Profile of Richard Wolpert, Keiretsu Forum Westlake Village Member
Column by John P. Dilts, Chapter President, Keiretsu Forum Westlake Village and Los Angeles

JD: What is your current role at Real Networks and what responsibilities do you have?

RW: My title is Chief Strategy Officer but that doesn't clearly define my role.  Rob Glaser, the CEO, and I set it up that way on purpose so that I could be used in a variety of different ways depending on the need.  For the last 18 months I was effectively the EVP of the Consumer Division of RealNetworks.  This is the group responsible for RealPlayer, Rhapsody, RealArcade, Starz Ticket and all other consumer facing properties.  At this point in time the Consumer division represents about 80% of the business of RealNetworks.  2004 was a huge growth year ending the year with 266M in sales, an increase of 32% from the 202M of CY 03.  I enjoyed being in the operational role however I live and never plan to leave LA and RealNetworks is in Seattle so the operating job came to involve too much travel.  As such I moved back into more of a traditional Chief Strategy Officer role the first of this year working on strategic partnerships and longer term corporate initiatives.

JD: Describe your career beginning with your first job after college and continuing to the present.  Please give detail on any significant benchmarks that you achieved.

RW: Here is a summary:

JD: You have had some famous partners - describe your role in working with them and explain the challenges you faced.

RW: I have carved an interesting niche for myself which is halfway between Media and Technology.  This is an interesting space and it is hard to find people who can speak and communicate in both worlds.  One of my famous partners was from the entertainment community.  One was from more of a finance background with a focus on supermarkets. Others have been from a technology background.  Often I joke that my role is that of an interpreter from English to English across different fields where people have trouble communicating.  Another role that I believe I have mastered is figuring out how to work with people who are extremely wealthy (i.e. billionaires), famous, and who have the ego to match.  This is no small task and the stories are amazing but I need to have a cocktail or two before I say anymore.  One thing I will say is that working with these individuals can be tricky given that their financial resources are so vast, they are at times more concerned about their "position" in the world than they are the finite return on a deal.

JD: What lessons would you pass on to aspiring entrepreneurs regarding choosing partners?

RW: If you are great at what you do, it will be very, very hard to find a partner that will not disappoint you in some ways.  This is what I call the curse of competence.  The more competent you are the fewer people you will find who are as or more competent than you.  This is of course a blessing and a curse at the same time.  Choose a partner who will "assist" you in your quest but do not "rely" on them for the success.

JD: Describe some of your biggest challenges you faced as an entrepreneur and how you overcame them.

RW: When I was running After Hours Software, which I had for 8 years before selling it to Aldus, there were many, many times that I felt that it was simply to much work and risk and that things were not going to work out, particularly in the first few years.  Some older wiser friends of mine pointed out that if starting and building a successful company was easy, many more people would do it and succeed.  This thought always stuck in my head and reminded me at those difficult times that I was doing something challenging and potentially rewarding and that it was not supposed to be easy--this helped a lot.  Also the younger you are with the least amount of monthly financial personal obligations (re: mortgage, etc) the easier it is to be an entrepreneur.

JD: What key attributes do you look for in entrepreneurs and their companies when considering an early-stage investment?

RW: This is the 64k question that I don't know how to answer in words.  In the end when you invest in a start-up you are investing in the people at least as much, if not more, than the idea.  I usually get a feeling within the first 10 minutes of meeting someone at their facility if I think it makes sense or not.

JD: Who were some of your supporters/mentors along the path of your career and how did they help you?

RW: Guy Kawasaki, an early member of the Macintosh team who was an angel investor and mentor in After Hours Software. There are also friends who have been willing to follow me into battle through many different ventures such as Edmond Mesrobian, Juan Gonzalez, Minah Oh, Brian Ringer and Lili Rahmati who have always been there.

JD: How did you decide that it was the right time to become an entrepreneur when you started your first company?  What steps did you take to get started?

RW: I was 24 when I started After Hours Software. I was wise enough to be naive enough to think I could do it.  I was young and hungry and I didn't have any expenses or family obligations and I decided if not then, then when?

JD: How would you compare working for a big conglomerate (e.g. Disney) versus running your own start-up?  What were the pros and cons?

RW: For me the pros are in running your own startup because of the thrill of having the idea and building a team and seeing it come to fruition.  Disney however was extremely valuable for me.  I learned what it was like to work inside of an international conglomerate and therefore, from the outside, how to get deals done with those types of companies.  Another benefit of a Disney is that your ideas can go much further into the mainstream given the resources of a company of its size.  So I have enjoyed both for different reasons at different times in my life.

JD: What do you wish that you knew as an aspiring entrepreneur that you know now?

RW: This may seem odd but I cannot think of many things here.  In fact I believe the more you know the more difficult it might be to become an entrepreneur.  What I mean is this: when you start something from scratch, the odds are often against you.  The challenges at times seem insurmountable.  I remember after selling After Hours Software to Aldus I thought that I had I known all that it would take to get there I may have never tried it.  But I did and it all paid off. So in that case, and I believe in many like it, the unfettered optimism is a key to taking the leap.

JD: What are the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make in your opinion?

RW: Thinking things will happen much faster than they do.  Not selling the company when they get a great offer because they believe it is worth twice as much (I have seen this happen a few times where the companies have gone on to go out of business). Not hiring great people.

JD: What current trends do you see in technology that interest you from an investment standpoint?

RW: One of the trends which is very hot right now is digital home networking and music and movie distribution wirelessly throughout the house.  I just returned from CES [Consumer Electronics Show] in Vegas and this certainly was where most of the companies are heading.