041 Idea Development

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

Hello listeners! Apologies for this delay and halt in proceedings but sometimes life says no, you can’t have it all your way, and things come up that cause you to take a pause and a big step back.

Podcasts are eternal things, and someone listening to this episode years from now will wonder why they are hearing this, but What’s happened in Afghanistan has been a wake-up call for me, when I look at what lies ahead of us. It’s caused me to rethink a great many things, and that’s why I needed a break in producing new content and serving what you need.

I will record an interview with a friend who worked for the red cross in Kabul until it fell to the Taliban, and you will be able to find that interview on my Youtube channel, so for now, I won’t speak any more about that, but it’s still on my mind.

The events though have made this work that I’m doing take on greater importance, as I and all of us, need to do more to help others, and this podcast, my communities and my services are designed to do that.

This episode is about developing ideas, and it’s going to be split into 2 sections, to be covered in the next few weeks.

All right then. Let’s do this.

Lesson 1 for you today is this:

You develop business ideas to test them, not to launch them!

This is one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make and trust me I’ve experienced first-hand how costly these mistakes are.

In my view, this is going to be the most important section of this E-Book so listen up and pay attention!

What you are testing in the development phase is that your ideas and research correspond to market reality and meet not just the perceived needs but the real needs of your customers as well.

I recently read an excerpt from Dare to Lead by Brene Brown – which turned out to be a quote from another book Good to Great, and I want to mention it before we get into the details.

You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

At this point, let’s reflect on what we’ve done so far.

We know our mission, our skills, the jobs to be done by the customer. We’ve done some market research, and we’ve selected a few ideas based on our ikigai, the intersection of all the good news we got from the idea stage, as well as things that may not have been conclusive but are at least interesting enough to take forward.

Before you start testing, you need to know your “who”

Who are you selling to? Specifically? What are the characteristics of people who have this problem, or what are the conditions under which this problem is experienced?

Use your research results to understand:

Ideal Client
Niche
Prototype and Test
Go to Market Strategy.
Supply Chain, Finance and Legal

Truth bomb: It will cost you far more to develop the wrong idea than it costs to start again and find a better idea. Development takes the input from your market research and aims to convert it into a mock-up of commercial reality.

Ideal Client

An Ideal client (IC) or an ideal client avatar (ICA), is the perfect customer for your specifically imagined product or service. They are the person whose dreams you want to fulfil, or whose nightmares you want to end.

They are the people you discovered in your market research that helped you tailor your idea, that your skills and talents along with product or service design are absolutely made for. They are excited out of their minds to use your product or service because it speaks directly to their problems.

Your work thrives when you are extremely specific, especially when you are getting started, and they have a specific set of problems, and or a specific set of characteristics. If you don’t yet have a track record, you are relying on both ideal client and niche to help you build your credibility.

Your ideal client can be:

A previous version of you.
A specific person you discovered during research.
A specific friend or former colleague whose problems you always solve.
A customer who bought from you in the past
A Realistic re-creation from a series of experiences.

Consider capturing all the below information for your ideal client. Name your ideal client or avatar as you’re going to be talking to them a lot!

You can consider having up to 3 ideal clients.

Ideal Client Example.

This is how I bring this to life, with an example of one of my ideal clients, who I call Nora.

Nora is in their own sustainably-minded business, which they run as a side gig. They have been in her start-up for less than a year and are struggling with adequate sales growth, although they are experiencing moderate sales.

They have reflected on their business, and they think they need to increase traffic to her store. They are thinking about investing in ads, but are not sure about the return on investment, and do not want to lose money/ cash flow which is in short supply.

They have accumulated some knowledge, so are wary of sellers claiming more knowledge than they have. They would like a place to ask some questions and currently look toward large groups and communities.

She desires long-term to live off her business and backs herself to succeed, but her question is more around should they seek out help, or figure it out on her own, as they are resourceful and have gotten this far on her own. She wants to prove to herself and her family that she’s got this.

Her independence is strong, but they also like the idea of a community. The problem of growth has been a persistent one these past months, and they are not clear whether this is seasonal, or how much covid has had an impact, and how the return to a new normal might affect her business. They believe that consistency is important but suspects a bit more is needed.

Nora is a 28-year-old female living in Manchester UK. they have a partner and dog. They are living together, but not yet married. They live in an apartment building, but they look forward to having a house soon. they believe in a minimalist lifestyle and has been a vegetarian since they turned 16. they like to go on backpacking trips with their partner in the Scottish or Welsh mountains on holidays. they read fiction and listens to a variety of podcasts. they and her partner use bike scooters and public transportation but they look forward to a campervan.

They have a digital marketing role for an online shop, but on the side, they work on their own digital store. they use Etsy, Facebook, and Instagram shops. In her day job, they work mostly alone in a small team. they have a degree in Sociology. They’ve been in this job for 3 years, but they are looking forward to leaving it because it’s a lot of work in support of someone else’s dream.

She is a self-starter and taught herself much of what they know about marketing. they are headstrong passionate and cause-driven. they fear not being able to make the impact that they want or live the lifestyle they would like. they dream of financial independence and a minimalist and balanced lifestyle with the needs of the planet.

She advocates for DEI (Diversity Equity and Inclusion), animal rights, reducing consumption. Her worst nightmare would be to work for someone else all her life. they have a positive outlook on the future and her generation's ability to make changes.

She does all her spending online and tends to work on her side gig during the day and in the evenings. they collaborate with some other online traders already, but they want other sources of growth. they think while walking with the pets and listening to podcasts. they spend their free time reading, with friends and walking in the ocean. they are not as consistent as they would like but sometimes enjoys going for a run.

She rewards herself with something fashionable and vintage. they sometimes spend time gaming online.

My other ideal client has a burning desire, not a problem, and her name is Mia.

Mia is an educated professional woman who is ready to pivot and start a positive impact hybrid service and product-based business. they want to address a need they spotted in the market when they experienced this challenge 3 years ago with their youngest son. they want other mothers like her to have the choice, and not be so overwhelmed by the challenge they face. they struggled through this on their own, but today they have accumulated significant knowledge that they are compelled to share because existing solutions are incomplete and ineffective.

Mia has been feeling quite jaded in her corporate life for a long time, and they want a change both for her family and for her own psychological wellbeing.

It is important to Mia that anything they do can replace or surpass her corporate income as they need to secure her family’s future. It scares her to not do something about the problem they see, but it also scares her that they will take this risk at her age and fail, and never be able to return to the rank and status they left behind when they leaped.

She has become used to quality in education and training, coaching, and mentoring and service delivery. they are willing to invest in the right offer that suits what they are trying to do and will pay a premium for things done for her that will save her time.

She has 2 routes to getting started, accept a redundancy package, and start fresh, or keep working and start a side gig. they go for the redundancy route.

She has many options to choose from when getting started, and they prefer to look for established and trusted brands. Yet they do not offer her sufficient clarity, as they are not close enough to the marketplace to give the best advice. they may be spending time together in the following places.

Incubator or accelerator.

The regional chamber of commerce.

Networking events for start-ups.

YouTube.

Sharing ideas with trusted friends and mentors.

Digital courses with established universities

Sampling peer to peer networks

Grants for green start-ups.

Sampling podcasts and Facebook Groups

Time and cash flow run rate will be sources of concern for her. Also, whether the business can really replace her income.

Mia has seen the membership but is not confident due to its low price. they may be more interested in an interim service, a bridge between the knowledge they have and the knowledge they need. they also may be interested in recruiting a VA (Virtual Assistant) but does not know how to go about that decision.

At 42 years old, living in Winchester UK and enjoying suburban life, they have doubts. they are not as confident as they once were. Her marriage though does give her some assurance as her husband continues to hold a corporate job.

They also have the kids, a boy, and a girl, and managing family time, family needs, the dog is another full-time job. they drive the kids, now teenagers and takes care of holiday bookings and logistics and every other administrative activity of the household. they have a master's in human resources and has become disillusioned with the corporate world. They are proud and wants to succeed. they will sacrifice income if her family remains safe. they listen and reads Brene Brown and Simon Sinek and other traditional entrepreneurs.

They are level-headed and thinks before they leap.. they are interested in helping others, protecting the environment, and safeguarding a future for her children.

Their shopping habits are a mix of offline and online. they work early in the morning, and late at night on business. they use baths and runs to clear her mind, and sometimes a glass of wine. they minimize her meat consumption and pays attention to the details of her pantry.

Summary – Ideal Client

Who is he/she or they based on demographic research?
What do they desire most?
What do they fear most?
What do they value? What is important?
Where do they spend time offline and online?

3 Key Takeaways

Name and create a model for your ideal client avatar. A real person is always the easiest to visualise and test!
Identify his/her personality profile so you can learn how she/he makes decisions.
Choose a niche based on the characteristics of your Ideal Client.

Niche

A niche is a core set of characteristics about a group of your ideal clients, that you focus your marketing on. You utilise the set of features that are best suited to focussing your marketing campaigns, and where you can identify useful research, trends, and other competitors serving your niche.

It is a broader concept than the Ideal client but works hand in hand with your ideal client to give you a narrower focus.

The specific problems you want to solve for your clients.
The types of solutions your clients are looking for.
Or some specific demographic such as location.

Let us look at the example of Mia.

To create a niche for my audience of “Mias’”, I can look at the field that they currently work in, and the type of companies they work for, and what they typically read. I can build my marketing plans based on reaching more of that audience.

The niche Mia fits is:

Corporate women over 40 working in operations in FTSE 500 or S&P 500 businesses.

Once you understand your niche, you need to revalidate your research on:

Who else serves your niche?
Is it narrow enough? If you have many big players serving your niche, you may need to narrow It further.
Where does this niche spend their time, and at what time of day?
How best to engage them?

In the case of my niche for Mia, I may want to narrow it a bit further.

The new niche can be:

over 40 women, working in FTSE 500 and or S&P 500 businesses based in the UK & Ireland.

Those 2 modifiers narrow the scope and focus of my marketing content significantly and increases the likelihood that when they receive information from me, they know it is for them.

Let us take a slight detour into branding, to show you how this works.

Let’s say that significance and trust are core values for Mia. On my branding colour wheel, I want to choose colours that match this, while preserving what they want also in her personal life. I may want to choose some core colours in my wheel such as:

Purple – Creative, Curative, Protective, Thoughtful, Wise
Green – Calm, Soothing, reassurance
Black – Sophistication, power, formality.

So perhaps if these were values, those colours would appeal more on my feed.

If you get the niche, ideal client and messaging right, you do not need a huge audience, you can operate with direct outreach, offering a done with you or done for you service (more on business models later).

When Elon Musk started Tesla alongside his collaborators, he first introduced the Roadster, which was a luxury electric vehicle that he sold at hefty prices, to very wealthy people. They were wooed by both the design, the responsibility of the brand, and the niche marketing efforts. The company then used the revenue earned to develop more economic models he would sell to completely new audiences. With each successive release of his brand Tesla, he is able to create more affordable versions, which interestingly keeps the value high for older models in the resale market as well.

Today, Tesla’s have more than just a cult following. People are willing to pay in advance for the release of new models, all while being responsible in their business ethics. There are 17 separate ways that you can address the sustainability challenge we face in the world. His products are not affordable for the average adult, but it does cover responsible production and consumption and climate change as well as smarter homes and cities.

They thought out a strategy to serve multiple groups while scaling the business sustainably.

Key Points

Understanding how your ideal client, your brand and your niche come together, is essential groundwork for your strategy setting.
Do not just assume your ideal client is you or a previous version of you; actually, document their characteristics and look at which characteristics make for a suitable niche.
Do not just assume that your ideal client is interested in the environment; as in the case of tesla, the cars are also high performing and aesthetically beautiful, even elegant. I know many Tesla users of higher end models that had no interest in the sustainable side of the brand, or it was not the factor that made up their minds.

Summary - Niche

Ask yourself which niche within your ideal client’s characteristics seems underserved? Under-loved, and in need of a specific targeted solution?
What are the attributes and jobs to be done in that niche?
How accessible are they? Who is serving them today?
How can you brand them and your ideas?

3 Key Takeaways

The riches are in the niches.
Brand with your Niche and ICA in mind
You can brand your business and your product differently yet be conscious of the alignment of values and driving mission.

Prototype and Test

A desktop exercise for testing is useful and helps to guide the initial design. You use this in your initial market research, composing your idea, and validating some basic assumptions. Yet if you want to develop superior user experiences and really design a product or service that your ideal client considers reliable and worth the time and effort, live testing in an environment which is as natural as possible makes an enormous difference to your long-term product development and marketing spend.

Product Prototypes

The building or designing a physical prototype of a new or improved product is vital. Getting this product in the hands of your ideal client is also crucial. Allow the consumer to take this product home and use it the way they use it. Without instructions (except safety and health instructions of course) to learn what comes of it.

Service Prototypes

Developing a beta version that is designed to break is the way to do service testing. You want to facilitate your ideal audience to tell you all that they think and rank the importance of the improvements and why to give you a steer on where to focus your efforts.

3 ways to facilitate testing.

Focus Groups – This is a controlled and therefore unnatural environment, and although it produces results, it should be supported by other forms of testing.
Test Market – Choosing a small market to deploy your first tests, in, and providing them with incentives to provide feedback.
Ethnography studies – observing in a natural environment how people use your product or service.

What to look for when testing

Define your audience.
Attract your audience.
Control for the right ICA
Test your copy – and your understanding of your ICA.
Control for competition trying to learn more about your product.
Document what you want to learn from the test.
Create space for accidental discovery/ observation.
Get critical data on pricing and positioning.
Have clear metrics in mind.
Examine causal relationships.
Observe the indirect communication.
Decide strategically on which questions in your survey need to be open-ended or closed.

Summary: Development – Prototype and MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

This is all about designing the user experience.

You need a minimum viable product or wireframe.

Gives an initial assessment of the viability of the product.

3 Key takeaways

This is a key step in reducing the cost of your learning.

Used correctly it can become a rich source of data.

Expand your reach beyond friends and family.

040 The Blockchain Artisan

About this Episode

Lakshmi Malhotra is the founder of Resham Dor. Her vision is to revive dying handloom clusters and establish artisans as custodians of their craft across India. She is currently working on the revival of Kharad rugs. This is a diminishing craft practiced by only two families in Gudhrat India.

In this episode, we explore the artisanal Journey in India, and how she intends to use Blockchain to help revive artisanal craft as luxury items.

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

Katherine Ann Byam 0:03

Lakshmi Malhotra is the founder of Resham Dor. Her vision is to revive dying handloom clusters and establish artisans as custodians of that craft across India. She's currently working on the revival of Kharad rugs. This is a diminishing craft practice by only two families in the Gujarat region of India. Lakshmi, it's such a pleasure to have you. Welcome to Where Ideas Launch.

Lakshmi Malhotra 0:50

Thanks for the opportunity to be a part of this podcast.

Katherine Ann Byam 0:54

What is Kharad really and why are you so passionate about saving this type of skill?

Lakshmi Malhotra 1:01

Actually it is quite an interesting story, Katherine and the word Kharad actually comes from a Sindhi word, which is a dialect in that part of the region, which means rock. And the artisan community originally settled in Sindh, which is now in Pakistan. That's where the word came from. So the Kharad rugs were traditionally made out of camel wool and goat hair. And these were woven on a pit loom. And these were basically used by the nomadic community when they would travel all across to keep them warm. That's why Kharad was very simple in its soul, black and white monochrome designs, which was undyed sheep wool and camel wool. And that's where Kharad came from. What happened post migration was that the community moved to a place called Quran, which is the last village between India's border with Pakistan. And after that, considering the craft is very labour-intensive, it was quite expensive as well. And the local market actually was not very interested in the craft. And slowly the families that used to do this started to dwindle down. And now there are only two families.

