Payam Zamani

Brainstormer, Business mentor, Change Agent, Explorer, Global soul, Idea generator, Inventor, Investor, Startup, Web guru, World traveler

As a Baha’i (www.bahai.org) I was forced to escape Iran in 1987 at the age of 16. This was a dangerous path that through one of the most dangerous borders of the world would take me to Pakistan where I spent a year. My brother and I were able to come to the U.S. on June 20, 1988 as refugees. We entered the country with no more than $75 in our pockets. After graduating from University of California at Davis my brother and I founded Autoweb.com in 1994, the first online car buying service. Over 5 years we raised $100M and grew the company from concept to a significant enterprise. We took the company public on March 23, 1999. The stock was priced at $14, opened at $28 and closed the first day at $40. The company was the most active stock on NASDAQ for that day. Ultimately the company’s market cap reached $1.2B. Over the years I have founded other companies including Shout The Good, Reply! Inc & One Planet Ops... And have played investor/advisory role for many companies including The Real Real, SoulPancake, ChatSports, IronClad,... I have also been involved in a few non profits including Mona Foundation and Tahirih Justice Center, where I'm currently a board member. I'm a diehard entrepreneur and very interested in working with other entrepreneurs helping them bring their ideas to life and grow their businesses.

Entrepreneurship- Building stuff!

How Do We Create a Civil Society Online? ***The web has become a very ugly and uncontrollable place. - snark, trolls, bullying - examples of racism, hatred, death threats - faceless and anonymous, the web now sometimes reflects the worst in human nature ***Creating an online civil society - the philosopher Habermas said civil society requires a rational will, a "third force" outside of government and commerce - that third force and the rational will behind it now has just begun to exist online - the web = the world's first truly global civilization, and civilization requires civility - we cannot moderate our way to civility--it comes from within - instead, we have to find ways to inculcate spiritual and civil virtues: kindness, sociability, courtesy, love - we must spiritualize the web--not in the woo-woo, new-age sense of the word, but in the truly life-giving sense …bringing a spiritualized civil society to our first global civilization, the web

Angel investing, Education/Character Building, Entrepeneurship, Online Marketing, Operations, Product Developement, Startups and Fast Growth

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