An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Work on self love. There are always going to be haters. I’ve had haters, people who don’t understand you or your business. But if you stay true to who you are, and you work on self love, no one can get doubt into your head. Because you know what you’re doing and you believe in yourself, and that all comes with mental health.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Razan Talebian.
Razan Talebian is the Founder and CEO of a new social media platform where women and nonbinary folks can join support and interest groups. The app promotes harmony with the way members communicate through its vetting process — short educational videos on different aspects of social interaction, where members need to watch these videos and earn their badges to join certain groups. InPower has teamed up with behavioral psychologists, researchers, and influencers to educate members on empathy, conflict resolution, perspective taking, and everything that falls under emotional and social intelligence, as well as expertly curated information on important topics like xenophobia, racism, and offensive terms in different cultures. Razan and the InPower community really believes this app will be the highest standard of healthy communication compared to all social media platforms existing today. Previously, her and many volunteers helped run a Facebook group of women and nonbinary folks surpassing 30 thousand members whom all wanted a safe space. Her and the InPower community worked together with brainstorming and suggesting many ways to make this ongoing online social issue a reality. Once it was clear that positive reinforcement of healthy social behavior and misinformation were two key factors of online bullying, Razan began her journey to develop a truly independent network where members can interact with each other and professionals based on shared standard sets and a pledge to be supportive and kind to one another.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I’ve lived in North Vancouver my entire life, went to Capilano University to get my Arts & Entertainment Management Diploma, then Langara College to get my Digital Film Production Certificate and Singer-Songwriter Certificate. I wanted to tie in all of my education to put on charity events, create videos/documentaries on bullying and songs about the struggles I’ve faced as a victim of bullying and tragedies I’ve experienced. I’ve always been in the industry of connecting, because it helps me connect closer to myself. I remember always thinking I wanted to change the world as a child, not knowing what that meant at the time. My parents used to say I had the “golden heart” because every time there was a conflict with anyone around me I’d do everything in my power to make it right and make everyone feel safe and happy.
Can you please give us your favorite Life Lesson Quote? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“We are our experiences.” The lens in which we see the world is based on these experiences. We have no idea the path anyone has walked. We don’t know their triggers. As humans we always try to make sense of things, so that’s why we usually project our thoughts onto others because that’s our experience, and we may not have taken the time to realize there are so many pieces to the puzzle that others have gone through that made them that final masterpiece. This quote really helped me interact with people on a mutual level. If someone was being difficult in my life, I know now who I am and the impact I want to make on people, so I give unconditional love and express myself with kindness. I hope for this to be an inspiring experience they can add to their puzzle pieces and hopefully give that back into the world.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Avatar. My favorite movie of all time. It shows how everyone works together in harmony. The love and the connection they emit to each other is exactly the kind of universe we are trying to create on InPower. I had a spiritual awakening after that movie. I started to understand how everything is connected. These Avatars work in sync because they understand why they are there and the meaning and duty of life. We are all different, yes, and that’s what makes the world beautiful, but I think we can all agree that connecting with respect, love, and kindness is something we all need to have in common. I know when I started being around those who were on this level, a lot of voids were filled, and my depression was slowly fading away. Humans need connection. Let’s make those connections into positive ones.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
I was blessed to have the InPower community online (before creating it into an app) to build ideas with. I asked for input on literally everything from name generation, choosing a logo, features on the app, and community guidelines, for an end result of the community’s needs.
The best advice I can give is talk to people, a lot of people. Don’t just ask those who you think are in your market, ask those who you’d never even imagine being buyers or users. They typically have more challenging questions to ask you. Always ask why they wouldn’t buy/use. Where would you have to take it for them to? They might say “if it had this and not that,” or maybe they’ll just say it isn’t for their age group — great — you’re closer to understanding your target audience. Or maybe they just raised another problem that you didn’t think of, which could have potentially happened down the road — great — now you’re thinking about all of these outcomes. In the start of the InPower Facebook group, we targeted only women. As we grew bigger, the community was suggesting we expand to nonbinary folks as well. Having a community or group with the same goals as you and your business will make your company stronger because their input and ideas are the way to success.
Since you’re still in the ideation phase, you don’t have much to lose with just talking to people about it. Have fun with it, make a little presentation with your idea and ask your family and friends to chime in. Input input input! It’s very valuable. The beginning of your business should be exciting and fun!
My second piece of best advice — source out freelancers! You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars with big companies to help you, especially in the beginning. So many people have come to me scared to start a business because they don’t know if it will work out and it’s super expensive to start, and I am shocked at how little people know about freelancer websites, like of course it would be scary to start a business when you type in on Google and big companies are charging $10K for a logo!! Hire a freelancer for $50–100 to make you a logo! My go-to website is upwork. That’s where I met my CTO and she’s the best thing that has happened to my business. Also, you have a great opportunity to ask questions. If you post a job for “funding and grant writer,” get on a call with them. Be completely honest — say you have no idea how this works. They are trying to get hired, so they’re going to give you all the information you need to know. Very valuable information! After this — you won’t feel the weight of the business hanging on your shoulders since you have support from a click of a button!
