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TheInsiderMedia.comSchulich, Let’s connect.

the INSIDER

Schulich School of Business, Suite W034FYork University

4700 Keele Street, Toronto, OntarioM3J 1P3

(416) 650-8082

www.TheInsiderMedia.cominfo@theinsidermedia.com

Dear Readers,

It is with great pleasure that we at The INSIDER release our first issue of the semester after Career Insight Magazine!

There is no doubt that Schulich has many budding entrepre-neurs who have already begun to juggle the balance of cre-ativty, appetitie for risk and business acumen which are some key ingredients of a successful start-up. Thus, we encourage you to take a moment to revel in “The Entrepreneur Issue” of this month. In our cover story, “Opinioto: A New Way to Share”, Jari Quadrat provides insight into the power of cod-ified knowledge today and Opinionto’s unique contribution to the way we share information via social media. Featured in other articles, you will also find Schulich students and alumni who have already begun to forge their paths as successful entrepreneurs and who have shared their journeys for you to learn from and enjoy!

With an exceptional team of multi-talented students, this year our aim is to provide the best quality, Schulich-relevant content through our print magazine, website and social media platforms to foster a closer-knit Schulich Communi-ty. Throughout the year you will read many enjoyable and informative articles written for Schulich students by Schulich students. Also, stay tuned for our coverage of various events by student clubs and other Schulich organizations!

Kindest Regards,

Jungmin Lee & Zenith Taskin

EDITORS’ NOTE

CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEFZenith Taskin

MANAGING EDITOR Victoria Granova

PRODUCTION DIRECTORRebekah Haeun Lee

CTOJoseph Simile

MEDIA ASSOCIATESaifullah Chaudhry

Dardan EminiSajal Nazir

MARKETING DIRECTORCatherine Lu

MARKETING ASSOCIATEJessica Yuen

STAFF WRITERSDaniel Gary

Daria MigounovaSajal Nazir

Priyadarshini RoyAndrea Trozzo

Max Zhu

CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEFJungmin Lee

CONTENT DIRECTORSSamiha MaishaMax Zhu

CONTENT EDITORSDardan Emini Harris KhanNirali MehtaSajal NazirTatiana Tsoi

ART DIRECTORSBasilio BagnatoDaniel GaryBrendan Wu

PHOTOGRAPHERSBasilio BagnatoJoseph SimileMax VidricaireBrendan Wu

FINANCE DIRECTORSFahd FarooqMitul Shah

CR DIRECTORJoseph Truong

ASSOC. FINANCE DIRECTORUsman Ahmed

CONTRIBUTORSVictoria GranovaArya KhanalNirali MehtaJari QuadratSamiyah ShiblyJoseph SimileChristina Soares

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The Tata Story

Million-Dollar Executions

Muah Beauty Founders Share Tips

568101214151617182022

Authentic Leadership Edge

The Entrepreneurial Personality

The Next Wave of Canadian Startups

How “Summer Company” Can Tap the Genius Within You

Opinionoto: A new way to Share

Comparing Freelance Journalism to Entrepreneurship

Joi

Table of ContentsInvest In Her: Challenges of Female Entrepreneurship

Campus Vibez: The Student Perspective

A Healthy Heart for Entrepreneurship

5

The following message is brought to you by an entrepreneur who eats narcissism for breakfast:

There are two kinds of people in this world; entrepreneurs, who make oppor-tunities for themselves, and the people who work for them.

If that is the case, then what distinguish-es an entrepreneur from an ordinary person? Both of them eat, drink, sleep and pay taxes. Both have epiphany mo-ments where they come up with an idea that could potentially change the course of human history, but this is where their roads diverge; it is one thing to think of ideas, but it is another to monetize them. Chris Hawker, a famous inventor, was just 16 when he started his own aquarium maintenance business. After a while, he conceived various ideas that would ease the process of cleaning these aquariums and began to manufacture various types of filters. As college came around, Hawker closed his main line of business but still continued to produce filtration compo-nent for his existing clients. It was around senior year when his first invention – a sophisticated tool to scrape algae rem-

nants off reef tanks – came about. The existing sponge-on-a-stick (and a fancier alternative, the magnet scraper) was too inefficient as he scraped aquariums all day long. Long story short, Hawker suc-cessfully contacted companies that man-ufactured injection molders and persuad-ed them to manufacture his high-quality ProScraper.

Today, he has brought over 70 innova-tions and inventions to market; some of his most famous products include the ProScraper, Onion Goggles, and the Pow-erSquid. Hawker’s career trajectory was not always successful or linear. Like all humans, he has faced many failures when he least expected them. After the success of his first invention, for instance, his sub-sequent two inventions flopped. He real-ized that starting out with the right idea is not enough unless you know what to do with it.

Hawker believes the drive to create prod-ucts and services is derived from per-sonal experiences, problems, interests, and preferences. However, not all bril-liant ideas will become brilliant economic opportunities. Let’s assume – hypothet-ically – that you invent a cutting-edge combustion engine while working for an automotive manufacturer. Unless you are employed by Ford or Toyota, it would be a heck of a struggle persuading others to monetize your idea. Most of the world’s entrepreneurs begin with limited resourc-es. They do not inherit a staff of 500 peo-ple, nor have enough individuals willing to work over 70 hours per week. So how do you succeed? You make the best of everything. With every great idea comes greater responsibility and, regardless of the corporate earthquakes that divide your ground, your motivation to see your product succeed has to remain intact.

Chris Hawker summarizes this side of entrepreneurship pretty well: “There’s no such thing as a million-dollar idea, just million-dollar executions.” Imagina-tion alone will not guarantee the suc-cess you envision before you embark on your entrepreneurial journey; with ample perseverance, however, it might just be enough. Be ready.

“There are two kinds of people in this world; entrepreneurs, who

make opportunities for them-selves, and the people who work

for them.”

