Pitch Please

It's Mike back here with the pitch, please. Podcast today. We've got two special guests.

We've got Riley from the Forge incubator in Hamilton and Licia from a company called In Charge. So we're gonna be talking a little bit about the forge a little bit about her company. Um That's actually a resident company of the Forge uh and learning why and how those two things fit together. So maybe we can start with a quick introduction. Um If you want to go first, talk a little bit about your role uh in charge and then we'll pass it over to Riley, talk a little bit about him and learn some things about both of you. Yeah, absolutely. Hi, everyone. I'm Harris. Um I founded my company in charge in 2019. Um but really didn't get started on my entrepreneurial journey within charge until I actually joined the for, with a more solid idea that I was looking to scale. So we'll definitely get into that a little bit later. But that's a little bit about me. It all came out of my personal journey and now we're trying to help more people in their personal finance journey as well. Awesome. Well, uh thanks for having us, Mike and as always, uh thanks for being an excellent company at the Forge and an excellent example of what uh the forge is really looking for in an amazing company. Um Just a little intro to myself, name is Riley Mones.

I'm the incubator manager over here. And um what we do over at the forge is we help companies scale. Um We help them uh from market traction pro kind of early MVP stage all the way to about 1 to 2 to 2 re uh to $2 million in revenue. Excuse me. Um The idea is how can we get you as a company to sales quicker? Uh And that's kind of what we've structured all of our resources around. Um We've got mentors uh here, we've got access to perk partners. Uh that's sort of thing. Uh And, and uh the idea is how do we, how do we get these guys and gals uh moving as quickly as possible towards sales so that they can, you know, do what a lot of startup companies do, either raise or hire, uh you know, new team members to take them further on their journey. Amazing. So I'd love to learn a little bit more about both of your backgrounds until you've sort of arrived where you're at today. Um I see, I was looking at your linkedin profile a little bit earlier.

You've definitely got some cool experiences, but now I realize I'm also talking to a little bit of a, a TED celebrity as well. Do you want to give a little bit of background about yourself, some of your roles um leading up to, you know, your journey of where you're at now in charge, just so we can learn a bit about you. Yeah, for sure. Um I will say my career journey has been quite unconventional. Um I haven't really been in the exact same role um within any kind of company or the same industry um too much, but I really believe in like leveraging transferable skills. And I think a lot of those experiences like taken, you know, from one job to the next job, really kind of helped set me up to be an entrepreneur and starting my company because some of the roles I started right out of the university was actually in sales um which eventually morphed into more of a market and project management. And that's really because I did incredibly well in sales. And I took my small role as a customer service rep and kind of transformed it into actually signing. Um a million dollar deal with a very small company um to deploy um a, a rebranding project for, for them. And from there, you know, I started working for some big CPG companies like Coca Cola. Um They brought me on to do some more innovative sales. Like what are some market opportunities that their current teams aren't taking advantage of and how can I view the market differently? So that was a really cool role where I came in.

I found opportunities really quickly within believe it or not the salon space coming out of my own experience. Um And so I was able to then teach more of their business development how to look at an existing market in a unique way. And from there, it kind of morphed into more of a project management and strategy role. Um going on to a coffee company further than that Walmart Canada and Craft Times and those rules have all been really cool because I've always been in the innovative space or in the scale space. So now with all of that experience and kind of the retail marketing project management, um CPG world, that's all really helped set me up to, you know, take an experience that I had for myself, which was um looking for a financial advisor going to the banks, trying to get one. And even though I had opportunities to do a lot of things with my money, they simply just wanted to sell me another line of credit and that just wasn't what I expected. So with that, I was just like, it has to be done better than this. And that's I started on my own personal financial journey, developed the five key pillars of personal finances, which I talked about in my ted talk. And um now we're using that framework um and using it to actually help financial advisors in the field to one deliver personalized financial literacy to their prospects while helping them curate the best products.

That's right for them in that point in time and for the future. That's amazing. So as I kind of listen to you kind of go through your background there. Um I heard a lot around sales innovation but not really like entrepreneurship. And so you obviously encountered a pain point if you kind of date back to earlier in your career before your career even started. Did you see yourself as an entrepreneur in the future?

