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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:37] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's podcast, the number one podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
[00:44] SPEAKER_03: Hi, this is Angela Barnard coming to you from Canada's podcast today with Jose Azores,
[00:50] SPEAKER_03: the founder of NIDM.
[00:51] SPEAKER_03: And I'm super excited because they are a reasonably start-up company
[00:55] SPEAKER_03: but just deployed their sort of user experience over the last couple of weeks.
[01:00] SPEAKER_03: So that's changed from when I first started talking to you Jose,
[01:03] SPEAKER_03: which is you were really just building and finding companies to work with.
[01:06] SPEAKER_03: So it's an exciting time to be watching with you right at this time.
[01:09] SPEAKER_03: You can tell us a little bit about your experience.
[01:12] SPEAKER_03: But let's start with a little bit about who you are.
[01:14] SPEAKER_03: Tell me a little bit about Jose and your entrepreneurial journey.
[01:18] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was born in Venezuela, I was born in South America.
[01:22] SPEAKER_01: So I immigrated to Canada back in 2008.
[01:25] SPEAKER_01: I actually went to Montreal to actually do my master in engineering.
[01:29] SPEAKER_01: And that's basically where an entrepreneurial journey started.
[01:32] SPEAKER_01: So after finishing my master in engineering,
[01:36] SPEAKER_01: I actually went to work with the Sankara Energy because I knew that before
[01:39] SPEAKER_01: doing becoming an entrepreneur, I needed to get that corporate experience for me to get
[01:44] SPEAKER_01: that structure and that discipline that you need as an entrepreneur.
[01:48] SPEAKER_01: So work with Sankara Energy for five years,
[01:50] SPEAKER_01: love their great experience, great company.
[01:52] SPEAKER_01: But then after that, I decided, okay, I have the structure, I have the discipline.
[01:56] SPEAKER_01: So now what I needed was actually the business knowledge.
[01:59] SPEAKER_01: Okay, so one of the most people I guess most people sometimes don't get is that
[02:03] SPEAKER_01: when you come from a country like Venezuela, you're not exposed to all these sophisticated business
[02:11] SPEAKER_01: mentality because our economy there is not as sophisticated as the one in Canada, Europe,
[02:16] SPEAKER_01: or the States. So that was my next step as an entrepreneur.
[02:21] SPEAKER_01: So after getting the structure and discipline, I decided to actually go back to Miguel University
[02:25] SPEAKER_01: and do my MBA. So I could get that business skills that I needed because I wasn't really level,
[02:31] SPEAKER_01: you know, with people at my own age, you know, I need to get that boost.
[02:35] SPEAKER_01: So when to Miguel did one year there and then did another year at UT in Texas,
[02:40] SPEAKER_01: and that actually gave me the confidence when it came down to business, you know,
[02:43] SPEAKER_01: and strategy and marketing for me to launch my first business, and which was basically,
[02:48] SPEAKER_01: it was a technology company for the oil and gas industry since that's what I came from.
[02:53] SPEAKER_01: I created a SaaS product, you know, for oil and gas companies that are
[02:58] SPEAKER_01: dealt with a pre-commissioning and turnover activities.
[03:01] SPEAKER_01: So did that while I was doing my MBA, it went really well, did it for a year,
[03:06] SPEAKER_01: and then after a year I decided that it wasn't really what I wanted to do,
[03:10] SPEAKER_01: and then decided to launch a restaurant brand, you know, very different from the previous
[03:16] SPEAKER_01: no kidding. Yeah, I know. So when oil and gas then when a SaaS product came,
[03:22] SPEAKER_01: and now I went to a restaurant brand. And the reason why I did that is because I wanted to do
[03:27] SPEAKER_01: something a little more down to earth, you know, when you're dealing with technology,
[03:31] SPEAKER_01: you're basically dealing with a coding, dealing with all these kind of stuff,
[03:35] SPEAKER_01: and I wanted to do something with my hands. So that's the reason why I actually went to do a
[03:39] SPEAKER_01: restaurant brand, something that I could do on my own, just, you know, I'm not a technical
[03:42] SPEAKER_01: founder by any means. So yeah, so when to do a restaurant brand, I founded a re-grab in Kaileri,
[03:48] SPEAKER_01: back in 2015. Re-grab is basically a boutique, a burger shop, very creative, very innovative,
[03:56] SPEAKER_01: I'm very quirky. And since 2015, we actually grew the brand to three locations.
