hello the leaf nation welcome to the
Evan Carmichael show I believe in
entrepreneurs and this show is all about
making your business a success now today
I’m really excited I am live on location
I in in vancouver british columbia for
the solo event which is small office
home office and i’m here to meet the
crowd learn about the businesses but
also to discover a new program that dell
has launched called dell for
entrepreneurs which is a free program
for all the small business owners out
there that i’m excited to learn a little
bit more about today and i think by the
time you hear all about it you’re going
to want to sign up for it as well and
it’s free you can’t beat that but first
i want to talk about something that is
really important something that ties in
and and so many people write to me in
the same evan i need to grow my business
I need to get more referrals you need to
get people talking about me you know how
do i do it how to get past the point
where i’m at right now and the big
challenge for a lot of use your to
transactional you’re just trying to
focus on the sale you know somebody
emailed you somebody calls you somebody
sees you at a trade show somebody comes
and visit you at your store and you’re
just trying to sell them and as a result
you don’t build a long-term relationship
with them because you don’t care about
them and they feel it right and the next
time your competitor drops their prices
by 10 bucks you’re going to lose your
customers this is a challenge that so
many businesses and so many
entrepreneurs face if you want to get
word of mouth marketing to happen if you
want people to actually care about your
business then what you have to do is
actually care about them and I get it
you can’t go out there and take out a
Super Bowl ad commercial and promote
your business Iowa you need to get
people to talk about you if you want
them to talk about you have to give them
something to talk about and it starts
with caring do you actually care about
your customers and show them right you
want them to care about you you got to
care about them first so that brings us
to to del now Adela’s launches awesome
new program and they really care about
entrepreneurs and it’s something that
you really feel in the in their bones as
you meet the various people on their
team and it started with Michael Dell
and this guy is an entrepreneur
entrepreneur okay he started as a 12
year old kid collecting stamps and
selling them and you sold a circle
$2,000 he was hooked on business and
decided I gotta do this I gotta find
more ways because he was hooked his next
business he was 16 years old and he
decided to start selling newspaper
subscriptions for a local newspaper
called the Houston post and its first
year he made 18 thousand dollars and he
had to find another way said the way
that most people sell newspapers is
broken going door-to-door and trying to
sell newspaper subscriptions is a broken
model I need to find another way to sell
it and that’s that’s Michael Dell’s
motto and what he did was he said you
know what the people wanted my
newspapers are the new people moving
into an area and he said people who are
getting married and are buying a house
in our area those of ghazni the target
and he went to the marriage certificate
office and found all the people who are
getting married in this area who had
just got married and he reached out to
those guys and that’s how he made the
sales he made more sales faster than
anybody else at that company working
less time while still being a high
school students because he found another
way to do it eighteen thousand dollars
in his first year made more than his
teachers bought a BMW on drove it to
school and it’s funny because one of the
teachers said that he would probably go
nowhere in life but that was an awesome
teacher there I tell him telling Michael
Dell you’re probably gonna go nowhere in
life and we all have that little man in
our life who tries to hold us back and
tells us all the reasons why so it’s not
going to work so Michael Dell he’s the
man I’ve been a big Dell fan for years I
my first computers were dell I’m I’m off
of a dell XPS laptop right now but it’s
not just him because his passion and
love for Entrepreneurship permeates the
whole company and you can really feel
the love of entrepreneurship when you
talk to people who are working at del
Sol want to share a quick story a couple
weeks ago I was at Dells office in
Toronto and I met with a marketing
manager named Carolyn and she’s a
directive marketing there and and she
discovered that a lot of their clients
were interested in selling to
educational institutions so a lot of
their entrepreneur clients are selling
products and services the universities
and to schools and she said you know
what dell does a lot of work selling to
universities and schools I’m going to
put on a workshop to help
these entrepreneurs out to share my
resources to share my idea to share what
works Adele so that those entrepreneurs
there could benefit as well and she
didn’t get up on stage and say in order
to sell its universities you need to buy
a new dell XPS laptop and she’s not up
there pitching products she’s adding
value because she cares about
entrepreneurs and as a result people are
going to care about her and people are
going to care about Dell that’s how you
start to make a difference that’s how
you start to build a brand the next time
those people go out you know they take
Carolyn’s advice and they go and they
land some big University deal the next
time they’re going to try buy a laptop
or computer or server for their business
who do you think they’re going to buy
from who do you think even tell their
friends about they’re gonna remember
that hey Dell gave us all this great
value they actually care about us so
we’re going to support them with our
business and we’re going to tell our
friends about them another quick star
was in the cab yesterday with with
Alison who’s in the room with me and her
eyes just kind of freaked out though and
talking about it you’re not sure I’m
going to say butter on there but we’re
at the same Airport same flight we took
a captures it to our hotel together and
she’s there negotiating with the cabbie
trying to get the best fare possible and
threatening to go to another cabbie if
we don’t get a good deal and that’s
that’s entrepreneurial thinking right
that’s what we would do always as
entrepreneur thing I can tell you been
around a lot of big companies and
they’re like whatever it’s not my money
it’s a big companies paying for it so I
don’t care but that’s the mindset that
dell has and so it permeates the whole
culture and this is why they’ve started
dealt entrepreneurs now I’m excited to
learn more about it today but a quick
overview is they’re trying to create a
network of entrepreneurs and so it’s a
free website you can go to and you can
first of all meet other entrepreneurs
but you know we can’t do this alone we
have so many questions so many issues
you may not have the friends of the
family to help you out so who do you go
and talk to for advice other
entrepreneurs can help you and so that’s
one of the main goals is trying to
connect entrepreneurs together but it
also tries to connect you to capital you
know you want money to grow your
business they’re going to try to help
you you need technology to grow your
business they’re going to try to help
you need resources strategies ideas to
try to grow a business they’re going to
try to help you that’s the point of the
program and I got so excited to learn
about this because you don’t think about
that coming from
technology company right you don’t think
about that come from any of their
competition so here’s a comfort actually
cares about entrepreneurs I need to do
the same thing for your business you
need to care about your customers I want
you to make a list of the last 10
customers that have bought from you
ideally you go 100 deep a thousand deep
10,000 d but start with the last 10
customers and think did I really help
these guys do I actually know these guys
did I add value beyond just trying to
sell whatever product or service I have
that’s what you need to do if you want
them to talk about you because selling a
great product or service is not enough
you got to care about them you got to
build a brand you got to build loyalty
you can’t afford those big marketing
budget so you need your customers to
spread that word for you and that’s how
you do it and it’s fun actually caring
about your customers and helping them
beyond whatever plot of the servers are
selling it’s actually fun and makes you
feel great it gives you a sense of
purpose so reach out to those last 10
people and try to find out how you can
help them call and ask them how are they
using your product or service what’s
their experience so far learn about them
a quick example I do some work with
telus and they asked me to create a blog
post for them and the action to write
three hundreds of 500 words on a blog
post instead of doing that i wrote 1,500
words and i added a video and I promoted
to my network and I did a show about
them I helped drive times of traffic to
their blog it was the most popular polls
that have ever been put up on their blog
all going above and beyond didn’t
actually do any of that but I knew it