I think I did, I always wanted to do my own thing. And what I think I loved about most of my rules in um in the corporate sense was I was able to take those rules and create what I wanted out of them. And the second I wasn't able to do that anymore, this opportunity with what happened to me in my personal finance became that outlet for creativity for myself in terms of solving problems I really cared about in a more meaningful way and I kind of replaced what, you know, the corporate environment wasn't giving me anymore and it really became the right opportunity to jump right into this. That's cool. Uh One more question, um Your TED talk experience, talk to us a little bit about that. You know, how does one get started getting a platform like that? Is it nerve wracking? I'm assuming someone out there is wondering, can I too be a TED talk speaker? Um How did that kind of shape up and how did that come to be? Yeah. Um So it's kind of serendipitous in a way, in a lot of ways. Um because I remember about three years ago, it was the day I met one of my really great friends um for the first time and we were watching a TED talk on linkedin and it was so inspiring and I remember just saying to her out loud with no real meaning behind it. Like I would love to do that one day and it was for um mcmaster Entrepreneurship week when um last year, actually, when I heard that there was a call for a TED talk and every time I sort of tell my story of coming to Canada and how I had to like learn the financial landscape, you know, as a team going forward, everyone was so, you know, inspired by it. And I thought what a great opportunity for me to tell that story on a bigger scale because one, it's not, it's not a unique story, but it is a unique experience that I have. And there were a lot of learnings that came out of it, which I think a lot of people can resonate with. And because personal finance is really an internal experience and journey for a lot of people, I think it creates an opportunity for them to say, you know, hey, yes, one, maybe I can solve some of my own problems or two.

I'm not alone in this. And the problem is greater than just me not understanding and not, you know, explaining um explaining what my needs are and my experiences are in a more simple way. Yeah, I feel like the platform um to your point, you had a relatable story and a compelling platform to talk about it and share something that draws others in. Um speaking about relatable stories. Riley, I have to imagine incubator manager like that.

Sounds like a pretty hefty role. Sounds like you help and connect a lot of people. Um How do you get into a role like that? Tell us a little bit about your background and what sort of brought you to becoming an incubator manager in case anybody out there is, you know, also looking to one day, take your job, but until then show them the ropes, what do they got to do to become an incubator manager? Well, thanks for asking Mike. Um you know, I feel like after listening to uh Licia story again, um I, I feel like we've almost switched our career paths, uh almost entirely.

So, um you know, you, you've kind of moved into entrepreneurship um and taken a step out of that corporate environment now, um which I uh I, I commend you for because it's tough to make that career change. I actually made the career change in reverse. So I came from entrepreneurship and uh eventually kind of got uh to the place that I am now, which is I am uh um gainfully employed by mcmaster University in the role you, you previously described um to just kind of look at my background though. Um I come from an, a, a very entrepreneurial family. My uh my parents uh run three denture clinics.

My grandfather retired when he was about 35 years old after uh you know, really setting himself up. Uh Well, uh I'll just put it that way. Uh eventually got bored of being retired at 35 and started a, a lumber yard. Um uh We, we like to think of it as the uh the largest indoor lumberyard in Western Canada at the time. Um I eventually uh you know, started, you know, when I started uh life as an entrepreneur. Uh It was right after university and I had seen all my family members doing entrepreneurship. And uh I thought, well, why would I would, I would I want to work for someone when I could work for myself. Um I originally I was very interested by a film and video production. So uh I got into film and video right out of university, started my own company uh that I ran for eight years uh with a business partner. And um you know, eventually I just thought, you know, I, I'm, I've kind of lost my thrill of being this uh creative filmmaker and I'm doing more business anyway. So maybe I should uh consider studying business more and expanding the, the skill set that I have uh into other forms of business.

