Maria Francesca Aceti: A Businesswomen Pioneering the Pharmaceutical World
Digital Version Maria Francesca Aceti graduated as a chemical engineer. She was 27 when she took charge of Deltha Pharma, working at ENEA, a crucial research center for energy in Italy, specifically on a project related to the production of electric energy by gasification of coal and production of hydrogen. Taking over Deltha Pharma, the first challenge she had to face was to make sales agents, customers, suppliers, employees and all KOLs trust her. Though it was really hard, she overcame it with hard work, consistency and always keeping promises as well as bringing some important changes in the company’s business model. At the end, she managed to raise the fortunes of the company within a year. Current Business Scenario When Maria started the business, she took multiple steps to ensure the company’s growth and success. Firstly, she made some important pivots in the product development process after thinking about what people wanted. Moving on, she changed raw materials that were being used to make supplements, buying only the newest and the best available in the market, such as nanoparticles and vegetable stem cells. Her aim was and still is to make only very high-quality products and offer unique supplements to customers to improve their life’s quality. During these years, she learnt that consumers have become aware of the sources of ingredients and are much more interested in natural ingredients. With this in mind, the products are also made of natural ingredients, without titanium dioxide and in vegetable and gastro resistant capsules with absence of heavy metals. The raw materials Maria selects are mainly certified by Italian companies and made from innovative technologies. The company’s products, based on Omega-3, are certified IFOS 5 stars; the most well-known certification which ensures more transparency and quality. Foundation of Deltha Pharma Deltha Pharma was born in Rome in 2009, given the growing interest of doctors and pharmacists in the supplement and nutraceutical field with a list of seven launch products. Maria’s father, who is a doctor, had invested some money in this company but, unfortunately, soon after its foundation, it was near bankruptcy. The old CEO had given up, so she decided to try to save it in order to minimize her father’s loss, despite all the advice not doing it. Therefore, she decided to make a debt restructuring and to create new products and a new sales network. How Deltha Pharma is Different from its Competitors? The strengths of Deltha Pharma’s products lays in natural and cutting-edge raw material, such as nanoparticles technology, plant stem cells, and branded raw materials. The company’s aim is to improve and to extend people’s lives by offering the best products in the market. All over the world, there is still an inadequate intake of vitamins and minerals in the diet: only 1 in 10 adults consumes the amount of fruit and vegetables recommended by the guidelines, and it is scientifically proven that supplementing our diet could prevent many diseases. Maria believes in spreading the message that a quality supplement can help you improve your health and life. In fact, the products have high dosage of active ingredients, ensuring the proper intake of vitamins to the customer who buys them. In 2022, the company received the certifications for ISO 9001:2015 for the quality and ISO 14001 for the environment and sustainability. Therefore, it guarantees to customers high standards and hygiene. Next year, the company aims to increase the products’ portfolio by offering to customers a new form of food supplements, that is in gummies, so that any type of customers, of any age, from children to adults are more concerned in taking supplements. The company also aims to raise awareness among consumers to stay healthy and prevent diseases by taking supplements. How Unique Challenges Have Affected the Company? The key factors that have contributed to the success of the organization – are based on making good plans, being persistent and developing a well-functioning team as well as motivated people. In fact, in order to be successful, it is important to have in mind a good plan before initiating every type of new project, therefore a good business plan which includes goals, milestones and numerical figures is crucial. There’s a famous saying that goes “By failing to prepare, you’re preparing for failure.” When Maria took the reign of Deltha Pharma, she started off with a clear vision and mission. She is tenacious, persistent and determined: persistence in fact is one of the most important success factors. When Maria decided to take the reins of Deltha Pharma, she was very young, a woman and with no experience in the pharmaceutical field, plus the company was struggling to survive, it was near to bankruptcy and many people tried to dissuade her from leading Deltha Pharma. The first challenge she had to face was to make sales agents, customers, suppliers, employees and all KOLs trust her. However, her vision of success helped her stay sustained through this whole period. Maria believes that, If she didn’t have the perseverance she couldn’t have seen it through the difficulties and the business would have not survived. Lastly, it is important to choose good people to work with and develop a well-functioning team. As Maria is a motivated person herself, she has learnt how to motivate her employees. Not only does she understand how to motivate them, but also understands them as people and works with their strengths. Having a clear vision of what it means to be successful is already a starting point towards success. On Productivity and Motivation in Workplace Maria believes that a flourishing work culture influences all aspects of a business and the people within it. One of the most important elements she considers is the balance between work and personal life, what matters is the happiness of employees by respecting their lives as a whole. For this reason, Maria makes sure that her offices close at 4.40 pm so that all the employees can spend time with their families, including
Manju Mastakar: An Extensive Investment Solution Provider For Wealth-Creation
After working as a stock advisor in a brokerage firm in the economic hub city of Mumbai, Manju moved to Bangalore to dive in as a wealth manager. Investing and gaining experience for more than 20 years in the investment industry, the sub-prime crisis of 2008 left her no choice but to quit the corporate job. The event triggered her to start a venture, Armstrong. Taking her passion as her business, Manju started working from home, meeting clients and advising them on investments. She has worked and developed solutions for clients of all sizes and played an instrumental role in choosing the right mutual fund. We at Fortunes Crown got into conversation with Manju Mastakar, Managing Director of Armstrong Capital & Financial Services Pvt. Ltd., to know more about the company and how it is helping the businesses and individuals as a whole. Below are the highlights of the interview: Describe your professional journey as an inspiring business professional. Any time that someone takes a risk and launches their own business there is always some foundational reason behind it. Though it was challenging at the beginning to switch from busy office life to working in a home environment, slowly but effectively working from home became the business norm. Initially, I thought of it as a stop-gap arrangement and that when the financial markets stabilize, I would get back into corporate life once again, but that never happened. First I established myself as a freelancer, and I was not shy about it at