Category: Exclusive Interview

Rasha Abusaif : Top 10 Inspiring Business Leaders in MENA 2022

People working with Rasha recognize her by her “persistent focus on quality and efficiency combined with a genuine concern and commitment for all who work with her.” These attributes have been the characteristics of Rasha Abusaif’s career. Representing true Jordanian entrepreneurship whose success in the ICT sector; Ms. AbuSaif is a well-rounded business leader equipped and driven to turn challenges into opportunities.

A crucial bit of advice I give people when they ask how to bounce back from failure is to always stay focused and mission aligned.

The pandemic accelerated the speed of technological change and, in turn, showed us that the capacity to be dynamic, agile, and ready to change direction at a moment’s sight will be more important than ever. Indeed, the companies that succeeded during this time were the ones that aligned their strategies with these three essentials.

Being a C-level expert, or having any stake in the business world, means you must be prepared to take risks. As Garry Kasparov, the great chess champion, once said, “If you don’t take risks, you don’t drink champagne.”

Since then, that was the philosophy I’ve adopted throughout my entrepreneurial journey, and it’s what’s enabled me to be dynamic- the essence of which lies in always looking forward, not back. I always say never be completely satisfied because this can quickly evolve into complacency, and complacency is the death rattle for any business.

Through the combination of my passion for technology and vision, I was able to grow different international, local, and startup companies not only by size, geographic representation, and revenue, but also in technological innovation and in the application of technology in various fields. Some of my successful journey in innovations included the development of the Arabic artificial intelligence parser and the creation of an electronic data interchange solution, implemented in many large European institutions, in addition to market one of the top education solutions, EduWave®, which currently holds the largest base of countrywide deployments and users worldwide.

“I believe that information professionals need to navigate these ethical issues effectively because they are likely to use AI in delivering services as well as contribute to the adoption of AI more widely in their organizations. In this context, I always attend podcasts and AI global and local events and podcasts to empower using AI semantic solutions that embrace CX.”

When an AI solution can switch between languages, this can answer any user inquiry and keep the customer engaged. A full-fledged AI Arabic robotic solution will be able to answer millions of requests in real-time with zero downtime. Also, understanding Arabic dialects will create a semantic automation to users’ requests and, eventually, will lead to the end of a successful request -whether this request is conversational or transactional. This will lead to creating success factors in enterprises or SMEs- including but not limited to:

  1. Increase Customer Satisfaction.
  2. Improve Sales and Leads
  3. Decrease Complaints and obtain more Customer Loyalty
  4. Boost Real Data (Historical Data) to understand customer behaviors
  5. Accomplish Intelligent reports and dashboards to analyze users’ UI/UX to come up with better enhancements in the proposed solution.

“A major roadblock standing in the way of the rapid uptake of AI technology is a lack of trust in AI solutions,
which often operate in black boxes. In the MENA region, AI designed to acknowledge this fact is essential to
improving human comfortability with these solutions to automate customers’ requests in Arabic within multiple
dialects. Through better communication, collaboration, and enhanced processes, artificial intelligence will help
decision-makers act quickly when encountering unexpected situations.”

Education is essential to grow, thus I always believe in work experience yet, obtaining professional certificates to lead by example. In 2002, I received my bachelor’s degree in engineering with a specialization in architecture from the University of Jordan. However, my passion for education never stopped, and I continued my studies and obtained a professional certificate in marketing as a Professional Certified Marketer (PCM®) from the American Marketing Association (AMA). In 2019, I also obtained an advanced diploma certificate in Business Administration from Cambridge College, UK. Lately, I am joining Harvard Business Online to achieve a strategy implementation certificate.

With more than twenty years of experience in different companies in Fintech, Edutech, Healthtech, AI solutions ,and IT companies, and as an expert in the fields of Business and Partnership Development, including strategy implementation, marketing and communications, public relations management, projects planning and management, budgeting and commercial modeling, events, campaigns planning, customer experience (CX), and business growth, I was able to motivate cross-functional teams to be more efficient toward providing state-of-the-art solutions that generate more revenues and increase MENA outreach. Thus, I manage, lead, direct, and oversee the activities and operations of the business with excellent client relationship management to maintain a great customer experience impact.

