Our Guest Mentor:
HITEN KESHAVE’S passion for Bottom Up and Mindshift Leadership (and implementation of) distinguishes him as an individual. His knowledge, guidance, mentoring and training to businesses and individuals resonates in success stories under his leadership.
With a broad skill set in leadership, finance, commercials, and entrepreneurship, Hiten assists individuals and organisations in becoming agile, for rapid growth and development. Innovative thinking is reflected in his proven track record of starting 3 successful businesses and implementing successful turnaround solutions and strategies at 3 organisations.
Having gone through a journey of success and defeat without access to a mentor, Hiten founded the LinkedIn Group, Mentorship Room, in February 2020. He believes the ultimate purpose in life is to uplift others. The vision of the group is to assist aspiring individuals looking to progress in their careers, businesses, and their personal lives.
Hiten also holds the CA and CM designations and has an MBA from Rhodes University. He is currently based out of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Key Quotes from the Episode:
[On the different sides of Entrepreneurship] “The entrepreneurship, is not for everyone necessarily because it’s a different beast …. Some people are more affiliated to want to be in smaller businesses or in the entrepreneurial environment where they are more hands-on and want a holistic picture. Other people prefer more isolated pictures.” [03:45]
[On encouraging people] “But the key question is I always encourage everyone to see what’s in it for yourself. I mean that in there, if you’re doing it, what benefit is bringing it to you on that?” [07:47]
[On the concept of mentorship] “I would advise people is understand what your own needs are. Where you wanting to go and find those individuals who have been on that journey and are giving back and see how they’ve gone through that journey so that you understand and can learn and leverage off those lessons.” [09:28]
[On helping other people through mentorship] “I think in my own belief, there’s a lot of youth out there that need mentoring and help. And, if it is not up to us to support these individuals, who’s going to bring talents up in the future?” [11:08]
[On steering people through a cultural change] “I use a simple philosophy, I put myself in that person’s shoes. How do I want to be treated? That’s the question that I asked, and it’s got to do with mindset, everything you’ve got to be consciously aware as an individual. If you were in the other person’s shoes, how would you want to be treated and spoken to on that end.” [16:51]
[On career advise] “Just believe in yourself. Don’t worry about what everyone else has to say about you. As long as you yourself, as an individual, know your true worth, what the world has to say about you is their opinion.” [19:24]
[On identifying your own self-worth] “That starts in terms of what’s your core values as an individual on that end, and then translating that down to both hard skills and softer elements as a human. I think if you start that as the core basis, you’ll then be able to break it down and down further, and this is a journey that you go through in life. It’s not something that just happens overnight. You’ve got to invest in it.” [20:31]
Key Points from the Episode:
- How Hiten started his career in finance and entrepreneurship
- How to ensure a good return of investment through marketing
- The importance of mentorship as well as knowing your reasons for seeking it out.
- How to steer people through cultural change.
Stamped Show Notes
[02:53] Hiten shares his journey as a certified accountant in South Africa and his focus in entrepreneurship.
[03:23] Hiten discusses how his family background influenced him in his chosen career path.
[05:16] Hiten speaks about the concept of marketing on entrepreneurship.
[07:27] How to help people deliver a good return of investment in terms of business.
[08:31] The process and importance of mentorship.
[10:50] Hiten shares his early career struggles and the reason why he is doing mentorship to others.
[12:19] Hiten discusses his present endeavors in advisory and consultation for small and medium startups.
[19:13] Best piece of advice Hiten ever received.
[21:56] Hiten’s highly recommended books and resources.
[23:07] Hiten’s social media accounts and website.
[23:28] Hiten’s parting thoughts to finance professionals.
Resources Mentioned:
The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses Hardcover – Illustrated, September 13, 2011 by Eric Ries (Author)
Outliers: The Story of Success Paperback – June 1, 2011 by Malcolm Gladwell (Author)
Connect with today’s guest:
LinkedIn: https://za.linkedin.com/in/hitenkeshave
Website: https://www.theunconventionalca.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hitenkeshave/#
Full Transcript
[00:00:29]Andrew: [00:00:29] Hi everyone. And welcome to this week Strength in the numbers, and really excited to share with you today. Our guest mentor, Hiten Keshave, and some of you might be familiar with Hiten and his work as founder of the men’s ship room on LinkedIn.
