Lights. Camera. Action.

Entrepreneurs like to go it alone. Such is the Herculean, conquer all worlds, independent mindset of people who create. As we’ve explored, good entrepreneurs are generalists: They are very good at, and knowledgeable of, doing many things. Great entrepreneurs, though, embrace and employ the value of building a team – employees, advisors, investors, industry experts, contractors, suppliers, distributors, et al – in their quest to create a great company. Think of running a marathon versus a 5K.

Building a company is theatrically, artistically, collaboratively and tactically similar to making a movie. I was reminded of this over sushi yesterday with my friend Scott. One of his clients, Folsom-based Redwood Palms Pictures, employs a unique approach to cost-effectively and collaboratively finance, produce, market and distribute independent films. Redwood Palms leverages a crowd-funding model to raise funds, through Regulation D securities offerings, for its film slates. It’s a hybrid of the “experience investing” approach we championed at Crescendo: Marry an affinity (a desire to be involved in the production of a movie) with a sound financial investment to raise capital and engage investors. Very cool model.

So, you wanna be in pictures? Think of the myriad moving parts and participants: Actors, producers, directors, screen writers, investors, cameramen, location coordinators, stuntmen, set designers, costume makers, casting directors, make-up artists, soundmen … it’s a daunting list. And, the aforementioned players are married to simply (complexly?) create the product; getting it out there (monetizing the art through distribution, DVD sales, merchandising and the like) is the make-or-break imperative. And (II), if you’re like Redwood Palms, you fine-tune and replicate your model.

IBID for starting a company; consider the disparate and necessary elements required to develop a product. Once the sausage making (internal product development) is complete, selling and distributing and serving and enriching and complementing the sausage (product) is paramount; the rest is a necessary – an ante to being a company – navel-gazing exercise. It takes a kick-ass crew of internal and external cast members to make it happen. As CEO (or Producer), your job is to choreograph and optimize the actions.

A final thought: Great entrepreneurs seek to build great companies, or platforms, upon which they can create and deploy multiple products or services; it’s near impossible to run a marathon if you’re a one-product pony. Movie producers like Redwood Palms are analogous: It’s not enough to build a foundation and assemble a cast of characters to create one film. The true value – and returns – come from doing it again and again, better and better, leveraging and monetizing a production platform.