100 Years of Entrepreneurial Leadership

“I am, quite simply, an individual who has dedicated my career and my personal life to helping others succeed on their personal journeys … I wake up every day, loving my work and my life path, but only because I know I'm meant to exist to help others.”

Connie Clerici, QS '08, LDD '22

"Pick up the phone or go and see someone if you need some specific advice.  The worst that can happen is someone says “no” and you move on to your next person. Most people are happy to give advice if you are respectful of their time and clear about what you are asking."

Matt McLellan, HBA '14

"It’s really about growing strategically and finding partners that could make our lives easier… It's surrounding ourselves with experts and people who know more than us and who can assist us beyond what we're capable of doing ourselves."

Amar Gupta, MBA '17

"I look to all these ventures that I had as opportunities that I really got behind something and gave it my all. The only reason some failed was because they didn’t align with my personal values."

Adam Silverman, HBA '20

"I was trying to do it all on my own. So when we started getting back in touch with the Ivey alumni network, that was a huge accelerant for us, and allowed us to get access to new viewpoints... it allowed us to approach things differently than we might have otherwise done on our own.” 

Jason Cottrell HBA '08

"What's nice about an entrepreneurial firm is that you can make it clear upfront that the system is there for a reason, and here's what the reason is. And if it needs to be improved, well let's improve it. I don't need a 10-year review to improve a system."

Justine Hamilton, MBA '00

“Young, aspiring entrepreneurs talk themselves out of starting businesses because they don’t have the time, money, energy, experience – many reasons. But the reality is, starting has never been easier… Stop making excuses and just get started. Done is better than perfect.”

Eric Janssen, HBA '09, MBA '21

"I always think that business moves at the speed of trust. A partnership is a bit like a catapult or a leapfrog for business … If you can bring a partner on who totally gets you and you get them and you can move further, faster, it’s a dream machine."

Kelsey Ramsden, MBA '04

"There are people who can do those things as well or better than you. The sooner you can find those people, and trust them to do it, and not micromanage them; you will be able to grow, expand, and focus, on the most value-add tasks that you should be working on."

Gil Silberstein, HBA '05

"When I get involved in something, I get passionate about it. You have to have a passion to achieve any kind of success. You have to be resilient, you have to be able to take the ups and downs, and get up when you’ve been knocked around, and just keep working."

Steve Suske, MBA '77

"It doesn’t feel like work to me. People say you need to find something that doesn’t feel like work. That’s how I feel."

Josh Barr, MBA '17

"The best way to learn, improve, and be a better entrepreneur, is by starting a company, and learning through trial and error."

Armon Shokravi, HBA '22

“Once you break your boundaries day-after-day-after-day and work through situations that you may feel uncomfortable; when you throw yourself at those, and you accomplish them, it opens up worlds for you.”

Michael White, MBA '00

“I had to use other people’s support to believe that I could scale a business up to a global level, and we have those talented people here in Canada. I hope that young people will see that and be tough enough and reach for those big, big goals because they can be achieved.”

Kyle MacDonald, HBA '82

"There’s a low-cost, simple way to see if your idea works. You don’t need to spend a year in a basement working on a product in a silo. Talk to people. Run mini-experiments. Validate each step of the way. And once you know you’re solving a real problem for people, just go for it."

Brandon Pizzacalla, HBA '11

"If you can come up with something better than the solutions available, you could have a business."

Will Richman, HBA '11

"We’ve all read stories of people making tons of easy money through start-ups but those situations are like lottery tickets; one in a million. The overwhelming majority of businesses that start will inevitably fail, and a majority of those that succeed go through a long grind before seeing success. During that grind, you will likely have to deal with personal challenges and stresses that you wouldn’t experience in an employment job. So set your expectations that it isn’t likely to be a quick and easy path."

Derek MacNeil, MBA '05

"Ask yourself, what do I think is wrong with this world and what am I going to do about it?"

Robyn Hochglaube, MBA '02

“You have to be in it for the right reasons. You have to find meaning and passion in what you’re doing. You need more than money to drive you and to do what you want to do.”

Chris Janssen, HBA '13

“We honestly got lucky. We hit it off right away... for business partners to have a sustainable relationship together – because there are so many ups and downs – there must be complete alignment on where you’re trying to go.”

Mallorie Brodie, HBA '13

“I get to go into a job and work with people who have been inspiring and have helped me with leadership and really make work not feel like work.”

Laurence Applebaum, HBA '94

"Entrepreneurship is a bit like a muscle you flex. If you do decide to go into it, it’ll be really hard to flex it at first but that muscle will eventually get stronger and easier to deal with."

Tony Bouk, MBA '05

"If you’re pitching to investors, try to understand the investor mentality and what they’re looking for. It’s way different than when I’m normally talking about my business or when I’m speaking with potential customers. You’re selling different things."

Sarah Landstreet, MBA '13

"You don’t know when you start down these roads where they may lead when you’re open to opportunity and you pursue them aggressively. There are unintended consequences both ways though, some wins and some losses."

Don McDougall, MBA '61

"When you’re building a business, nothing that you’re building has existed before, you’re making everything up as you go. Every day I come up with a new process."