Katherine Ann Byam 2:24

Tell us a bit about your background and how you found this course.

Lakshmi Malhotra 2:30

I have worked for the corporate for about two decades. For about 20 years, I've worked as an IT professional in a lot of agencies all across the world. However, hand loom is an area which is something very close to my heart. As I was growing up, one of my favourite pastimes was to basically visit these handloom fairs that we had in a city where we would have artisans and weavers coming from all across India, and I would buy handloom fabric from them, get it embroidered or do some embellishments on it, and get it stitched.

I think my love affair with hand looms began there. And initially, it was something that was very personal to me, wherein I would buy hand looms for my own personal use. But as I started going to these handloom fairs very regularly, the weavers got to know me as a person who loves hand looms. And they started sharing their personal stories with me and they talked about the challenges that they're facing with people not wanting to buy handmade, wanting to buy the cheapest stuff, and of them moving away from their original designs to create something which people would buy.

I think I started relating to their stories in terms of the challenges that they have and how difficult it is for them to survive. So about a few years back, I started an initiative again, under the name of Resham Dor to basically create awareness about the hand looms and crafts that we have all across the world. But last year during the pandemic, I realised that I need to basically work full time if I really want to make a difference at the ground level.

That's how I moved into Resham Dor full time. Now in terms of how I found Kharad, I remember I was talking to a craft lover who was also from Gujarat. I was brought up in Ahmadabad which is in Gujarat, and she was talking about Kharad considering I'm from Gujarat, I know all the arts and crafts that come in from Gujarat. But Kharad is something that I was not aware about at all. And it was very surprising that I did not know about this craft and about two years back, I started researching about Kharad because I felt that as a handloom lover, or as a craft lover, and as well as coming from Gujarat, I should know about all the crafts from Gujarat.

When I started researching about these rugs a couple of years back, I was fascinated by how beautiful these rugs were, how they were made, the story of how it is rooted into sustainability, right starting from local people to using natural dyes to basically weaving on a pit loom. I was really very fascinated with the weaves and the beauty of it. And I remember searching for the master craftsman who creates these rugs. I reached out to him and he actually shared a story in terms of how there were 10 families who used to practice this craft 10 years back, and now they've moved away to other professions, because the demand for this rug was lessened. And for these two families to also survive, it's so difficult.

Katherine Ann Byam 6:05

You know, when I talk to people about this topic of sustainability, we often have this debate about, "Is sustainability something that sits outside or does it sit throughout the making of the thing?" And this is in the ethos of everything that the rug is from the point of design up to the point of finishing and ready for sale? What are your thoughts on the opportunities and the sort of hidden wealth in this area of hand loomed skill? Because I think, as we talk about sustainability, the next side of the story is about the human side of it - about these skills and about the fact that we have sort of built a world that trivialised and made irrelevant almost these real important craft skills in exchange for things that are cheap and create waste.

Lakshmi Malhotra 6:54

As far as how the loom and handicraft industry in India goes, we have a very rich heritage of craft. And I think if I look at the techniques or the way the craft and handloom is being made in India, it is rooted in sustainability. What has happened post the pandemic or in the last few years is that sustainability has become at the core. Customers have become more conscious about the production process and about how sustainable a garment is. Most of the crafts, not only in India, but all across the world were rooted in sustainability because the means were limited at that time. And people used to take everything from whatever was available in the ecosystem to make things for their daily needs. And I think if we go back to that, we will be able to ensure that we are sustainable. So I see a lot of opportunities.

Katherine Ann Byam 7:53

So we know that blockchain technology is being used now in the art world. What are your thoughts on how this can benefit the artisans?

Lakshmi Malhotra 8:02

So I think there has been a lot of research on blockchain. And initially though blockchain started from the financial industry and focused around bitcoins and all that, now they are looking at how blockchain could be applied to other industries as well. Now, when I look at blockchain and based upon considering that I come from a technology background, I'm always looking at ways how technology can be used to make lives better, and especially with handloom being an area of which which is an area of interest, I did a detailed study on how blockchain could help the handloom and craft industry.

I think there are a few challenges that the craft industry is facing all across the world. One is product authentication. There are a lot of copies available in the market and the consumer never even knows how, whether a product is coming from an authentic source or whether it is really coming from a craftsman as the brand claims. The other thing is intellectual property protection. If we look at artisan communities all across the world, I believe that the art and the craft is the cultural intellectual property of the community. And if anybody tries to use that intellectual property, then there has to be credit that is given to the artisans.

There is no way of doing that right now. And there are a lot of brands which basically just use a particular art without giving any credit or compensation to the artisans. And the third thing is that there are a lot of traditional crafts that are dying today, and along with that the knowledge of the traditional techniques is getting lost. So there is no standard database for knowledge protection. And I think that blockchain can really be helpful here.

The reason being that blockchain is a technology which is immutable. Immutable means anything that goes into the database cannot be changed by anybody else. It can basically change the face of the craft industry or even luxury goods as well. Because at every stage in the supply chain, if there is information that goes into the blockchain, which says where the raw material came from, who were the people who dyed it, with what material, who were the artisans who weaved it, who packaged it, and how did it reach the consumer, and if all of that is available to the consumer through a scan of a QR code, it will become very powerful.

So I think blockchain as we go forward, there are a lot of pilots that are happening all across the world in terms of how blockchain can be used for the fashion industry, and especially for the handloom industry. And I personally believe that it can change the face of the industry, if we are able to deploy it as we go forward.

Katherine Ann Byam 11:07

Absolutely.. So what's next for Resham Dor? And how can my listeners support you,

Lakshmi Malhotra 11:11

We are just a startup. We are a very new company right now. We just started The Kharad Revival Project, six months back. So our focus for this year is that currently there are two families that are practising this craft. By the end of the year, if we can make it to five, if we can get three more families back into the craft by creating the right market linkages and demand, that would be wonderful.

And a couple of two years down the line, we basically make this artisan community self sustainable, so that they can ensure that the Kharad craft is available for generations to come. In terms of how the listeners can support, they could support by creating awareness about this craft and know more about this craft. They could also talk about how sustainable this craft is. And last but not the least, if the listeners can help us by buying these rugs, these are heirlooms, and these are a beautiful legacy that you can keep in your home. So if the listeners can help by supporting by buying a rug that would really be helpful.

Katherine Ann Byam 12:29

And what advice would you give to someone who's getting started in an area of preserving history and preserving craft and skills? What would you tell them?

Lakshmi Malhotra 12:40

Though I'm very new in the entrepreneurship world, I will share my experience in the past few months. I think the first thing that I learned when I moved into starting my own company was when we work in the corporate world, everything is very structured, right? There are well-defined processes. However, when you move into entrepreneurship, the first thing is you have to do everything on your own now. So it was a difficult task for me. But what I learned in the last six months is that don't hesitate to reach out. Don't hesitate to ask for help.

As a new business, there are a lot of times when people don't respond to you. You get a lot of refusals. I remember that when I reached out to a few influencers to talk about what we are doing and if they could talk about my brand, even after a lot of follow ups, I did not get a response. But what I realised is if your brand has the right ethics, then it will turn around you just have to continue to follow up and now one of the recent successes that I had was that I reached out to a lady who is a textile revivalist and she is a part of the royal family, again, from Gujarat.

I reached out to her and I told her about Resham Dor. And I was not sure whether she would respond to me or whether she would be happy to speak about Resham Dor. She is very active on Instagram and a lot of social media and surprisingly, she was graceful enough to actually see that, "Oh, wow, you're doing such a wonderful thing. And I am happy to talk about Resham Dor.” What is needed is persistence, continuous follow-up, and especially when you are running a new business.

Katherine Ann Byam 14:34

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. So right there.

Katherine Ann Byam 14:40

Thank you so much for sharing this important message with us. I think Resham door is doing an admirable piece of work. I think that the future of this type of skill is in the luxury market. And we need to recognise that. I mean this is as precious as the artists are, you know, and when you're at a stage where only a couple of families can do something, this is something special. And this is something that you really want to preserve. So thank you so much for coming to share that story with us and my listeners will be able to access all of your information on the show notes. So thanks so much for coming, Lakshmi.

039 Ideas that Change Things

About this Episode

How do you come up with an idea?

From the poets, science-fiction writers, anthropologist, scientists, explorers of space and time, to the futurists, and the real experiences of those on the fringe, ideas come from a variety of sources.

We explore how to calibrate your ideas following the 5 guides below:

Show Highlights

Mission
Skills
Jobs to be Done.
Market Research
Idea selection

Speaker Introduction

Katherine Ann Byam is a consultant and strategic partner to leaders on sustainability, resilience and digital transformation.

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

Katherine Ann Byam 0:00

How do you come up with an idea?

Creativity is one of the greatest human gifts from the poets, the authors of science fiction, to the anthropologists, scientists, explorers of space and time, to the futurist, quantitative and qualitative, to the real experiences of those on the fringes. Ideas can come from anywhere.

The way the brain connects events, words, sound, smell, patterns, and senses, we don't even understand yet to spark something new is an incredible marvel that we can learn to better exploit. It starts with interest, call it a healthy level of curiosity, and it goes further, when you add to it the following key elements to grow your possibilities.

These key elements that I will talk about in the rest of this episode are the mission, skills, jobs to be done, market research, and idea selection at the end. The mission directs your actions. What is your purpose and driving goal around starting your sustainable green business?

Entrepreneurs in this space are often guided by two elements - wanting to solve a problem of social importance while bringing in some income to sustain their efforts or wanting to solve a problem of environmental significance. This purpose can be articulated into a clear mission statement or an open question.

Sparking Ideas and Missions - The Role of Questions in shaping the future.

Questions tend to spark great missions, especially questions that are difficult to solve but an important objective on this scene. When we get into sustainable business we often prioritize passion and purpose over profit. And this is great, however, you will not be able to sustain this business without some commercial element.

So you need to make your mindset work across all three things, which is purpose, profits, and the planet. Turn your questions into a tangible purpose for your business. Start broad, thinking big about what you want to accomplish, and then add constraints such as the environmental context, the skills that you have perhaps, depending on how you want to start this business and how you want to grow it, and your freedom, or ease of conducting that business within the environment that you currently work in.

You need to have a clear intention toward the profit motive as even for purpose-led businesses, this is going to be valuable. Some examples of companies with inspiring mission statements that I've pulled together for you. Patagonia - "We are in business to save our whole planet." I thought this really powerful, and they've been leaders in this sort of big business to sustainable business space for quite some time. Microsoft - "To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more." I know that Microsoft could be in that debatable space with tech companies. However, I do like the mission statement and I think it's quite powerful.

Tesla - " Accelerating the world's transition to sustainable energy with electric cars, solar, and integrated renewable energy solutions for homes and businesses." That's great. It's not as easy to target a company like Tesla for being a greenwasher because they're really in this space. They're really changing the game on how we use renewable energy today. So that's a powerful company who we might want to argue also spends a lot of resources on space travels.

I think we need to nuance a lot of the stuff that's happening in the world around us because I don't think anything is black and white anymore. There's a lot more complexity to our decision-making, and you will meet more complexity in your decision-making as well as you build your business. Some other mission statements that I'd like to play out here for you to think about how you interpret them. Amazon - "We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience." Now that's an interesting mission statement given where we are in the world. You can think about how that statement resonates with you or not.

Coca-Cola - "To refresh the world in mind, body and spirit, to inspire moments of optimism and happiness to our brands and actions, and to create value and make a difference." That's another, let's say mission statement that I'm not sure who it's speaking to. I'm not sure it is speaking to me. Marriott. "To enhance the lives of our customers by creating an enabling of unsurpassed vacation and leisure experiences."

Now my inspiration- I take inspiration from the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals - number eight, Decent work and economic growth is my sweet spot. My question is the question that keeps me awake at night, is how do I go about creating this decent work and economic growth principle for business owners, new business owners as well as people who are struggling to get work and jobs in developing countries?

How do I contextualize this idea of decent work and economic growth to earn a decent living from my efforts without breaching irrevocably any of the other goals? And the part of that goal of SDG 8 that gives the problem is economic growth of itself because we need to reimagine what growth means and I think that that's the crux of the thing. How can I reimagine what growth really means because you can't have infinite growth on a finite planet.

Part of this question or part of the answer to this question that plays around in my mind is how I embrace technology as a tool and not as a weapon of social disruption and these are two complicated things that I know will take me many years to solve. Each business stream I operate today considers my overarching mission. And your mission can be derived from any source. So think about what your question or problem is.

Think about your purpose, and then narrow your focus, as far as possible, and find the right skill to market fit. So let's move on to skills. You do not need to start the business based solely on your skills. But to survive and thrive in your business, it's valuable to have skills that can be leveraged by the business you form. So for example, you can start the data insights company if you're not a data scientist but your strongest skill is communication, because that skill will help you with the toughest part of any business which is sales.

The Skills that make you successful as an entrepreneur - hint: Lean on Your Strengths.

This brings me to the topic of universal skills. So there are some types of skills that are transferable to any type of business you want to start. And three of these I want to mention right off the bat - finance, research, and social writing or business writing. These skills can serve you in any type of challenge and are particularly useful for green businesses as the mode of outreach to clients often lacks a big budget, and far more targeted in niche and influence irrelevant for example. So take an inventory of all the skills that you have alongside the mission and problems that you want to solve.

What skills and strengths will motivate you to keep going when things get tough, and this is an important question to answer yourself. The journey of an entrepreneur can be harsh for sure and challenging at points during your journey. And at your lowest moments you will be asking yourself these questions about why, why am I doing this. So answer them in advance. The inventory of your skills can come from multiple sources. It can come from your education. It can come from passion that you have, topics that you read regularly about. It can come from jobs that you've done in the past.

It can come from any sorts of nature, natural abilities that you have, rare problem solving skills that you have, challenges that you've overcome in the past that you can help others to overcome, hobbies that you have, old traditions that perhaps have been passed down in your family that you haven't called upon in a long time. Your mission is so important, but also needs to be constrained by your skill if it is that you are a solopreneur. If you can gain access to the skills you need to achieve your mission, then you have the power to go further into building your dreams even if you're not particularly skilled in the area you want to develop as a business. Beyond the mission and skill, we get into the jobs to be done by the customer.

The role of Understanding the customer Journey in designing a powerful business Idea.

So let's think about the customer journey. This is really essential to this idea of the jobs to be done. If you are designing something to be more sustainable, chances are that the idea you have already has a market and a customer most likely, except that existing solutions may be damaging some or all the sustainable goals. Your product or service still has to do what the customer wants done so you have to be clear in your understanding of that before you make design changes. So let me give you an example. And this one, it depends on the type of service you want to provide or a product you want to provide.

As an example, a customer is researching holidays, and you are a holiday planner for eco business or eco travel. What is the customer looking for, is it rest and relaxation? Is it a chance to escape with the kids? Is it an adventure? Is it an experience? Is it luxury? Is it hot or cold? How is it sustainable? So, you can choose to address any one of these jobs or multiple ones but you need to have a clear understanding of the problem that you want to have solved.

So the average customer and the sustainable customer can potentially have a lot in common. To design the optimal product or service you need to ask these questions. How does the customer use this product or service today? How are they interacting with it? How did their families interact with it? How many times are they going to use it? What happens in the afterlife? Where are they typically purchasing this.?What are the people commenting on the reviews and what are the business models that currently work for the sale of that product today, as some examples.

How to solve your customers Problems

All of these questions will feed the design of the product or service. Another interesting approach is to ask yourself what level of quality matters to the customer. Using the jobs-to-be-done approach you potentially expand your market by addressing the needs of the consumers, while still achieving your sustainable goals. Let us take the customer who is holidaying with kids - they have a specific window to execute the holiday and things are likely to be booked up quickly, so they have an interest in planning their holiday early. Your window for wooing that customer will perhaps be months before the next vacation.

