ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bernhard Schroeder is the Director of the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center Programs at San Diego State University and he oversees all of the center’s undergraduate and graduate experiential programs. He has worked with hundreds of start-ups in San Diego, on and off the campus, is a strategic advisor to several start-ups and is quoted frequently in both local and national media and has spoken at TEDx events. He also teaches several entrepreneurship courses (Creativity and Innovation, Entrepreneurship Fundamentals, Business Model/Plan Development for Entrepreneurs) within the College of Business Administration at San Diego State University. His first book, Fail Fast or Win Big was released in February 2015.

Since moving to San Diego in 1997, he specialized in working with founders and venture capitalists in either growth or turnaround opportunities with several companies ranging from $10 million to $150 million. Bernhard brings over 20 years of branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial experience both as a Senior Partner in a global integrated marketing agency and as a former Chief Marketing Officer on the client side.

Prior to moving to San Diego, Bernhard was a Senior Partner in the worlds’ largest integrated marketing communications agency, CKS Partners, which in 1998 had offices in over 30 countries, more than 10,000 employees and over $1 billion in revenue. He joined CKS in 1991 when the firm had only 21 employees and just $2.5 million in revenue. He opened the first out of state agency office for CKS in 1993 in Portland Oregon and, working with the other four partners, grew the firm to almost $40 million in revenue by 1995 and led CKS to a successful initial public offering that same year. Today, he mentors about 20 startup founders that are located in San Diego, San Francisco, California and Austin, Texas.