Sarah Richard, MBA '15

“Don't ever think or wait for what you think is the right time because that time will rarely if ever come.”

Jack Jelinek, HBA '20

“Sales is the only driver of revenue in a company. If you don’t have sales, you don’t have a business really.”

Adam Gapinski, HBA '17

“I started to relate the classes with the clients I was working with. It made sense. I tied what I was learning to what I was doing and it was a great combination.”

Ryan Ward-Williams, HBA '13

“Entrepreneurship is born of confidence but it's also born of training and that ability to see the larger picture; to paint a compelling destination for people and then carrying other people with you to achieve results”

Ron Close, HBA '81

"Dream big but act small. Have that vision for what you want to create… but do small things to get you there."

Cato Pastoll, HBA '14

"You don’t need to be an expert about something. You need to go where nobody else has gone before. And there are no prerequisites for that."

Arkadi Kuhlmann, HBA '71, MBA '72

“Entrepreneurs have the kind of courage it takes to go into an arena and fight without an assurance of victory,"

Samuel Osho, MBA '22

“Don't be afraid to push for what you want and use those resources around you to help you get where you want to be.“

Natalie Diezyn, HBA '21

“The story is what sells this generic product. It doesn’t matter if it’s a beaded bracelet or anything else, the story has to be coherent.”

Brennan de Langley, HBA '16

“Listen to customers and potential customers. They will tell you how to successfully run your business. They’re the ones who will drive your business.”

Divyansh Ojha, HBA '20

“Really the success of a business comes in large part from doing careful planning and having the willingness to take the logical steps to move through a process.”

Karen Wright, MBA '84

“I'm always action-oriented... it's all about 'how can you get this in the market as soon as possible, and get some feedback.'” 

Heather Payne, HBA '09

“You start working when you’re 15, 16, and you continue working until you’re about 65. So that’s a big part of your life when you take that into consideration. You really gotta be passionate about what you do and just be relentless.” 

Taylor Ablitt, HBA '10

“As a solo entrepreneur, learning to effectively prioritize a never-ending to-do list has been crucial.”

Dennis Ho, HBA '22

"Everybody thinks you can do no wrong and quite frankly most of the time, it seems like you can't. Everything you're touching is turning to gold… and it's a great ride. There's no question about it. It really puffs your ego and you really shouldn't let it do that… when the times are so good, aren't gonna last that way forever. They may not turn bad, but they're not going to be that good forever."

Bob Nourse, MBA '64

“To be successful as an entrepreneur, you have to love what you are doing because there’s a lot of work, and you can’t work as hard as necessary to drive it, unless you are passionate about it.”

Larry Rosen, MBA '82

"Think the most important thing is if you're happy at work, if you're able to have that flexibility, you're able to carve out, you know, meaningful life beyond just working after studio or taking classes. I think for us, that's longevity, how do you make the business sustainable."

Debbie Fung, QS '16

"It always takes longer, it's always more expensive. If you do a startup no matter how well you research it, no matter what kind of experiences you have, it takes longer to get your product to market, to develop what you want to do it takes more money. So put buffers in your budgets, in your timelines, in your planning because I've not seen a single startup that has done it on budget on time."

Bas Van Berkel, MBA '06

"Organizations and businesses fail on execution, not on the lack of good ideas. So, you really need to make sure that on your team, if it's not you, there's somebody who's really strong on execution."

Jocelyn Mackie, HBA '03

"Ultimately, I think often we're our worst enemy. We're the one standing in the way of the greatness that we can become. Don’t be afraid to challenge the way that you see yourself or the narrative that you're telling yourself."

Melissa Sariffodeen, HBA '10

“I think the idea of being OK with being uncomfortable is huge. Because every day you are not going to wake up and say -I am in the spot that I like right now. Going after your dreams takes risk – and risk is scary – and that’s OK – it’s supposed to be scary.”

Nicole Baranowski, MSc '21

"Just because you don't see yourself as someone who can make the most pristine model in Excel does not mean that you won't be able to make some of the best suggestions for them moving forward. Own your background and understand what are the things that you learned from some of the stuff that might seem weird to other people because it's going to be unique to you. And that's going to craft the better parts of your story."

Emily Lonetto, HBA '16

“We were frustrated with the products available to us... We thought, there must be a better way to do this.”

Simone Godbout, HBA '20

"It's like being open-minded and honest with yourself about whether or not you can overcome it. And if you can overcome it, what is success? And if I can’t overcome it, what's the damage from failure? One of the simplest things that I do in almost every case is when someone says, ‘let's do this product,’ in my mind, I say: if you're right, or if we're right, and we go ahead and do this, what (does) success look like? And if we're wrong, and we do this, what does failure look like?"

Ben Varadi, HBA '94

“I remember this graph I saw on Twitter,” he says. “It was a big curve for emotions when starting a business. At the top it’s excitement, ‘This is so cool. We’re going to take over the world.’ And when it starts going down it’s like, ‘Oh my God, this is not really working.’ Then there’s a pit of despair at the bottom but as time goes on the curve starts climbing back up a little bit. What I want to say is if you get past the pit of despair, you’ve figured it out.”

