Every culture has its own lexicon, slogans. Here’s some business precepts I still see a lot—old and new and very true.
“From our mistakes we gain experience. From experience we gain success.”
Don DiCostanzo made mistakes in the nine years he and Terry Sherry built Pedego Electric Bikes. Not many. Their Fountain Valley co. was named this week to INC 5000’s fastest-growing pvt cos. The $12.7 million in electric bikes the boys sold last year ranks 1st in the U.S. And the founders aren’t worried about competition.
“We picked the 2-3 best factories in Shanghai—from about 1,400—we got the best store locations,” DiCostanzo said, a former Business Journal Entrepreneur of the Year. The avg. Pedego customer is 58-59, so they have a few choice locales in Florida. The boys own about 70% of the company and eight stores, the rest are licensees—bike owners who ask for a store. “The more stores we open, the more stores we open,” Sherry laughs.
“We’re No. 1, and nobody’s chasing us,” said “D.D.”
So you’re saying, Don … “We built a moat.”
“We disrupted the bike business in a big way.” “Disrupter!”—a new imperative. Oh those mistakes—Pedego spent years canoodling to brands like Ford and Tommy Bahama—made $0. But they took comfort. One day they spied Lee Iacocca loading EV Global bikes into a trunk in Newport. “Heavy acid batteries and too early,” D.D. smiled. A mistake by the man who preached, “Before you make a sale, make a friend.”
“Build a culture first.”
Bob Bassett set out in 1981 to build the finest film & TV school in the world—no space, wasn’t even a school yet. He had vision—of a culture. “The key thing is we were going to be a production-oriented film school. Learn by doing. Most schools are theoretical,” said the only dean Chapman’s Dodge College has ever had.
“The equipment is an important foundation. What’s most important is the culture. When I got there in ’81, the kids were creatives, mostly from theater. Now they mentor each other, send for each other.” (Testimony—and full disclosure, Chapman is “my old school”—find one “Chappie” on a film, in a newsroom, on a set—you find 5).
35 years later, Bassett-built, state-of-the-art studios and culture are paying off.
In 2015 Daniel Drummond became Chapman’s first Oscar winner. “Chiaroscuro” is a creative film where “the audience has to connect the dots.” What Bassett pictured in ’81.
“Discover your own voice—get out there. We let them do (and own) their work.”
This week The Hollywood Reporter lifted CU to No. 6 among U.S. film schools, largely based on alums —like Justin Simien, (’05,) whose hit film “Dear White People,” is now a Netflix TV hit. “I was encouraged to explore the sandbox,” Simeon said. “Get messy and start making mistakes.”
“And from those mistakes…”
Simien’s isn’t the only Chapman-nurtured Netflix hit. The Duffer Brothers’ (’07) “Stranger Things” is nominated for 18 Emmys.
Memo to Disney and Apple about Netflix: . “They built a moat.”