Million-Dollar Executions

Sajal NazirBBA 2017

6

(actually met a few), nothing worked out and I decided to go and register as a sole proprietor.

What gave you the idea of going mobile? For starters, going mobile saved me quite a bit in fixed overhead costs. A place alone would have far exceeded my bud-get, and it was also more convenient for the customer as they did not have to wait at a traditional brick-and-mortar location. It also reduced the overall risk of the ven-ture, as it is so difficult to build your sales in the beginning months. If you have a lot of overhead costs for a business that, re-alistically, will only run for 4 months, mak-ing any money would be very difficult.

Was it difficult to run it yourself? Absolutely – especially in the beginning. But as I slowly worked through the pro-cesses myself, it became a blessing in dis-

How “Summer Company” Can Tap the Genius Within You

Arthur Chung is a fourth-year BBA stu-dent at the Schulich School of Business. In the past summer, he participated in Ontario’s Summer Company initiative where young entrepreneurs are offered $3,000 - $1,500 for start-up costs, and $1,500 upon completion – to run their own business over a 12-week period in the summer. The INSIDER sat down with him to discuss his experiences recently.

Tell us a little bit about your idea. My idea was a mobile car-wash and de-tailing company. How it worked was if you had a dirty car or wanted some de-tailing, I would come to you and provide those services in your own driveway. I initially began with a partner – we were life-long friends and both were big car nuts – but he eventually got a job and it was rather difficult for him to balance his time with the amount of work involved. While I did look for other partners on Kijiji

guise as I understood the business better as the grunt work was done. I had control over the processes, was able to make my own decisions, reap 100 percent of the profits and things generally moved a lot faster! Given that the summer is only 4 months long, it proved to be all the dif-ference.

Control is definitely a big aspect. What were some other key reasons behind your successful run? A big portion of it was related to the sea-sonal aspect of the business. Mobile car detailing would not have been feasible during the cold winter months in Canada, and so I wanted to do something with a summer niche. A second aspect was the existence of a mass market – almost ev-eryone has a car in Toronto, and everyone would like a clean car. There were always clients out there.

Joseph Simile, Max ZhuBBA 2016

Peter Zoon

River House Cars

7

Is this the kind of business you see yourself in? Not in particular, but it does not matter much as there were so many transfer-able skills I took away from this summer. I know that I can take my experiences over this summer and use them to my advan-tage in the future, in whichever interests I decide to pursue.

In addition, the Ontario government pairs participants with a local program provid-er (and business consultant) to assist with business planning, support and guid-ance through their first experiences in entrepreneurship. Arthur worked closely with Don De Los Santos, Manager at the Markham Small Business Centre, over the summer months.

“Arthur had the business background,”

says Don, “and he wanted to test that business background by applying it to something that did not require a ton of skill. The way he promoted and marketed his service was really strong, even though his idea was very basic. His ability to ap-ply his in-school knowledge to real-life situations was a tremendous takeaway of his experience. Running a business is not a case study. Arthur constantly reacted to market forces, changed his pricing strat-egy and the way he was doing his mar-keting.”

Of all the struggles in entrepreneurship, Don believes that financing and the knowledge and expertise to execute the idea are the biggest challenges for new start-ups. “That financing piece, for ex-ample, is more dominant to the young entrepreneur as they have not built up significant assets to gain access to tra-ditional bank loans. This puts them at a disadvantage compared to the financial wealth of someone looking to change ca-reer direction.”

For future applicants to Summer Compa-ny, Don advises that students come pre-pared for the challenge. “Be committed to your idea. Starting a business is not easy - it is a lot of hard work; even if you are not financially successful, you will leave having experienced entrepreneurship in a deeper way.”

As for Arthur’s advice? “Start small and do what you know best. All big things have small beginnings. Even if your idea is huge, think of a way to get there in small steps.”

To learn more about Summer Company, check out the link below:

https://www.ontario.ca/Start%20a%20summer%20company%3A%20students

“All big things have small begin-nings. Even if your idea is huge,

think of a way to get there in small steps”

River House Cars

8

The Entrepreneurial PersonalityNirali MehtaiBBA 2015

Often the topic of our conversations, as university students, is about what drives us to study in a certain field and decide what we would like to do in the future. There are some of us who have a clear understanding of where we want to be and what we will be doing in the next five years. However, many of us still find ourselves exploring various options which we have not experienced. Many students use the various opportunities that university presents to them, such as networking events, courses, and clubs, to find their path. Many of these students eventually build a “wish list” of the types of companies that they would potentially be satisfied to work for.

However, there is a group of individu-als who wish to thrive through creating something of their own and becoming entrepreneurs. As an entrepreneur, one embarks upon a path that is full of risks, with returns likely to come after a long period of time or not come at all. Peo-ple who choose the entrepreneur way

of life tend to generally not follow the herd. There are also common charac-teristics in their personalities that mo-tivate them to choose this adventur-ous path. Here, at the Schulich School of Business, we are fortunate to come across many young and aspiring entre-preneurs who either wish to start their own business upon graduation or have already done so. I had the pleasure of speaking to students in both stages and have found that even though their reasons to start a new venture were different, they had a huge amount of passion, willingness to take risks, and a desire to provide solutions for needs that have not already been addressed.

Marco Zhu is a fourth year iBBA candi-date wishing to pursue several ideas for

everyday needs, such as an efficient air filter system that runs on solar power and thus a minimum amount of elec-tricity. This idea came to him while he and several of his housemates found it very difficult to continuously clean the dust that accumulates throughout the house. Moreover, he wishes to adapt the air filter not just for home use but also for outdoor use in order to reduce air pollution in other parts of the world like China. He found that he was fur-ther exposed to the idea of social en-trepreneurship through the Business and Sustainability course at Schulich. To Marco, social entrepreneurship is the middle ground between traditional non-profit organizations and for-profit businesses. He acknowledges that it is often difficult to achieve both profit-ability and positive social impact. How-ever, he enjoys the challenge and feels that the reward of creating a successful social enterprise would be well worth the effort. As a person who is willing to take on risks to be rewarded greatly, Marco would like to be self-employed.