would help them beyond what I was hired
to do and what happened as a result they
hired 10 people to do that same project
I was the only one they brought back
because they went Wayne above the call
and that’s what you need to do so today
we’re going to talk about dell for
entrepreneurs i have some special guests
lined up with me today we’ve got the
president of dell canada Kevin peace car
we’ve got Jonathan Bixby who’s from
highline bc which is an accelerator here
in vancouver they’re going to talk about
how to grow your business and how
they’re using dell for entrepreneurs and
then amy Millman who’s from springboard
enterprises
and she supports women entrepreneurs
young women entrepreneurs who are trying
to get their business up to the next
level so that’s what’s on the agenda
today but the message I want to leave
you with from this first segment to
think about ways to care about your
customers to add value to their lives to
to try to help them out beyond just what
that product or services that you’re
selling because that is how you build an
important brand that’s how you build
something that people care about that’s
how you build something that people are
going to spread the word about and love
your business and if you don’t do that
you just like every other competition
you know jus just like everybody else
and it’s gonna be hard for you to stand
out it’s gonna be hard for you to win
business and you continue to struggle
and be in mediocrity it’s important
message I hope you guys take it to heart
and I’m really excited to learn about
bellefonte spirits add a free program
tons of great value now I’m pleased to
have a special guest with me here in my
hotel studio the president of dell
canada kevin p skier kevin welcome to
the program thank you very much Evan so
tell me about yourself and your role at
dell canada fantastic well i do have the
role of president which is an honor to
be a leader of any company and to be a
leader of one of the world’s leading
tech companies here in canada is
absolutely outstanding for myself i’m a
passionate individual around many things
number one around growth of business
around personal growth I’m passionate
about the live developing people and
developing members of our team and I’m
very very passionate that’s your
previous segment around serving
customers better than anyone else my
background is kind of interesting and
I’ve been very very involved with small
medium businesses here in Canada and in
different parts of the world I’ve
traveled to over 70 countries I’ve
worked on five continents and just prior
to taking this role Adele its leader
Bill Canada I was responsible for
consumer and small business across all
of Europe so I got to engage with many
many countries many entrepreneurs in
that part of the world and it’s been an
outstanding journey and being able to
engage with those organizations that
fuel
the economies where they work and where
they live very cool I I met Kevin just
outside the room on the way in and I
told him I was jealous of his voice
because it’s got this really deep
hahahahha putting me to shame here on
the other you’re far better looking at
his radio show here yeah there you go um
okay awesome to tell me about delft on
to her I’ve heard about it but I wanted
to come from you I want you to tell my
listeners why is something that’s really
important projects one ago yeah so
entrepreneurship I’ll just take take it
back a little bit from a macro level you
mentioned some of the genesis of Dell
and Michael himself with an
entrepreneurial spirit from the age of
12 moving into founding the company out
of his dorm room and building it into an
organization that has over a hundred
thousand employees serving 180 countries
around the world and then taking the
company private again one year ago so if
you go on Michael Dell’s personal
website and you check them out these
basically coined himself as
self-employed that’s a pretty
interesting because it it goes back to
the core of our business which is as
I’ve worked in other organizations over
30 years in the tech industry it’s been
advil the most entrepreneurial large
business you could find and risk-taking
is embedded in the culture its core
belief of what we do so when it comes to
entrepreneurship and we look at the
customer markets we serve there’s a
business requirement for us to be there
it just makes great business sense to
service entrepreneurs if we go to some
entrepreneurs that we worked with as
they were basically one or two or three
people in their organization their
companies that now you might have heard
of like like Twitter like software SF DC
software our salesforce.com pardon me
like Dropbox organizations that started
out as entrepreneurs with a big vision
that are now global and Adele we serve
them right from the beginning from the
technology space so as we think about in
the in the markets that we serve Canada
being an area
that I have responsibility for there are
millions of individuals in Canada that
are currently employed in corporates in
public sector half the employment group
in Canada is in entrepreneurship so it
makes good business sense it’s great for
the country and it’s something that
we’re really really passionate about
supporting in Canada so what do i get if
i go to Delft entrepreneurs what’s this
program all about yeah so the program we
launched initially in the US as such a
success for us there we took it over to
the UK launched it in the UK and France
in Ireland and bringing it into Canada
for us it’s about providing a platform
for entrepreneurs to do a number of
things number one but get engaged with a
network of like-minded individuals
providing membership programs investor
connectivity interest and engagement
with accelerators entrepreneur
enterprise and industry experts in the
area of entrepreneur second is in
capital and capital is obviously
important you mentioned it earlier in
your segment that capital comes in a
couple of key different areas one we
provide access to credit through dell
financial services we have startup
specific opportunities for those
companies that are really at that stage
they’ve had their first set of VC
funding but they need to really
accelerate their infrastructure their
technology base to get access to more
customers and provides greater service
to their to their customer base we do
that and obviously we free up capital by
providing a great engagement around
access to back technology for incredible
value as a third area is in the
technology space overall we’ve worked
with some startups to literally assist
them go to market by embedding
technology and their ideas their
software and taking it to market and
allowing them to then go global with
their technology which is pretty cool
and then finally knowledge I think
knowledge is critical for everybody when
they’re in a business is organizations
in that startup phase look to gain
information about hey how do I get
crowdfunding what’s a way to do that how
do I
speak with a BC in my first dialogue
with the VC what are some of the key
aspects as I start up a business that I
need to be thinking about in terms of
going to market in Canada or going to
market globally and we provide a
knowledge base through our platform for
entrepreneurs to get engaged with each
other from a networking standpoint and
get that knowledge base through our
website and through seminars and regular
sessions that we hold very cool is this
for every kind of entrepreneur or
startup or later stay like it anybody
can apply I having started my business
yet I want to what what range of startup
entrepreneur that’s very question I
would encourage anyone if they’re in
that very very early start up phase
they’re sitting in their kitchen or
they’re sitting in their car right now
and you’ve got a great idea you think
this idea can clearly differentiate you
in the market check out our website and
go to the microsites wlc a backslash
entrepreneurs and you get in there and
you can see a range of areas that I just
mentioned around building that Network
getting engaged on the capital side how
you can utilize technology to to drive
the start point of your business and
growth and then also get access to
knowledge base from the platform so
whether you’re at the very start of the
program you can get access through that
website you can sign up as you mentioned
before it’s free free is a good thing
sometimes free isn’t associated with
value there’s phenomenal value that
we’re providing through the program and
through the lessons learned as we engage
with entrepreneurs in the US and in
Europe and and other locations so get
out and get access their get started
there the second area is for those
organizations that are a bit further
developed in terms of their business the
way in which they’ve they’ve gone to
market maybe they’ve got that first
round of funding or they’re really set
at a platform for explosive growth those
organizations have another way of
engaging with us which is a club we call
the founders 50 club and globally we
take in 50 founders that have a program
every six months 50 founders there
with us for two years and for those
individuals everything from having
access to a concierge to assist them in
working through dell to literally
engaging with the dell venture fund with
our engineers with key partners so i’m
