Entrepreneurship Keynote - Saeed Amidi
Summary
TLDRS Amidi, CEO and founder of Plug and Play, shares his entrepreneurial journey from starting a packaging and bottled water business at 19 to becoming a successful investor in tech startups like PayPal and Dropbox. Amidi discusses Plug and Play's role in connecting startups with corporations for innovation and scaling, highlighting their global expansion and various industry verticals.
Takeaways
- 😀 S Amidi is the CEO and founder of Plug and Play, a platform that connects startups with corporations for innovation and scaling.
- 🏢 Amidi's entrepreneurial journey began at the age of 19 with a packaging and bottled water business, which he still operates today.
- 💼 The Iranian Revolution forced Amidi to become an entrepreneur to sustain his lifestyle after his family lost all their assets.
- 🏢 Amidi's first company, which started in 1979, now employs about 3,000 people and generates approximately $600 million in revenue.
- 💼 Amidi's initial foray into the tech industry was through a real estate investment in a building that later housed PayPal as its first tenant.
- 💡 The first technology investment for Amidi was PayPal, where he invested $100,000 as part of a rent negotiation deal.
- 💼 Amidi and his brother made angel investments in startups, including Dropbox and Lending Club, learning from other VCs and angels in the process.
- 🏢 In 2006, Amidi purchased a large building to house over 400 startups, aiming to increase his chances of meeting and investing in great entrepreneurs.
- 🤝 Plug and Play facilitates connections between startups and corporations, offering startups a clear path to production and scaling.
- 🌐 Plug and Play operates in 22 different verticals, including mobility, IoT, fintech, insure tech, and now semiconductors, with a global presence.
- 🌟 The platform accelerates 2,500 startups a year, providing them with introductions to clients, customers, and investors, and co-investing where appropriate.
- 📈 Amidi's vision includes opening more offices in the US, focusing on specific industries and collaborating with economic development and corporations in each region.
Q & A
Who is S Amidi and what is his role at Plug and Play?
-S Amidi is the CEO and founder of Plug and Play, a company that provides a platform for startups to connect with corporations for innovation and scaling.
What was the catalyst for S Amidi to become an entrepreneur?
-The Iranian Revolution led to the loss of his family's assets, prompting S Amidi to become an entrepreneur to sustain his lifestyle and living expenses.
What was S Amidi's first business venture?
-S Amidi's first business was a packaging and bottled water company, which he still operates today and has grown to about 3,000 employees and $600 million in revenue.
How did Plug and Play's first technology investment come about?
-The first technology investment for Plug and Play was in PayPal. S Amidi's brother agreed to accept $100,000 of a two-year rent payment in advance as an investment in the company.
What was the significance of the Lucky Building in Plug and Play's history?
-The Lucky Building was the first property purchased by Plug and Play, which housed interesting technology startups, including the first tenant, Peter Thiel of PayPal.
How did S Amidi's approach to investing in startups evolve over time?
-S Amidi and his team began by investing in startups as angels, learning from other VCs and angels, and eventually moved to a platform model where they could introduce startups to corporations for innovation.
What was the turning point for Plug and Play in terms of scaling their operations?
-The purchase of the Philips Electronics headquarters, a 180,000 square ft building, allowed Plug and Play to house over 400 startups and increase their chances of meeting and investing in great entrepreneurs.
How does Plug and Play facilitate collaboration between startups and corporations?
-Plug and Play runs industry-specific platforms where they introduce startups to corporations for co-development, pilot programs, and scaling, providing a clear path to production and market access.
What is the current scale of Plug and Play's operations globally?
-Plug and Play operates in 22 different verticals, accelerating over 2,500 startups a year, with 55 offices around the world, each potentially running one or many verticals.
What is the process for a startup to join one of Plug and Play's batches?
-A startup must be selected by one of Plug and Play's corporate partners or co-investors, VCs. Once selected, they join a batch and are introduced to potential clients, customers, and investors.