Through joining FINCA in 2014, an international microfinance company located in 22 subsidiaries, I accomplished many assignments and target sets for the business through handling multiple tasks simultaneously and managing successful solution implementations in market intelligence functions, new procedures, and research, accomplishing over-indebtedness analysis, and client satisfaction surveys. Moreover, I was nominated as the top leader in all FINCA international organizations for leading CX from the inside-out and inspiring the team to achieve a growth of 35% by the end of 2016.

Naturally, moving from country to another, I learned to adapt, to appreciate not only the differences between cultures, but also the similarities between them. Above all, I learned to empathically listen to the words said by others. These invaluable skills I picked up, combined with my global experience, provided me with the perfect preparation for an entrepreneur in today’s fast-globalizing world.

In 2020, I joined WideBot, a startup company founded in 2016 and MENA’s No. 1 Arabic NLP cognitive AI business communications solutions provider, as Head of Business and Partnership, who was responsible for planning, developing, and implementing WideBot business strategies and MENA market growth. After a successful year of business growth, I was promoted to lead the company as WideBot Managing Director by offering quality end-to-end Arabic AI solutions and services worldwide. Rasha is also responsible for all development, communication, and physical facilities, leading the effort to enhance WideBot brand and increase its revenue in the MENA region.

WideBot is an intersection between scalable AI cognitive services and a customer experience (CX) platform. Founded in 2016, WideBot embraces building Arabic-focused AI solutions in the MENA region with the mission to empower businesses through AI-powered solutions that chat like human beings, so they can build strong relationships with their customers and maximize their outcomes through a seamless personalized experience.

“As Managing Director, I am glad to be engaged in supporting prospects towards using Arabic NLP AI solutions to increase customer experience (CX) and automate services seamlessly.“

Ashwin Chawwla : A Revolutionary Leader transforming Digital Escrow payments

Digital payments in UAE have experienced tremendous growth. With digital adoption ascending to its peak, the number of digital payment transactions grew at an annual rate of more than nine percent between 2014 and 2019.

Currently, with the increasingly digital-savvy population in the Middle East, the payments industry revenue in the UAE is expected to grow to $18.7 billion by 2031.

According to a new Boston Consulting Group report, revenues are expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 7.7% in the upcoming years.

With such whopping numbers, the business world needs to put its best foot forward and up its game. Helping small and medium-scale businesses along the way and paving an excellent road map ahead for smooth and secure digital transactions is the one-of-its-kind platform- Escrowpay.

The Hook

Moving contingent money across payment rails is still broken, especially if one of the endpoints is an emerging SME. However, in B2B, there was no platform enabling a feasible solution, so there was a great need to innovate. Hence, this real challenge needed a solution and that’s how Escrowpay was born.

Meet Ashwin Chawwla

A serial entrepreneur in wealth management with over two decades of experience. Ashwin is the Founder and CEO of Escrowpay. He is a passionate learner and an avid reader, who is keen on discovering new things and getting to learn from them.

Education and Career Deets

His education qualification includes: completed graduation from Delhi University, MBA in marketing from the University of Liverpool, executive education from Universoty of Texas, Yale University and Stanford University.

His career in wealth management spans insurances and real estate before etering payments in 2015. He started his career as a corporate insurance agent in 2001 with Tata AIG and Birla Sunlife then moved to global real estate in 2004. Ashwin has hit many milestones in his career. Some of the most lauded ones include, he has successfully closed over $3B in transactions on behalf of his clients. He was instrumental in bringing Coldwell Banker, an over 100 years old real estate brand to India.

He also closed the largest land deal in India of over $500 M way back in 2013 from where the escrow idea was seeded. Ashwin has also travelled with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Germany. He is a member of three panels on entrepreneurship & technology with Confederation of Indian Industry.

Currently based in Dubai, Ashwin is onboarding a new banking partner for expanding Escrowpay in GCC. Understanding the need of the hour, Ashwin reckons that the payment industry and the development of a FinTech ecosystem are among the growth drivers of the future economy.

The Foundation of Escrowpay

One hot afternoon in Mumbai, two leading developers DLF and Lodha Group were struggling to close a $500M land transaction. Ashwin happened to advise both companies. While trying to find a solution, someone suggested ‘Let’s escrow” and that rang a bell and that is when the Escrowpay idea was seeded.

Every day small and medium-scale businesses struggle to get paid on time. Litigation with your client is never really an option.

So, one day while sketching the product, he realized that the puzzle in front can be stitched, and a solution can be offered. His company then tied up with largest banks in india. With such an effective system, businesses now can enable trust in their transactions for ‘collecting on-time to payments on-time’.