going to have 10 we’re gonna have to cut
it there or come up against the clock
but go check out delta t / entrepreneurs
Kevin think it’s what you doing that
today thank you also entrepreneurs my
next guest is Jonathan big speed is one
of the cofounders of hyaline bc which is
an accelerator here in vancouver as well
as in toronto he’s going to share some
of his thoughts on entrepreneurship and
give some invites Jonathan welcome to
the show nice to be here thanks so so
tell us about yourself and what you do
at highline bc sure so serial
entrepreneur i graduated so i’ll use
luck a lot in this conversation graduate
in 1999 at the height of the dot-com
boom and got into a company that
actually did really well through that
period and then started my first company
in 2001 as a young buck and then that
sold out in two thousand six and then
started my second company strange lived
in 2006 right away and then sold in 2013
and then since then have been doing
angel investing and been on a bunch of
boards and i joined grow lab about a
year or so ago and then was you know
dated Marcus Daniels of extreme and
finally married about two months ago to
create high line which is Canada’s first
cross Canadian accelerator so what do
you guys do there at Highland so what we
do is we take companies that have found
product market fed and we accelerate
them and so we there’s a lot of
accelerators so one of the questions I
always ask is why are we different and I
think we’re different because two things
one is that we have crossed Canada
connectivity so we’re the first group
that is actually realized that there is
going to be a lot of consolidation in
this market and so we need to offer you
know companies from Toronto to
Newfoundland to be see opportunities to
get into this program and get funded by
this program and to I think which is
really the mantras we have the best
program for Speed deceit so one of the
things that we find in the ecosystem is
that companies really struggle to raise
that first
bit of capital they might have put their
thirty thousand dollars of savings or
credit cards in but now it’s that next
leap and they’re all too early for
traditional seed institutional investors
so what we provide is up to two hundred
thousand dollars of funding with our
partners bdc and we provide that
instantly and so if you’re a company
that gets chosen to join highline you
get money faster than anyone else and so
when we believe that that will translate
to business success got it so what are
the some of the things that you look for
for people coming into your program good
question so we are primarily interested
in the segment of you know the
population that is interested in
building a big business so for us one of
the segmentations we do is this a big
enough market could it be venture fund
able if it’s not then you know there are
angels and other seed funds out there
that might be interested we look for big
beam changing markets number one and
number two is we’re looking for founders
that are absolutely passionate about
building a big business in Canada and we
want to support those people so I say
those are the two got it so you’re
involved with dell for entrepreneurs
right what’s how to tie line play a role
in that program for delphox friends of
launching yeah so Marcus Daniels our CEO
is on the advisory board and I think
what Dell’s done is amazing obviously
but but I think it’s amazing for for a
couple of reasons so we are involved
because we believe entrepreneurs need a
leg up and what Bell provides obviously
on the financial side but more
importantly on the advisory side is
really really important for these
businesses up they can’t get enough
really core credible advice and I think
that what Dells bringing to the table is
that network effect of really credible
advice what are some of the mistakes I
mean you’ve got me a lot of people apply
to your company that don’t get in and
even though one to do they have a lot of
holes that you have to help them fix
before you go for that 200k funding what
are some of the common problems that you
see over and over and over and over
again what the entrence coming to your
program and kind of advice to the
listeners and how to overcome the shirt
yeah I’ll put this into context so when
I was running grow lab we had a lower
rate of acceptance than Harvard or
Stanford so we had 400 applicants for
four spots twice here and so and what we
would do is we would give you
we take those applications in and they
would be credible and it would interview
a quarter of them and then only four of
the hundred that we interviewed would
make it so so we are looking for the
cream of the crop to answer your
question specifically what I find is
that there’s a cultural entrepreneur in
which is it’s more important to be cool
than to get stuff done i’m not going to
swear in like of it so so for me it’s a
culture of you actually have to do
things right so you mentioned earlier
delight customers I think it’s equally
important to delight your company and
the people to work for your company and
so for me the difference between 400 and
the four are the four actually said
we’re going to do something then they
accomplished it and they didn’t just
talk and go to coffee shops and have
ironic care and so I think for me
actually accomplishing something it
would sound so trivial is the key
differentiator between the people who
are successful or not and then I think
the other thing that I would mention in
terms of mistakes is people try to raise
money to early before they’ve
accomplished anything so they go and say
look at this is a great idea and they’re
not really putting their skin in the
game and so for me it’s all about the
passion that the exhibit and the passion
is not just what they tell me in a
coffee meeting it actually would thank
you so for me I measure outputs I don’t
measure inputs I think that’s a key
differentiator between what we’re
looking for and you know the typical
start do you have some I’m wondering how
much do I have to get done right you’re
not expecting them have figured it all
out and because they need the money
officer to coming to you for help but
but they have to show some level of
ambition and you know willing to work so
what what proof momentum do they have to
have before you’ll look at them and say
hey you got something yeah so we talked
about and we can use the you know the
lean entrepreneurs vernacular here we
talk a lot about product market fit and
so customer discovery I don’t care if
you’re a techie or you know a
salesperson you have to have gone and
talked to your target market so
identifying a big market is one thing
have you spoken to them and so literally
have you done customer interviews and
can you can you correlate some of the
information you’re getting from one
group and say hey there might be a hole
here or a market opportunity so for me
that’s
or and key if you haven’t done that I if
you just have a scratch on each that you
want to scratch personally rare you
haven’t done enough work so that number
one do any sales no you definitely don’t
need to don’t you know people to say
this is the classic if you build it I
will come right okay letter isn’t I love
it letters of interior you want to get a
letter of intent and yeah I met that’s
great really more importantly what I
would do as someone investing in to use
I’m gonna call the people you did I want
to call that you said you’ve talked to
right and i’m going to say hey Beryl
Rebecca I’m gonna buy this stuff if they
building yeah and if they say and not
really sure it’s kind of tent on my list
right that’s not going to be interesting
if they say this is a critical problem
for my business and if these guys fix it
these young whippersnappers I’m gonna
pick it up right awesome so you need
momentum from customers okay what else
what’s next I think team is super
important so you’re going to have
holding your team all the way up to be a
big business yeah the keyholes I think
early for me or do you have a technical
co-founder and obviously we’re talking
in the tech space do you have a
technical co-founder that can get stuff
done and can actually speak credibly to
a customer into a potential investor so
if you don’t have a tech co-founder if
you’re a single co-founder you’re too
early for us okay if you have a tech
co-founder we really only require to a
tech co-founder in some sort of business
co-founder okay so that’s the other side
that I think is just absolutely you know
table stakes you need a team of two and
the dynamic between that team is
actually really important to us we want
to watch that you guys trust each other
you’re not talking behind each other’s
backs and that there’s a there’s a level
of trust between the two teams private
how long do you stay with the company
yes we stay all the way from seed to
exit so an exit might be you know a
self-sustaining company it might be a
large company that comes and acquires
one of the companies that we just did
Rex we just got acquired by zillow there
are a number of ways that obviously
connects as a business but we are our
founders and our team are involved all
the way through and as much as you want
obviously we’re right in your face but
we do monthly checkups and I continue
that coffees with all the companies than
we’ve invested