And because they're traveling with kids, they may have safety concerns, cost and budget concerns, the level of additional effort they will have in luggage, etc. so proposing a cycle holiday may not be the right solution. By contrast, someone into adventure tourism and perhaps travel during peak seasons, may make more spur-of-the-moment decisions, but will be more open to roughing it so can be more easily captivated by eco tourist spots. Understanding the customer journey to a decision or choice is key in being successful at converting that customer.

So, the jobs to be done - think about what's happening before they use your item or service, while they use your item or service, and after they use your item or service. Next, explore the problems they face in that journey map.

Why Every Business Needs Detailed Market Research.

Now we move to the penultimate section which is market research. Each of these steps build on the others so market research is really about how you get to know exactly what jobs that customer needs to get done. You do this through research.

And you can do research in multiple different ways, so you can understand if there's a demand for what you are aiming to create. You can understand the audience and try to define and shape that audience, collect data to identify a niche, know the competition, understand the business models that are operating, understand the price and service range, understand the white space, the gaps in the service or product experiences that you may be able to turn into an opportunity.

There are many different approaches to doing research. Some free ones to use is Google Keyword search so you can sign up for the account and you can start doing some keyword search before you have to pay for the service in terms of the advertising spend at least. You can use Amazon product reviews. You can use Facebook groups. You can use hashtag searches, digital magazines, the free versions of Answer The Public, Quora, focus groups, or any other ways of asking existing customers (if you have them) or asking people in your communities. You can run surveys and quizzes. You can look at some paid options which is looking at Listen Notes which is one of the podcasts usage platforms. There's Buzzsumo. There's Appsumo that you can use as well. What you really wanna do is capture as much useful information as you can about the customer that you're looking at.

There are many other sources - you can use your local chamber of commerce, you can use some statistics consolidation sites, etc. There are many ways to leverage research. The point of doing all of these things, and understanding your mission, understanding your skills in detail, getting sorted on the jobs to be done, and getting your market research right is that you could make a selection of what ideas you want to take forward. And it's possible that you want to take forward multiple ideas but I would recommend not to do too many at the same time.

Finding your business Ikigai - or identifying great ideas for testing.

Yes, you need to have some variety in your business goals but when you're first getting started, you want to go through that process of developing one idea into reality before you move into others. So with your idea selection process, you really have to go with that sweet spot, as they call it the icky guy, so look at the intersection of those things where it meets with your strengths, where it meets with a really strong need in the market, where it addresses a social good, and where it's able to pay you as well. So, look at all those things as much as you can to come up with that short list of great ideas that you want to take forward. Be generous at the beginning of this process to make sure that you capture as much as possible, but then be ruthless and brutal with yourself at the end of the process so that you focus on only a maximum of two or three ideas that you may eventually take forward. Thanks for listening.

038 Hack for the Planet

About this Episode

Carbon Kapture is a social enterprise start-up with a big mission: to regenerate our oceans and fight climate change. We remove CO2 by growing seaweed, then create carbon-negative products and services.

Kelp-us-save-the-planet-a-thon is a virtual hackathon hosted by Carbon Kapture. It is free to join and takes place once a quarter.

Join Howard Gunstock and me as we discuss the journey to build a viable planet based business.

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

Katherine Ann Byam 0:03

Today, we have a previous guest, Howard Gunstock, who is back to talk to us about the journey he's been on with Carbon Kapture. Howard, welcome to the show. Once again, thank you, thank you very much for having me on the show. It's really good to be here. And Howard, I know that we kicked something off when we had this podcast back in October, but you were just beginning to launch some of your products like your Ocean Care Bonds, etc. You were just getting loud on social media really starting to pick up the followers. And since we've had that episode, it's actually been the second most downloaded episode. You are about six people away from being the top downloaded episode, but you are gaining on the leader. So tell us about your journey since the last podcast my friend.

Howard Gunstock 1:11

It's really interesting. When we started talking about this Carbon Kapture was an embryonic idea that it's something that we're thinking about doing. And as you said, when we launched the social media on our socials back in October, and that was a strategic move that was designed to build up our portfolio of potential customers and our base. And there was a reason why I wanted a strategic move: to become effective kelp farmers. We're going to need to form alliances with businesses that already do kelp farming. Yeah, because I am not your typical kelp farmer. And what we want to try to do is to have these alliances and I had a conversation with a Kelp farmer a few months ago, a European player.

And actually, the reason why we did our stuff in October and November was purely part of this conversation. And he said, and he was saying to me, how can you develop all these farms? How are you going to do all these things and say, well, we're going to have joint ventures and partnerships. He said, Well, why did you need to do this thing with Carbon Kapture? And I said, Okay, well, this was it. If I came to you, six, six months ago and said, Hey, I want to have a kelp farm, you would say to me, "No, I'm not going to give you any of my licence, why would I half my profit?". And effectively, that's where he would be doing. But then if I come to you and say, “Hey, I've got the Carbon Kapture, this is my brand, these are the things these are the products that I'm going to do.

These are the people that follow us.” I then got some leverage to have a conversation with you about being able to help build on your business, rather than remove some quality to your business. And that's really what I want to do. We want to take a collaborative approach. And to do that we've taken an approach that we're going to build our brand. First, we're going to gain variance to what we're doing, we're gonna get a groundswell of support, and then move it forward. And that was a really powerful piece for us to try to achieve. Just the fact that I had that conversation with that kelp farmer was kind of like a seminal moment. It's like I've achieved a little bit of what I wanted to do and being a disruptor in the aquaculture industry.

So that was fascinating. The other thing that we've been doing is testing out some of our hypotheses. So I think you briefly mentioned or alluded to Ocean Care Bonds. So that's really the first milestone and that came about from the original idea of Carbon Kapture, which was, "are people prepared to put a higher power on the regenerative power of nature? Are they prepared to invest in ocean-based and nature-based solutions?" So we were meant to have Ocean Care Bonds in the beginning of December, I massively underestimated how difficult it is to mobilise a part-time team.

The only full-time person in the team is me. And my business partner, who does an incredible (big shout out to Dave Walker Nix) job of managing two jobs, managing his actual job and then his Carbon Kapture job. So we tested out Ocean Care Bonds back at the end of December. So it was meant to be for Christmas, but we managed to get it out on the 27th. So we missed the Christmas bump. And what we were doing were in effect selling advanced sales on kelp. We haven't been involved in the water yet and to see if people are prepared to put a higher price on this thing. And also thanks to the wonderful team at Alpha Geeks who put together a brilliant, brilliant digital campaign for us and also Katie Nuttall from Studio Nimble, amazing content that she produced, but we sold out of our Ocean Care Bonds in 20 days. So it was an advanced sale, not in the water, really trying to capture the imagination for 20 days. I'm like okay, that's pretty cool. But then what I really wanted to find out was, what button had I pressed?

It was we had this great campaign and we thought we knew what we're doing. But actually, in real terms, we didn't know what button we pressed to our customers. So I set about to all the customers that said, they were okay with us contacting them for marketing purposes, we contacted them. And what was really interesting was the feedback that we got from the customers. And the first thing was that people have really bored of trees. I just didn't realise that was a thing. But people are really bored of investing in trees.

The second thing that was really interesting was the people really did want to buy into something that was nature-based, the regenerative power of nature, and people really care for the ocean, like super, super care for the ocean and its health. I think there is a growing consensus of understanding that actually, as a species we are derived from the ocean that we came from, we came from apes and gyms. But before that, the evolutionary processes we came from the water, and being able to sort of know that all life came from from the oceans means we really should be taking more care of the ocean. And the final marker was, people wanted practical ways to engage in the topic “climate change,” as a topic is really abstract.

But if you take away the trees, it's a really abstract topic, you can ask people what it is. And there really is a massive swing and understanding. And in part, that's our job at Carbon Kapture to help people understand and interpret the problem in practical real terms, but actually having tangible products and services, practical ways that you can engage makes people feel like they're contributing to solving the problem. And we all know why I say we all know, I think it's i think i think it's a known fact, that groundswell people power is the reason why change happens. And I can hold those markers to sit on more, and Marcus Rashford. Clearly directive leadership, a clear call to action was is all that it takes. And actually, when you do that, effectively, and you've got your marketing on point, you can have some real meaningful impact.

Katherine Ann Byam 7:42

That's amazing. I just let you talk, I didn't want to interrupt you. Because I think it's been such a fascinating journey that you've been on. I want to get into some of the challenges now because I know that you have built this groundswell of support that you talk about. There is a movement behind you. There's definitely energy behind the brand of Carbon Kapture. And it's exciting, like people are excited to hear about you. Tell me about some of the challenges that you're currently facing in the scaling journey of what you're trying to build.

Howard Gunstock 8:11

Yeah. So there are numerous challenges. One, I think this is the one that everyone has, getting, getting the investment. And so we've taken a really long time to get our stuff together. Aside from the ocean care of bonds, which was relatively clear, the challenge is, when you're talking about creating carbon negative products and services, and ecosystem services, that's even more abstract for some people than climate change. I mean, at least it's a word that's banded around.

And when you're right at the edge of all the cutting edge of climate change activities, what you tend to find is that your thinking is a little bit more nuanced to the vast majority of the population. So you've got to dial it back. So being able to describe our products and services clearly in an unambiguous way has been singly the biggest challenge that I've had to have ever had today. Because not only are you describing it, you're also then having to quantify it financially. And that is something that goes into your P&L, and that's what your investors want to know about. And you got to be able to talk to it, in a sense of what does this actually mean in practical terms. So that's been a massive challenge for the company.

One that I'm delighted to say, we are now over Touch Wood. We have our pitch deck together, we have our P&L together, we know what we're talking about with our products and services. And in the last two weeks, we've started to actually announce some of our partnerships and alliances. There's two or three more to come. I'm extremely grateful, by the way, for your support as well with our hackathon which I'm sure we'll come to in a bit. But it's been a really great opportunity for us to test out our thinking. I mean, it's not been easy. And certainly, there's a lot of money in the swear jar. There's a massive amount that's gonna go to charity. We've got that.. And it's been a pleasure to work with my team to be fair, because they've challenged me appropriately to be able to get to where we are.

So now we have, we have our sponsorship packages, which is really a great little thing. We have our consumer products that we're going to be producing when we get to the end of when we get to having biomass, we're going to have our corporate offerings as well for that. And we're mainly operating in animal feed fertiliser, so stimulants, and biochar, which are fantastic, but the idea of being able to sponsor our activities is the thing that really will be to help organisations aligned to the strategy of ocean health and the regenerative power of nature.

Katherine Ann Byam 11:09

It's interesting because I currently participate and volunteer for a steering group with the Hampshire Chamber around Netzero. And typically, the conversation doesn't come to this regenerative side. There's a lot of talk about cleaner energy, and there's a lot of talk about what we are doing to build back better to reduce the use of toxic things and plastics, etc. But there's not a lot of talk about cleaning up what we've already put into the atmosphere, which is essentially where Carbon Kapture has positioned itself.

Howard Gunstock 11:42

Yeah, we are all the Wombles of aquaculture. We'll begin to throw me clean cleaning up the everyday things that people leave behind. There's a lot of words, buzz words, and that seems to come along. So first of regenerative, all it means is it's the next stage from sustaining what we've got. So everyone has a sustainability project. And what's really become apparent when you're at this when I'm at my side of it, I'm not talking about any other perspective. But I'm just saying from my side, sustaining what we've got is only good if everyone participates in sustaining what we've got. In effect, sustainability, in its current form, is like communism. It works in theory. But unless everyone's on board and does exactly the same thing, then what you're going to get is some sustainability having more power than others sustainability and this piece that says that the bigger players will only sustain what is essential, rather than what they're trying to do.

And then there'll be other people who will try to be more sustainable and become more righteous and pious and all that sort of stuff. That's not where we're at. We're on about being able to, in effect, we climate positive, good for the environment and regenerative. The regenerative power of nature is in nature. We have perennials, everything. It will turn around, there'll be a new new season, a new summer, a new harvest, a new crop, and we can play with it. I mean, we can genuinely geoengineer that, to our advantage, it seems so mind numbingly obvious, like soul crushing the obvious that we've had this power all along, and no one's gone, "Oh, that's something we could do." or if they have, it's only been a passing thought, "Why is no one else taking this and running with it so fast?" And I do understand what we're doing, how effective we are as a company.

As we start off, we're going to be like trying to move water in a wheelbarrow. We know that some of the CO2 is going to go over the side, here, there, and everywhere. Got that 100%. But as we refine our skills and capabilities, we'll become more and more effective at removing bad elements from one location and moving it for the betterment of another and that's what it's about balance. You know, as a species, we don't value nature because we've not been trained or programmed or the story isn't about that. The story is about the value of money, wealth, and capitalism, and consumerism, yeah, consumerism.

So then what you’ve got to be able to do is then train the mind into two parts. One is how I become more of a thoughtful person and two how do I then show that thoughtfulness in terms of our planet that's led (not exclusively), and that's a sweeping statement, by those who have the most influence and those who had the most influence or those with money. So those with money need to get on board with this idea. Because otherwise , this is not my thinking, but in 10 years time, if we don't fix this really clearly, in 10 years time, the “in” gift is going to be a personal breathing apparatus.

That's the gift at Christmas. We don't get our stuff together right now, you know, Darth Vader. You won't know that you're walking into it into a carbon dioxide pocket, you won't know you're walking into a hydrogen pocket or, or a nitrogen pocket, or a methane pocket, it will just be there. There's no Batman, funny coloured smoke stuff going on, it will be the same colours you're looking at now, it's completely trashed completely invisible. And we will know that's really what we've been facing for the past 10 years, you're going to be talking about complete breakdown of all those chains and when those ecosystems break down, they don't come back. So we have to do this now. What sustainably should be is about doing the right thing.

And what it shows is we're not about doing more than the right thing. Businesses need to do more than the right thing, because they haven't. Any industry hasn't done the right thing for a really long time in a few. Half a few have put the Planet in their heart and they've been the outliers. And thanks to them, change is possible. But the vast majority need to do more than the bare minimum. The bare minimum isn't one there. It's got to be a lot.

Katherine Ann Byam 16:57

So I want to move us now to fixing some of the challenges that you have. So I know that you have just built this energy behind the hackathon that's coming up. I want you to share with my audience about the hackathon, and how they can get involved.

Howard Gunstock 17:15

Absolutely, thank you. Yes. So it's really one of the one of the really beautiful things about Carbon Kapture and the way that we've positioned ourselves and the way that we've had so many graduates, postgraduates, PhD students, just literally give us the academic research in my inbox. I have got something like 100- 150 years worth of academic insight. It's amazing. And I'm massively grateful to those people for giving me their abstracts. Please don't give me any more info in the abstract. I don't have the brain capacity to handle it. But yeah, anyway, it's been brilliant, it's really helped shape some of our thinking of our products and services.

So we're massively grateful. And we understand that part of the reason that someone was giving us that was in the hope that maybe we could give them a job. And we're a small business, we don't have a lot of money. So at the moment, we're not in that position. But that feeling of someone paying it forward to us is something that I feel is really important to our business. It feels like the right thing. If you're studying Ecology, or Biology or Sustainability or related disciplines, you're doing it because you have a passion for it. It would be like a crime that you study a STEM degree, and then you go into a completely unrelated discipline in business or something else. And all that knowledge that you've got isn't wasted, but it's not channelled into a way that will benefit us as a society. And that's something that's got me in this whole lockdown and COVID-19 thing where opportunities for graduates has become more and more sparse, has played on my mind massively, and played on the team's mind.