[00:00:43]and website the unconventional ca.org. But behind that is actually a chartered accountant who has a track record as an entrepreneur in terms of starting and implementing successful businesses, as well as developing turnaround solutions and strategies. Now in his current work.
[00:00:59]So on today’s episode Hiten and myself, we go and deconstruct together how he started his career in finance and how he developed the confidence to grow as an entrepreneur.
[00:01:12]We also discuss how finance professionals and accountants can help their organizations deliver a better returns on investment. And we use the example of marketing.
[00:01:20]that one, which is quite nice because that grows the top line revenue and cash flows to organizations. And for a lot of our conversation, we actually deconstruct the importance of mentoring and mentorship, and also. That it’s equally important on the mentor and the mentees behalf to understand their reasons for getting involved in such conversations.
[00:01:43]And we also want to pick one of the bits of work hidden did on of his turnarounds and how he stares people through cultural change as demanded by the ever changing impacts of technological advancement. So look hope you enjoyed our conversation today. If you did, we really appreciate when you recommend the show to friends and colleagues. They can subscribe on all the major platforms, iTunes, citrus, Soundcloud, YouTube, Spotify, and Amazon music, as well as access show notes, key quotes, transcripts, and ways to connect with Hiten and more at sitnshow.com,
[00:02:17]and as always, really appreciate you investing your time with us today. So without further ado, over to hidden on the show. Hi, Hiten, welcome to the show
[00:02:30] Hiten: [00:02:30] Thanks. Andrew.
[00:02:31] Andrew: [00:02:31] Now Hiten, we’ve spoken previously and actually given some of the technical difficulties we had here could just be the really bad Irish weather, really looking forward to sharing your perspectives with our audience. But before we do, perhaps some of them may not be as familiar with your background. So would you mind maybe quickly sharing with us your journey in accounting and finance please?
[00:02:51] Hiten: [00:02:51] Sure yeah, so I qualified as a chartered accountant in 2012, here in South Africa. But I’ve played predominantly in the entrepreneurial space in particular in the startup and small medium enterprise environment on that end. And core to all of that for me is mentorship. So that lies quite closely to my heart from a passion perspective on that end. Yeah. That’s me in a nutshell.
[00:03:15]Andrew: [00:03:15] That’s quite interesting. Hiten. How did you develop the entrepreneur line a little bit more?
[00:03:21] Hiten: [00:03:21] For me, it’s just been a family background thing from grandparents, uncles. Everyone has been in business on that end. So I grew up in that environment of being in business itself. So for me, it’s always like close to my heart. If I look at the alternative, my wife is also a CA, but she’s not on the entrepreneurial side necessarily.
[00:03:43] And that too comes through an upbringing. Her parents are, have been more on the corporate end of sight. She didn’t grow up in that nature. And the entreprenuership, is not for everyone necessarily because it’s a different beast. In saying that there’s a lot more to it than just having that safety net of a job per se.
[00:04:03] And not to say all jobs have safety nets these days you know, the current economic uncertainty around things, our job is also not in itself. But, some people are more affiliated to want to be in smaller businesses or in the entrepreneurial environment where they’re more hands-on and want a holistic picture. Other people prefer more isolated pictures. And yeah, for me, it just stemmed from both on that end. I grew up in that environment. So naturally, I just want to be involved from ground up on that end and not just being involved in finance itself.
[00:04:36] Andrew: [00:04:37] Yeah, but I suppose being a chartered accountant, being trained in accounting and finance really just help you deconstruct a business and build it up in a sustainable profitable ways. It’s great. It’s great skills to have for those of listening in who perhaps not as entrepreneurial minded throughout benefits of being that way.
[00:04:58] Are there some things that they could do or start doing some baby steps perhaps to think in a bit more of an entrepreneurial way? So they get the benefits of their training, plus a bit of more commercial, entrepreneurial thinking as well.