So, um after sell, you know, selling out of my company, I um I went to uh down to San Francisco and I took a prog uh took an, a very special MB, a program that has uh a specialty of what we call design strategy. And so this program really gave me that innovation, uh strategy, skill set that I now use with the companies that I work with at the Forge. Um And, you know, after doing this MBA, I thought, well, my wife now uh got kind of her dream job up here at mcmaster. And so we, we moved to Hamilton and I thought, well, what can I use the skill set for? And uh you know, it just sort of turns out that uh consulting with and working with uh early stage startup companies and even in some later stage companies was uh really a great fit. Uh And so that's kind of how I got into this, this role. So you've sort of been an entrepreneur at heart from the beginning. Um I, I wanna learn a little bit more about the types of companies at the forge, but it sounds like with such contrasting stories, this feels like an ideal moment to ask for advice. Um So maybe since you're already kind of going Riley, what's your advice on? Um you know, deciding if moving from being a family of and person of regular entrepreneurship to sort of plant yourself into a role where you're gonna stay put. Um And, and be, you know, gainfully employed as whether it be an incubator manager or something else, as you said, and then she be back back to your side, you know, you know, Riley mentioned, it's very tough to make that jump from being in the corporate world to becoming an entrepreneur. So I'd love each of your kind of perspectives on, on that or, or advice that you've got for others. Yeah, I, I mean, I think um if I look back in my experience, II, I think, you know, I really just thought about this as a starting point for my new education experience, where can I put that to use? Um So, uh you know, that's, that's kind of how I made the transition and, and to be quite honest, Mike, I, I find it, um you know, I find it exhilarating to see other people taking the advice that you've given them and really putting it into, into action. Um Will I uh you know, always uh see it that way. Probably not like I, I, you know, it's really hard to take the entrepreneur out of the entrepreneur, right? And so, uh you know, I'm still very much tempted to have a little business on the side.

I actually do have a solar energy company on the side that I I work with. Um But, you know, you coming into a role like this after being an entrepreneur, it's difficult um because, you know, you've been the person guiding a company for the uh the longest time and you've been the sole decision maker or one of the main decision makers. And now you're coming into a place where you have to play nice with everybody again. And so um you really have to kind of work on your interpersonal skills, you have to work on your communication skills to make that happen. Uh I, I think that was probably the hardest part for me was kind of to try to let go of some of that um you know, requirement to, to be that sole decision maker and think about how, how do I creatively uh explain things so that, you know, perhaps people can see things through my eyes. Uh you know, whether it be uh other coworkers of mine or my boss. Um so that, you know, perhaps I can convince them to come around to my perspective on things. Um um But, you know, I, I would say that's probably the, the hardest thing that you, you kind of have to learn, you just have to learn to kind of switch that mindset away from being that sole, uh you know, decider um to, to being a team player, uh more of a team player once again. So from decision maker to enabler, it's a great, great transformation story. Um Licia, how about yourself? Uh It sounds like your, your jump is maybe some would say the harder one or at least Riley would say. So um what uh what compelled you?

I know we're gonna talk about uh in charge in just a second. But you know, what were some of the things going through your head uh or mind or body as you were kind of thinking about this big life change of going from regular kind of corporate careers where you started in sales and going all in to be an entrepreneur. So I would say um so what I, what I mentioned earlier was I was really looking for autonomy. Autonomy is something that's always been important to me, even like as a child. Like my parents couldn't tell me to do something until they really um convinced me that this was the right thing to do because I've always had my own opinion and things like that. And when you're sort of stifled in that way, um from a corporate standpoint and not everyone has the same corporate experience.

Some people, you know, have immense um entrepreneurship opportunities within companies that they work in. And, you know, um I work with and their discovery series um group and I actually just interviewed them on my podcast talking about, you know, how is it to be an entrepreneur within a company? Because outside of their salary and everything else, they truly do get to run whatever they do on the day to day and drive their own division. And I think if I had that experience in my corporate experience, I might have been satiated, I think for a much longer time. But that drive to really take something and create something out of it was really the big driver and the obvious downside of, you know, taking that big leap of faith is your income, right.

That is definitely the biggest part of it. And yes, do I feel that sometimes? Absolutely. I haven't been on vacation for a couple of years now, which is something I love doing. But I saw that, you know, this short term kind of risk and sacrifice and everything together is gonna make it so much more worth it in the end for me because I think, you know, coming out and even, you know, it's been almost two years since I've not been in the corporate world and working with charge on my business day in day out for almost two years has been so transformative in like my person, my character, you know, how the business has grown and evolved and visited. And that brings me so much more joy than like a steady paycheck at the end of the day is money important. Absolutely. But how I feel about what I work on every single day is so motivating. And I think if someone is looking or lack of motivation where they are right now, you just have to find what drives you, whether that's entrepreneurship or not.

It's not for everyone, it's lonely, it's hard. You cry a lot sometimes. Um and you get nose all the time and so you have to be willing to know if you are capable of bouncing back over and over and over again until you get it right. And I would say if you're willing to do all of those things, um Then I think entrepreneurship is right for you. Otherwise you don't have to, not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur.

