Entrepreneur Committed to Staying in LA

Los Angeles - Brian Lee, an entrepreneur who launched Legal Zoom with a cold call to Robert Shapiro, branded the hot online shoe company, Shoe Dazzle, with Kim Kardashian. Is he leaving Southern California? No way!

Brian Lee
"I'm an Angeleno. I grew up in Southern California, I'm a product of the school system here, I went to UCLA... LA has so much to offer, I don't understand why anyone would want to leave."

Heidi
"All of the companies are talking about how they wanna save 20 percent when they move, what's your point of view on that?"

Brian Lee
"There are certain people who wanna save dollars, save money on taxes, watch their bottom line, my approach to it is, grow even faster.... They wanna cut, I wanna grow. If I grow a hundred percent, what does the 20 percent matter to me?"

Heidi
"You actually did the math and it's not worth it for you to leave California."

Brian Lee
"That's right....we have a great community of biz folks here in Los Angeles and a great network of entrepreneurs that we can leverage off of."

Heidi
"What can we tell people who are already here, scaling their companies, how can we get them to hear your point of view?"

Brian Lee
"There comes a point where corporations nowadays only look to the bottom line and profits, but there's so much more, in running a strong business. It's about building a community and building something special.

"The reason for Shoedazzle's success today? It's all about the product. It's all about quality and giving women what they want and, truthfully, it's very simple. They just want to feel beautiful. If they can feel beautiful for $39 than we win."

Heidi
"We win because you're staying in California."

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Brian founded Legal Zoom from his condo and a cold call to Robert Shapiro at 10 at night resulted in the attorney lending his capital and name to a company that now grosses about $100 million-ish annually and creates one out of four LLCs in the state of California, which is a boon to small businesses.

He employs 200 people at shoedazzle.com, and the company is growing and hiring...

His wife coming home with an $800 pair of shoes was the impetus to shoedazzle.com, which has attracted 6.5 million women to fill out their online survey. The monthly membership is $39.95 and all the shoes and handbags you saw in that story are at that price.

His next company -- The Honest Company -- he launches January 17th with Jessica Alba. It's an eco-friendly diaper company.