Michael Feder
’91MBA
Entrepreneur
Woodland Hills, Calif.
mfeder@aol.com
Tales of a serial entrepreneur
If entrepreneurs are born, not made, Michael Feder ’91MBA is living proof.
“As a kid, I was always doing my own projects that I turned into little businesses,” says Feder from his home office, talking over his pet parrot. “I collected and sold rocks and coins, and I made and sold leather goods from kits.”
Today Feder continues this entrepreneurial zeal by creating and launching hobbies as businesses. “I follow my passion to the fullest. . . . I’m often led by my own instincts into things I then personally create,” he says.
Always on the lookout for new opportunities, Feder says a project must first “be personally interesting to me” and then come about at the right time. “A great idea is about more than just the notion I have or somebody brings to me; it also has to be the right time to bring it to the marketplace.”
For example, Feder has just written a book called Olive Parrot Shares Her Birthday for bird owners who want something to read to their pets. Why? “Because the bird industry
has gone from about 10 million bird owners to 68 million bird owners in ten years. Not only
is there a huge market, it’s something I’m interested in.”
Feder’s niche is “seed stage companies, when it’s still ‘friends and family’ funding. People who are at the very beginning of an idea come to me. I take their idea, help get it focused, and generate all the materials needed to finance it and get it moving.” Take his current venture, Waiting Room Theater, which was started with a Brentwood dentist and will be rolled out at the American Dental Association’s spring convention. The company will develop custom DVDs for dentists’ waiting rooms.
Networking and results have made Feder a go-to person for those eager to see their ideas grow. “My reputation has grown through word of mouth. After fourteen years of doing this, enough people know me and like my work that it keeps me busy. Other than my own ventures, ventures find me!”
His experience also has shown him that an entrepreneurial life is one worth pursuing. To fellow innovators and entrepreneurs, he says, “Never give up. By that, I don’t mean, never abandon a project. I mean, never give up the process. Eventually, you may just get lucky and make a fortune, but even if you don’t, you’ll have a great, exciting life!”—Russ Moore
| Cliff notes • Founded www.cheapshipping.com, The Spirit Channel with Hard Rock Café founder Isaac Tigrett, and an Internet business incubator with a group of venture capitalists. • Creates and sells unique handbags with his wife, an award-winning designer, available at www.karanfeder.com • Authored Olive Parrot Shares Her Birthday available in March at www.villagepeepers. com. |