Rafael Recavarren, HBA '19

"It sounded like a fascinating opportunity, and I knew if I didn't pursue it, I'd never get an experience like that again."

Jonathan Goldberg, HBA '06

"I always try to reserve some time during the day to think; close my computer, grab a pen and paper, and effectively write things down and turn off the noise because you can't get into data with day-to-day distractions. Having that time to think, reflect and plan is big. (To) set goals, set long-term goals as to where you want to go and try to figure out a map as to how you want to get there. That map will never work out, I promise you that."

Eric Brass, HBA '05

"One big lesson we learned from STMNT is to get your product or service to market quickly. Put it out there, and your customers will influence how you build the business out."

Jenessa Olson, MSc '18

“Somewhere along the way, somebody is going to give you some advice; nobody makes it on their own, they're going to be coached. And that coach could be just like I was mentioning off the top… early on, my father served as a business coach and a mentor, but everyone is going to have somebody who's in that role of the guide that can shepherd them to help make those decisions.”

David Ciccarelli, QS '17

“So I think the more you can get out there and try to ideate is probably better than just all sitting in a room and hoping something miraculous comes to you. Or even a lot of great companies are started by people who did work in another business, and noticed a niche opportunity that no one just sitting in a chair could have ever come up with themselves because they weren't involved in that space.”

Bobby Besant, HBA '13

“Understanding yourself and being willing to look yourself in the mirror and acknowledge your flaws… Acknowledge the parts about you that you don't like the part you do like. One way or another, you're stuck with yourself. So you can layer on all these distractions, which I have done; I've layered all of these goals on top of myself. So I could focus on those goals and not focus on me.”

Alan Gertner, HBA '06

"You can hire the best PR agency, but if your product is boring, it won't matter. I think you really need to have a story to tell and that was really important."

Jayme Jenkins, HBA '07

“It(starting a business) was almost like cracking a case… doing the industry analysis, business size-up, looking at our financials, and all of that.”

Justin Li, HBA '21

“There's a great expression, ‘to have the right answer, you have to know what question to ask.’ So what are we trying to solve? And often the client doesn't drop it on your lap and walkway. It's really worked out together really early on in the proto-beta stage, we work through it all. So when we get to the final stages, we have a really good understanding of where we need to go with the product or the messaging.”

Brent Choi, HBA '93

“As an entrepreneur, every class that you took an Ivey would come in handy. And I do find myself on occasion being like, ‘I remember hearing about this, I wish I had paid even more attention.’ Everything that you're learning, whether you're ready to jump right in as an entrepreneur now, or five-ten years down the road, you're going to be learning skills (now) that will prove useful in the future.”

Sarah Sklash, HBA '07

“I use to call it ‘hand-in-the-can-management…’ You got to get out and see how things are actually working. You read a lot of history (books) of other companies or businesses or armies, where the generals don't get out and see what's happened to the troops upfront; they get way out of touch really fast.”

Greig Clark, HBA '74

"We all have a role to play in order to ensure that the future reflects the population and it really does come down to very tiny actions that each of us can do. Ask yourself, what can I do tomorrow, or once a week to move the dial for someone else? What that means is to literally go out of my way to create a small opportunity; invite someone to a meeting, (or) offer someone some advice and coaching. Create an email introduction that might be transformative for that person, use a little relationship capital, sometimes it's two minutes, but it's that choice to act because the dial doesn't just move.”

Jodie Kovitz, HBA '14

"What I did have is trust in "us" as a team's ability and a conviction that... the way things are made isn't 'Okay,' and can't be the way things are made in the future... At the time, if you'd asked me, I probably couldn't have put it in words, I think our gut told us that there was an opportunity to do something different and innovative."

Rami Helali, HBA '10

“Make sure that you are taking care of your body and your mind because it will help you everyday to get out of bed and go hard.”

Kevin Callahan, MBA '09

“If someone else can do it, and I have the capacity to attempt it; then why not?... At the age of 87, I don’t want to look back on my career and think I didn’t try the entrepreneurship thing at a time and place when I had the privilege to do so.”

Fenton Jagdeo, HBA '16

“The trouble with most entrepreneurs is that we get enthusiastic. We think we have a good idea, and we’re sure everybody else is going to see how brilliant we are with the idea… so we are not going to need as much money as we would like. We are prepared to make sacrifices to make the idea a reality and so we expect other people to do that; that’s probably not true.”

Ian Turnbull, MBA '75

“We need people to make stuff and export stuff, so we can create jobs and pay taxes to fund our Canadian lifestyle... We need more nurses, teachers in the schools – that stuff is expensive – somebody has to pay for that.”

Mark Whitmore, HBA '91

“The first butter tart order we got was for 1,200 tarts – the most we had ever made before was six… It was a 20-hour day but we stuck with it and we trusted each other. You are all going to have stories like this at some point. Don’t quit. Trust each other.”

Mike Tevlin, HBA '81

“You could change lives and not only your own life but provide employment and a future for others.”

Michael Rychlewski, MBA '23

“As a startup, your best customers will become your most valuable investors.” 

Joshua Gao, HBA '21