Stay ConnectedThe Mentors follows twin brothers Vadim and Sergei Revzin as they seek to uncover how successful people build their businesses and careers from day one. Twice weekly, the brothers bring inspiring stories from entrepreneurs, artists, business leaders, and entertainers they meet in NYC, to tell never before heard stories of how people get started, even when they have nothing.
Music by: www.purple-planet.com
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In difficult times it helps to remind yourself that every day there are good things happening in the world. This week we highlight how some entrepreneurs are taking the opportunity to rapidly innovate and address the problems caused by this crisis head on. We also talk about the importance of being grateful for the positive things that happen throughout your day while trying to avoid the negativity of the daily news cycle. We end the episode by highlighting some of the happy moments we experienced this week which will hopefully help you remember your own.
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When Vu Van was struggling to learn how to pronounce words in English correctly as a grad student at Stamford, she couldn't have known that a passion for this problem would drive her to build a language learning app with millions of users just a few years later.
In this episode Vu breaks down exactly how she managed the process of proving demand for her language app ELSA by getting 1000 users in just one week. She also walks us through how she tested with hundreds of early users in Vietnam to build a functional initial prototype that she used to attract one of the best minds in voice technology to join her as a CTO.
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Entrepreneurs are not defined by their product but rather their ability to come up with an idea and bring people together to make it a reality.
Given recent events this week we decided to launch a new initiative to help people land jobs in more resilient and flexible industries, starting with tech. Starting in two weeks (April 1st, 2020) we will be launching a series of free live online classes to help people 1) understand the opportunities available to them in tech 2) learn how to develop soft and hard skills specific to the discipline they're interested in 3) understand how to leverage their past experience to identify the industry they're best suited for 4) learn how to rapidly build up their credibility to land interviews 5) begin to establish a network in their field of interest.
In this episode we discuss exactly how we're executing the launch of this program, what we're doing to grow awareness, and how other entrepreneurs can start to adapt to the changing environment we're living through. If you're interested in joining our classes or know someone else that would like to learn directly from leaders in tech, you can sign up here to get all future announcements https://school16.co
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Starting one successful business doesn’t necessarily make it easier to start another one. However, experienced entrepreneurs are more likely to be successful the second time around simply because they know how to push forward until they start to reach their goals, even if it takes longer than anticipated. In part two of our interview with Claudia Chan we discuss what gave her the idea of starting a women’s empowerment company and why this business was more challenging to build from the ground up than the business she started in her mid twenties.
We learn the importance of having a right hand man or woman from the onset and how Claudia was able to recruit this type of talent in the very early days of her company to make sure that she was executing on her goals.
As the business grew SHE Summit started to attract people from over 100 organizations and to date it has had over 600 speakers while reaching tens of thousands of people through the conference and hundreds of thousands of people remotely. Claudia also talks about how this created an even bigger opportunity to build a leadership program for organizations that are interested in prioritizing diversity and inclusion and why it’s so important to show others how leadership opportunities can be accessible to anyone that actively pursues them.
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We're in a unique time in history right now where the whole world is going through an experience together. While it's clear that there's a lot we don't know about the spread of a pandemic and it's eventual ramifications, if nothing else our very humanity is evident now more than ever. This is creating a heightened sense of camaraderie and a realtime shift in how we interact with each other.
In this 5 Minute Pick Me Up we talk about how Scott Heiferman identified an opportunity for a business that helped build communities and connect people face to face right after the tragic events of 9/11. That company, Meetup.com, grew rapidly in part because of the timing in the market and people's inclination to embrace this new technology.
We also talk about why more people are now looking for opportunities to connect with others as they shift to working from home and how this should open up more doors for you to become a creator. During the episode we reference Paul Graham's essay titled Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy which can be found here: http://www.paulgraham.com/badeconomy.html
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Before Claudia Chan was even 30 years old, she was already running a 7-Figure women’s entertainment business in New York City. How did this first time entrepreneur accomplish so much, so quickly?
It was through that own-your-own-destiny mentality that Claudia’s parents ingrained in her from a young age that she was able to have the confidence to think of herself as a born entrepreneur even as a teenager.
Always keeping her eyes open for opportunities, Claudia spotted her first business idea while working for a dot com startup in the early 2000’s, when companies were spending thousands on event and party sponsorships.
In part one of our conversation with Claudia Chan we talked about how she got to revenue with that business before even quitting her job, why she decided to partner with someone else who had an existing party business in NYC and how that led to millions in revenue in a few short years. We also discuss how she used the lessons learned from that first business to start S.H.E Globl, which puts on one of the biggest women’s empowerment summits in the world.
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We were all set to hold our conference with more than 500 confirmed attendees, but at 8:00AM on the morning of the event we got an email from the venue saying that due to the coronavirus threat, they can no longer host our event.
With 4.5 hours left, it seemed that the only option was to email all speakers and attendees apologizing for this unexpected turn of events and cancel the whole thing. But it took just one person to ask, is there any way to keep the event on?
This is exactly what happened to us just a few days ago and in this episode we talk about how this proactive mentality helped us figure out how to save this event, and why sometimes having your back against the wall is exactly what you need to achieve things you would otherwise think are impossible. We also discuss the importance of having a resilient team that can handle uncertainty gracefully.
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If someone tells you “that’s just the way things have always been done,” then there’s likely a business opportunity there that no one has been brave enough to tackle yet. When Mona Bijoor was working in the fashion industry connecting apparel brands to retailers, she heard that phrase often. But she knew that offline handshake deals and orders placed via fax were going to be replaced by technology, it was only a matter of time.
The difference between her and most of her industry colleagues is that she set out to be the one to change this behemoth of an industry by launching JOOR in 2010, and ultimately growing it to billions of dollars in transaction volume.
But how does someone who has no experience building technology, let alone creating a marketplace from scratch, even know where to start?
In this episode, we got to hear exactly how Mona was able to convince brands to digitize their inventory exclusively on her platform, and eventually built it into a company with over 100 employees. We also dug into some of the stories that Mona shares in her new book, Startups and Downs: The Secrets of Resilient Entrepreneurs, of her struggles as a first time founder, and how she, along with the dozens of founders that she interviewed for the book, overcame them.
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Why would a billionaire agree to be interviewed by someone who just started her own podcast? For most of us, celebrities and ultra-successful people seem completely out of reach, but Heneka Watkis-Porter has proven again and again that if you really believe that you can create value to people, then you can get anyone to support you. As long as you’re willing to keep asking them.
In this 5 Minute Pick Me Up, Vadim spoke to Heneka to find out how she gets influential people to support her work and the philosophy she uses to get over her own fears.
Find out more about Heneka here, and support her podcast, The Entrepreneurial You, by subscribing!
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Quitting a job can feel exhilarating and intimidating at the same time. In a perfect world, you’re leaving on good terms and have a supportive boss that offers you future opportunities for mentorship and references.
Unfortunately, these circumstances are usually far from perfect. Many people leave their jobs because they’re unhappy, and the source of this unhappiness typically comes from the people that they work for.
There’s many misconceptions about what to expect from this process, and how to handle the conversation with your employer when the time finally comes. We start this episode with a role play, giving you a real life example of how to handle a boss that reacts horribly to the news of you leaving. A situation like this can often be fraught with emotions on both sides, so it’s important to be fully prepared going into the conversation.
We breakdown how you can anticipate questions and objections from your boss, and what to do to prepare ahead of time. Whether you’re quitting your job to work on a new business, or leaving for a better opportunity it’s important to know your rights as an employee. These tips will help you stay calm and at ease throughout the process, and remember – it’s only one conversation. Soon you’ll be on your way to a happier you.
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