The Generation Hustle Podcast

We're back & starting off 2022 with a great guest from the world of HR! Episode 59 is with Evan Hallward, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Aboard! Aboard enables growing startups & small businesses to find, implement, and automate their People Programs. From onboarding to offboarding, and everything in between, Aboard ensures that employees will be better prepared to succeed. We talk to Evan about his motivation behind founding this platform. He details how his experiences in recruitment and HR led him to building a people-focussed company of his own. This was a great conversation with so many learnings. We’ve all had our fair share of bad interview and employment experiences. If you’re looking to revamp your recruitment and employee engagement, this episode is sure to help! Timestamps 2:15 - Evan’s Entrepreneurial Journey 6:14 - What does a successful interview process look like? 10:35 - War for Talent vs. Brand 11:40 - How to Optimize your Hiring Process 13:22 - How Start-Ups Fail at Hiring Talent 17:35 - Debunking the Negative Perception On Employment Length 19:51 - Defining “Employee Engagement” 24:45 - How to Retain Talent at your Company 30:19 - Transitioning from a “Task Role” to a “Manager Role” 31:45 - What is Aboard? How are they helping employers & employees? 36:50 - Lightning Round

Episode 58 is with Mark MacLeod! Mark is a semi-active angel investor with a portfolio of 14 investments, 2 highly positive exits and counting. He was most notably General Partner at Real Ventures, Canada’s largest and most active seed stage fund. With a background in finance, he also served as CFO for software companies including, but not limited to, Shopify and Freshbooks. We talk to Mark about his journey from finance to venture capital. He details his move from C-suite to investor, and the critical skills that are needed to help a start-up succeed. Mark also dives into the critical skills needed to become a leader in the industry. This was a fun conversation with plenty of gems throughout, so we hope you enjoy! Timestamps 1:31 - Mark's Career Journey 7:00 - They Key to Learning Fast 8:30 - Importance of Product-Market Fit 9:50 - Managing Stress in Decision Making 12:25 - Critical Skills Young Professionals Need to Learn 15:30 - Don’t Chase Titles. Do this instead. 19:04 - What makes a great leader? 22:45 - How to Develop Trust amongst Your Team 24:42 - How to Successfully Fundraise with VCs 27:10 - What Makes a Start-Up Investment Worthy? 31:40 - How Mark got into DJ-ing and Fitness 34:40 - Lightning Round

Episode 57 is with Alexander Jivov, Co-Founder & CEO at Hopeful Inc.! Hopeful Inc. is the first Social Fund-tech platform that enables nonprofits and charities to monetize their social media followers specifically for fundraising, while giving them visibility on why donors are engaging through a proprietary Storytelling A.I. dashboard. Alex is a Salesperson, Digital Marketer, Full-Stack Web Developer, Chef, and published author - a true jack of all trades with an interesting career path to say the least! We talk to Alex about his career journey and how he pivoted through so many different avenues. He describes the process of building a start-up in the non-profit industry, building out a successful founding team, and how to figure out the right career for yourself. Alex also details the importance of mentorship through accelerators and incubators from his experience with the Ryerson DMZ and UC Berkeley SkyDeck. This was an incredibly informative episode that’s sure to have a bit of everything for everyone, so we hope you enjoy! Timestamps 1:53 - Alex’s Unorthodox Career Path 4:32 - How to effectively experiment early on in your career 6:16 - Building a Client Acquisition Strategy 8:31 - How to Become a Better Salesperson 10:19 - What is Hopeful Inc & How are they helping non-profits? 16:31 - Challenges Faced by Hopeful Inc. 18:30 - Hopeful Inc.’s Acquisition 24:02 - Defining Success For Your Company & Employees 27:10 - The Future of Hopeful Inc. 29:00 - Advice for Entering the Non-Profit industry 32:04 - Lightning Round

Episode 56 is with Taran Singh Kainth, Co-Founder & CEO at Flahmingo! After witnessing the financial crisis of '07/'08, Taran pursued his curiosity in finance and investing to understand the markets. His ambitions increased in complexity, from managing his family RRSP at the age of 16 to democratizing investing for students and young investors with the founding of Flahmingo. Flahmingo is a native mobile application that allows you to begin investing with as little as $1! Their proprietary technology enables users to grow and maintain a diversified portfolio through the purchase and sale of fractional shares. These fractional shares allow Flahmingo users to own as little as $1 in companies like Tesla, Alphabet, Amazon and even Berkshire Hathaway. We speak to Taran about his entrepreneurial journey, meeting and gathering knowledge from Tim Draper at Draper University, and the importance of financial literacy at a younger age. This was a great conversation with an ambitious leader to keep an eye on for the future, so we hope enjoy! Timestamps  2:25 - Financial Literacy and Building Wealth  6:50 - Early Finance Mistakes & Lessons 11:10 - How to build your financial knowledge 15:45 - Taran’s Investment Strategy 20:45 - Inspiration behind Flahmingo 24:00 - What is Flahmingo & How can it help you? 32:22 - What’s next for Flahmingo? 35:47 - Importance of Community 38:14 - Challenges of Building a Start-up

Episode 55 is with Tiago Teixeira, Co-Founder and CEO of xix3D and Founder of Sekanskin! xix3D runs a 3D car configurator that helps visualize the artistic work through hyper-realistic renderings and custom graphics in seconds. Sekanskin has established the industry benchmark with meticulously dedicated vinyl artists that have a reputation for perfection. After graduating with a degree in Psychology, Tiago decided to pursue his passion for cars, launching into the automotive space first with wrapping cars, to now innovating the way the entire business works.  We talk to Tiago about his drive and how he found his calling in the car industry. He explains his journey from masterminding the viral sensation Purrari - a baby blue Ferrari wrapped for none other than Deadmau5, to now leading a tech company taking the industry by storm. Tiago also details the impact of mentoring through the Ryerson DMZ, to expressing self-confidence to achieve your goals. This was an incredibly motivational conversation, that we hope you can learn from and enjoy! Timestamps 1:45 - The entrepreneurial journey 8:30 - Working with Deadmau5 9:50 - How to Acquire Clients for Your Business 13:00 - Origin of XIX3D 19:10 - Building a Tech Company without a Tech Background 24:55 - Networking and the Working with the DMZ 35:40 - Lightning Round

