An Evening with Jeff Hoffman and Friends

Smith student Philip Peker ’18 writes about the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship's Speaker Series Event featuring Jeff Hoffman, held on April 20, 2017, at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

If I ask you, “Who is the most interesting man in the world?” and you answer with “Obviously, the actor from the ‘Dos Equis’ beer commercial,” it’s because you probably haven’t met Jeff Hoffman. I don’t blame you though - he won’t tell you he’s the most interesting man in the world. In fact, he won’t even tell you that he was on the founding team of Priceline.com (as well as seven other successful ventures), produced a Hollywood film and a Grammy-winning jazz album, and consults for the White House, State Department, the United Nations, and yes, even Pitbull. All he wants you to know about him is that he is a problem solver, and a really, really good one at that.

On April 20, the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship hosted another Speaker Series Event, and this was one for the books. Hoffman, serial entrepreneur, start-up maven, and modern Renaissance man, gave a captivating, edge-of-the seat talk to undergraduate and graduate UMD students alike.

Oozing confidence, wisdom and a healthy dose of wit, Hoffman led us through his life adventures. It all started when Hoffman left his small hometown in Arizona for Yale University, only to find out upon arrival that he did not have enough money to pay tuition. Instead of going back home at his parents’ urging, he decided to start a business to help pay for his tuition, which it did… for all four years. Then and there, he realized that he had a knack for solving problems.

A few years later, Hoffman found himself waiting in line for an hour at the airport just so the attendant could print out his boarding pass with a click of a button. This inefficiency infuriated Hoffman, and he turned around and asked everyone behind him in line if they are okay with waiting in line for an hour to pick up a boarding pass, a process that should only one minute. The collective groan that resounded from the line was impetus enough for Hoffman to start a business that developed, built, and sold self-check-in kiosks for boarding passes, the ones you see at airports all over today. Over the span of a few years, he was getting paid to travel the world and negotiate million-dollar deals with international airlines and airports. As a boy from suburban Arizona with an overflowing desire to explore the world, Hoffman really did “design a company around his dreams.”

While his dad was still concerned that his lack of a resume is preventing him from finding a job, Hoffman was concerned about other things, like which million-dollar offer should he take when selling his revolutionary digital ticketing company. Upon selling this business, he wasted no time in diving into another project, albeit in a similar industry. Priceline was soon born, transforming the hotel and travel industry with its novel search features and discount pricing. With Priceline, he solidified his place as a furiously effective business tycoon.

“When others ‘got to go’ to work, I get to go to work,” he says. His success lies not in his talent or skillsets (although he is well-armed in these departments); it is his attitude that has gotten his so far. “Don’t get a job, make one,” Hoffman told the audience. “Don’t worry about chasing a job. Create ‘amazing’ and money will come.” From producing NSYNC concerts, to working out with Heavyweight Champion Evander Holyfield, he highlighted moments in his life that transformed his philosophy and outlook.

He concluded the talk by underscoring the importance of “building a great team” around yourself, and then went on to introduce some of his teammates.

Asha Gary is a project manager at Global 1000, an organization that empowers impoverished inner-city communities by partnering with business, other organizations and leaders in order to level the economic playing field.

Rebeen Pasha is the founder of MyeDream Incubator, Kurdistan’s first incubator seeking to build an ecosystem that can enable young entrepreneurs, especially women and disenfranchised minorities in Iraq to realize their dreams through business.

Trevor Brooks is the CEO and founder of GunBail, an app with a mission to get illegal guns off the streets. Through this app, inmates can turn in the guns as currency in order to post bail, and return from prison to a safer community. As someone who grew up in inner-city Baltimore and spent time in the prison system, he knows better than anyone what it takes to eliminate the root cause of violence in inner-city communities across the country.

After the main event, Asha, Rebeen and Trevor joined Jeff and me for an intimate roundtable discussion about their personal experiences and the future of entrepreneurship. Here’s an excerpt from our conversation:

What are some of the challenges you encountered while building your businesses?

