As Toronto is fashioned with the glitz of the Toronto International Film Festival, Karim Kanji was able to sit down with Janine Short – Producer and Production Designer for the upcoming indie film, Mr. Viral and Alex Appel – a highly accomplished actress who stars as Stacy in film. In this interview Alex and Janine discuss how they use social media and crowd-sourced funding to promote and finish their project.
In this interview Karim Kanji chats with the founder and CEO of GameDay InteraActive: Nicholas Murphy. GameDay InterActive is working toward being an innovative Second Screen Fantasy Sports engine for the Facebook & iOS platforms. By leveraging real-time action with social gaming, GameDay hopes to drive a deeply engaging “Second Screen” experience for sports fans. GameDay InterActive is the world’s first Interactive Mobile Sports Loyalty/Reward Application.
In this fortunate opportunity to interview Brian Meece, CEO and co-founder of RocketHub discusses the successful of a crowdfunding project. For those who might not know, RocketHub is known as “The World’s Funding Machine”. The company has been featured in every major publication including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NPR, Wired, Nature, The Economist, and much more, while helping thousands of funding campaigns raise millions of dollars globally.
So you set up an innovative start-up, which is unlike anything else already present on the market, and which will change your line of business of choice in no time…
While enthusiasm is always an admirable trait, especially in the competitive field of small businesses, it is by no means the single prerequisite for success. Globalization, which is opening up markets the world over, and giving employers access to cheaper labor force, as well as the onslaught of new technologies, are radically re-shifting the order of priorities in this area. Meanwhile, hundreds, if not thousands of great business ideas die at birth, so to speak, as the transition from concept to working reality fails to roll over as smoothly as initially expected. With this as the overarching context, what’s a competent, enthusiastic business owner to do, in order to keep afloat—and even turn their dreams of profit into a reality? We’ve browsed the web for the top three tips and this is what we came up with.
Ever since we first introduced you to Raise5, the team has seen incredible successes and growth. In this interview, Karim Kanji talks with Mike Tang about the beginnings of Raise5 at StartUp Weekend Toronto. Watch and listen to find out why Mike and his team pivoted from an earlier business model that just wasn’t working.
Adam Epstein is a lawyer. Yes. A lawyer. In this episode, Karim Kanji asks Adam why he made the transition from lawyer to tech entrepreneurship. Watch and listen to find out why Adam made the switch and how he is leveraging his knowledge to make his transition a little less painful. If you’re a “suit and tie” person with a start up itch to scratch, this will be a very informative episode.
This week Karim Kanji had the opportunity to speak with Nikolai Bratkovski. Nikolai is an entrepreneur with a track record in healthcare Internet ventures. He co-founded SIMMS/Diamedx Inc., where he served as a CTO. In this position, he orchestrated the design and development of Web-based enterprise software for medical imaging centres. Nikolai believes that giving back is vital to making our world a better place and is putting his beliefs into action through his work with the Heart Institute of Caribbean (caribbeanheart.com) and Greenscroll.org. In this episode, Karim Kanji asks Nikolai about his experience at Montreal’s Founder Fuel Accelerator Program.
One thing that school did not prepare me for was a difficult client. It never occurred to me on “what if they don’t agree with you?” concept since client work in school was always fictional so in the end they were very easy to work with. One of my first few clients was two young females that wanted to start their own company in the beauty industry. Being a female myself that loves beauty products I instantly jumped onboard. And was a perfect opportunity for me, since I was able to relate to the company.
As I anxiously waited for the launch of the product – I started to realize that things weren’t going as smoothly as planned. Although we had a contract on the exact work I was to do with a marketing plan I had designed for them, they had a different agenda. Since I understood that they were a young, dynamic duo with a very tight budget I had decided that I would cut them some slack in the costs since I had related to their product so much.
This week Karim Kanji had the opportunity to speak with Robleh Jama of TinyHearts. Robleh presently works out of the Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone and Toronto’s The Work Republic. Robleh is also the recent winner of the Kiip Build Fund.
Leaving my full-time job that had a nice benefit package in order to start up my own entrepreneurship was a nerve-wrecking decision. Your family and friends give you that look like “are you sure you’re doing the right thing?” but are congratulating you on taking the leap. You try to confidently talk to everyone about your plans while at the same time trying to convince yourself that you made the right move.
I had worked for a home building company as their online community marketer/designer/coordinator/everything for a year before I realized that it wasn’t what I wanted. There wasn’t enough challenge or motivation for me to continue my work there. The company was also going through a large company change and I was not ready to be part of it so my manager and I decided that it was best for me to leave. I was a wide-eyed girl ready to concur the marketing world. I had a few freelance clients and was busy for a bit working on projects. I was motivated and determined with meeting after meeting. But what happens when it all ends?