So the idea of the hackathon is that it actually solves a myriad of things. So we have some great ways of solving our business, our business problems. And these are ideas that have been thought of by a bunch of middle-aged people, men, women, you know exactly that have sold some things. And okay, we've got a handful. But what we don't have is we don't have all the ideas that come out from the people who are right at the cutting edge. So with our hackathon, we'll solve a couple of business-related problems that will either build on what we've already got, or give us a completely new idea, or potentially give us some stuff for the parking lot later on. Some great ideas are going to come out. But what we really want to do is use that as a platform for good.

So we're going to film it, we're going to stream it, and we're going to sandwich some adverts in it. And we've got some, we've got some amazing sponsors. So big shout out to you for offering to be a sponsor, thank you very much. Also to }getabstract, Jabra, The Applied Negative Energy Centre, and also avery + brown, who have done an amazing job on sort of helping our, our marketing. Thank you very, very, very much to all of our wonderful sponsors of our hackathon. So the idea is that we will film this and then we're gonna put people into groups of five, and we'll advertise it to potential employers.

So if you're looking to hire a graduate in a Sustainability, Ecology, Biology, Marine Engineering, field, or any other related discipline, we're going to have 25 of the best graduates that we can find. And we're gonna let them have an informal assessment centre, where we give them the problem, they showcase their soft skills, their communication skills, their presentation skills, and problem solving skills. And you can look at it for free, we're not charging anything for it. And we do an introductory service to the rights of some of those graduates, on behalf of the employer that's also non cost as in, we're not going to charge anything for that, because we want those companies that are looking at them to look at us as a company. We are also offering, you know, those people that probably can be looking at possibly looking potential sponsorship for some of our activities.

But we're also using the hackathon, to advertise to investors as well, people who may want to co-own a farm or invest in Carbon Kapture. And we're going to try and put on this show, this show of ideas and good stuff from people right at the cutting edge. You know, we're not talking about the policy and procedure business. We're talking about practical applications to help people engage with climate change because what would be more powerful than helping a load of students who have a vested interest or ex-students have a vested interest in sustainability getting themselves meaningful jobs in industries that value their skill set. That is such a powerful thing to be able to offer. And I think we'll get some stuff out of that as well. But more importantly, we get jobs to pay it forward. And that really, that fits in our ethical compass really well.

Katherine Ann Byam 22:28

Now. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Howard. So just remind everyone again, when your hackathon starts, and how they can sign up.

Howard Gunstock 22:35

The application window is still open. I found a lot of really great graduates. But I'd like some more, please. Employers, you can all register, by the way. So you can find this at carbonkapture.org/hackathon. If you're not an employer, graduate investor or sponsor, you can still watch it. There's an

Eventbrite ticket link for that. It's free. If you are, then you just register an interest at the relevant Google Doc that we've got. We've got Google Doc for graduates, we've got Google docs for employers, we've got Google docs for investors to sort of help people and we'll send you an invite and a link to the event and a hold the date and all that sort of stuff. And then we're just going to stream it on LinkedIn live. We're going to stream it on Facebook and YouTube. And we're just gonna have a lot of fun with it. So yeah. Perfect.

Katherine Ann Byam 23:35

Thank you so much for joining the show.

Howard Gunstock 23:37

Thank you so much for having me. Have a wonderful day. Cheers.

037 So You Want To Build A Business

About this Episode

"Abundance is a lie, but it doesn’t have to be. We can all thrive on this planet, but it’s going to need us to rethink how we design our lives and the planet.”

Welcome to season 3 of Where Ideas Launch, where we explore how we build a better planet, one small business at a time. This is series is a guide to small and medium-sized eco businesses or green tech businesses.

Katherine Ann Byam is a consultant and strategic partner to leaders in SMEs on sustainability, resilience and business transformation.

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

Katherine Ann Byam 00:25

I got started in earnest on my sustainability journey in a classroom in Grenoble, France, the year was 2015. The topic was innovation, and frugal innovation to be precise. And the principles of frugal innovation were not actually foreign to me. My mother practiced them all her life. In fact, so much of who she was and still is, has become more precious to me as I navigate and build my services to support sustainable and impact-driven entrepreneurs like myself. Businesses continuously design new solutions for problems that come with an increase in price, but not always with an increase in value.

We've built a machine that's designed to make a few rich, and others, to keep them rich. In some countries, we don't really have a history of doing business any better. We move from the property of the crown to the property of the Lords and Ladies to the property of the privateers, pirates and the independent land owners that arose after the New World was discovered. Yet there are examples of designing social systems that work for business and society. So why don't we spend some time trying to study these?

This podcast is about addressing the problem of “how do we do business better?” not just taking a netzero box without substance behind it, without considering the social side of the story. So follow me down this road to build a better and greener business. When I started, they considered that there was no resource where I could find the complete big picture, the how to land firmly on my feet, as a sustainable business-minded person. There are pockets of information for sure, specializations in one domain of one area of the job, or another, but the experience of being an entrepreneur is not specialized or siloed and the challenges of being sustainable throughout your offer and your operations requires systemic and more integrated thinking.

Most entrepreneurs start solo or with a small team, and have jobs with multiple facets. To be successful, you need enough exposure across all the various aspects of the business that you're building, so that you can be prepared for the relentless stream of decisions you need to constantly make. Decision fatigue is absolutely real. In particular, when operating from a place of low trust. Low trust happens when brands, suppliers and service providers greenwash what they are doing. We don't want to be caught in a greenwash affiliation. If we are working hard to build an ethical reputation. So we need to do the checks and the disclaimers, to make sure that who we're working with stands up to the values that we ourselves have.

When I understood what this journey was going to be like, I began to prepare a manual to walk with me as I step through all the hurdles along the way. I wanted to solve the problem of where to start, and what to consider for the millions of people who want to make a positive impact but are overwhelmed by all the things that just come up. I wanted to create sign posts to great resources, templates, maps, and a navigation system to find the triple bottom line that's good for the planet, good for the people, and let's face it, what you need in your pocket. You're likely a specialist in an area, and you want to trade either a service or a product, or software as a service, perhaps in your zone of genius, while having a net positive impact on the world around you to round it off.

If you intend to start as a solopreneur, get prepared to be uncomfortable in your first six months, as you figure out the market, consumers, their behaviors and how to serve them better. More often than not, the product you start with is not the one that will make you ultimately successful. You also need to be prepared to pivot and reshape your offer as many times as needed for as long as it takes. I'm starting with the fundamentals and building forward from there.

Katherine Ann Byam 04:25

This episode and season is going to be a guide, but the workbooks that will come alongside it at the end of the season will really help you to personalize this for yourself and make the best use of what you're learning. It is widely acknowledged in the scientific community that we are in the Anthropocene epoch, where the activities of mankind have the most important impacts on the evolution of our planetary systems. The evidence for being in a new epoch has been building since the 1700s, but became clear in statistical records post the 1950s. What changed in the 1950s, is that we became a world with no wars, women contributing more equally to the economy and to growth, democracy and capitalism, and perhaps the most impactful of all mass marketing and advertising and increased use of synthetic Parliaments.

Most experts believe that given the boundaries of current tipping points to irrevocable climate change, we have between 10 and 15 years to radically change the way we operate in order to maintain the stable conditions that have led to the exponential growth that we have seen. The nine tipping points that you need to know about are the Amazon rainforest and preventing savanafication, and drought and converting that forest into a net carbon producer. We really need to look at that and make sure that it doesn't happen or it doesn't happen any more than it already has. Then we have the Arctic sea ice, and preventing the full melt that we now expect to happen during summertime. Atlantic circulation slowing down, is happening as a result of the other tipping points being shifted. So, the increased sea ice into the ocean is creating that slowdown in the current span.

The boreal forest decline, caused by fires and past changes, is also an area of concern. Coral Reef bleaching has been occurring everywhere on the planet at this point in time. And the Greenland ice sheet melting is another area of great concern. All sorts of permafrost thawing everywhere that it is can expose us to risk that we have not even understood yet. And the West Antarctica and East Antarctica ice sheets and the other final areas of tipping points that we need to be aware of. What this implies is that we need to make radical shifts, cutting your annual carbon footprint in both your personal and professional life by half every year is a start. But can we do it? I talk about these things because we need to understand when we get into business that it's not just for us.

When we get into business today, we need to think about our impact down the road, and how we're going to be influencing what happens for our kids for the next generation and for this blue earth that we all love. So I wanted to create that setting, but I also want to create another setting for you, which is a bit about the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Okay. So beyond the Climate, the climate has other tipping points that haven't even been discussed yet, which is around the other aspects of social life. The UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals captures these very well.

They are: no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work, and economic growth, industry innovation and infrastructure, reduce inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible production and consumption, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace, justice, and strong institutions and partnerships for the goals. Of all of these platforms to leverage for change, which of these are impacted by your business. It is possible that your business has both positive and negative impact on more than one of these goals. The first thing to do is to know which. Can you articulate the impact, and in the long run, will you be able to measure the impact that you're having. Even if you've already started in business.

This series aims to provide a supporting guide to position yourself to create the positive impact you want to, and to articulate it over time. There's also tremendous opportunity. We are all today creators and designers of a new economics, and a new way of interacting with the planet. The dominant solutions are, how are we able to convert to renewable sources of energy, how can we rewild and regenerate in nature and in our lives. How can we generate novel designs and creativity towards some of the solutions and problems that we face? And how do we use artificial intelligence, as well as bio engineering and technology to change the game. The growth of green tech solutions and advances in artificial intelligence can be truly transformational if well-guided in the context of complexity, and the risk we face as the dominant species on this planet.

This episode was brought to you today by vehicle Business Growth club by Katherine. And by the space where ideas. Eco Business Growth club supports positive impact SMEs with coaching and community support to achieve the impact and reach they set out to meet. You can find out more by connecting with where it is launched on Instagram following the hashtag, where it is across all of your social Media.

033 IP Is Your Business

About this Episode

Gjorgji Rafajlovski (Gogo) is the Operational Director @SEEUTechPark in North Macedonia and an IP Consultant who helps entrepreneurs and innovative startups reach their maximum potential.

With an ongoing 15+ years of a successful career in managing start-up Ccnters, Incubators, Accelerators & TechParks, Gogo has built-up a portfolio as an experienced business consultant & mentor, passionate about technology & brands.

His background includes Operations Management, Startup Investments, Intellectual Property, Business Valuation, Innovative Growth. When he’s not supporting a world-changing start-up business, he loves outdoor sports!

We discussed how tech parks support start ups, the importance of IP, and we debated open innovation. Have a listen!

Connect with Gjorgki on Linkedin:

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Connect with Gjorgki

Episode Transcript

Katherine Ann Byam 0:00

GoGo Welcome to where it is lunch. It's such a pleasure to have you on the show. I really want to understand all about cu tech Park, and what you've been doing in North Macedonia. Tell me a little bit about how the tech Park has positively impacted business and startup investment in your country.

Gjorgji Rafajlovski 0:46
Yeah, sure. So basically, the SEEUTechPark story began back in 2013. And it kind of started as a pilot project of the university. By the way, we are a private university overthink the first private university of everything here in North Macedonia. And we, we had this idea to start simulating the startups, the investment potential in and innovations through students and young people here in North Macedonia, and try to boost them into developing new startups and new tech tech businesses that has the potential to grow into change the world we live in. So basically, back in 2013, we kickstarted as a as a pilot project.

And then two years later, we incorporated ourselves as a Technology Park, actually, SeeUTechPark, and we started developing our own internal ecosystem, with men, we can boost our creativity and innovation. And then we became self sustainable actually, even today, we are one of the few organisations that have its sustainability as a as a core business value. And I think that's important because if you if you try to teach, especially young people, and innovators in becoming a real businessman and developing their own business, you should not just talk the talk, but you should also walk the walk. And this this system actually helped us to become more community-based and become more recognisable in our country as one of the few organisations that actually has the potential to commercialise your product and to bring added value.

Through this year, we specialise in many tailor-made services and products. And we kind of became a trademark for something that can be widely recognisable, not just in North Macedonia but in the whole region. And these are the two separate services that we provide. One is startup valuation or a company valuation. We do this as a third party, between investors and startups, wanting to raise money, and then another services, IP. So intellectual property. This is a we think is also something that can be introduced, and it should be introduced to all startups, especially in those startups, talking with investors talking with Parisian partners that want to expand their businesses and to become global players.

So basically, these two services are kind of unique to our ecosystem. And we we kind of added it to our everyday programmes and other services that are more or less equal, like every other technology parkour accelerated through the years. Seven and eight years along the path, I think we have accomplished good results in starting helping young enterpreneurs and startups reach their maximum potential. And nowadays we have helped more than 30 companies from from our country. Actually 13 out of them are still located that our technology, so they're located with our university, and we've created directly more than 150 new technology jobs which are boosting the national economy and the IP system in particular.

Katherine Ann Byam 5:16
This is a wonderful story. And really important to see how these, this innovation that you're doing is helping to grow businesses, not just in North Macedonia, but compared to the entire region as well. So this is fascinating to see, I wanted to ask a little bit more about intellectual property is this is to areas of particular specialisation. And I want to understand why this is important, first of all, and at what stage of development should young startups be getting into IP protection?

Gjorgji Rafajlovski 5:50
Yes, that's a very good question or two questions. I will start with a second one. At what stage do the startups need to think and to implement IP? I would say in the very beginning of developing your product or service, even before you create a company. Why is this because a lot of startups, even nowadays, think that intellectual property is something that you can add on along the path as you're developing your business idea, or a product or a service. But it's, it's not a single event thing.

So basically, intellectual property is something that you think of you plan and you implement during the whole journey of upgrading your startup. Because if you're waiting for the perfect conditions, to draft, to plan, and to implement some sort of IP, it won't happen ever. So basically, you have to start thinking about intellectual property as an asset to a company and to your product or service. So in terms of when they should start thinking about protecting the IP, I would say that even before you launch your product or service, you have to have some sort of IP strategy.

IP strategy is not something that you can immediately protect but see how certain things can develop in the certain way that in the future, you can have your assets and your IP working for you and for your business. Having in mind the first question as tp why it is important, only IP is is the asset that doesn't depreciate over time. So basically, the more you use it, the more value it gets. And the IP is the core thing that your business is unique for. So basically, every other thing that you have, business wise for a startup, let's say the office, the desk, the software, the computer, or a prototype can be easily copied, IP, the core of the IP is your your uniqueness at work, and what you're bringing, as a unique point, to the community and to your customers.

And that's why it is important. Nowadays, globally, more than 80% of all assets worldwide, are IP assets are intangible assets. So basically everything else that we see around us, surrounding every business is less likely to be to be copied if it's IP protected. So that's why I think I'm very pro on on on developing intellectual property that can boost your business, and then can bring unique value to both your product enter your investors, and for sure, you should think of how is the best way to protect it and to to give added value to your product or service.

Katherine Ann Byam 9:36
It's a really important point and very interesting point. And I'm going to challenge you now. And my challenge is that there are some that argue that a more open source approach is better for for innovation, and the greater good. So if we take for example, you know, Elon Musk and what he did with Tesla, or even a more recent example, with the ongoing debate around the COVID vaccines, what are your thoughts on whether or not we should embrace some element of openness when we're creating things that are new and game changing for the planet?

Gjorgji Rafajlovski 10:16
Yes, even nowadays, with the global pandemic, this is a more like, floating or open question that should be answered. But I'm personally very pro of intellectual property and the protection and let's say the benefits used by the system. But let me put it this way, you have this innovation system that somehow should be protected, you cannot have both extremes.