I I love that. So maybe some, some sacrifices, shorter, maybe long term on the financial side. But there's an autonomy and a fulfillment that's oftentimes hard to get at every single corporate experience. Well, may exist out there. It's not everywhere I can say. I have definitely have the ability to do that where, where I work. So it is uh it is the blending of that entrepreneurial spirit and I love it. But I also love working close with founders and startups and learning about and helping connect them. And that's, that's why I do this. Um Maybe Riley tell us, you know, we're gonna do pitch, please.

We're gonna do the pitch about um in charge in a second. But uh we're gonna need to know how these are connected. So maybe give us the, the quick pitch on what the forge is, the spectrum on how many different businesses you support. And if there's companies with an idea or maybe they're bigger companies, help them find their ground of whether they should be coming to talk to you at the forge. Yeah. Amazing. Um So we have to forge our business incubator in Hamilton, uh Ontario.

We work with uh companies that are at the early uh MVP or early market Traction stage. Um Meaning that you have some sort of um entrepreneurship, 101 kind of on board. You kind of got that understanding. Um And that you've, you've built something. Um I now I don't want to say that it's a finished product but you've got something tangible that you can go and talk to people with. Um And that you've done a little bit of validation on that uh particular product or service or idea. Um We, we also are interested in working with uh people at the forge who are I, I'm not, I don't wanna say full time founders, but you're, you're putting in a substantial amount of effort on your startup. Um And the reason is, is that we provide uh office space, we provide mentorship. Uh We've got over 50 different mentors here and we work with companies that are in all sectors. So if you can imagine, uh we have to have a lot of support from our mentorship in or uh from our mentorship pool in order to make that work. Um Unlike some other incubators that are specific to health or specific to A I, right, who can, who can find mentors that are very specific to those particular sectors.

We have to be fairly broad with the mentors that we bring in. Um and, and we offer a lot of other things like I would call it like a one stop shop for any, for anyone looking to build an innovative scalable business. Um you know, uh from perks, like we've got over 200 different perks, you know, if you want inexpensive accounting or accounting help um all the way to, you know, you need Microsoft Azure credits, right? We can help you get access to that sort of thing. And then we have over 40 uh venture capitalists and angels in our uh investor network. So one of those other things that companies are looking to do, they're looking for revenue, but they're also looking for perhaps in, in certain cases to raise money. And that's another way that we can help them, um, you know, very aro pro for, for this, uh, you know, podcast.

We, we will help them get their pitch together. Um, you know, like I said, just about anything you might need. I've helped companies figure out partnership disputes and legal troubles and, you know, um, I, I think someone today was likening me my, uh, uh uh, what I do here to like a business psychologist, right? You, you have, you, you need to talk to someone about what ails you and your company and you need AAA solution. Uh This is the type of uh this is the type of service that you might want to get access to. I love it. A, a business psychologist that was a great punch line summary. Um We're gonna turn the tables over to Licia. Um and we want to hear your pitch, please tell, tell us about in charge. All right. So I say in one sentence, what in charge is really doing is creating the next generation of financial advisor.

Today's financial advisors just start serving us in a way that, you know, we want to be served. They're not embracing technology in the way that they should to serve the millennials and the Gen Z and that real true next generation that needs help with their finances. Um We are really automating that process for them in terms of helping them grow their business, for sales and really nurturing um their businesses that allows them to one convert more people to deliver more financial literacy to people. So the more engaged someone is with their finances, the more they can feel confident, making decisions with financial advisors and not just putting it in the hand of them. And ultimately, um what we want to see is a world of transparency when it comes to financial advice, um and really empowering and enabling consumers, everyday consumers like myself um to make more informed decisions. That's amazing. And earlier, you said that, you know, this idea in charge was born and not even idea because now you're, you're, you know, a company if you're at the forge and working with the forge. So you've got some, some material traction, but you said this was prompted by your own experience. Um Tell us a little bit about how in charge got started and who in charge is actually um built for. Yeah, so how we first got started? Um I, you know, going back to that true final story was when I was looking for financial advice, I felt like there was so much more I could be doing with my money and, you know, to be told, you know, do you want another line of credit?

Just didn't feel like real financial advice from one of the big five banks. Um not the experience that I was looking forward to and because money was also taboo, I said, you know, this isn't my last, this isn't the last time I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try again. So I started looking for other independent financial advisors and the exchange is quite similar where the advisor held all of the information in their hand, but I had no knowledge to know. Ok. Am I truly making the right decision?

