Ophir Tanz is the CEO and Founder of GumGum. Prior to launching GumGum, Ophir was CEO and co-founder of Mojungle.com, a mobile-media sharing platform that was sold to Shozu.com in 2007 and Fluidesign, an interactive and branding agency that he also sold. Ophir holds a B.S. and M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University.
1. What made you take the entrepreneurial leap?
I’ve had an entrepreneurial spirit for as long as I can remember. Like many startup founders, I started my first company as a teenager and have been doing them ever since. It was never a choice or “leap,” as much as potential energy waiting for release.
2. How would you rank the following factors in determining a startup’s success: Idea, Market, Team. Please explain.
Team is most important. The right team will make adjustments to the idea and find a product/market fit. The wrong team will typically fail at executing on a brilliant idea.
This being said, if we are talking about a startup whose aim is to build a meaningfully large company market this is absolutely critical. An understanding of the importance of market size is one of the most notable differences between novice and seasoned entrepreneurs. VC’s want to see a market size of $1B+. The rational is that if you achieve 10% market share, you have a $100M per year business. Obviously, the larger the total addressable market, the less market share you need to grow a large business and bigger the overall opportunity. A $250M market simply cannot support a huge company and, as such, doesn’t provide “change the world” potential. Beyond this, a large market affords an entrepreneur wiggle room to find product/market fit. As you operate a business and come to understand how important a large market is to growth and overall opportunity, it becomes a key factor in determining whether or not an idea is good.
3. What is the hardest part about being an entrepreneur?
Being an entrepreneur means constantly needing to make tough decisions with limited information. The hardest part is probably dealing with the constant uncertainty of it all. It’s an endurance game with many highs and lows and takes a strong stomach.
4. What is the most rewarding part of being an entrepreneur?
Most professionals are definitionally reliant on other people to recognize their talent and catapult their careers. I’ve always found this notion off-putting. When you are an entrepreneur, you are able to speak to the market directly and the quality of your idea and execution is ultimately judge and jury. It may be the purest form of meritocracy because it’s the market, rather than a select few decision-makers, that elevates the cream to the top. Beyond this, there is something deeply rewarding about creation. Coalescing disparate elements, people and ideas into a novel, functional whole is part of what makes humanity special.
5. What’s your advice for someone who is thinking about starting a business?
- Do it for the right reasons. I can’t tell you all the right reasons, but you know what the wrong ones are.
- Try to tackle a problem you care about solving. It’s going to be hard work, and if you’re passionate about the problem you’re solving, you’ll be empowered to navigate the peaks and valleys.
- If you are going to have a business partner, be very thoughtful about who you partner with. The best advice I can give here is to make sure your skill sets compliment each other and don’t overlap too much.
- Know your strengths and weaknesses and hire people to do what you’re not great at. Hire A-players. You’ve probably heard this before because it’s incredibly important.
- Network. At the end of the day, companies are an assembly of people making decisions. Having personal relationships with decision-makers opens doors in all sorts of ways. Having personal relationships with other entrepreneurs is important as well. They’ll understand your pain and appreciate your victories more than anyone else.
- Link up with mentors and advisors. They will add to your credibility, help you navigate difficult problems, and get you in front of the right people. If you are looking to raise institutional capital, this is the first thing you should do.
- Focus. Entrepreneurs are typically idea people, which means they have, well, lots of ideas. Resist the urge to pursue “side projects” and short-term revenue. I know how tempting it could be, but it will detract from, and potentially endanger, the larger goal.
- Take an iterative approach to development. Few things in business are as tragic as a talented team building a great product the world doesn’t need. Deploy early and often. Get customer feedback and iterate.
- Force yourself to maintain a true work-life balance. You’ll be much happier and it’ll show through.
- Life is short. Smile. Pat yourself on the back for taking on the challenge. Have fun.
6. Where can we learn more about your company?
You can visit www.gumgum.com for more information about GumGum in-image advertising. We also like to share tips and trends on our blog at blog.gumgum.com and tweet about what GumGum’s up to on www.twitter.com/gumgum.