At Escrowpay, the team was able to digitize the escrow piece 100%. Today, it offers an escrow account nearly instantly. It is the first company in the world to successfully open escrow accounts on WhatsApp.

Additionally, the perks of having an escrow account certainly help to make investing in the primary market a lot safer.

Core DNA of Escrowpay

In the business world, small and medium-scale businesses are creating an impact and marking their presence. They are equally important as the large-scale business

Hence, Escrowpay is fully aware of the requirements of SMEs and hence supports such businesses to succeed. This is at the heart of what Escrowpay does, helping small and medium-scale businesses to hit milestones and accelerate growth.

Until recently, only the big players could enjoy escrow, However, with its latest technology now, it is making digital escrow available for everyone, giving SMEs the chance to get ahead and aim for higher and timely revenues.

It endeavours to make life better for an SME. It is focused on the growth of SMEs worldwide, by helping them collect and pay on time.

An Overview of Escrowpay

Its Indian Banking Partners

ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, YES Bank & RBL Bank

Team

Escrowpay’s team handles escrows of over $1.5 billion and is a team that didn’t need “more money” to show PMF and growth

Problem

The problem Escrowpay is trying to solve is that banks today need 2-3 months in opening an escrow account with about 400 pages to sign.

Solution

Founded in 2015, ESCROWPAY is an all-in-one payment platform. Be its high-value, once-in-lifetime purchases, milestone-based transactions, long-dated sales, or even recurring regular transactions, the company protects the interests of stakeholders in all contingent-based transactions by creating a safe, secure, transparent, and smart digital escrow-centered ecosystem of payments. It has dropped the number of pages to sign to just 20. A platform with No hidden fees, No minimum balance, No ‘lock-in’, and No stress.

Better Experience

The need for ‘on demand’ trust in transactions is a booming business as businesses would always desire to collect and pay on time

Technology

Today, Escrowpay’s technology allows opening an escrow account faster than any bank in minutes, with complete checks and balances and the money in your account. Smooth, convenient, transparent, and delightful. It has married banking software as a service and API connectivity making transactions seamless and simple.

Product Suite covers:

  • Payment Gateway Services
  • Digital Banking Solution
  • Debit Cards
  • Trusteeship services
  • Identity checks
  • Digital signing capabilities
  • Digital ledgers
  • Digital escrow
  • eNach for recurring payments
  • POS business

Pivot

Escrowpay is today a digitally native business serving a large number of clients in different cities, no feet on the street, no DSAs, and no branches, and it offers an escrow account to every SME.

Why this – Discovering a Huge Gap in India 65M SMEs today run their businesses without an escrow account and run the risk of closure on account of delayed payments. As per an Ernst and Young report, $200 billion is stuck in delayed payments – A HUGE GAP in the 65M SME market

Why now – Digital transformation

When Escrowpay was founded a few years back, even the adhaar stack was not available. The company has walked a difficult path but continued to hold against all adversities. Demonitisation and all government initiatives for digitising payments like UPI stack etc has worked very well for Escrowpay.

In-house built technology

The platform build was completed in June 2020, taking all product development risks away from investors. In 2021, the team secured strategic partnerships, built white-label versions of the platform, and refined the application before achieving staggering results. While we all use payment gateway every day, Escrowpay is a ‘Digital Trust’ Payment Gateway.

Medulla – Escrowpay’s nerve centre

A powerhouse in the cloud helping onboard clients faster than ever. Backed by security protocols from AWS and Escrowpay’s proprietary algo, this is by far the biggest innovation Indian payments and banking industry has seen.

Awards

Technoviti Award, CII Innovation award, incubated by the US State Department and the University of Texas at Austin.

Key Insights about Ashwin’s Personal Life

Morning Rituals

Ashwin wakes up at 7 am, in the prayer room by 8 am. He starts his day by thanking the universe for all health, wealth, and happiness. He starts work by 8: 45 am, the meetings are largely online and have a great team to tide over all his requirements. Listening to music while working helps Ashwin relax and focus at the same time.

Favorite book

Rich dad poor dad

Favorite Quote.

“Failure is only when you quit”

Ashwin’s take on Women Entrepreneurs in Business

Women are great leaders and can build their empires as beautifully as they have built their homes. Ashwin has collaborated with some inspirational women in business.