all. It wasn’t hard for me to say that I don’t have an office and I currently work out of the home. After I was almost 8-9 months into the entrepreneurial journey and had generated some cash flow, I took up a workstation in a business center. After a few more months, I hired my first employee, who in the past worked as a secretary. When you are on your own as a one-person army, it’s very important to delegate non-productive things. Slowly as business GREW, I started hiring people 1 by 1. In a year I would only add 1-2 resources. I worked on a very lean structure so that I could survive through the first 2 years of the entrepreneurial journey. What products and/or services do you offer? Armstrong offers services in the form of Financial Planning & Investment Advisory. We analyze the client’s past investments, understand his liabilities, and discuss their preferences with them. Further, we take a judgmental call on their risk appetite and then offer solutions. We call it the execution plan. We discuss the plan with the client, involving them in the decision-making process of choosing the right mutual fund. The primary motive behind starting Armstrong and continuing it was the unencouraging way wealth management is dealt with conventionally. More of upselling the product. I felt it was necessary to build up the relationship, understand the needs and then offer a solution. We have one plan and one perspective throughout the wealth creation journey. Till today Armstrong does not sell products. We identify requirements and sell solutions. Our core competency is that we work with integrity, keeping in mind that we need to build a long-term relationship. How do you set yourself apart from those already in the industry? We have always had a customer-centric approach – well, all companies say the same but how they put it to practice differs. So for us, when we say customer-centric, it means that there is no over-the-counter solution provided. All relationships begin by keeping in mind the long-term objective, and a financial plan tailored to their needs. We focus a lot on research we do bottom-up research on the funds and the stocks that they pick. We have various filterers based on analytical and various other parameters and the funds that pass through form a part of our white list. We then construct model portfolios for different categories of investors. Our wealth-building process is an iterative one, supported by many plans that evaluate the performance over a period of time. Every client is different, and we have an individualistic approach when offering them solutions. We conceive customized financial plans for each client, considering their life goals, their commitments, their dreams and their savings. We do not create returns, the appreciation is created by the markets we only create the discipline in the investor to save and invest at regular intervals. The first thing I do is protect wealth, the second thing we do is manage risk and then that last preference is past performance. My focus is my Vision, my focus is on my customer’s satisfaction, his long-term wealth creation and protection. This differentiates us from the rest of the industry. Talent Retaining and Hiring have been a challenge for all industries? How are you managing this aspect? In Armstrong Capital we generally hire freshers, I find freshers to be like a jigsaw puzzle and after every conversation with them add on to a piece and for more than 2 years is when the puzzle transforms into a full picture. I feel every individual has a unique characteristic that has to be utilized as a skill for the organization. A team is a unique collage of many individualistic characteristics someone can be like a lion who begins the project with full trust and power and doesn’t relax till the task is completed, someone maybe like a crane with high levels of concentration who can strike at the right place with the right force. Someone maybe like a donkey who never refuses any work, some may be like cocks who can give a wake-up call. It’s the leaders’ ability to assemble them as a team and then orchestrate them. They then realize that they are dependent on one another and stick on as a team for a long time, making magic make history. What motivates you to keep going? What attracts me to this profession is intellectual stimulation, the people I work with, deep
Lexis Serot: An Innovative Entrepreneur Pioneering an Extraordinary Health Solution
Is there any industry where women have not been able to make an astounding impact out of their presence? Absolutely, not! Flourishing all over the world, we are witnessing women with indomitable spirits emerging as exemplary leaders, trend-setters, innovators, revolutionaries, and whatnot. In the world of disruptors, female leaders are excelling with their intuitive and inspiring approach that has caused a stir across the business fraternity. In the profound pool of women entrepreneurs who are transitioning into outstanding groundbreakers, we have brought to you a model turned e-com entrepreneur who helps connect and support people with disabilities and others who are improving their lives. This exclusive cover story depicts the success story of Lexis Noel Serot, Founder and CEO of LittleWins. Insights into personal and entrepreneurial space Lexis Serot is a high school graduate from Columbine High School who studied photography at Flagler College. Unable to afford fees, Ms. Serot has to quit college in between and her endeavors landed her to become a model at Ford Models. With 14 years of a successful career as a model, she became a mother in 2013. Sadly her daughter Ava suffered a skull fracture during a c-section delivery. As a result, Ava has triplegia Cerebral Palsy. At the time, as a mother of a child with cerebral palsy, Ms. Serot was shocked at how unprepared she was. She tried to familiarize herself with the many forms of care, equipment, and therapy. She realized quickly, how broken the system was, and became obsessed with trying to find a solution. The incident shook and triggered her to start a company that can help people with similar uncertainties. Someone asked Ms. Serot in an interview, “why she started LittleWins?” She answered, “because I recognized that life was giving me an ‘at-bat’ to create a better world for my daughter.” It is truly her daughter that inspired her to become the leader she is today. Ms. Serot did not just want to create a better world only for her daughter but for others that also have a disability and to create a community in which they could come together and help each other. Road to in-depth solution In the beginning, Lexis Serot interviewed over 175 families and caregivers to see what the common denominators were in their journey to acquiring care, equipment, and therapies. It didn’t matter. Of those 175 people, they had three things in common. Number one, they had medical equipment or supplies they no longer needed but didn’t know what to do with. Two, They needed something but couldn’t get it. What hit the hardest was, number three, they all felt alone. This is when Ms. Serot started building the LittleWins community so families and individuals could connect. She designed LittleWins.com as an easy-to-use marketplace for people to post used durable medical equipment, browse equipment by category and location, and connect directly with buyers and sellers through the site’s messaging app. LittleWins also provides a community in which people across the nation now have each other for support, help, resources, and experiences. What makes LittleWins stand apart? LittleWins was established in 2018, and Ms. Serot began laying the groundwork for LittleWins that year. Since then, she has continually adapted the