Jeffrey Smith

Website: http://www.ridingeast.com/
Palo Alto, California, United States
Member since November 12, 2008

"And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected." John Steinbeck Quote_down

About

Education

2012 Stanford University DMA in Computer Music

I am a(n):

Slacker

Companies I've founded or co-founded:

Smule, Envoy, Tumbleweed, Simplified Media

Companies I work or worked for:

IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Ashton-Tate, Adobe/Frame

If you're an entrepreneur or corporate innovator, why?

Couldn't get a real job.

My favorite startups:

Tapjoy (I know), FAAD, Enterproid, Boccalone.

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

No insulation from the bumps and there are always bumps.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs/innovators make?

They don't focus. They try to do too much.

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

Don't trust whitey.
If you catch it, see a Dr. and get rid of it.
Never take any prisoners.
Focus.

Full bio

Jeff is the CEO and co-founder of Smule.

Smule, developer of I Am T-Pain, Ocarina, Glee, and Magic Fiddle for the iPhone/iPad, is building the new sonic network one application at a time. Smule has over 9M customers.

In addition to Smule, Jeff is currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Music at Stanford University. He previously received a BS in Computer Science at Stanford University. In between Stanford and Stanford, Jeff co-founded and ran an email security software company which he took public on the Nasdaq and grew to $50M in sales before stepping down as CEO in '05. Jeff co-founded Simplify Media in '06, which Google acquired in March of '10. Jeff is the co-author of sixteen patents in the field of email security.