lab at USC. I qualified for it because I graduated from an Indian Institute of Technology which is more exclusive in India than MIT or Stanford. I chose to work in the financial industry with Mellon Bank and Barclays because I thought that is where the money was. Pretty soon I realized that is usually where money exchanges hands but its not where wealth is created. A large amount of wealth creation happens with entrepreneurs bringing new ideas that become possible because of shifts in technology. So, I started working with entrepreneurs on technology product startups. I couldn’t have done this without the support of my family and friends.

The biggest challenge in to keep up with the changes and to constantly come up with new ideas. We are in a very competitive world with a lot of constant change caused by changes in the rules and reguations and market conditions. The big opportunity and threat for us is that we might miss out on change in technology resources.

What sets us apart from others is the realization that the success of our clients in the long run is critical to us. So, whith this in mind, we educate clients to make the choices that are beneficial to them even if it reduces our revenue. We have a lot of opportunity to work on interesting problems, and the long term success of our clients is more important than revenue.

For example, the consulting industry usually sells billable hours. We take on the risk in time extension by selling contracts or milestones that promise a certain performance. We think this is a better approach because as technology experts we know how long a project should take.

Another thing we do to reduce the client’s risk is to sell something that is lower risk and lower budget so they have the opportunity to experiment and learn from it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’d take them to the Getty museum on the 405, the Will Rogers beach and the Malibu river tide pools, the Huntington Gardens, some of the trails around LA especially Eaton Canyon Trail which ends in a 50 foot waterfall after puddle jumping the ankle deep stream from the trail head to the waterfall for about 30 minutes. I’d also do a 40 to 50 mile rio hondo bike trail to Long Beach.

These are the restaurants I like:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/tamales-lilianas-los-angeles
https://www.yelp.com/biz/masons-dumpling-shop-los-angeles-5
https://www.yelp.com/biz/true-food-kitchen-pasadena-3
https://www.yelp.com/biz/hoy-ka-thai-restaurant-los-angeles?osq=Thai+Food

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Ariana Arredondo who runs Angel Valuation, KG Charles Harris a good friend,
Founder Institute which helps entrepreneurs build lasting companies,
Jeff Walker who teaches the principles of marketing

Website: https://app.opzoom.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/opzoom-co

Twitter: https://twitter.com/opzoomfund

Image Credits
These images were taken by me.

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