Startup Instinct

This episode will bring forth the strength you need to power through life, because we have an extremely uplifting, hardworking, and driven guest on the show. Jason Rasevych is a social impact entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience working with First Nations, community economic development corporations, and various government departments. He is of Oji-Cree ancestry and a member of The Ginoogaming First Nation, a signatory James Bay Treaty number 9 in Northern Ontario. He has a phenomenal track record for success and has secured more than $100 million for capital projects and community capacity building. He is also a founding member of the Anishnawbe Business Professional Association, a nonprofit group that advocates for the inclusion of indigenous business in the northern economy.

It is completely normal to end up in a rut. The journey involves many pivots and some times dead ends which require starting over again. I have had that experience and so has Neil Mathew: CEO of Placenote, an augmented reality startup. Join us as Neil shares his story, struggles, and vision for the world. There is nothing wrong with starting over and revisiting the drawing board. Sometimes, it is crucial. This will inspire you!
Music Credits: Rapshine
https://instagram.com/rapshine

In this episode, we talk about personal branding and the positive changes needed to build a successful personal brand. Today's guest Dr. Natalia Wiechowski, is from Hanover and lives in Dubai. She started as a Social Scientist, then became a Doctor of Philosophy. Today, she is a bestselling author, a LinkedIn learning author, and the Middle East’s leading Edutainer. We talk about the struggles, routine, mental health, and exercise. Things that come to mind when building a personal brand or a business represented by name and reputation.

In this episode, we talk about how startups and small businesses have been impacted by COVID-19. Discussing raising money during a pandemic and that it depends on the industry as some startups hold a strong position to raise money, while some are unable unless they give out more to investors through a lower valuation. The discussion then bleeds into incorrect assumptions and false ethical narratives with business operations, raising money, and expanding during the COVID-19 outbreak. Highlighting that this is not a complete economic lockdown.
We talk about useless, unethical and heartless COVID-19 marketing e-mails and debate the reasoning behind such activity. It can stem from many areas, some did a great job and kept it simply to updating customers/clients on business operations while others leveraged the vulnerable emotional state of their customers to increase sales. This lesson is important because we are after long term business relationships with customers and clients. Cold COVID-19 marketing does quite the opposite.
We then get into a heartier discussion on Humans VS Artificial Intelligence and the advancement of artificial intelligence over time. We discuss Elon Musk and his concerns with having gone too far with AI. Challenging the potential benefits and dangers of rapid AI expansion.
Today's guest is Andrew Kanapatski, the strategic planning manager for Kira Systems, an AI and machine learning platform that analyzes contract text. Andrew strives to help companies across industries understand the various ways in which business and innovative technology come together to yield exponential growth.

In this episode, we will be talking about Entrepreneur First, a program that was established in Europe and Asia in 2011 and has recently launched in Canada. Entrepreneur First was founded by Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford, and is the world’s leading talent investor. They help entrepreneurs find a co-founder, develop an idea, and start a company. To date, Entrepreneur First has worked with over 2000 individuals to initiate more than 300 companies, with a combined net worth of $2 billion.

Today’s guest is Rachel Zimmer. She is the General Manager of Entrepreneur First in Canada. Many know Rachel for co-founding 5Crowd, which was acquired by SGSCO in 2016. Rachel reflects on some of her past struggles, embarrassing moments and experiences that have shaped her as an entrepreneur. As we discuss the early stages of a startup, she emphasizes the importance of conducting sufficient research that may prevent future product market fit issues. Moreover, we talk about women in entrepreneurship. Rachel gives her best advice on being a female leader in the business world and overcoming self-doubt, including imposter syndrome. We talk about the importance of establishing a clear vision for oneself before embarking on the long and demanding startup journey. Entrepreneurship looks sexy but it isn’t. Rachel stresses the importance of being easy on oneself and preparing for necessary sacrifices. The entire startup journey can be challenging and intimidating, but doing what one is truly passionate about can make the process more enjoyable, and potentially more rewarding. Lastly, Rachel mentions Holly Gonzalez and Anna Caravaggio, for their approaches to communication, relationship building and the effective management of tense situations.

Entrepreneur First applications close on August 28th, 2020. If you are interested in applying, click on the link below:
https://jobs.lever.co/joinefnow/0b785d4c-3a6e-4597-829e-fcafb06cae2b?_ga=2.260627913.553409686.1592905466-916163216.1592905466
Good Luck!