Tag: thought leadership

Pop Quiz, Monday with Gary C Woodhead

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Gary C Woodhead

Gary C Woodhead
Photo credit: Gary C Woodhead

What is your job role?
Wearer of many hats!

AKA founder/CEO

Tell us about your company?
CurveBlock is a Real Estate Development Company, which generates lifetime passive income for its community of token holders, developments are registered against smart contract staking wallets listed on the CurveBlock exchange, the community simply stake their tokens against the projects they want a share of the profits from and Blockchain simply tracks the dividends.

The traditional version of CurveBlock would be deemed as a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) which is typically the playground of the rich, CurveBlock, however, allows the masses to collectively partake in such an industry where usually most individuals wouldn’t be able to afford to be involved at a singular level.

CurveBlock is also 100% liquid and no longer requires traditional means of funding such as Banks etc., such a model allows CurveBlock the ability to develop real estate in both boom and bust markets with a sustainably viable business model.

CurveBlock also donates 5% of every real estate development profits to charity, and the community chooses the charity via their native token voting rights, all underpinned and fully transparent using Blockchain technology.

What do you love most about your job?
I am watching the project go from concept to its endless possibilities.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
My “Why” is primarily my family, followed by my passion for Real Estate & Blockchain along with being involved in its Philanthropy aspect.

Thinking about CurveBlock helping the masses to earn passive income and potentially break free from the 9 to 5 rat race, along with CurveBlock possibly becoming the biggest real estate development donator to charities around the world places such a spring in my motivational step every single day.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
They’re all such amazing people, all with their own stories to tell but what I admire the most is they’re all very grounded people.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
A sense of humour is probably our largest avenue of fun behind the CurveBlock curtain.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Kissing Fogs & Funding

Kissing Frogs: Sadly over recent years many scammers have stepped into such networking spaces such as Linkedin, making various avenues to reach out potentially a difficult area to navigate, I’d personally like to see Linkedin a KYC based platform, so there are fewer frogs to kiss when looking for the Prince of marketing/advising/partnerships etc. (so to speak)

Funding: It’s such a smoke & mirrors avenue for startups, more frogs to kiss such as, “we can connect you to X who funds millions of dollars into startups but give us $5000 to do so” !!!!, I’ve lost count of how many of these I’ve personally seen, I feel you shouldn’t think too hard about funding/money, just keep building out and strengthening your projects team and the money should find you eventually.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Never think what you have can’t be improved, I’ve personally found that this mindset ensures constant improvements more often than not executed via business pivots, here’s an example, BlockBuster thought what they had was perfect and couldn’t be improved, they failed to pivot into the digital market, bye bye BlockBuster, hello NetFlix 😉

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Never give up, Fail Forward and keep going.

Read or even listen on Audible to one book per week.

Then we have the “Sixth Rule,” hang around five negative people you’ll become the 6th, hang around five drunks you’ll become the 6th, i chose to associate with successful business people, it is incredible how much you can learn and benefit from such a basic action

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://curveblock.io/index.html
https://www.facebook.com/curveblockio/
https://twitter.com/CurveBlockIO

Pop Quiz, Monday with Vladislav Podolyako

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Vladislav Podolyako

Vladislav Podolyako
Photo credit: Vladislav Podolyako

What is your job role?
CEO

Tell us about your company?
Belkins is the most in-depth way to accelerate Outbound Sales. We provide a dedicated sales team, whose primal goal is to target your prospects, design account-based sales campaigns and convert pre-qualified prospects into qualified Sales Appointments. We deliver a Predictable Sales Funnel Solution and support it with a detailed campaign statistic.

Our outsourced KPI-driven Sales Ninjas are supervised by experienced sales experts, quickly adopt any company culture, efficiently utilize the latest sales tools and maximize the effectiveness of any sales strategy. Belkins Sale Team allows companies to reach sales goals quicker and reduce Customer Acquisition Costs at the same time.

At the heart of our work, we are a sales partner who is deeply embedded in the sales culture, connecting businesses with excellent products, with those companies who need them.

What do you love most about your job?
Challenges and experience

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Drive the process and results for our customers.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
Every team member in my team inspires me because those people are changing the world 🙂

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
Weekly meetings with the team for inspiration.
We play board games like Scythe, Mafia, etc.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Responsibilities

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Do or die 🙂

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
I wish a bit luck for everyone who will start to work in the marketing and sales industry. Most competitive niche ever 🙂

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://www.belkins.io/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/belkins/
https://twitter.com/Belkinsio
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/belkins-io
https://www.facebook.com/belkins.io/

Pop Quiz, Monday with Brian Matthews

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Brian Matthews

Brian Matthews
Photo credit: Brian Matthews

What is your job role?
I’m the Founder and CEO of BizText

Tell us about your company?
We help businesses increase their customer relationships and boost their bottom line with a unique SMS-based service. Consumers would prefer to send a text when they need to talk to someone in business — for example, if they need customer service or want to schedule an appointment. However, most companies (particularly SMBs) lack the ability to accept texts.

As a result, consumers are forced to leave messages and play phone tag, which is inconvenient for both the consumer and the company.

BizText provides a business number which companies can use to send and receive texts from their phone, or from any device via an online portal. Customers can also receive voicemails and calls, and set automated text replies, such as “Out of Office” notifications. This helps businesses be more responsive, which leads to better customer relationships and more revenue.

What do you love most about your job?
I love being my own boss and setting my own hours. We are a remote team, so it’s great to work from home and wear what I want while I’m on my PC. I’ll admit, I’m in my pajamas a lot!

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
We are building something of great value, leaving something important behind and doing things in new and ingenious ways.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
With their creativity in solving problems and the ability to see things in unique and different ways. No matter how smart you are, cumulatively, the people around you will be more intelligent and know more. You need them to be genuinely successful.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
Fun? What’s that? We try and go out for dinner and drinks now and then, where we mostly talk about work.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Every great effort requires a lot of work and commitment. Startup life is like moving a mountain. You better be motivated for a long fight, because you’re not going to get this done in a day or even a few months of hard work. It’s one shovel at a time, and you need to be ready for doing that over and over again for a long time.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Release things in stages, don’t wait for big releases and shoot for perfection. Getting your product out there is what gives you an opportunity to learn what’s important.

Most of the time, you’re not going to nail it regarding market fit the first time. It’s important to treat your releases a chance to learn and get feedback from customers or users, even if you don’t get it exactly right.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
No matter how good your idea, selling it is going to be the hardest part. Startups often fall in love with their features and how their product or service is going to improve the world and focus exclusively on building something great. When their friends, family and initial users praise their product, they feel their priorities are validated.

But even if your idea is every bit as good as you think it is, you still need to put your greatest effort into getting people to sign up or buy it. The central question for any startup should be: how are we going to get users? Don’t let yourself fall so deeply in love with your idea that you assume it will sell itself!

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:
Biztextsolutions.com

Pop Quiz, Monday with Mohammed Tayeb

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Mohammed Tayeb

Mohammed Tayeb
Photo credit: Mohammed Tayeb

What is your job role?
Co-Founder and COO

Tell us about your company?
MedicalChain is an organization using blockchain technology to create products and services that enable patient-centric, borderless healthcare. Its mission is to empower patients to take greater control of their health by transforming how they communicate and connect with healthcare practitioners.

