Mohammad Ashrafi is the founder and principal consultant of Dynamic Minds Consulting, which works with hospitality operations to operate, maintain and optimize point-of-sale systems. His parents emigrated from Iran in search of a better life for their children, and taught a 10-year-old Mohammad the value of determination and hard work in pursuit of his dreams — beginning, he says, with learning enough English to ask for a can of 7-UP.
What inspired you to start Dynamic Minds Consulting?
I was really attracted to the challenge of building something from scratch and the potential professional freedom the opportunity presented.
Do you have any recent news or updates you’d like to share?
We recently celebrated DMC’s 10-year anniversary. I am so grateful for all of our partners who made this incredible milestone possible and joined us for the celebration. On the home front, I am lucky to have recently found my soul mate and am now happily married. We hope to start a family soon.
What has been your most exciting professional project?
I have been blessed with a career that includes many exciting and fun projects. The opening of any new hospitality venue is particularly exciting. I can think of many venues we have partnered with that at the time were the talk of the industry. A nightclub opening versus a new casino opening is a different kind of excitement. In no particular order, my top five are the Horseshoe Baltimore Casino, the Hotel Victor in Miami’s South Beach, the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City, the Battery in San Francisco and Hakkasan at MGM Grand.
How did you develop a passion for technology and creating point-of-sale software?
When I was a little kid, if my parents bought a new electronic gadget for the house, I made it my mission to figure out all the functionality. I’d play with things for about 10 minutes and have it figured out. I guess it was inevitable that I would end up with such a passion for technology.
When I actually began working with hospitality technology in 2000 and specifically point of sale, I found it a natural fit. I love the complexity of an application that can be mastered to work 300 ways depending on the unique needs of each operator. Additionally, as a numbers guy, I continue to be fascinated by the vast amount of meaningful data captured by point of sale. I may be biased, but I believe point of sale to be the core of any hospitality venue’s technology profile.
Talk about your upbringing.
I am so lucky I had an opportunity to live in Tehran from the ages of 2 to 8. Certainly that experience has shaped me in many positive ways. At the same time, I am truly lucky to have parents who adored their children so much they would leave their entire family in their homeland and travel across the world with nothing just for a better life for their kids. I often tell my parents they get a pass on anything and everything forever because they gave us life twice. I am inspired daily to make their sacrifice worthwhile.
Why is customer service so important to your business?
I am not a huge fan of slogans but one motto from my old company that I have held on to is, “Seek that which is best for the customer; it’s also best for us.” I believe so many businesses lose sight of this at some point. At DMC, we are a 100 percent referenced-based company. We have never employed salespeople nor made cold calls to clients. It’s true what has been said before: the best salespeople for any company are its clients. Our clients trust us with some of the most sensitive and critical pieces of their business and we take great pride in ensuring they receive exemplary customer service.
Why did you drop out of college?
It was a completely different world then. It was the dotcom boom and the year 2000. I was going into junior year at the University of California, Santa Barbara. You had everyone and their aunt going into technology and starting companies at the time. Yet, I had wanted to be an attorney since middle school. I loved the debate team in school and had a passion for law and could not wait to argue my first case.
I eventually figured out, after visiting Loyola Marymount and USC Law School, that attorneys generally spend only about 20 percent of their time litigating in a courtroom. So this notion I had of being able to get in front of a judge and jury daily to plead cases was not realistic. Once I realized this, I concluded that school and law school wasn’t going to produce results I wanted. I felt dropping out and committing to a new field was the best path forward. Needless to say, I have zero regrets.
How did you get involved in the hospitality and nightclub industry?
I recall my boss asking me which I preferred for my first project installing point of sale. The two options he presented were a corporate cafeteria in Iowa or a new casino opening in Vegas. Obviously, he made the decision extremely simple for me.
My first casino project was the opening of Suncoast in the summer of 2000, and I was hooked instantly. I really fell in love with opening a new property, and that love has only increased since.
Where do you see DMC in the next 10 years?
The point-of-sale space is going through a revolutionary period. I cannot express how exciting this is for a company like DMC. My vision has always been to eventually create software as opposed to supporting others’. I anticipate DMC heading in that direction in the near future.
What is your dream job, outside of your current field? Why?
Professional race car driver because I love fast cars.
Describe your management style.
Managing people is the hardest part of my job. Not competition, not our clients and not technology. Luckily, I have been able to assemble an amazing team of people who are passionate and extremely proficient.
I will never be a micromanager; I allow my team the freedom to execute without a watchful eye. We support over 1,500 venues 24/7, executing around 5,000 changes a week for them. I have to be able to trust my team to play their roles to the best of their abilities.
I would only add that I am definitely a perfectionist and don’t have much patience for incompetence or avoidable mistakes.
What is something that people might not know about you?
I raced jet skis for a couple of years after high school.