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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: It's Calgary's Podcast on the Canada's Podcast Network.
[00:16] SPEAKER_02: Hello, this is Mario Toneck, who's coming to you today with Calgary's Podcast, a member
[00:21] SPEAKER_02: of Canada's Podcast Network, where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen
[00:26] SPEAKER_02: in Calgary, Alberta, so you can listen, discover and engage.
[00:32] SPEAKER_02: Today's guest is Daniel Barrazan, founder of Cultivator.ca. Welcome to the show, Dan,
[00:38] SPEAKER_02: and thanks for taking the time today to be here for our listeners.
[00:41] SPEAKER_02: Oh, great. Thanks for having me and appreciate you taking the time to talk to us.
[00:45] SPEAKER_02: Tell me a little bit about Cultivator. It's history, how it started, and what it is.
[00:50] SPEAKER_00: So Cultivator is a platform that we've developed that allows consumers to buy the groceries
[00:56] SPEAKER_00: directly from producers. How it developed is my wife and I. We moved from the city out to the
[01:01] SPEAKER_00: country, from Calgary out to the country, about three years ago, and we got a chance to meet the
[01:06] SPEAKER_00: people who actually produce our food, and we heard a disconnect about hearing them talk about how
[01:11] SPEAKER_00: they weren't doing very well. But then we thought, geez, coming from the city, we paid a small fortune
[01:16] SPEAKER_00: for groceries. I was just not working, so then we dove into it, and what we discovered is
[01:21] SPEAKER_00: basically Cultivator. Okay, tell me a little bit about doing business in Calgary. What are the
[01:27] SPEAKER_00: benefits of doing business here? I think number one is we have a really strong local community,
[01:33] SPEAKER_00: you know, people do want to support local businesses, and do you want to work with?
[01:37] SPEAKER_00: Work with you. I think people are very open-minded in Calgary in terms of supporting new businesses
[01:41] SPEAKER_00: versus other places we've been. I think that's probably the biggest one. Okay, what about challenges?
[01:49] SPEAKER_00: Challenges, I think, being a tech company, you know, where Calgary's definitely starting to change,
[01:54] SPEAKER_00: we're a little bit blocking in some tech, you know, I think we've got some amazing partnerships
[01:59] SPEAKER_00: we're working with, like we work with, of all view, which is a great program that they're trying
[02:05] SPEAKER_00: to change that as well by adding, bringing people more tech people into Calgary. So tech's been a
[02:10] SPEAKER_00: challenge, but we found a solution, and you know, there are people working to make those changes.
[02:15] SPEAKER_02: Why would you recommend Calgary's say to a startup, a non-trapender looking to start up a business?
[02:24] SPEAKER_00: I think, again, it all depends on the type of business you have, but I would say Calgary's a very
[02:28] SPEAKER_00: good place. Again, lots of local support, you know, lots of really people aren't afraid to introduce
[02:34] SPEAKER_00: you to someone that, you know, they know that might be able to help you. You know, you can still have
[02:39] SPEAKER_00: the personal relationships in Calgary, it's a big enough city that there's a huge market of
[02:44] SPEAKER_00: customers, but it also still is, you can still have personal relationships with people.
[02:50] SPEAKER_02: When you look at, you know, what kind of, like what you do on a daily basis and where your ideas
[02:56] SPEAKER_02: for this comes from, you know, and what ideas for business, is there any place that you kind of
[03:03] SPEAKER_02: go away from the business itself and just to recharge and reconnect with yourself?
[03:11] SPEAKER_00: I'm fortunate because I live outside, I do live outside of the city on a quarter section, so
[03:17] SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty lucky that I've got lots of space out there that allows me just time to chill and
[03:22] SPEAKER_00: refocus, but there's lots of cool places in Calgary, you know, out of Princess Island Park.
[03:27] SPEAKER_00: I'm just going out there sitting, hanging out, lots of great thinking, the opportunities there.