Similarly, Areeb Akhter and Sahil Kes-ar are also fourth year students at the

Here, at the Schulich School of Business, we are fortunate to

come across many young and as-piring entrepreneurs who either wish to start their own business upon graduation or have already

done so

Sebastiaan ter Burg

Unsplash

Vera Kratochvil

Unsplash

9

Schulich School of Business who want to solve a social problem in their com-munity by creating a business. They wanted to give back to the commu-nity by starting a consulting compa-ny focusing on business development and optimization, while also providing taxation advice as well as marketing services geared towards small to mid-sized businesses. They started their company, Akhter & Kesar Consultants, in early June 2014 and have already launched a website and started work-ing with preliminary clients. They ex-amined that there is a need for small-er companies to receive consultancy advice in the current market and that many of these small businesses owners do not have formal business training.

Thus, they positioned themselves as a company that has the formal train-ing needed to improve business per-formance. The duo believes that the Schulich School of Business has provid-ed them with the tools necessary to ap-ply the theoretical concepts that they learned in class to a real life business environment. As a result, they define themselves as being self-motivated en-trepreneurs and individuals who desire to change things that they believe are being done poorly in the consultancy market. Furthermore, due to the variety of their different experiences, they are able to create synergy amongst them-selves and that resonates with their cus-tomers through their advice, sales pitch and even daily interactions. Our read-

ers can visit their website, akhterand-kesar.ca, for contact information and more about the services that they offer.

These are examples of entrepreneurial individuals in our very own program. It is clear that they have the ability to stand out from the pack by their will-ingness to take risks and through their motivation. Entrepreneurship looks beyond a typical 9 to 5 job; it forc-es one to take on current problems by themselves and allows for great rewards to be redeemed if the right solutions are found. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint at heart but the re-wards promised are truly titillating.

Unsplash

Vera Kratochvil

Unsplash

10

Authentic Leader Edge: Unearthing Your Hidden Strengths

Victoria GranovaBBA 2015

The buzz words “personal” and “brand-ing” have become etched into our ev-eryday vocabulary as aspiring business leaders. The INSIDER had the immense pleasure of interviewing Dorothy Lazo-vik, the CEO of Authentic Leaders Edge, who is an expert in personal branding. The company’s mission is to help lead-ers take command of who they are and live life on their own terms.

“The image element of personal brand-ing was a natural for me,” she told us, “but I wanted to make a bigger differ-ence – I wanted it to go behind the vi-sual presence of a leader and address their internal self image. I discovered while working with clients that the way we perceive ourselves has a profound impact in how we show up to the out-side world.”

The premise“Being the best version of you is the easiest and best way to succeed.” There is a misconception about personal branding that it is a superficial mask; Dorothy’s business model is about be-

ing authentic, about “helping leaders understand who they are, celebrate their strengths, acknowledge and talk about their accomplishments (and own it!)”. Dorothy works with the whole per-son – inside and out – and recognizes that success starts with our thoughts and the way we see ourselves. Dorothy received her certification in hypnother-apy to learn more about the brain, and discovered that we are in control of our internal programming and have the ability to rewire what is currently there. To break through any self-imposed lim-its when working with clients, she helps them to focus on what they really want, not just what they think they can get. “This is where many leaders get stuck – they don’t know what they really want.” Dorothy helps leaders build a brand framework that becomes their guide-line for everything they do. She not only, empowersing them to own their value, but alsoand gives a voice to their strengths. “We need to speak up on our own behalf – hard work is not enough.”

Waag Society

Dorothy Lazovik

11

“We need to speak up on our own behalf - hard work is not

enough.”

Q: What is personal branding, any-way?“Personal branding is the essence of who we are and the way we make peo-ple feel. Before you even enter a room, ask yourself: what impression do I want to leave behind? What are the words I want others to use to describe me? To create this impression, you need to align the way you present yourself with the way you communicate your experi-ences to support your brand authenti-cally and purposefully. To do this, you have to build confidence within your-self and be clear about who you are.”

Q: The best and worst of entrepre-neurship“I love the freedom of being my own boss and the flexibility of the schedule. I love developing ideas and programs

that support my clients, and not hav-ing to fit into a one size fits all environ-ment. The challenge is the many hats to wear, though now I have a team that is responsible for different aspects of my business. The most daunting and at the same time exhilarating aspect is being responsible for your own income – you have to get out there and network to keep the pipeline full with potential business to serve others and share what one is passionate about.”

Q: Advice for aspiring entrpreneurs“Ask, ask, ask. Talk to people doing what you want to do. Take the time to figure out if this is your thing – do you like to play it safe or do you like risk, do you do well in a structured environ-ment or like being your own boss? Go ask entrepreneurs about their experi-ence and what their biggest fears were. Most people will be delighted to speak with you. Before I started my business I called up Harry Rosen and he said yes - and was generous with his time and advice. Entrepreneurs want to help oth-ers entrepreneurs, because someone

had helped them once too. I’ve had a mentor for years.It’s also important to surround yourself with people that get you - with peo-ple that won’t kill your dream. Another thing is not to commiserate and com-plain with people that are struggling like you are. You’ll want to relate to people that are doing what you want to be doing, that are where you want to go – who will raise you up even higher.

Sometimes starting in a company and getting greater clarity of what you want to do can be very helpful. If you’ve done your research and have a clear path to your passion, I don’t think there should be anything that holds you back.Once you have success, never stop de-veloping yourself. You need to contin-ually evolve as a person to grow your business.If your gut is pointing you in the entre-preneurial direction, I say, go for it!”