but then if they don’t start hitting
their gold and they’re not doing that
work you get more in their face now yeah
we do and I think one of the things that
we have been what you know as polite
Canadians we are really reticent to fail
and so one of the cultures that I’ve
really tried to do to push forward is
it’s okay to fail it’s okay to say this
isn’t working and so one of the things
we’re trying to change in the culture is
fail quickly but you know exhaust all
that you’ve done so yes we’ll get in
your face but then we’re going to have a
you know a meeting and say why are you
doing this and and that’s a really
powerful thing to do and it allows
people to feel forgiven to fail and I
think that’s important and then you sit
on their board you take aboard Stephen
we do not know we don’t take a board
seat we we are just advisors and you
know we take founder shares so we’re
very friendly from a cat table
perspective right is there are what’s
the range of echoey that usually take
from a setup component yeah so that
changes depending on how much money
we’re putting in but i would say a range
of five to eight percent is is pretty
typical okay for 200k if your tunes
indicate you looking at yeah the talking
to the higher end and some of that money
is convertible louis convertible notes
so that money is BBC money BBC and relay
are two big sponsors and partners in
this and so right not all the money is
based always coming from highline very
cool Jonathan awesome uh for people who
want to learn more where are they going
they’re going to highline easy very
simple simple website very cool and I
guess you’re also in the Dell Frye
entrepreneurs program on the back lane
of people I’m absolutely Grundy there
yeah for sure thank you so much man
thanks awesome show today’s show is all
about bringing on special guy to help
you grow your business today I’ve got
Amy Millman who’s the founder of
springboard enterprises who supports
women of all ages not just young women
and helping them build their business
Amy welcome to the program hi Evan so
tell me about springboard enterprises
what you guys are all about we’re all
about women entrepreneurs and we’re all
about helping them grow billion dollar
businesses billion dollar businesses I
love it i love the thinking big so how
are you involved in this dell for
entrepreneurs program well i actually am
a big Dell groupie and
what I learned a long time ago is that
when you’ve got somebody at the helm of
a large company that actually started it
from scratch a founder which is very
similar to our organization where are
found one of our co-founders the women
NK compliments who started us a network
cable television grew it to a 5 billion
dollar business and sold it to NBC and
you know you begin to realize that those
founders really have what it takes to
build these huge billion-dollar
enterprises and Michael Dell was one of
them so we got interested in dell really
early on as a partnership opportunity
resource collaborator for our
entrepreneurs and we haven’t been sorry
about that connection very cool and so
by sign up for Dell for entrepreneurs
you’re one of the organization’s I can
connect with as a source of wisdom and
potentially capital in connections as we
grow we are an on-ramp to all services
that Dell can provide for growing
companies whether it’s cloud services or
hardware or any of the collaborations
that they have with the amazing software
partners that go into the dell network
very cool so our last guest Jonathan was
focused on the very early stage seed
capital I have an idea i’m just getting
started you’re a little bit later on and
you want to help people build
billion-dollar company so huge goals
there what how do you judge how can you
judge it somebody can build a
billion-dollar company or not what are
the characters that you look for on an
entrepreneur coming to you well first
you know we’re really looking for
companies that are market ready so the
kind of companies that have a product
that they’ve developed and now need to
either scale into bigger markets or or
or maybe they have their serial
entrepreneurs and they’ve done this
before and so we kind of look at the
teams you know is this a team that
either has done this before or really
understands what it takes or has a
domain expertise we have a lot of
scientists that we work with life
science is a big component sector that
we work that we work with and so we’re
looking for people that really
understand the basics
of their technology and then have a
really big audacious goal that they want
to solve so you know I’ve got a company
that’s doing the first treatment for
autism cool and we look at and we say
all right let’s put it out there to the
rest of our network and see what they
can do about it evaluating and assessing
the potential of this technology or this
solution and they came back to us on
that particular front and said you know
dis compute game changer and so that’s a
billion-dollar company that’s a bill
that’s a multi-billion a company and and
it was fast-tracked through the through
the FDA process the the clinical trials
and so we could see actually the first
treatment for autism coming out probably
in the next 12 months Wow very cool
which could you know again change the
world change the world and that’s what
we’re looking for companies that change
the world and sometimes they change it
in very incremental amounts so you know
many of our companies are now engines
inside larger entities you know really
driving change or innovation inside
those companies that’s a big win as well
is there something because you focus on
women entrepreneurs only right if there
are other problems that women
entrepreneurs face that that men don’t
that come up or is it just we all face
the same problems I think we all face
the same problems we just saw that as an
underserved market and so we decided
nobody else was really focusing on those
companies that had women founders or the
woman in the team sometimes it was one
woman in a team of four guys and she
needed sort of an affinity network to
help her with guiding towards resources
that would help her so one of my
favorite examples is a company called
iRobot they’ll love our robot I become
your group that that’s the Roomba that
yeah yeah goes on every day at my condo
there you go so so Helen Greiner and and
her two co-founders were at MIT and they
decided that they didn’t want to do any
housework and could they come up with
some robots that handle that stuff while
they were doing Department of Defense
activity and
they came up with this this idea the
thing is is that she really didn’t have
outside of her MIT network any
connection right into communities and
you know we talked about in the Lean
Startup Mecca method is who would buy
this stuff right you know and and it’s
not the government marketer in the
industrial market that they were used to
it was a consumer market so you know how
did she tap into another network
somebody referred her to us and you know
it was just a concept at the time yeah
so you know and and I could tell you you
know we have 550 of these businesses
that we’ve worked with over the last 15
years and each one of them has something
that is incredibly valuable to moving
along you know the progress of making
our lives better faster cheaper yeah and
even just sharing their stories to have
role models look up to could you think
will attack you think about a lot of
guys you think about Michael Dell and
steve jobs and bill gates and EULA
pocket and and where the women is a top
of the list and they’re like creating
the next generation and sharing their
stories to encourage you know young
entrepreneurs to say hey I could be like
that person as well right you know it’s
not just climbing the corporate ladder
it’s you know making your own ladder
yeah very cool um what’s the biggest
challenge that people face when they’re
you know they come to you they had this
big idea they’ve had some momentum but
now I want to get a billion dollar
company what’s the biggest thing that
they need to overcome to to get there
that you helped them win well what I’m
sitting with Dell I say that they don’t
know Dell and when I’m sitting with some
other people you know depending on what
they need you know sometimes they’re
scientists and they don’t have access to
you know people who are expert in
certain technologies or in business side
in the financial side and so the you
know we decided we would fill those
ranks with people that we felt could
help them either find the right contacts
or be the right contacts for them so you
take an ownership position in these
companies well we kind of we call it the
Hotel California you know you can check
out but you can never leave and so
they’re the entrepreneurs are with us
forever as either experts or
entrepreneurs serial entrepreneurs from
but we don’t
an equity stake in the company some of
them donate to us and hopefully that
especially that they remember you
they’ll remember us and grow and not
only that but they’ll don’t have that
billion-dollar deal eventually and very
queer-looking for our people who want to
learn more where are we going to learn
about you and FBO sd.com very simple and
of course as well through dell front
refers to 3rd l th / entrepreneur Amy
thank you so much for joining us st.
