Why be inspired?

“You did then what you knew how to do.  When you knew better, you did better!” – Maya Angelou

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing many entrepreneurs. I hope you were as inspired as I was with their dedication, ambition and commitment to seeing their passion come to life. Team Design Vetica juggles both school work and professional work to make their company work. Carlos from Bloom Marketing works hard to see his company grow despite the recession, forget the norm – he is defying the norm and surpassing it. Leon at age 27 commands the largest Real Estate Channel in Canada. Brian and his team, fresh out of university has garnered worldwide attention for Followformation, a twitter solution his company created after being inspired by Jason Calanis‘ cash bid to be one of the suggested user in the sign up process on twitter. Victor and Josh from Make It Business are there to provide all the support and resources for these entrepreneurs to grow their start-ups.

The point of these interviews is to show you a glimpse into the minds of these entrepreneurs and to inspire you to think of what is possible. What is possible is the ability to achieve what you think of with some hard work. And even though, they have tripped, fell and lost countless hours of sleep (in Brian’s case and I am sure with others as well), they remain excited despite the challenges they faced and will face because they believe so strongly in their dreams. I am sure if you sit down with each of them for one-on-one time, they will share their battle stories and show you their scars. I was recently visited by my old university club, Simon Fraser chapter of Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE SFU) and many had technical questions of how to get started but I couldn’t clearly convey as to how I got started and what I needed to get started. I can only describe it as a strong need to support entrepreneurs and a strong desire to have my own freedom. That has manifested in Urban Bella, The Network Hub and Atomic Media. The challenges and the scars are part of the journey. I believe I am better for it, as any entrepreneur can attest.

I hope you come away from each interview with a renewed sense of optimism, a clearer sense of purpose and the desire to just do it, because that is all there is to get started.

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Followformation – Brian Wong

Some of the best people I have met are through random introductions. Brian Wong was introduced through a mutual acquaintance of mine and after five minutes of meeting, I was completely fascinated by his endless amount of energy, enthusiasm and all of that on two hours of sleep. Even more fascinating is the company he has started with his co-founders and what they are up to right now.Followformation is a media darling at the moment as they are the start-up company from Vancouver that is making big waves in the social media world. If you don’t believe me, at the end of the interview there is a list of the press coverage they have garnered so far!

1. Tell us what you do.
Right now, I’m the co-founder of Aer Marketing Inc., an online start-up. We are the dudes behind Followformation.  I am responsible for the ideation, the design concepts behind all our work, and business development (i.e. full-time networking) + anything else that needs to be done.

2. You just finished university, how did you find the time to run Aer Marketing and also startFollow Formation while dealing with exams plus an internship with 1-800-got-junk?
I tell people I practice polyphasic sleeping, but the real truth is just that I sleep very little. I would my manage my time by following what Tim Ferris would call a low-information diet, while separating certain parts of my day for certain things. Followformation was started during the summer, so it was a little less stressful then. But near the end of my last term at university I was working my internship during the mornings and early afternoons Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, going to classes in the remaining time during the day, and allocating “aertime” every evening between play-time and dinner to work on our projects.

3. What was the most challenging aspect of being a young entrepreneur from your perspective?
Young and old, I think the hardest challenge is to “keep trucking” – there are always things that get in your way, and every day, it’s a battle. All I know is that this work has empowered me as a youth to go out and learn new things and meet and work with amazing people – things I would not have been able to experience had I thrown myself at a yawn-worthy line of work.

4. You have had a ton of press lately from the Georgia Straight to the highly sought afterMashable.com, what was the biggest reason for your success with getting press for your company?
Mashable was a complete fluke, but I took it upon myself to leverage that buzz. I have been up very early every morning since then hitting journalists on their blackberry’s and iPhones right before they hit the office. I’m actually pretty bad at it though. The other big reason is, and I hear this a lot – if your idea or concept at its core is not sticky or buzz-worthy, pushing it can only go so far. I think all the blog posts and tweets are a good litmus test for that.

5. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself regarding your business?
Don’t assume that everyone’s on the same page even when they’ve nodded their heads.

North America Press Coverage

Mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/07/14/followformation/
Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/super-charge-your-twittering-followformation
The Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/x-11216-Twitter-Examiner~y2009m7d16-Alltop-model-for-Twitter-from-Followformation
Killer Startups: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/followformation-com-make-following-make-sense
InventorSpot: http://inventorspot.com/articles/migrate_followformation_30351
Blogger Institute: http://www.bloggerinstitute.com/2009/07/how-followformation-helps-your-blog/
Local – Techvibes: http://www.techvibes.com/blog/followformation-makes-sense-out-of-following-on-twitter
Local – The Georgia Straight: http://www.straight.com/article-241644/followformationcom
Local – Sauder School of Business Newsletter:https://secure.sauder.ubc.ca/360newsletter/20090716.htm

International Press Coverage

Brazilian business magazine: http://www.papodeempreendedor.com.br/tecnologia/para-tirar-melhor-proveito-do-twitter/
French social media blog: http://www.tubbydev.com/2009/07/qui-et-comment-suivre-sur-twitter-.html
Singapore top Tweeter blog (@techxav): http://techxav.com/2009/07/16/followformation-lets-you-follow-the-top-people-in-the-areas-of-your-interest/

 

And all the rest of our blog hits: http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?q=followformation

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Real Estate Channel – Leon Ng

Surrounding yourself with positive, ambitious and like-minded people is one of the important requirements to staying motivated as an entrepreneur.  I am fortunate to count Leon Ng as a friend and am constantly amazed at what he accomplishes as a young entrepreneur.  Keep an eye on this young entrepreneur as he builds his expanding media empire – TV, Production Studios, Film.

1. Tell us what you do?
I’m in real estate marketing, tv/film & media production. I had my start at a small local cable station in Vancouver. From there, I saw the opportunity to start my own business. Three years ago, we launched the Real Estate Channel on one of the smallest networks in Canada. Three years later, we have expanded nationally and will soon be on the nation’s largest TV networks.

2. At 27, you already run the largest Real Estate Channel in Canada? Are you building a real estate media empire?
You’re flattering me. I am taking this one step at a time. I am very far from that right now. I do have a personal interest in real estate media and I think it is important to keep myself up to date with current real estate technology. One of my favourite real estate blogs iswww.futureofrealestatemarketing.com

3. You also own LNG Studios, was there a moment you considered giving up on having multiple businesses?
Never! I believe in diversifying, as long as you can stay focused and not spread your resources to thin. It is best if you can expand in a way that your businesses can complement each other.

4. Do you have time to have a hobby?
I have a work hard, play hard mentality. I like to be creative. My true passion is in film. I am currently producing a short film called ‘Henry’s Glasses”, which received a grant from the Directors Guild of Canada’s Kick Start Program. The film is based in a Japanese Canadian Internment Camp in 1945 and production starts in October 09.

5. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself regarding your business?
If you know me, you’ll know that I am a very spontaneous person. When I feel good about an idea, I tend to jump on it (which is sometimes good & sometimes bad). I should be giving myself more time to plan and do my due diligence but you live and learn from your mistake! This is only the beginning.

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Design Vetica – William, David and Alex

Starting a company is hard but it’s even harder when you are in high school! So if you have excuses such as – I don’t have the time, I don’t have the money, or I don’t have the connection to start my business, team Design Vetica will blow all those excuses out of the water. They are young, they are determined and they are having fun working on their business.  Follow the team on twitter @designvetica.

1. Tell us what you do.
Design Vetica is a Vancouver based interactive agency dedicated to web design and media production. With our core service being web design and development, we work with clients across all kinds of industries to aid them in staying ahead of the competition. Not only do we emphasize on businesses, we also create websites for individuals who want an online presence. In addition, within the next few months, we look forward to adding new media services offerings to what we currently provide.