Vani Kola from Kalaari Capital, Padmaja Ruparel from Indian Angel Network, Rema Subramaniam, Ritu Verma, Kamakshi Rao from Ankur Capital, and Vasudha Wadhera from Elevation Capital are some of the leaders in the funding space

Escrowpay’s Future Goals

As new specialized payment players bring the bigger picture to reality, the GCC will experience real-time advancements. Escrowpay is at the forefront of this opportunity including the CEPA deal which both India and UAE signed recently. With new and optimal solutions, Escrowpay aspires to become a blockchain-based fully digital bank for business owners with having global presence.

Romina Guglielmetti: Innovative Businesswoman, Administering Success in Corporate and Commercial Law with Starclex

Revolutionary indeed, both Romina Guglielmetti and her venture, Starclex, continue to set the pace in the legal industry while breaking new ground and innovating world-class solutions.

Today, Starclex holds a significant position in the market as a name associated with a company offering excellent service in all areas of business and commercial law. The Starclex team, which consists of knowledgeable professionals from various industry sectors with a strong international background and exceptional skills, continues to put in the effort and make a name for itself in the sector by providing support that is supported by its extensive industry knowledge, which is well-known in the Italian and international business community.

Headquartered in Lombardia, Italy, and under the supervision of Romina Guglielmetti, who founded the company in 2013, Starclex specialises in providing ordinary and exceptional support to listed and non-listed companies in the fields of corporate and commercial law, corporate governance and compliance, banking and financial law, internet law, intellectual property, and innovative start-ups and SMEs. Emerging in the legal space, Romina Guglielmetti’s privately owned law firm has been dealing with complex issues every day, developing innovative solutions to meet the needs of the customers.

The visionary leader

Romina Guglielmetti, Founding Partner of Starclex, is a lawyer with expertise in corporate governance, corporate law, banking, and capital markets law. In addition to lecturing in university courses and master’s programmes with a corporate governance focus, she has developed substantial competence in advising listed and private organisations in several business sectors. She was a founder member of Starclex in 2013, and from 2007 to 2013 she served as a partner at Studio Santa Maria; from 2000 to 2004 she was a senior associate at Studio Legale Bonelli Erede Pappalardo (now BE); and from 2004 to 2007 she was of counsel at Studio Notarile Marchetti.

The inspiring lady was also involved in the corporate governance of financial institutions, listed companies, and state-controlled businesses, with a focus on control systems (at the individual and group level), succession plans, related party transactions, and the appropriateness of the composition and operation of boards of directors.

Sharing more about her persona and goals, the magnificent woman asserted, “I would like to be remembered for professionalism and competence, together with the capability to assist clients in complex operations (M&A, IPOs, takeover bids), or in delicate corporate governance issues. “I would like to be remembered for the capacity to combine, with a tailormade approach, the experience I got in the professional and academic field with the experience I gained as a board of directors and control member of primary listed companies, operating in different sectors (e.g., Enel, Italgas, MPS, Tod’s, Compass Banca, ITA Airways, Fondazione Milano-Cortina 2026, Pininfarina, Dea Capital Investment Funds SGR, etc.).”

The Exclusive Service Portfolio of Starclex

The young and dynamic law firm, with high technical skills and united by a deep passion for their work and for legal Starclex, deal with complex issues every day, developing innovative solutions to meet the needs of the customers on the following issues:

Ordinary corporate matters: helping boards and other company functions with governance issues, compliance and control systems, and developing, analysing, and restating bylaws, internal policies, and regulations (such as compliance, control, and internal dealing procedures, ethical codes, and the structuring and functions of board committees).

They support publicly traded businesses with regard to the legal and compliance aspects of their interactions with shareholders and regulatory bodies, with a focus on the accuracy, completeness, and coherence of their communications to the market and to oversight bodies. In dealing with the Bank of Italy and Consob (in relation to extraordinary corporate operations, regulatory penalties, etc.), structuring their control and governance procedures, dealing with fit and proper tests, and board evaluation processes, they support businesses and financial intermediaries.

Starclex specialises in assisting governance bodies with planning and recording meetings, providing legal advice, and, more broadly, advising businesses on difficult corporate decisions (public market transactions, situations involving conflicts of interest, transactions involving correlated parties, etc.); extraordinary corporate matters: advising companies and financial intermediaries on complex extraordinary transactions such as IPOs, tender offers, M&A, spin-offs, and demergers.

