The Entrepreneur Philosopher
Evolve, Always!
SID MOHASSEB
LIFE IN BRIEF
Sid is a published author, serial entrepreneur, venture investor,
university professor, board member, business thought leader and public speaker.
From a very young age, Sid learned not to leave change to chance.
At 7 he learned to be self-sufficient in treating the genetic blood disorder (Hemophilia) he suffered from. At 14, he learned to balance intellect and humility and published his first book of poetry. At 16 he convinced his parents that his future must be shaped in America and migrated to US without his family. Working through engineering school he learned that self-sufficiency begins with selflessness; to succeed one must be able to continually deliver value to friends, family and society.
Embracing his entrepreneurial talents, at 21, Sid started and exited his first company while at college. Pursuing his curiosity around the purpose of life, he explored various spiritual and philosophical schools of thoughts. At 25, he taught comparative Eastern and Western philosophy. Sid’s professional career was built on being a trusted advisor. At 27, he became the youngest partner of a national management consulting firm serving fortune 500 clients.
Early in his career, Sid realized that trust, flexibility, agility and authenticity are the cornerstones of progress. During the next three decades, he supported large scale acquisitions, acted as the principal investor and operator in company turnarounds. As serial entrepreneur, Sid founded and led several early-stage and hyper-growth companies from inception to acquisition. Many times over, he shouldered the responsibility for meeting payroll and wrote checks to acquire or invest in companies; learning to think both like an investor and a founder; facing, accepting, and overcoming his share of failures and successes in ideas and ventures. Along the way, Sid learned that the wounds of failures are the pathways to our next best version.
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As an educator, he has influenced the minds of many across the globe. To see students comprehend concepts through the sparkle of their eyes, is Sid’s true passion. He has taught Strategy, Finance, Venture Capital, Negotiation and Data Analytics to MBAs and Graduate level Engineers at University of Southern California (USC), Chapman University, and University of California in Irvine (UCI). He has also created and delivered leadership and management programs attended by thousands of corporate executives. Sid considers the privilege to impact others on their life path and to provoke and motive them to discover their authentic self and excel as his greatest accomplishment.
As a professional fund manager and angel investor, Sid has mentored dozens of entrepreneurs, met with hundreds of start-up companies, and reviewed countless business plans. In his support of the entrepreneurial community he served as a mentor for Kaufman Foundation and a commercial evaluator for National Science Foundation. Sid contributed to the California Legislature in empowering the small business community. He founded The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE) organization in South Coast and served as the president of the largest seed funding organization in US.
As an advisor and board member, he has counseled corporate leaders across a wide spectrum of industries and scale – from fortune 500 to a man and a laptop ventures. In his journey, Sid appreciates the perspectives of conglomerates, middle market players and start-ups. Working with some of the most exciting leaders and organizations, Sid has learned the value of people and cultures, experimentation and innovation, and clarity of thought and communication.
As a thought leader, he has been featured at TEDx as well as on various Television, Radio programs and Podcasts. Amongst others, his articles have been published in Inc. and Forbes. His case studies are available on Harvard Business Review and used by educators globally. His book the Caterpillar’s Edge made the top 100 best business and strategy books on Amazon and is recommended to MBA students by various universities. His new book “The Entrepreneurial Philosophy” is scheduled for a late-2020 release.
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Sid has earned a reputation as the “Entrepreneur philosopher.”
He believes in our individual ability to shape our destiny. There are always infinite opportunities ahead of us, regardless of our origins and limitations. Our transformational mindset and ability to embrace uncertainty and leave our addictions to sameness behind are key to realizing our next best version - to evolve. To be impactful, Sid believes that we have to realize that we are the sculptor, the artist who is always working on and perfecting our masterpiece – the sculpture of self. He considers entrepreneurship a talent that we all possess. A talent that is stimulated as we acknowledge our capabilities and pursue our love of wisdom – our Personal Entrepreneurial Philosophy (PEP)
Sid continues to believe that progress is rooted in staying relevant and not leaving change to chance.
CLIENTS SERVED ALONG THE WAY
Advance MP Technology
Allegheny County, PA
American Honda Motor Co.