What do you love most about your job?
I love that we are experimenting with and developing new technology that can empower people and save lives.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
My creative mind usually is working in the middle of the night. I often wake up and write things down then go back to sleep. When I wake up in the morning, I am motivated to go to work and test out new ideas.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
I am lucky to be surrounded by some brilliant people. New ideas always inspire me. Developers are like artists. Everyone has a different solution to a problem. It’s encouraging to hear them and agreeing on one.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
I am a big foodie, so I enjoy taking colleagues out to discover new restaurants to eat in. Our last team building exercise was when we took everyone go-karting. That was a lot of fun. We’ve recently got a TV in the office with a view of running some Mario Kart tournaments.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
We are working with nascent technology so often finding the right people is a challenge, but we have done well to take on bright engineers and train them. The other major problem is working in a regulated and often political space. Let’s just say things in healthcare tend to move slowly, and we are trying to improve that!

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?

  1. If you are new to an industry, don’t make assumptions. Try to work with experts/ veterans as quickly as possible to realise where you can fit.
  2. Don’t spend a long time working on your product. Get an MVP (minimum viable product) out as soon as possible, or at least get it tested with friends, family, and those experts I mentioned above.
  3. If you are on your own, find yourself a co-founder with complementary skills. For example, worrying about the tech, hiring, financing, regulatory hurdles and sales can be overwhelming for someone by themselves. Splitting these challenges between two or three co-founders helps maintain focus.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
The healthcare industry is generally complicated with government and private stakeholders. Navigating it is a challenge no matter which country you are in. Having said that, Healthtech as an industry is attracting a lot of new talent which is great. There are so many improvements to be made, and the bar is pretty low right now. However, so as not to waste time, I would highly recommend you join an established organisation at first that will help you learn the ropes of who is responsible for what. Let’s say you want to develop an app to help people quit smoking. Your users are the general public, but your customers (the organisations paying you) might be the insurers. Figuring that out is often challenging.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://medicalchain.com/
https://twitter.com/medical_chain

Pop Quiz, Monday with Kevin MacCauley

The best way to have fun at work is by instilling a fantastic company culture that allows employees to wake up every morning excited and driven to come to work. And this starts at the hiring process.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Kevin MacCauley

Kevin MacCauley
Photo credit: Kevin MacCauley

What is your job role?
CEO & Founder

Tell us about your company?
Upper Hand provides a comprehensive business management platform designed specifically for businesses, facilities, and franchises in industries such as sports, recreation, and fitness. It removes the back-end processes that negatively impact business and allows owners to escape the administrative vortex while maximizing operational efficiencies.

Upper Hand’s cloud-based software houses a suite of online tools to help businesses of all sizes stay relevant in the rapidly-advancing online world. Our focus on innovation allows us to outmatch competitors, which has enabled Upper Hand to grow by nearly 200 percent over the last year.

What do you love most about your job?
Through our work, Upper Hand can provide a singular focus of eliminating obstacles to profitability and providing a comprehensive platform to run a sports and fitness business. Our software, for instance, saves our customers up to 18 hours per week in administrative work and more than $5,000 in annual software fee. With the time and money saved, businesses owners can focus that time on growing their business while training and developing the next generation of athletes.

This makes our work not only meaningful but necessary. With Upper Hand, our customers can live out their dreams while building the next foundation of success. And serving as a driving factor of that success is extremely worthwhile.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Continuously seeing the success of our customers as a result from our software is extremely motivating. For instance, one customer who has been using our software was able to grow their business by more than 2,000 percent and revenue by 30 percent. Another was able to double their total revenue. Hearing these success stories propels our work further by delivering a solution that grows businesses in the sports industry.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
This goes back to the hiring phase. By having employees who embody the core values of your business, they will inspire you every day with their passion, grit, and ambition. This helps keep morale high and pushes everyone to work harder and accomplish business goals. As a result, we truly believe this has allowed us to be so successful, and we hope to continue that growth at an even faster pace in the coming years.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
The best way to have fun at work is by instilling a fantastic company culture that allows employees to wake up every morning excited and driven to come to work. And this starts at the hiring process.

Since the Upper Hand office is the epitome of high-energy and high-performance, we hire people who possess the same core values as our company, which includes: having a passion and aspiration for technology and sports while bringing competitive, selfless, humble and coachable. More importantly, this all needs to be done while having fun.

Following this process allows our culture to be truly one-of-a-kind, and helps us remain driven to make an incredible impact on the way sport, recreation and fitness organizations conduct business.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Innovation is the cornerstone of Upper Hand, so it is challenging to remind myself that innovation is driven by customers needs consistently. Many entrepreneurs become infatuated with being the early creator of new technology and disrupting the playing field. But, if it does not solve a critical customer problem, then your innovation will likely fail. In the end, understanding the customer problem will dramatically improve your odds of successful innovation.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
My background is in building a company, from conception to achieving profitability. Through the process, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that time is the enemy. It’s the one variable you cannot change. So, when building a company from the ground up, you don’t have an abundance of seconds, minutes or hours to ponder wrong decisions. Sometimes, decisions have to be made based on what is best for the future of the company.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Be all in, all the time. It’s vital to always give 100 percent as a leader because that mentality will reflect the work of your employees and team members. Furthermore, it is also essential to eliminate toxic work personalities who are not as motivated or driven to help accomplish the company’s goals and to do so without ever looking back.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://www.getupperhand.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/upper-hand/
https://www.facebook.com/GetUpperHand/
https://www.instagram.com/upperhandsoftware/
https://twitter.com/getupperhand

Pop Quiz, Monday with Sharifah Hardie

We have a lot of fun at work because we get to be creative. We get to create ideas, stories, projects and just let loose. How hard can it be to make television?

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Sharifah Hardie

Sharifah Hardie
Photo credit: Sharifah Hardie

What is your job role?
CEO

Tell us about your company?
X Roads TV is a content aggregator. We produce content to license to the major networks.

What do you love most about your job?
I love bringing projects to life. I love working with people and being able to live a life that I love.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
I get up and go to work every day to motivate others. I want to be a shining example for my children and for entrepreneurs of what is possible after being laid off, after losing everything and after just living life. You take it one day at a time and keep going!

How do your co-workers inspire you?
My coworkers inspire me by keeping me sane. I am known for having these way out ideas that I want to do. I am the creator. My coworkers value my ideas but assist me in bringing those ideas to life in a realistic fashion.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
We have a lot of fun at work because we get to be creative. We get to create ideas, stories, projects and just let loose. How hard can it be to make television?

What are some of the challenges of your job?
The biggest challenge is always being able to find funding. It takes a lot of revenue for us to be able to create the projects that we want to create.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
One of my main lessons is never to give up. A project may not turn out the way you expect it to, but don’t give up. Keep trying. Today’s loss may turn into tomorrow’s win.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Don’t be afraid to take risks. You will never win if you never try. Nobody learns how to swim from the side of the pool. You have to jump in, give it your all and don’t be afraid of failing, afraid of losing your job or afraid of success, because success is actually right on the other side of failure.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

xroadstv.com
Instagram: @sharifahhardie
Facebook: facebook.com/ILikeSharifah

Pop Quiz, Monday with Gaby Roman

The best advice I can give is to learn as much as you possibly can about the industry, and then make your primary goal to help people.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Gaby Roman

Gaby Roman
Photo credit: Gaby Roman

What is your job role?
I’m the Co-Founder of Coaching No Code Apps. I co-manage the company, create course and membership content, and perform high-level application development and consulting.