The Strong Clientele

The clientele that can benefit from Starclex’s service includes Italian and internationally listed companies as well as private firms in every phase of their companies’ lives. Additionally, Starclex offers legal assistance to businesses, banks, financial organisations, and groups during board and shareholder meeting activities. This assistance extends even to businesses with control system profiles.

In fact, Starclex’s goal in assisting clients is to foster a cultural evolution so that the obligations imposed by industry regulations are not perceived as mere bureaucratic burdens but rather as tools for creating value for the company and all its stakeholders. The company helps businesses both before and after they list, offering a variety of qualified services spanning from daily assistance to the organisation of board and shareholder meeting proceedings, from extraordinary transactions to relations with the authorities and the market.

Standing at a Distinctive Stance in the Legal World

With years of expertise in intricate, global operations and a thorough understanding of the Italian market, Starclex is a dynamic reality that can provide its clientele with a flexible, constantly-evolving approach. Starclex works in full judge independence to provide clients independent assistance and supplies finalised consulting services to the client’s objects and needs. Associated with in-depth knowledge of the issuer and its management, this perspective allows the team to be ready and effective in assisting the client in ordinary activities, in structured capital transactions, or in the acquisition of complementary third-party companies that are strategic to the growth path. Several businesses have asked for the continuation of the collaboration relationship with our company, in part due to the strong bond of confidence that has been established.

The Latest Tech Evolutions

Starclex is adapting to the changes in its market sector, which is distinguished by a significant amount of competition, by investing in young, motivated personnel, valuing unique attitudes and competencies, and enhancing the client’s approach in terms of professionalism, service accuracy, dedication, costs, and the sensitivity of new technologies.

Talents and diversity Valorization, flexibility, and digitalization are aspects that have an impact on the sustainability of legal firms, and Starclex, although a specialised boutique, is spotting emerging needs in the legal consulting sector that may be of interest to its clients even in the future.

Overcoming the Hurdles

Along the Way The major challenge to face has been to establish itself on the market. Starclex is a young company that was founded by my partner Carlo Riganti and Romina when they were only thirty and forty years old, respectively. As a result, it took a lot of energy to gain the trust of clients, expand the network, and be able to generate the money needed to invest in structures and sources quickly. Being a woman was initially a possible disadvantage, but this has been greatly overcome.

Future Outlook

When questioned about her future ambitions, Romina stated, “In the coming years, I will see myself committed to consolidating and further enhancing our outcomes, both in terms of business and in terms of developing the firm’s structure, confronting more worldwide perspectives.”

“From a personal standpoint, I wish to make up for my family’s tolerance by giving it more time. They have always supported me in my decisions. I have always been fascinated by the idea of striking the appropriate balance between work and family, and I have never done so unless it was absolutely necessary.

Ran Rachlin: An Ardent Leader with a Magnificent Mindset, Spearheading Ubertesters to Deliver Excellent Testing Solutions

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” By Walt Disney

Tycoon Success is back with another story of ‘scratch to success” – by introducing our readers to Ran Rachlin, Co-founder & CEO, of Ubertesters.

An accomplished, multi-talented senior executive with extensive global experience in developing and managing innovative initiatives from conception to implementation, making major sales, and directing large global businesses across different nations and industries. Ran is a hands-on business owner and leader with excellent sales and management abilities and an ideal example of strong will and dedication.

Spearheading as the CEO, Ran is the man behind the victorious journey of Ubertesters, embarking on a successful journey to deliver the best software testing solutions. Ran held a number of prominent management positions in P&L, general management, and operations before founding Ubertesters. Together with remarkable performance in deal negotiating and closing in any business environment, he possesses tremendous expertise in sales and marketing, strategic business planning, new business creation, market analysis, and strategic alliances.

Sharing what empowered his inspiring journey, the visionary leader stated, “My travels throughout the world and the fact that I spent more than ten years in a different nation molded my cross-cultural experience. Additionally, having managerial positions in large international organizations has given me the required knowledge to oversee both foreign clients and international teams throughout the globe.”

“Surviving the global economic crisis of 2008 while guiding my organization to a “safe harbor” was another significant step. This gave me insight into how to ensure that businesses survive a recession (like the one we are currently experiencing,” he continued.

Ubertesters and its Exclusive Service Portfolio

“We help our clients sleep better knowing they can launch their digital product with confidence, convinced it was well tested by real users in their actual target market and it’s bug-free.” – Ran Rachlin

Incorporated in 2014, Ubertesters is the pioneer in crowd-testing or on-demand software testing. The program enables businesses to use remote, globally validated testers with devices only when it is necessary to outsource the power of the public for their own digital testing or QA needs.