LittleWins.com website with web and e-commerce developers while directing a marketing assistant and marketing communications agency. She works closely with her legal and financial advisors. She collaborates with regional and national organizations that support people with disabilities. She partners with other women entrepreneurs who offer products and services to her community. Headquartered at Denver, the discovery process of LittleWins had begun in 2019 and in November of 2019, the website was launched. After launching LittleWins.com in 2019, Ms. Serot began to explore how the site could serve her community’s needs beyond durable medical equipment. She created and posts daily on LittleWins’ online support forum, receiving and providing feedback to help people with disabilities and the families that support them live their best lives. To build the LittleWins brand, she launched a line of LittleWins apparel – beanies, trucker hats, and t-shirts. Serot also has launched a podcast in which she talks about leading a life with a disability. Lexis Serot believes that access to equipment and supplies should be simple. The mom of four, including a daughter who has cerebral palsy, founded LittleWins.com to connect and support people with disabilities and others who are improving their lives. LittleWins.com harnesses the power of the community to help its members buy, sell or donate medical equipment, get information and connect with others. Members list and browse equipment by category and location on the company’s website. They connect directly with buyers and sellers through the site’s app. They share tips, experiences, and advice on LittleWins’ social pages. Covid, adjustments, and roadmap Especially over the past few years with COVID 19, users have been confined to their homes in which they are constantly online. Most users, especially those with medical conditions may make them more vulnerable to COVID. LittleWins has been working hard getting users to join and listings to be posted. Since LittleWins is an online-based community as well, it relies on users to help the online marketplace and provide support for one another. Ms. Serot had started her own blog and podcast to help address questions and concerns by other members of the LittleWins community. She talks about topics that are not typically addressed such as “Sex and Disability”, “Self-Identity”, “CBD”, “Hospice and Palliative Care”, “Adaptive Footwear” and many other topics. Serot has never turned down a requested topic, she goes above and beyond during the research process. She sits down for hours studying each field to bring the most informative, vulnerable, open conversations for those who need it. She finds experts to sit down and have a discussion with and hopes that listeners will connect to these resources. Lexis Serot also blogs about navigating her daily life. Such as must-have products or services that she has personally tried with her children that help make life easier. Just recently she
Lawrence Shaw: Delivering an Online ADA Risk Control Program for Websites
We, as humans of this modern world, are witnesses to several changes and amendments. In the form of lifestyle or justice. These changes are not always achieved easily, some are the result of years and years of protests and hardships. Women, differently-abled individuals, “lower classes”, and many others had to fight for their basic rights as an individual. These constant protests led to conversations, which led to the formation of acts and laws like women’s voting rights and the Americans With Disabilities Act. What is ‘The Americans With Disabilities Act?’ In 1990, the United States passed a comprehensive civil rights law that was enacted to protect individuals with disabilities from discrimination called The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA is the reason we have things like disabled parking requirements, service counter height requirements, and wheelchair ramp mandates in building codes. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. This also includes an accessible and approachable online experience where websites, homepages, and portals are accessible to everyone- even those who use assistive technology for their internet experience. ADA And Internet Usage This act came one year before the first web page went live on August 6, 1991. Since this time, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been tasked to keep up with the ever-evolving world wide web and updating ADA guidance. Organizations and businesses can be sued with demands being a figure they may or may not be able to afford. These demands are not just costly in terms of money, but also in terms of time. Compare the cost of upgrading your website to a hefty ADA fine and suddenly affordable website migrations don’t seem expensive in the least. When hiring a web developer, it is important to choose a company that understands the laws in your state and knows how to ensure a compliant migration. AAAtraq is an InsurTech ‘Online ADA’ commercial insurance solution providing integrated litigation costs coverage insurance and loss mitigation services; suitable for small and medium-sized organizations wishing to insure and protect themselves against the risks of non-compliance with the regulations in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Person Behind It All While having a chat with Lawrence Shaw, legislation, industries, and challenges were discussed. Having a keen interest in software and computers, young Lawrence Shaw enjoyed writing computer games for the Sinclair ZX81 and COMMODORE VIC-20. Lawrence then completed his education with RAF by studying aeronautical physics and applied math. Upon leaving the RAF, Lawrence was looking for job opportunities in his home city of Coventry. However, the only openings were in car manufacturing, which despite Lawrence’s interest in cars and motorsport, these wern’t the direction that Lawrence saw his career going. Lawrence’s career moved to technology and he has been working on and with Automated Testing Teschnology for over 18 years now, testing and trying to make the web more accessible and compliant. The focus of this has been compliance technology targeting accessibility and privacy regulation. “I suppose the fact that I struggle being told what I can’t do played a part in me wanting to start my own business. Plus, I had a £1 bet about whether I could achieve this with a friend, who still hasn’t paid up!” says Lawrence about starting something on his own. Where Did AAAtraq Come From? Having worked with automated testing, Lawrence has witnessed several sites, portals and companies promising and claiming to have Compliance, but in reality, they fail to provide it. Organizations need to understand that they have a duty of care, and one of these responsibilities is to be inclusive. We wanted to weed out those promising compliant services by ensuring these services are easy to monitor. This is what led to the establishment of AAAtraq in the year 2019. What organizations need to do is: accountability to meet the required standards. What Services Does AAAtraq Provide? The industry is focused on dealing with reacting to the problem, billions are being spent repeatedly fixing websites. However, this doesn’t address the cause of the issue proactively. AAAtraq’s Continuous Protection provides the services for organizations to deal with Online ADA effectively by providing: AAAtraq’s Compliance Identification and Risk Management Program enable digital equality to become a reality. The commercial insurance company, based on its years of experience in developing automated compliance software, is working towards integrating the world’s first “pure” digital cost indemnity