The E-Entrepreneur

this is an article that I wrote for the UBC nEUSpaper (Sept 7, 2010)

In the January 2010 edition of the nEUSpaper, I wrote an article titled “What Job?”, in which I talked about how students should stop whining about their boring co-op jobs and rather should go start something new and interesting. Since then, several things have happened to me:

1. I received the sheet of paper saying that I graduated from Eng Phys and unfortunately that also means I no longer have access to student perks
2. I officially started to work on my startup Clinicbook.ca full-time
3. I raised a round of seed investment from a group of angel investors
4. I hired a co-op student

This is only a small sample of my life as an entrepreneur. Needless to say, I am happy with my career decision and I feel satisfied to have created something out of nothing. It is even more rewarding to see that there are people using the something that I have created. I co-founded Clinicbook (www.clinicbook.ca), a health website that helps Canadians find local health care. We have over 55 000 unique visitors a month from across Canada and our site traffic is growing at a rate of 70%. Later in October, we will be launching a web application that allows people to book their dental appointments online, so stay tuned!

As an entrepreneur, I am always learning new things and developing different skills. In fact, I am a believer that learning is arguably the most important process in any activity and learning can happen outside the classroom as well. As a student, you should take advantage of every single opportunity and get involved with extra-curricular activities. I spent a couple of years running and managing the Vancouver Student Entrepreneurship Association (www.vsea.ca). I have to say I gained many valuable experience from running the club that I can now apply to my own startup:

1. Take the opportunity to build relationships and expand your network.
Trust me, it is a lot easier to do so while you’re a student. People generally tend to respond better to help requests from students than from people who are working. Building relationships takes time and the sooner you start, the better off you are. I met most of the Clinicbook advisors while I was still in school. And don’t be afraid to meet new people. You will find that there are many people out there who are willing to help and give advice.

2. Make the right hire and build a strong team culture
It only takes one individual to drag down the team’s atmosphere. As I learned from student organizations, it is crucial to bring on the right people onto the team. You want to find people who are doing this because they are passionate about it and share the same vision. With the right people and a strong culture, the team can overcome any challenge and adversity.

3. Focus and have clear objectives
It is tough to do well when you are going after multiple things. As I have learned from growing VSEA to a cross-faculty club, trying to “sell” to multiple groups becomes tougher because you need to cater the message to each group. Just because the market, or the target audience group, is larger it does not mean that it becomes easier to attract users. In fact it becomes very difficult to figure out exactly what to offer in order to satisfy everyone. By trying to address the needs of two different customers (despite the fact that there are some common needs), you end up compromising one or the other.

The experience that I acquired through managing a student organization can be applied not just to an entrepreneur, but to other professions as well and even life in general. I strongly encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and try something new and take advantage of every opportunity.