Ubertesters offers a platform that connects businesses with a global network of professional testers who can perform various testing tasks such as functional testing, compatibility testing, security testing, and more. Ubertesters aims to assist companies in enhancing the quality of their software and providing their customers with high-quality products.

The main advantages of employing crowd-testing for businesses are access to a sizable and varied tester pool, lower testing expenses compared to traditional testing methods, and a speedier time-to-market because bugs are found and fixed more quickly.

The Initial Setbacks, Ubertesters Suffered

In the beginning, the team experienced two significant difficulties. In order to succeed, they first had to outperform a single industry titan by offering a special value proposition. The second issue was how to create a sizable global network of QA specialists who matched the description and were eager to test in their spare time for extra cash.

Ubertesters have to give customers more value in order to get past the first obstacle. So, they made the decision to develop a “boutique” style of service that provides more distinctive and tailored testing solutions along with excellent and attentive client support. They overcame the second obstacle by heavily utilizing social media and paying the testers slightly more than their rivals did and much more quickly.

Healthy Work Environment: UberTesters’s Focal Point

Innovation and creativity must be encouraged if a business is to succeed. Setting a clear vision and objective for the organization is a first requirement. Encouraging open communication is the second. The intention is to foster an atmosphere where everyone feels at ease offering recommendations and thoughts.

Every time Ran gets new, creative suggestions from staff members that help the business succeed, he acknowledges and rewards creativity. He first celebrates the concept privately with the employee before doing so publicly through an announcement to the entire organization. He also provides a financial award. He is a proponent of setting an example. He makes an effort to showcase his own originality and inventiveness. Ran does his best to demonstrate his own creativity and innovation. This can help inspire employees and create a culture where everyone feels empowered to contribute their unique ideas.

Surmounting Entrepreneurial Hiccups

The high-tech industry is characterized by rapid innovation, constant change, and intense competition. There are two major challenges: rapid technological change and talent acquisition and retention.

Technology is evolving rapidly. To keep ahead of the competition, businesses must constantly develop and upgrade their products. Yet doing so also necessitates a substantial investment in engineering, which may be costly and dangerous. Second, there is fierce rivalry for talent in the tech business, which demands highly qualified staff with specific knowledge.

Painting Ubertesters’s Future Canvas

The inspiring CEO envisions himself developing his business through innovation, creativity, and the “voice of the customer” over the coming few years. He also wants to establish a new business to discover a product that will benefit society by extending life expectancy and enhancing the quality of life.

From a personal perspective, Ran focuses on improving his work-life balance. This can be done through better time management and boundary settings.

Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Start with a solid plan and take care of your team. Before starting your business journey, it’s important to have a solid plan in place. This plan should have a distinct vision for the company, a target market, a business model, and a strategy for long-term financial viability. Without such a plan, it will be impossible for you to assemble a solid team. Then, build a strong team with complementary skills and values, and provide them with the support and resources they need to succeed. The business world is very dynamic. Be willing to pivot your business strategy if necessary and be open to new opportunities.

Jennifer Marcus: Assisting Small Business Owners to Operate their Businesses in the Most Cost Effective Way

Jennifer Marcus is a highly sought-after entrepreneur, youth keynote speaker, and empowerment coach. After earning her master’s degree in Accounting and Finance with honors, Human Resources Management, and MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management, she went on to work for a couple of accounting firms before establishing Marpalms in 2016. In addition to owning Marpalms LLC, Jennifer is also the CFO of Tour Décor and co-owner of Beau Diamante LLC, CEO and President of You Can be You, Owner of Jepriv Fashion, Paint Me Sassy, One Winged Incorporated, Marcus Brands Incorporated, One Winged Steel, One Winged Studios, One Winged Speaking, One Winged Literature, One Winged Presentations, Jennifer Marcus LLC.

Since childhood, Jennifer has tackled racism, physical and emotional abuse, and child abandonment. These life experiences eventually created expectations that nearly exceeded her abilities, such as finding employment to pay rent while being a full-time student at thirteen. Unfortunately, at this point of time, Jennifer’s mother also suffered from drug addiction and used the household’s limited income to feed her drug habit.

