zahnyc
On Tuesday, March 31, the Zahn Innovation Center hosted its second Founders Spotlight. Over 30 CCNY students and faculty members participated in an intimate discussion with Ashok Kamal of SiVi Corporation and John Henry, Ahishar Maxima, and Evan Dudla of Cofound Harlem. Each speaker shared their personal stories and offered advice for a variety of topics including Bootstrapping basics, how to build ones MVP, how to grow a social media following, and how to develop an undefeated team.
SiVi Corp and Cofound Harlem shared an array of advice with students, but highlighted these takeaways:
- Your team is everything. Investors invest in the team more than the idea.
- You should always have a roadmap and an idea of where youre going. We suggest the 3-6-1 plan: Ask yourself, where do you want to be in 3 months? 6 months? 1 year?
- Think about the message you really want to convey and ingrain that message into yourself and everything you do.
- Entrepreneurship is a quality, not a title. Sometimes the smartest move could be realizing that youre not a founder, but a CFO, for example.
- If youre not on social media, you should be!
Ashok Kamal began his career in the hiphop industry, but after competing in the nations top business plan competitions, he raised seed money to launch a social enterprise converting plastic bottles into backpacks. From there, his company pivoted and built a software to help other businesses stay sustainable and market their sustainability initiatives. But Ashok never forgot how challenging it was for his team to raise money. He often reflects on the drawbacks of Bootstrapping, especially for social entrepreneurs. As a social entrepreneur raising capital, you have to remain vigilant in putting your mission at the forefront because youre especially vulnerable to investors €˜money agenda. The more investors get involved, the less control you have over your own concept, he said.
Because Ashok knows how challenging it is for startups to raise capital, he started the micro-crowdfunding platform, SiVi Corporation. As a part of SiVi, Ashok recently started Launch Leader, which he describes as an itemized Kickstarter. Ashok explained, The great thing about Launch Leader is that it helps you three-fold. It not only connects you with capital, but it makes you think of what you really need for your business and forces you to practice accountability by posting evidence of purchasing/creating those things. Now, Ashok helps to make sure social entrepreneurs are reaching everyone who is touched by their businesses.
Serial entrepreneur John Henry was touched by the Harlem community and the potential it held for entrepreneurial thinking. After selling his dry cleaning business, John and current team members Ahishar (@hivebridgelabs) and Evan (@nvite) found themselves meeting up at bars and cafes to brainstorm solutions to the citys problems. We got excited about throwing stuff up on the whiteboard, said John, so they decided to create a space where entrepreneurial minds could come together and do just that. Cofound Harlem is turning the traditional accelerator model on its head and offering accepted startups the unprecedented opportunity to grow in an environment thats all about building the entrepreneur as a person. John explained, As much as we want businesses to succeed, its more importantly about building an entrepreneurial mindset in the community. Cofound Harlems model is project-based and goal-oriented, allowing startups to see how they get from A to Z and every letter in between. Startups also have access to mentors and a full curriculum to help fill in the gaps.
The Zahn Center looks forward to hosting the next Founders Spotlight and learning more valuable lessons from local entrepreneurs!