awesome thanks everybody for tuning in
Thank You Daniella Josh you guys are
awesome at a great time and I’ll see
everybody in two weeks continue to
believe
Evan Carmichael show I believe in
entrepreneurs and this show is all about
making your business a success now today
I’m really excited I am live on location
I in in vancouver british columbia for
the solo event which is small office
home office and i’m here to meet the
crowd learn about the businesses but
also to discover a new program that dell
has launched called dell for
entrepreneurs which is a free program
for all the small business owners out
there that i’m excited to learn a little
bit more about today and i think by the
time you hear all about it you’re going
to want to sign up for it as well and
it’s free you can’t beat that but first
i want to talk about something that is
really important something that ties in
and and so many people write to me in
the same evan i need to grow my business
I need to get more referrals you need to
get people talking about me you know how
do i do it how to get past the point
where i’m at right now and the big
challenge for a lot of use your to
transactional you’re just trying to
focus on the sale you know somebody
emailed you somebody calls you somebody
sees you at a trade show somebody comes
and visit you at your store and you’re
just trying to sell them and as a result
you don’t build a long-term relationship
with them because you don’t care about
them and they feel it right and the next
time your competitor drops their prices
by 10 bucks you’re going to lose your
customers this is a challenge that so
many businesses and so many
entrepreneurs face if you want to get
word of mouth marketing to happen if you
want people to actually care about your
business then what you have to do is
actually care about them and I get it
you can’t go out there and take out a
Super Bowl ad commercial and promote
your business Iowa you need to get
people to talk about you if you want
them to talk about you have to give them
something to talk about and it starts
with caring do you actually care about
your customers and show them right you
want them to care about you you got to
care about them first so that brings us
to to del now Adela’s launches awesome
new program and they really care about
entrepreneurs and it’s something that
you really feel in the in their bones as
you meet the various people on their
team and it started with Michael Dell
and this guy is an entrepreneur
entrepreneur okay he started as a 12
year old kid collecting stamps and
selling them and you sold a circle
$2,000 he was hooked on business and
decided I gotta do this I gotta find
more ways because he was hooked his next
business he was 16 years old and he
decided to start selling newspaper
subscriptions for a local newspaper
called the Houston post and its first
year he made 18 thousand dollars and he
had to find another way said the way
that most people sell newspapers is
broken going door-to-door and trying to
sell newspaper subscriptions is a broken
model I need to find another way to sell
it and that’s that’s Michael Dell’s
motto and what he did was he said you
know what the people wanted my
newspapers are the new people moving
into an area and he said people who are
getting married and are buying a house
in our area those of ghazni the target
and he went to the marriage certificate
office and found all the people who are
getting married in this area who had
just got married and he reached out to
those guys and that’s how he made the
sales he made more sales faster than
anybody else at that company working
less time while still being a high
school students because he found another
way to do it eighteen thousand dollars
in his first year made more than his
teachers bought a BMW on drove it to
school and it’s funny because one of the
teachers said that he would probably go
nowhere in life but that was an awesome
teacher there I tell him telling Michael
Dell you’re probably gonna go nowhere in
life and we all have that little man in
our life who tries to hold us back and
tells us all the reasons why so it’s not
going to work so Michael Dell he’s the
man I’ve been a big Dell fan for years I
my first computers were dell I’m I’m off
of a dell XPS laptop right now but it’s
not just him because his passion and
love for Entrepreneurship permeates the
whole company and you can really feel
the love of entrepreneurship when you
talk to people who are working at del
Sol want to share a quick story a couple
weeks ago I was at Dells office in
Toronto and I met with a marketing
manager named Carolyn and she’s a
directive marketing there and and she
discovered that a lot of their clients
were interested in selling to
educational institutions so a lot of
their entrepreneur clients are selling
products and services the universities
and to schools and she said you know
what dell does a lot of work selling to
universities and schools I’m going to
put on a workshop to help
these entrepreneurs out to share my
resources to share my idea to share what
works Adele so that those entrepreneurs
there could benefit as well and she
didn’t get up on stage and say in order
to sell its universities you need to buy
a new dell XPS laptop and she’s not up
there pitching products she’s adding
value because she cares about
entrepreneurs and as a result people are
going to care about her and people are
going to care about Dell that’s how you
start to make a difference that’s how
you start to build a brand the next time
those people go out you know they take
Carolyn’s advice and they go and they
land some big University deal the next
time they’re going to try buy a laptop
or computer or server for their business
who do you think they’re going to buy
from who do you think even tell their
friends about they’re gonna remember
that hey Dell gave us all this great
value they actually care about us so
we’re going to support them with our
business and we’re going to tell our
friends about them another quick star
was in the cab yesterday with with
Alison who’s in the room with me and her
eyes just kind of freaked out though and
talking about it you’re not sure I’m
going to say butter on there but we’re
at the same Airport same flight we took
a captures it to our hotel together and
she’s there negotiating with the cabbie
trying to get the best fare possible and
threatening to go to another cabbie if
we don’t get a good deal and that’s
that’s entrepreneurial thinking right
that’s what we would do always as
entrepreneur thing I can tell you been
around a lot of big companies and
they’re like whatever it’s not my money
it’s a big companies paying for it so I
don’t care but that’s the mindset that
dell has and so it permeates the whole
culture and this is why they’ve started
dealt entrepreneurs now I’m excited to
learn more about it today but a quick
overview is they’re trying to create a
network of entrepreneurs and so it’s a
free website you can go to and you can
first of all meet other entrepreneurs
but you know we can’t do this alone we
have so many questions so many issues
you may not have the friends of the
family to help you out so who do you go
and talk to for advice other
entrepreneurs can help you and so that’s
one of the main goals is trying to
connect entrepreneurs together but it
also tries to connect you to capital you
know you want money to grow your
business they’re going to try to help
you you need technology to grow your
business they’re going to try to help
you need resources strategies ideas to
try to grow a business they’re going to
try to help you that’s the point of the
program and I got so excited to learn
about this because you don’t think about
that coming from
technology company right you don’t think
about that come from any of their
competition so here’s a comfort actually
cares about entrepreneurs I need to do
the same thing for your business you
need to care about your customers I want
you to make a list of the last 10
customers that have bought from you
ideally you go 100 deep a thousand deep
10,000 d but start with the last 10
customers and think did I really help
these guys do I actually know these guys
did I add value beyond just trying to
sell whatever product or service I have
that’s what you need to do if you want
them to talk about you because selling a
great product or service is not enough
you got to care about them you got to
build a brand you got to build loyalty
you can’t afford those big marketing
budget so you need your customers to
spread that word for you and that’s how
you do it and it’s fun actually caring
about your customers and helping them
beyond whatever plot of the servers are
selling it’s actually fun and makes you
feel great it gives you a sense of
purpose so reach out to those last 10
people and try to find out how you can
help them call and ask them how are they
using your product or service what’s
their experience so far learn about them
a quick example I do some work with
telus and they asked me to create a blog
post for them and the action to write
three hundreds of 500 words on a blog
post instead of doing that i wrote 1,500
words and i added a video and I promoted
to my network and I did a show about
them I helped drive times of traffic to
their blog it was the most popular polls
that have ever been put up on their blog
all going above and beyond didn’t
