THE LONG VIEW  

Mehdi Maghsoodnia is the CEO of Rafter, which provides a cloud-based platform designed to help colleges and universities make educational content more affordable, effective, and accessible. Mehdi has over 20 years of experience building great teams and operating both startups and public companies. Before Rafter, Mehdi was SVP of products and services at CafePress, a company he joined in the early days and grew the company to over $130M in revenues. Prior to CafePress, Mehdi was SVP of products at Intellisync which held 90% ownership of the mobile sync market before being bought by Nokia for $450M. Mehdi has held a number of executive positions at other Valley companies and currently sits on the board of FaceTime, Pbworks and Fotomoto. A geek at heart, Mehdi did his undergraduate studies at Berkeley and his graduate studies in computer science at Stanford. @mmaghsoodnia

3 Steps to Win Over Investors

By Mehdi Maghsoodnia |  Jan 31, 2013

It's how you spin it: Incite their greed and dispel their fear.  Read story

Great Ideas Aren't Enough

By Mehdi Maghsoodnia |  Jan 24, 2013

Lots of entrepreneurs have great ideas--and their companies still fail. Five rules to turn your idea into a viable business.  Read story

3 Mistakes You're Making Trying to Grow Your Company

By Mehdi Maghsoodnia |  Jan 15, 2013

Don't fall prey to these common misconceptions about what makes a start-up work. (Hint: Forget about apps.)  Read story

The Non-negotiable Traits of a True Entrepreneur

By Mehdi Maghsoodnia |  Dec 27, 2012

Successful founders are as different from each other as they are from everyone else. Except they all, without fail, share these four indispensable traits.  Read story