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Cerda has spent 25 years driving innovation across media, financial services, and tech. Along his circuitous trajectory, Cerda co-founded Ooma, which originally offered free long-distance calling (“Napster for phones”), he had leadership positions at Facebook (where he prophetically warned Mark Zuckerberg of the siloing effect of algorithms), The Walt Disney Company, Goldman Sachs, and TelevisaUnivision.
He muses, “I realized that life isn’t something you can plan too explicitly. It’s kind of like a startup, where you can have a plan, but it’s likely going to change due to new information or unforeseeable circumstances.”
Situated at what he describes as “the epicenter of the technology startup world,” he provides an unburnished insider’s look at emerging tech industries over the past few decades, along with corporations looking to add to their offerings via tech. His hard-won lessons turned him into a thought leader with wisdom to impart about leadership, strategy, team building, innovation, and — across it all — the importance of human connection in achieving any aspiration.
As he analyzes the full span of his career from his current vantage point, he offers insights he came to along the way. In one chapter, he shares this journal entry from 2007, “For most of our lives, many of us are driven by what are ultimately optics. I was mulling the other day just how often optics align with what matters… When I graduated from college, I think my GPA was 2.5. Those optics wouldn’t have gotten me into any kind of business school had I applied. Yet, I have been through 2 IPOs, an acquisition, and have started 3 companies, all of which still exist. I like the way things turned out, despite my poor college grades.”
At certain points in his career, he was able to play his ace-in-the-hole — his musical prowess — to open exciting doors with other musicians to form like-minded partners, receptive companies, and amenable venture capitalists.
Cerda weaves timeless “takeaways” throughout the in-depth account of his extraordinary climb from salesperson to product designer to business development to founding startups. Many center around how he perceives the secret to building something — for example, “At its heart, building isn’t just about technology or products; it’s about the people you build with and the culture you foster.”
One of his most telling reflections includes a list he created in 2008 after he and his partner sold their startup Jangl – initially allowing a phone number to be blocked for the safety of online dating members and later as a direct-to-consumer service. Titled “Things I’ll do differently next time,” it describes the learnings he intends to apply when he starts his next company. One entry reads: “Funding: If you’ve been fund raising for 5 months and seen half of Sand Hill Rd, stop, fold that tent and pitch a new one. You don’t want money from the firms that were on the bottom of your xls list; otherwise you’ll always be building for them and not the business.”
Build Something adds a unique and engaging perspective on a career as a series of experiments. The risks taken, the lessons learned, the victories achieved, and the failures endured all shape us — and ultimately come from stepping into the unknown.
To learn more, visit www.build-something.com.
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