[04:02] SPEAKER_01: And yeah, so that was basically my next entrepreneur journey after I did that technology company
[04:08] SPEAKER_01: for the oil and gas. So did that for basically until January 2019. Yeah, grew the company to
[04:14] SPEAKER_01: basically all those three locations, did really well. We found I actually set up a management team.
[04:21] SPEAKER_01: And in January 2019, I decided to move on from that venture. I loved it, but I wanted to do
[04:29] SPEAKER_01: something different. I wanted to basically push myself as an entrepreneur and decided to move on
[04:34] SPEAKER_01: and use the previous experiences that I had, the technologies experience and the hospitality
[04:39] SPEAKER_01: experience and the passion that I have for social impact and combine that all together and see what
[04:46] SPEAKER_01: I could come up with. So April 2019, I decided to go and do an incubator in Copenhagen in Denmark.
[04:55] SPEAKER_01: Oh wow. Yeah, so I did an incubator with a singular university in Silicon Valley. So they have
[05:00] SPEAKER_01: something called the DSP, which is a global startup program. So the shoes entrepreneurs throughout
[05:05] SPEAKER_01: the world that are looking to attack a social issue, right? Like a global issue. So apply for it,
[05:12] SPEAKER_01: get accepted. I went to do an incubator in Copenhagen for a month and a half and then another month
[05:16] SPEAKER_01: and a half in Silicon Valley. And that's where Nidum was actually founded. So that's basically the
[05:22] SPEAKER_03: whole thing. Now I'm a little bit curious about singular university because I know of it. Is that
[05:28] SPEAKER_03: is that a Peter Diamondist project? Yes. Okay. So of course I'm a huge Peter Diamondist fan.
[05:35] SPEAKER_03: Yeah. Anybody who hasn't read bold or something, you know, and know of SpaceX, right?
[05:40] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I thought you should be. But tell me, can you just share a little bit about that experience
[05:44] SPEAKER_01: only because I want to live my career as a little bit? I can just put it on phrase. It was awesome.
[05:50] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Like it was really, it was a, like I always tell people that in your life you have some
[05:55] SPEAKER_01: inflection points, inflection points that basically take you to a different level intellectually,
[05:59] SPEAKER_01: spiritually or however you want to call it. So yeah, the singular university was definitely an
[06:04] SPEAKER_01: inflection point for me as an entrepreneur. It allowed me to see emerging technologies in a
[06:09] SPEAKER_01: different way. Okay. That's basically a singular university. It's all about it. It's about basically
[06:14] SPEAKER_01: exposing you to emerging technologies and see how you can leverage those emerging
[06:19] SPEAKER_01: technologies, not just to create a business, but to create a business that can actually have
[06:24] SPEAKER_01: a very social impact or a very global impact. So that hands down the program itself and the people
[06:30] SPEAKER_01: in the, in the program were just, it was just amazing. So what social impact was on your bucket list
[06:36] SPEAKER_01: as you applied for that incubator? Inclusion. I always been a jig. I won't say I'm not,
[06:44] SPEAKER_01: I don't like putting labels to all myself, you know, like I won't call myself an activist. I just,
[06:48] SPEAKER_01: I'm obsessed with inclusion. Okay. Just because of the fact that I'm an immigrant here in Canada,
[06:54] SPEAKER_01: you know, my parents were an immigrant back in Venezuela. My parents were not from Venezuela,
[06:58] SPEAKER_01: they were from Chile. So that didn't, that is in my DNA. And I see a lot of them on fairness and
[07:05] SPEAKER_01: issues when it comes out to inclusion in the workplace. And we'd regroup with the local
[07:11] SPEAKER_01: boutique burger shop. We actually, we did that really well. 25, 20 to 35, 20 to 30% of our workforce
[07:17] SPEAKER_01: they come from vulnerable communities. So basically intellectually, physically challenged,
[07:21] SPEAKER_01: you know, the immigrants veterans refugees. And we found that actually changed the culture of the
[07:26] SPEAKER_01: company. That's basically what I wanted to do. I wanted to create a way for companies to, so we
[07:35] SPEAKER_01: can encourage companies to be more inclusive. You know, so their workplace could be more inclusive.
