On his first day at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Ali Kermani had to park his car under a streetlight in order to read his books, and sat between his two dogs to keep warm.
With only a week’s notice, he had moved to Los Angeles to pursue graduate school, and his apartment’s electricity had not yet been set up.
Now 31, Kermani has successfully founded two companies, yet he remembers those days when he doubted his decision to go to business school.
The future did not always look bright for the eccentric businessman from El Sereno, who preferred spending time with his friends at skate parks over studying.
In ninth grade, he was kicked out of his high school for disciplinary reasons, but the Catholic school he was sent to next did not alleviate matters. A month before his high school graduation, Kermani dropped out.
After leaving school, his first stroke of luck came one day at a local skate park when he saw a man filming one of the skaters.
Noticing that the man was uncomfortable with filming, Kermani walked over and offered him some help.
Little did Kermani know he was talking to Carlton Calvin, the entrepreneur who would later develop Razor USA, the popular scooter company. Impressed with his filming skills, Calvin offered Kermani a job creating videos for his various enterprises in the toy industry.
The men began a close relationship, and years later, Calvin approached Kermani about developing videos to bring Razor scooters, which were popular in Taiwan, to the U.S.
Kermani’s videos eventually impressed representatives from the Taiwanese headquarters. With the green light from Taiwan, the project kicked off and Razor scooters sold $200 million in the first six weeks in the U.S., according to Kermani. Kermani was just 20 years old at the time.
After a year and a half of working at Razor, Calvin suggested that Kermani obtain a college degree. After going to community college for four years, Kermani worried about fitting in, but he was admitted to UC Santa Barbara and obtained his degree in communications.
After college, Kermani returned to Razor for another five years as a toy tester and developer, but Calvin saw his potential and suggested graduate school. In 2007, Kermani applied to UCLA.
But his admission interview was not promising. The interviewer was not keen on Kermani’s enterprising idea of a go-cart-like vehicle that possessed drifting and stunt capabilities, called the Crazy Kart.
“I almost got into a fight with the lady at the interview. They asked me my idea and then said it was ridiculous, they didn’t want me bringing my Crazy Kart to Anderson,” Kermani said.
Although the interview seemed to have gone awry, Kermani discovered he got a spot on the wait list. A few months later he received a phone call from Anderson ““ a week before school ““ asking if he was still interested in attending.
Kermani accepted, but his first semester did not go as planned.
He hated the classes he was required to take, his grade point average dropped to its lowest in four years, and he was on the verge of academic probation.
But slowly, life improved.
After getting involved in Entrepreneurial Lab, a panel forum where entrepreneurs could share their ideas, Kermani was introduced to business plans, prototypes and fellowships, and everything changed. Re-energized, Kermani began work on his business plan, entering a competition for the prestigious Larry Wolfen Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, which awards one $15,000 prize every year.
“I just went in there pumped up, and telling them my whole game plan,” Kermani said. “They asked, “˜What are you going to do if you don’t get the money?’ and I said “˜No offense, but I’m going to do it anyway.'”
Angela Klein, the program manager for the Knapp Venture Competition in which Kermani placed second, said Kermani was so excited at the Wolfen presentation that the judges had to ask the enthusiastic student to stop talking. Yet the entrepreneur’s passion for his product, which few people believed in, impressed the judges enough for him to win the grand prize.
Kermani began to dedicate all his time to his Crazy Kart idea. In the summer, while his classmates secured lucrative internships, he returned to the Razor lab and built a prototype for his product.
For his senior thesis he developed a business plan with Bill Cockrum, who was declared the nation’s top business professor in 1996 in a survey by Business Week.
“Ali was very motivated and good academically, but most importantly, he took advantage of every opportunity available to him at Anderson; that’s why he succeeded,” Cockrum said.
By the end of his time at Anderson, Kermani was setting up interviews with companies interested in buying his product.
But his old mentor Calvin, who had rejected his idea before, expressed a new interest in the product and Kermani sold the product over to Razor.
The product is set to hit stores in 2012, according to Kermani.
That’s not the end of Kermani’s entrepreneurial streak. Two years ago, he stumbled upon an idea when he became frustrated while reading instructions.
“I realized, every time I feel annoyed, that’s an opportunity to make money,” Kermani said.
And that’s exactly what he did. He returned to Razor and offered to make instructional videos to teach their buyers how to use their products.
After making a few videos, Kermani started a new company, Acoustics Productions, which continues to make these videos for Razor.
But the ever-adventurous Kermani has begun to feel a bit complacent after almost two years of making videos.
“It’s getting to the time where I’m making a lot of money, but I’m getting bored so I might have to start something new,” he said.
Kermani has already started work on his third business, which is geared toward the field of action sports.
With two successful projects under his belt and another on its way, Kermani, who graduated from Anderson in 2009, has come a long way from the 18-year-old kid who dropped out of high school.
“Ali is one of our biggest success stories in years, and we at Anderson are very proud of him,” Klein said. “He’s a true entrepreneur.”