Within the Nineteen Eighties, Payam Zamani was rising up in Iran as a member of the Baha’i Religion — a gaggle persecuted by the Iranian authorities, which killed a whole bunch of Baha’is within the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Life for Baha’is within the nation had been robust even earlier than the rebellion, however it turned more and more so after the actual fact, Zamani tells Entrepreneur.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of One Planet Group. Founder, chairman and CEO of One Planet Group Payam Zamani.
When Zamani was 10, a mob incited by college officers chased him off campus and tried to kill him. He survived, and by age 16, was lastly in a position to flee the nation. Zamani recounts the 1987 escape in his e-book Crossing the Desert: The Energy of Embracing Life’s Tough Journeys, which was printed earlier this 12 months. Finally, Zamani would make a life for himself within the U.S., however his first cease was Pakistan, the place he turned a stateless refugee.
“I keep in mind the day that I used to be admitted to enter the U. S. Embassy in Pakistan as a result of the U.S. knew what [I was] coping with as a Baha’i from Iran,” Zamani says. “That was the primary time in my life, on the age of 16, I skilled human rights. There was a rustic midway around the globe that valued my life greater than my very own nation did. And that’s one thing that at all times caught with me.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of One Planet Group
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Zamani stayed in Pakistan for a 12 months earlier than he and his brother Frank Zamani arrived in San Francisco, California in 1988. The brothers had $75 between them and labored no matter jobs they may to make ends meet. Zamani completed his final 12 months of highschool and attended UC Davis whereas his brother enrolled at Chico State. Zamani studied environmental toxicology with the thought of going into drugs; his brother majored in pc science.
Nevertheless, by the point he graduated, Zamani had a unique skilled objective: He wished to begin a enterprise within the environmental area. “I knew little or no,” Zamani says. “I used to be solely 23 years previous. I had simply come to the U.S. I had simply realized English. I used to be talking the language with a thick accent.”
“I had owned 16 automobiles already, low cost automobiles. I’d purchase and promote them to expertise completely different automobiles.”
However Zamani would understand one other entrepreneurial alternative. In 1994, his brother landed a job at Microsoft and was available on the market for a brand new Honda. He known as Zamani to tell him of a discovery: Honda did not have an internet site. Zamani did not know a lot in regards to the web on the time (few folks did), so he wasn’t essentially stunned that the automotive producer did not have a web based presence.
Nonetheless, when his brother instructed they begin an internet site dedicated to automobiles, Zamani was intrigued — as a result of automobiles had been his ardour. “I had no cash,” Zamani says, “however I had owned 16 automobiles already, low cost automobiles. I’d purchase and promote them to expertise completely different automobiles. And I liked the thought of arming customers with extra data than the automotive sellers and salesmen had.”
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Zamani describes a standard state of affairs: You negotiate the worth of a automotive, buy it, then come dwelling, and a pal or member of the family who is aware of automobiles tells you it was a foul deal. Zamani wished to take the entire guesswork and remorse out of the equation; he wished folks to have the main points they wanted to navigate the transaction successfully. They’d name their enterprise AutoWeb.
“We had been the primary firm ever to offer bill costs of automobiles to customers,” Zamani says. “Sellers didn’t prefer it, however our view was, ‘Look, if the customers present up, the business will inevitably present up. So, it’s our job to make it engaging to customers, after which the sellers will compete for the customers’ transactions. And that turned out to be the case.”
“It was in opposition to all odds that we had been in a position to construct that enterprise and develop it to what it turned.”
Within the Nineties, Zamani says he and his brother had been “the oddballs in Silicon Valley.” They knew nothing about beginning a enterprise. They’d no community within the U.S., so that they had no mentors. They did not know the time period “enterprise capital” till a VC reached out to them. But no problem appeared insurmountable after what they’d already overcome, Zamani remembers.
“It was perseverance and being on the proper place on the proper time and assembly some phenomenal folks alongside the way in which that ended up serving to us,” Zamani explains. “Nevertheless it was in opposition to all odds that we had been in a position to construct that enterprise and develop it to what it turned.”