[03:34] SPEAKER_00: Okay, what are you most excited about cultivator these days? I think, I think there's two things
[03:40] SPEAKER_00: that really excite me one, is eliminating the food waste, you know, our model, allows people the
[03:45] SPEAKER_00: opportunity to really eliminate food waste, which is very costly and very expensive than in
[03:50] SPEAKER_00: number two is by doing agriculture properly and, you know, we kind of are working on something we
[03:56] SPEAKER_00: called predictive agriculture so that that's how we eliminate the waste and using AI and machine
[04:03] SPEAKER_00: learning to help us do that. So what we're really excited about is coming up with a solution that
[04:10] SPEAKER_00: not only is it good for a consumer's pocketbook, but it can help the environment dramatically as well,
[04:16] SPEAKER_00: so that's what really excites us. What's your vision for the future for the company?
[04:23] SPEAKER_00: It's honestly is, we haven't really thought that far ahead and where it can go and what it can do,
[04:29] SPEAKER_00: it's just, it's going to grow itself and we'll see where it takes, where it takes us.
[04:34] SPEAKER_02: Okay, now when you look back in hindsight, what do you know now that you wish you would have known
[04:40] SPEAKER_00: when you first started the company? I think we're still pretty young in cultivator, do that,
[04:45] SPEAKER_00: I can definitely say like, in some other business we've had both from some failures and some successes
[04:51] SPEAKER_00: that we've learned a lot, but this one still, still pretty young to say that, so I'll refer that
[04:57] SPEAKER_00: question to give me six months and we'll probably have a long list of things then. Okay, what's the best
[05:03] SPEAKER_00: piece of advice you've ever received about being an entrepreneur? I think the number one thing is
[05:09] SPEAKER_00: is don't think of the big paycheck, think of the lifestyle, right? I think that's everyone
[05:14] SPEAKER_00: thinks being an entrepreneur is this instant ticket to success and that's what you hear about,
[05:19] SPEAKER_00: you know, is over a company, becomes a billion dollar company overnight. Well, that's not really true
[05:26] SPEAKER_00: and but what you have to think about is why are you doing it? What are you doing at foreign?
[05:30] SPEAKER_00: I had someone say that to me once and that was very, then it really resonated with me because,
[05:35] SPEAKER_00: you know, it's the opportunity to like to have a better family life balance, that's why we do it.
[05:41] SPEAKER_00: Is this how do we build a business that allows us to have that that's that's important in our
[05:45] SPEAKER_00: cultures, you know, all of our staff and employees, we think that they should have that balance,
[05:50] SPEAKER_00: you know, things like, I know we're still pretty young, but things like, you know, we take the week
[05:55] SPEAKER_00: off during Stampede, because well, it's hard to deliver to customers and we think our employees
[06:02] SPEAKER_00: should go and enjoy stuff like that, enjoy the, enjoy the rodeo, enjoy the fair, doing stuff like
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: that, you know, same with like the week after Christmas, you know, those are things we can do that
[06:13] SPEAKER_00: don't really cost us anything, but just keep everybody happy. Okay, I'm gonna switch gears here
[06:19] SPEAKER_02: and ask you some more personal type questions. Everybody has a bucket list these days, what's on top
[06:25] SPEAKER_00: of yours? To be honest, we don't have a bucket list, we're kind of weird that way, if there's
[06:31] SPEAKER_00: something that's on there, we just kind of do it, it's called the entrepreneurial attitude, we don't,
[06:35] SPEAKER_00: we don't like making less of things to do, if there's something to do, we just go out and do it.
[06:39] SPEAKER_00: So, so we're kind of different that way, obviously like there's lots of things we might want in
[06:45] SPEAKER_00: the future, but nothing, like if it's sort of something we have to do before we die, we make sure we
[06:50] SPEAKER_02: do it. Okay, what about if you're not doing what you're doing now? What kind of job or
[06:58] SPEAKER_00: profession do you think you'd be in? I don't think I'd be suited for anything else, to be
[07:03] SPEAKER_00: 100% honest, I'm not sure anyone would hire me for anything else, I'm a little too much of a
[07:08] SPEAKER_00: disruptive thinker to fit in a lot of organizations. I know what I know I have some other other
[07:14] SPEAKER_00: secret dream jobs I'd love to do, but that's we've got we've got those, yeah.