[07:38] SPEAKER_01: And it's found that the biggest issue why companies are not inclusive or can not be inclusive
[07:44] SPEAKER_01: is because they're busy, they're busy. If you're a restaurant owner, you don't really have the time
[07:49] SPEAKER_01: to actually be inclusive because you're on the go all the time, right? And also because the,
[07:53] SPEAKER_01: the reality is that some of these vulnerable communities do require extra training and extra
[07:58] SPEAKER_01: accommodations like myself when I knew landed in Canada. I didn't know English as well. So I had to
[08:04] SPEAKER_01: spend more time training. And normally what happens, we put that burden onto the employer.
[08:09] SPEAKER_01: Right. What I wanted to do, I wanted to basically find a way how to digitalize a training experience.
[08:14] SPEAKER_01: So we could basically make the training accessible to the vulnerable communities. And we can put
[08:19] SPEAKER_01: basically the ownership on them. If you want to job, if you want to get up there, let's give you
[08:25] SPEAKER_01: what you need in order, in order for you to, in order to empower you, don't go to the employer and
[08:31] SPEAKER_01: put the burden on them. So that's basically the whole idea. That's how Nidam started. So basically
[08:36] SPEAKER_01: with that moonshot, how can I democratize employment opportunities so everybody can have access to
[08:43] SPEAKER_03: the training experience. And you've gone from the idea of inclusion to personal empowerment,
[08:49] SPEAKER_03: right? In a business setting. So I love it. So I just want to jump in just because I'm,
[08:54] SPEAKER_03: again, totally intrigued about Nidam. And I'm just going to for fun because I've got your website
[09:00] SPEAKER_03: open. I'm just going to screen share for and just so as I scroll through your website, could you
[09:06] SPEAKER_01: just tell us, give us a snapshot of how it works? Yeah. So basically how it works is that what we do
[09:14] SPEAKER_01: in order for us to create this immersive training modules is that we leverage on virtual reality
[09:18] SPEAKER_01: technologies and 360 degree imaging. So imagine Google maps, right? Everybody knows, everybody knows
[09:25] SPEAKER_01: Google maps, right? Okay. Imagine if we, if we were creating an immersive training module,
[09:30] SPEAKER_01: let's say for McDonald's or for team Hortons, where you can actually train in the store,
[09:37] SPEAKER_01: not gamify, not digitalize, actually, you're in the store. It's like a 360 degree image of the store
[09:43] SPEAKER_01: and basically what you're doing, you're interacting with people in it. So as soon as a client comes in,
[09:48] SPEAKER_01: the client will say, hey, how are you? And then you reply back. So basically we're simulating the
[09:52] SPEAKER_01: job instead of actually reading a PDF that you have no idea when you read a PDF, when you read a
[09:59] SPEAKER_01: job post, when you read something, you're in indeed, you have no idea. You're just reading works,
[10:05] SPEAKER_01: right? Yes. It takes the guessing out of the picture. So it's the same thing that what happened
[10:10] SPEAKER_01: with the pilots, you know, pilots back in the 80s, the way that they trained it was with simulators,
[10:15] SPEAKER_01: right? Basically, we just took the same principle. We said, how come only pilots have access to
[10:20] SPEAKER_01: simulators? Why can't we just create a simulator to any job out there? You know, I'll ask you one
[10:25] SPEAKER_01: question. If you were to go into a plane, do you question the pilot whether he's going to take off
[10:29] SPEAKER_03: or land? Of course, you don't. You just assume that he now has the skills to do it. Because you know
[10:35] SPEAKER_01: that he's being simulated, you know that he has so many hours of simulation before, not even for
[10:40] SPEAKER_01: also for dealing with issues. The same idea happens with this. Now the study and what we're doing,
[10:45] SPEAKER_01: we're actually giving people the opportunity to train, train, train and get hours of experience