[00:05:10] Hiten: [00:05:11] Yeah you know, one of the key things, I think if you’re wanting to venture into the entrepreneurial space and have been predominantly on the finance and start tapping into other areas of business and getting to understand them and how they work and in terms of a finance perspective, how that overlaps each other.
[00:05:29] Typical example I’ll give you is marketing itself. There’s so many different elements around marketing in a business, depending on the type of business that you’re involved in. Take tech startup as an example, they may need to have a proper defined go-to market strategy that has both digital marketing involved in it.
[00:05:48] And conventional marketing, such as newspapers, radios, and target audiences that they need to get into involved in. From a finance perspective, you want to see return on investment. Okay, if I’ve given you a marketing budget of let’s just say 1 million pounds on that end there.
[00:06:05] How do I make my money back from that? What is that aspect is? So you then integrate your financial cap there from a marketing perspective to say, okay, so these channels that you’re deciding to go and invest in, how is that going to then grow my top line on that and that then starts igniting an entrepreneurial spirit on that end as well. Plus, broadening your scope and giving you more understanding from a business perspective.
[00:06:29] Andrew: [00:06:29] yeah. I think you hit the nail on the head there because it’s really coming from the questions. Right. I suppose it’s like in a training would probably consider, how do we record transactions that they’re being recorded properly report how those transactions aggregate or summarize up, maybe do a bit of analysis, but then beyond that, that’s sort of more safeguarding role, so much more opportunity for us to go and ask more entrepreneurial, commercial type questions, what’s happening and now where’s it going? What does it all mean? How can we deploy something that sorta delivers a good return on investment or keeps the business growing and also maybe help people go and deploy it out if we’re that way inclined.
[00:07:08] That’s why I think you see a lot of accountants go and take roles nowadays, say an operations or sales, or even the CEOs of smaller or larger companies. Because we can do that, it’s just probably, believing in ourselves maybe a bit more right.
[00:07:22] Hiten: [00:07:23] Andrew. Personally, you’ve got to ask yourself what’s in it for yourself in terms of what you wanting to do in terms of translating effort on that in there. And if you ever come a close link to you emotionally, then you’ll want to give it your best and take that extra effort there rather than sitting into a comfort zone.
[00:07:42] So I think it’s every individual for themselves. But the key question is: I always encourage everyone to see what’s in it for yourself. I mean that in there, if you’re doing it, what benefit is bringing it to you on that?
[00:07:54] Andrew: [00:07:54] I wonder if that coaching and mentoring background, cause that’s what I want to introduce as well. It’s like one thing that really impresses me about your work is your so good at giving back, you know, and helping us along with, particularly with the mentoring is, you know, that’s a key question in my mind, right?
[00:08:09] What are the reasons for doing this? You know, cause I think if you have great reasons for doing something, you’ll tend to have a better chance of having greater results. But when you’re mentoring all those like if someone’s sort of looking for key advice what sort of key advises most people in finance and accounting looking for at the moment?
[00:08:25] Hiten: [00:08:25] Just from a mentorship perspective I think it’s important, if you want to learn, learn to be successful, go and learn and understand how other successful people journeys have come across. And that’s the objective of mentorship go and find that one or two key individuals that have been there and done it.
[00:08:43] And understand the journeys that they’ve gone through in light of the successes, because through all those successes is definitely going to be portals and bumps that they’ve come through and overcome on that end and understand what is it that they did to overcome those things successfully, to allow them to have got to that point, that position that they are today, which you are ideally wanting to achieve in your life.
[00:09:06]And that’s the key thing I think around mentorship, when identifying who we want to idolize and mentorship doesn’t really need to be a face-to-face thing or someone that you have to know. And then you can also idolize the guys journeys have been virtually and follow those people’s footsteps and learn from them
[00:09:22]That is the core around mentorship that I would advise people is understand what your own needs are. Were you wanting to go to and go and find those individuals who have been on that journey and are giving back and see how they’ve gone through that journey so that you understand and can learn and leverage off those lessons.
[00:09:40] Andrew: [00:09:40] the steps on the reasons going on where you want to be on your ideal career outcomes. So to say, or a non-career outcomes, if you know how you get that balance there, and then. Go and find people to help you accelerate your journey who’ve done that or done something similar previously because there probably is.