How am I supposed to trust this stranger over the phone or across the desk from me with my money when they're just taking everything from me, they're telling me, you know, these two little button up solutions for myself, but I have no true way of reasoning and understanding if those are the right things for me. Um And it was from that experience where then I started to understand, you know, how to banks and institutions view me. How do they determine who they help when you're in a pickle? And that's how we really started to carve out the framework of the five key pillars of personal finances because I knew debt was important. Your housing was important, how it, what it meant to be financially resilient from a cash and an insurance perspective. Um, am I investing in my future and preparing for retirement or whatever retirement looks like to me? And then finally, you know what everyone judge you on is your credit score. Do I have the optimal credit score for, you know, a non predatory institution to help me when I I'm in a pickle? And that is where you know, my real financial journey started and as I looked to scale it, the pandemic happened. Um people were looking for budget and advice and how to budget. And I was hosting a free budget and workshop online. And in the first eight months, 1000 people came through my budget and workshop that was completely free to people. And that's where people started asking me, can you make this an app?

You know, it's easy. And that's where the idea actually came from. And I first approached the forge um with this idea and that's how I made it into the incubator. And following that, we know, one budgets are really time intensive and people have less time than they've ever had in history. So, you know, what else can we do to enable them or even make financial services even better? And that's where I went back to my original story and I started to test and learn with financial advisors.

I pretended to be a potential customer of theirs. Um Some of them didn't like it. Um But, you know, nine out of 10 of those advisors that I pretended to be a potential customer for actually became clients of mine because they saw the value in what we were delivering. One. It helped them save time in gathering information from their prospects and it made the experience better because they weren't interrogating them. Um asking them, you know, well, how much debt do you have what is your salary?

Those are really mundane things. People don't really like saying out loud. Um So we really changed that experience where people are now feeling much more comfortable putting something into a portal online, knowing that they're getting something out of it immediately. And that's what really changes the game with how someone engages with financial advisors. There are lots of tools that have you put information in but nothing is giving you information out. Um And believe it or not, that is something that is quite new to financial services, even though the rest of the world has gone so far.

I mean, quizzes online have been such a big thing for a long time, but yet financial services doesn't give you something that gives you information immediately that's personalized to you um in a meaningful way. And so we took that and now we're scaling that and now we're actually able to help financial advisors who are my customers um deliver personalized financial literacy to their prospects, whether that person converts to being a client or not, they are still delivering value to people. So ultimately, my goal is to ensure that, you know, our entire population is aware of what their financial literacy is in a very personalized way through the medium of a financial advisor. That's impressive. And so you mentioned it, it sounded and I'm just kind of building it in my head. It sounded a little bit like a two sided marketplace, but it sounds like you don't need to go fetch both sides of the marketplace. You're actually driving your solution to financial advisors and this platform helps them service their end customers in a better way with more transparency and more visibility to the end user of or financial um benefactor or client, I guess, uh who's, you know, trying to make these decisions. Um And so maybe a question on, um you know, you joined the Forage, you said you came to the Forage as you were sort of working on this idea when someone's applying um to become a startup at the Forage rally, what sort of questions would they, they have to, you know, be thinking about or what stage would um I be at when she was applying to the forge to be accepted?

She's obviously doing amazing work. She's obviously been accepted in um want to make sure people find you at the right time in the right place of their idea build. Yeah. Good question. I think one of the big uh things to know for anyone who is looking to apply at the forge is that we're gonna act just like any other, any investor would, right?

We're gonna ask you the same kind of questions. Um You know, we wanna make sure that you have a viable business first and foremost. Um You know, so we're gonna ask you things like, hey, you know, what's the problem that the market is seeing what is the solution, um what have you built on the solution? What makes it different than the comp the co competition? Um We're gonna make sure that you understand the market size. So the, the size of the opportunity uh that you're going into uh that, that it's big enough.

