This week’s guests are Swish Goswami, and Aanikh KlerSwish Goswami, 24, is the CEO of Surf, a tech company providing brands a better way to engage and understand consumers while compensating consumers for their data. Surf’s brand division provides high fidelity data and commerce enablement opportunities to some of the world’s biggest brands like Netflix, NBA, Sony Music, etc. Swish has given three TEDx talks, has a book coming out this year on youth entrepreneurship, and has set up an angel fund called AGEX Capital. Aanikh Kler is Cofounder and COO of Surf. Aanikh got his start in entrepreneurship at the age of 13 when he created his first business and social venture - UndrTheRadr (UTR). This involved a neuroscience-based ringtone where each consumer download included a charitable donation. Aanikh became one of the youngest app developers in the world to have had a top 3 app. Selected as a National Youth Ambassador for The Next Big Thing Foundation, Aanikh has used the power of public speaking and media to reach millions of people with the message of overcoming challenges and making a difference in the world. Aanikh is a proud recipient of Canada's Top 20 Under 20 Award, a delegate representing Canada at the 2016 G20 YEA Summit, and a member of Adweek's GenZEO Council.Enjoy the episode!---SHOW OUR SPONSOR SOME LOVEMeridian » meridiancu.ca/personalCONNECT WITH THE STARTUP GAMBIT PODCASTInstagram » instagram.com/thestartupgambit/📧 EMAIL US » thestartupgambitpodcast@gmail.com ✨ CONNECT WITH HASTE AND HUSTLEINSTAGRAM » instagram.com/hasteandhustle/FACEBOOK » facebook.com/hasteandhustleTWITTER » twitter.com/HasteandHustleTIKTOK » tiktok.com/@hasteandhustle?✨ KEEP IN TOUCH WITH SHAUNA:INSTAGRAM » Instagram.com/shaunaarnottFACEBOOK » Facebook.com/shauna.arnotttuypTWITTER » Twitter.com/Shaunaclaire✨ KEEP IN TOUCH WITH DEVON:INSTAGRAM » Instagram.com/visualdevon/FACEBOOK » facebook.com/devon.codringtonTWITTER » twitter.com/devoncodrington

This week’s guest is Lynn Smith. Lynn has spent 20 years in journalism covering stories that matter; she's a national media expert and advisor to individuals and corporations alike helping them articulate their message in the media. Lynn pushes people to evaluate themselves, discover their own superpower and determine how to unleash and evoke impact in a room, on paper and of course on screen. This episode covers Lynn's career from starting as a page to being an anchor for CNN Headline News as well as how to discover the key to showing up in an authentic way. And when we say authentic we mean it. We cover the impact being authentic has and the actions you can take to be sure that you're remaining true to yourself.Lynns’ story and presentation is infectious and when the podcast is over you're going to want to know more about her and hear more. The good thing is you can head over to our concierge page or www.Lynnsmithtv.com  and get in touch with her.

This week on the Startup Gambit Podcast we're joined by Dan Spottsville, CEO and Co-Founder of Valynt Digital. Valynt is a digital marketing agency that uses data-driven marketing to help you find your audience and communicate directly with them. Dan’s been running digital campaigns for 12 years and by many is considered a "go to person" when it comes to raising capital using digital marketing for Reg A, Reg D, and Reg CF offerings.

We talked to Dan about creating a strategy that can maximize the outputs of data-driven marketing. We also actually talk about the specific boxes that Dan checks when creating data driven campaigns. These details make the difference between a campaign you built by watching tutorials and one that activates (or creates) your full marketing funnel, retargets your ideal person and then converts. You're not going to listen to this episode and not come away having learned something about the power of data and how it's you're likely not leveraging it for your business needs. Listen to this episode and then share it with someone you know that uses this thing that we call the internet.

Season 2 of the Startup Gambit Podcast kicks off with Steve D Sims. Steve is known as The Wizard of Oz by some, procuring whatever experience or item you may need. If you want to visit the Titanic in a submarine, call Steve. If you want to party with celebrities call Steve. If you want to learn how to be an authentic person, you’ve got to do that yourself but watch Steve because he is a master of that. We chat about all the things above and more in this really fun inaugural episode of The Startup Gambit Season 2. We're so glad you're here, enjoy the episode and feel free to check Steve out at https://www.stevedsims.com/ We talk and laugh with Steve about:The power of ignorance – this is a great story, you’re in for a treat.Adaptability being an absolute necessity for entrepreneurs.The pressures of a startup or any endeavor changes as it matures.  Cheerleaders, Challengers and Crabs

• Cheerleaders - support and cheer you on. 
• Crabs - Goad you and criticize but they don't do anything themselves
• Challengers - might laugh or ask you why you're doing what you're doing, but it's because they want you to go further. They will follow-up their laugh with advice.

Paul Fitzgerald is the Founder & CEO of Salt & Pepper Media Inc a PR company specializing in press coverage for startups in Canada and the USA. which operates in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Diego. He’s also a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine and a bunch of other business and tech publications. We talked to Paul about:

• Base strategies early stage businesses owners can employ to create a critical mass of good PR?
• What are some key ways to make a press release get the attention of the media?
• How to leverage the often forgotten local media as an effective means for marketing
• What are some of the current challenges facing the BIOPIC community in media representation and what can we do to shift that in a positive direction?