[00:09:57]And I guess that’s why I like we do the show is to share with our audience, I guess those who stepped before, because it’s not very effective strategy. It’s like, we’re recording this around what a few days after the American super bowl was on. And I stayed off, but I watched it and there was a really good points by the owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After they’d won the super bowl, they were basically saying that if you want to win a super bowl, go and hire someone or bring someone into the team who’s gone and done it before, who can guide that. And then obviously they had to perform on the day and there’s hard work and there’s a journey to get there. But it does improve your chances of success, I imagine by surrounding yourself or even virtually understanding the journeys of people, who’ve actually been there, done that. Got the t-shirts, so to say, I think can help you in your career.
[00:10:44] Hiten: [00:10:44] Yeah you know in my experience the reason why I do the mentorship aspect is, I went through a lot of struggles early on in my career after I qualified as a CA and I went into the entrepreneurship route and a lot of people for their own reasons didn’t want to give their time to the development of others.
[00:11:01] And I think in my own belief, there’s a lot of youth out there that need mentoring and help. And, if it’s not up to us to support these individuals, who’s going to bring talents up in the future?
[00:11:14]Andrew: [00:11:14] Exactly. Exactly. But I think it’s just the right thing to do as a community, right. As a society to help others along. I mean, it’s a great gift to give and it doesn’t really cost us a lot other than a small bit of time, I guess.
[00:11:26]Hiten: [00:11:26] Yeah, exactly and everyone’s got the same amount of time in a day. It’s just how you manage that time to your own benefit in regards to that. And when people tell me that they don’t have time to help someone I always just say to myself, well, I don’t know what you’re doing with your time.
[00:11:40]24 hours in a day, seven days a week that you’re unable to dedicate some piece of advice to helping someone else in another light on that end there. And, I guess it’s not for everyone and that’s fine. But there are people who are genuinely willing to give back out there too in the world. And people must take advantage of those opportunities.
[00:12:00] Andrew: [00:12:01] Completely agree Hiten. So I suppose in terms of. Yeah, we’ve covered the mentoring at the moment. A lot of things going on in accounting and finance. What’s exciting you most about your current work?
[00:12:12] Hiten: [00:12:13] Andrew, I do a lot of advisory and consulting in the startup and small medium enterprise space. So, I’m involved in a lot of turnaround strategy solutions. On that end and that comes from everything from system implementations, process implementations, cultural change in terms of working with people and changing mindsets from moving from traditional thinking and a typical example, I’m working with a business, actually an NPO and quite well sized and big on that end. And they’ve got a cultural issue where they are struggling to change the thought process and on running the operations virtually with the mindset that they still need to be at office. So that’s actually quite an exciting thing where you’ve got the balance of a human culture that you’ve got to deal with.
[00:12:58] And then you’ve got the operational elements, we’ve got to implement different systems and processes on that end to streamline things that run, across board there. So, yeah, definitely for me, that is probably the biggest and most exciting part of things that are coming in my space. And I’m also going to be launching an accelerator program.
[00:13:16] In South Africa to support township entrepreneurs that come from the previously disadvantaged. In the early stages of business where they’ve got these ideas of proof of concepts and MVPs, but don’t know how to commercialize that and get the business to a point that it’s investor ready.
[00:13:32] And we’re going to be spending a lot of time giving back to those entrepreneurs by helping them get the business and the idea to a point that is actually investor ready through a period of three to six months at max.
[00:13:43] Andrew: [00:13:43] That’s fantastic. I can’t wait to hear great things about how that’s going and, yeah, please share the links to those as well and we’ll share them with our audience. I’m just wondering about that one just came to my head, that accelerator you mentioned is that something that can be done virtually or do you have to be present in South Africa to go help on that?
[00:14:01]Hiten: [00:14:01] No. So actually you can be an entrepreneur anywhere. And what you’ll be given is access to a skill set of board of advisors who will help you in all your needs that are required to take your business to a point that it’s investor ready and we’re playing predominantly in the pre-revenue space because investors naturally do not want to play with businesses who do not have revenue because it’s so much of risk yet.
