Jose De Dios

Jose De Dios

Jose De Dios has 20+ years as a serial entrepreneur that has enjoyed the myriad of challenges creating change with startups where it was said “there is no room for change!”

Website: https://www.facebook.com/aplazhr
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dediosjose
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aplazhr
Others: http://www.meetup.com/startupsshowcase/ http://www.aplaz.com https://www.facebook.com/events/329047220559907/ www.startupsshowcase.com
San Francisco, California, United States
Accredited investor
Member since March 31, 2016
Quote
We live on earth but once in the human form. We are here to help others thereby helping our self. Thank God, through Yeshua", A'meen! Quote_down
  • About
Investor interests
Type of investor Angel Seed Fund
Typical investment size $25,000 - $50,000
Typical investments in a year 5
Categories of interest
Locations of interest
Credentials Accredited Investor
Activity
Investments made Whalepath, The Outsource Group, StartupsShowcase, Bouxtie.com, BISNet, Inc
Board seats Aplaz Group, Inc, StartupsShowcase
Advisory positions Aplaz, StartupsShowcase, Bouxtie.com, Zipkick, WhalePath, Ecosystm, Cityblis, Havachatt, Start-up Chile, BluePumpkin, Mysimon
Exits
M&A
The Outsource Group, $1M to $50M, Source: http://connect.trinet.com/2006/07/11/trinet-acquires-customer-assets-of-outsource-group/
Strategic Business Solutions, $1M to $50M, Source: NDA
BluePumkin, $300M to $1B, Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=25662
Mysimon, $300M to $1B, Source: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/2299.html

Companies I've founded or co-founded:
MySimon, The Outsource Group, and Strategic Business Solutions
Companies I work or worked for:
Please visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dediosjose
Achievements (products built, personal awards won):

Multi-Million Dollar Round Table-Insurance Sales

Inc500 #1 Privately Held Business "The Outsource Group" - 2002

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

My enjoyment and fullfilment in business life arrives while helping entrepreneurs become successful.

My favorite startups:

Aplaz Group, Inc, Startups Showcase, Bouxite.com, WhalePath, Zipkick, Airbnb, Facebook, Meetup,

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

The most rewarding aspect of Entrepreneurship is creating a solution or improving upon a current solution to make life more enjoyable!

The most frustrating, is running into the unexpected roadblocks that push back the success of a company!

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

1) Solidifying the Product Market Fit "PMF" This is one of the most important aspects of entrepreneurship that most entrepreneurs fail at miserably. That is to prove to themselves that the market actually wants the product/service!

2) CASH to finish the job: I've seen hundreds of amazing startup ideas die because the founders did not have the ability to keep the business going because they ran out of money!

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

1) Always have advisors that have the experience that you do not
2) Always be open to learning
3) Always sell sell sell and then sell some more!

What is the single best advise you can give to entrepreneurs?

Get to making money as quickly as possible with product/service business model. e.g. airbnb, aplaz.com, meetup.com, groupon, etc...

Get to a million users withing 90-days - virility FAST with ad-based business models. Facebook, Google, Forbes, etc...

Full bio

Jose De Dios is a 20+ year serial entrepreneur that enjoys the challenge of creating change where it’s said “there is no room for change!”

De Dios is a wonderful human with a profound passion towards helping his fellow human attain their life’s success, sometimes at his own expense. He is FAMILY centric and thrives for that purpose!

  • De Dios, has invested and currently sits on the board of various Startups based in the SF/SV area.  His keen sense of Sales 'How to make money with that product/service" has been the catylist for success in many of his startups.
  • De Dios, is an expert sales and business professional that led the investment to launch of Aplaz Group, Inc., to the benefit of the micro-business market.  Since launching, Aplaz has closed deals Allstate Insurance Agents, Emerging technology division of major I.T. companies like Microsoft-biz-spark, Google Ventures, SBDC, and several dozen Angel and VC firms.  This activity is the foundation for growing a Billion Dollar HR Services company!
  • Prior to Aplaz Group, Inc., De Dios, launched Strategic Business Solutions (SBS) to partner with small business community leaders in delivering substantial business aggregation knowledge that reduced the burdensome expense of employment.  SBS was acquired by a privately held Business Processing Outsourcing company from India.
  • During the Dot-com boom, in 1997 – De Dios wrote the business plan for The Outsource Group, LLC (TOG) and executed the first client agreement on 1/01/1998 launching TOG into the San Francisco Bay Area region. 
  • While in the background, De Dios, closed deals with 100+ affiliates enabling TOG became a force to reckon with as a Human Resources Organization (HRO).  Through his leadership, and passion for helping the SMB market, TOG grew to become the fastest growing privately held company in the US- ranked by Inc. 500 by the year end of 2002, eclipsing $289,000,000.00 annual revenue.  Founder finalized and sold his 38% share of TOG in 2004. (Trinet purchased TOG in 2006)