2. What is the start-up story behind Design Vetica?
All of the partners in Design Vetica, before establishing this agency, have either worked as freelance web designer/developer, or have built some websites themselves. Most of the projects they received were referrals from friends; but long before that, they have done multiple projects for themselves. Recognized by what they can achieve, they were given one of their biggest projects: building their school’s site (and they were paid with school credits). In the following year, William and David started talking about building a company on the idea of web design and media production in IT class. Soon, they pulled Alex into the picture since he was very close in working on previous projects with William. On February 6th, 2009 Design Veticawas born.

3. What was the most challenging aspect of being a young entrepreneur from your perspective as your entire team is still in high school?
Our most challenging aspect of being a young entrepreneur is that we are STILL in high school! People who are not constraint with schoolwork can focus solely on their work (apart from all the other random stuff). However, we, as students have to juggle school work and getting good marks while keeping up with deadlines from multiple projects with clients. This has caused some problems already. For example, we had to drop potential clients during finals. Nevertheless, at times, we encourage each other to keep up our grades in school.

4. To what do you attribute your company’s achievement?
All of us at Design Vetica can attribute our achievements to the individual member in the team. Without such a dedicated and hard working team, Design Vetica wouldn’t be where it stands now.

5. What advices do you give aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those who want to start in high school?
It may sound cheesy, but DO IT; because you never know unless you try. The truth is when we think back to how we started, we were even shocked to find ourselves following such a crazy idea; but we are glad that we did it. Even if your idea fails, use it as an experience because we all learn from mistakes.

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Bloom Marketing - Carlos Obregon

With the explosion of social media sites on top of the existing sites, it is difficult to navigate in the online marketing world  – how do I position my online brand and what do I do with this thing call social media?  I lucked out and landed my first entrepreneur interview withCarlos Obregon from Bloom Marketing, you bet I will be asking about social media.  Bloom Marketing is a leading search engine marketing agency located in Vancouver British Columbia.

1.  Tell us what you do.
In a nutshell, we do online marketing. The services we offer are:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to make your site easier to find by prospective clients.
• PPC (Pay per click advertising) these are the ads you see next to search results.
• Copywriting – we write text for websites, this text is different than the text you see in print media, it is designed to be easy to read and informative for users and easy to read for search engine robots at the same time.
• Social media marketing - we help website owners unleash the power of Web 2.0
• Web Analytics – We track and analyze the traffic that comes to your site, we can then determine who the most likely buyers are, which cities they come from, what times of the day do they normally visit your site, and a large number of other metrics that can shed light into how your online sales are happening.

2. What is the start-up story behind Bloom Marketing?
In 2006 Azita Fazli and I saw the opportunity to start this company because we were witnessing the growing demand for online marketing services. Azita has been doing internet marketing since 2000 and I have been in this field since 2005. We had paying customers from day one and despite the recession we have been growing every year. We currently serve clients in the following industries: financial, tourism, real estate and consumer products and services

3. Where do you see Bloom Marketing going over the next 2 years?
We seem to be specializing in tourism related industries; we currently have a hotel chain, an airline and two regional tourism associations as clients. We also work in partnership with 4 ad agencies in the city to enable them to offer not only traditional media capabilities but digital media as well.

4. Social networking is huge these days; do you incorporate that into your business offering as well?
We do, we are currently active on Facebook with and ad campaign and a Fan page, onLinkedIn and on Twitter.

5. Any tips for start-ups with regard to online marketing and how to navigate through the social networking explosions?
Try it. If you are familiar with print and electronic media, chances are you will be greatly surprised by the ROI and lower cost of online marketing. As for social media, make sure you claim your company name on all the major social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. Even if you don’t have the time or resources at the moment to maintain your profiles, at least you can avoid the problem of someone else posing as yourself or your company.

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Following your bliss

“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.” – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

You have probably heard a million times, follow your bliss or follow your heart which really means do what you are passionate about. What it means for me means casting aside my degree, defying my parents, and leaving a possible career in criminal law – everything that is seemingly concrete and predicable to do something that my heart tells me. Try explaining that to your parents and your peers – my heart is telling me something else and oh yeah by the way, forget what happened in the last 7 years of education and yes that 2 years in law, let’s pretend none of that happened. What I really want to do was with two partners; build a place where entrepreneurs can call their second home.