Tell us about your company?
Coaching No Code Apps is a place for founders, startups, and business owners to learn and build fully functioning apps and software with no coding required. Courses, consulting, and in-depth lessons teach students how to effectively use no-code tools to build, grow, or start their business.

Regarding services, the company offers high-level consulting and development help to startups and founders building web and mobile applications — most of whom are creating industry-wide solutions, like software for hospitals or dentists, for example. They’re working on pitching to investors and scaling their applications, and Coaching No Code Apps plays an integral role in that.

From a products standpoint, the company offers courses, ebooks, video lessons, and even a membership to founders who want to learn how to build their app on their own, at their own pace, and without having to rely on a development team for the life of the project.

What do you love most about your job?
I constantly find myself getting sucked into the most difficult questions or issues during the development of an application. Much of the process is like solving a puzzle, and while it can get frustrating at times when you feel like you’ve gone around and around in circles, I absolutely love the feeling of finally getting to a solution. It’s incredibly gratifying to know a vital element of a client or customer’s app will be able to function without fault.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
More and more people are becoming entrepreneurs these days. They’re building their own businesses and creating revolutionary solutions to massive industry-wide problems. Knowing I’m fortunate enough to play a crucial role in thousands of people being helped is hugely motivating for me. So many people have software or tech-related ideas but don’t have the background to create those ideas. Helping them bring their visions to life is more than enough to get me out of bed every morning.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
Seeing their drive to keep pushing the company outside its comfort zone motivates me to do the same. It’s easy to get comfortable in your day-to-day routine, but when things get comfortable, it usually means you’ve stopped progressing. I love seeing co-workers push the limits and try new things because it keeps the business fresh and forward-thinking.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
Coaching No Code Apps is run remotely, which means we get to be flexible with our locations and working hours. We keep things fun by playing the work-day by ear. Sometimes, we’ll start work and not come up for breath for 10 hours when we’re feeling especially productive. Other times, we’ll take the day on with a slower pace, grab a coffee, and go out for lunch. The flexibility is what keeps things fun at work.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Each client and customer we work with has their own specific project with their own unique needs, wants, and criteria. Because of the constant progression of technology and software, the process of running this business also requires continuous learning and keeping our ears to the ground on new trends and practices. A challenge is keeping up with everything to provide the high-level help startups, and founders are looking for. That being said, it’s also one of the most fun parts of the job.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned has been to say no when my company isn’t the absolute right fit for a particular client or customer. In the past, I’ve tried to help anyone and everyone, even if I might not have been the best resource for them. I’ve learned that sometimes, saying no (even though it feels like I’m turning someone away who needs my help) is more valuable in the long run than trying to mold my business to fit their needs.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
The best advice I can give is to learn as much as you possibly can about the industry, and then make your primary goal to help people. My main focus has been to provide the most valuable help possible, and I can tell you first hand, customers appreciate knowing you care about them. So, to put it simply, know the trade, and then focus purely on helping people.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://www.coachingnocodeapps.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTL_mXO3qsgFc_3s2T5wlWg

Pop Quiz, Monday with Seth Wiener

I love many things about my job, however, helping underserved markets obtain technologies to transform their enterprise stokes my fire.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Seth Wiener

Seth Wiener
Photo credit: Seth Wiener

What is your job role?
CEO and Founder

Tell us about your company?
AmigoDATA solves business continuity issues for markets frequently targeted by criminals looking for personal information. The platform works with any enterprise facing these challenges. However, we launched focusing on two underserved markets, Universities and Healthcare Providers. Our first product LITE is an on-premises backup data platform.LITE consists of biometrics for securing network access points, software for data management, and an ECO. Flash Array for data storage. The solution is unmatched when it comes to offering seamless data continuity in the event of a hack or breach.

What do you love most about your job?
I love many things about my job, however, helping underserved markets obtain technologies to transform their enterprise stokes my fire. The reason we built a data continuity solution for Universities and Health Providers was they are two of the most frequently hacked markets who face similar challenges and constraints. By helping them regain control of their data, we provide them with an opportunity to save money spent on technology while they improving storage and security capabilities. It does not get much better for a company to earn money while helping others.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Plain and simple for me it’s technology innovation. The rate with which new technology gets created and existing applications are improved is exciting.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
Each person is multi-talented and experts in areas I am not. They are selfless with their time and always willing to share their insights and perspective. The information that’s shared helps me become more skilled and proficient in every aspect of the business. I am grateful for each team member and think they are all amazing people.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
Our team has a policy we never work with a client or person the team does not respect. In business respecting whom you work is important So the theme of respect is further solidified outside of work. As a close-knit group, with shared passions such as surfing, mountain biking, and sailing, our free time outside the office is spent bonding over activities we are passionate about Our shared interests or hobbies have helped further strengthen the team.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
The challenges I encounter seem to change often. As a Founder of AmigoDATA, I have had to learn to let go and allow my co-founders and team a chance to provide feedback and input. This adjustment to the way I was running the company was crucial to success. A significant challenge I deal with is learning is to use my two eyes, two ears, and one mouth accordingly.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
1) Never stop fundraising activities.

2) Become immune to naysayers.

3) On average you need to speak with 130+ potential investors before you find your first.

4) The most crucial concept I can share is become impervious to criticism.

5) Make sure you continuously maintain your SWOT and PEST reports.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
 1) Get Comfortable With the Unknown

2) It’s not just about you

3) Know When to Let Go

4) Find the Balance

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

http://amigodata.com

Pop Quiz, Monday with Stani Kulechov

The primary challenge is never to stop believing: if you fall, you raise, and you work harder. This could be true for every startup, but it is even more real for a blockchain fintech startup these days.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Stani Kulechov

Stani Kulechov
Photo credit: Stani Kulechov

What is your job role?
CEO & founder

Tell us about your company?
“Aave” is a Finnish word which translates to “ghost” in English. We create financial products based on blockchain which aims at enabling the next generation of users to enjoy their free time without having to feel the omnipresence of technology. Our main product is a decentralized lending platform where users can borrow liquidity using their cryptocurrency as collateral (www.ethlend.io)

What do you love most about your job?
I always have the chance to build and learn about topics in which I have always been interested. I love seeing ideas taking shape and growing, also making some mistakes on the way 🙂

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
My job is my passion: I wouldn’t say I “go to work,” because I use to work also in my free time.

I feel we are making the difference and that is what motivates me the most.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
My teammates are passionate like me, and they are not scared of giving opinions and ideas. All of us is different but we are all driving in the same direction, and this is what makes the team work well.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
We use to organize dinners, and after a long busy day during the afternoon at the office it is beer-o’clock!

Last summer we also moved the office to the seaside for a whole week to enjoy a different air.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
The primary challenge is never to stop believing: if you fall, you raise, and you work harder. This could be true for every startup, but it is even more real for a blockchain fintech startup these days.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
From my previous past, I have learned that taking risks is all about opportunities. I used to hate taking risks or tried to operate within my comfort zone. Once reached out from my comfort zone I was able to take new opportunities and ideas, which lead to the person I am today.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
I would recommend everyone that is interested in blockchain or fintech to follow their own passion. That is the most important thing that drives us every day to change finance at Aave.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.ethlend.io
Twitter: @aaveaave
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aaveaave/
Facebook: Aave

Pop Quiz, Monday with Mahboob Bolandi

I always tell people who want to start their own business that they should be prepared emotionally. Being an entrepreneur means 24/7 processing of their CPU, and if they are a person of 9-5, all they need to do is to consider asking for a promotion in their current job and stick to that.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Mahboob Bolandi

Mahboob Bolandi
Photo credit: Mahboob Bolandi

What is your job role?
Founder and President

Tell us about your company?
Karafarin Canada is a community-driven entrepreneurship network in Canada that aims to connect, inspire and advance professional relationships in the ​community. Karafarin includes founders, executives, investors, engineers, business/financial professionals and others aspiring to be a part of this dynamic network.