• Find what’s unique
• Massage the idea
• Connect it to what’s topical. 
• Run it by people you trust to be honest with you

This week’s guest on Emile Studham is Founder / Director of Performance by Design. Performance by Design empowers leaders and teams to focus on results provided through facilitated workshops and online training systems. Emile routinely facilitates corporate teams to achieve optimal performance, has helped countless sports franchises dismantle and eradicate poor performance and is more than comfortable speaking on stage to groups of thousands about getting active.

Culture is the underpinning of your entire company.

Major points for leadership:

• Ask questions. Ask more questions than you provide answers.
• Continuously think about how you want to be described and follow that up by deciding the behaviour you need to display.
• Be the one that gets the most feedback.
• Create an environment for others to perform.
• Invest in understanding yourself and what you stand for. 
• Take a psychometric test.
• As a company leader, schedule regular time with your direct reports, find out what's going on in your company - Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks mystery shopped for 2 years 

Creating the “Culture Code” by Performance by Design 

1. Diagnostics - to determine:
2. Why do we exist?
3. What do we stand for?
4. What are you going to reward as a team? As a team, you’ve got to reward, recognize and challenge each other with a focus on behaviour:
5. Psychometric profiling provides an understanding of communication styles which we can then use to build strong relationships
6. Implement review and maintenance of your Culture Code in your workflow.
7. Have regular “Real Talk” session

Read this book: No Rules Rules Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention - Reed Hastings

Something really cool that Emile said -“The buzz of building your business is really the buzz of watching your people grow.”  

Something really cool that was said to Emile - “You’re in our way.”

This week’s guest on the Startup Gambit Podcast is George Khalife. George is a sales & marketing professional with a background in finance and the DNA of an entrepreneur. At 26 George became the youngest Vice President at the Toronto Stock Exchange; he opened up the Chicago office covering the Midwest, with the goal of helping U.S. companies go public in Canada. Previously George led the marketing & business development fintech owl.co and before that led business development for Sampford Advisors, Canada's #1 mid-market M&A firm. Currently, George hosts a top 200 entrepreneurial podcast called Let's Grab Coffee where he interviews successful leaders across different industries and has featured individuals like the Cofounders of Netflix & Starbucks to the Music Video Producer of Drake. Catch up with George at the links below:linkedin.com/in/georgekhalifegeorgekhalife.com@khalifestyle Let's Grab Coffee

We talked with George about:

• Key actions a startup must take to prepare to raise capital
• Stages of funding
• What sorts of questions should start up founders be asking when meeting with VC?
• What are the benefits of taking a company public and what are some strategies?

Questions to think about when raising capital:

• Are you in the right sector?
• Are you targeting the right people? 
• Know your operational numbers.
• What's the right amount to ask for?
• Consult someone with a Pitch book licence, get their advice on your raise?

The realities after the raise are really important too:

• What’s your action plan after the raise?
• How do you spend that money?
• Is your startup flywheel designed?

The stages of raising capital?

• Pre Seed / Bootstrapping /“Blood equity” /“Sweat equity”
• You’ve provided all the capital yourself, it comes from friends, family members, credit cards-whatever you can get. This could be as small as $5,000 and as high as $100,000. You’re creating your minimum viable product (MVP)
• Seed ranges from $100,000 to $500,000 and is often provided by angel investors, and is usually structured as convertible notes or common stock. You’re refining your product and the bet here focuses pretty heavily on the team. 
• Series A - 2M to ~5M -The amounts will vary depending on the jurisdiction. This is the first round of institutional funding for a venture. The aim is to fund a year or two of operation and support growth. 
• Late Stage Funding (B, C, D) - Each round may raise between $5 million and $20 million or more. Series C and D rounds typically come from VC firms and/or strategic/corporate investors. 

Questions a founder should ask her VC

• Are they comfortable with leading the funding round?
• Do they want board seats?
• Is there follow-on investing?

The TSX Venture Exchange is mostly small-cap Canadian stocks with over 1,600 companies listed.

Listing provides some cool advantages, shares can be leveraged for mergers & acquisitions

U.S. investors might be able to buy stocks in the TSXV directly through their broker or on U.S. exchanges as American Depository Receipts.

Term you may not know:

• “Data room” your cloud based platform where you store company info.

A cool thing George said: “Haste and Hustle brought the sexiness of entrepreneurship to Canada” - George Khalif

Georges favourite quote:“Don’t let other people’s opinion of you become your reality” - Les Brown

This episode of the Startup Gambit podcast we’re joined by Nesh Pillay. Nesh is an award-winning entrepreneur, speaker and marketer. She is the founder of Press Pillay - a socially-conscious digital marketing agency based in Toronto. We talked with Nesh about PR and got into the details of essential PR strategies, the difference between marketing and PR and the frequently asked question of how to respond when you’re targeted online.Listen, let us know what you think.

presspillay.com

Personal Website - neshpillay.me

Instagram - @pillay.nesh

Nesh shared her expertise on:

• The essential base PR strategies that early stage businesses owners can employ?
• The difference between marketing and PR?
• How to create proactive marketing and avoid being reactive?
• What to do when you are targeted online?

The importance of your reputation:It definitely precedes you, but as a new business owner PR, is the mechanism for creating your reputation when you don’t have one

The difference between Marketing and PR

Do you need a Press Release?

The Grapevine MethodWhen pitching your story:Your story is the grape; the existing news cycle is the vine. What’s the stem?The stem connects your news to the vine and it’s what makes you relevant.“Existing isn’t news”.

On the pressure to be responsive to controversial issues:Brands need to be authentic with their messaging. It's okay to say you don’t have the answers relating to a certain issue.