The first extreme is everything should be free, not protected at all. So anybody can use it. And it's another good thing for the free economy and for the in the Premiership. If someone could store your business or a product or a service that you've been researching or investing in for months or years, in the back end, you have this uniqueness, that that you should be able to commercialise it and you should be able to put this on the market and have a have a good return of investment for it. And so basically IP gives you a certain time for your business to commercialise a product or a service and then be the only player in the market for it, protecting you and your investment and your know-how and everything you put into a business for a certain period of time. It's not infinity, but it surely gives you an opportunity to get the investment back.

The other hand, the extreme opposite on the other side would be everything should be protected forever so you couldn't use anything without any approval from inventors. So, basically this is also extreme and it cannot be done, it would also hurt the economy and the inventors. So the perfect balance would be to boost innovativeness, to give people opportunity to patent, to protect, and to invent certain things, but also give give them just enough freedom to be able to commercialise it and not to put a forever mark on their products.

So basically, this is the fine balance between open innovation and too much protected innovation. At the end of the day, I will say that there are very positive towards the system that actually rewards something that is new, that is unique, and that could solve a person or a business problem. And and yes, you have to have a business opportunity to commercialise this kind of inventions in order to keep the wheel spinning.

Katherine Ann Byam 13:26
Yeah. What specifically should we be thinking about when we're starting to think about IP protection? So what things can we protect? And what can we not protect?

Gjorgji Rafajlovski 13:38
Basically, IP protection is very territorial. So you can protect a certain thing on a certain territory. So there is no uniqueness to what you can protect worldwide when we're talking about inventions. When we're talking about copyright, and we're talking about the software, it's pretty much protected from the moment that it has been created. So basically, it's some kind of universal protection.

You can always protect something that is a real invention that is new and is a breakthrough technology and then it has a market potential. People are trying to buy. You cannot protect something that is in plain nature. So basically, without a human intervention, you can protect let's say a plant or something that can be as a natural phenomenon in nature because you don't leave other people the opportunity to use it as it is. So basically something that is invented by people or by a group or by business, and is very unique, and it's something new, then it should be protected and it can be protected by IP rights.

Katherine Ann Byam 15:50
That's a fantastic response. And definitely, I think this is something that we need to get involved with. What do you see as the potential future for SEEUTechPark, and how you expected to transform the Macedonian economy in the future?

Gjorgji Rafajlovski 16:06
Thank you. That is also an interesting question. First of all, I see the development of the Tech Park as a good partner for startups and young innovators. That's for sure. I would see that in the next five years. We can help as many as young enterpreneurs that we can into the journey of commercialising their innovations, not just in this country but in the region and Europe also.

In general, I would like to see the first one of many unicorns from from this country and this region on the startup testing, especially in Europe. But also, I would like to see more investors tapping into this market because here in this region, we have very good talent, very skilled young people that are very opportunistic, and we have great conditions for for establishing and starting businesses.

So I would see ourselves as a good partner in the near future for every entrepreneur and startup. But I would also like to see the textbook, connecting with other hubs and innovation centres in the region, and with other universities, not just here, but also in Europe, and to develop and to bring value to to our clients and potential clients in boosting technology and innovation. Not just in our country, but but worldwide.

Actually, we're here just to promote entrepreneurship as a system and try to develop the new generation of Macedonian enterpreneurs that can go out there and change the world.

Katherine Byam 18:03
It's a great challenge that you have set up for yourself. And thank you for sharing your journey and SEEUTechPark with us. Thanks for joining the show.

Gjorgji Rafajlovski 18:12
Thank you, Katherine. Likewise,

031 Innovation Starts with I

About this Episode

Saleema Vellani is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker, a professor, and the author of Innovation Starts With “I”.

Saleema is the Founder & CEO of Ripple Impact, which helps entrepreneurs increase their influence and impact through accelerating the growth of their platforms and businesses. She also teaches design thinking and entrepreneurship at Johns Hopkins University and is a frequent guest lecturer at business schools.

We discussed her new book, Innovation starts with I.

Here's the link to pre-order her book
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/innovation-starts-with-i#/

And a link to her 100 Coffee Challenge.
https://saleemavellani.ck.page/100-coffee-challenge

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

Katherine Ann Byam 0:02

Hi Saleema, and welcome to Where Ideas Launch, The podcast for the Sustainable Innovator.Welcome, and thank you for joining me.

Saleema Vellani 0:35

Thank you so much for having me, Katherine.

Katherine Ann Byam 0:37

You must be so chuffed and excited about the launch of your new book. Why don't you tell us a bit about the journey to bring this book to life?

Saleema Vellani 0:46

Yeah, sure. So it depends on how far you want me to go back. But the journey essentially started in 2014. When I decided I wanted to write a book with a friend and I ended up parking the project. But it was an idea and we wrote some Google documents and started going for coffee with my friend and I asked him to co-author with me. And it was an initial phase of my life because I had been an entrepreneur, a successful entrepreneur of the past. And then for me, it was not about being an entrepreneur, it was about having the dream job.

And when I got the dream job, I realised it wasn't the job it wasn't as dreamy as I thought it was. And so I was trying to find my inner entrepreneur, trying to help other people unleash their inner entrepreneur while I was also trying to unleash it within myself and figure out, "How do I become an entrepreneur?" Again, how do I come up with a great idea? I would spend a lot of my nights on Google trying to figure out what are the trends, what are problems, I can solve what kind of business I should go into.

And I was looking outward, I was looking outside and not looking within myself. And the very same problem I was trying to solve for other people I needed to solve for myself. And so my friend ended up telling me, he said to me, "I think you need to live a little bit more before you're ready to write this book." And he was right. It was hard to hear it at the time. But I said, "Maybe I just don't have it in me right now to do this." And then I had a whole journey which I talked about in my book - a whole transformative journey. When I went through a whole evolving into this next version of myself and there's a whole life quake, my life had a crash, and everything kind of fell apart piece by piece. And I go into detail about that in the book.

And it was only until five years later when I picked up the book project again. When I decided, people were wanting to hear my story. People were wanting to learn from me. I was already teaching at that point. I was already doing a lot of the speaking and a lot of getting myself out there to share my story. And it was then that I had the confidence. And I decided, "Yes, it's time to do it." But again, I didn't know how to do it on my own because I didn't have a co-author. And I knew I had to write it on my own. But I got stuck. And I said, “Well, I did what I do best, which is build a team and put a team together to get the help I need so that the things that I suck at are not greyed out so that I can focus on the thing that I'm great at.” But then again, I got stuck again on the writing process because who am I writing this for? How do I where do you start?

A book is not like writing an article. It's a lot of work. So I ended up deciding to interview people, I got inspired. I have this process called the 100 Coffee Challenge which I used during my life quake to go out and get a job when I was stuck. And I had two weeks to find a job that was sponsored by Visa here in the United States. And I use that same process. I use that for many different things. And I and other people, my students and interns use that process as well, to go and have 100 coffees with people. So you learned a lot about yourself through that process. I call it active introspection by going out and talking to people, you learn a lot about yourself. It's not just looking inward, it's getting insights about yourself through your blind spots, especially by having those conversations with other people. And I did that same process with my book, I decided to interview 100 people.

So I interviewed people from all walks of life and met innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders, even Arianna Huffington, Alex Osterwalder, who created The Business Model Canvas and just a lot of really interesting people. And that made me realise that inspired me to write and to put all those insights together and essentially, the beginning of the book journey was, I would say, finding myself through other people and living my story and then being able to write about it through getting inspired through those conversations.

Katherine Ann Byam 4:38

What made you want to do intrapreneurship? Why was this something that consumed you?

How Saleema Started Her Career

Saleema Vellani 4:45

Hmm, for me, it's how I started my career. So it's familiar to me because I graduated during a financial crisis in 2009 from university and couldn't find a job. And so I ended up going to Brazil to do some volunteer work and get some more international experience. And it was interesting because I was supposed to work in an orphanage. And then at the last minute, my boss in Brazil called me and said, "You know, before you come to Brazil, I just want to let you know, you're not going to come to the orphanage just yet, you're going to be in Rio de Janeiro. And you're going to start this language school because the situation is ingrained at the orphanage and we need to have more funding to help us run our operations." And so I was put into Rio at age 21.

And had to start the school in Brazil. And in Brazil at the time, it was not easy to do something like that and to get something started, especially a business with very few resources that we had. And the situation we lived in, we didn't have water for most days. I was living in a really cramped room with bunk beds with other volunteers that were coming in and out. And it was just a really uncomfortable situation not having the water, having the internet, all those things. I was just working all the time with the school trying to get it to be successful. And it was there that I learned a lot about entrepreneurship and all the failures as well. Because we had a business model that was like, "let's teach all these languages to these different students."

We were a bunch of foreign volunteers. But we realised that that was a model for failure because it wasn't done initially enough. And we weren't getting enough students. Our classrooms are almost empty but it was just like all our group classes were turning into private lessons. So we ended up really taking a look at what we could do. And we said, "Well, what can we do.?" And so we decided to test this idea of just focusing on Portuguese for foreigners and getting rid of all those other languages, Italian, French, Spanish, etc. And it was when we made that pivot, and we reinvented ourselves. We were like, "Wow, the school took off." And now it's one of the top-rated schools in Brazil for learning Portuguese and wins awards consistently. And it all just started with that little project. And again, I was a co-founder, but it wasn't my idea that I was executing.

And so because I started my career with that project, I learned everything, I learned how to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I learned about how to start a business from the ground up. And I carry that on with me. So when I went to Italy, that's another story, I started a translation business. And that was how I survived starting these businesses even though I didn't call myself an entrepreneur, I think probably more like a creator, whatever you want to call it, but I never really labelled it. Because for me, I was embarrassed that I couldn't get a job. And this is what I had to do. And so when I started graduate school.

I didn't even tell a lot of people that I was running these businesses because it was for me, I failed. I didn't get the job that I thought I was gonna get after college. And so it was only when I came to the United States that's when I was like, "Boom! Entrepreneurship is not such a bad thing." Like it actually sounds. I've done it before. And when I tried the corporate thing and I tried to work on a nine-to-five for a few years I was like, "I really miss that, that level of creativity, that elation, the lifestyle that I had, and the freedom it was a lot of work. And I say I probably worked a lot more being an entrepreneur but there was a certain "I could really embrace myself and my skills and being myself."

And I think because we're evolving as humans at such a fast pace. We're in this reinvention revolution, where we're trying, we need to reinvent ourselves faster and more frequently than ever before. And so, I think because of that pace of growth that we're seeing right now, I would say that I love being an entrepreneur, but I also love being an intrapreneur. So I always do both, I never just do one or the other always, I call it in my book, hybrid-preneurship where you're embracing being in.

It doesn't have to be a corporate setting, it could be doing consulting work on certain projects. But I always think it's very important to contribute to the larger organisations because that will bring value. You're learning in both areas but you're maybe getting more training and maybe doing things that you wouldn't. You're trying to upskill yourself in one of your projects, or whatever. So I think it's important to embrace both to manage that risk. And I think just so entrepreneurship is very glorified, most people can just do it.

Saleema’s Advice For The Emerging Innovator

Katherine Ann Byam 9:22

That's so true. I think one of the other things that have become more and more clear is that innovation doesn't start with intrapreneurs, right. Employees are innovators every day. And I wanted to get into that because I know that you have some great advice for that in your book. What would you say to people, employees, to become more creative to express their creativity and take chances?

Saleema Vellani 9:50

Great question. I think the first thing to do is to start looking inward and that's what my book talks a lot about. Innovation starts with "I." Even though it happens to me, and anything that I did, if I did it alone, I feel that I failed miserably. All those things I did a lot. It was only when I had a team, a community, you know, a group of people or a support network around me. And so I think ultimately, you do have to start with yourself. And if you look at some of the best innovators and look at Steve Jobs, because his journey of enlightenment or transformation happened in India.

And when he came back, he was all rejuvenated and was able to really innovate with his work at Apple. And so, I think oftentimes we focus on the final product of the invention and we don't put enough emphasis on that personal transformation during that has to happen. And so for employees, I think we need to first drop those labels of employees and entrepreneurs because I think that's why there are so many entrepreneurs that are failing, and so many employees - it's hard to retain them. Even like the intrapreneur and entrepreneur thing, there are all these labels.

Sometimes people feel like as an employee, “I'm not successful.” Listen, an entrepreneur here, at least, that was what was considered cool and successful. And then if I was just an entrepreneur that was failing, Oh it's just interesting because I think we use these labels and they have certain connotations. And so I think, first of all, drop the titles and everyone should just have their brand as an individual, as a person and be brand-agnostic around being under a company. I think we see a lot of solopreneurs who are really, really attached to their company; but at the end of the day, they get hired or they're successful as a human or as an individual. And so I think the same thing with employees, really kill it as an intrapreneur. Really kill it with your work within the company, and not just your day to day role.

See where you can give back to your community and your job or start something within and I think that's an opportunity to learn as much as possible. I think people should be in jobs to learn as much as possible so that they can be an entrepreneur at some point in their life. Or if not, start running or get their project going on a smaller scale. And I think what an important tool that's in one of my early chapters of the book, it's on finding your sweet spot. I think our sweet spots, not just something that we discovered, I think we have to develop it, we have to work at it. And that's where I think being in a job is great because you can have a little bit of room for failure and to learn, and you're not expected to always be the expert. You have a community. You have resources. You have a lot more. You have less risk, oftentimes than just being a sole entrepreneur.

And so I would say during this exercise called "sweet spot mapping" where you think about it like your four quadrants where you look at your career as a portfolio or your life is a series of projects, and not so much like what is a series of jobs, and really think about what projects you excel that so what are the projects that people and you know that you did really well and not just work projects that it could be stuff that you do on an advisory board. It could be volunteer work, it could be personal things too. And so really think about those projects that you really excelled at. And then you want to look at what are the projects that people gave you the most positive feedback on, so you got a lot of praise.

And sometimes you get taken by surprise because people will tell you things. And you're like, "Wow, I didn't know, you know, you saw that in me" or "I didn't know I was great at this." or "I didn't know I did that really well. We have blind spots, we're human. So I think really trying to understand the perspective of other people goes a long way. And then the third thing to do is to really think about those projects that you really love doing. You know, you might not be the best at them, but you love doing them. And those activities that you would even do for free because you love doing them so much. So whether you're running a podcast, or you're writing a book or doing something that you love, think about those things.

And then the fourth quadrant is the most important one because that's where we often quiet our inner voices, and we don't listen to ourselves enough. And it's the open-to-testing area. So that's the projects that you're open to testing. So some of those ideas that you have late at night where you wake up at three in the morning, and then you don't write it down, or some of those projects on your back burner that you never get to do. They are maybe slightly out of your comfort zone.

Maybe you're like, I don't have the time. But I know I really need to do this. It's those projects, think about how you can scale down and start with baby steps or micro-steps and just get them going because those are the projects that you often have to develop more skills in but they're projects or skills or things that you can be very successful in. Often times you touch on, you iterate, and you pivot in a different direction. So like for me it was, public speaking or certain things that I was very uncomfortable doing and I never thought that I would ever do and that I was always a behind-the-scenes desk person and then just trying some of those things, I got invited to some events or certain things I was like, "No. I'm just gonna do it." And it's those projects, those skills, or activities that I think we need to pay attention to. And I think we could be more successful as innovators or entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs if we take on more of those open to testing projects,

Katherine Ann Byam 15:25

I like the idea of being open to testing. Now we have a lot of challenges facing us in the world, and this podcast is rooted in this idea of sustainability. I see that we have a huge opportunity. Like, I think we have an opportunity now to reinvent a lot of things that we've taken for granted in the past. And that's opening the door for many people to step into themselves and express themselves differently. What are your thoughts on sustainable innovation? And how can we do more to lift it and support it?