Karafarin acts as a hub for entrepreneurs and innovators, who wish to connect with other professionals in the community and take their entrepreneurship journey to the next level. Our Entrepreneur Coaching program will assist inspired individuals and startups seeking effective strategies for their business growth. We work closely with high profile Investors who wish to help entrepreneurs and support their unique ideas through Karafarin.
​
Except of Toronto, Karafarin is planning to organize professional/social events in major cities across Canada on a regular base. These events will play a key role in connecting people. Karafarin aims to shape valuable and long-lasting relationships that will help grow your business and develop your career at the same time. The participants will have the opportunity to get to know hundreds of motivated professionals who may then become their business contacts or friends.

Our signature event in Toronto is the Annual Entrepreneurship Expo/ Conference that is a place for learning, sharing and networking with other entrepreneurs and investors. This expo has been held at the Ontario Science Centre in 2017 and 2018 and is a day-long Celebration of Entrepreneurship and brings together Entrepreneurs and Business leaders from across the province.

What do you love most about your job?
I have a great passion for entrepreneurship, and community activities, therefore I love to make new acquaintances, connect people and help them grow in their social and professional life.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
The desire to help those individuals who wish to follow their passion and start their own/dream business and the willingness to face new challenges and entrepreneurial adventures produce enough Adrenaline in my body to get up and work.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
Their commitment and passion for the work they are doing, and bringing innovative ideas to the table inspire me.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
I am a man of a sense of humor. We at say funny thing and laugh a lot at Karafarin. We very often hold our meetings in a very casual way while dining or at a tea party.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Entrepreneurship world is all about challenges and adventures at the same time. Our job always involves ups and downs, and the art is to not being stuck in “down” conditions, rise up again and go forward.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
“Nothing is really over, until the moment you stop trying.”

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
I always tell people who want to start their own business that they should be prepared emotionally. Being an entrepreneur means 24/7 processing of their CPU, and if they are a person of 9-5, all they need to do is to consider asking for a promotion in their current job and stick to that.

On the other hand, I encourage passionate people to work on their ideas and by getting help from Karafarin and using other available resources to start their own venture.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

Web: https://karafarin.ca

facebook.com/Karafarin.ca
instagram.com/Karafarin.ca
twitter.com/KarafarinCanada
linkedin.com/company/Karafarin-Canada
youtube.com/channel/UCKKtaI_3Jjy8gtRQT6pl8SA

Pop Quiz, Monday with Scarlett Hyde

Network as much as you possibly can and get to know the ins and outs of the industry as you will be able to serve your clients more efficiently!!

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Scarlett Hyde

Scarlett Hyde
Photo credit: Scarlett Hyde

What is your job role?
Founder and Director

Tell us about your company?
White Glove Services is an International Lifestyle Management Agency. We specialise in assisting HNW, VIP, Royal, Celebrity & Executive families. Services we provide include Nannies, Governesses, Maternity Nurses, Personal Assistants, Butlers, Personal Chefs, Personal Stylists, as well as Aviation and Boating Crew.

What do you love most about your job?
I love that it doesn’t feel like a grind to go to work because I genuinely love my job. White Glove Services assists in the smooth running of our clients’ everyday lives which allows our clients to focus and create even more success in their careers.

The diversity of our clients’ requirements means we never get bored or feel like its groundhog day, and every day is different as every enquiry that comes through is unique. We are assisting the family, or the individual rather than the corporate side of our clients and I love that aspect.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
I think to be a successful entrepreneur you must love what you do. I work long hours, 6/7 days a week, not because I have to, but because I want to. The lives of our clients’ arent Monday – Friday 9 – 5, so neither is mine.

I want to make a difference in peoples lives, and I also want to motivate my team and lead by example.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
Most of my co-workers have worked in this industry in their previous careers, they know and understand first hand our clients’ needs and how important it is to be that reliable support. We all share the same passion for the industry, and it’s also refreshing to work with people who are as motivated as I am.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
White Glove Services hosts seminars and training for all of our staff, not just our immediate office staff. So if we are hosting a training session for our nannies, we channel our inner child – yes, that means everyone is hands-on with new games, songs, dances, educational activities, and other industry trends, it’s hilarious!

We have a very relaxed workspace, and I think employing people who share the same vision makes every day enjoyable.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
White Glove Services receives some unique requests from our clients, often very last minute requests, such as, “we need someone within the hour.”

Often sometimes this means getting up and jumping on the computer and phone at 2 or 3 am and ensuring achieve seamless coordination of the clients’ requirements.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
It’s OK to say “no.” As a business owner, we want to take on every opportunity. In some cases, this can be more damaging to the brand. Learning to say “no” was hard, but it was one of the best lessons yet.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
You’re not going to get it right every time but when mistakes are made, don’t dwell, look at it as an opportunity to learn how to do things differently and keep going.

Network as much as you possibly can and get to know the ins and outs of the industry as you will be able to serve your clients more efficiently!!

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.whitegloveservicesaustralia.com
https://www.instagram.com/whitegloveservices/
https://www.facebook.com/WhiteGloveServices1/

Pop Quiz, Monday with Victoria Brodsky

Surround yourself with people who are in this industry for the right reasons.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Victoria Brodsky

Victoria Brodsky
Photo credit: Victoria Brodsky

What is your job role?
COO

Tell us about your company?
BlockchainBTM is a Bitcoin/LiteCoin ATM operator. We operate a network of these machines in California, Nevada, Texas – and soon, Illinois! We are a group of blockchain enthusiasts who believe access to crypto should be simple.

Victoria Brodsky

What do you love most about your job?
Working with really smart professionals in this space, and learning from them.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
We are a start-up, so our working days are not “normal” – but I’m motivated by our mission, and by the new projects we’re taking on this year (keep up-to-date with us on Twitter)…

How do your co-workers inspire you?
We are a very random group with varying backgrounds (just see our team page). Their work-ethic inspires me, and their passion for space and to make this company grow inspires me.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
The guys are always teasing each other, and us girls just roll our eyes. We’re always laughing.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
I am not a technical person, nor is this my only job, so staying on top of all the latest happenings in this new industry is a challenge.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Keep it simple. Our President is always telling us to keep it simple – focus on our goals, and do the tasks that will get us there. Running a start-up business is inherently challenging, so it’s essential to not complicate anything along the way.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Surround yourself with people who are in this industry for the right reasons.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://www.blockchainbtm.com/
 @blockchainbtm

Pop Quiz, Monday with Biren Gandhi

Speak to IoT provides a simple, secure platform to connect smart Internet of Things (IoT) devices to all intelligent voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Our vision is to connect everything through voice by leveraging the combination of Voice, IoT, and AI.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Biren Gandhi

Biren Gandhi
Photo credit: Biren Gandhi

What is your job role?
Founder & CEO, Speak to IoT

Tell us about your company?
Speak to IoT provides a simple, secure platform to connect smart Internet of Things (IoT) devices to all intelligent voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Our vision is to connect everything through voice by leveraging the combination of Voice, IoT, and AI.