At fifteen, Jennifer reached a pivotal stage in her life after moving to California with a few older friends. She was then shot in a random drive-by and immediately taken to the hospital. While lying in bed, attached to several monitoring devices, Jennifer thought she deserved much better. Upon her exit from the hospital, she immediately set a course to be on the right path and got involved in sports programs, clubs, and other initiatives that helped her to use her time wisely. These decisions eventually developed her self-confidence and led to a range of achievements, including earning three master’s degrees, owning twelve successful businesses, and identifying her purpose to make an impact on youth and students internationally.

In 2016, Jennifer founded Marpalms, which has since grown into a sophisticated business providing much more than simple bookkeeping services. Proud of the educational focus of her company, Jennifer is incredibly enthusiastic about the consulting work and the relationships she builds with other individuals and organizations. Jennifer is an open book of tools and strategies which can be used to improve efficiency, be successful, and effectively empower small business owners. Jennifer’s philosophy is to offer the highest quality services at affordable pricing.

Finding Opportunities

While working for other accounting firms, Jennifer noticed that entrepreneurs and small business owners were struggling and being taken advantage of. They were being charged exorbitantly for bookkeeping and accounting, which they couldn’t afford. Although they needed the help but were spending everything they had, leaving nothing to grow their business further. So, many would go out of their businesses for lack of capital.

So, she formed Marpalms in 2016 to give those businesses a greater opportunity to grow while still receiving the needed service.

“If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can’t be erased”- Maya Angelou

“Marpalms is built on the philosophy that we try to start with our clients early and set the fees so that they are affordable. As the client’s company grows, the fees increase, so we grow together. Doing this leaves more money in their business and, in turn, creates a long-term partnership versus a company out of business and a client lost,”- Jennifer explained.

She also went ahead and started Jepriv fashion, offering clothing at a price that everyone could afford. Later she opened Beau Diamante, offering both fine and fashion jewelry, Paint Me Sassy carrying nail wraps and nail supplies, One Winged Studios offering a podcast studio, a video studio, and a photography studio under one roof.

When the Going Gets Tough

Jennifer feels the main challenge she has faced in the Accounting and Bookkeeping industry is not being taken seriously. Several larger firms have questioned her abilities, as her fee structure is different than others, that she loves to work with new businesses, that she does not take any of the large companies, and that she will not conform to the way that they want Jennifer to run her company. However, she prefers to operate her company in a way that can cater to those that others do not want to take care of, those that need the services the most to grow their businesses and thrive.

“If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar.

“Honestly, when it comes to business, I do not think that I have had many roadblocks related to being a woman. I think this is because I don’t let them bother me, and I refuse to let them deter me from helping others and staying on the path set forth,”- she said.

As we all know, the pandemic had many major effects on all businesses worldwide, and Jennifer’s businesses were no different. Her retail businesses almost completely came to a halt, and there was a massive drop in her clients, as they no longer had their businesses or could not afford services. Jennifer and her team worked with her clients in any way they could.

“Luckily, when it came to my retail businesses, I was able to ride it out and withstand. This is because years ago, I decided that when I started a business, I would ensure that I had enough money to pay for the inventory, the costs, and any other fees that are not just basic day-to-day. By doing this, I had no expenses, allowing my companies to hold tight until sales started coming in again,”- Jennifer remembered.

Future Priorities

In the future, Jennifer seeks to grow her business with the addition of the nonprofit You Can Be You, continuing to speak to business owners, entrepreneurs, and individuals to help them create and maintain their own business empires. She plans to do this through public speaking, podcasts, and educational classes. In addition to those projects, Jennifer will also continue to speak with high school students regarding the importance of choices, their ability to make decisions, and that regardless of background, where they came from, or what they have been through, they too can make choices that can set their life on the path towards the future they desire.

Advice for Future Leaders

As a serial entrepreneur, youth keynote speaker, and empowerment coach, Jennifer advises future business leaders that they should not give up. She says, “I know that it seems insignificant and redundant but never give up. No dream, no goal, no job is too small. I started out working for others now; I stand here with three master’s degrees, twelve businesses, one nonprofit, and a passion and fire not only to teach others but to ensure that they are also able to inspire and teach others.”

Henry Lukenge: Helping you Find the Perfect Caregiver

Healthcare staffing companies provide temporary and permanent staffing solutions for healthcare facilities, including clinics, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other medical institutions. These organizations specialize in recruiting and placing healthcare professionals in various roles, including registered nurses, physical therapists, medical assistants, etc.