We struggled and struggled hard. We were MISERABLE as we were all young all still in university with pressure of exams, satisfying demands of current clients for our current business and dealing with family pressure. One of my partners was in Computer Science and another in Chemistry, and I was in Applied Science with a clear path going to Law. None of us knew what constructions look like but we all came to the office after work and school to carry hardwood and drywall to help out the construction workers. We accelerate the construction process from the estimated timeline of 6 months to 3 months.

  

That was 2 and half years ago and we never looked back. The result is The Network Hub. The space is now more than 4 walls and some doors, it vibrates with enthusiasm, energy and passion from the people who occupy it. If I ever doubt my path or have a moment of weakness, all I need is to open the door to soak in the buzz and the vibrations from the people in the space determined to change the world in their own way, completely absorbed in their passion and loving every minute of it.

  

One person in our space who is so passionate about his cause, he is staying up 24 hours to blog to raise funds for the BC Cancer Foundation. Dr. Raul Pacheco has lost 3 family members to cancer, including two of his Mom’s sisters (lung cancer and stomach cancer, respectively) and his grandmother (pancreatic cancer). If this isn’t pure passion, I don’t know what is… please donate generously to Raul. I sure will be as a person who recently lost my uncle to pancreatic cancer.

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Confession of an entrepreneur: Friendship

At last week’s Meetup of Meetups, I had a chance to kick my feet up early and catch up with some keen entrepreneurs who came earlier to the event. A question was posed to me… what was one of the disadvantages of starting a business when I was so young? I had to think about it… perhaps because my second Budweiser Lime Light got my mind a little hazy, but off the top of my head and maybe because of the social event we were about to have, I exclaimed, “You lose friends and you lose them fast!”

What people don’t tell you is that once you start your business, when you live and breathe your business, you literally become a social outcast in your close-knit circle of friends. You can no longer relate to the complaints about a nasty boss, long hours in cubicles and crazy co-workers. I find myself having little patience – if you have such a problem then find a new job or start your own business! Those were not satisfactory answers and it usually gets me in a lot of trouble with my friends. In replies, I usually get the “I can’t believe you would trade a regular paycheque for little or no money”, why would you work from the basement or even worse “get a real job”.

I have fantastic supportive friends who I have known from high school and elementary schools. They love me and I love them. We do anything to support each other but we strain to make conversations whenever we meet each other. Once we get past the pleasantries and the updates, we have a hard time connecting about the present so we revert back to past events…. our conversations usually take the tone of “remember that time in the cafeteria and you slipped?” or “remember that teacher who was so nice?” I almost feel a relief when our social outing is over because it took so much effort to come up with conversations. My best friend and I see each other maybe once every 6 months, most of the time more because her work keeps her very busy, actually busier than me! She’s an auditor at one of the top 5 firms. It was always her goal to be in the top 5 and mine to be running my own business. It is slightly sad that the further ahead we get in our respective field, the further we drift away from each other. While we still make every effort to catch up, things aren’t quite the same.

It’s not all that bad though, I have fantastic business partners who live and breathe the business with me. People who in an instant would know what I am going to do and vice versa, I think my partners are now my best friends too. We have to be… we are in a relationship that is even deeper than friendship, I rely on them for my livelihood and I see them more often than my family. If you are looking to start a business on your own, I would ask you to consider bringing in a partner but if that isn’t an option then please join organizations with likeminded individuals who are in the same boat as you.

I think this is the reason why I threw my hat in the ring to be president of then Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurs (now called SIFE) and after graduation I started organizing the Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup. It can get pretty lonely sometimes to not be able to share the success, obstacles and challenges with another human being who is on the same path as you are. Well at today’s event we are expecting about 600 people, about 360 of those attending are from Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup so I guess I can’t feel that bad I have 360 people who can share, understand and relate to what I am going through.

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