[10:50] SPEAKER_01: to that specific job before they start their work. That way when they go to for the first day of work,
[10:55] SPEAKER_01: you know, they're not intimidated. They have a very good idea on how they have to be here,
[10:58] SPEAKER_03: how they have to work. I love it. Now you, we talked a little bit that, you know, hospitality was your
[11:05] SPEAKER_03: breakthrough industry, which is great, great terminology. I can totally envision, I mean, I think
[11:11] SPEAKER_03: I saw in that video that it was regrow right there, one of the locations, which is very cool. I spent
[11:16] SPEAKER_03: many years in the hospitality industry myself all through university and I can say that
[11:21] SPEAKER_03: and it was at the keg, right? So again, they had super hard systems, you know, we were really timed
[11:28] SPEAKER_03: and it was, it was intense, but it was also resilience training as far as dealing with people
[11:34] SPEAKER_03: and understanding systems, you know, how frontline worked with backline, things like that.
[11:38] SPEAKER_03: Are some of those concepts involved in your training modules? Yeah, yeah. So the great thing about
[11:45] SPEAKER_01: our training modules is that they're very flexible, you know, like right now we're doing modules
[11:48] SPEAKER_01: for onboarding, you know, just basically to give an idea. So for example, if you're a new,
[11:54] SPEAKER_01: like a new graduate, you want to start working at the keg and you have no idea about what the keg is.
[11:59] SPEAKER_01: So we're actually doing some onboarding modules about basically introducing the,
[12:03] SPEAKER_01: the new hire to what the company is all about, you know, to their empty tools to basically their
[12:10] SPEAKER_01: policies, you know, so it's not as dry as the PDF or the peer to peer training. We're doing modules
[12:16] SPEAKER_01: just for onboarding, we're doing modules for the front of the house, you know, how for customer
[12:20] SPEAKER_01: service, we're doing modules for line cooking. So the modules can actually be applied to any role.
[12:27] SPEAKER_03: Well, can you share a little bit about your business model? That's always my entry. You got
[12:30] SPEAKER_03: just love, you know, how people set things up. So is it for like, is there a consumer buy-in or
[12:36] SPEAKER_01: is it corporate buy-in or a little bit of both? Yeah, so it's, we're a bit to be a company. So
[12:42] SPEAKER_01: basically the way it works is that we create the modules for the business. The user is the business
[12:48] SPEAKER_01: itself. Basically they pay for the development fee, you know, so for them to create the module. So
[12:53] SPEAKER_01: they pay a not-from-fe for them to create the module itself. Okay, the fee is only $500.
[12:59] SPEAKER_01: And what we do, we actually create the module. We actually go into the store, we do the immersive
[13:03] SPEAKER_01: content creation, we do the audio recording, and then we code everything so they can have a fully
[13:09] SPEAKER_01: deployable module. And then we have a subscription fee in which basically it allows them to share the
[13:15] SPEAKER_01: module, the our platform to any new hire or any staff member that they have. It allows them to
[13:23] SPEAKER_01: basically give credentials to the new hire to the new user so they can basically go into the
[13:27] SPEAKER_01: dashboard and click on the module. If they want that person to do the module for on-boarding
[13:31] SPEAKER_01: in front of the house, they'll be able to log in and do the module for on-boarding in front of the
[13:35] SPEAKER_01: house. And it also allows them to get that analytics about how the new hire is interacting with the
[13:44] SPEAKER_03: module. And then the training experience is, I mean, I just saw on your website a little AI goggles,
[13:52] SPEAKER_01: is it literally 3D? Like is the experience 3D? Yeah, it's immersive. So the great thing also about
[13:57] SPEAKER_01: technology is that although we're leveraging on virtual reality technologies, it's immersive.