actually do any of that but I knew it
would help them beyond what I was hired
to do and what happened as a result they
hired 10 people to do that same project
I was the only one they brought back
because they went Wayne above the call
and that’s what you need to do so today
we’re going to talk about dell for
entrepreneurs i have some special guests
lined up with me today we’ve got the
president of dell canada Kevin peace car
we’ve got Jonathan Bixby who’s from
highline bc which is an accelerator here
in vancouver they’re going to talk about
how to grow your business and how
they’re using dell for entrepreneurs and
then amy Millman who’s from springboard
enterprises
and she supports women entrepreneurs
young women entrepreneurs who are trying
to get their business up to the next
level so that’s what’s on the agenda
today but the message I want to leave
you with from this first segment to
think about ways to care about your
customers to add value to their lives to
to try to help them out beyond just what
that product or services that you’re
selling because that is how you build an
important brand that’s how you build
something that people care about that’s
how you build something that people are
going to spread the word about and love
your business and if you don’t do that
you just like every other competition
you know jus just like everybody else
and it’s gonna be hard for you to stand
out it’s gonna be hard for you to win
business and you continue to struggle
and be in mediocrity it’s important
message I hope you guys take it to heart
and I’m really excited to learn about
bellefonte spirits add a free program
tons of great value now I’m pleased to
have a special guest with me here in my
hotel studio the president of dell
canada kevin p skier kevin welcome to
the program thank you very much Evan so
tell me about yourself and your role at
dell canada fantastic well i do have the
role of president which is an honor to
be a leader of any company and to be a
leader of one of the world’s leading
tech companies here in canada is
absolutely outstanding for myself i’m a
passionate individual around many things
number one around growth of business
around personal growth I’m passionate
about the live developing people and
developing members of our team and I’m
very very passionate that’s your
previous segment around serving
customers better than anyone else my
background is kind of interesting and
I’ve been very very involved with small
medium businesses here in Canada and in
different parts of the world I’ve
traveled to over 70 countries I’ve
worked on five continents and just prior
to taking this role Adele its leader
Bill Canada I was responsible for
consumer and small business across all
of Europe so I got to engage with many
many countries many entrepreneurs in
that part of the world and it’s been an
outstanding journey and being able to
engage with those organizations that
fuel
the economies where they work and where
they live very cool I I met Kevin just
outside the room on the way in and I
told him I was jealous of his voice
because it’s got this really deep
hahahahha putting me to shame here on
the other you’re far better looking at
his radio show here yeah there you go um
okay awesome to tell me about delft on
to her I’ve heard about it but I wanted
to come from you I want you to tell my
listeners why is something that’s really
important projects one ago yeah so
entrepreneurship I’ll just take take it
back a little bit from a macro level you
mentioned some of the genesis of Dell
and Michael himself with an
entrepreneurial spirit from the age of
12 moving into founding the company out
of his dorm room and building it into an
organization that has over a hundred
thousand employees serving 180 countries
around the world and then taking the
company private again one year ago so if
you go on Michael Dell’s personal
website and you check them out these
basically coined himself as
self-employed that’s a pretty
interesting because it it goes back to
the core of our business which is as
I’ve worked in other organizations over
30 years in the tech industry it’s been
advil the most entrepreneurial large
business you could find and risk-taking
is embedded in the culture its core
belief of what we do so when it comes to
entrepreneurship and we look at the
customer markets we serve there’s a
business requirement for us to be there
it just makes great business sense to
service entrepreneurs if we go to some
entrepreneurs that we worked with as
they were basically one or two or three
people in their organization their
companies that now you might have heard
of like like Twitter like software SF DC
software our salesforce.com pardon me
like Dropbox organizations that started
out as entrepreneurs with a big vision
that are now global and Adele we serve
them right from the beginning from the
technology space so as we think about in
the in the markets that we serve Canada
being an area
that I have responsibility for there are
millions of individuals in Canada that
are currently employed in corporates in
public sector half the employment group
in Canada is in entrepreneurship so it
makes good business sense it’s great for
the country and it’s something that
we’re really really passionate about
supporting in Canada so what do i get if
i go to Delft entrepreneurs what’s this
program all about yeah so the program we
launched initially in the US as such a
success for us there we took it over to
the UK launched it in the UK and France
in Ireland and bringing it into Canada
for us it’s about providing a platform
for entrepreneurs to do a number of
things number one but get engaged with a
network of like-minded individuals
providing membership programs investor
connectivity interest and engagement
with accelerators entrepreneur
enterprise and industry experts in the
area of entrepreneur second is in
capital and capital is obviously
important you mentioned it earlier in
your segment that capital comes in a
couple of key different areas one we
provide access to credit through dell
financial services we have startup
specific opportunities for those
companies that are really at that stage
they’ve had their first set of VC
funding but they need to really
accelerate their infrastructure their
technology base to get access to more
customers and provides greater service
to their to their customer base we do
that and obviously we free up capital by
providing a great engagement around
access to back technology for incredible
value as a third area is in the
technology space overall we’ve worked
with some startups to literally assist
them go to market by embedding
technology and their ideas their
software and taking it to market and
allowing them to then go global with
their technology which is pretty cool
and then finally knowledge I think
knowledge is critical for everybody when
they’re in a business is organizations
in that startup phase look to gain
information about hey how do I get
crowdfunding what’s a way to do that how
do I
speak with a BC in my first dialogue
with the VC what are some of the key
aspects as I start up a business that I
need to be thinking about in terms of
going to market in Canada or going to
market globally and we provide a
knowledge base through our platform for
entrepreneurs to get engaged with each
other from a networking standpoint and
get that knowledge base through our
website and through seminars and regular
sessions that we hold very cool is this
for every kind of entrepreneur or
startup or later stay like it anybody
can apply I having started my business
yet I want to what what range of startup
entrepreneur that’s very question I
would encourage anyone if they’re in
that very very early start up phase
they’re sitting in their kitchen or
they’re sitting in their car right now
and you’ve got a great idea you think
this idea can clearly differentiate you
in the market check out our website and
go to the microsites wlc a backslash
entrepreneurs and you get in there and
you can see a range of areas that I just
mentioned around building that Network
getting engaged on the capital side how
you can utilize technology to to drive
the start point of your business and
growth and then also get access to
knowledge base from the platform so
whether you’re at the very start of the
program you can get access through that
website you can sign up as you mentioned
before it’s free free is a good thing
sometimes free isn’t associated with
value there’s phenomenal value that
we’re providing through the program and
through the lessons learned as we engage
with entrepreneurs in the US and in
Europe and and other locations so get
out and get access their get started
there the second area is for those
organizations that are a bit further
developed in terms of their business the
way in which they’ve they’ve gone to
market maybe they’ve got that first
round of funding or they’re really set
at a platform for explosive growth those
organizations have another way of
engaging with us which is a club we call
the founders 50 club and globally we
take in 50 founders that have a program
every six months 50 founders there
with us for two years and for those
individuals everything from having
access to a concierge to assist them in
working through dell to literally
engaging with the dell venture fund with
our engineers with key partners so i’m
going to have 10 we’re gonna have to cut