What is Plug and Play's strategy for opening new offices?
-Plug and Play plans to open new offices in collaboration with the economic development of the state and corporations headquartered there, focusing on specific industries and running one or many verticals in each office.
Outlines
🚀 Entrepreneurial Journey and Startup Investments
S Amidi, CEO and founder of Plug and Play, recounts his journey from a 19-year-old in California to a successful entrepreneur. Amidi was compelled to start his first company, a packaging and bottled water business, due to the Iranian Revolution, which led to the loss of his family's assets. This venture grew to a 3,000-employee business with a revenue of 600 million. Amidi's entrepreneurial spirit extended to real estate and technology investments, including a significant early investment in PayPal. His business acumen and interest in startups led to the establishment of the Plug and Play platform, which has since expanded to various industries and global locations.
🌟 Scaling Startups and Corporate Collaborations
Amidi shares his experience in scaling startups and the pivotal role of corporate collaborations. After purchasing a large building to house and support over 400 startups, he discovered his passion for working closely with entrepreneurs. This led to Plug and Play's involvement in various industries, including banking, automotive, and IoT. Amidi highlights the importance of providing startups with access to large corporations for pilot projects and scaling, which benefits all parties involved. The company's success is evident in its global expansion and the establishment of offices in strategic locations, such as Silicon Valley, Detroit, Tokyo, and Stuttgart.
🛠️ Building Bridges for Innovation and Scaling
The narrative continues with Amidi's focus on building bridges between startups and large corporations for innovation and scaling. He discusses Plug and Play's role in connecting startups with corporations like Ro diagnostic and Volkswagen, facilitating joint accelerators and co-development opportunities. This approach not only helps startups grow but also enables corporations to innovate and stay competitive. Amidi emphasizes the importance of having a clear path to production and scaling, which is achieved through strategic partnerships with corporations and investors.
🌐 Global Expansion and Future Outlook
In the final paragraph, Amidi outlines Plug and Play's global expansion and future plans. With 55 offices worldwide, the company is set to open 10 more in the US, focusing on specific industries in collaboration with local economic development and corporations. Amidi invites corporations and startups to collaborate with Plug and Play, sharing examples of successful partnerships, such as the 170 pilots with Mercedes. He concludes by expressing his enthusiasm for the entrepreneurial event and looking forward to future in-person engagements.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Entrepreneur
💡Plug and Play
💡Iranian Revolution
💡Angel Investor
💡Co-Investment
💡University Avenue
💡Corporate Innovation
💡Startup Accelerator
💡Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)
💡Silicon Valley
💡SaaS (Software as a Service)
Highlights
S Amidi, CEO and founder of Plug and Play, shares his entrepreneurial journey.
Became an entrepreneur at 19 after the Iranian Revolution, starting with a packaging and bottled water business.
The bottled water business has grown to 3,000 employees with $600 million in revenue.
Purchased the 'Lucky Building' in Palo Alto, which attracted technology startups, including PayPal.
Invested in PayPal as their first technology investment, which led to further angel investments.
Made around 65 investments, including in successful startups like Dropbox and Lending Club.
Opened a large building to house over 400 startups to increase chances of meeting and investing in entrepreneurs.
Fell in love with working with startups and helping them define their product-market fit.
Started collaborating with corporations like City Bank to use startups for innovation and digital transformation.
Plug and Play now operates in 20 different verticals, including brand, retail, advertising, and media.
Has the largest platform in the world for mobility and IoT, working with major car manufacturers.
Opened offices globally to connect startups with corporations for co-development and scaling.
Plug and Play accelerates 2,500 startups a year, providing introductions to clients, customers, and investors.
B2B businesses can benefit from Plug and Play's introductions to build relationships and secure clients.
Plug and Play is expanding with 55 offices worldwide and plans to open 10 more in the US.
Involves corporations in verticals such as smart manufacturing, supply chain innovation, and semiconductor development.
Encourages collaboration between corporations and startups for mutual benefit and innovation.