Check out the company website at www.authenticleadersedge.com

Waag Society

Waag Society

12

The Next Wave of Canadian Startups Initially conceived as an aspartame-free gum, PÜR GUM is also free of sugar, glu-ten, nuts, dairy, and is vegan and diabet-ic friendly. PÜR is currently the leading chewing gum in the health food market.Klein’s initial strategy for PÜR Gum was to start small and move from store to store. PÜR Gum sales representatives went to health food stores and established re-lationships with store management and employees. Klein has taken this approach after the failure of his first gum Bonus. While the marketing and branding of Bo-nus was well-received by retailers, Klein did not have established logistics or a distribution pipeline for the product, and eventually walked away. However, Klein looks back at his last product as an “ex-pensive learning experience” and has learned more about his market and on starting a business.

Now that Klein has an established brand and a proper distribution pipeline, PÜR Gum is taking the next step by establish-ing PÜR Gum at Loblaws locations. He at-

The next wave of Canadian start-ups features ambitious individuals who have identified unfulfilled consumer needs in the market and have acted to meet them. The unique position of technology in to-day’s society has created new opportu-nities for entrepreneurs to reach out to consumers through a unique medium as well as to receive valuable input. PÜR Gum, Porter and Pine, and Bridget are three new start-ups that have succeeded through their understanding of the mar-ket and their consumers, and now face new challenges as they must factor in the effects of doing business with larger and more established multinational corpora-tions.

PÜR GumStarted by Jay Klein in 2010, PÜR Gum is a product that addresses the increasing number of consumers who want to eat healthier and/or have dietary sensitivities.

Samiyah ShiblyBBA 2016

tributes his success to 3 things: learning from his mistakes, pulling the consumer to the product instead of pushing the product on consumers, and growing at a steady pace and taking the time to es-tablish the logistics and operations of the company.

Looking forward, Klein wants to focus on innovation and creating more products.

Parker & PineParker and Pine was established in 2013 as the first Canadian brand to focus solely on clothing for plus-sized men. Founders Irfan Hajee and Leo Park emphasize the importance of research and communi-cating with their target demographic - “One of the core tenets of our business is the partnership between customers and our company - we’re building it for them.” They spent months researching the needs of their demographic through focus groups and one-on-one interviews, subsequently implementing many of the recommendations to their product.

13

“One of the core tenets of our business is the partnership between customers and our

company - we’re building it for them.” – Parker & Pine

Currently the two entrepreneurs are struggling to identify and market to plus-sized men as the mediums available for plus-sized men are very limited. There are no online platforms for men and the GTA only has a few plus-sized stores for men, with only one male fashion blogger de-voted to plus-size men. Hajee and Park have found that men are less open to dis-cussing their struggles and experiences as plus sized men to find clothing.

Moving forward, Hajee and Park plan on introducing more clothing designs to their brand, and would like to create a website to establish a community of plus-

sized men to unite and discuss clothing matters.

Bridgit – Closeout Bridgit is a 2012 tech startup started by Mallorie Brodie and Lauren Hasegawa, two graduates from Western universi-ty. The startup launched its first app, Closeout, to help general contractors, site supervisors, and sub-contractors in the construction industry manage con-struction deficiencies on one platform. Deficiencies are minor breakdowns or setbacks such as drywall cracks and nail pops that, when handled improperly, can ruin budgets and delay projects.

“Most construction companies are still communicating and managing jobs with a combination of pen and paper, cam-eras, tablets, text messages, snail mail, e-mail and fax, and then they write re-ports back in their offices”, says Brodie. Closeout integrates all the different as-pects of dealing with deficiencies such as reports, pictures, and delegating tasks

onto one digital platform.

The product is currently seeing steady growth of 40% each month and revenues that are ahead of projections. However, Brodie and Hasegawa now face anoth-er hurdle. They are constantly receiving requests to integrate their app and plat-form with established end-to-end project management software for contractors to manage all their data in one place.

While integrating Closeout can bring a larger and established customer base, Brodie is worried about losing control of product development and their brand. As Closeout is currently the only app of its kind, other end-to-end software could create a similar product. They are still de-bating their options, but the two wom-en don’t want to sell their product short. Looking forward, they want to “revolu-tionize the way communication flows in the construction industry.”

14

According the World Economic Forum, a strong correlation exists between gender equality and national competitiveness. Countries that have more women in busi-ness, whether it is boardrooms or mana-gerial positions, tend to fare better than those that do not. Studies have shown that a nation’s domestic product could increase as much as 20% if the gender gap is closed, and that when women earn about 80 cents to a man’s dollar, it acts as a disincentive and does not fully utilize a woman’s mental capabilities. Women of-

fer a fresh take on the world and, in an increasingly innovation-driven landscape, this can prove to be crucial to economic growth.

Surprisingly, there are only seven coun-tries worldwide in which women and men participate equally in business, such as Panama, Thailand, Ghana and Ecuador. In some countries, like Pakistan, women

play a minimal or non-existent role in business. This is especially true for entre-preneurship, which is perceived to be a world of risk, doggedness, and creativity. However, the challenges of being a wom-en entrepreneur go beyond the com-monly perceived work-life balance. The barriers to becoming a women entrepre-neur stem from difficulties in receiving fi-nancing, lack of mentorship, and a lack of entrepreneurial education. Women face obstacles such as discriminatory regula-tion and gender bias. In fact, females run only 1-6% of venture capital-support-ed companies. To compound the issue, there are few trusted mentors available for women entrepreneurs, especially in hard-to-break industries like technology. In The Confidence Gap, Katty Kay and Claire Shipman compile research studies to conclude that women, who have a ten-dency to ruminate longer over perceived failures, are more risk-averse and are less confident than their male counterparts. In an entrepreneurial setting, such ten-dencies can detract from the novelty of the idea and the lucidness of the business plan. Therefore, women entrepreneurs can benefit from further skill training.