What do you love most about your job?
We are solving customers’ problems in optimal ways by using cutting edge technologies. Seeing the smile on the faces of users of the technology we help build.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
I am using all of my intellectual abilities, the network of super-talented individuals, and purpose-driven passion for making the world a better place. The universe is a giant amplifier – what we wish for others, comes back to us manifold.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
The diversity of thought process, their individual personalities, and problem-solving approaches radiate super-creative energy everyday inspiring me to learn and grow while staying humble constantly.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
No superficial activities can beat the deep inner satisfaction we gain while focusing and solving some of the toughest problems we encounter. For a geographically distributed team working across different time zones, beating the challenges thrown at us is the common feeling we all share and cherish every day.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
On the customer/partner front, convincing them of the multiplier value they can claim in the market by using advanced disruptive technologies like Voice, IoT, and AI despite the short-term expenses attached with deploying them. On the personal front, the biggest challenge is to stay focused amid the constant chaos outside.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Understand the difference between a hobby and a business. We might be passionate about many things, but it’s always a good idea to put those items into perspective. For a viable business, it must do one or more of these three things for your customers: (1) Improve their top-line revenues, (2) Reduce their bottom-line cost, (3) Radically improve their stakeholder experience.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Stay hungry, stay foolish. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Focus on the big picture. Find your niche and create value for others.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://speaktoiot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SpeakToIoT
https://twitter.com/speaktoiot
https://www.linkedin.com/company/speak-to-iot
https://www.instagram.com/speaktoiot

Pop Quiz, Monday with Baljit Kaur Gill

I genuinely see each day as a gift and some days will be great, and others may suck, but you can always learn & evolve whilst having fun!

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Baljit Kaur Gill

Baljit Kaur Gill
Photo credit: Baljit Kaur Gill

What is your job role?
Managing Director / Founder at SYLO Communications

Tell us about your company?
SYLO Communications is a consultancy firm that offers PR, communications & social services. We also provide event & activation management for lifestyle, FMCG & beauty brands.

We have been up and running for over three years and have gone strength to strength building up our portfolio and using our expertise to help our clients WIN BIG!

What do you love most about your job?
I love that I don’t consider my job a job. I work around the clock not because I have to but because I want too. I want to help brands grow, connect with consumers & be the talk of the town. Nothing gives me more joy than when a plan comes together, and the results are significant, creating immense success for my clients.

There is no routine in my working days as every day is so different! I love the diversity my working day offers from connecting with journalists, working on strategies to generating stories for media titles. By working in such a creative industry, the world is our oyster when mocking up plans.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
I have a pure passion for the marketing landscape currently and that is what motivates me to get up every day and go to work.

I love that the advertising landscape is rapidly evolving. Digital is growing and is unlocking some fantastic elements of advertising allowing brands to connect with the consumer at a more deeper, emotive level.

I also as a female business owner want to make a difference. I thrive to motivate those around me and those who depend on me. I want to drive confidence in my team and have them learn from me as well as me learning from them.

I genuinely see each day as a gift and some days will be great, and others may suck, but you can always learn & evolve whilst having fun!

How do your co-workers inspire you?
My co-workers inspire me in so many ways which are why SYLO communications are where it is today!

The team consists of people who look at the world differently, we all approach tasks differently. Someone’s essential skill may be another team members learning area, which is why it works so well.

As a small startup, I don’t always have the answers, we may not be as evolved as other consultancy firms, but my team gets stuck in, they share the vision, they push the vision further, and that is what inspires me. They don’t stop until they have the results we set out to achieve for our clients.

Not only do they work hard, but they also practise a healthy work-life balance by pushing themselves in other areas.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
We try to have fun by having a relaxed, open work environment. We try to have lunch together every day where we step away from our desks to talk about our lives, daily life dramas we may be having & talk TV shows / Netflix shows.

We often have work nights out which I feel is fundamental. Everyone gets to unwind, and after one too many cocktails our dance moves take over making us feel like we are the ultimate girl group (some may disagree), but I think laughing together helps us be ourselves in and out the office, making it more fun.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
There is always something I can be doing which is what I find most challenging about my job. There is never an endpoint which is what I love but sometimes makes it difficult to switch off. It’s hard to find the right balance between being a first-time mum & running my own business.

As a start-up, I often have to make difficult decisions on how to best spend/save. What is the right next move, when is the right best time – there are so many decisions to make that I have to trust myself and believe in myself. I may not always make the right move, but I always ensure I am learning.

The PR service industry is very cluttered so it is a forever thing to ensure we are ahead of the curve, ahead of other competitors who are very challenging at times.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Ahhhh I could write a book on what I’ve learnt from past projects!

I pride myself on being open and honest with clients. If a campaign isn’t going to plan, communicate that to your client early on to make changes to see if you can make a success out of it! DO NOT wing it, DO NOT hope for the best as sometimes and most often this way doesn’t deliver results.

Always under promise and over deliver. That way you won’t add additional pressure to yourself when executing an approved plan for your client. There is also no better feeling than when you email your client with more significant results than you initially set out to achieve – if you could bottle up that feeling I would buy it!

Time management is critical – we always work in advance after learning to leave things to the last minute often means things get rushed and overlook. We’ve all been there, but as I gain more experience, it is something I do not do anymore. I lie to myself about the deadline, that way it is always done in advance.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Be you! Be proud of yourself and the skills you bring to the table. They may not be the same skills as the person sat next to you, but you still add value which will help benefit the company you work for.

Network with everyone you can – I cannot stress this enough! Get to know everyone around you in the office & the industry. Find out about their journey, their successes their fails, their background, and their passions. It will open your eyes and show you how there is no one right route. It will also help you become a better, stronger team player who is one essential skill that cant be taught.

Try getting involved in what you can / on offer to you to help build your skill-set. You will soon see what you excel at vs. what you don’t find interesting / not so great at. It will help map out your route as well as what you could land into.

Lastly, have fun! Nothing lasts forever so enjoy the moment and give it you’re all.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.sylocommunications.com

https://www.instagram.com/sylo_communications/?hl=en

Pop Quiz, Monday with Uwe Jacobs

We are a supplier of ICF & environmentally sustainable building products, that have developed a bespoke building system, leading to healthy & sustainable homes that are very cost effective.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Uwe Jacobs

Uwe Jacobs
Photo credit: Uwe Jacobs

What is your job role?
Director Durisol Vic/Tas

Tell us about your company?
We are a supplier of ICF & environmentally sustainable building products, that have developed a bespoke building system, leading to healthy & sustainable homes that are very cost effective.

What do you love most about your job?
The change in the building industry that we are driving.
Time to stop building crap houses for the incredibly low benefit

How do your co-workers inspire you?
Greatly, the owner of Durisol Australia is a visionary

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
easy & all day

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Getting our product and system launched into the Victorian and Tasmanian market with a little history, branding and know how about Durisol

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Have enough capital behind you to survive for two years.
Launch BIG
Ensure you know your competitors and arrange for strategic alliances

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

http://durisol.com.au/
https://www.instagram.com/durisolaus/
https://www.facebook.com/DurisolAustralia/

Pop Quiz, Monday with Paul Sullivan

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Paul Sullivan

Paul Sullivan
Photo credit: Paul Sullivan

What is your job role?
CEO and Founder, but I win the business for the business

Tell us about your company?
Bias Digital effectively represents everything that I believe. I am biased, I 100% think your business does not succeed without a comprehensive, multilevel online strategy.