Trevor: I had this idea, and for me, it seemed like common sense. For most people that were never a part of the prison system or inner city life, however, they don’t get it. When I share this idea with a mayor or a governor, even if they like the idea, politics and red tape get in the way of implementation. And it’s frustrating, because this idea can save lives starting today, but a mayor tells me, “Oh this is great, but see, delegate so-and-so may not like this.” The partisanship present in politics today pushes back against these types of programs, because these programs are new, and they challenge the status quo.

Rebeen: Exactly right. It’s a very similar story with my project. When I got back to Iraq, they just announced a 75 percent hiring cut in the public sector, and 75 percent of the population is under 30 years old, and all this made for a bad situation economically for the younger generation looking to work. My idea cut right to the heart of this problem; I wanted to give these young minds a place where they can run with their ideas, and give them tools to help them actualize their ideas. I talked to officials and high-authority figures about this idea, and they didn’t think the young people of the country needed this. They turned a blind eye to the problem and said everything is fine. Two weeks later, the young people were out in the streets rioting. The status quo has an immense inertia, and the authorities hate change. The higher-ups are comfortable, so they will not work to enact change.

Jeff: It’s funny you mention that, because when a lot of times I ask entrepreneurs who their biggest competitors are, they leave one big one off the list: inertia. It’s hard to get people to do something. Change is hard, complacency is easy. Part of what makes an idea innovative is that it has the gravity to disrupt the status quo. But nothing worth doing comes easy, and the value in solving hard problems is no one else wants to solve them.

How do you get young students and entrepreneurs to think through problems they want to solve or overcome ideation barriers?

Jeff: Start small. Have students work on problems that are not too big just so they get a feel for the thinking and attitude behind entrepreneurship. Another thing is having the right kinds of events, for example, Startup Weekend. Recently, I organized a Startup Weekend at the University of Akron, Ohio, and what happened there was pretty incredible. Students came in Friday night and began throwing ideas onto the table, problems to solve, “What if we do this, what if we approach the problem like this.” Once one crazy idea was presented, more and more came out of the woodwork, and it became this free form, brainstorming session that even the shyest students couldn’t stay away from. Then, everyone has three votes to vote for their favorite ideas, and the rest of the weekend, students worked on their respective projects. It’s an empowering, democratic approach, that gives students who come in with no idea of their own, an ability to engage and partake in the ideation process.

Trevor: And let me tell you, I’m also a student of entrepreneurship, I’m just starting out. Hell, I was still incarcerated a few years back. But having someone like Jeff to mentor you, changes all that. It may be 3 a.m., Jeff is Bangkok, I’m in Baltimore, and I call him, he answers. If you’re willing to put in the work, Jeff will be there to help you, support you, and give you the tools and the network to unleash your potential. This man is more than a great teacher, he’s a friend.

Asha: But you know, Trevor is the same way. You can tell Jeff has mentored Trevor because Trevor helps me out in whatever crisis I’m in just as well. Whether its organizing an event or finding food at 2 a.m. in Ferguson after a crazy event, Trevor is there. This goes back to surrounding yourself with the right people, because yes, one person can enact change, but to sustain change, you need a team.

Jeff’s unbridled, child-like curiosity combined with his pioneering, off-the-beaten-path approach to entrepreneurship has not only made him successful, but has laid the foundation for budding entrepreneurs and businessmen and women. A true entrepreneur like Jeff innovates, problem-solves, and creates in order to have a platform to empower others to do the same. The multiplier effect is strong within the entrepreneurship community, and Jeff is proud to be one of the greatest common factors.

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, the Smith School of Business, and the UMD community thanks Jeff and company for sharing words of inspiration, and igniting the fire within all of us to work hard, do good, and to keep dreaming. 

For more information about the Dingman Center, visit: http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/dingman