I mean, if you're trying to host a company that is or sorry, run a company that is um you know, going after a $1 million market, like it just doesn't makes sense. So we're gonna try to assess that first and foremost, just like any investor would. Um Next thing that we're gonna look at is whether or not you as a entrepreneur have the wherewithal the the um the time to, to build this thing, right? Like we don't expect you to have it figured out. I mean, if we did, we would um we, we would be done here, right? Like we there just wouldn't be a use case. But um we, we need to assess to, to make sure that the entrepreneur has the will to move something forward. We can't do the work, right? We can only provide consultant support and uh and, and then you kind of have to run with it, right? We, we, we aren't talking to you as a com a company every single day, day, right? Um And we're, we're, we're talking to you at least once a month, often more than once a month, depending on your needs but execution is gonna be up to you. So you as the entrepreneur have to have the skills to, to, and, and the time and the, and the moxie to take things forward. Um And, you know, that's one of the things that we've talked about. Hey, how do we, how do we assess for that? Right? How can we assess for that? Uh You know, I guess, I guess in the future if, if we wanted to make our process uh for bringing companies in better, we would, we would try our, we, we would find a better, more quantitative way to assess whether or not a company uh has a founder or founders that have that um the, the Moxie and I guess the, the will to move something forward. Um But first, you know, I guess to sum it up, Mike, it's to first we want to assess whether or not the business seems viable, uh the tech or the product or the service or whatever you're making is viable and, and, and whether or not the entrepreneur is um has the will to move the, the, the opportunity forward.

Well, that's super fitting because that's what we're gonna talk about with. Should I see it for the, the rest of this? Um I know you're gonna have to go soon, Riley and we're gonna keep going and spend a lot of time digging into, to in charge with a bunch of the things you just said, um, but maybe as kind of parting words from your side, um, a, any, any final words of advice of why companies should seek out to work with or partner with an incubator on their journey versus trying to do it all themselves and alone.

Yeah, I mean, I think, uh, the research is pretty clear, um, if, if nobody has looked into the startup genome project, which is a, uh, was, is a, is a project out of, I believe it's Stanford University um trying to assess what, what makes startups successful. Uh Is there a formula here? I mean, uh you know, if you, if you kind of just break down the, the, the name of this project Startup Genome Project there really looking to see is there a formula here? Um What they found is that the companies that were seeking out mentorship support or uh you know, support from those who perhaps um walked that path before um their, their success rate is, I believe it's three times higher, right? Uh 3 to 5 times higher.

And, and, and, you know, I think she said it best kind of have to be uh you know, when she was uh discussed her entrepreneurial journey so far, she said, you know, it's a lonely road. And um you know, I think that's one of the things that we, we do here, you know, if, if, if we're at, at the bare minimum, right? We're here to be a support system for you as you move down this somewhat lonely pathway uh to start your business. OK. Um And you know, if, if that's the only thing that, you know, Licia, for example, we were to get out of this program. Uh then, then I would be happy because uh sometimes that's all people need is a little support. But um you know, we, we, you know, there's so many, so many other things uh that we provide that will, will, will, will definitely help you out and that other uh incubator programs provide as well uh that, you know, no doubt you're, you're gonna see a ton of benefit. Um and just to be around entrepreneurs and part of our ecosystem and community, um it's super beneficial. I love it. So don't walk down the lonely road alone and you had me at 3 to 5 times the success rate and I think you probably had a lot of other people there too.

I appreciate you joining in for the first half of this uh Riley to give us a little bit more knowledge on the forge. Now that we know that Shelia is 3 to 5 times more likely to succeed. We're gonna talk a little bit more about her product. Uh And, and now that we, you know, understand a bit about both of you, we're gonna dive in. So Riley, thank you for joining in on pitch, please. Shall I say we're gonna dive into a little bit more about in charge. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to like, comment really quickly on what Riley was talking about in terms of having that network.

I think that is one of the most crucial parts because I just didn't, you know, I didn't have a network and that's one of the one things I had to recognize as, you know, as a corporate professional coming out. I didn't know a ton of entrepreneurs and I knew that how can I go into something when I don't have, you know, lived mentors or lived and shared experiences with other people and that would be crucial to this journey as well. Yeah, I think that's super important. Um So it sounds like you're getting a lot of value out of the network, uh You're getting value out of the resources. So tell us a little bit about how in charge actually works. Um It sounds like it's for financial advisors if I'm kind of circling back on that correctly. So tell us a little bit about how it works. And um if you can share broadly, you know, how, how do you charge or where does uh in charge, no pun intended or maybe pun intended, where, where does in charge charge or make money in, in this business value proposition?

