Shinghi Detlefsen, BS 13 – Finding Million Dollar Ideas Everywhere

On this episode of the OneHaas Alumni Podcast, meet alum Shinghi Detlefsen, president of Wholesome Story and CEO of ExpandFi. 

Shinghi’s entrepreneurial spirit at a young age propelled him into a successful sales career with experience at major tech companies like Google and Amazon. After beginning his higher education at Berkeley City College, he transferred to Haas and a world of opportunity opened for him. 

Shinghi chats with host Sean Li about finding his entrepreneurial drive as a kid, the organizational lessons he gleaned from working at Amazon and Google, how he launched Wholesome Story with his wife, and why he believes everyone has the power to be the change they want to see in the world. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

How his entrepreneurial spirit began from a young age

“ We moved to Virginia when I was like seven from California, and I remember we were doing a yard sale for like selling stuff before we left and I was in charge of the money and selling things and I still remember being a little kid like, I loved that. I loved selling things and making money. And it always was in my interest sphere. And like, even when we moved to Virginia…I was mowing lawns, making money. I think my parents also raised me with that type of mindset where there are no handouts. You don't just get money from your parents, you need to go earn it.”

Lessons he learned from Amazon’s corporate culture 

“Amazon is a written culture, so there are no PowerPoints…You don't have a presentation where some guy stands up in front of everyone and talks about it. Everything's in a doc, so I had to learn how to write and that has been the most valuable asset that I've learned from Amazon. I still use it today. I try to have my own team lean into writing versus presenting just because it's so much more tangible and it also forces you to think very clearly.”

On leaving Amazon to take Wholesome Story to the next level

“ It was absolutely liberating…At Amazon, like you could really just work your ass off or any corporation and you can get 10% more in salary. And in a business you could work a thousand percent more and you can make a million percent more. It's like that return on your time and your effort is so much higher in entrepreneurship if things work out.”

His advice to budding entrepreneurs

“ I would focus on – aim to be a millionaire, not a billionaire. And I think, again, going back to that barrier mindset where you have the Googles and the Facebooks and that's who you want to be growing up. That's like a one in a billion chance of you hitting that, right? And a lot of people will spend a ton of time, they'll do a startup, they'll raise a ton of money, they'll be diluted to the point where they would've been better off becoming a millionaire. And so like my point to everyone is that there are million dollar opportunities everywhere, and it's simple. It's like you can create a million dollar business and you just take a problem, a small problem, and you solve it.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• X Profile
• Medium Article: “E-commerce Wars — and how the US is losing.”

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