capability. Challenges And Facing Them Every initiative, personal or public, will have its own set of challenges and difficulties. It is what makes a company strong at its feet. AAAtraq views Funding as one of its biggest challenges. To start something on your own, you need to have a basic revenue to get things going. When the business is centered on something not many organizations or the general public have heard of, it makes it even more difficult to find a donor willing enough to support the cause. That was something the company struggled with for quite a while before finding suitable and apt funding. Running a company is laborious and strenuous with constant challenges and criticism all along. Taking every new step is difficult with constant changes around, be it about trends, legalities, or new additions to existing concepts. Another one of their challenges was COVID. After the pandemic, customer preferences changed. Many organizations decided to go online and open their active portals. Organizations were neither focused nor aware of the regulations about being online. Many have now become aware of physical ADA, things like curb cuts, buttons in elevators, etc. However, several rules apply online –the realization of this has started to hit as litigation is passing $600,000,000 per month – people are now starting to understand that this is a risk, not a technical matter. How Do Things Work Behind The Scenes At AAAtraq? The company takes pride in the fact that
Kelly Bagla: Forging Roadmaps, Building Businesses
A multi-degree lawyer, Kelly Bagla, Esq. is an international award-winning corporate attorney who practices in San Diego, California. Her passion is to help entrepreneurs achieve their dreams and she lives by her own motto: “Grab the world by the pearls, it’s yours for the taking!” Kelly Bagla, CEO of Bagla Law Firm, is on a mission to empower businesses of all sizes with the best information with the help of the best legal minds in the business. With the mantra “Go Legal Yourself!” and by creating the “4 Legal Lifecycles” of a business, Kelly broke down how to start, grow, establish and exit a business into 4 easy steps that will make any business bulletproof and extremely successful! Please tell us about your educational/professional background. Who inspired you to become a business leader? Would you like to mention some of the highlights from your journey? I graduated from university back in England and made my way to America. The land of the free and the home of the brave! I got here with the hopes to achieve my ‘American Dream’, and I set out to do so. I put myself through Law School in California, and my focus on being the best landed me a career opportunity to work at the largest law firm in the world. I did that for some time and decided that working for someone else wasn’t what the ‘Dream’ I had envisioned. You see… I have ALWAYS wanted to be an Attorney. To use my platform to ‘save the world’ so to speak. But… I watched the “big business legal industry” just ‘nickel and dime’ every entrepreneur trying to get their start. I began to realize that the system set in place was designed to make it damn near impossible for the “little guy” to get their footing and have a fighting chance at success. So that’s when I started Bagla Law Firm, APC., an internationally recognized business law firm with its headquarters in beautiful San Diego, California. Besides my successful Law Firm, I ventured into: Toy invention, Authoring “Go Legal Yourself!” (and a handful more titles in the series), Keynote Public Speaking, Guest Hosting, Pitbull Rescue, Veteran Service, Podcast Hosting…. Sky Diving… LA Fashion Week?! So many things. I try not to limit myself, and always try to continue growing; Both professionally, and individually. When was Bagla Law Firm established? What are the prominent services/solutions offered by the company? I started Bagla Law in 2009. Our business model surrounds the idea of flat-rate fees for services rendered, and a relationship built where you feel comfortable coming back and asking questions should you have any. We offer a customer-service-based Business Law Practice, that puts its top priority on client satisfaction and transparent practices. We are pretty all-encompassing. Starting a business? Of any kind? From anywhere in the world? That’s any size big or small?? Already have a business and want to make sure you are set up in the safest situation available? We take care of all of that. And we do it in a way that is thorough, concise, comprehensive, flat rate fee oriented, and doesn’t require “long billable hours”. The same can be said of the Asset Protection side of the Practice. Do you need: offshore asset protection? Real estate asset protection? Buying or selling a business? We got you. Please tell us about the services/products your company is offering? How are they different from your competitors’ offerings? Bagla Law Firm, APC., is a Business Formation and Asset Protection Law Firm. We help individuals who want to start their own businesses and we help businesses, both domestic and international, who want general corporate counsel, including starting, growing, and selling their business. I am the “Queen of Business Law” for a reason. What I do, I do as an expert. If I don’t feel that I’m at a level of expertise in the current law surrounding the case, I won’t take the client. I have no issues referring out clientele to fellow attorneys that fill the yin to my yang. But I would only send a client to counsel I felt could treat them in the same manner that we treat our clients. Please brief us in detail about the current scenario of the business. How have the customer preferences changed over the years? Our firm has a deep-rooted core value of construct that also, despite conflicting with the money-making drive purpose of all businesses, has a burning desire to HELP. I run my law firm the same way I run my life: I know what we’re worth, I know our limitations, I know our expertise, and I know what we can and will do to help be a part of the solution. I won’t ever promise you the world if I can’t deliver on it. And on the flip side of that… ‘if I promise you the world.’ You can count on it being delivered. There are these unfortunately true stereotypes about lawyers “squeezing blood from a turnip”, and just being downright ‘blah’ people. Here at Bagla Law Firm, APC., we do everything within our power to make sure that our FLAT RATE pricing, and CLEAR, CONCISE, communication, keeps every interaction as pleasant, and as productive as possible. It also takes an entrepreneur to understand the business needs of another entrepreneur, as I run several businesses. I think that’s a huge part of the reason why our clients choose us because we understand them, can relate to them, and they appreciate talking to and working with real business owners – us. What are the unique challenges your company is currently facing? How have they affected your company? I’d say our current challenge is pretty run-of-the-mill: Having more work to do than there is time in the day. Here at Bagla Law, we stay busy. But that’s a good thing as we love what we do! So, we recently just hired another associate, and if things continue in the manner, they’ve going… We’ll
Joseph Rothstein: Passionate To Assisting His Clients In Growing And Scaling Their Businesses
