Ali Parandeh

Business mentor, Entrepreneur, Global soul, Idea generator, Parent

With more than 30 years of experience in the world of IT. Ali has so far written 5 books in Persian and currently working on his 6th book “Passion & Vision: Ingredients for a successful startup. He has won numerous awards for Public Speaking at various levels in Toastmasters, twice Division (1st place 2017 and 2022) and 2nd place in Spain & Portugal (District level 2022). Throughout the university life Ali dabbled in setting up businesses, testing different ideas, failing and starting again. Over the past 25 years he has setup numerous businesses, closed and sold two. After the sales of his last IT Company in 2018, Ali has dedicated a major part of his time to helping other entrepreneurs achieve their dreams. He is currently Startup mentor at numerous incubators and accelerators, where he has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs with their startup idea, business strategy and pitching that have led to successful closing of numerous fundraising rounds. Ali’s first and foremast objective is to make sure that entrepreneurs fin their passion and zoom in with focus on their vision. Understanding that “Passion & Vision are two of the most important ingredients of a startup”, makes the journey much more enjoyable and successful. Ali is a regular speaker, judge and mentor at entrepreneurial events in Spain & Europe and he has made it his mission to become Europe’s number 1 startup mentor. Ali is an entrepreneur at heart. He studied Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering at university and has been a programmer since the age of 14. According to him, this makes him understand two of the most important codes in life. The biological code that controls our body and all things living and the artificial code that controls so many things today and to a large extend including our minds and life. He still runs his cloud based application (Urbytus) which serves more than 800 Home Owners Associations in Spain. He is involved as co-founder / investor in a number of startup projects and has over the years built his expertise in particular in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Metrics and Business models, which he applies to other areas and sectors. Additionally Ali is a long-time member of Toastmasters International. President in 2017, 2022, Area Director in 2020 and currently part of the committee member of the Professional Speakers Association of Spain. Ali is a regular speaker at Rotary clubs in his local area as well as entrepreneurial events. One of his last major engagements was as guest of honour and keynote speaker at the graduation ceremony of The English International College (Marbella, Spain) where he addressed the final year students on the importance of following their passion.

I am passionate about Startups and entrepreneurship. I spend most of my spare and free time helping entrepreneurs and speaking at startup events. Mostly for free. I am also a long time member of Toastmasters International, having won numerous awards and occupied many roles at various levels within Toastmasters. Love running at weekends, any distance between 10 to 30Km and I am often referred to as the mountain goat for the trails I pick for my routes and my passion for just hiking up on a direct line to the top of a mountain.

We are in control of our own DNA code. At school we were and still are taught that mutation is something random. This means that life happens by chance. This means improvements in our generations over the years are simply a fluke. And at time they call it survival of the fittest. However is it really chance? Could it be something else. I started programming at the age of 14, I then went to study Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering at University. After graduating and leaving university I went back into the world of IT and software development. With the advances in genetics, we have come to understand more about mutation and mutational processes. It is no longer acceptable to think mutation can simply be a random change. A random change in a computer code is disasterous. Any change is specific and calculated down to the last digit or base pair. Any change by a programmer or a living being must be understood and directed. It must have an aim, It must have a purpose plus a deep knowledge of the code to understand where the code needs changing in order to test and obtain the final desired results. Mutation is not random. Survival of the fittest? Sure, but only after a carefully planned change in the code. Only then will one survive and the other die. We are the ones who must command that change to happen. Consciously and subconsciously the change is requested at higher, thinking levels and orders passed down the line for the change to take place, in current or next generation. Every time we have failed to understand or explain something we contribute it to god, higher powers and randomness. This is another one of those concepts that for lack of our understanding has been designated to Random and at times God's will. We are our own programmers.

I have watched TED talks for many years. Bought my first ticket in 2020, but due to Covid attended my first live event in Oct 22 (Malaga). I know many Ted Organizers and most recently I was asked to be co-founder of a local TEDx chapter in our town. I think it is a great idea and I have accepted the challenge and request.

Most people don't know I studied genetic engineering at university and how passionate I am about helping refugees and immigrants.