Not merely an inbound marketing strategy, but a combined Research, Inbound Marketing, Inbound/Outbound Sales Strategy and a Business Development plan.

We use this approach with all our clients to continued success.

What do you love most about your job?
I love working with different companies, putting the strategy together, bringing new processes and methodology to workplaces and seeing businesses flourish.

It sounds cliche, but I am selective about with whom I work as I need to feel inspired continuously and there is no better feeling than seeing a fellow entrepreneur see success in their business.

I’m a constant learner, so I develop new skills and understanding of new technologies on an ongoing basis, so I broaden my mind. That stimulates me intensely.

Recently, I put together two of my clients and pitched them on how if they joined forces and created a new business, they each would increase market share and profitability. That’s the kind of reward I get, by seeing things grow and develop and helping business owners see things they hadn’t considered previously.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Work!

If I weren’t in a relationship, I would literally be married to my work, if it were possible. My girlfriend travels a lot for work, and she often asks, “What are you doing this weekend (whilst I’m away)?” and before I respond she’ll roll her eyes and say “Work right?”

So I’m a workaholic, but I have three awards for my work in the past two years, so maybe that’s my passion and I am good at it, who knows???!!

How do your co-workers inspire you?
I work with smarter people with different skill sets, that inspires and develops my broader understanding. The adage of no I in team is absolutely correct.

I allow my team to develop and encourage them to take responsibility and apply their influence as much as possible.

I also hire entrepreneurs, I want them to continually challenge me and the status quo, giving us an edge over our competitors with our “Big Picture Approach.”

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
I think the most memorable thing I did was tell the team to meet me for a pitch in London and I had actually purchased tickets for the new James Bond Movie which went down a storm.

We also do other things like crazy golf, bowling and we are currently considering an escape room, that would be really cool.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Some of the significant challenges of my job are getting CMO’s, CEO’s or business owners (tech startups) to see a different perspective.

Allowing what was originally a marketing agency (us) to become a consulting and delivery partner who can deliver innovation and education programs as well as marketing and sales strategies.

Also, I appeared on the UK version of The Apprentice, and I probably came across less well in the edit, although it has hugely opened doors too.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Projects give you continual lessons, and we try to be transparent with our case studies on our website. But a recent engagement with an Insurance Tech startup really hasn’t gone too well from our perspective.

We were hired in as consultants to fill a head of marketing and sales role temporarily. The challenge to set a go to inbound market strategy, client acquisition strategy, build commercial partnerships and generally help build a team and culture.

We ran buyer persona workshops, did the keyword research, created the content strategy and hired a marketing assistant for the company and some interns.

Through my own network, I got them a deal to be the official recommended provider of insurance for small businesses and freelancers for a large chamber of commerce.

The company failed to follow through on the strategy we set, pitched as an AI company when they weren’t using AI, which we said was a false representation and the relationship soon became untenable.

As an individual my work is personal, if you criticise it, its personal, if you cheerlead it, it’s personal. I am wholly invested in my client’s success. So to part company without a project seen through to success is always disheartening although we did win another award this year for our Inbound Marketing Services, as best in the UK 2019.

Another recent deal we tried to facilitate also didn’t work out. This one really frustrated us at Bias Digital.

We are working in an Accelerator program, and one of the startups is using AI to tell large chain supermarkets how much in perishable goods to stock based on historical sales and a number of other social data points.

I got it straight away and asked the startup if they would like introductions to two of the largest supermarket chains in the UK, Tesco, and Sainsbury.

We could make the intro and help secure the deal, but our fee would be 5%, and we always have a clause that if an intro invests, we get a percentage of the investment funds. Obviously, we take no upfront fees, so this is a success based business deal.

The startup was interested, and we set the two meetings up, but then they didn’t want to agree on terms. We tried to explain the enormous impact this could have for the success of their business, but they completely disagreed.

Accepting their response is natural, comprehending that response was not so easy. As such, when I get asked to speak at events, I often tell this story, and it always gets us interest from other more commercially minded businesses.

So the lessons learned are simple, there are always lessons to be learned, and you must always look to stay ambiguous to situations to find the lesson and then move on.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting out in your industry?
My advice would be NOT to be a “full service” agency. More and more we are collaborating with niche service partners who are winning business on their core strengths.

When you niche and become an expert on a particular subject matter, you can have unlimited earning potential.

Why are we so diverse? Because we bring 20 years plus marketing, sales and business consulting experience to bear.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://www.biasdigital.com
https://twitter.com/whatsyourbias
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulsullivan6/
https://www.instagram.com/whatsyourbias/

Pop Quiz, Monday with Gary Hargraves

There is not a prescriptive formula for consulting services, but experience matters. Find someone in a role that you want to be in the coming years and have that person mentor you. Then keep in touch.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Gary Hargraves

Gary Hargraves

What is your job role?
Digital Services Consultant

Tell us about your company?
I work for Wipro technologies and help oil and gas companies modernize their business using the most recent emerging technologies such as machine learning, internet of things and blockchain. I also recently started a digital community called “Wall Hangers” for people interested in sharing stories about hunting and fishing. I use a mobile app called Mighty Networks to enable the digital community. Finally, I’m writing my first book, which is focused on helping people as they enter the consulting business.

What do you love most about your job?
I’m usually working on an industry first type project by leveraging a new technology to solve complex issues. For example, I’ve helped improve customer loyalty using mobile technology, enabled connected cars using the internet of things and, developed predictive maintenance solutions using advanced analytics in the past year. I’ve also helped with a number of blockchain projects focused on the supply chain. Recently I’ve been helping fortune 500 companies use crowdsourcing to address digital skill gaps and accelerate the number of digital projects they can work.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Being in the emerging digital technology business, I learn something new each day. By working with fortune 500 companies, I’m able to use those learnings to help solve enormously large problems.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
I’ve worked for HP, IBM and now Wipro. These companies represent a combined 250+ years of innovation. My co-workers ooze innovation and inspire our clients and me to tackle some of the world’s largest business challenges and transformations. Together we are all riding the 4th industrial wave – the digitization of everything.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
By keeping a sense of humor about as many things as possible.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Change tends to make people uncomfortable. Digital change is especially uncomfortable because the skills required to keep pace are changing faster than ever and at an exponential rate. Digital technology has flattened the world more than ever, brought in a new cross-pollination of industries and pierced through traditional, national borders. So making sure my clients understand the reasons for change because of the complex digital wave we are living, yet keeping the change message simple enough to prevent paralysis by analysis is a challenge I face every day.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
I’ve been around long enough to know there will always be the next best technology, methodology, and new way of working…but whether working a small or large project, the successful projects all have a focus on the team members success, recurring communication and set and meet the right level of expectations with stakeholders.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
There is not a prescriptive formula for consulting services, but experience matters. Find someone in a role that you want to be in the coming years and have that person mentor you. Then keep in touch.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://www.wipro.com/en-US/oil-and-gas/

https://www.mightynetworks.com/ then search “Wall Hangers.”