Upholding Sustainable Innovations By Coming Together and Embracing Diversity

Saleema Vellani 15:59

Yeah, so sustainable innovation is a whole topic of its own. I would say that there's a lot on that. I think right now we're seeing a lot of really neat stuff with the younger generations, like trying to clean up all the mess over the past few decades. There are some serious issues we have in the world that we're trying to figure out how to solve whether it's through social enterprise or corporate innovation, social innovation through companies and through different means.

Solving the Problems of the World by Leveraging Diversity

But ultimately, I think that we need to have more conversations with the different stakeholders. So I think coming together and really embracing diversity, I think sometimes we hear like, great minds think alike. And I really think that great minds think differently. And so I think we need to bring different minds together to solve that. I was actually just in a conference this morning on food security in Cairo. And it was interesting because it was virtual. But it was interesting because it was all these different stakeholders from different countries that were coming together to discuss these things. And I think even especially now in this virtual world, we need to have more of those conversations with different stakeholders, and make that a thing.

Innovation Starts With “I”: The Four-Step Process to Coming Out With Your Sustainable Innovation

And so I would say for sustainable innovation, I say that the first thing to do is if you're like an individual that's trying to figure this out, and you do something, whether you're a leader in a company or you're a business owner, and you're trying to figure out how to incorporate that, I would say that first start with yourself. And again, innovation starts with "I." So do some self-ideation. So really look at your passions, what frustrates you. So your values, your skills, your experience, and try to figure out how you can inject your uniqueness into the world.

And I would say that’s the first. The second thing to do after you do that self-ideation is to start adding value to people wherever you can. So whether it's through some volunteer work, some expert hearing, going to a different country or virtually helping other people however you can really try to bring your expertise and your value. I think that goes a very long way. I think we need to prioritise giving more, and we learn a lot about ourselves. But we also get some really great ideas when we do some of those activities that are just giving value to people.

And then the third is to really embrace failure. I think that if more people embrace failure, we would see more innovation happening on the sustainability front because a lot of times it's their big, big hairy problems and how do we solve these things. And we do have to go through cycles of iteration and learning to get to that point of a good idea becoming a great idea. We don't start with great ideas, usually. So pivoting when it's time to pivot and think. Oftentimes, we don't know when it's time to stick or like to evaluate the risk and all this sort of stuff. There's just so much to really think about and to also listen to our inner voice. And then when is it time to pivot because a lot of times we just give up where we say this is not going to work. And sometimes we just need to have the right conversation, or we need the right training with the right skills or technology. And we let go of those ideas, or we let go of those projects. And so, I go through that four-step process.

Know When To Pivot

Katherine Ann Byam 19:12

Yeah. That's interesting. You just touched on pivoting. And I guess my question is, what would be your criteria for knowing it's time to pivot?

Saleema Vellani 19:23

Great question. I actually interviewed Doug Galen from Rippleworks Foundation. They do a lot of connecting with social entrepreneurs with Silicon Valley mentors. And so they have a really interesting business model. But he mentioned to me that it's important to evaluate what are the three critical risks? What are those three critical risks and really think about those three critical risks?

Then you would know when you do that analysis. Is it time to stick and keep going as a time to let go or is it time to pivot so really thinking about the risks, and doing some coming from the economics world probably doing some cost-benefit analysis on that front as well? If there's a way you can kind of evaluate, is this the path? What are the risks? What are the benefits, and in doing that analysis, I think that can go a long way? If there's a way to simplify it, I would say do a 100 Coffee Challenge as I mentioned. Go and talk to 100 people.

Talk to people from different walks of life, different cultures, different industries, especially not just your own industry. I think that gives a lot of insight so that you're not just putting all the weight on yourself for making that decision. And especially talking to industry experts. I think, oftentimes, we need to have a diversion and talk to different people. But I also think that there's a certain level of, especially if you are trying to innovate and you're trying to scale your business, there's a lot of lack of mentorship that's really connected to industry expertise. And that's something that actually Rippleworks Foundation is trying to tackle by connecting those industry expert mentors and stuff. So I think really thinking about that is key, if I could simplify it.

Katherine Ann Byam 21:16

Perfect! How can people find out more about you?

Saleema Vellani 21:19

Yeah, so they can follow me on social media. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. So I think you can put in the show links, my LinkedIn URL. I'm also active on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter. The handle is at Saleema Vellani. And the book is called Innovation Starts With"I" and as you mentioned, it's going to be released later this spring so people can pre-order it already we had a successful Indiegogo campaign last year and we're still taking pre-orders and so those are the different ways where they can visit my website saleemavellani.com and subscribe to the newsletter. That's another great way to stay in touch.

Katherine Ann Byam 21:56

Perfect. Thanks so much for joining us on the show, Saleema. It's been wonderful hosting you.

Saleema Vellani 22:01

Thank you. Thanks so much, Katherine for having me.

024 A Perspective on Strategy

About this Episode

We talked to Kaihan about the current strategy and innovation landscape, and what companies are doing to meet the trend and wider social expectations of them. Kaihan Krippendorff has made a commitment to helping organizations and individuals thrive in today’s era of fast-paced disruptive technological change. He began his career with McKinsey & Company before founding the growth strategy and innovation consulting firm Outthinker. His growth strategies and innovations have generated over $2.5B in revenue for many of the world’s most recognizable companies including BNY Mellon, Citibank, L’Oréal, Microsoft, and Viacom. A best-selling author of five books, most recently the Edison Award nominated, Driving Innovation From Within: A Guide for Internal Entrepreneurs.

He is a member of the prestigious Thinkers50 radar group – A global selection of the top 30 management thinkers in the world to look out for. Thinkers50 also recognized Kaihan as one of the 8 most influential innovation thought leaders in the world considering him for a Distinguished Achievement Award in Innovation – given to the person in the world that has contributed the most to the world’s understanding of innovation in the past two years. Kaihan is currently ranked the Thinkers360 #1 Global Innovation Thought Leader and the Thinkers360 #1 Global Business Strategy Thought Leader in 2019.

Kaihan also founded The Outthinker Strategy Network, a community comprised of strategy executives from the world’s top Fortune 500 and private companies that keeps him ahead of the pace of disruption and up to date on trends, threats, and opportunities across industries.

Amidst his dizzying schedule of keynote speeches, consulting projects, ongoing research and writing, Kaihan still finds time to teach at business schools throughout the US and internationally (including NYU, FIU, and Universidad Americana). Regularly featured in major business media outlets Kaihan is an advisory board member for a blockchain-powered transportation platform, an international food processing/exporting company, and a B-corporation focused on sustainable products and lifestyle.

He holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering, Wharton, Columbia, and London Business Schools and a doctorate in strategy. With a mother from Bangladesh and a father from Germany, Kaihan brings a holistic, diverse, and global perspective to everything he does. His work has brought him to 58 countries all over the world. He speaks three languages and has lived or spent significant periods of time in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Pacific. He lives in Greenwich, Conn., with his wife and three children.

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

Katherine Ann Byam 0:02

Welcome, Kaihan, to Where Ideas Launch.

Kaihan Krippendorff 0:52

Katherine, thank you so much for having me here.

Katherine Ann Byam 0:54

Wonderful to have you here. I discovered your work at the Outthinkers Summit 2020. I was just emerging from the shock and paralysis of facing the pandemic in March. And I found this summit really enlightening. I was wondering if you can share with my listeners more about the summit and whether or not you're carrying it on this year as well?

Kaihan Krippendorff 1:14

Yes. We definitely want to carry it on again. We probably won't do it (one year would be in April,) we're probably going to wait a little bit longer, maybe into the summer. But we had never run a summit before. We suddenly discovered that all of my speaking opportunities suddenly disappeared. Right? My calendar was completely empty. I was sitting in my office with my colleagues. And we looked around and said, "Well, okay, so what are we going to do?" And we thought, you know what, there are probably other thought leaders who suddenly have availability, and here's a chance for us to do something right.

There are going to be people hurting, There are going to be nonprofits that are looking to help those people that are hurting. And we have all of these great speakers. And then we have people sitting at home thinking, "look, what am I going to do?" Why don't we combine those three things? And we reached out to the top thought leaders that we knew and said, "Hey, would you be willing to participate in this charity summit, and just give your time for free, volunteer it, and we're gonna raise all the money that will go to charities to help people deal with COVID?" And so it was really kind of a last-minute pivot idea that we've never done it before. And somehow, just through a kind of passion and not sleeping, we pulled it together in the course of a few weeks. That you were part of that?

Katherine Ann Byam 2:30

Yeah, it was a great resource. And I think it actually changed my whole thinking. I found that at the right time. I had gone through my own journey of "Oh, my God, I just started a business. And now this." So it was quite a savior for me. And I wanted to take us to another topic and another burning platform beyond the pandemic, which is this topic of sustainability. And we've read that there is an idea that we are burning through resources 1.75 times their rate of natural regeneration. And I wanted to know, from your perspective, what are the implications of this on traditional strategy?

Kaihan Krippendorff 3:07

You know, I think that there has been a sea of change that has suddenly accelerated in the area of strategy where, since the 1930s, and 40s strategy has been optimized to maximize shareholder value. And companies are realizing. They didn't realize and we've been tracking this trend for about a decade or more that if you only focus on shareholder value, then even if you're after shareholder value creation over the long term, you create resistance for your growth.

You know Walmart has great difficulty less so now, but for a period had really great difficulty just putting down another store because they weren't good for the community - maybe purely out of self interest, so be it. And I don't know what their interest was. But even if it were out of self-interest, they say - if we're going to take a long term perspective, what we need to do is to create a more sustainable strategy -one that doesn't only benefit us, but benefits other stakeholders, a strategy that benefits the community, employees, society, the environment, the world.

That is the ultimate strategy because then you don't have competition if you will. And so, we're starting to see this suddenly accelerate the awareness among consumers and investors are growing investor bases that are of professional investors who are investing in companies who have sustainable strategies. We have big companies turning into public benefit corporations. We have multiple public better portfolio benefit corporations going public. I think in just last year in the US, there were five such companies. I'm on the advisory board. We've invested a little bit into one of the first B corps and that is the only sustainable future. And corporations are a stakeholder that play a role and they need to participate with other stakeholders in society.

Katherine Ann Byam 4:55

What are your thoughts on ESG and whether or not it changes anything further?

Kaihan Krippendorff 5:02

I think it is critical. I think that the UN Sustainable Development Goals have shone light on the needs of global imports. What I think ESG needs to elevate to is “to look beyond the purpose, right?” It is one thing for Unilever, Procter and Gamble to say, "one of our goals is to cure hunger to rid the world of hunger." That is great. But you need to inline incentives.

You need to reach further. You need to say, "if that's really my goal, I'm going to no longer pander to investors who are after short term cash flow. I'm going to attract investors who also care about that because they're going to support those initiatives and your business model."I am not going to make money from things that would motivate my company, my people, while I'm here or three generations later from doing something that's inconsistent with that. Like Facebook, they make money from selling advertisements. And they do that by just creating engagement. The easiest way to create engagement is to get people into arguments. So even if they are after something that is more of a conversation, they are financially motivated so we need to look at business models to really live what ESG potential is I would say.

Katherine Ann Byam 6:27

It's a fascinating topic. And I think it's such a great platform now for a lot of businesses, not just the big ones, but for startups as well to really think about sustainability and the way to design their business models upfront to address these needs even in terms of circular business models.

Kaihan Krippendorff 6:47

Yeah. And if I could just add on to that, I think the real opportunity is for the startups and maybe startups within companies as well. But I think that successful businesses came to be - it started off with good, let's go back to 30 years. You created a business because there was an existing need and that someone was fulfilling. And you went in with a better product, you stole market share away from them. That was the Michael Porter market share competitive focus strategic approach.

Then you move to create new needs, right. That's kind of the blue ocean approach, right. But I think what we're moving to is creating profitable solutions to society's needs. And if we look at successful startups, they increasingly are. That's their mindset. There is a problem with water availability, with equality, with hunger and food availability. What is a profitable solution to that?

Katherine Ann Byam 7:50

Yeah, I want to pivot a little bit into innovation. And for me, it goes very hand in hand. I feel as a strategist, sustainability and innovation are now almost one thing in the world that we live in today, but you argue that employees, more so than entrepreneurs, are society's primary innovators, and I wanted to discuss that. Why is this in you?

Kaihan Krippendorff 8:11

I did research. I looked at the 30 most transformative innovations for the last 30 years. This is from my most recent book and this is about a vetted list - thousands of submissions, a panel of professors, and they kind of said the big things that are important that have really impacted this side in the last 30 years are the internet, email, MRIs, DNA sequencing, right? These big ones, not the “like” button on Facebook, not even “search” from Google, right? - the big ones.

And then I just backtracked, and I said, "Who conceived of the idea?" and who then developed the bill and who launched it, what I found is that 70% of those innovations were conceived by employees, not entrepreneurs. And if so, what that means is with without employees innovating, you would not have a phone, a mobile phone and internet, you'd not have email, you're not be able to get an MRI, you couldn't get a stent, we'd live in a very, very radically inferior world if it weren't for employees.

Not only possible, but the truth that employees are involved, that doesn't take anything away from entrepreneurism. I want to say entrepreneurs play an important role. But we tell stories about entrepreneurs. You look at lists of most famous business people, most innovative people, it's all a lot of them are entrepreneurs. They happen to be mostly white men which is a whole other issue. But we don't tell the stories about like, you know, Heather at TIA, who came up with a program to get people with autism jobs and get them into society. We don't tell those kinds of stories of the intern entrepreneur. And so one of my missions is to really start shifting our narrative around what innovation is and who the entrepreneur is and celebrating employee entrepreneurs. Sorry, I could talk about this for a long time.

Katherine Ann Byam 10:05

That's fantastic. Now, I think there's a side of social entrepreneurship as well that these people are kind of unsung heroes. They're doing sort of handcrafting, or they are trying to make a difference in their local communities. I recently watched a show on Amazon called “Living the Change” where they were talking about regenerative agriculture and about these communities that were doing time banking and having their own currency in their small local area and stuff like this. And I was wondering, what are your thoughts on this type of sort of social entrepreneurship and what it means for the wider picture?

Kaihan Krippendorff 10:41

I think it's critical and huge. And I think it's increasing not only because of the need and the awareness, but also because of the goals of the workforce today. The goal of the workforce for my parents was to get a stable job that gives you a salary that gives you retirement. And now, the goal is to make a difference, even if we make less money. And that doesn't mean you should have to make less money, but I also think that there have been certain strategic concepts that have been introduced.

And one of the things we do is we organize a peer group of Chief Strategy Officers. So I get to spend time with heads of strategy for companies, and we talk about the emerging concepts. And this whole idea from Clayton Christensen of "Jobs to Be Done," I think it opens things up like you can say that the idea of creating a local currency becomes strategically a possibility when you focus on the job to be done by currency as opposed to thinking of working within the existing system. So we're seeing innovators starting to think outside of the bounds of existing categories and framework systems.

Katherine Ann Byam 11:55

Yeah. It's really fascinating. And I know we can go on about this for a long time. But my next question for you is "what are the barriers to innovation in firms, let's say outside of Big Tech and Big Pharma? What are the sort of barriers that are holding firms back at the moment?

Kaihan Krippendorff 12:12

In my book, I laid out seven key barriers. I interviewed 150 people. And you know, I won't go through all seven here. I'm happy to but I would say like the big ones are - first, that companies ask people to innovate, but they don't tell them what the strategy is. So they activate this excitement of innovation. And then these people come up with products that aren't consistent with our products or pricing schemes that aren't consistent, or brands that aren't consistent, and they get rejected, and then people grow disheartened. And then they give up, right? The second big barrier is really around the business model.