[14:02] SPEAKER_01: You know, if you when you do it, you're in the store, you're like basically looking around, but
[14:08] SPEAKER_01: we are modules are deployable not only with VR headsets, they're deployable in any device. So you
[14:13] SPEAKER_01: can do the same module on your laptop, desktop mobile device, so and you'll have the same immersive
[14:18] SPEAKER_01: experience. So basically when if you're doing on the laptop, you can basically move it so you can
[14:23] SPEAKER_01: join in. And the reason why we did that is because when we did some research about VR, we found
[14:28] SPEAKER_01: that the penetration rate for VR headsets nowadays is less than 1%. So why would we build a module
[14:35] SPEAKER_01: that we know people will not get access to because they don't have the VR headsets in their house?
[14:40] SPEAKER_01: What we did, the modules are VR, they're immersive, but they don't have to have the VR headsets in
[14:45] SPEAKER_01: order for you to experience that. So that's one of the innovative approaches that we have in our
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: solution. This podcast is sponsored by eBay Canada. eBay Canada is powering Canadian small businesses.
[14:59] SPEAKER_00: Go to eBay.ca forward slash up and running, open your new global e-commerce business.
[15:05] SPEAKER_03: And then ultimately we'll all have a pair of VR glasses, I'm sure in our Google glasses, right?
[15:12] SPEAKER_03: I'm sure that was discussed at Singular University with it. Yeah, yeah. It's actually it's
[15:19] SPEAKER_01: not so much that you mentioned that because that's the reason why we decided to do it that way. You
[15:22] SPEAKER_01: can still do it with the VR headsets. So if you put a VR headsets, you can actually go and take the module.
[15:27] SPEAKER_01: But we know like right now not people don't have that in their house. But Apple actually they just bought
[15:32] SPEAKER_01: a VR company I think like one or two months ago and I have the intuition or the God feeling that in
[15:39] SPEAKER_01: two more years, a big company either Apple, Samsung or something they're gonna come up with a mainstream
[15:44] SPEAKER_01: VR headset or glasses that is basically gonna make a VR mainstream. A couple more questions about
[15:53] SPEAKER_03: Needham before I move on to trends because I think you might have a lot of information there. But
[15:58] SPEAKER_03: you know we started with hospitality. You've got retail as another sector that's onboarding.
[16:04] SPEAKER_03: I just have to ask the question right we're in a bar economy where we're coming out of this
[16:10] SPEAKER_03: create this strange COVID time where those two industries are you know brown to halt.
[16:17] SPEAKER_03: How has that affected your business not just today but where you see it going in the next
[16:24] SPEAKER_01: say two years? Great question. Being honest with you you know when everything happened,
[16:30] SPEAKER_01: I thought at that point okay I thought okay no it's not gonna work you know like Needham it
[16:34] SPEAKER_01: doesn't have because at that point the hospitality industry crashed you know I mean being a
[16:39] SPEAKER_01: business owner you know I'm actually experiencing this right now right it's the old regrawer right
[16:44] SPEAKER_01: and retail the same thing but actually what I found is that it actually was the other way around
[16:48] SPEAKER_01: because now companies as they're reopening they're not hiring one or two people they're hiring 10-15
[16:56] SPEAKER_01: ah you know so what happened is that the way that they were high onboarding and training people
[17:00] SPEAKER_01: before did not make any sense you know for that type of a onboarding and training so what it did
[17:06] SPEAKER_01: it actually made our product very relevant actually 10 of the 80% of the businesses that we sign up
[17:12] SPEAKER_01: right now we signed up in the last two months and the reason is is because they found that our
[17:17] SPEAKER_01: product can actually is very relevant it's very effective you know for how things are being done
[17:21] SPEAKER_01: right now and even adding you know like social distancing you know by you sharing the module
[17:26] SPEAKER_01: in advance before the new hire comes on board you're mitigating you're decreasing the amount of time
[17:31] SPEAKER_01: that you're training that person physically okay so you're basically mitigating the exposure
[17:36] SPEAKER_01: that you're having on that person and on your team just quickly disclosure on that and you know