S Amidi invites corporations and startups to collaborate with Plug and Play for growth and innovation.
Transcripts
[Music]
my name is s amidi and I am the
CEO and the founder of Plug and Play I
would very much like to share with you
my entrepreneurial Journey how I started
and more
importantly what we do today at plug
play I uh was about 19 years old living
in California by Stanford
University when uh we had the Iranian
Revolution and everybody asked are you
born an
entrepreneur or do you become one or can
you teach entrepreneurship to other
people in my case I had to become an
entrepreneur
to sustain my lifestyle and living when
the Iranian Revolution happened our
family lost the all our assets so my
father who came from Iran to be with us
mention to me you're welcome to stay in
the house I will pay your tuition at the
University but for pocket money you need
to survive on your own and quite frankly
that summer of
1979 I started my first company which is
a packaging and bottle water business
which I still run till today and it's
about 3,000 people about 600 million in
revenue and I call that my day job which
is my business I started when I was 19
and because I was on University Avenue
in
paloalto we got came across a lot of
interesting technology startups when I
made a little money we purchased the
building which is called now the lucky
building and uh the first tenant was
Peter tail of PayPal and uh my brother
asked for the financial statement
because when you rent real estate you
usually ask for financial statement to
see if the company or the individual can
pay the rent and during then Peter said
he doesn't have Financial because the
company is so new but he has a lot of
money so during the
negotiation my brother Raheem agreed
with him to pay about two years rent in
advance which at that time was
$200,000 and then we agreed with him to
put 100,000 of it in PayPal and like
anything in life that's was our first
technology
investment and then we other businesses
like bottle water packaging real estate
but we would invest in four or five
startups per year as an angel another
really exciting investment was
Dropbox when uh we met Drew and rash at
Y combinator and had a follow on meeting
and because of our lack of uh knowledge
of
Technology we used to show startups to
our friends that were either VCS in this
case was seoa and we were able to
co-invest with seoa in Dropbox but why
we showed the startups to other VCS
other Angels is because we wanted to
learn from them how they
deligence as well as how we felt it was
much better to
co-invest with someone more
knowledgeable than us all in all over
seven eight years we made around 65
investment but we were very lucky to
have PayPal
Dropbox uh Lending Club and a few others
so I kind of thought if on University
Avenue in this small building we come
across so many great startup what about
if I have a big building and in
2006 I purchased the headquarter of
Philips Electronics which is about
180,000 Square ft and my first
entrepreneurial goal was to become cash
flow positive so I filled it up with
about over 400 startups and I said I'm
going to have more chance to meet great
entrepreneurs and possibly invest in
them and uh have other hopefully like
Dropbox or PayPal and quite in fact I
fell in love with doing this to the
extent that I didn't visit my main
office for the bottle water business or
packaging business for eight months and
uh I realized that my
passion is meeting these entrepreneurs
and working with them to Define their
product Market need and then if they
need additional money introducing them
to other Angel friends of mine and other
VCS and uh when we had done this many
times every day I remember that City
Bank arrived to the building with us and
they said s this mobile banking is
moving so fast and we would love to give
some startups or data they had the
sandbox with I believe
50,000 clients Anonymous data and they
say can you attract 30 startups that can
develop different apps on mobile for
Banking and we would love to to
collaborate with them and after this 3
months maybe license the technology for
the bank and I remember that was my
first experience with
corporations using startups to innovate
and digitally transform parts of the
bank and that didn't stop there I
remember Volkswagen came to us and they
were looking for certain Technologies
and we scouted finding also 10 startups
that we introduced to
Volkswagen so this all happened in early
2000 between 2006 to
2010 but now plug and plays a little bit
extended our
activity we work in 20 different ver
call brand and Retail and advertising
and media ftech insure Tech Enterprise
AI we have a largest platform in the
world for mobility and iot with
Mercedes Porsche
Volkswagen Nissan Toyota Chrysler not
salanas I can never get used to that
name
but for GM Volvo Jaguar Land Rover