Pop Quiz, Monday with Jon Trask

Blockchain Guru is a Consulting & Training firm that focuses on applying Blockchain, Robotic Process Automation and IoT Devices to solving business challenges.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Jon Trask

Jon Trask
Photo credit: Jon Trask

What is your job role?
I am Chief Guru and CEO of a Blockchain Training and Consulting company.

Tell us about your company?
Blockchain Guru is a Consulting & Training firm that focuses on applying Blockchain, Robotic Process Automation and IoT Devices to solving business challenges.

We are located in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax and will be expanding into the US and Latin American markets in 2019.

We have strategic partnerships with:

  • Blockchain Training Alliance to deliver the leading certifications and training in the industry.
  • UiPath Robotic Process Automation to deliver game-changing automation to corporations nationwide.

Our geographic footprint allows us to effectively market some of the top products and services to the entire Canadian market.

What do you love most about your job?
I genuinely love applying new technology to solve the challenges that companies face.

The advances in technology that have come about in the past few years allow us to add value in ways that we couldn’t in the past.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Everything about my job is motivating. I am part of the best team in the industry. They are out talking to company’s who want to make an impact, who want to apply these new technologies to save themselves money, to gain visibility or to disrupt their industry.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
The group of people that I work with are all excited to be working in a fast-paced, ever-changing industry. Their passion for what they do is contagious.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
The work itself is fun. We work remotely and are located across the country, we can joke with each other on the phone or online, but the excitement of a new project keeps us motivated.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
The blockchain industry changes rapidly, it takes an effort to remain current, market intelligence is vital. To overcome this challenge we have established Vertical Leaders who research particular Blockchain Verticals and keep the rest of us abreast of the trends that are affecting the industry. For example, we have a vertical Lead named Adev Ahluwalia who is our Real Estate lead. He knows more about Blockchain for the Real Estate industry than anyone. Adev was a real estate broker, who is better suited to apply blockchain to real estate than a real estate professional.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
People and planning are the keys to successful projects. Our project methodology at Blockchain Guru is proven over time. Robust methods, however, has to be supported by Great People! Hire great people and business life is fun and much easier.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Take a blockchain course. Get involved in your local Blockchain community. Volunteer for a company to gain some experience. Challenge the status quo.

The Blockchain is a great community, join us.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://www.blockchainguru.ca

https://www.linkedin.com/company/blockchain-guru/

https://twitter.com/@blockchainguru_

Pop Quiz, Monday with BJ Enoch

It’s challenging every single day, and there’s never a dull moment. My job is to put a puzzle together every day, and every night the pieces change.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
BJ Enoch

BJ Enoch
Photo credit: BJ Enoch

What is your job role?
Vice President of Enterprise Accounts

Tell us about your company?
SocialSEO is a full-service digital marketing firm based of Colorado Springs, CO with offices in Denver and Phoenix. We specialize in organic SEO, paid search and display advertising, organic and paid social media advertising and video production. Our client base spans four continents with clients ranging from SMB’s to 10,000+ SKU eCommerce retailers, to global publicly traded companies and everything between.

What do you love most about your job?
It’s challenging every single day, and there’s never a dull moment. My job is to put a puzzle together every day, and every night the pieces change.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
The thrill of not knowing exactly what new challenge the day will hold for us.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
Watching them get personally invested with their clients and their success. Every member of our team takes personal and fiduciary responsibility for their clients, and watching them throw themselves headlong into strategizing, commiserating, and celebrating with them is incredibly inspiring.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
We’ve got an obscenely competitive ping pong circuit (and table) going on in the office. The training room turns into Wimbledon during lunch. We also put on monthly team events, quarterly company events, and regular department activities.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
The balancing act between communication, strategy, execution, and documentation is one of the most challenging aspects of our job. Nothing with Google is guaranteed, and their hundreds of factors that can impact how a website interacts with a search engine. We need to not only combat the search engine, but also keep an eye on the competition and effectively communicate to our clients what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and what we expect to happen as a result.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
It’s ok to say no to projects and clients. Especially in the early stages of business growth, there’s a hunger to take on every possible revenue opportunity you can, but the wrong client or project can set things back immensely.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Get your Google Analytics certification and then start reading everything you can, build some basic sites and start testing practical application on the side.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://www.socialseo.com
https://www.socialseo.com/denver-seo
https://www.socialseo.com/phoenix-seo

Pop Quiz, Monday with Simon Hall

I love the power of networking. I believe the connections we make both personally and professionally can impact our careers for years on end. You never know who you’ll meet and the impact they could have on your life.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Simon Hall

Simon Hall
Photo credit: Simon Hall

What is your job role?
General Manager, Kafnu Alexandria

Tell us about your company?
Kafnu is a lifestyle space for innovators and creators to meet, connect and collaborate. We provide the infrastructure, facilities, and community so that our members have all they need to succeed in their careers and passion projects.

What do you love most about your job?
I love the power of networking. I believe the connections we make both personally and professionally can impact our careers for years on end. You never know who you’ll meet and the impact they could have on your life. That’s what I love about the concept of Kafnu. The model of the business revolves around the community that space creates and its members. That’s what makes us different from other companies.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
My team and our business culture, definitely motivates me to get up and go every morning, Everyday is different and my role as it allows me to interact with all areas of the business. I believe, if you can really relate to what your business is trying to achieve, it makes coming to work every day exciting.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
I think it’s important to learn and take in information from everyone around you no matter, their level. I feel like I learn something new every day from the most unexpected areas of our business, and that’s what I love. We have a group of very talented people working to run Kafnu on a day to day basis, so it’s easy to be inspired.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
Play is very important at work. In my past roles, we have adopted the FISH philosophy which I’m looking to bring to Kafnu in the future. The steps for FISH are all about being present, creative and making sure that your team takes time to have a little fun in the office. Whether it’s stopping work for brainstorms or catching up for a laugh on a Friday afternoon, it’s important to make sure that your team enjoys coming to work every day.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
I was self-employed for almost ten years previously, so moving back to a corporate structure has been an adjustment. The hotel sector is also a new sector for me, but I’ve enjoyed learning and getting to know something new.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Network network network, search out the leaders, mentors and the connected leaders in the industry and learn from them.

Grow your network, so you have someone to turn to for referrals, recommendation, and support.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Approach the right people. An email or phone call to the right person could mean a big step in your career or creating a connection that could be very useful in the future.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.kafnu.com/alexandria
https://www.instagram.com/kafnualexandria/ https://www.facebook.com/kafnualexandria/

Pop Quiz, Monday with Jon Vlachogiannis

We help people manage their money more efficiently and have access to sophisticated financial products by using Machine Learning.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Jon Vlachogiannis but it is way easier just to call me Jon V,

What is your job role?
CEO and Founder at AgentRisk

Jon Vlachogiannis
Photo credit: Jon Vlachogiannis

Tell us about your company?
We help people manage their money more efficiently and have access to sophisticated financial products by using Machine Learning.

What do you love most about your job?
How a smart “Machine” makes people’s (financial) life soooo much better. We are living in the future!