The media industry has been rapidly changing since the dawn of the internet. Over the past couple of years, media platforms are dynamically influencing the business world such as advertising on Instagram. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has driven many businesses towards getting online to step their game up. The preys to this unwelcomed circumstance are the older generation businesses that have been holding off from providing their clients functional and enjoyable user experience. The pandemic has forced businesses to go digital; in-person meetings and traditional ways of being seen have been waved earlier for good. Joseph Rothstein, the Founder & CEO of Social Media 55 had sensed it all more than a decade ago. In the age of information, Joseph was a bit skeptical about the old implication methods of marketing. With a vision to be the best provider in the media industry, he began his entrepreneurial journey. In 2014, he founded Social Media 55 with the passion to impart brand exposure and visibility to businesses in need. The Day With Positivity Joseph radiates positivity and true enjoyment of his work. He spends most of the day working alongside VP of Operations Benjamin Ohayon, who has been a driving force for their customer success. Where Joseph as CEO is responsible for strategy and direction functioning closely with the team for successful campaigns, Benjamin is a true leader every CEO requires. Joseph oversees his graphic designers, SEO team, content developers, and works alongside the web development team. From Wireless to Digital Joseph, after a decade of working in telecommunications and servicing corporate accounts, was fascinated by marketing. He realized that he wasn’t being challenged working in the wireless cellular phone industry, and plunged into digital marketing about 10 years back. He began developing an e-commerce website for a luxury fragrance company “JIVAGO Brands.” Soon the brand started getting great traffic from the new website and mandated him to manage the social media platforms. He enjoyed working in the field so much that he decided to offer the same services to many businesses. Joseph gained enough experience for a startup, Social Media 55, to deliver services like social media management paid and organic, website design & development, SEO, PPC, and everything in between. “I’ve also been known for answering our 1-800 number after hours,” he says. Recognition as Leader Social Media 55 has been recognized as an exemplary leader multiple times. The agency has been awarded over 20+ awards in Social Media Management, SEO, PPC, Digital Marketing, B2B Services, Top Web Design Agency 2019, 2020, 2021 by GoodFirm, Clutch, Agency Spotter, Upcity, and more. They offer businesses innovative solutions that deliver the right type of audience to clients in the most effective strategies possible. Joseph and the team believe in transparency and hence, everyone plays a key role to make Social Media 55 successful. Such commitment allows them to pay close attention to the client feedback and in making sure the client is fully satisfied. The Close Connection Social Media 55 provides solutions that are customized to address the specific needs of the clients. From executives to associates and team members take a personalized approach and spend time working one-on-one with the clients to ensure they are meeting all of their marks. Everyone wants to help each other be successful, thus they ensure close communications with their clients throughout their mandate. They listen to their clients’ feedback closely so as to fine-tune their formula and deliver a superior service. Team members continue to evolve, to best meet the needs of clients. Their focus on integrity is at the forefront of what they stand for as a company and an agency. They carry a concrete reputation for providing honest and excellent quality work. They delve their heart and soul into each and every project they take on. The Challenges and the Opportunities No matter how many challenges you overcome, the new ones will find their way. The COVID-19 affected the company in many ways but the easiest decision company made was to keep everyone safe. The quickest agreement was to go remote immediately, which was not difficult for them as they were used to a hybrid work/home balance already. At the initial pandemic, they were busy working on their legacy accounts and noticed website traffic and leads had drastically dropped almost to a halt. After one month of crickets, the phones and the website exploded. The pandemic waves have eaten enough industries and collapsed the GDPs of major economic countries. However, months after businesses got their feet stronger, as they were scrambling to get online, Social Media 55 was working long hours to meet the high demand. There is a difference in surviving and thriving when it comes to adopting new technologies such as 5G. It is no more hidden that the advent of 5G will revolutionize almost every business in the world. From the Internet of Things (IoT) to science, communications to design, the 5th generation technology projects the next human evolution. For instance, Metaverse from Mark Zuckerberg with the help of 5G will allow users to interact with anything, anyone in the 3D world. The technology will bring exponential growth to the social media platforms and marketing more skin-friendly. “Our files and needs are getting bigger and used by more and more each day, it’s no question that 5G will help manage all that data,” Joseph adds. Joseph has plans to elevate its marketing hierarchy through acquiring/developing a digital social media calendar management software that will support all the major platforms. Seek Out What You Desire Joseph’s message to aspiring business leaders is to get a job at almost any position in an agency and learn how the business operates. Pick apart what makes the business tick and find a way to bring added value to that company by taking initiative and improving something. Take that experience and attempt in moving up the ranks and locking down a position you feel is more in line with your goals. If you don’t see room for
Jordan Meinster: Stretching and Kicking Basketball Franchise Performance into High Gear
They say there’s a time and place for everything – Jordan Meinster says the time to start a basketball franchise is right now. There are many things that mark PickUp USA Fitness out from other franchises, but Jordan starts with two. ‘First, we offer new franchisees a turn-key business complete in every detail, including training and mentorship programs. And second, our whole environment is based upon allocating substantial resources to our training programs, whether it’s complete training or 365 day/year support. We at Fortunes Crown got into conversation with Jordan Meinster, Founder & CEO, PickUp USA Fitness, to know more about the company and how it is helping the businesses as a whole. Below are the highlights of the interview: Please brief us in detail about the current scenario of the franchise business. How have the customer preferences changed over the years? PickUp USA has awarded 43 franchises for our basketball-focused concept. We have a nationwide presence and are considered the industry leader in basketball facilities. We stay in tune with our customer preferences and continuously adjust our services to ensure we are providing a world-class basketball experience. Some recent examples include a members-only adult basketball tournament each week and a new Youth Development league for kids in grades 3rd – 8th. Could you please walk us through your educational/professional journey? What was the moment that triggered you to step into the franchise business? I went to college in Durango, CO and always played PickUp basketball at parks and rec centers there while I earned my Bachelor’s in Business Economics. I put myself through school managing a restaurant. When I wasn’t in school or working, I was playing basketball! I worked for several years in banking and finance and eventually enrolled in night classes at USC where I completed