Dick Hardt is the founder and CEO of Sxip Identity. The man who pioneered the trend that we now know as Identity 2.0. He was the founder and CEO of another successful company, ActiveState and sat on the Board of Directors at Ludicorp Research and Development, Ltd. (AKA) Flickr. A man for any entrepreneur to learn from, watch his famous Oscon Identity 2.0 presentation here. To find out more about what this potential startup can contribute to the Internet Age, read their blog here.

What are some ways that you cope with stress?

I found that Yoga works for me pretty well. I am a big fan of movies or just having dinner with good friends.

Taking into account your famous Identity 2.0 presentation, what words of wisdom can you give to the next generation of entrepreneurs about how to prepare and deliver a successful presentation?

The first part is to figure out what people want to walk away with, what they are interested with, and what message they want to take away with them.
Conferences are bound with more and more emegering technologies such as free WiFi. Nowadays, laptops are free to use throughout the presentation so you are losing peoples attentions’ fast. In my view, you need to generate an attention grabber through the use of shorter presentation (summarize a high-level message) which engages people.

Can you give some insight on what you look for when recruiting new people to join your team? Generally, what are your hiring strategies? What channels do you go through to look for the “ideal” employee?

In my book, the best employees to hire are people that are recommended by the employees you already have. Your employees already have a sense of the cultural fit into your organization and so they would be the best people to depend on when hiring new employees.