it there or come up against the clock
but go check out delta t / entrepreneurs
Kevin think it’s what you doing that
today thank you also entrepreneurs my
next guest is Jonathan big speed is one
of the cofounders of hyaline bc which is
an accelerator here in vancouver as well
as in toronto he’s going to share some
of his thoughts on entrepreneurship and
give some invites Jonathan welcome to
the show nice to be here thanks so so
tell us about yourself and what you do
at highline bc sure so serial
entrepreneur i graduated so i’ll use
luck a lot in this conversation graduate
in 1999 at the height of the dot-com
boom and got into a company that
actually did really well through that
period and then started my first company
in 2001 as a young buck and then that
sold out in two thousand six and then
started my second company strange lived
in 2006 right away and then sold in 2013
and then since then have been doing
angel investing and been on a bunch of
boards and i joined grow lab about a
year or so ago and then was you know
dated Marcus Daniels of extreme and
finally married about two months ago to
create high line which is Canada’s first
cross Canadian accelerator so what do
you guys do there at Highland so what we
do is we take companies that have found
product market fed and we accelerate
them and so we there’s a lot of
accelerators so one of the questions I
always ask is why are we different and I
think we’re different because two things
one is that we have crossed Canada
connectivity so we’re the first group
that is actually realized that there is
going to be a lot of consolidation in
this market and so we need to offer you
know companies from Toronto to
Newfoundland to be see opportunities to
get into this program and get funded by
this program and to I think which is
really the mantras we have the best
program for Speed deceit so one of the
things that we find in the ecosystem is
that companies really struggle to raise
that first
bit of capital they might have put their
thirty thousand dollars of savings or
credit cards in but now it’s that next
leap and they’re all too early for
traditional seed institutional investors
so what we provide is up to two hundred
thousand dollars of funding with our
partners bdc and we provide that
instantly and so if you’re a company
that gets chosen to join highline you
get money faster than anyone else and so
when we believe that that will translate
to business success got it so what are
the some of the things that you look for
for people coming into your program good
question so we are primarily interested
in the segment of you know the
population that is interested in
building a big business so for us one of
the segmentations we do is this a big
enough market could it be venture fund
able if it’s not then you know there are
angels and other seed funds out there
that might be interested we look for big
beam changing markets number one and
number two is we’re looking for founders
that are absolutely passionate about
building a big business in Canada and we
want to support those people so I say
those are the two got it so you’re
involved with dell for entrepreneurs
right what’s how to tie line play a role
in that program for delphox friends of
launching yeah so Marcus Daniels our CEO
is on the advisory board and I think
what Dell’s done is amazing obviously
but but I think it’s amazing for for a
couple of reasons so we are involved
because we believe entrepreneurs need a
leg up and what Bell provides obviously
on the financial side but more
importantly on the advisory side is
really really important for these
businesses up they can’t get enough
really core credible advice and I think
that what Dells bringing to the table is
that network effect of really credible
advice what are some of the mistakes I
mean you’ve got me a lot of people apply
to your company that don’t get in and
even though one to do they have a lot of
holes that you have to help them fix
before you go for that 200k funding what
are some of the common problems that you
see over and over and over and over
again what the entrence coming to your
program and kind of advice to the
listeners and how to overcome the shirt
yeah I’ll put this into context so when
I was running grow lab we had a lower
rate of acceptance than Harvard or
Stanford so we had 400 applicants for
four spots twice here and so and what we
would do is we would give you
we take those applications in and they
would be credible and it would interview
a quarter of them and then only four of
the hundred that we interviewed would
make it so so we are looking for the
cream of the crop to answer your
question specifically what I find is
that there’s a cultural entrepreneur in
which is it’s more important to be cool
than to get stuff done i’m not going to
swear in like of it so so for me it’s a
culture of you actually have to do
things right so you mentioned earlier
delight customers I think it’s equally
important to delight your company and
the people to work for your company and
so for me the difference between 400 and
the four are the four actually said
we’re going to do something then they
accomplished it and they didn’t just
talk and go to coffee shops and have
ironic care and so I think for me
actually accomplishing something it
would sound so trivial is the key
differentiator between the people who
are successful or not and then I think
the other thing that I would mention in
terms of mistakes is people try to raise
money to early before they’ve
accomplished anything so they go and say
look at this is a great idea and they’re
not really putting their skin in the
game and so for me it’s all about the
passion that the exhibit and the passion
is not just what they tell me in a
coffee meeting it actually would thank
you so for me I measure outputs I don’t
measure inputs I think that’s a key
differentiator between what we’re
looking for and you know the typical
start do you have some I’m wondering how
much do I have to get done right you’re
not expecting them have figured it all
out and because they need the money
officer to coming to you for help but
but they have to show some level of
ambition and you know willing to work so
what what proof momentum do they have to
have before you’ll look at them and say
hey you got something yeah so we talked
about and we can use the you know the
lean entrepreneurs vernacular here we
talk a lot about product market fit and
so customer discovery I don’t care if
you’re a techie or you know a
salesperson you have to have gone and
talked to your target market so
identifying a big market is one thing
have you spoken to them and so literally
have you done customer interviews and
can you can you correlate some of the
information you’re getting from one
group and say hey there might be a hole
here or a market opportunity so for me
that’s
or and key if you haven’t done that I if
you just have a scratch on each that you
want to scratch personally rare you
haven’t done enough work so that number
one do any sales no you definitely don’t
need to don’t you know people to say
this is the classic if you build it I
will come right okay letter isn’t I love
it letters of interior you want to get a
letter of intent and yeah I met that’s
great really more importantly what I
would do as someone investing in to use
I’m gonna call the people you did I want
to call that you said you’ve talked to
right and i’m going to say hey Beryl
Rebecca I’m gonna buy this stuff if they
building yeah and if they say and not
really sure it’s kind of tent on my list
right that’s not going to be interesting
if they say this is a critical problem
for my business and if these guys fix it
these young whippersnappers I’m gonna
pick it up right awesome so you need
momentum from customers okay what else
what’s next I think team is super
important so you’re going to have
holding your team all the way up to be a
big business yeah the keyholes I think
early for me or do you have a technical
co-founder and obviously we’re talking
in the tech space do you have a
technical co-founder that can get stuff
done and can actually speak credibly to
a customer into a potential investor so
if you don’t have a tech co-founder if
you’re a single co-founder you’re too
early for us okay if you have a tech
co-founder we really only require to a
tech co-founder in some sort of business
co-founder okay so that’s the other side
that I think is just absolutely you know
table stakes you need a team of two and
the dynamic between that team is
actually really important to us we want
to watch that you guys trust each other
you’re not talking behind each other’s
backs and that there’s a there’s a level
of trust between the two teams private
how long do you stay with the company
yes we stay all the way from seed to
exit so an exit might be you know a
self-sustaining company it might be a
large company that comes and acquires
one of the companies that we just did
Rex we just got acquired by zillow there
are a number of ways that obviously
connects as a business but we are our
founders and our team are involved all
the way through and as much as you want
obviously we’re right in your face but
we do monthly checkups and I continue
that coffees with all the companies than
we’ve invested
but then if they don’t start hitting
their gold and they’re not doing that
work you get more in their face now yeah
