Payam Zamani

Bio

Payam Zamani is an Iranian-American entrepreneur and investor, founder, Chairman, and CEO of One Planet Group, a privately held firm that owns online technology and media businesses and invests in early-stage companies. Born in Tehran, he emigrated from Iran as a teenager, crossing the Dasht-e Lut desert to Pakistan before reaching the US in 1988. After graduating from UC Davis, he co-founded the pioneering online car marketplace Autoweb/Autobytel, taking it public in 1999. His 2024 USA TODAY bestseller 'Crossing the Desert' articulates his vision of 'spiritual capitalism' -- business grounded in service and values rather than greed, directly tied to his session topic on purpose-driven enterprise.

The big questions

The kind of questions this session opens up.

1. Have you ever wondered why the system that has lifted more people out of poverty than any other is also the one so many have come to distrust?
2. If every business is, at root, an answer to “how can I serve you?“, when did profit start to feel like the opposite of service?
3. Is purpose something you bolt onto capitalism, or the thing capitalism forgot it was for?
4. If founders were measured by what they left better in the world rather than what they extracted from it, whose success would suddenly look smaller?