Fortunately, there are support systems in place to encourage women entrepre-neurship. An unlikely alleviator is Kick-starter, a crowdsourcing website where business ventures are posted and funded

by the public. A study found that wom-en are more likely to secure money com-pared to men, especially when it comes to large projects with goals over $5,000. On average, 37% of women raised their full amount, versus 32% of men. Consid-ering that Kickstarter-backed businesses perform exceptionally well (90% of fund-ed projects are a full-running business for 1 - 4 years), Kickstarter proves to be a useful tool for bargaining women entre-preneurs. Business networks, like Linke-dIn also help connect aspiring entrepre-neurs to mentors, and sites like Coursera, Youtube, and university lectures videos, serve to inspire and support entrepre-neurs throughout their careers.

Contemporary women entrepreneurs may not have had as much of an easy access to resources compared to their male counterparts in the past, but this is changing slowly. Investing in women makes good economic sense because nations with higher levels of women in entrepreneurial activity have above-aver-age economic growth. In emerging mar-kets, women reinvest 90% of their earn-ings into their families and communities. What about the men, you say? A meagre 30% to 40%. Sorry, should have invested in the girl.

Arya KhanalBBA 2016

“Contemporary women entre-preneurs may not have had as much of an easy access to re-

sources compared to their male counterparts in the past, but this

is changing slowly”

fanpop.com

wikipedia.org

Invest In Her: A look at the challenges of female entrepreneurship

15

fanpop.com

one’s life is the most important and emo-tional decision facing high school stu-dents, one that will arguably shape who they become. It is important they have the right information. I started Campus Vibez to do that.”

Campus Vibez encourages students from different universities and colleges to post content such as photos and videos de-scribing their experiences at school. This also gives students the power to shape their unique student life experience by talking about it from their own perspec-tive.

To Ali, Campus Vibez provides a great opportunity to be the hub for students and student groups. It allows him and his team to capture the moments and expe-riences that help students picture what their lives would be like over the next 4 years: the kinds of people they would meet, the activities they would engage in, the overall experience they would have.

While interviewing Ali, I learned sever-al interesting and relatable things about him. Ali enjoys making mutually-benefi-cial deals with like-minded organizations and meeting students and getting them excited about Campus Vibez. He has a strong dislike for bureaucracy in the edu-cation sector. Networking is one of his fa-vourite hobbies (and yes, he calls it one). He enjoys going to events, meeting new people and growing his professional and social network. On occasion, he likes to escape, even if within the city - find an ex-otic spot and reflect on life. Ali has a high appreciation for life, budgeting at least two hours a day for free time no matter how busy his schedule. He carries out his daily activities by incorporating one im-portant self-check: if you look at your life

As prospective students at some point in our lives, we probably attended multi-ple university/college fairs, read through school websites and brochures and listed the pros and cons of dozens of institu-tions. At the fairs, we might have even caught ourselves staring at the stu-dents representing their schools, trying to somehow decipher – through their enthusiasm and body language – what they really thought of their program and school. Ali Badruddin, a graduate of Schulich’s BBA program, recognized that need to get the unfiltered, unbiased and informal opinion. His drive to do some-thing about the gap in knowledge led to the birth of his entrepreneurial venture in 2013 - Campus Vibez.

While at Schulich, Ali, specializing in fi-nance and accounting, interned at KPMG and Kraft and worked as a consultant in the York Consulting Group. After working at Sears, he returned to his passion for consulting by joining Deloitte as a senior consultant and later started his own firm, Badruddin Consulting Inc., in order to pursue entrepreneurship and allow him-self the opportunity to indulge in a vari-ety of other interests.

When asked what prompted him to start Campus Vibez, Ali responded by saying, “I realized that the real value of my un-dergraduate education was my campus life experience – the students I interacted with, the culture I was a part of, the clubs and activities I was involved in. These ex-periences really shaped the person I am and the work I do. Picking an institution to be a part of for the next few years of

as a whole, will you be happy with the decision you make given the options in front of you?

When asked to share some words of wisdom to those interested in looking to start their own business, his advice is simple. “Go in expecting this ride to be an emotional rollercoaster. Some days you’ll wake up thinking you are going to take over the world, other days you are going to feel as if you made the biggest mistake of your life. Every entrepreneur I have personally talked to has felt both.”

To Ali, success is reaching a point where you are the person you want to be and live the life you want to live. In his own words, “everyone has their own ideas of a perfect life - some people want to be widely known, respected and be able to contribute something to society; others value being able to spend 3 months on a vacation resort each year. I believe that things like money, fame, type of work and so on are all enablers.”

In short, Campus Vibez is what I wish I knew about and used when deciding which undergraduate institution I want-ed to attend. No campus experience is bad overall, despite the small things you may or may not like about an institution. It is just a matter of where you fit in. Let’s help out prospective students who are currently going through those university fairs, brochures and pros and cons lists by posting videos and pictures of our expe-riences on campus. Take charge of how others view your university. Visit Campus Vibez (http://www.campusvibez.ca) and submit videos/pictures of events, activi-ties or anything else that will help show-case your campus experience.

Christina SoaresMBA

Campus Vibez: The Student Perspective

Desi Mendoza

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Jon Burnside is a former police constable, candidate for Ward 26 on Toronto City Council, and Founder and President of Healthy Heart Meals. Healthy Heart Meals is a company that delivers healthy food prepared according to predetermined diet plans to consumers’ doorsteps. The INSIDER caught up with Jon recently to discuss his experiences as a successful entrepreneur in the city.

What was your inspiration to start Healthy Heart Meals? I had a desire to do more and a drive to go outside of my comfort zone. For most people, that zone is the 9-to-5 job, job security and retention; with an entrepre-neurial spirit, you want to get outside of that zone and challenge yourself. You want to build things.