[00:14:27]That is where the failure rate is at its highest because these guys don’t have enough guidance and they don’t have the right sounding boards to help them and take them through that. So what the advisors actually will be doing is working with these entrepreneurs. By doing the actual ground work with them and holding them to a point that actually number one, defined what the business model is at a given you know what your competitive advantage and your value propositions are.
[00:14:55] We’ve got a full business canvas model in place on that end. And you’ve got to go to market strategy implemented there. Those four fundamentals will then determine, your next level of getting into the point that we can get some funding for that day on that. So yeah that’s how it works on that end.
[00:15:14] Andrew: [00:15:14] Yeah, so I’m nodding here for those who are watching the video, like I’m nodding away cause they’re great tools to get a business investor ready particularly pre-revenue stage. And I was just thinking as well, I’ve thought a number of our audience reach out to me during these times to setup work and where can we give back?
[00:15:29] Where can we get involved in these other things to get these skills? Because they’re not in the office anymore. That’s why I was curious. It’s like if people were able to get involved virtually and bring their experience to bear on the exonerations as well Hiten, it’s good for training the next generation of finance professionals and accountants on how to turn things into commercial success and particularly pre-revenue stage where not a lot of us would have had that experience or nest we’ve been specifically exposed to it and bringing the next generation of ideas forward. So again if folks engaged can get involved I’d love to share links to that the accelerator. And yeah, I look forward to hearing better success going forward.
[00:16:05]Hiten: [00:16:05] Oh, thanks, Andrew. What I’ll do is I’ll share the website link with you. We’ll be going live in two weeks time. So I’ll actually share that website link with you and then you’re welcome to share with the audience the more advisers that we get the more impact and change we can make for everyone out there.
[00:16:21] Andrew: [00:16:21] awesome. Awesome what a great way of exactly giving back and bringing the next generation along. So Hiten thanks for sharing that I sort of sorta suppose I also wanted to pick into everything that you mentioned about the culture.
[00:16:34]I think a lot of companies going through that, but as someone from an accounting background, how the heck do you steer people through that culture change?
[00:16:42] Hiten: [00:16:42] So, you know Andrew, I use a simple philosophy, I put myself in that person’s shoes. How do I want to be treated? That’s the question that I asked and it’s got to do with mindset, everything you’ve got to be consciously aware as an individual. If you were in the other person’s shoes, how would you want to be treated and spoken to on that end.
[00:17:04] And that keeps you grounded in terms of behavioral aspects. You know, people have this tendency to knock accountants to be these hot ass guys that are stubborn and stuck up in that. And that’s not necessarily the case. We just accept what society’s norm has to say about accountants, but not every accountant is like that and not, and even if you are like that, There’s no saying that you’re going to be like that forever.
[00:17:30] You have the option to change. It’s a matter of, do you want to change and bring different capabilities and strength and skillsets to your armory on that end? And it goes back to my question around what’s in it for me on that end when you want to have that. At the back of your mind in terms of doing something it’s like a Jim Kwik he talks about us.
[00:17:53] You know, people say that you’ll never remember the name of a person, but if you have a hundred thousand dollars in a suitcase next to you, and you’re asked to remember the name of the next new person that you meet. Would you remember the name of that person? It’s exactly as that because there’s a hundred thousand dollars there, you know there’s a reward sheet and we don’t often think about our activities and tasks because they don’t often have direct monetary benefits linked to it immediately. We don’t think of that down the long-term perspective when we do their tasks.
[00:18:26] Andrew: [00:18:26] Yeah I think that’s something I love to think that we bring as accountants is a bit of a longer term perspective. We’re seeing the advantage of that. So therefore it would make sense to think a bit more broader and more longer term about things, particularly when it comes to career success or our success outside of our careers as well.
[00:18:44] I mean, you’re sort of preaching to the converted here, but I hope our audience take this on board Hiten, but it’s very important to put ourselves in other people’s shoes, but to start with we need to understand what’s in it for us if we were to do that and as long as it aligns with our goals and good people about it, I think definitely that’s the right way to go.
[00:19:02] So look, I shifted up a few gears in terms of, you know, you mentioned about mentoring and seeking out advice, but I was curious, what’s been the best bit of advice you’ve ever received.