Yeah, so we are um for sure. So, so for service and like you said, our customers are financial advisors and institutions and what's really interesting is the way financial advisors specifically in the insurance industry is structured and, you know, sections like wealth and things like that, they're structured in very similar ways, but they really have, you know, a couple of really large companies at the top, that kind of sponsor and support these financial advisors below them. So when we actually first started, I was going after individual financial advisor and most of them are actually contracted. They are truly independent um from a business organization standpoint, they're typically sole proprietors, they might be incorporated. Um They might have a partnership, but truly, they roll up under one of, you know, let's say these big companies, whether Sun to Canada Life, um they all roll up under one of them in some way, shape or form. And so with these large networks of financial advisors that roll up under these companies, a lot of times like a entrepreneur, which they are entrepreneur, financial advisors are overwhelmed with so many things they have to do. So in terms of how they look at how their businesses can effectively grow, that usually becomes really daunting for them because they're so in the weeds with a lot of things and believe it or not, a lot of things um within this space is actually still being done by Excel documents, pen and paper. Um And you know what your face says it all because I was a mind by it as well.

I couldn't believe like the level of, you know, Excel documents and how many of them might roll into another one that, you know, aided financial advisors in their day to day business. And for any new financial advisor, specifically, your success rate is pretty low, similar to entrepreneurs. Um, most financial advisors, 90% of them quit within the first year and 95% of them quit within four years. That's not really great track record. And that typically comes from their ability to truly create processes within their businesses, especially from a sales standpoint that allows them to um thrive and actually grow their business and scale it. And that's where in charge comes in and charge really comes in to help them be in charge of their sales process because it especially in the beginning of their journey as a financial advisor, that's basically what you're doing, day in day out.

You have to get new clients, you have to keep your pipeline filled. And how do you do that in a meaningful way today? Um That's where we come in with financial literacy, with nurture and prospects. So what we um help financial advisors do is go from their first touch point with a potential prospect when they might meet you at a networking event and say, you know, hey, Mike would love to chat with you about your finances. You said there's some things you might be interested in. Would you be interested in sitting down with me and you might say yes, you might say no, you might blow them off. But what they'll do is take your information, put it into, you know, our CRM.

That's unlike other cr MS that really de delivers financial literacy. So based on what you might have talked about with that financial advisor, they can put some basic things in there and it'll automate a lot of really great personalized things to you and what you are interested in based on that conversation. And with that, it gives you also um our platform Kira that allows you as the prospect to engage in your finances a little bit more. So it's not just that, that financial advisor is just coming to take from you. They're also giving you something of value without you even being a client. And that's where you can go in, spend 3 to 5 minutes filling out um an intake slash you know, assessment form and get a four page personalized financial literacy report that helps you understand, like we talked about the five key pillars and we break it down in that way because it becomes really consumable for um individuals. And with that, as financial advisors are able to see people engaging in tools like this.

They can say yes, Mike is clearly interested in his finances. Let's put some more time, more energy, maybe provide you with more tools and nurture you along the way so you can eventually become a a client for them. And ultimately what we do all those follow up, all that value prospect that an advisor would typically go through or not go through at all is now being really automated and personalized and it's giving them back about 20 hours a week, which is crazy 20 hours. So you better client and client experience, amazing time savings and white glove service from the advisor to their clients. Um question on all this. So you were mentioning like some of the bigger companies, so the big five banks wouldn't potentially be a client. It's more those that are using um in charge as a sole proprietor, but under or maybe incorporated under a larger institution like a Dear Sun life would like an investor's group or would they fit into this model as well? Because I guess they have independent decisions of how they service their clients in the best way possible. Despite having uh you know, the engine behind them, there's still um nuances in how they deliver their service, I guess.

Yeah, so um Investors Group is actually a fantastic um example of it as well because they do have this vast network of financial advisors that are entrepreneurs that run their own business on a day to day. Uh And how can we help them do that more effectively is helping them manage their sales, funnel their pipeline um with meaningful engagement um from, from like meaningful engagement with their prospect that's awesome. So do you sell to the individual advisors or to the larger kind of institution? I guess that has all the advisors under it. How does that, how does that play out? And what stage, I guess in, in that same question, what stage are you at? Are you launched? Are people using it? Can people get a hold of this today if they are our financial advisor? Yes. So we do actually have financial advisors on our platform, both in Canada and the US, which is really exciting that that means you've launched.