my MBA. I always dreamed of opening a basketball gym and one day I got the courage to quit my job and start PickUp USA! When was PickUp USA established? What are the prominent services/solutions offered by the company? The first PickUp USA was established in Irwindale, CA (just outside of Los Angeles) in June 2012. PickUp USA is a basketball paradise for youth and adults. We do group and private basketball training, PickUp basketball with referees, tournaments, Youth Basketball Leagues, and a lot more. All of our clubs also have full fitness centers with weights and cardio equipment. What measures do you incorporate to ensure motivation and productivity within the workspace? How do you respond to criticism and disagreements? I take a very hands-off approach with my team. We collectively determine goals and then I let them figure out how to get there. It is a very entrepreneurial workplace. We encourage risk-taking and making mistakes. That has helped us become one of the fastest-growing fitness franchises in the US. Criticism and disagreements are a natural and productive part of any business. Criticism provides great feedback and insight from customers, employees, and franchise owners. Disagreements show that everyone cares. Friction is a part of growth and we welcome it as long as everyone remains respectful and professional of all team members. What measures do you undertake to ensure optimum customer satisfaction? How much impact does the customer feedback have on the company’s strategies? Customer feedback is a huge part of how we shape our programs and services at PickUp USA. We continuously run member surveys and connect with our customers at our gyms. Our corporate team is consistently onsite at corporate-owned and franchised locations and we actively solicit feedback from customers so we can know how to best serve them. Our franchise owners also perform self-audits on their stores to ensure that we are living up to the high expectations that our members and guests have for our clubs. As a leader, how do you ensure hiring the ideal franchising candidate with the ideal qualities? How do you ensure providing effective training and mentorship to the team? When analyzing franchising candidates for PickUp USA, our development team completes a comprehensive discovery process to get to know the individuals looking to franchise our basketball concept. Our Franchise Development Manager sends e-Brochures and conducts initial phone calls to answer initial questions and determine if there is a fit. From there, she sends them an application to complete. Upon receiving the application, she determines if the candidate qualifies to start our discovery process. If qualified, our VP of Franchise Development conducts a series of interviews and webinars to build the candidates understanding of our program. After this process, the VP determines if we will award a franchise to the candidate. It’s a very thorough vetting process that ensures we have top-tier franchisees to deliver our services to the public. After signing on as franchisees, our training and mentorship programs are widely recognized as the best in the industry. We allocate substantial resources to our training programs and all franchisees complete a comprehensive curriculum through PickUp USA University. Franchisees work directly with our VP of Operations, our VP of Marketing, and our Franchise Support Associate to complete their training, and they are assigned dedicated reps at the corporate office for ongoing 365 day/year support. We also have a platform for franchisees to communicate with one another, either one-on-one or in a community forum. We all support one another. When one of us wins, we all win. How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact you and your company? What was your response to the unprecedented situation? COVID shut down all of our gyms for a brief period in 2020. We banded together as a company and weathered the storm. We quickly recovered and were back to pre-pandemic levels of business by Q3 of 2020. 2020 wound up being a record year for the company and 2021 far surpassed 2020’s numbers. Things have not slowed down in 2022. Q1 was our best quarter ever. COVID was scary, but we have an amazing group of franchise owners and a dedicated corporate office. We didn’t close a single location
Jeffery Arnold: The Face of RIGHTSURE, Assuring Ultimate Platform Blending Technology & Insurance.
Digital Version Known for its Famously Friendly Humans and its iconic tagline “we insure everything from pets to jets.” RIGHTSURE is witnessing a consumer push to its products and offerings in increasingly record-breaking numbers. The insurance industry is quite fragmented with several challenges that exist like talent shortages, managing the balance between tech and human, climate risk, and increased regulatory requirements. RIGHTSURE has effectively tackled the shortcomings of the industry and presented affordable and reliable insurance choices which are tailored according to consumer needs, oh yeah, and their Discount Discovery Technology is what consumers crave. Fundamental Building Blocks Behind The Establishment Since its establishment, the company has acquired several agencies and is also involved in joint ventures with public and privately held firms. Its expertise and persistence have helped the company secure millions of dollars in financing and executed reinsurance measuring with billion-dollar conglomerates. RIGHTSURE is a combination of an insurance agency, insurtech, and aggregator backed by powerful AI initiatives. The company gives the consumers, control of the insurance process. Unique and Beneficial Propositions Generally, over the years, consumers have been influenced to believe that all insurance is equal and the only difference is the price (or the premium paid). On the contrary, every single policy sold is a separate legal contract with the insurance company. And if the consumer is paying less, he is most likely getting much less coverage. RIGHTSURE addressed this gap by developing Discount Discovery Technology. RIGHTSURE policy comes with three very unique propositions, RIGHTSURE assists the consumer in finding quality insurance coverage while providing the best-in-class customer service with a high level of professionalism. The team of RIGHTSURE aims to develop long-term relationships with the customers. Their platform compares not only hundreds of different companies but layered against their discount discovery technology. They assure consumers get not only the very best rates and coverage from top insurance companies, so you can be sure you have the best possible. However, they do this process every single time the policy is up for renewal. A done-for-you service like no other and it’s transforming the entire insurance eco-system. Exceptional Client Service & Matchless Human Connection RIGHTSURE distinguishes itself in quantifying data. The team pays attention to the details and strives to render the best results for the consumers. RIGHTSURE has an unabashed, unmatched, and unapologetic focus on finding the right talent and honing their skills to keep the Famous Friendly Humans engaged and focused on helping the customers get excited about a topic and subject that is mundane for others. The efforts of the RIGHTSURE team have been recognized by several awards and accolades won over the year. These awards also stand as a testimonial to what the company has been able to achieve. In 2022 alone, the company won several awards for its culture and innovations like the Top Insurance Firms North America, 2021 Top Insurance Workspace, Most Outstanding Independent Insurance Agency, and winner of 5 Star Insurance Brokerage Winner. Jeff Arnold’s