[00:19:11] Hiten: [00:19:12] for my personal advice is just self-belief. When I finally managed to get that one, one individual who believed in me that the most solid piece of advice we gave him was just believe in yourself. Don’t worry about what everyone else has to say about you. As long as you yourself, as an individual, know your true worth, what the world has to say about you is their opinion.
[00:19:34] And if they’ve got time on their hands to want to talk shit about you behind your back, that’s fine. That means they’ve got nothing else to add nothing better to do in the life. You know, the biggest piece of advice was just know your self worth and know your own value that you have.
[00:19:53]Andrew: [00:19:53] Look I know myself, I’d probably been in a similar situation a long, long time ago, but where does someone start to believe more of themselves and get a better sense of their self worth? Because I know particularly at the moment probably we’re not in offices with each other. We’re a bit more remote. Probably not having as many conversations like that as we should. Like what, how do, where do you start with identifying yourself worth?
[00:20:16] Hiten: [00:20:17] So for me, that starts in terms of what’s your core values as an individual on that end, and then translating that down to both hard skills and softer elements as a human. I think if you start that as the core basis, you’ll then be able to break it down and down further, and this is a journey that you go through in life. It’s not something that just happens overnight. You’ve got to invest in it.
[00:20:43]Andrew: [00:20:43] Yeah. you don’t like to wake up one morning and all the answers are there.
[00:20:46] Hiten: [00:20:46] Yeah, exactly. You know, for me to find my passion around giving back at people, it took me seven years after I qualified as a CA to actually realize and it went through a lot of dark stages and that what the key fundamental through all of that was I didn’t give up, you know, in light of all of those things. And there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.
[00:21:10] Andrew: [00:21:10] a hundred percent, you know, like, I love that saying this too shall pass. It’s just temporary, if those dark bits, it’s just temporary. Keep going. Things will generally get better if you’ve got the right intense. Got a good direction. Just keep going, keep going like I couldn’t agree more.
[00:21:27] Thanks for sharing that story. I suppose, in terms of resources obviously we’ll share the links to the accelerator. Are there any sort of other resources or books that you regularly use that our audience should go check out?
[00:21:38] Hiten: [00:21:38] Yeah. So those who are interested in startups, I would suggest that they read the book it’s called the Startup by Eric Reis
[00:21:45] Andrew: [00:21:45] Yes. The lean
[00:21:45] Hiten: [00:21:45] the lean startup by Eric
[00:21:47] Andrew: [00:21:47] Good book.
[00:21:48] Yeah.
[00:21:48] Hiten: [00:21:48] Strongly suggest to you guys reading that’s very very helpful on that end. They give some good context from starting a business and different angles, especially from the pre-revenue perspective on that end, when you’re looking at doing market validation on those aspects. Yeah, very, very good book something people should highly recommended a lot of people read that book.
[00:22:10] Andrew: [00:22:10] Actually you know, you mentioned earlier. The business model of canvas, they actually did make a book by that name. And for those that are less, more about words, but more of a pictures and models and stuff, that’s a really good book as well. I can’t remember who the authors were. I don’t know if you can hit some book that was really good as well. A great tool for getting a sense of what the value proposition and how you get from, I suppose, the suppliers to the processes, to the customers. That journey it’s really, really good. So if people are interested in startups and pre-revenue there are a couple of great resources, in terms of yourself, what’s the best way if our audience want to continue the conversation connecting with you.
[00:22:48] Hiten: [00:22:48] Yeah, so the audiences can connect with me on LinkedIn at Hiten Keshave or otherwise check my website out at theunconventionalca.org
[00:22:56]Andrew: [00:22:56] Okay. And I will make sure those links also go into the show notes. And I suppose, look, before we wrap up Hiten, are there any parting thoughts you might have for our audience?