The Government of Canada website also has all of the steps and information you need to start your business!
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
Patent & trademark database online. If it’s too complicated for you, hire an attorney to do the research for you. (Freelancers!). Also an extensive research on Google. Believe it or not, a lot of startups don’t patent or trademark their ideas until a lot farther into their business. If you see your idea has been created, just remember this — ideas are not created, they are simply reinvented. See how you can reinvent the wheel!
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
My only experience is all through freelancer websites, I had someone help me through all of the steps since I started this knowing nothing about how to run a business. Throughout the meetings and hiring, I made some great connections whom I can always go back to if I need some help. I think as my first venture it was really important for me to hire someone knowledgeable to have on my side through every process so that I didn’t mess anything up. Now for my next venture — I’ll know what to do. Every business is a bit different so there’s not one-way-fits-all, like we started creating our application before even making our business plan! For really detailed advice — go to Starting a Business on the Government of Canada website and they will give you every step there as well!
What are your 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company and why?
- Know the basics of all the departments of your business.
I’m not a technical person, yet I’m the CEO of a tech startup! My CTO is happy to always educate me, even the most complex technical sides of the app. I can hold the conversation in our standup meetings and know what’s going on, make suggestions, and conduct interviews with my CTO. It’s super important to know these basics so you can tell if someone is trying to take advantage of you and your business. Plus, you don’t want to sound clueless when someone asks you any questions about your business. I understand how marketing, branding, technology, funding, law, and everything works (just the basics remember!). That’s why bootstrapping with freelancers is good in the beginning because you’re learning with them as you go.
2. You don’t need to hire expensive companies!
If you look online for companies to help you with your business (coding, branding, marketing) you’ll come across super expensive rates. I would not recommend this especially for early stages of your business. As I mentioned above, freelancers all the way. If your business is getting established enough for more people on the team, there’s a great website called Riipen.com, where teachers post upcoming internships where students are looking for a placement! I hired a very expensive branding company and in the end, I ended up creating the final logo and input of the inPower members.
3. There is so much help out there.
Whether that’s grants, crowdfunding, seminars, networking events! There is a lot of free help. My app was being created during covid so there were not many networking events, but there are so many online! I went to a 5 day seminar where they had over 15 meetings throughout the day with various topics like, choosing the right bank, what to expect with angel investors, what legal documents you need and more. Vancouver Startup Week was my holy grail. Definitely subscribe and see when their upcoming events are, and other startup seminars!
4. Encubate me.
I had a mentor/partner in the beginning of this process who was teaching me a lot. It was very unconventional though, we went right into the creation of the code before any of the other steps. In our case, it worked, since we already had a community needing this product with over 30 thousand members, so we were already in good standing and the concept was proven. After I moved on from that partner, I was searching for mentorship programs. I came across this website, encubate.me. It’s a mentoring program where you pay an extremely affordable one-time fee for a year and get 12 hours of one-on-one mentor calls while you go through different modules from creating your idea into a business. It will set you up for success, provide all the tools, work, articles and information you need to know! Then you get to go on your 20–30 minute call with your mentor who reviews all your work and guides you through it all with expert advice!
5. Work on your mental health.
Starting your own business is going to be taxing on you physically and emotionally. Problems are inevitable. When you’re under stress, you naturally go back to your habits. So prepare yourself to make those habits healthy.
Work on self love. There are always going to be haters. I’ve had haters, people who don’t understand you or your business. But if you stay true to who you are, and you work on self love, no one can get doubt into your head. Because you know what you’re doing and you believe in yourself, and that all comes with mental health.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take? There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
Try a mentorship program (like the one I mentioned above) so you can have expert advice while learning the steps from the ideation phase to the business model. You want to have a good idea of all of the steps included instead of hiring someone to do all the work for you (unless you’ve done this before and you already know how it goes!).
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
It would probably be hard for someone to go up to a VC and say “this is my idea, I’ve done nothing towards creating it because I need money to do it.” It doesn’t really show them that you’re that invested in it and you want to risk their money instead of your own. Bootstrap in the beginning (especially for your first idea/business!). You’ll get to learn so much this way.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better Place?
I’ve created a platform for people to grow out of their negative traits and connect with people in the most genuine way possible in a place where they can learn to give and receive love.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
A movement that inspires empathy.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Sutian Dong and Anu Duggal — Female Founders Fund! They are all about diversity and they have invested in some of the fastest growing-led female startups nationwide. It would be an honour to meet with them and even work with them!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Making Something From Nothing: Razan Talebian On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