Was there a pivotal moment when you decided to become an entrepreneur? I enjoyed what I did (as a police consta-ble) but there was always something in-side me that wanted to push the limits. When you’re in an organization, you’re in a box. You have to work in that box and I just thought there was more opportu-nity elsewhere for my personality to do the best that I can do, and have a great-er impact. It was something that built up over time.

Once you hit the 10-year mark of your career (depending on your age) you have to make a decision of moving up or mov-ing out, or else you will have too much to lose. What are the costs and benefits? Of

course, you can make that change at any time but it becomes more difficult once you start assuming mortgages and other things that give you less room to maneu-ver. I wanted to be my own boss and see where that led to.

There is a certain personality for both careers. When you’re in a large organi-zation, the paths are pretty defined and many people enjoy that sense of know-ing what their next day is going to bring. When you’re an entrepreneur, there is

risk – for sure – but also the possibility of being rewarded to a greater extent for your resourcefulness, ingenuity and your ability to work with others.

How did you overcome the challenges of a young entrepreneur? I remember my dad telling me that most businesses fail because they either run out of money or their idea catches on. Entrepreneurs constantly need to find efficiencies, make do with the tools they have and not get ahead of themselves in terms of capital outflow. When I started my business, I hired a chef but washed the dishes and delivered the meals my-self. A lot of people start to think that certain jobs are “beneath them” or that they’re “too smart” to do them. You hire a driver, dishwasher and, all of a sudden, more cash is going out than coming in. You have to be prepared to put in the ef-fort and do the jobs that are not glamou-rous – eventually, you will be rewarded. It’s similar to getting a university educa-tion and investing for the future versus

the immediate gratification of working right out of high school.

Even now, there’s nothing flashy about my company. Rather than getting caught up in the $400 flower arrangements in a Bay street law firm, I would rather spend that on a high-quality customer service person.

Quite frankly, the economy goes up and the economy goes down. I actually bought one of my competitors out last year. For whatever reason, our industry got a little bit soft and they were totally overextended, going from bill to bill. Their kitchen was on a main street in down-town Toronto – completely unnecessary without a walk-in business – whereas our kitchen was in a “less desirable” location in the suburbs. Instead of paying $14,000 for rent, for instance, I only paid $7,000. When our industry softened, I was able to weather the storm and when the op-portunity arose to buy my competitor, I had the funds. You have to beware of that need for immediate gratification.

What are some transferable skills that you have brought into your campaign for council? Tenacity, perseverance, and the ability to work with others. At the end of the day, 95 percent of today’s entrepreneurs need the ability to relate to and serve others. You might be the smartest person, best athlete or the best bass player in the world, but unless you can get along with others, it would be very difficult to have the level of success that matches your abilities. We all know that the biggest deals are settled on the golf course…it’s because of the relationships you build.

What is one piece of advice you would share to young entrepreneurs? You have to prioritize your funds, and be prepared to do whatever it takes to keep going. You will be rewarded but you must stay patient and persevere with your idea.

Max ZhuBBA 2016

“Even now, there’s nothing flashy about my company. Rath-er than getting caught up in the $400 flower arrangements in a

Bay street law firm, I would rath-er spend that on a high-quality

customer service person.”

A healthy heart for entrepreneurship

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Jon Burnside

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Opinionoto: A New Way to Share“Social Media has a tremendous influence on businesses today, and it tends to reach 80% of all active internet users. That’s a huge number.” Shehmeer Ahmad is the co-founder and COO of Opinionoto, a prominent social media site based in Toronto. Opinionoto is the type of forum where one doesn’t need a lot of followers to get his/her opinion out there, one just needs people with similar interests. Such a social plat-form is a novelty in this age as the norm on sites such as Twitter and Facebook is that a person needs at least 50,000 fol-lowers or over a million likes to be heard. At Opinionoto, social media popularity is superfluous, as far as getting heard is concerned. It allows users to locate one another based primarily on interests. “Opinionoto is an opinion sharing plat-form that allows users to share and ask [for] opinions about topics and receive real-time feedback from a robust, opin-ionated community. Our elaborate al-gorithms help users of mutual interests connect and explore fresh standpoints and ideas.” says Shehmeer Ahmad, COO of Opinionoto.

“We went deep into understanding the basic psychology of consumers in order to make Opinionoto a very appealing platform for our users.” Ahmad believes this is one of the key reasons why it has a growing user base and is destined for success. When discussing the purpose of Opin-

ionoto, especially given the ample amount of media sites already out there, Ahmad said, “Opinionoto gives users the opportunity to express themselves as well as quenching their inherent curiosi-ty. Our unique platform is showing their opinions in a new light; making sense of sentiment and semantics to help connect like-minded individuals so they can dis-cuss everything that matters — from pol-itics and world events to gossip and their daily lives. The possibilities are limitless.”

Opinionoto got off to a slow start and Ahmad decided to have his waiting lists gather up to 1,500 before he let them all in at once. The current list now hovers at around 1,000, with a batch of about 3,000 already using the site.

Ahmad referenced Twitter as a key factor for helping him understand the potential of social media sites, until he realized the big problem with Twitter that his site aims to solve. He believes that the popular so-cial media site actually promotes social polarization: people of different opinions are not collaborating or communicating with each other. “Opinionoto is getting invite requests in hundreds by the day, and we can’t wait to do an official launch. We are getting a lot of support from influential individu-als, and are very excited to see where we can take this dream. Social media sites like Opinionoto help individuals express their thoughts and speak with individuals of similar interests, collectively reaching profound conclusions. What started off as a far-fetched idea is now becoming a reality. It’s not long until you hear our name up there with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – not long.” To check out Opinionoto, Ahmad says to visit www.opinionoto.com and enter the following access code, which he designed uniquely for Schulich students: schuli-ch2014opinion.