[00:23:06]Hiten: [00:23:06] Yeah, look just for everyone out there. You know, each of us would go through a different journey in life and you asking about Are there resources too, to think through. And just from a self development perspective, I think it’s fundamentally important that everyone accepts that the journey that we were on is part of it is a destiny that’s been given to us and others it’s a destiny that’s created. And Malcolm Gladwell writes a book called the Outliers. And he talks about opportunity being presented to us there. And we sometimes subconsciously don’t realize that there’s opportunities in front of us, that we are not taking and be aware of that and going to sniper about those opportunities that come to our conscious awareness.
[00:23:50] You know, what is in front of us versus what we are idealizing it and focusing on what we don’t have often in life. That is one of the key things I’d like to leave everyone with.
[00:24:01] Andrew: [00:24:01] What a great parting thought to leave with. Wow. What a great conversation, Hiten. Thanks so much for investing your time and come to strength in the numbers today.
[00:24:09] Hiten: [00:24:09] Thanks so much for having me, Andrew.
[00:24:11] Andrew: [00:24:11] And they say in show business Hiten, that’s a wrap. So I hope you enjoyed yourself.
[00:24:15] Hiten: [00:24:15] Oh, it was lovely being here. Thanks man.
[00:24:17] Andrew: [00:24:17] Yeah. Look again I’m so, so sorry about earlier. I have no idea what’s going on with my machine. I seriously, just before us, we had the zoom calls, no problems whatsoever. And I don’t know. So look thanks for your patience on that one. I wish I could have given you back more time.
[00:24:31] Hiten: [00:24:31] No, no, it’s just man.
[00:24:33] Andrew: [00:24:33] but but
[00:24:33] Hiten: [00:24:33] it was nice. It was a good conversation, man.
[00:24:35]Andrew: [00:24:35] It was, yeah You know that’s a good direction, you know, like entrepreneurial and then what you’ve done is you’ve actually, if you roll in, if you roll in that self belief advice that you said there, right.
[00:24:47] And knowing our self worth, so are our values, our core strengths and stuff. And put that in with, the advice on building how you say a career growing, it’s just great. It just fits together really neat. You’ve got all the key steps there. So for our audience, this is like really powerful and the accelerator stuff you’re doing.
[00:25:07] It’s like, that’s awesome. You know, and I really hope some of our audience do send over the link. I really hope some of them check it out because it’s a great way for us to give back our skills and make a difference to people. Real difference. If they can get some of these ventures commercially viable, like that’s awesome.
[00:25:23] Hiten: [00:25:23] That’s all objective beyond that accelerator you in South Africa in particular. And I’m pretty sure in other parts of the world as well, a lot of investors just don’t want to spend their time and efforts with guys that are in ideation space and entrepreneurship either fails. It’s a make or break at that stage there.
[00:25:42] I know I I’ve been through that in my early stages where it was like a dismal nightmare and freaking total time trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together and yeah, when I managed to beat through everything and find my way through it, I just realized that there’s so many people out there that are probably going through similar journeys.
[00:26:02] And so I’ll do, and I’ll give back to people in me in light of all of that, they’re doing that I’ve come out of that tunnel where will the light at the end and let’s say in time to make a change on that side.
[00:26:14]Andrew: [00:26:14] It’s a dark tunnel. And for some it’s like goes on for a long time, you know,
[00:26:19]Hiten: [00:26:19] Exactly. Yeah. That’s the thing. I mean, we want to try and minimize that gap. So yeah, just with that program itself my big objective behind that is once I’ve got a kickstart and got the soft launch going I want to try and find some sponsors for it.
[00:26:35] Andrew: [00:26:35] I always say it
[00:26:36] Hiten: [00:26:36] inevitably give these entrepreneurs.
[00:26:39] Give these entrepreneurs yearly budget for your idea, get the advisors get the advisors to run with that thing there and make that impact, for that team. So yeah, that’s the bigger picture and the bigger aspiration.
[00:26:53] Andrew: [00:26:54] Yeah, I do some work at a charity, the Atlas foundation. And they set them up in Ireland, but I’ve got to know the other bits around the world. So they have a big presence in South Africa, actually the African continent. And I know they’re looking for corporate sponsorship at the moment for some events, but it’s more around the ethos of rugby.
[00:27:13] But the good thing is there are companies out there considering it. So I that’s why I was going to suggest, I think it’s a good environment for sponsorship, no matter what people think. And I think that type of initiative it’s really great, like hitting, you know, like that should get sponsorship.