[07:20] SPEAKER_00: What book are you reading right now? I just finished reading and it's kind of become the mantra
[07:26] SPEAKER_00: of our company book to read is called Kiss the Dirt. Oh sorry, Kiss the Ground, I forget who the
[07:34] SPEAKER_00: author is off top of my head, but it's kind of really like it's maybe that's one of those things
[07:39] SPEAKER_00: I wish I knew now before when I started as I read that book and some of the stuff they talk about,
[07:44] SPEAKER_00: we've incorporated into our beliefs and into our practices with our producers to help educate
[07:48] SPEAKER_00: them because it's pretty that books pretty cool about how we can actually make a change in
[07:54] SPEAKER_00: in our sort of environmental impact by just changing the way we eat by eating healthier and you
[08:00] SPEAKER_00: know it's it's it was really inspiring and just also disheartening about at the same time about how
[08:07] SPEAKER_00: like you know there's easy solutions to things like global warming but because of politics and
[08:13] SPEAKER_00: other things it doesn't doesn't allow us to do them. So I recommend that to read anyone who's
[08:17] SPEAKER_02: interested in it. If you had one word to describe yourself what would it be and why?
[08:24] SPEAKER_00: Um probably different. I'm definitely different and just my trainer thought
[08:30] SPEAKER_00: I mean that's probably which leads to pretty much who I am so yeah. Okay when you look outside
[08:37] SPEAKER_02: of Calgary and maybe outside of what your firm as well is there a favorite place in the world
[08:44] SPEAKER_02: that you'd like to spend time at and why? Yeah I think we've all had those life
[08:50] SPEAKER_00: affirming trips like wow it was probably one for me not even sure if it's a lot of our
[08:56] SPEAKER_00: vows how to pronounce it but that was definitely one of the trips I took that sort of changed my life
[09:02] SPEAKER_00: and made me think more about how important family is and that we were my wife and I are
[09:08] SPEAKER_00: I would fly fishers so we love fishing and Patagonia we love fishing in Alberta too so
[09:13] SPEAKER_00: on there's yeah lots of places there's no shortage of places. Okay we are creatures of habit and
[09:21] SPEAKER_02: routine do you have a daily routine that you follow almost thoroughly religiously? I don't
[09:28] SPEAKER_00: miss really again with the ju I don't know if it's a joy or a punishment of a startup is that we
[09:33] SPEAKER_00: never we never have the same day twice because we're always learning and doing new things so
[09:39] SPEAKER_00: we don't actually have like a set routine but we do have a few things we do I'm like I read once
[09:44] SPEAKER_00: from a VC on his Twitter account one of the things he had said is a you know every day you
[09:51] SPEAKER_00: should write down three things and I've posted it and I'll put it on your phone and those are the
[09:55] SPEAKER_00: three things you must accomplish by the end of the day so I started following that and that's been
[10:00] SPEAKER_00: been really good so that's probably my only routine. Okay really give you kind of a different type
[10:06] SPEAKER_02: of question here okay so just imagine there's a beautiful small island tropical island middle of
[10:12] SPEAKER_02: the ocean with only one phone booth and no internet no technology whatsoever we're gonna drop you
[10:19] SPEAKER_02: off on the island and you can use the phone booth at any time to call us and we'll come pick you up
[10:26] SPEAKER_02: now how long do you think it would take you to make that phone call and what do you think you'd be
[10:32] SPEAKER_00: doing while you were there? Probably about 30 seconds to make the phone call and what I would be
[10:40] SPEAKER_00: doing is probably like figuring out how can I get how can I get to the phone faster in that 30
[10:46] SPEAKER_00: seconds no yeah we're very connected you know I love technology and I love what it does so it
[10:53] SPEAKER_00: would be hard for me hard for me to go without it yeah okay is there anything you'd like to add
[11:00] SPEAKER_00: Dan before we you leave us today oh no I think anyone who's interested you know I'll have to
[11:06] SPEAKER_00: throw in the sales pitch but anyone who's interested needing healthier and in Calgary and eating
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: you know getting a chance to buy your food directly from a farmer come check us out and yeah
[11:15] SPEAKER_00: we're happy to answer any questions if you're looking for something that you haven't been able to
[11:20] SPEAKER_00: find in your grocery store talk to us and we'll see if we can find it for you okay thanks Dan
[11:25] SPEAKER_01: for being our guest on Calgary's podcast thanks for taking the time today to listen to Calgary's
[11:32] SPEAKER_01: podcast on Canada's podcast network we hope you enjoyed the show today make sure you sign up for
[11:39] SPEAKER_01: our newsletters and write a review for us on the iTunes and then connect with us on Twitter
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[11:53] SPEAKER_01: are doing across the country see you next time
