20 - Career Lessons From Founder and Investor James Beshara - Part One

This week on the podcast we are excited to share part one of a two-part conversation with James Beshara. James is an angel investor, founder, podcaster, and author who has been invited to speak at places like Harvard Business School, Stanford, Y Combinator, TechCrunch Disrupt, SXSW, the World Bank, and others.  Since his first paying job at 14 repairing computers, James has worked in and around technology. He's started multiple companies, invested in dozens, and experienced the full range from success to failure.  James has built a truly great career and in our first episode with him, we find out how he got started, from his earliest experiences with entrepreneurship to founding and folding a company, to setting out and starting again. Discussed in this episode:  * What is the meaning behind the name Career Crashers?  * How growing up in an entrepreneurial family impacted how he thought about starting his career * How the financial crisis wiped out a lucrative job opportunity and led James to a different path * Working for a micro-finance organization and coming up with the idea for his first startup * Starting a micro-finance business and then having to shut down because of an SEC change in policy * Bouncing back and going back to work after a business failure * Realizing that he wanted to work for himself and approaching starting a business without one fixed idea * Finding the idea and starting Tilt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt.com) Connect with James:  * Listen to the Below The Line Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/below-the-line-with-james-beshara/id1457400066?i=1000433676439 * Buy his book "Beyond Coffee": https://beyondcoffeebook.com/ * Visit his site: https://jjbeshara.com/about/