Yeah, we've launched, we've been live for um over a year um with our base platform and um believe it or not as a solo non-technical founder, I did build a platform myself. Um and it's doing, it's doing incredibly well and I'm happy to see where we are compared to the first version that launched early last year. Um So yeah, it's in market. Financial advisors are using it and we are seeing incredible, incredible conversion rates. So individuals that book meetings with financial advisors that go through our platform, our conversion rate. Do you wanna take a guess at what it is? Can you give me the industry standard? So I have like a baseline in my head. Um 10% is ideal and good.

I'm, I'm gonna give you big shoes to fill like at least 40 or 50% 75%. That's what we've seen so far. So as we scale it. Obviously, it's gonna come down a little bit. But with our first set of users, like they, they love this and most of the, the bigger mid size firms and even enterprise sized firms that I'm getting as prospects at this point in time are all coming through referrals because my customers believe in the product so much and the results are truly changing the way they do their business. That's amazing and so critical. Um Can you share one if people are interested, where do they go to find out more and get in touch to purchase it? And are you able to share the price live on the show?

If not, we don't have to include it, we can get, they can get in touch with you and find out more there. Yeah. So right now, um we primarily deal with, you know, small to mid size firms and even enterprise firms. So if someone does have, you know, a network of, let's say, even five or more financial advisors within their company, that's an ideal customer for us. And we do do a lot of customization on the platform to ensure that the branding for that particular company is what resonates with that prospect as well. Um So that's really important.

So, no, we don't put pricing out there. Um But it's great. Um But eventually, unfortunately, I don't have a list of some of my customers that I can put out there. I would have to kind of get, get them to co sign and say, yes, put us out there, have people reach out to us, it is a competitive advantage for them. Um And so they're looking at it in that way. So we are kind of, you know, massaging where we can also bring the public to them, but also really give them that kind of secret thought to help them thrive a little bit more. No worries. But if I want to get started uh and find out more on a 1 to 1 basis around price to, to possibly purchase this for myself. Where should people go? What's the, is it email you directly or is there a website we should direct them to?

Yeah, so we can go to be in charge dot IO. Um And you can just go there, you can book a demo which will actually um come directly to me where you can actually see the full functionality of the platform. Um And also maybe depending on the size of your company and your level of interest, you can potentially get a demo account for a short period of time. So you can try it out um in the next couple weeks or so.

We should be launching a partnership with um one of the big companies that's actually giving independent advisors a pretty great offering um through this independent um network. And we're really excited to share that. So you can follow us on linkedin as well. So in charge Inc on linkedin and once that partnership is live and launched in public, um individual advisors can now go and take advantage of our pretty low pricing for them that gives them the full robust program. That's amazing. We'll even if possible, try to coordinate, but we'll definitely drive people to those, those URL S that you said both on linkedin and, and your website directly. Um Now as we get to the tail end of this, um shall I say it?

Can you share maybe any parting words of wisdom or advice for others starting on their entrepreneurial journey or making the jump or something you've learned going through this as a non-technical founder, you're filled with knowledge. We could probably be here for 2 to 3 hours, but I want to be respectful of your time. So maybe any final thoughts that you think you could share with our audience that, that could help them in their own journey. I would say um this is a quote I wrote on my mirror earlier this year in just, just the lipstick that I had in my hand at the time and I saw the code on Instagram. It was, you know, there's always light in the dark and sometimes it does get really dark for entrepreneurs, whether you're in the beginning of your journey, you're in the middle, you know, you've had like 10 nose back to back. Um for whatever reason, you came across a hurdle, you don't know how to get over.

Um, I would say keep working through it because the light in the dark will eventually get brighter and brighter and you'll make your way to another pivotal moment where that light might not be very bright again. And, and that's kind of the cycle of it. And I think, you know, mentally going in and being prepared for that. Um, you know, is it sets you up for more success because then you're not overly disappointed at every time and get energized about problems, get energized about solutions. It's not just the solution in that you're solving as a business, but the problems and the solutions that you figure out as you grow your business itself. And I think that makes the journey worth it because at the end of every day, um sometimes you can feel incredibly, incredibly grateful for where you are, what you've achieved and what you've learned. And if you have that mindset, um those are things that can do really great for you as an entrepreneur. That's amazing. Keep, keep moving 1 ft in front of the other.

There's always lightness in the dark. Um Thank you so much for joining today from in charge. We also talked to Riley from the Forge. We'll make sure to link everything in the comments and description. Uh Again, this is Mike from pitch, please.

Thank you so much for joining and sharing your story. Today with our audience. Thanks so much, Mike. Have a great day, everybody.

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