jan rezab - socialbakers - czech republic - stanford engineering - feb 27 2012

Jan Rezab 27th of February 2012

European Entrepreneurship & Innovation (ME421)

Stanford School of Engineering

3 things I find interesting in sharing with you today:

1. My Story

2. My passion / My Way

3. My Company

Garage company U.S. vs. Central Europe

• Difference between U.S. and European garage companies

U.S. Before U.S. Now

My beginnings

• Mobile gaming company REDBOSS founded in 2001

• I was 14 years old

• At 18, received Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Ernst & Young

• Built up to 40 people in a couple years, over 40 gaming titles, over 100+ deals with distributors around the world

Learning to lose

• REDBOSS - closed the company in 2007/8

• Losing in Europe is taken differently in Europe = it’s basically not acceptable

• When you lose, you are a loser – everyone thinks you should stop working

• When you lose, nobody will want to work with you

• You will always carry the “loser“ mark

• I built the company with zero funding, organically

• This all gave me even more energy to challenge and succeed

Building companies from Europe

• Better to be bootstrapped

• Hard (expensive) access to funding

• Not enough access to the network

• The “Techcrunch” effect

• Access to more cost effective people than in the Valley

• Hard to find internationally minded people

How I try and do my work

• Constantly learn new things – read everything on the market

• Don’t become the market leader, become the thought leader first – immerse yourself in the market

• Get the best people around

About Socialbakers

• London, Prague, San Francisco, Munich

• 330,000 marketers across 60+ countries, every continent

• Founded in 2008 as Social Media Agency

• Team of 90+ people, Launched Socialbakers platform 2009

• Facebook Preferred Developer Consultant

Used by Leaders

“We are a „customer developed‟ company,” said Jan Rezab, who is

the CEO and co-founder of Socialbakers. “Our customers kept

telling us the metrics they wanted to see.”

October 31, 2011

Brands & Media companies

• We build ranks of brands, media companies, movies, politicians, etc.

Brands & Media companies

Some facts about Socialbakers

• 330.000 unique visits from marketers each month

• 120.000 registered marketers, almost 100.000 fans across social networks

• Hundreds of paying customers

• Customers from over 60 countries

What we offer to marketers

Changing Marketing

2. 1. 2012 – Socialbakers Elections infographic

3. 1. 2012 – AdWeek Reports: President Obamas family picture most viral on Facebook

21. 2. 2012 – Washington Post: Obama Selects family photo as his key campaign image

Sum-up on thoughts

1.MY STORY When I failed, it helped see things from a better perspective

2.EUROPE Europe has great potential, great possibilities When there is passion, money comes

3.SOCIALBAKERS Believing that something will be really big is key

Jan Rezab

jan@socialbakers.com

/janrezab, @janrezab