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Knowing that we help people achieve their goals and focus on their passion.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
By being dedicated to our cause and putting our customers above their sleep 😀

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
Let’s say that you should never leave your laptop unlocked 😉

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Understanding that not every product is for every customer (and visa versa). It is impossible to create something that everyone loves but super easy to create something that everyone hates. You need to know to settle with “most customers love it, some just like it”

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
At my previous Startup that got acquired, I learnt that the most important thing is not funding but having a team with 100% aligned goals. It is best for everyone to know that the road is always going to be rocky and no amount of funding can change that.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Don’t do it 🙂 Just kidding! Make sure that you have compliance nailed down and a solid customer acquisition plan.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

Our website: www.agentrisk.com

Pop Quiz, Monday with Abhishek Talwar

Focus on the first ten customers. You probably don’t need an app right now. Just start providing services without any technical interface.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Abhishek Talwar

Abhishek Talwar
Photo credit: Abhishek Talwar

What is your job role?
Founder

Tell us about your company?
We connect commuters travelling in a similar direction to share a ride, reduce pollution and metal on the road while building a real-world network

What do you love most about your job?
Connecting people, building the world’s most authentic real-world network

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
I am a problem solver, so if there is a challenge be it technical or non-technical, I would want to solve it.

This and the mere fact that two strangers get to know each other over an hour-long drive to their office, connecting people while reducing carbon footprint does the job for me

How do your co-workers inspire you?
Inspiration can come from any walk of life.

We like to play some house music in the background. If someone comes up with a piece of good music, then it could also be a piece of inspiration

Besides the work we talk about life, friends, sports, love, drugs. This comes with a bundle of inspirational and motivational topics.

Lastly, anyone who comes up with a better coding design pattern in any of the projects does spark a neural connection and does inspire us to move ahead in the right direction

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
We go trekking

What are some of the challenges of your job?
I have a small team, so I am involved in all domains

  1. Technical
    Code review is a must for me, as we can not afford good quality coders. So we have to train coders and then make sure they are adhering to the standards
  2. Business
    Proper analytical analysis to figure out the way to provide the best service worth user’s time and money. This is a complex process and a journey which gets beautiful while acknowledging failure

Team Building
For any side to win, you need loyal and intelligent soldiers. Team building is by far the most crucial and challenging door.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Always go lean.

For Poolmyride we bought two hatchback commercial vehicles to provide shared office commute to employees. Within a month we started to feel that this work is not for us for various reasons.

We should have rented out a car and seen if it works.

Last but not least, Make sure your team consists of highly motivated and self-starter individuals. Hiring is a crucial role which should be done right

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Focus on the first ten customers. You probably don’t need an app right now. Just start providing services without any technical interface.

Otherwise, app maintenance would be extra overhead.

Also, discuss your ideas with all the friends and family to check their opinion. You might have so much energy and must be an optimist that you may ignore all ground realities and that’s where you want someone else to break the truth to you

Don’t forget to have fun during all this.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.poolmyride.com
www.yantha.com

https://www.facebook.com/PoolMyRide/
https://twitter.com/poolmyride

Pop Quiz, Monday with Chloe Smith

Being involved in a startup means your role is a moving piece and there are so many things you want to achieve, at the one time!

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Chloe Smith

Chloe Smith
Photo credit: Chloe Smith

What is your job role?
I’m the Chief Product & Technology Officer at Leadr.

Tell us about your company?
Leadr solves online advertising for small businesses. But our larger purpose expands beyond that. We’re here to help our customers understand how to market themselves effectively in an affordable way. We take care of online advertising for small business owners. And we do it in a way that’s focused on building a partnership—We give you a team of marketing experts and intuitive software via a Personalised Dashboard to monitor the results, contact your Account Manager 24/7 and access personalised tips to help your businesses marketing improve.

What do you love most about your job?
Helping our small business customers improve their online presence and watching their businesses grow as a result. For me, this means continually questioning how we are adding value to our customer’s businesses, how we can help educate them and provide market-leading advice and tools to deliver value to small businesses of all types consistently.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Small business owners have so much passion for what they do. Our customer’s enthusiasm is infectious. At Leadr we genuinely believe in our purpose to help our customers realise their potential through online marketing tools and expert advice. We put that purpose, energy, and enthusiasm into everything we do and we’re always asking how we can make our service better. That aspiration and energy are what motivates me every day – to give our passionate customers a service that they see working and helping them.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
My co-workers inspire me in many ways, and they are a genuinely brilliant bunch of people who can teach me something new every day. We’re focused on building positive energy and entrepreneurial spirit into all our processes and ways of being – that approach galvanises me to do better and grow each day.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
We see ourselves as a great team, and part of being a great team is creating a culture of freedom and passion. That means providing our team with opportunities to grow through education and training, learning lunches and professional development. We celebrate our achievements, and we make a big deal about our small wins because we’re focused on growing. We thrive on having a team of passionate, different and unique individuals. We create a place where they can grow and thrive as business professionals.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Being involved in a startup means your role is a moving piece and there are so many things you want to achieve, at the one time! Prioritising what is imperative, nice to have and not needed at this moment is crucial to ensuring you don’t get bogged down, wasting time on inefficient tasks. Always focusing on the goal of the business and the immediate steps required to get it is essential and learning to say no is crucial.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
For any project, we use daily stand-ups to align and keep the project to a deadline. Feedback is also essential to this process, creating a culture where feedback is vital to everyday business but is seen as something positive.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Don’t let fear hold you back from starting something you wish to pursue. There are a lot of people that talk about the ‘what if’ and never do it. That’s a frustrating mentality to me. I hear people who have great ideas, and I think you should do that. They let fear stop them and in particular a fear of failure. If you’ve got a great idea, make it happen and don’t always feel like you can’t do it because it might not work.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.getleadr.com
@getleadr
https://www.facebook.com/getleadr
https://www.linkedin.com/company/getleadr

Pop Quiz, Monday with Nilesh Thorve

Every day we are helping someone build something new or solve a problem that may help in the advancement of human civilization. That is something that motivates me a lot.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Nilesh Thorve

Nilesh Thorve
Photo credit: Nilesh Thorve

What is your job role?
Helping early stage startups build team, product, and product market fit and prepare them for Series A and help funded startups in Scaling Up efficiently

Tell us about your company?
DealBank is building a global Fintech platform basically Angellist on a large scale that helps Entrepreneurs across the world to raise early-stage capital to help matured startups in gravity-defying multibn$ M&As or IPOs. Our goal is to promote Entrepreneurship and support Entrepreneurs across the globe who are solving core problems.

What do you love most about your job?
Myself being a Serial Entrepreneur the fact that with our platform we can support many founders at the critical and most challenging stage of their journey is the most satisfying thing that I love about my job.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Every day we are helping someone build something new or solve a problem that may help in the advancement of human civilization. That is something that motivates me a lot.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
Learning is a lifelong process, and I learn a lot from my Co-workers. Every team member has a different kind of talent, and the knowledge that happens during the process of working together is an inspiration.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
We are committed, serious and focused organization but I feel that workplace and work you do should be a fun and we do weekly sports events, have daily food together and its a flat organization and have weekly team sports events to build a team culture.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Helping raise capital for early-stage companies is one of the most challenging things. As we have to connect a lot of moving parts in a strict deadline. But we enjoy it as the outcome after the hard work is often fruitful.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Focus, Execution, Dedication and Discipline and Ability to learn new things every day and be flexible as the world is changing every day. Also financial and operational Efficiency is one of the most important things that can make or break any company. These are some of the learning.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Be focused and be frugal at the start, Be efficient when you start scaling up after receiving initial Pre Series A or Series A. And Success or failure is not a result of competition but your own doing.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.dealbank.co
https://twitter.com/dealbankasia?lang=en