[17:41] SPEAKER_01: like most people we're not trying to replace training okay we're just trying to lead frog the process
[17:46] SPEAKER_01: that's one main thing that I always tell people because they think oh say I don't want to have a
[17:50] SPEAKER_01: robotic training no no no actually we find that this is actually empowering empowering new hires
[17:55] SPEAKER_01: to come ready with better questions are more relevant questions about the company
[18:00] SPEAKER_03: absolutely and and it's it's really just that background check and and I see huge opportunity
[18:06] SPEAKER_03: there are there any industries that you think will pop out in the next couple of years for you
[18:12] SPEAKER_03: as a sector that you hadn't really thought of before yeah so manufacturing is one so manufacturing
[18:18] SPEAKER_01: will be one logistics okay like companies like Amazon or Wal-Nor and on the back end then ATTEC
[18:28] SPEAKER_01: educational technology is a huge thing so imagine you know a university that has basically an
[18:34] SPEAKER_01: online course you know like a video like an e-learning e-learning has shown that their engagement
[18:39] SPEAKER_01: is sent to 15 percent why because you click on the bottom and you just go around right
[18:43] SPEAKER_01: to the test so ATTEC I think is going to be huge for us because all the sudden we're allowing
[18:49] SPEAKER_01: a very a higher engage like a different engage in a different medium for transfer in knowledge
[18:58] SPEAKER_01: and that is more interactive the engagement rate for immersive trainings 85 percent in comparison
[19:03] SPEAKER_01: to 10 or 15 percent right and the the the the the fact that it's hands on so with the thing with
[19:10] SPEAKER_01: e-learning is that you're not really interacting with anything you're just watching with
[19:13] SPEAKER_01: immersive during attracting so I think and technically a huge industry for us later on
[19:19] SPEAKER_03: I see some huge opportunities for you there okay let's jump to just because I just need to go
[19:24] SPEAKER_03: back to that emerging technologies concept is um could you give us two or three emerging
[19:31] SPEAKER_03: technologies that you experienced at singular university that all business owners and entrepreneurs
[19:37] SPEAKER_03: should really be aware of and trying to onboard in the next five years when I say AI everybody
[19:44] SPEAKER_01: talks about AI AI is just bigger than what people think so I'm more about ML like machine learning
[19:50] SPEAKER_01: so I think every every company should find a way how to integrate that into their business okay
[19:56] SPEAKER_01: nowadays business owners or companies they need to basically use data to actually make better
[20:02] SPEAKER_01: decisions right but data can be very cumbersome you know like do you have a lot of information
[20:07] SPEAKER_01: coming to you so if you leverage or empower ML in your company then you'll be able to create a
[20:14] SPEAKER_01: basically like a filter okay you'll be able to actually get the data that you need and allow that
[20:20] SPEAKER_01: those ML technologies to make decisions for you or to screen this data for you okay so that's huge
[20:27] SPEAKER_01: so I think any company nowadays um we'll have to embrace that and their company's already doing
[20:34] SPEAKER_01: that you know like in daily basis you know like Amazon you know that's the reason why you know
[20:39] SPEAKER_01: what they what you want you know data so that's actually one big thing that a company should be
[20:45] SPEAKER_01: embracing right now and the other one is actually it's a good question I think I don't want to come
[20:52] SPEAKER_01: I don't want to come across as bias because I am bias you know like we all are don't worry so
[20:58] SPEAKER_01: I will call virtual reality slash immersive okay there's a big there's a big big misconception
[21:04] SPEAKER_01: about virtual reality okay people when you tell them about virtual reality the thing about gaming
[21:08] SPEAKER_01: the thing about this bulky head says right all of that but that's just one technology okay so
[21:15] SPEAKER_01: VR virtual reality can be many many things you know so that's the reason why I call it VR is
[21:19] SPEAKER_01: last immersive so embracing immersive technologies for basically for training for customer service you
[21:27] SPEAKER_01: know we're actually talking right now for a company you know with a spinning company in Calgary