And the unique challenge for an internal innovator is that they work within an existing business model. The way that you want to distribute your innovations may not be consistent with the way that your company is currently distributing their products. The culture you want to build around your innovation might be different from the culture that you operate in. And that often appears as evidence or reasons why we have these innovation antibodies that prevent new ideas from growing inside the established companies. But the innovators I interviewed, they view that as part of the problem solving process. How do you redesign the entire business model so that it works inside the company. A heart transplant surgeon won't just take someone's heart and just stick it in your body and get mad at you because it was rejected. Right?

They think carefully about how to remove their rejection. So that's the next skill. And the final thing I would add is just the hierarchical, centrally planned system that dominates most companies. So most companies are organized like centrally planned economies, right? We have one central authority that decides where resources go, where talents go, what you can work on. And we know that that doesn't work in the broader economy. So what we're starting to see is explorations of new organizational models that look more like ecosystems, look more like democracies, look more like communities, look more like platforms, look more like marketplaces. And we're seeing these other forms of human organization coming into the mix. And so but still, most companies are dominated by just one hierarchical top-down organizational framework that restricts creativity and experimentation and therefore, innovation.

Katherine Ann Byam 14:34

One more question, but how can we take this sort of innovation and advanced learning into the public sector and into how governments operate as well? Because I feel as if there's a big burning platform there also.

Kaihan Krippendorff 14:49

Yeah. So my mother's from Bangladesh and the economy there is (I don't want to say dominated by) but the NGO sector runs a lot of the services and the activities that shape society there. So I think that that is sort of the exemplar of what's possible when you really have the “for profit-government” cooperation. It has been shown for the long term trend, that the most impactful innovations are coming increasingly through public-private partnerships. And that's been a trend for 20 years.

And so the kind of problems that we need to solve are too big to be solved by just the government or just entrepreneurs or just established companies. What we need to do is we need to bring our solutions together and collaborate together to also have diversity of thoughts, diversity of ideas. It also increases innovation. But just mathematically, there is not enough money to solve the problems that we need to solve if we just look at solutions from just the government, or just nonprofits or just corporations.

Katherine Ann Byam 16:04

Really interesting and exciting. Why don't you tell our listeners about your latest book so that they can have a check?

Kaihan Krippendorff 16:10

Yes. So it's called Driving Innovation from Within: A Guide for Internal Entrepreneurs. It basically lays out a process and a set of tools for you to be a more effective internal innovator.

Katherine Ann Byam 16:11

Perfect.Thank you very much for joining us in the showcase. And it's been wonderful to have you, thank you, and thanks for the work that you do.

023 Found: Order Better

About this Episode

Shivaun Gyan (MBA,FCCA) started his career in Silicon Valley as an audit consultant for a big 4 audit firm and worked his way up the corporate ladder to Senior Director with work experience in over 20 countries spanning from the Caribbean to the Middle East.

While doing his MBA at City Business School, he became inspired to change direction of his career towards startups and left his firm for the unchartered waters of startup life. His first role was CFO of an Electronics and Lifestyle Startup in Los Angeles, Headquartered in Shenzhen, China.

In 2020, he co-founded Found Lifestyle, a platform that enables food and drink venues to boost sales and productivity by allowing staff to focus on providing excellent service to customers,using the app for a better in-venue ordering and smoother checkout experience. For every order on Found, a meal is provided to a person in need through its partnership with Feeding Britain.

We talk about Found and Shivaun’s Journey to create a business with purpose.

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

Katherine Ann Byam 0:01

Shivaun, welcome to Where Ideas Launch.

Shivaun Gyan 0:53

Thank you very much for having me on the show. Hearing you say that back is really interesting because we write it in the news feed every single day in our company, but hearing someone else speak about it - I get a few goosebumps.

Katherine Ann Byam 1:08

That's wonderful. It's really a pleasure to have you and as you pointed out before we got started, you are the first Trinidadian person who is on the show with me. Being a Trini myself, I really feel a lot of pride in sharing the story of Trinidadian startups and Trinidadian startups that are global in nature. So tell us a bit about Found.

Shivaun Gyan 1:32

So Found was created essentially to save time. It was a convenience app. This idea for this app started well before COVID. And it was just meant to save people time from queuing for food and drink and just give people time back from very busy days. Then COVID hit. And we started instantly seeing a lot of advantages to having the app and, very much in line with the British government's kind of advisories not to use paper menus anymore, because of the transmission of germs and things like that, not to have crowding and venues and all that sort of stuff we're all very aware of.

And using our food ordering app then becomes the next natural progression of how you patronise food and beverage venues. And so we started saying, Wow, this is an even amazing opportunity. And as we progressed every few months in startup life, we realised that there were a lot of opportunities to do something beyond the commercial side of the business. And my co-founder and I, Alex James (Hi to Alex, I know he's listening and is going to be listening to this) Alex is our CEO.

So we always have in mind to have a charitable element to what we did. And we said, okay, well, let's, we were playing in food tech. Let's say, let's do something else, what is one of the food-related needs of this world. And obviously, when you go for cause actions and moral compasses, in terms of corporate behaviours, we always tend towards the UN and see what is in demand in the world. And we hope upon, of course, the very well-known, Sustainable Development Goals of the UN for 2030. And as we'll have it, number two was Zero Hunger. And then we thought, “Okay, well great.” There's a direct correlation between us having a food ordering app, and there being a need to help with food hunger and food poverty across the world. And those might not seem relatable things that you could do with a small startup.

But we came to the conclusion that we don't have to solve world hunger but we have to help it out. And it's not it's less of us being the solution and more of the instigators for a revolution of thinking about how everybody can play a part in better humanity. And that sounds very idealistic. But as you said in your introduction of me, As we say in the Caribbean I’m no spring chicken. Unfortunately, I missed the millennial boat. And I think what I'm called is a xenial, just before millennials.

Shivaun Gyan 4:34

And I’ve proven myself in the corporate world, I've made enough money. I've been successful, there comes a point in your life as an adult, where you want some sort of purpose in life beyond the paycheck. And if I was going to create something, I want some sort of a legacy. I want some sort of an impact. And that's where the idea came from. This should not be an element of the app anymore. This should be the reason we exist. Right? This should be the movement that we start.

Because there's, as you know, a proliferation of food ordering apps around the world. We've done our extensive research, none of them do anything like this. And it brings the question, why? Why hasn't billion-dollar valued food ordering apps never thought about tackling hunger and food poverty. So it didn't really matter to us. We just said, well, let's be the first to do it. And that's really how things evolved. So with Found, just to tell you what it does, it's not just similar to any food delivery app.

You can search for food at your favourite restaurant in your proximity, you can order the only thing that's different is the destination. So we've catered a lot to the in-venue dining space, where delivery apps kind of keep you at home. And the reason we had that focus was that restaurants, as everybody knows, the hospitality industry is suffering. And it hasn't been suffering. And there's been a lot of calls for supporting your local pub and cafes, just to make sure that they keep alive during this pandemic because the doors are closed.

As we all know, we're in lockdown mode. So we decided that we would create an app that would help people return to venues right once it was safe to do so, and offer benefits to people going in and patronising venues, and keeping the doors open and the lights on. And so that's why we focused on that space. And so with the app, you can basically order food to your table, and do so safely. Because you're not touching menus, you don't have to speak to a waiter, and you don't have to use cards to make your payment. Everything is done from the convenience of your smartphone. So it's the next evolution in food ordering. And we're happy to be part of it.

Katherine Ann Byam 6:50

It's really exciting, I love hearing about this type of solution because this is what the world really needs we need, we need real solutions. And we need things that create impact. And I think that digital-first startups have such a fantastic opportunity to go directly into that sustainability space. So it's wonderful to see you guys taking that bold step. And wanting to ask a little bit about your background, and how you come to be in this space. I always find it interesting, as an accountant myself, who's found herself in a completely different space. How did you find your way to being the founder of a startup?

Shivaun Gyan 7:25

I get questioned a lot of times about “you don't have the personality of an accountant” whatever that means. “You don't have the personality of an auditor” whatever that means. I fell into Accounting, the Accounting world by chance, I won in a contest on a casting call to one of the big four firms. And I was just good at accounting. I didn't particularly like it, but I was good at it. And I think I liked the competition more than I did Accounting. And I was given pretty much an internship that was paying for my ACC, which is for those of you who don't know, is the professional certification to become a chartered accountant.

And being 17-18 years old at the time, I had no real direction in life. And that sounded good and so I jumped on it. And therefore that started my career with a firm that took me for 14 years, all around the world doing accounting, auditing, finance, those sort of things. You know, I've gotten to a stage in my career as a senior director, where I said, Oh, well, great. What's the next step in life? I was approaching 40. So I'm giving away my age right now. I was approaching 40. And I was looking for something more. And during my MBA, I really really felt drawn to innovation, and then new ventures and that sort of kind of calling. I really, really felt it. And I said, Well, let me do something about it. I'm 40 I'm doing my MBA drastically.

What's the worst that can happen? I think I'm employable. (I hope) if this doesn't pan out. But you know, the thing about entrepreneurship capitals, you will know is you've got to just do it. You can't delay. I have delayed even doing my MBA for six years. And then I just said you know what, if I start now I'll be finished at 40. So let me start. That was literally the deadline. And so I fell into this space. I put the pillars out there and I got my first job as a CFO in a startup. And boy was that different. That was not the structure I was accustomed to. That was not the challenge I was accustomed to. My professional outlook was turned upside down. But you know what? I tried that I really enjoyed it and then it became the natural progression. I've got to do something on my own. And when I met my business partner, the rest is history already.

Katherine Ann Byam 9:58

It's quite funny because there's so much structure and consulting, right? There are so many methods, processes. Everything is recycled in a way. So you have those templates coming forward. And when you get into the startup world, it's anything but because you really have the purview of the entire business, right. So you're no longer an accountant, you are everything, you are sales, you are marketing, your, your brand, your operations, you are everything in that business. So it really takes a certain type of individual as well to tackle that challenge. And you're definitely doing it with some great brilliance. Tell us about - if Found has launched already and what are your plans?

Shivaun Gyan 10:42

So we have actually pre-launched. Our launch date is coming up very soon - March 1 in the UK. We've got some venues on board already and we're going to take it slow. We're not going to go for a mass launch at first. We're going to be partners and probably just start off with our takeaway business just to make sure the tech works the way we wanted to, and we’ll take some initial feedback from the market. We tested it, it works we know it does. But you never know what happens when you launch it in the market. So we're going to take it quite slow, and then build up for about six weeks.

And then we're going to announce, well, we're going to announce a massive partnership that we've managed to secure. And I don't know if we should talk about it, maybe we can talk about it here. Why not? We were able to sign an incredible partnership with the folks at Feeding Britain. And I'm pretty sure a lot of Brits are very familiar with this charity. They're the biggest food charity I believe in the UK. And they really believed in what we were doing. They loved that we made giving incidental contribution to what people are doing every day. So I'm ordering food. So our tagline is, “you buy a meal, we give a meal.” So you order your food and it doesn't cost you anything extra, and you get to give a meal to someone else.

And so they have really loved the idea. We partner with them. And so every time you place a meal on our platform, there's someone in need that gets a meal in the UK. In our country it is really important for us to do that, Katherine. Because a lot of times we see charities and we see funds from some far-away country when there's a lot of distress in our home environments. And we wanted to make sure that Brits were able to be Brits. That we need to look after your countrymen, as we say in the Caribbean as well. So we're going to echo that business model and replicate that business model. Wherever we go, we will try to find local charities where people can actually benefit from and see it happening in their environment.

So you know what, “I Catherine I Shivaun,” “I George, I've contributed to this particular cause and look it’s happening in my own home. So that's where it came from. And that's where we are. After the UK, we're going to be headed to the Middle East, to Dubai, then we're looking at the big old USA. That's going to be a big giant to take on. But you know we make it work, we think we've got a great USP here. And it's going to resonate with a lot of people who think beyond themselves in this world. And there are a lot of good people out there. So that's where we're headed.

Katherine Ann Byam 13:25

Definitely. That's wonderful. So tell us a bit about the journey of this app. So I know that COVID has presented us with many challenges. And you talked about the app starting off being a convenience app, and then pivoting now to something that has become more in many ways. So tell us about the lessons that you've learned along the way, in making this pivot. And in bringing this to life.

Shivaun Gyan 13:51

Oh lessons, Where do I start? You don't think that a lot of people and I do understand a bit of the listenership of this podcast and I think we're all pretty much in the same age bracket. And my number one lesson is if you open your eyes on a particular morning and you feel any resentment towards going to work, then you probably shouldn't be going to work at that place. You got to introspect. You got to just do it. There's never going to be an optimal time to start a business.

There are always kids, there's always family, there's always a pet, I don't have enough money in the bank. there's gonna be a long list of excuses you can come up with at any point in time. So it's just got to just do it. And when you do it, understand why you do it. Get to the “why” as soon as possible because when you get to that “why”, that fire is lit under you every morning. This journey as you well know, it's not an easy one. You get up every morning. Sometimes you say, ”Oh What am I doing? I could have a nice easy job as a CFO in a company, work, clock my nine hours a day, collect my salary, and live a great, comfortable, lovely life. But you got to find your “why” and say, you know, that's not what I want. That's not what I want out of life. And it's not for everybody, as you said. So it took us a little bit of time to find that why, but once we found out why, there's no looking back. So I would say those are my three big lessons.

Katherine Ann Byam 15:30

Yeah. And what are the sort of tips that you would give to startups now? Like some of the things that possibly we could focus on learning at the beginning, and things that will help us get through this journey.

======

Shivaun Gyan 15:46

I would say for me, having a like-minded business partner, and co-founder was really important. There's a lot of mental angst when you're doing something like this, and having somebody to help along with that moral support like your wife, your husband, or whoever. Somebody has to be in the trenches with you to understand when things go awry and why it matters. Because I could say this deal fell through. And my partner can say, “Sorry, honey, but only your business partner knows why that's a big deal to you. They can really relate. So I think finding a co-founder and a like-minded partner that aligns with your vision is really, really important. I think, what I learned, even though I had 14 plus years, and consulting all over the world, what I didn't know was way more than I thought I knew. So you don't know it all. Don't expect to know it all.

But surround yourself with a group of advisors who are smarter than you are, or more experienced than you are, and who you can use as a sounding board. Absolutely. I think with our business, we will try to go into our own. And when we started bringing in advisors; and by doing, there's a lot of advisors, free of charge, who just wanted to see startups grow. So there are people out there who will believe in your cause and will come in and offer their services. Absolutely for free. And when we started doing that, you know, it was just like a lightning bolt moment. It was crazy. And the direction became clear. We had a place to air our ideas, concerns, and frustrations. So I think gathering a group of advisors is definitely the second step. And I think for us, knowing that everything will take longer than you think it's gonna take - so have some patience. We were meant to launch this app last August or September. And then the second lockdown happened. Then you make things happen, and it can break you if you don't have patience. But be steadfast in that patience is what I would say.

Katherine Ann Byam 18:02

And it always helps to have a bit of cash in the bank.

Shivaun Gyan 18:08

Oh yeah. Learn to live on less money than you have. And, that’s the fourth one.

Katherine Ann Byam 18:14

That's great. I know you've done a crowdfunding campaign. Tell us about how that test supported your growth as well.

Shivaun Gyan 18:23

It's been really instrumental to us in many different ways. As a startup company that was just trying to figure out who we were, we didn't want to get into the angel investment model. We didn't want to give up a whole bunch of equity in our company before we even knew what we had. So we said, “Let's, let's create a vision. Let's put that out there. Let's see what the public thinks about it.” So we got ourselves listed on Crowdcube, which is a very popular crowdfunding campaign platform.