[00:27:28] And that’s the angle I was thinking as well. Wouldn’t it be great if you had some sort of seed funding just for the entrepreneurs to play with it and figure out if something is going to work, get some early feedback, do some AB testing.
[00:27:41]Hiten: [00:27:41] Yeah, that’s the idea. So what we’re doing is with that advisors right now, that advisors are going to be doing that groundwork and helping them. In return and then hopefully by the future, once we’ve got a good track record in terms of what we’ve done and the impact it made, we’ll get a few sponsors. We’ll be able to give a seed fund and we’ll fund these guys on that hint.
[00:28:02] Andrew: [00:28:02] you know, where I see this journey going, right? It’s like, I woudn’t be surprised if you saw a few years down the line. I don’t know how many, you could actually write a book about all of this and just increase more exposure and talk about the success stories and the failures. And that’s another great way of giving back is just writing a book on all of these things.
[00:28:18]Hiten: [00:28:18] True. Yeah, I think probably down the line, I’ve been a lot of you down the line with a few more years behind me. A book is probably born to be due to come on to these things.
[00:28:29]Andrew: [00:28:29] like seriously it’s just, I can see it. Like you get someone like the successes, the failures, the learnings, the model for other people to follow I just think it’s great. You know we need more work like this and I don’t know much about the townships cause I’ve never been to South Africa.
[00:28:43] All I know is what I hear, but they definitely could do with a bit of investment of people’s time and expertise. That’s what my impression is.
[00:28:50] Hiten: [00:28:51] Yeah there’s a lot of challenge. What I would say raw talent that needs some nurturing and defining and that’s the whole objective that we’re trying to achieve on that side.
[00:29:01] Andrew: [00:29:01] I’ve got a team based out of North Africa, so Egypt. And like I have to say the talents are real. it’s just It’s one eighth the cost is what it would be in the States. It’s a higher, similar, and like it’s great. I actually just got one of them a pay increase, a Dell, works out about 63, 64% pay increase because they’ve revalued that much. so it’s fantastic that like we’re accessing this talent. I just feel that more routes to market routes, to market even better, you know? I just kicked myself. I didn’t invest sooner and in Northern Africa,
[00:29:34] Hiten: [00:29:35] Yeah, it’s true hopefully from what we start out of we could make this thing a global impact.
[00:29:41] the big, uh,
[00:29:42] Andrew: [00:29:42] be on to something small steps though. Dream big, small steps though, you know
[00:29:47] Hiten: [00:29:47] The big, big start. Yeah.
[00:29:49]Andrew: [00:29:49] But what I’m saying is that I think that’s a great pathway there. It’s just a case of momentum now. So anything we can do with strength in the numbers to share the links, put the word out there and get behind it.
[00:29:58] I love these things. I really do. We can’t get enough of them. So thanks a mil Hiten we’ll get this edited and sent over to you in the next week or so anything else? Before we wrap up? Oh, sorry. I was just saying Hiten is there anything else you want to go through before we wrap up?
[00:30:13] Oh my bad. Hey, can you still hear me?
[00:30:17] Hiten: [00:30:17] Yeah, I can hear you i think it’s my internet connection.
[00:30:19] Andrew: [00:30:19] Ah, sorry. Sorry. My bad. I just got your message there. Yeah, I just wanted to just check we’ll be editing the podcast, send that out in the next week. I’ll probably go live in about two weeks after that. Is there anything else you want to go through before we wrap up?
[00:30:32] Hiten: [00:30:32] No i’m good Thanks.
[00:30:34] Andrew: [00:30:34] Awesome. Well, look, thanks a mil for investing a Friday afternoon on us and hope you get to the weekend soon.
[00:30:40] And yeah, we’ll be back in touch shortly.
[00:30:42]Hiten: [00:30:42] Definitely. Thanks so much, Andrew.
[00:30:44] Andrew: [00:30:44] Well, take care of my best of luck.
[00:30:45] Hiten: [00:30:45] good weekend.
[00:30:46] Andrew: [00:30:46] You too. Bye-bye
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