Beverly Enterprises
California AOC
CALTRANS
Carl Karcher Enterprises
CCH - Computax
Central Judicial District, - OC
Church of Latter-Day Saints
Chrysler Corporation
Citrus Judicial District
City of Las Vegas, NV
City of Long Beach, CA
City of Louisville, KY
City of New York, NY
City of Pasadena, CA
CNN
County and City of Sacramento
County of Broward, FL
County of Clark, NV
County of Cook, IL
County of Jefferson, ky
County of Los Angeles, CA
County of Maricopa, AZ
County of Pima, AZ
County of Riverside, CA
County of Yolo, CA
Employ America
Federal Reserve Bank
First Interstate Bank
Flextronics (Flex)
Ford Motor Company
General Telephone Company
Grumman Space Systems
Home Savings of America
Hughes Helicopter
Hughes Micro Electronics
International Business Machines - IBM
ISD Corporation
Johnny Rockets
Kia Motors
Krause’s Sofa Factory
Langenthal Corporation
Long Beach Judicial District
Malibu Judicial District
Marie Callender's
Micrologics Inc.
Morrison & Forester LLP
Motorola Inc.
National Center for State Courts
National Medical Enterprises
Mattel Toys Inc.
McDonnell Douglas
National Starch & Chemical Corp.
Nevada Depr. of Transportation
NDT Systems, Inc.
NRCCUA
Orange County Superior Court
Pac*Tel - Pacific Bell
Paramount Pictures Corporation
Permira (Private Equity)
Riverside Judicial District
San Diego Housing Commission
Santa Barbara County
Southern California Gas Company
State of California
State of Texas
State of Washington
Sterling Partners
TelAutograph (Omnifax)
Toyota Motor Company
Tuftex Industries
Union Bank
Wells Fargo Bank
WellPoint
Zeus Components (Arrow)
… & MORE
ACADEMIC
CONTRIBUTIONS
Your transformational mindset is the forever engine of your innovation factory.
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Currenttly Adjunct professor at University of Southern California (USC) Marshall Business School – Focus: Dynamic Business Strategy and Execution
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Currently Adjunct Professor at USC - Viterbi School of Engineering
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Facilitation of executive workshops conducted for over 8500 middle managers and hundreds of senior executives across many organizations nationwide
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Former Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University – Focus: Strategic Management & Venture Capital investment
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Former faculty at University of California at Irvine (UCI) – Focus: Business Globalization
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Former faculty at Saddleback College – Focus: Small Business Management & Venture Capital Investments
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Former faculty and member of the power of angel investing sponsored by the Kaufman foundation
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Former Advisory Board member, Chapman University Business School
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Former Advisory Board member, University of California at Irvine Business School
“Business wars are won on the battle ground, in the market place, a common problem is that board rooms are disconnected from the foxholes and strategies are often not responsive to the constantly changing competitive realities”
BOARD
CONTRIBUTIONS
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Anabasis, Inc. (Chairman) – Management Consulting Services / Turn around services Clupidia, Inc. – Business to Consumer Internet Content play
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Venture Farm (Chairman and GP) – Early Stage Seed Funding
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Vital Source, Inc. – Global Distribution of Electronics Components
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Cerius Executives - Interim Executive Solutions
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NDT Systems, Inc. – Ultrasonic Testing Equipment Manufacturing
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Competitive Knowledge (Chairman) – Internet Content Aggregation B2B
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Trend Point Systems, Inc. Power & Energy Optimization Product Manufacturing
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AccuScore – Sports Analytics and Predictive Modeling
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Wise Window (Chairman) – Unstructured Data Analytics
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XS Capacity (Chairman) – Trucking and Transpiration Technology Platform
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Vator.TV (Advisory) – Platform for Entrepreneurial Interaction
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Non-profit advisory board: Chapman University
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Non-profit advisory board: University of California Irvine (UCI),
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Non-profit advisory board: Southern California Technology Council
SPEAKING & PRINT CONTRIBUTIONS
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Featured speaker at TEDx, “Exploring the Collective Conscious”
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Harvard Business Review Publications > HBR Cases
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Frequent keynote speaker and panel participant e.g. American Association of Accountants, Oracle Symposium (open world), Microsoft Exchange 365, National Credit Union CEO Roundtable, Various Private Equity CFO and CEO special events, Various Corporate Retreats, Harvard Alumni Group, IEEE organization, TiE organization, Venture Association, Technology Council, IDEA, National Retail Association, etc.
