Be Your Own Boss Friday: From Stanford Football Coach To Successful VR Entrepreneur

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Every Friday is BYOB (Be Your Own Boss Fridays). I recognize that being an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, business owner, or freelancer is also a part of The Future of Work and there are plenty of readers who fall into that category (myself included!) and many who want to be in that category. So each Friday will be devoted to that audience but the things I share should also be applicable to those with more traditional employment options as well.

In 2014 Derek Belch was working as a football coach at Stanford University while getting an MBA in business, but what he didn’t know at the time was that his Master’s thesis would change his life forever.

This week we had the pleasure of speaking with Derek, founder and CEO of Strivr, and he had a lot of great stories, advice, and wisdom to pass on to current and aspiring entrepreneurs. You will get to hear how he went from a football coach to an extremely successful entrepreneur, as well as the challenges he faced along the way.

You can watch the video of our full discussion below or just listen to the audio version as a podcast. If you want more content like this you can subscribe to our Youtube channel.

Click below to play or go here to listen on your favorite platform.

Now more than ever, people are moving from full-time employment to entrepreneurship. We are collectively realizing that the only job security that exists is the one that you create for yourself, but how? My wife Blake and I are successful entrepreneurs who both made the transition while we had full-time jobs. You can learn how here.

Today Derek leads a team of 140 employees and his customers include Walmart, JetBlue, and Verizon. Strivr was named one of Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces of 2019 and it was on the list of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2020.

In this episode of the podcast we explore:

• How Strivr was started and where the company is today
• What it was like raising money for the business and the biggest lesson Derek learned about the process
• The impact Covid-19 has had on the company
• How Derek manages his time as a husband, father, successful business owner, and CEO
• Derek’s advice for people considering entrepreneurship
• The biggest challenges he faced when starting his business

You can hear more of our stories and strategies in this episode of the Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) Podcast. Click below to play or go here to listen on your favorite platform.

Subscribe to the podcast on:

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If you enjoyed the article and want more content like this here’s what you can do:

1. Subscribe to The BYOB Podcast Newsletter to get notified when a new episode comes out (once a week).
2. Listen to episode 55 of the podcast where we talk about these things in much more detail including sharing our personal stories.
3. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and Linkedin.
4. If you’re interested in sponsoring or have suggestions for the show, you can send us an email at [email protected].