Untypical is the typical in entrepreneurship
Start-ups are unique, unconventional and far from typical. Similarly, todays entrepreneurs take far from conventional routes to getting into the start-up world. Some planned it. And some fell into it. AJ, Co-Founder of SoJo was an entrepreneur who fell into it.
Growing up, AJ noted that she did not associate herself with entrepreneurship or ever considered wanting to own her own business. Her background is in politics and public policy and she worked for the government. During her time in the government she realised her political career path was only something she wanted to pursue for a short time and she started to get interested in the idea of start-ups and creating something from scratch. She found similarities between entrepreneurship and policy: policy is as much as identifying problems and coming up with solutions in a government context, while start-ups are very similar in the sense that they look at problems and come up with solutions without the limitation of being part of the government. AJ noticed that the government could do a lot to solve social problems in the world, but they couldn’t do everything. She became interested in the idea of the social enterprise and the idea of harnessing the tools of business to drive social change.
With all these ideas swirling around, she decided to start volunteering at a start-up. It was called SoJo and was a project that had come out of another person’s master’s thesis. At that time, SoJo was a very different business and was essentially a blog that talked about people who were doing social-based start-ups. It had been going on for less than a year before AJ took over and shut that part down to begin creating the SoJo that has blossomed today. She has really focused on differentiating SoJo, finding an actual gap and figuring out how to build a business around it. She noticed a lot of funders and economic development agencies saw huge potential in supporting entrepreneurs, but didn’t really have the tools to do this; SoJo’s main product is now an online training tool to help them with this.
She started volunteering at SoJo while working for the government, and eventually decided to make the leap and go into it full-time. At the time, she was looking less for the right time to jump into Sojo and more of the right time to leave her role working for the government, for she was ready for the next step in her career. There was a cabinet shuffle, which provided a good opportunity to leave, and she decided to try the start-up world for a few months. The week that AJ came on full-time, the woman who had started the original version had some health issues she had to attend to and had to leave, and AJ decided to take on the challenge as the new head of the start-up.
Some of the challenges she faced right away included the fact that there wasn’t much of a strategy in place and there were very few pieces together. The field was also growing really fast; very few people were talking about social business or even knew what it meant when they began. She would tell people she was going to work for a social enterprise and people would think she’d be going to work for a company like Twitter; it was still a new concept.
Some of the challenges she is facing now focus more on business development, hiring the right people and finding the right people to continue to move SoJo forward and have enough hours in the day to do it all. AJ also noted that sales is always a challenge; a lot of potential clients they thought they would be working with early on turned out to be people who are very excited about the idea, but are supported by organizations, who do not have a lot of money for this kind of training. AJ noted it’s trying to figure out how they can capitalize on the excitement and eagerness of their product and to find people who have the finances to pay for these services. She noted they have done a lot of testing of different markets and now have a much better sense than they did a year ago, and are also working on a few projects internationally.
SoJo is currently a team of 2, with her business partner Ellen Martin, who joined the team about a year after she did. In terms of the team, they keep a very hub and spoke structure so when they have more projects going on, there are people they can reach-out to. They have some developers and designers that work with them on a contract basis and have become their tech heroes in helping them build out SoJo’s platform and web design.
AJ noted there is really no typical day at work. She tries to schedule a call of some sort at least one first thing she can do from home, so it gets her active and motivated for the day. Then, she heads into the office, which is a shared work space with 2 other companies. AJ and Ellen then have a status meeting to figure out what’s on deck and then it really depends on their priorities for the day and any deadlines that may be coming up. Generally, they try to keep sane hours, say from 9-5, but realistically once they head home they likely open up their laptops again. She noted, both partners have seen the effects of burn-out and especially for a 2-person company, it’s the worst possible thing that can happen; it’s better to take a deep breath and manage your time over burning the midnight oil.
She noted throughout all this, it’s really important to keep a life outside of work, whether it is playing different sports or hobbies. She noted her husband definitely keeps her grounded as he can only listen to stories about SoJo for so many hours. She noted you really have to be intentional about it as it is so easy to slip into this start-up machine persona. She cautions to be sure to manage the expectations of others and put your elbows down when you need to protect your own time and sanity, for no one else is going to do it for you.
Throughout this journey, she has had a number of things and people she has found inspiration from. She noted her parents have provided a lot of life guidance to her. When she was 15, her Dad started his own business, and at the time, she didn’t realize, but watching him figure it all out really had an impact on her. She noted having people you can talk to and ask questions to is key. She also noted she was really political back in the day, so a lot of things she does now come from this desire for change and progress. When she is having a bad day, she may turn to music bands like Rage Against the Machines or inspirational rappers like Killer Mike. She stays motivated by the idea of having an impact in how people think and look at business and proving the social enterprise model is a thing, and that viable, successful business can come out of it. She noted, she’s the kind of person that once she gets started at something, she wants to succeed at it. She noted there is still so much potential with SoJo and she wants to reach it.
Get to know AJ a bit better:
If wrote a book: AJ would call her book “Done is Better than Perfect” because that is a saying she has had to tell herself many times, especially over the last year. Reality is, it will never be perfect, and when starting a business you need to embrace good enough.
Favorite place travelled: India! She noted that India is so different from Canada, but at the same time it feels very familiar. It is a country of contradictions where nothing makes sense and yet, there is an ancient wisdom about it. The people, she noted, felt so familiar and yet, were so completely different in terms of culture and religion and everything. She noted it’s a chaotic, inspiring place.
Embarrassing moment: She noted there wasn’t any particular moment, except during the entire first year she was pitching or talking about the idea, she felt so self-conscious; she was embarrassed about everything, but had no reason to be. She noted she isn’t sure if that is something shared by all entrepreneurs at first.
Unique facts about AJ: She’s played baseball for most of her life and still plays every summer. She also loves to travel and has done a trip around the world; she and her husband quit their jobs and went travelling for 3 months.
Wish knew prior: How long everything was going to take. AJ noted you have to set a timeline for yourself and realistically, double or triple it. Everything takes time. Building relationships or figuring out what type of product you want to build takes time. A lot of people talk about overnight success, and she doesn’t think that happens.
To end, AJ has some great advice! Trust yourself. She noted you are going to feel a lot of self-doubt early on. You are going to have a lot of moments of questioning. It’s important to know everyone has gone through that no matter how successful they are. Asking those questions doesn’t make you unqualified, but it’s just part of the process. And, fake it till you make it because that’s what every other early stage start-up is doing. If you look around and it looks like everyone knows what they are doing, they probably don’t. AJ noted that once she realised this, it took a lot of pressure off herself.
I hope you enjoyed reading about SoJo! If you would like more information about them, please check-out their website! If you do have any feedback for myself, feel free to reach-out to me here.