leadership was awarded as “Insurance Executive of the Year North America, 2021,” and “The Herald of A New Era in Insurance.” Jeff is also often regarded as the Global Ambassador of the insurance industry. He adds, “We are often reminded that people don’t buy from companies—they buy from people—and at RIGHTSURE our people are the company.” Despite the challenges of COVID, RIGHTSURE was able to sail through the tough tides and persevere towards success. The company’s elevated status is provided by its Famously Friendly Humans – as RIGHTSURE has become synonymous with an exceptional client experience and unmatched human connection. Offering Affordable and Reliable Service In the insurance industry, change is the only constant and the changes are thrown at you daily. To sustain in the market one has to adapt to the changes. From Weather Patterns to increased costs to fix cars and rebuilding home, along with the current environment of inflation mixed with Social Justice Settlement the industry is experiencing immense pressure on how to price insurance and how to deliver that messaging to the buyers. RIGHTSURE aim is to help consumers save money and ensure they are covered. To fulfill this, the company will continually invest in its unique propositions RATEGUARD, Discount Discovery Technology that will make all types of insurance affordable for the people. Alongside, develop, attract and retain its Famously Friendly Humans. A Power-Packed Future RIGHTSURE’s RATEGUARD platform is helping to put consumers in control of how much they pay for insurance and is changing the entire insurance ecosystem as it teaches consumers How to Beat Insurance Company Rate Increases. RIGHTSURE is currently in the middle of raising more capital to improve its platform and gain more market share. Founder Jeff Arnold states, As far as the most exciting part of what we do is: I truly am humbled by how our giving MODEL has grown at RIGHTSURE. A portion of every Single Policy dollar goes to: This is powerful as it creates an impact as the team is helping change lives for the better. A portion of every single policy at RIGHTSURE contributes to these great causes. A Leading Company Amongst All The Competition In The Industry Firstly, without a doubt – as stated previously – RIGHTSURE is known for its Famously Friendly Humans and how we fuse our Humans with Artificial Intelligence and layer it with our tech-forward ideology. This fusing together of Humans, Machines, and Technology continues to win us a record number of awards and more importantly, attracts customers by the thousands monthly. “RIGHTSURE will help you find quality insurance coverage while providing customer service with a high level of professionalism.” “We’ve helped countless people save money on their insurance while making sure they’re properly covered.” About The Leadership: Jeffery Arnold has been challenging the insurance status quo for over three decades. His skills and experience make him a distinguished leader in the insurance industry today. The leadership team is rounded out by a powerhouse of Female Led Executives, who in their own right are garnering much attention by leading the tech-forward firm
Ishveen Jolly: Bridging Athletes and Companies Through AI
Ishveen Jolly (Anand), Founder and CEO, OpenSponsorship, is using her wide-ranging experience and interactions in India and Europe to redefine the importance of connections between agents and athletes and companies. What sponsorships will look like— a reimagined investment playground accessed through untapped AI and data. By tapping into the potential of AI, Ishveen delivers a platform that has room for every player. She considers the way sports decorum achieves optimal success and the way that technology advancement is moving in today’s rapidly-evolving world. A Qualified Endeavour Ishveen started her career as a management consultant and then as a sports agent. For five years, she worked in the sports industry primarily focused on securing sponsorships for athletes, teams, leagues, and events in India and Europe. Along the way, however, she realized that it wasn’t always easy for agents and athletes to connect with companies and vice versa. And when they did, the results weren’t always what either party had envisioned. A hard-hitting test occurred during the pandemic when they had to set up the entire office remotely. This huge adjustment is being thoroughly embraced now with their team across the US and even in the UK. This has meant being more reliant on processes, KPIs and ensuring check-ins regularly to ensure team members are thriving and achieving. Defining Moments of OpenSponsorship As a startup, unique challenges are a part of the business. Currently, some of the company’s challenges come from growing as a start-up to becoming a bigger business. OpenSponsorship constantly has to make sure that they have all the correct processes in place for them to continue to scale up and continuously make sure everyone on the team is in sync with a clear definition of ‘where we want to excel as one’ with OpenSponsorship. They are also facing an influx of competition, especially within the college space since the new NIL rule is in play. However, they are committed to constantly upgrading their technology to make sure it is sufficient, while still being simple for both athletes and brands to use. Women Determined to Rising Women can often change the atmosphere of any challenge. Any time you can bring diversity into the boardroom and into decision-making, it is better for all. Women are the primary purchaser of goods, which is a huge part of GDP. Understanding the patterns of how and why women purchase, is a major key. People have seen a huge part of big companies, delivering on women’s needs, ranging from personal care, health care, and furthermore. Ishveen feels like understanding women is most important. Women bringing their different perspectives is really important as well, especially when speaking about tech and AI. Ishveen thinks business and politics go hand and hand. You can not have one without the other, it is just how the world operates. There are so many business decisions that ride on policies. For example, in the world of sports, politically speaking sports betting is legal in the U.S and that brings tons of business and money into the company. Plus tons of businesses are opening up in terms of legality like CBD, which leads to business directly. All of these new categories often come with questions that are not clear yet the policies come into play. Policies often change, one of which people are currently dealing with is maternity leave, they present the leave that gives women the opportunity to go back into the workforce and that obviously transforms business. A huge cross-section between both fields. Women Hold More Potential to Excel Economically Obviously, sports and technology both have independently been male-dominated industries. But from DNA to genetics, both are different. Both are wired differently and those differences are what makes women tick. They see the world through different eyes. In terms of women, speaking of minorities, people with unique voices, are the ones who will make the world a better place for living because they are going to be more inclusive. Building diversity is what will be the recipe for success. It will help us build products, businesses, and policies that are inclusive for any and everyone. OpenSponsorship does have male team members on the team who are able to be more sympathetic and empathetic. But having a woman in the room can make people more sensitive and also create awareness in terms of being inclusive themselves. As a woman, you may use different language or be more considerate