Spanos and a colleague, Jason Freedman, are involved with the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

Spanos used rigorous statistical analysis of huge quantities of customer data, for example, to reveal useful insights.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

Spanos believes that experienced SVSC participants feel an obligation to give back with no expectation of payback.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

Above all, Spanos advises entrepreneurs to be prepared to make decisions under and to prepare for unexpected outcomes.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

Spanos finds it remarkable that members of the SVSC are willing to give to freely of their time.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

In this way, Spanos believes those entrepreneurs may be able to get direction by understanding their buying behavior.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

The Chargers are the early favorite and have been the subject of discussions between AEG and owners the Spanos family.

FORBES: Billionaire Anschutz One Step Closer To Bringing NFL Back To L.A.

Rather than money, Spanos most needed help from investors such as Gil to tap their experience dealing with common start-up challenges.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

Spanos believes that the SVSC is a mechanism for allocating the time of current and past successful company founders and investors.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

Rather than hire people for his venture, Spanos is tapping that skill to contract only with people who can help his venture now.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

As he explained in an August 22 interview, in 2002 Spanos earned degrees in computational and applied mathematics and mechanical engineering at Rice University.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

Spanos has forged a unique path to Silicon Valley and I look forward to seeing whether his start-up will grow and have a big impact.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

Along the way to his PhD in 2005, Spanos worked at Google (GOOG) and when he finally completed his post-doctoral education at CalTech in 2008, he considered three options.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

Spanos also sought investors who could help him solve problems of data analysis, technology, and marketing to a large organization, such as how best to approach, say, Bank of America (BAC).

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

Demetri Spanos does not accept things at face value.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley

For the second type of entrepreneur, Spanos advises them to build a prototype and test it out on potential customers in order to determine whether the initial hypothesis about the opportunity is right or should be changed.

FORBES: Demetri Spanos Does His Own Thing in Silicon Valley