Episode 54 is with Phillip Gales, CEO and Founder of inate.ai! Holding a Masters degree in Engineering from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Harvard, Phillip is a serial entrepreneur focussed on applying machine learning algorithms to financial portfolio optimization. Inate.ai automates the analysis of growth stage start-ups, using artificial intelligence to facilitate venture capital due diligence. It plugs into the common tools that startups use, seamlessly merges that data, applies AI algorithms that have been trained by subject matter experts and provides clear, actionable insights, warnings and suggestions. We talk to Phillip about his journey from the oil and gas industry to tech start-ups. He details the importance of incubators such as Y-Combinator and the DMZ, growing companies with data-driven insights, and the current state of Venture Capital. This was an incredibly loaded conversation with so many insightful learnings, that we hope you enjoy! Timestamps  4:00 - Journey from Engineering to Tech Start-Ups 10:30 - How to Use Data for Useful Insights 14:55 - The Business Model of a VC 21:47 - What is Product-Market Fit? 26:40 - How to Connect with Potential Investors/VC’s 35:50 - Accurately Evaluating Start-Ups 36:54 - How Is inate.ai Helping Founders & Start-Ups 44:00 - Lightning Round

Episode 53 is about money in sports - more specifically, everyone’s favourite word, taxes! When we look at the business of sports, it’s easy to get fixated on the glamorous life of athletes, player contracts, sponsorships, and lifestyles of these individuals. However, when we take a step back, the owners behind many of these teams tend to be the big fish that remain hidden. This episode will uncover some of the secrets employed by these owners, and will use details from the analysis performed by a Propublica article titled: The Billionaire Playbook - How Sports Owners Use Their Teams to Avoid Millions in Taxes. We hope you enjoy!

Episode 52 is with Professor Karl Moore! Professor Moore is an award-winning teacher, researcher, and an internationally recognized leader in the study of Introvert/Ambivert/Extroverted Leaders. He has interviewed thousands of CEOs, Premiers, Cabinet Ministers, and even Prime Ministers. He holds an MBA from USC, a Masters from Oxford University, and a PhD from Schulich School of Business. He is currently an Associate Professor at McGill University, a Columnist for Forbes Magazine and the Globe and Mail, and Host of the CEO Series on Bell Media. We speak to Professor Moore about his research on Introverted, Extroverted and Ambivert leaders, and how different generations have adopted these skills. He explains the consequences of generational mixing in the workplace and how boomers, millennials and Gen z can successfully co-exist. He also details his work on Indigenous communities and how we can use current events and education to foster these relationships. This was such an insightful and inspirational conversation that we hope you enjoy! Timestamps  2:23 - Background, Education & Research  3:30 - What is an Ambivert?  7:57 - Are you born an Introvert/Extrovert/Ambivert? 11:00 - Modern vs. Post-Modern World View 13:58 - Remote Work - Boomers Vs. Millennials 19:28 - Rise of an Anti-Social Society 24:30 - Strategic Frameworks & Porter’s 5 Forces 30:51 - Strategy Advice for Future Leaders 33:30 - Boomers, Millennials, Gen Z & Organizational Culture 37:20 - Importance of Networking 41:30 - Indigenous Relations in Canada 46:30 - Closing Remarks

Episode 51 is on Identity Politics! In recent years the weaponization of identity politics has wreaked havoc on Western societies and is becoming more prevalent.  Aman and Sheriston break down the ideology, how it has been utilized by the powers that be to the detriment of citizens, and what we can do to break the trend. The boys also dive into the recent revelation of condo developers buying up swaths of single family homes to repurpose as rentals. They detail how rise of remote work is influencing geopolitics while exacerbating the housing crisis.  This is a passionate analysis of current events that's sure to step on some toes, so you've been warned! We hope you enjoy! Timestamps  0:38 - Core Developer controversy  5:00 - Morality of the Housing Crisis 10:40 - Identity Politics 19:30 - How remote work is influencing Geopolitics

Episode 50 is with Abdullah Snobar! Abdullah is the Executive Director of the DMZ and the Chief Executive Officer of DMZ Ventures. Ranked as one of the top university-based tech incubators in the world, the DMZ provides a launchpad for founders to build and scale fast. To date, the DMZ has helped more than 400 startups raise over $1B in capital and created 4,000+ jobs. We talk to Abdullah about his non-traditional journey into tech. He details his journey from a Palestinian immigrant, to serving in the Canadian Armed Forces, to founding a non-profit in Kenya, to today becoming recognized as one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40. This was an incredibly inspirational conversation that intertwines so many facets of culture and society. We hope you find it as enlightening and informative as we did! Timestamps  2:50 - Immigrating & Adapting to Canada  7:12 - Attraction to the Hospitality Industry 10:53 - Canadian Military Experience at 16 years old 13:12 - Overcoming Fear 14:45 - The Supa Maasai Foundation in Kenya 25:12 - The DMZ at Ryerson University 31:37 - DMZ’s $1 Billion Milestone 36:25 - Why you should choose The DMZ 38:55 - Growing the Canadian Tech Ecosystem 43:45 - Common Qualities of Successful Founders 47:40 - Lightning Round