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Frequent Speaker at various universities on entrepreneurship, innovation, commercialization, data Analytics and Strategy e.g. UCI, UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, Concordia, North Carolina University, Wharton Business School, etc.
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Served as the host and moderator for a national radio program on good Business practices with a 7.5 million audience in four states.
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Publication: The Caterpillar’s Edge – evolve, evolve again and thrive in business - distributed by Simon & Schuster.
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Forbes.com contributor & business council member
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Publication: Management Handbook of Strategy, “Knowledge: The True Return on Information”
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Publication: Energy Magazine, “The Role of Operations Research in Asset Allocation Planning”
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Publication: Houston Business Journal, “Restorative Management”
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Publication: CEO Express, “Transcending Transaction: Achieving Competitiveness Through the Internet”
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Publication: USA Technology, “Components as Commodities”
& MORE ...
INTELECTUAL PROPERTY & INNOVATION
In addition to contributions to formulation of six technology driven business process patents, Sid was recognized as the architect for innovative business approaches and software solutions such as: the Resource Allocation model (RAM – winner of the Innovation in Government Kleps award) , Executive Dashboard model, Operations Planner Resource Optimization model, the HOPES Utility Forecasting system, the Sentence Screening system and Vibes (Edison Innovation award Silver medalist, 2nd to Google, as well as Tech America’s innovation award).
ENTREPRENURE
COMMUNITY
CONTRIBUTION
Your uniqueness is your true advantage; apply your talent and your wisdom to shape your Personal Entrepreneurial Philosophy and realize that advantage.
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Founding President of the Orange County Chapter of TiE (largest entrepreneur organization – 50+ countries
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Past President & Board member of Tech Coast Angels, Orange County (largest seed investment entity in US)
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Former Board Member Southern California Technology Council
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Member of California Assembly Committee for Economic Growth
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National Science Foundation Commercial Evaluator
DEEP DIVE INTO HISTORY
The Path to NOW
Prior to the KPMG’s acquisition of Wise Window, Inc., a data analytics company, in April 2012, Professor Mohasseb was the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board for the company. At KPMG, he served as a member of the US Data Analytics leadership team and as the national strategic innovation lead for the Strategy Practice.
Prior to leading Wise Window from inception through acquisition to KPMG, Sid was the Managing Director of Venture Farm LLC, a seed funding firm, where he raised the fund and helped the portfolio companies from inception to harvest. He was also the President of the Tech Coast Angels in Orange County, the largest Angel investment organization in US. He served as the CEO of Vital Source, Inc., a global distributor of electronic components with offices in the US, Europe and Asia where he led the company on a 30-fold revenue growth over a three-year period. He was also the Chairman / CEO of Competitive Knowledge, Inc. (CKI) - a, data focused, VC backed Internet Company. After his tenure as a partner at the SGS Group (a national management consulting firm), he founded Anabasis-Straub, a strategy and operations management consultancy entity, serving municipalities and Fortune 500 clients and led a number of Private Equity transactions as a member of the turnaround team, the principal investor and a member of the Board of Directors.
The Focus NOW and BEYOND
Following the success of his recent book “The Caterpillar’s Edge”, Sid is involved with speaking engagements, high level advisory activities, and expanded academic commitments. He is focused on writing books and is an adjunct professor at University of Southern California (USC) Marshall Business School as well as Viterbi Engineering school. Selectively, he serves as corporate advisory and board roles and makes early stage investments.
As an author, adjunct professor, a venture capitalist, a few times over corporate CEO, Strategic Innovation lead in Strategy for a conglomerate, a Harvard trained negotiator, a veteran board member and a featured TED Speaker, Sid’s real expertise is in connecting theory and reality and helping people see the bend in the road ahead and make visions a reality.