Jari QuadratBBA, 2016

“Social media sites like Opin-ionoto help individuals express their thoughts and speak with individuals of similar interests, collectively reaching profound

conclusions. What started off as a far-fetched idea, is now be-

coming a reality”

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Muah Beauty Founders Share Tips for Success in the Beauty Industry

Sajal Nazir BBA 2017

Muah Beauty was established in 2007 by Brenda Pham and May Nguyen. The company operates in a niche market, pro-viding mobile hair and beauty services to hundreds of brides all across the GTA. The co-founders are professionally trained and have years of experience in the beau-ty, fashion and film industry. This experi-ence has led Muah Beauty to become the official makeup sponsor for The Morning Show on GlobalTV this year.

1. What does Muah Beauty mean to you?When you enjoy what you do, the com-mitment and dedication level is always there. We’re always putting in 100% or more into our business and clients be-cause we believe in what we do. The beauty industry can often be perceived as vain and shallow because of its aesthetics and appearance. We have been in this industry for almost 10 years and see it

completely differently. We are given the opportunity to gain trust and we get to meet many wonderful people and learn a lot from them. We grow individually and in our business.

2. They say that every individual has one defining moment in their lives that leads them to where they are now. What was your moment? May: Frankly, I took up makeup for per-sonal reasons. I was never thinking about going into it full force. It was only when I volunteered at a woman’s shelter during the time I was taking the course that I realized how much impact makeup can have. I loved the potential to build self-esteem with just finding the right colour of lipstick or finding the shape of their eyebrows, as well as the ability to build trust with your client. They trust you and your expertise, and that connection of trust is what I seek every time.

Brenda: My most defining moment would have to be my very first paying makeup

client. Muah was at its early stages and we did not know where it would take us. I had my first wedding client. It was the praise I received when I was done, the happiness on the clients face from me just doing what I love, what I’m passion-ate about. I was hooked.

3. Tell us your entrepreneurial story. What made you want to start your own business? What intrigues you the most about this line of work?May: I was struggling the first few years only because I was unsure which path to take as I had a full time job and a son. Be-ing a parent was a priority and I couldn’t bank on makeup just yet. Gigs were slow, which discouraged me in pursuing make-up. I also realize now, if I hadn’t commit-ted and put 100% in the beginning would it have been different. Would I have risked more to gain more? Four years in doing it part time, mostly freelance and wedding gigs, I decided to quit my full-time job and put 100% into my craft.

Tamanna Kanwar

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Brenda: Before Muah was created, a year after finishing school I was working full time at a salon/spa. I was working long hours for minimum pay and had to be away from my son. I thought to myself: “Is this it?” All the hard work in school in preparation for branching out and grow-ing in the beauty industry and I am work-ing for a business where I am not able to achieve the best of my potential.I was hungry for more and I needed to build a foundation of my own for myself and, more importantly, for my son.

4. What is a day-in-the-life of the co-founders at Muah Beauty? We both have different roles as co-found-ers. We both use our strengths to build the company. Brenda takes cares of all the admin, business, recruiting and organiza-tional side of things. I take care of all the marketing and creative aspect as well as our social media handles to keep Muah current.

5. What kind of advice would you give to young entrepreneurs that want to build a business in the beauty indus-try? Try. An idea is always great but the best way to really see if it’s something you like is true experience. Give it your hundred percent and see if it’s something you can fully commit to, whether it is short-term or a long life journey - and if you do de-cide to pursue it, give it your 100%. That’s when you will see its full potential. There is no point of doing it for mediocre rea-sons because you will only get mediocre results. Knowing that you tried your best means even if it doesn’t work out for you, it leaves a more positive impression be-cause you gained experience.

You can get in touch with the Muah Team here at their website: http://www.muah-cosmetics.com/

‘An idea is always great but the best way to really see if it’s

something you like is true expe-rience’

Muah Beauty

Muah Beauty

Muah Beauty

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Marc Saltzman- Comparing Freelance Journalism to Entrepreneurship

Daniel GaryBBA 2017

The INSIDER recently had the pleasure to interview Marc Saltzman, a freelance journalist. Marc’s Gear Guide segments are run as pre-show entertainment at Cineplex theatres.

Daniel Gary: When did your passion for technology begin?Marc Saltzman: It wasn’t until my mid-twenties that I started to get into video games and consumer electronics. I started to get into computer games recreationally and I fell in love with how the medium was maturing: games were becoming an interactive movie in which you were the star. At this time, the World Wide Web was becoming a mainstream phenomenon, with e-mail, and I could sense the coming digital revolution.

Truthfully, I didn’t have a degree in jour-nalism. I started by reviewing computer games so I could get them for free. I was relentless in getting work: calling and emailing editors left, right, and centre.

Back in the day, unless you were a com-

puter engineer, you didn’t have your own website. The difference between journal-ism in the 90s and today is that now you don’t need to rely on a publisher; you can do it yourself through a blog, social me-dia, or your own website in ten minutes. I was reliant on publications to communi-cate my thoughts, and I straddled the line between perseverance and annoyance. I got lots of work because I wouldn’t take no for an answer.

DG: When people see a clip of you before their show at Cineplex, they associate you with technology made simple. What role has personal brand-ing played in this?MS: My approach to technology has al-ways been as a translator, demystifying technology for the masses. Sure, I get my share of geeks following me because I have early access to the products, but for the most part I write for general con-sumers through the Toronto Star, Costco’s magazine, USA Today, Canadian Living– very mainstream publications. I break down geek speak into street speak.

I love that the nerds who are into this geek culture follow me on Twitter –it’s

great– but really, my audience is people who like technology but are slightly in-timidated, overwhelmed, or frustrated.