Fundraising proved a major hurdle. In these days, if you happen to weren’t a white man from an Ivy League college, you would not get funded, Zamani says. So, though AutoWeb continued to develop and see success, it wasn’t attracting buyers. “At present we see that that is commonplace, in fact, for girls in Silicon Valley, that they’ve a really onerous time getting funding,” Zamani notes. “And again then, that problem was prolonged to even males if they didn’t match the mildew.”
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The Zamani brothers needed to go all the way in which to Fort Lee, New Jersey to lift cash — and “at a a lot decrease valuation than any firm in our scenario would have raised.” What’s extra, it wasn’t till the spherical earlier than AutoWeb’s IPO that enterprise capital in Silicon Valley was prepared to again it, albeit nonetheless at a considerably decrease valuation than peer corporations would obtain, based on Zamani.
AutoWeb went public in 1999 and reached a $1.2 billion valuation, with shares peaking at $50.
“Our pockets are full, however we really feel empty. There’s one thing essentially lacking.”
Zamani was in New York on the day of the IPO. “I am embarrassed to say this in the present day, however what went via my thoughts at that second when the corporate was going public for $1.2 billion was, Now I’ve obtained to do one thing greater,” Zamani remembers. At simply 28 years previous, Zamani wasn’t ready for that stage of economic success, he admits.
The corporate additionally wished a brand new CEO. “Silicon Valley liked hiring gray-haired folks for CEO roles, and I didn’t get that mildew both,” Zamani says. “So we employed a CEO who I didn’t suppose was the best man for the job, and he proved that very quickly after. So I made a decision it was time to maneuver on and do one thing else in my life.”
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Zamani was dissatisfied along with his expertise on Wall Road. He says that whereas founders try to construct corporations, VCs and Wall Road need to maximize the share worth, even when it means manipulating it earlier than they’re “in a position to dump it on the proper time and transfer on.”
“That type of capitalism is what has left us all, even the entrepreneurs, founders and executives, feeling that we’re empty on the finish of it: Our pockets are full, however we really feel empty,” Zamani says. “There’s one thing essentially lacking.”
“I wished to ensure that no matter I construct considers the true essence of who we’re as people.”
So Zamani determined to lean into his non secular upbringing for his future enterprise endeavors. In 2015, he based One Planet Group, a personal fairness agency that invests in early-stage corporations specializing in the way forward for mobility, training enhancements, well being expertise and environmental options.
Zamani says the group’s identify evokes the concept we’re all residents of 1 nation: Planet Earth.
“I wished that idea of unity to be an vital a part of no matter I used to be constructing,” he explains, “and I wished to ensure that no matter I construct considers the true essence of who we’re as people, because the non secular beings that we’re. I do not need to have a look at you or anybody else I’ll work with as a shopper, as a competitor, as an worker, as a token of financial worth, however moderately one thing a lot larger than that.”
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“In case you’re making that journey one thing that is value dwelling, you’ll at all times really feel fulfilled.”
Zamani says he could not perceive why nonprofit organizations needed to stand for the folks and companies for greed, so he is doing what he can to bridge the hole.
In 2022, Zamani and One Planet Group skilled a full circle second: the acquisiton of AutoWeb. The deal, valued at just below $5.5 million, was not solely a compelling monetary alternative, but additionally one with private significance, Zamani says. “It was an opportunity to deliver closure to a chapter that had remained unwritten for years,” he explains. “Returning to the place all of it started and guiding it ahead was each significant and fulfilling.”
In response to Zamani, aspiring entrepreneurs who need to make an affect with a enterprise of their very own ought to discover a mentor, at the start — not a member of the family, however somebody who will let you know the reality.
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Then floor your self in values that fulfill your wants as a human and elevate your enterprise to assist different folks.
“On the finish of the day, that may make your journey much more fulfilling,” Zamani says. “The very fact is the overwhelming majority of companies do not survive. So that you need to make that journey value experiencing, and never simply searching for an exit, searching for an IPO which will by no means occur. Then you definitely really feel like, ‘Ah, that was a failure.’ However if you happen to’re making that journey one thing that is value dwelling, you’ll at all times really feel fulfilled whether or not or not that climax comes about in your enterprise.”
