James Park is the co-founder and CEO of Fitbit. The Harvard drop-out and his business partner Eric Friedman founded the tech company in 2007, and in 2019, sold the company to Google for $2.1 billion. (Prior to the sale, in 2015, both men made Forbes‘ list of America’s Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40.)
During an interview with CNBC, Park revealed a number of interesting facts and stories including what it was like growing up with his entrepreneurial parents.
The 44-year-old grew up in Cleveland and Atlanta with his Korean-born parents who owned a number of small businesses including a wig shop.
James says: “I’d always be at their stores after school. They only really employed me during high school — I use ’employment’ loosely. I was not really paid, but basically, I was asked to sell things. I would get a $1 bonus if I sold over $50 [of product].”
Park also revealed his “greatest failure” — his first start-up, Epesi Technologies, a B2B infrastructure software company. But like all good entrepreneurs, he learned a lot of lessons from the experience, “like the power of focus.” Park says, at that time, “We pivoted way too often, which was highly detrimental to the progress of the business. That [experience] was particularly painful.”
Check out Park talking about what he won’t miss about being CEO of Fitbit in the video above.