About my brand itself: I was thrilled when six years ago Cineplex tapped me to be the face of Gear Guide, allowing me to choose the products and write the scripts. It’s an extension of everything else I’ve been doing.

Before Cineplex, I was hired as a free-lance journalist at CNN through a referral from Peter Kent, who’s now a politician. He wrote a flattering email about me, and that got me started. It’s all part of my personal brand as someone who you can trust to give you advice about technolo-gy.

DG: When you were looking for jobs in the beginning of your career, what role did cold-calling play?MS: It was all cold-calling at that point. I’d go to the local Chapters, open the magazines, and write down every email address and phone number I could find of the editors and writers. I would email literally a hundred people a day.

“I translate geek speak to street speak.”

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My pitch was short and sweet. I told them what I did, offered a sample, and asked if there were opportunities available. I would tailor it to each one, writing about what I could contribute to their specific publication. When my emails were ig-nored, I tried again, and then phoned. It was a lot of chutzpah- a lot of cold-call-ing, lots of emails, and being very orga-nized to know when to follow up, with whom, and how.

I remember there was one American pub-lication I wanted to write for, and they wouldn’t write or call me back. So I spent $8 and found a local bakery, and had a giant cookie made with my name and phone number in icing. I had it sent to them, and was later hired for the job. It was a big publication - they were prob-ably busy and fully-staffed. It just takes that little bit extra.

I’m not going to say that this generation has a sense of entitlement. The same ap-plied when I started: lots of journalists were sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. Life doesn’t work that way in any industry - you have to go after things.

I recently spoke at a journalism con-ference in Toronto called MagNet, for the magazine industry. I was on a pan-el talking to young journalists. Someone asked for my closing thoughts, and I said, “for every hour you spend writing, spend three hours getting more work”. That’s the way it goes. Especially being free-lance, there’s not a lot of stability, you don’t get a weekly paycheque.

DG: As a freelancer, do you think your role is similar to that of an entrepre-neur - someone who takes on risks for their own enterprise?MS: Absolutely. They’re one in the same. A freelance journalist can’t afford to sit around - you have to go out and look for work and spend time on business devel-opment. By no means am I the best writ-er–that’s for damn sure–but I enjoy the process of getting more work.

As an entrepreneur, you have two jobs: one as a business owner, and another de-veloping your business, securing your fu-ture. You want to build a brand, become ubiquitous, and be in it for the long haul. For me, this meant to become an au-thoritative figure in technology, with my work on TV, magazines, in movie theaters, stores, websites, and radio.

DG: What advice can you share that you would like to have known in your twenties?MS: It may sound cliché–and this isn’t a generational thing– but there are a lot of people who sit waiting for work to come to them. They’re drama queens. If you’re hungry enough, and if you’re passion-ate about what you do, you’ll get work. It’s not something you can really teach. I think you either have it or you don’t. You can’t understate the importance of ac-tively looking for work.

If you like what you do, but you can’t han-dle the risk, or don’t want to go out to look for work, find a job in-house, not as an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs trade stability for oppor-tunity: you really have to work your ass off, morning, noon, and night. They work 20 hours a day if necessary. Over time, the pendulum swings, and they’re estab-lished as experts in a given field.

Marc Saltzman

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The Tata Story In Greek mythology, Hermes is often de-picted as the patron deity of travellers, merchants and thieves. This is because due to the various unorthodox practic-es that took place around two thousand years ago, merchants and thieves were believed to be the same. You might as-sume that society has now moved for-ward from that implication but sadly, that is not so. To this day, misgivings about the cutthroat nature of business still exist. Speculations claim that business’s under-lying purpose to make profits is to blame.

Entrepreneurs are portrayed to have es-tablished businesses for the sole pur-pose of making money and fattening the pockets of their shareholders and them-selves. Implied too often, this can qualify as brainwashing. There is an alternative to playing the maniacal villain, however; as Peter Casey, founder and chairman of global recruitment firm Claddagah Resources puts it, there is “the Tata way, through which capitalism can succeed.”

The company of Jamsetji Tata has deep-rooted societal values that are more than a clause written in their mis-sion statement, ingrained in the foun-

dation of their business. When Tata first converted a bankrupt oil mill to produce cotton in 1869, he strived to expand with the teachings of his Zoroastrian religion in mind: “That the mission of the righ-teous person is not merely to live a good life, but to make life better for others.” He invested in many projects to improve the living conditions of the people in his country.

While 85 percent of the richest people in the world possess more wealth than 3.5 billion of the poorest, the shareholders and owners of Tata are not among those who reside in luxurious mansions and control vast amounts of wealth even as their success continues to grow. Rather than specializing in one industry, Tata expanded into a wide variety of fields that encapsulates everything from steel, hotels, and energy to insurance policies. They are the sixth biggest steelmaker in the world and have even absorbed Brit-

ain-based Corus Group, a European steel company, for $13 billion. Over a span of five years, their annual group sales dou-bled their projections to $29 billion while market capitalisation continues to in-crease tremendously.

So, where are these funds going? Well, the profits are helping Tata advance slow-ly but steadily on their crusade to turn the world into millionaires. With 66% of the Tata holding company controlled by Phil-anthropic Trusts, the largest stakeholder that Tata truly strives to serve is society. In 1892, the founder of Tata established the JN Tata Endowment to provide Indi-an students with scholarships to study abroad. Their support programmes are contributing towards the revival of tra-ditional methods of irrigation to prepare for potential droughts, working towards facilitating safer organ donations and helping the underprivileged population. At the end of the day, it is heartening to know that companies like Tata are working diligently towards discrediting the rather unsavory image of merchants painted by both Greco-Roman mytholo-gy and the media.

Priyadarshini Roy BBA 2017

“With 66% of the Tata holding company controlled by Philan-

thropic Trusts, the largest stake-holder that Tata truly strives to

serve is society.”

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Unsplash

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