[21:32] SPEAKER_01: there's thinking about actually creating an immersive module for their clients it doesn't have to be
[21:38] SPEAKER_01: only employee facing it can be client facing just sign up for a spinning class if you never done
[21:42] SPEAKER_01: spinning you go into the class very intimidating you have no spinning like by grinding spinning like
[21:48] SPEAKER_01: that really painful so most of the people they actually intimidated by because when they go in
[21:54] SPEAKER_01: they never seen a spinning bike what we're trying to do we're trying to do a basically an
[21:59] SPEAKER_01: immersive module that allows them to come ready for the first day of a training so they don't feel
[22:05] SPEAKER_01: like an imposter so they feel ready because they're already done so I think virtual reality
[22:09] SPEAKER_01: and immersive can be another great technology that companies can embrace and they can embrace
[22:16] SPEAKER_01: it from many different facets you know employee training a customer facing you know many many
[22:21] SPEAKER_03: different ways absolutely super cool now you're based in Vancouver Jose tell me a little bit about
[22:28] SPEAKER_03: well first of all how did you end up was it your family that decided to move here or did you make
[22:33] SPEAKER_01: that decision yourself yeah I know my family moved here moved to Montreal so my parents are
[22:40] SPEAKER_01: actually entrepreneurs themselves so they moved to Montreal and I moved there a couple years after
[22:46] SPEAKER_03: they moved there and then how did you venture west to Vancouver oh I guess they're in deep
[22:57] SPEAKER_01: around you know like the world is too big for you to get fixated to one location
[23:02] SPEAKER_01: so yeah moved to Montreal because I graduated there so I had my engineering back on there so went
[23:06] SPEAKER_01: to Calgary or Alberta because that was the mecca for engineers you know that's where all the big
[23:11] SPEAKER_01: projects were happening so moved to Alberta because of work and then moved to Vancouver because
[23:17] SPEAKER_01: I'll be honest I just love the the vibe here you know the city it's a great city it's super natural
[23:23] SPEAKER_03: here in BC I tell you and can you give me a little bit of insight on how the climate here in
[23:30] SPEAKER_03: in British Columbia or Vancouver impacts your business either challenges or opportunities yeah so
[23:36] SPEAKER_01: a quick quick disclosure you know like just moved to Vancouver back in March or so pre-COVID so I
[23:43] SPEAKER_01: lived in Vancouver back in 2010 so I don't have a lot of a background but just from March you can see
[23:51] SPEAKER_01: that the Estatopake community is actually very supportive you know like I just by I was actually
[23:58] SPEAKER_01: talking with my neighbor you know my neighbor he's an entrepreneur on his own and as soon as he
[24:02] SPEAKER_01: knew what I was doing and he knew that we were raising funds he said I'm gonna contact you with
[24:06] SPEAKER_01: five six people and out of those five six people we actually got a lead so I found that is very tight
[24:12] SPEAKER_01: and also one of the reasons why I also moved to Vancouver is because the impact investing
[24:17] SPEAKER_01: community here is a very big you know like when you come when it comes down to venture capital
[24:24] SPEAKER_01: there's different sections so impact investing is the one that we're looking at you know because
[24:30] SPEAKER_01: we have that social good side and Vancouver is actually one of the leaders in Canada and in North
[24:36] SPEAKER_01: America when it comes down to impact investing so does actually one of the reasons too interesting
[24:41] SPEAKER_03: well and I'd love to talk more about impact investing but I think that's another podcast but have
[24:47] SPEAKER_03: you been have you are you in the fundraising stage yourself yeah right now we're in the process
[24:51] SPEAKER_01: of we're raising our seed round you know for us to actually increase our growth yeah so we're in
[24:56] SPEAKER_03: that process right now okay great well and I mean if impact investing is a is a pathway to get
[25:02] SPEAKER_03: you leads let's assume that Canada's podcast is another great opportunity to get you leads
[25:07] SPEAKER_03: if you could wave a magic one what would you ask for right now what would be a great result
[25:11] SPEAKER_01: or a lead or contact after today so one that is excited about a tilting I won't say disrupting