we do and I think one of the things that
we have been what you know as polite
Canadians we are really reticent to fail
and so one of the cultures that I’ve
really tried to do to push forward is
it’s okay to fail it’s okay to say this
isn’t working and so one of the things
we’re trying to change in the culture is
fail quickly but you know exhaust all
that you’ve done so yes we’ll get in
your face but then we’re going to have a
you know a meeting and say why are you
doing this and and that’s a really
powerful thing to do and it allows
people to feel forgiven to fail and I
think that’s important and then you sit
on their board you take aboard Stephen
we do not know we don’t take a board
seat we we are just advisors and you
know we take founder shares so we’re
very friendly from a cat table
perspective right is there are what’s
the range of echoey that usually take
from a setup component yeah so that
changes depending on how much money
we’re putting in but i would say a range
of five to eight percent is is pretty
typical okay for 200k if your tunes
indicate you looking at yeah the talking
to the higher end and some of that money
is convertible louis convertible notes
so that money is BBC money BBC and relay
are two big sponsors and partners in
this and so right not all the money is
based always coming from highline very
cool Jonathan awesome uh for people who
want to learn more where are they going
they’re going to highline easy very
simple simple website very cool and I
guess you’re also in the Dell Frye
entrepreneurs program on the back lane
of people I’m absolutely Grundy there
yeah for sure thank you so much man
thanks awesome show today’s show is all
about bringing on special guy to help
you grow your business today I’ve got
Amy Millman who’s the founder of
springboard enterprises who supports
women of all ages not just young women
and helping them build their business
Amy welcome to the program hi Evan so
tell me about springboard enterprises
what you guys are all about we’re all
about women entrepreneurs and we’re all
about helping them grow billion dollar
businesses billion dollar businesses I
love it i love the thinking big so how
are you involved in this dell for
entrepreneurs program well i actually am
a big Dell groupie and
what I learned a long time ago is that
when you’ve got somebody at the helm of
a large company that actually started it
from scratch a founder which is very
similar to our organization where are
found one of our co-founders the women
NK compliments who started us a network
cable television grew it to a 5 billion
dollar business and sold it to NBC and
you know you begin to realize that those
founders really have what it takes to
build these huge billion-dollar
enterprises and Michael Dell was one of
them so we got interested in dell really
early on as a partnership opportunity
resource collaborator for our
entrepreneurs and we haven’t been sorry
about that connection very cool and so
by sign up for Dell for entrepreneurs
you’re one of the organization’s I can
connect with as a source of wisdom and
potentially capital in connections as we
grow we are an on-ramp to all services
that Dell can provide for growing
companies whether it’s cloud services or
hardware or any of the collaborations
that they have with the amazing software
partners that go into the dell network
very cool so our last guest Jonathan was
focused on the very early stage seed
capital I have an idea i’m just getting
started you’re a little bit later on and
you want to help people build
billion-dollar company so huge goals
there what how do you judge how can you
judge it somebody can build a
billion-dollar company or not what are
the characters that you look for on an
entrepreneur coming to you well first
you know we’re really looking for
companies that are market ready so the
kind of companies that have a product
that they’ve developed and now need to
either scale into bigger markets or or
or maybe they have their serial
entrepreneurs and they’ve done this
before and so we kind of look at the
teams you know is this a team that
either has done this before or really
understands what it takes or has a
domain expertise we have a lot of
scientists that we work with life
science is a big component sector that
we work that we work with and so we’re
looking for people that really
understand the basics
of their technology and then have a
really big audacious goal that they want
to solve so you know I’ve got a company
that’s doing the first treatment for
autism cool and we look at and we say
all right let’s put it out there to the
rest of our network and see what they
can do about it evaluating and assessing
the potential of this technology or this
solution and they came back to us on
that particular front and said you know
dis compute game changer and so that’s a
billion-dollar company that’s a bill
that’s a multi-billion a company and and
it was fast-tracked through the through
the FDA process the the clinical trials
and so we could see actually the first
treatment for autism coming out probably
in the next 12 months Wow very cool
which could you know again change the
world change the world and that’s what
we’re looking for companies that change
the world and sometimes they change it
in very incremental amounts so you know
many of our companies are now engines
inside larger entities you know really
driving change or innovation inside
those companies that’s a big win as well
is there something because you focus on
women entrepreneurs only right if there
are other problems that women
entrepreneurs face that that men don’t
that come up or is it just we all face
the same problems I think we all face
the same problems we just saw that as an
underserved market and so we decided
nobody else was really focusing on those
companies that had women founders or the
woman in the team sometimes it was one
woman in a team of four guys and she
needed sort of an affinity network to
help her with guiding towards resources
that would help her so one of my
favorite examples is a company called
iRobot they’ll love our robot I become
your group that that’s the Roomba that
yeah yeah goes on every day at my condo
there you go so so Helen Greiner and and
her two co-founders were at MIT and they
decided that they didn’t want to do any
housework and could they come up with
some robots that handle that stuff while
they were doing Department of Defense
activity and
they came up with this this idea the
thing is is that she really didn’t have
outside of her MIT network any
connection right into communities and
you know we talked about in the Lean
Startup Mecca method is who would buy
this stuff right you know and and it’s
not the government marketer in the
industrial market that they were used to
it was a consumer market so you know how
did she tap into another network
somebody referred her to us and you know
it was just a concept at the time yeah
so you know and and I could tell you you
know we have 550 of these businesses
that we’ve worked with over the last 15
years and each one of them has something
that is incredibly valuable to moving
along you know the progress of making
our lives better faster cheaper yeah and
even just sharing their stories to have
role models look up to could you think
will attack you think about a lot of
guys you think about Michael Dell and
steve jobs and bill gates and EULA
pocket and and where the women is a top
of the list and they’re like creating
the next generation and sharing their
stories to encourage you know young
entrepreneurs to say hey I could be like
that person as well right you know it’s
not just climbing the corporate ladder
it’s you know making your own ladder
yeah very cool um what’s the biggest
challenge that people face when they’re
you know they come to you they had this
big idea they’ve had some momentum but
now I want to get a billion dollar
company what’s the biggest thing that
they need to overcome to to get there
that you helped them win well what I’m
sitting with Dell I say that they don’t
know Dell and when I’m sitting with some
other people you know depending on what
they need you know sometimes they’re
scientists and they don’t have access to
you know people who are expert in
certain technologies or in business side
in the financial side and so the you
know we decided we would fill those
ranks with people that we felt could
help them either find the right contacts
or be the right contacts for them so you
take an ownership position in these
companies well we kind of we call it the
Hotel California you know you can check
out but you can never leave and so
they’re the entrepreneurs are with us
forever as either experts or
entrepreneurs serial entrepreneurs from
but we don’t
an equity stake in the company some of
them donate to us and hopefully that
especially that they remember you
they’ll remember us and grow and not
only that but they’ll don’t have that
billion-dollar deal eventually and very
queer-looking for our people who want to
learn more where are we going to learn
about you and FBO sd.com very simple and
of course as well through dell front
refers to 3rd l th / entrepreneur Amy
thank you so much for joining us st.
awesome thanks everybody for tuning in
Thank You Daniella Josh you guys are
awesome at a great time and I’ll see
everybody in two weeks continue to
believe
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