Bentley so together with this
OEM we look how they would like to solve
their challenges of connected car
electric car and autonomous and our
product is the startups we bring to this
platform we run the mobility iot
platform here in Silicon C Valley in our
headquarter but we also run it in
Detroit we run it in Tokyo we run it in
stutgart
Volvo asked us to open an office in
Gutenberg Sweden and jaguar Land Rover
asked us to open an office in Midland
near their headquarter in UK what is
exciting about connecting startups with
the these large
corporation is because you could have
the best technology in the world but if
you don't have the scale that these
companies do your technology may just
stay at the University or at a lab but
when you have a clear path to production
and
scaling corporations will win the start
startups will benefit as well as plug
and play and the
investors uh will benefit as well so we
try to build a bridge between each
University and Silicon Valley for
funding as well as for doing
pilots and then for scaling the business
for example Ro diagnostic which I
believe is the largest
diagnostic equipment manufacturer as
well as testing units they came to us
about six years ago and they say the
diagnostic industry is moving from labs
and hospitals to home so we've been
running a joint accelerator with them
for five years in Munich where they
Define the interest areas and we find
the best startups from US Canada Asia as
well as Europe
Israel and we bring them to their
headquarter near Munich and they would
do
co-development we co-invest in the
startups but the most important thing
they provide to the startup is the
relationship they have with the
hospitals so they could do immediately
pilots and if the pilot is
successful they can scale the technology
of the startups you know we I mentioned
we do this in healthc care and the
latest verticle we have launched is
semiconductor it is really funny we
almost have come full circle the
building I am in was the headquarter of
Philips electronic but most importantly
for their semiconductor and across the
street from me was their Fab you know
part of the reason Silicon Valley name
is is because of the semiconductor and
the chip
industry and now us and Europe and Japan
they all would love to have more
production more development in the
country rather than importing most of
the product from Taiwan and Korea and
Asia so we are very proud at Plug and
Play that in this
22
verticals we accelerate 25 500 startups
a year and because everything for the
startup is free the only
criteria is that one of our corporate
partners and co-investors
VCS has to select the startup so they
Join one of our batches and during the
three months that they are with us we
usually introduce them to 20
clients
customers and 20
investors and we make our decision to
co-invest or not to invest some of our
startups especially B Tob
businesses they tell me S from the
introduction that the team at plug M
playay has done we received our first
five clients
and the most important thing for B2B
businesses is to build something that a
bank or an insurance company needs and
is willing to pay half a million dollar
a year for as a SAS model so I am very
pleased to be here to kind of introduce
to you and to your audience the Plug and
Play and
nowadays we have uh
[Music]
55 offices around the world that in each
office we may run one vertical or many
for example in Tokyo we run eight
verticals fintech insure Tech Supply
Chain food and packaging Etc and we are
very excited to announce oun that we
will be opening 10 offices in us we
opened we already had a Detroit Chicago
Bentonville Northwest Arkansas with
Walmart for a supply chain Innovation
platform but noways I have traveled to
Texas
Florida Arizona
Indiana and we are thinking about
opening minimum 10 offices within the
next six months each one specialized in
a specific
industry with
collaboration with the economic
development of that state as well as the
corporations that have their
headquarter there you know for example
near Austin we are doing a smart
manufacturing vertical at Cedar Park
with the Dale computer has been a
partner of ours for a long time we are
inviting other companies like Tesla and
Oracle again it's a real pleasure to be
with you if you are a corporate that uh
would like to collaborate with us and
see what how we for example with
Mercedes have done
170
pilots and 70 out of the
170 Technologies is being implemented in
the car please let us know and if
especially if you're a startup or an
entrepreneur starting your journey we
would love to meet you to see if we can
be of help to you I really hope you will
have a great event and I look forward to
joining you in person next time and uh
enjoy this entrepreneurial event all
together thank you so
[Music]
much
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