[25:20] SPEAKER_03: but tilting the industry and tilting I have not heard that expression before what does that mean
[25:26] SPEAKER_01: meaning that you're you're gonna basically make a dent okay that you may not completely
[25:31] SPEAKER_01: completely change it but make it dent you know so somebody else can see the dent and they can
[25:36] SPEAKER_01: start making other dent that's actually how I see industry being disrupted you know it can be one
[25:41] SPEAKER_01: company but it can also be a group effort so one person does a dent and then and somebody else
[25:47] SPEAKER_01: sees oh they made a dent so I want to go so that's basically how I see it so somebody that wants
[25:51] SPEAKER_01: to basically tilt a industry in this case a shartac you know by changing the way that people are
[25:57] SPEAKER_01: being trained and onboarded but that is passionate about inclusion and diversity in the workplace
[26:04] SPEAKER_01: for us it's not just about money we want somebody that is excited about not just tilting the
[26:10] SPEAKER_03: shartac but also the inclusion side perfect and just out of curiosity how do you keep a breast of
[26:18] SPEAKER_03: sort of trends and modern what in your network of of people are there any you know
[26:25] SPEAKER_03: periodicals or or media that you resource that a regular basis or a professional group that you're
[26:31] SPEAKER_01: associated with not really I'll be honest with you I just get all my resources with people with
[26:36] SPEAKER_01: friends so yeah actually right now we have a very good advisory board for Needham so we got
[26:41] SPEAKER_01: basically we have the two co-founders of Mielshaire so they're part of our advisory board so I
[26:47] SPEAKER_01: talk to them every week every couple of weeks and we talk about trends we talk about things that
[26:52] SPEAKER_01: should be reading and vice versa we just onboarded the one of the co-founders for FAMO also
[26:57] SPEAKER_01: so the same idea so I tried to have us close a social circle that I can
[27:03] SPEAKER_01: learn from and also that they can learn from me and reading I'm always basically online just looking
[27:10] SPEAKER_01: for any type of work you know you can business organization all spiritual so that's basically
[27:17] SPEAKER_03: what I get most of my trends absolutely and is there anything that you can think of that you'd
[27:23] SPEAKER_03: like to share with the crew I would like to just announce just because we talked about a pre-this
[27:28] SPEAKER_03: podcast but that you've onboarded one new big client and and keeping in mind that you've only kind
[27:32] SPEAKER_03: of two weeks into launching the you know the consumer experience so tell me a little bit about your
[27:38] SPEAKER_01: your big win over the last few weeks I guess the big win is that it's and we've been able to
[27:45] SPEAKER_01: we we managed to sign basically 10 clients in a matter of a three months you know for something
[27:52] SPEAKER_01: so unique or so different for we were able to manage we were able to sign 10 companies going
[28:00] SPEAKER_01: from big groups in the alveiro region so we have basically restaurant groups that have different
[28:05] SPEAKER_01: brands going through major in national brands like for example the Canadian brew house you know
[28:11] SPEAKER_01: the Canadian brew house is one of our partners and we're deploying their module next week we also
[28:16] SPEAKER_01: assign noble house hotels it's a great North American hotel chain not only in Canada but in
[28:21] SPEAKER_01: in the States we sign Novacanavis which is owned by alcana is a premium retail company so just that's
[28:29] SPEAKER_01: our big win the fact that we're not only we're signing we're signing big companies that are that
[28:35] SPEAKER_01: believe on the new approach that we have to onboarding and training well you have a fantastic
[28:40] SPEAKER_03: story and huge amount of energy Jose so it would be hard not to be totally magnetized to to
[28:47] SPEAKER_03: meet them so I wish you all the best and we look forward to sharing with your story more on Canada's
[28:53] SPEAKER_00: podcast awesome thanks for the time I appreciate it this podcast is sponsored by ebay canada ebay canada
[28:59] SPEAKER_00: is here to help they've been supporting Canadian small business retailers for 25 years and their
[29:05] SPEAKER_00: up and running program is getting Canadian businesses online today visit ebay.ca forward slash
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