of others’ points of view. Female leadership can be more humane, as they often are more considerate. It often holds true a lot of time, but not always. Roles and Responsibilities Ishveen’s primary role as Founder & CEO is to constantly break new barriers, and think about new solutions to grow OpenSponsorship. Growing the team, revenue, and reaching new milestones really gets her excited for the future. She is constantly engaged in all aspects of the business. For her, it is important that she understands how the company flows from the inside to the outside. OpenSponsorship platform is the core of what it does. About a year back they released their mobile app and they are seeing an uptick in that from users – Mobile is becoming core to their product. They love the use of AI and data for their platform, from matching to suggesting the right campaigns for brands. They are always figuring out ways to plug in other technological solutions to theirs, like transitioning all their payments to athletes through Tipalti, using Stripe to collect payments from brands just to make it easier and quicker. They also use Intercom so that people can message us in real-time through the app. They are constantly leveraging technology to make their process quicker and more seamless. They differ from their competitors because they don’t want sponsorship to be a chance, based on who they know, or whether or not they got lucky. So they are determined to make sure that there is access for everyone and that it’s meritocratic, just like how finding a
Ingmar Hogoy: Using Food Waste to Produce New Food
Why is waste management of concern, especially food waste? Food waste is now a global issue. If not properly dealt with, it poses a threat to public health and the environment. It is a growing issue linked directly to the way society produces and consumes. We need to find new and more sustainable solutions adapted to our urban lifestyle where we can upcycle the recourses in food leftovers to feed. Ingmar Hogoy, CEO and Co-Founder at Greentech Innovators AS, has the vision to produce more food to help people fight the food crisis. As an entrepreneur, he discovered a gap in waste management that triggered him to utilize waste from fisheries and aquaculture and develop new products such as feed, special feed, and proteins for human consumption. We at Fortunes Crown got into an interview to know more about Mr. Hogoy and his impact on food waste management. Let’s have a look! Please tell us about your educational/professional background. Who inspired you to become a business leader? Would you like to mention some of the highlights from your journey? I have had a passion for fisheries and aquaculture since I was a kid ad when I was 12, I started experimenting with microalgae in an aquarium using fertilizer for growth. I made a small pond and was catching wild trout fry for farming. When I was 15 years old, I started fish farming with rainbow trout in a homemade fish cage. My goal has never been to be a business leader as such, but my vision was to contribute to producing more food for a growing population and the answer to more food production is in the ocean. My inspiration has been the scientist Dr. Norman Borlaug who got the Nobel Price in 1970 and the book “The man who fed the world” describes the “Green revolution” and how it was possible to increase food production through modern and scientific agriculture methods. Aquaculture has the same potential for the “Blue revolution” and increasing food production from the ocean. My passion for aquaculture has led to several projects and positions in the whole aquaculture value chain through research, product development, processing, and sales. In the early stage of the Norwegian salmon industry, I was working in a salmon processing plant when I realized that there was no waste management solution for processed by-products like viscera and bones. This became an environmental problem. I found that the rest raw material from processing was a valuable resource containing high-quality protein and oil – left unutilized. I was hired at a pioneering company and built up a factory for processing the rest raw materials from the salmon industry into fish protein and oil as feed. Ever since, I have been dedicated to the circular economy, utilizing waste from fisheries and aquaculture by developing new products such as feed, special feed, and proteins for human consumption. The utilization of the rest raw materials from fisheries and aquaculture is now a large and profitable industry in Norway. When was Greentech Innovators AS established? What are the prominent services/solutions offered by the company? On my daily travel from home to work I met the trucks loaded with food waste going for incineration and the only result was GHG emission and pollution from the chimney. Through my experience with aquaculture and by solving the challenges of by-products from aquaculture and fisheries, I realized that we still have environmental challenges with food waste. In 2018, we established Greentech Innovators and the subsidiary Algaepro. The idea was to find more sustainable solutions to organic waste like food waste. The environmental challenges with today’s waste management solutions became more and more obvious. Please tell us about the services/products your company is offering? How are they different from your competitors’ offerings? Headquartered in Bergen, Norway, Greentech Innovators uses biotechnology for converting food waste into growth media for microbes and microalgae for the production of omega-3 and protein as sustainable feed for the aquaculture industry. We are upcycling food waste to feed. And our customers are waste management companies that need more sustainable solutions according to new regulations. We can offer feed producers more sustainable omega-3 and protein. Please brief us in detail about the current scenario of the business. How have the customer preferences changed over the years? During the last decade, it has become more and more obvious that we need to find more environmentally friendly ways of living. This includes the development of new and more sustainable waste management as all the commonly used solutions like landfills, incineration, composting, and biogas production are contributing to greenhouse gases and pollution of water and air. Political, social, and regulatory pressure to reduce greenhouse gases and go for more circular solutions is a driving force for our solution. It is also a global demand for new feed for the growing aquaculture industry. To continue growing, new and sustainable feed sources substituting fish meal and oil and soy in aquaculture feed must be developed. It is not sustainable to use 30% of global fish sources that can be used for direct food consumption as feed. Our solution uses something that we have too much of, food waste, to produce something in global demand like omega-3 and protein. What are the unique challenges your company is currently facing? How have they affected your company? Like many early-stage companies, we were also affected by the covid situations. Equipment that was normally no problem to get was in demand, and the whole process took more time and the education of employees was delayed because of restrictions. The largest challenge, however, was that investors became more risk reluctant, and it was hard to get equity for expansion and scaling of our innovative solution producing more food and at the same time reducing GHG emissions and pollution of water and air. What measures do you incorporate to ensure motivation and productivity within the workspace? How do you respond to criticism and disagreements? Internally within the team we are open-minded and