Expert Advice Profile:

 

Naveen Jain

CEO & Founder of inome and also Intelius, www.intelius.com

Also Founder of World Innovation Institute, www.thewii.org and www.naveenandanujainfamilyfoundation.org

Co-Founder of Moon Express, www.moonexpress.com

Launch year:  2003

 

Describe your business in one sentence.

inome is reorganizing the worlds information to make it person centric and giving each person access to their unique information genome

 

What led you to launch your business?

We were already the leader for almost a decade  of people-centric web innovation around organizing and analyzing personal information (Intelius business). We saw the next evolution would be individuals having their unique information genome just like their human genome and we had the expertise to develop and deliver this service.

 

How’d you land your very first customer or client?

I personally made the customer call and did the demo featuring his name and data. It made it real time and real data for the CEO to give us credibility.

 

What’s the biggest struggle you’ve encountered in running your small business?

While I wouldn’t call a $150M revenue business small, it’s important at any size company to insure your team believes they are entrepreneurs in the company. That’s why I stated a iPRIZE, awarding $100K in cash to employees with the best ideas to help our company innovate. http://www.fastcompany.com/1841906/how-inomes-100k-cash-prize-encourages-employees-innovate-entrepreneurs

 

What has surprised you most about running your business?

How every day is just as exciting as the next  as long as you have a bold vision, and the right team

 

What one thing do you know now that you wish you would’ve known when you started?

Exponential technologies would disrupt all industries

 

How do you measure success?

By the number of people’s lives I’ve positively impacted. My work as a Trustee of the Board of X PRIZE and also Singularity University is to positively affect  a billion lives. The Digital Doctor X Challenge will bring medical information via a mobile device to 3rd world countries, where common illness can lead to death.

 

What’s your must-read online resource in your industry?

I follow all advanced technology from medical to manufacturing advancements throughhttp://singularityhub.com/ because they track exponential technology breakthroughs. I also follow space via http://www.nasawatch.com/

 

If standing on a rooftop facing crowds of aspiring business owners, I would shout,

My Top Ten Lessons for An Entrepreneur:
1. Passionate
2. Focus
3. Hard Work
4. Enjoy the Journey
5. Gut Instinct
6. Flexible yet persistent
7. Team
8. Execution, execution, execution
9. Honesty and integrity
10. Give back

And read my blog post on the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naveen-jain/ten-secrets-to-becoming-a_b_817551.html