And instantly, we started getting feedback from potential investors. Some of them are great. Some of them are harsh, some of them but you, you've got to take the punches. If you want to be an entrepreneur. There will always be people who will doubt what you do will shut down your ideas who will always say it will never work. Somebody else is doing it better than you are. The list is crazy. Equally, there will be people who believe in you. And I found that a lot of people invested in us not only because of the business idea but because of us as professionals, as individuals or persons with integrity.

And a lot of it had to do with the career that I had built up previously. I felt a lot of people say, Well, I've worked with Shivaun so I know what kind of guy. I know that he works hard. And this is when your network becomes really, really important. And I will say a lot of the funds that we raised through our crowdfunding actually came from people who knew us, but not necessarily people who we reached out to. They say you were doing something they like. “You know what I want to get involved in that. Let me hear the idea.” “This guy's good. Let me join.” Unfortunately, we were crowdfunding, amidst the confusion of the second lockdown.

And, whether or not it was going to happen dimmed the lights a little bit. But we were very lucky to close ours of over 90% funding, which for a brand new first-timer out there was massively successful. I will say thank you to everybody who's listening who was a part of that. And what that has done for us, Katherine is it’s given us a few months of the good runway, a good time to develop who we are. if we didn't have the money that we raised, we would have been shot dead in the water. But now because of that, we had that momentum and that time to think and really get the right people on board. And so yeah, I think it was instrumental to what we are now we're looking forward to the next crowdfunding campaign in a few months.

Katherine Ann Byam 21:01

Yeah, it's interesting, because we spoke. I think it was in September that we first book. And in fact, the business has changed since we first booked so it's quite remarkable to see that it has had an impact, it has had a contribution.

Shivaun Gyan 21:16

Massively. It really has, in terms of the technology that you can afford to do, the markets and support that you can get, the more minds you get into the picture. And also, in all, we've got 284 investors. People think that this is a good idea enough to put money amidst the pandemic. They can see the vision that really gave us a bit of a pat on the back. “You guys are going in the right direction.”

Katherine Ann Byam 21:44

It's fantastic. It's really wonderful. So I have a final question. And it's more of a personal question. What's it like being a Trini living in Dubai?

Shivaun Gyan 21:57

Listen, I believe that the ex-pat character and the ex-pat prototype is a universal one - not limited to nationality. And I love my country, I'm a Trini to the bone. I let people know where I come from, even if they don't ask about it. I introduced them to our saints. Last night, I was telling a friend, don't worry about it, don't bust your brain on that. And she was like, “bust your brain?” So I always delight in sharing my culture wherever I go. And, and being in Dubai, so far from the Caribbean, where we have a very, very, very small Caribbean population, I opened my mouth, and I can see the curiosity. And I'm very, very happy to be an ambassador of Trinidad and Tobago, wherever I go in the world, especially in the Middle East. And I think I should start a tourism company when it's safe to do that. Because Carnival 2022 - so many people want to go back and experience the magic of the Caribbean. But like-minded individuals who are ex-pats all merge together, and we become each other's family when you're away from your blood family.

Katherine Ann Byam 23:17

Absolutely. This has been fantastic Shivaun. And thank you for joining us on the show. And we look forward to your launch. And if you want to let people know how they can find out more and how they can download the app, let them know. And I will definitely share it when we make the podcast live

Shivaun Gyan 23:34

So, guys, we are available in the app stores right now in the Android app store as well and the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store. And we can go to our website at foundlifestyle.com and check us out on the socials were foundlifestyle_ up on Instagram. That's where we make the magic. So we welcome you to download the app. Tell a local bar or restaurant or cafe in your neighborhood about us. Tell them about our cause. Ask them to be part of the zero hunger revolution that we're starting. And you be part of it as well. So thanks for the support in advance, Katherine. It's been just amazing being here.

Katherine Ann Byam 24:17

Wonderful. Great to have you and thanks for joining the show. Thanks for listening. This podcast was brought to you today by Career Sketching with Katherine Ann Byam and The Space Where Ideas Launch. Career sketching is a leadership development and coaching brand offering personalised career transition and transformation services. The Space Where Ideas Launch offers high performance, leadership coaching, and strategy facilitation to businesses and the food and health sectors. To find out more contact Katherine Ann Byam on LinkedIn.

022 StartUp Ecosystems

About this Episode

Marija Dimovska is a project management professional with 10+ years experience in NGO and business sectors. She has coordinated projects across cultures, implemented projects in innovation ecosystems working with a focus on technology and youth capacity building.

When she was 14, Marija wanted to know what happened behind the scenes of a Disney theme park, that led to thousands of customers turning up every year to have a good time. She’s always been interested in the behind-the-curtain process and how to streamline operations creatively. She worked in organisations such as the U.S. Peace Corps and has built managerial expertise, while experiencing the power of a diverse team building an intradisciplinary know-how.

“When we bring together the human factor with the with digital tools/ technology we are creating and introducing a formidable instrument in the creative process of driving solutions to local and present-day global challenges!”

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

Katherine Ann Byam 0:01

Good morning, Maria, and welcome to the show.

Marija Dimovska 0:50

Good morning, Katherine. Thank you for having me. And thank you for reaching out and my pleasure to be here with you and share some information in detail about the startup and innovation ecosystem from North Macedonia.

Katherine Ann Byam 1:02

Tell us a little bit about the key drivers of the Northern Macedonian economy. I mean, I don't think a lot of people know enough about it. So why don't you start with that?

Marija Dimovska 1:11

Small and medium enterprises play a pivotal role in the economic growth of the Republic of North Macedonia. Actually, they comprise 99.8% of all businesses. And unlike its use in the Western Balkans, the Republic of North Macedonia has a more advantageous climate. And it comes in an advantage point in terms of providing support and developing policies for SMEs, startups included. We have one particular state institution, which is called the Fund of Innovation and Technological Development. They have made this far €76M in investments for startups, particularly for the autumn of 2020. They invested €2.35 M in startups and scale-ups that pertained to different sectors and find themselves in different stages of their growth and development.

Katherine Ann Byam 2:09

Fascinating startup success stories! Tell us what are the big stories that you have about Northern Macedonia’s work?

Marija Dimovska 2:18

Actually, you know, they say that crises such as the bubble crunch from several years ago and the COVID crisis in 2020 are the most fertile ground for innovative ideas and businesses to launch and that stands true for the Macedonian startup ecosystem. We have had a lot of progress noted in a number of startups. Such a startup is AirCare. It's actually an application that signals and attracts air pollution. Air pollution is a concern to communities and to certain cities in Macedonia, particularly the capital of the western region of Macedonia Southern Western part Bitola and Tetovo as well in the north western part of the country.

So the founder has decided to devise an application that will show areas of polluted air. And throughout 2020, before the time that COVID had emerged, he had already launched his application in every single Balkan country. But throughout COVID, he launched it in the United States on the western coast. And in early 2021, he launched it on the Asian continent in the United Arab Emirates and two other Asian countries, India and Turkey. And for 2020, Gorjan, the founder of AirCare was awarded the Young Innovators Award in Europe, which is quite a prestigious award for young entrepreneurs that are developing SDG-focused innovative business ideas and solutions. We have other successful startups. Brainster is in education and technology. Throughout COVID, they actually managed to scale up and set up an office in the EU market. So they opened an office in Vienna back in May 2020. And they're just about to open offices in Slovenia in Ljubljana .

Katherine Ann Byam 4:23

Well, it sounds like a great success. And how critical will it be to get this ecosystem and startups to support running and positioning North Macedonia around its neighbours as well? How critical is it that your startup community grows?

Marija Dimovska 4:42

Well, I can tell you that thus far we have actually formed a regional startup Innovation Group where we constantly are in collaboration and we make sure that the communication is unremitting, that there is a flow of data and news among ecosystem representatives from the western Balkan countries.

Back in 2019, I actually have been attending the regional hub where there were representatives from Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. We have very good collaborations with the startup ecosystem in Bulgaria. We also signed a Memorandum of collaboration with the Business Innovation Centre, an incubator at Tina, Rana Metropolitan University, which is situated in Albania. And we have good collaboration with a Greek startup ecosystem with OK!Thess. They're a very similar organisation to Startup Macedonia where I work as a project manager, and they focus on the development of startups within the northern part of Greece.

Katherine Ann Byam 5:50

Fantastic. How can foreign interest get involved in supporting the growth in your country and in the area and the region?

Marija Dimovska 5:59

For those particular purposes and start-up Macedonia as an umbrella organisation or that connective tissue within the national ecosystem is working on not just the development of the digital ecosystem platform, but also other services. Such a service is the soft-landing option where we basically invite startup-preneurs or people who would like to set up a business and launch it from North Macedonia. And it's very simple, and it's very easy in terms of the ease of doing business.

The World Bank has ranked on its last report, North Macedonia on the 10th position. Because of the digitalization of the administrative and bureaucratic procedures for setting up a business, you can set up a business within 24 hours, and you obtain a working permit and a residence permit within two weeks. Startup Macedonia offers those legal services, in particular to non-Macedonian citizens who would like to obtain all of the permits so that they actually can set up their own satellite office here or open and launch a business from North Macedonia.

Katherine Ann Byam 7:09

What are the incentives to living in Macedonia? Tell us a bit about the culture and the people?

Marija Dimovska 7:14

Like all the other Balkan countries, we have had a tumultuous history. But in terms of where we are heading and where we would like the country to further grow and prosper, we're a young democratic country, and we have a low living cost of expenses. Also, lower corporate taxes have a great tech talent pool due to the fact that we have 11 faculties within the state and private universities. The Employment Statistical Office shows that there are 10,000 graduates per annum, and 80% of them are bilingual. When I say bilingual speaking, I'm thinking from the terms of languages spoken in the European Union.

Most of them have between C1 and C2 English language proficiency. And between B1 and B2 second foreign language proficiency. In Macedonia, the second foreign languages that are most often spoken are German language and French language. We also have three startup cities within the country. Skopje, the capital, is probably the most developed in terms of startup resources and tools. Bitola also has a great tech talent pool.

And that was well, we have three co-working spaces in the capital two in the western part of the country, one in the north western, and another one in Ohrid, which is probably the most renowned city in the country due to archaeological sites and it's a famous tourist attraction. And we have three accelerators and one Science and Technology Park. Out of the three accelerators, one is positioned outside of the capital because we wanted to democratise innovation and make innovation resources available to young entrepreneurs outside of the Capitol so that we have startups headquartered not just in Skopje, but in the smaller communities of the country as well.

Katherine Ann Byam 9:20

Fantastic! Tell us about the platform that you've built and how beneficial it has been for getting this community up and running.

Marija Dimovska 9:29

The platform in itself is actually a technological tool to do precisely that - to democratise the resources and tools for those innovative ideas and transform into SDG-focused businesses. Back in 2018, Startup Macedonia made the research of the ecosystem. We wanted to map out the existing partner organisations. When I say partner organisations, I mean service providers institutions and organisations that offer growth services to startups and young entrepreneurs, and to see the pain points of the startups as well.

And the analysis showed that there was a mismatch between what the startups were looking for in terms of help and assistance. They struggled with access to finance. They struggled particularly with access to the market. Because we do have a club of founders. that constitutes not startups but more concretely scale-ups - startups that have already are positioned on foreign markets and want to expand on another market. And on the other hand, we had the service providers who offered some kind of help, but it wasn't the exact type of help that the startups were seeking.

So while this data-driven platform, which currently is up and running, (the beta version was launched back in 2019) we launched the 2.0 version throughout COVID. At the end of June, early July 2020, we are automatically matching the startups with the service providers. The most important thing is that startups provided us with the detailed information about their growth stage and the type of services and help and assistance that they're looking for and need so that we can actually make the respective match for the corresponding match.

We have an additional feature that is currently being implemented within the ecosystem platform that's a mentorship network where we are trying to aggregate not solely of domestic mentors that come in the form of experienced entrepreneurs that have already gone through the entrepreneurial journey, but also international ones so that we can provide the scaleups who want to reach another market with the adequate, seasoned entrepreneurial experience. The Macedonian ecosystem is not shy when it comes to having a business idea.

What we lack is basically sociological entrepreneurial support. And this is why the Ministry of Education and Startup Macedonia's as an umbrella organisation has tried to engage governmental representatives and academia so that we explain to them the challenges that there are within the national ecosystem, and also engage academia and governmental representatives in transforming the education and introducing varieties of entrepreneurial courses in secondary level education and university level education, so that we have more experienced emerging talent that will be more mentally ready or emotionally ready for starting a business.

Katherine Ann Byam 13:14

And does this include the experiential side of it? Because as an entrepreneur myself, I feel as if the experience of doing it beats any kind of book or text or course you can do to learn about it?

Marija Dimovska 13:27

Yeah, absolutely. In terms of sharing experiences, Startup Macedonia has been quite the focal proponent of different kinds of meetups, even failure sessions, where we invite the entrepreneurs who have failed several business ideas, and they're working now on their fourth or fifth. I've mentioned AirCare earlier. Gorjan is one of the most proactive ones. But if you look at his digital portfolio, you'll see that he's not only working on AirCare.

He has other business ideas, other applications that he has developed like volontiraj.mk, mypet.mk, and akreditator-mk. Some of them are dormant due to COVID. But with AirCare, he has expanded and he has launched it in other cities. So when we share, make sure that those entrepreneurs actually share the experiences of the failure and learn-as-you-go process with aspiring entrepreneurs, it's a lot easier to convey the message that it's okay to fail, which is not just something that goes against the type of Macedonian mentality but I would say European mentality in general. I think that the American model of thinking in try-fail, try-fail is a little bit more DNA-instilled rather than what one finds in the European continent?

Katherine Ann Byam 15:05

What advice is finally, would you give to a startup getting launched today and this is independent of Macedonia?

Marija Dimovska 15:11

I would say that they need to be agile and driven by a sense of urgency to adapt to the changing needs, especially those that have been brought about by COVID. And their social capital is probably their greatest currency that they have. The more people they know, the better because you never really know which one of your connections and networks will provide you with either an answer, or they might not have the answer, but they may have a connection that gives you the solution to the challenge that you meet.

And not to give up on your idea because if you give up on your idea, it will fade away. And if it's your idea, and you're passionate about it, only you have the passion and the resilience to make that idea come to fruition.

Katherine Ann Byam 16:10

Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us, Maria. Thank you for having me, Katherine. Thanks for listening. This podcast was brought to you today by career sketching with Katherine Ann Byam and the space where ideas launch. Career sketching is leadership development and coaching brand offering personalised career transition and transformation services. This space where ideas launch offers high performance group leadership, coaching and strategy facilitation to businesses and the food and health sectors. To find out more contact Katherine Ann Byam on LinkedIn

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

You develop business ideas to test them, not to launch them!

Ideal Client

Summary – Ideal Client

Niche

Summary - Niche

Prototype and Test

About this Episode

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

About this Episode

Show Highlights

Speaker Introduction

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Sponsored by - The Eco Business Growth Club and Women in Sustainable Business

Episode Transcript

Sparking Ideas and Missions - The Role of Questions in shaping the future.

The Skills that make you successful as an entrepreneur - hint: Lean on Your Strengths.

The role of Understanding the customer Journey in designing a powerful business Idea.

How to solve your customers Problems

Why Every Business Needs Detailed Market Research.

Finding your business Ikigai - or identifying great ideas for testing.

About this Episode

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

About this Episode

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

About this Episode

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Connect with Gjorgki

Episode Transcript

About this Episode

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

How Saleema Started Her Career

Saleema’s Advice For The Emerging Innovator

Upholding Sustainable Innovations By Coming Together and Embracing Diversity

Solving the Problems of the World by Leveraging Diversity

Innovation Starts With “I”: The Four-Step Process to Coming Out With Your Sustainable Innovation

Know When To Pivot

About this Episode

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

About this Episode

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript

About this Episode

Subscribe to Where Ideas Launch

Episode Transcript