Starting a Business vs. Working in a Startup
The Start of My Entrepreneurial Journey
In mid-2019, I started a tutoring company with the goal of connecting parents with a vetted tutor near them in less than 24 hours. In the fall of 2019, we grew our customer base and expanded our offering, teaching multiple subjects all throughout Ottawa. Our revenue was consistent until the COVID pandemic began, to where most schools decided to pause operations and many parents did not need / did not want to pay for a tutor, especially given that no one could meet in person and online tutoring was not an option for many parents at the time.
Throughout the summer of 2020, we pivoted the company and began offering a two-week coding bootcamp for children between the ages of 10–17. We would have one teacher per seven students, and we ran multiple cohorts with over 30 students. During the two weeks, a child would learn the basics of programming and by the end of it; they had built a nice visual using the python programming language.
A New Opportunity on the Horizon
While I was building Tutorhall, I would constantly network with other startup founders in the community in order to connect and learn from others. While I was going through the Startup Garage program in 2020, we attended a sales workshop run by Kailin Noivo, Co-Founder & CRO of Noibu. After the workshop, I reached out to Kailin on LinkedIn and had a call with him a few weeks later. I was extremely impressed by his approach — very straightforward and wise, he understood the sacrifices necessary to succeed.
Throughout the next few months, I had subsequent calls with Kailin and he became a mentor. In mid-2021, I had the opportunity to join Noibu as a Business Development Representative within their sales team.
As an entrepreneur, you wear multiple hats within the company; however, you quickly begin realizing what type of work you are most passionate about. Mine was speaking with customers as well as sales, and I recognized the importance of networking. I really do believe that was what helped me get a foot in the door at Noibu. It is important to connect with others because you never know when or how these connections can be valuable. Given my passion for sales, I spent a large amount of time honing that skill as a founder; it put me in a great position to become a top performer in my new team.
A Look Back on My Experience So Far
Working at a startup is one of the best ways to begin your entrepreneurial journey and this experience has taught me many things, namely:
- I quickly realize what it takes to start and scale an organization, and I witnessed first-hand the growing pains that come with it.
- I learned more about sales technologies — how different tools come together to create a smooth process (e.g. Apollo → Salesforce → Salesloft, etc.) and more importantly how to create a repeatable sales process.
- I also learned how different organizations function on their own, but they all connect together to create a well-oiled machine. For example, the engineering department builds features that help the sales team win more deals, which then help the customer success team demonstrate long-term value to the client, which reduces churn.
Key Takeaways for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
If you are considering embarking on an entrepreneurial journey of your own, here are a few actionable items to get the ball rolling:
- Start with the fundamentals. Before thinking about co-founders, raising money, ‘changing the world’ — start simple. It is important to start by reflecting on what you are passionate about and, subsequently, pinpoint a problem you would like to solve.
- Next, I would choose a potential target customer and have conversations with them WITHOUT mentioning a product or idea.
- After speaking with enough people, I would create an MVP in the simplest way possible — without any code. I would make sure to charge for it and see if people are willing to pay — as that is the best way to validate a business.
A bonus tip:
Another extremely important factor is defining a vision & mission, setting short and long-term goals, and tracking metrics. Too often, first time founders will ignore those, and it really becomes troublesome, as you cannot improve what you cannot measure. Having a vision really helps everyone (founder included) stay aligned and make sure to not move in a different direction too quickly, as the shiny object syndrome is something that many entrepreneurs (myself included) are likely to face.
Feeling inspired? The Entrepreneurship Hub’s Startup Garage program is designed to support entrepreneurs at all levels. Find out where you fit in!
