Giving in to the Monkey: Mike Smerklo

<p>Managing director of <a href="https://nextcoastventures.com/">Next Coast Ventures</a></p> <p>Show notes: <a href="https://www.markgraban.com/mistake47">https://www.markgraban.com/mistake47</a></p> <p>My guest for Episode #47 is <a href="https://www.mikesmerklo.com/about/">Mike Smerklo</a>. He is an entrepreneur, an investor, he’s the co-founder and managing director of <a href="https://nextcoastventures.com/">Next Coast Ventures</a>. He was one of the first employees at Loudcloud, recruited there by&nbsp; Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.</p> <p>in 2003, he purchased ServiceSource, a 30-person technology services startup in San Francisco. As CEO over the next 12 years, he grew the business into a successful 3,000-person publicly traded company with close to $300M in revenue.</p> <p>Mike now shares his lessons in his book <a href="https://amzn.to/38avAF2"><em>Mr. Monkey and Me: A Real Survival Guide for Entrepreneurs</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p>In today's episode, Mike shares favorite mistakes about giving into “fear, uncertainty, and doubt” and how he made the mistake of trying to be a blend of two very different leaders who were both role models to him. We also talk about why he wrote the book and the “SHAPE” formula — Self Awareness, Help, Authenticity, Persistence and Expectations.</p> <p><br></p> --- Support this podcast: <a href="https://anchor.fm/favorite-mistake/support" rel="payment">https://anchor.fm/favorite-mistake/support</a>