Founded by Mr. Henry Lukenge in late 2009, NEXIM Healthcare Consultants Inc. is one such countrywide provider of contingent, planned, and un-planned health and social care staff to hospitals, community living organizations, families with individuals who have developmental delays, and homecare through its Retire@home program for seniors retiring at with their homes. Other value-added services Nexim Healthcare provides include, but are not limited to, call assurance, home modifications to enable elders to stay in their homes, non-ambulatory transportation, and wheelchair-accessible transportation.

The Steadfast Leader

Born and brought up in a family of entrepreneurs, Mr. Lukenge has seen his father run one of the first indigenously owned construction companies in Uganda during the mid-70’s. Initially, Mr. Lukenge worked at his father’s construction company and learned various skills.

In the late 80s, he moved to England with his eight siblings and parents after surviving the conflict and displacement from Uganda. Mr. Lukenge completed his high school in England and joined the University to study Mathematical statistics, a career he had little interest in, but with limited command of the English language, his choices was limited. Later Mr. Lukenge went back to school for the professional accounting exams at the Association of Chartered certified accountants-UK- which combined his great love for numbers, problem-solving, and people engagement. With his outstanding performances in the CA program, he was then hired to join the articling program at one of the Big 4 Accounting firms in the U.K. Eventually, he rose through the ranks to become a junior tax partner – leading larger tax compliance, audit, and financial risk analysis projects across Europe, South  East Asia, and Africa before being headhunted for an investment banking role in Canada’s one of the largest Trust Funds as a Director of Investor Services.

So, in 2006, Mr. Lukenge relocated to Canada. He served the Trust Fund for nearly three years until he got disillusioned and unhappy with his career and decided to walk away from the finance and accounting industry to start his own business.

Initially, Mr. Lukenge wasn’t sure about the nature of his new business. So, he took his time out and visited his mother in Kampala, Uganda, who advised him to set up a healthcare staffing company focused on providing thought staffing solutions to help leading sector players in the health and social care sector fulfill their staffing needs.

Eventually, in late 2009 Mr. Lukenge returned to Toronto, sold all of his real estate, prepared a business plan, and established NEXIM Healthcare as a business.

Revolutionizing Healthcare Staffing

When Mr. Lukenge founded Nexim, he wanted to create a company that would revolutionize the healthcare staffing industry while using some of its net income and technical expertise to advance access to education, wildlife conservation, and the fight against climate change in the third world. Mr. Lukenge’s life journey began in Iddi Amin’s Uganda, East Africa  via  South Africa where he overcame apartheid and a refugee camp to become a CA, enter the largest board rooms, and achieve the enormous success he never imagined possible because he was able to attend school when the majority of the children he was displaced with failed to do so. This is one of the main reasons why Mr. Lukenge established NEXIM more than a decade ago. Through NEXIM, Mr. Lukenge offers internships to inner-city kids who are starting their careers and have no places to find internships, so they don’t have to go through what Mr. Lukenge went through when starting  his career  in 1990s South London, England

“The day NEXIM Broke even is the milestone I’m most proud of, but my greatest career achievement to date was the day I retired from my career as an Investment Banker leaving a whole life to start a new one. Best decision I have ever made in my life.”- he states. 

Primary Challenges of the Healthcare Industry

As NEXIM Healthcare’s founder, Mr. Lukenge always prefers to call challenges opportunities for growth. According to him, the primary challenges lie in the lack of qualified and employable candidates and longer wait times for internationally educated healthcare professionals to be integrated into the Canadian healthcare system because there are no updated and precise professional competence requirements for IEHPs entering the country. Also, the incompatibility between the provincial and federal immigration policies with healthcare professionals’ credential accrediting organizations and the less than adequate supply of amenities like transit and short-term rental units in the hard-to-serve areas of the provinces poses a significant challenge for the industry.

However, Mr. Lukenge and his team at NEXIM are working with all levels of the government, professional accrediting agencies, hospitals, and various stakeholders to help capitalize on these opportunities. Presently, NHCI is setting up its own private career college with a focus on controlling access to training opportunities for healthcare staff and helping with faster integration of IEHPs into the labor force.

NEXIM is also working with the government and other professional accrediting organizations to simplify protocols so IEHPs coming to Canada can be granted shorter wait times to appear for the practice compliance tests. Additionally, with its facilities management unit, NEXIM is building a unique ecosystem consisting of short-term accommodation, site-to-site transportation, and several other amenities for staff who are willing to relocate for projects in hard-to-serve areas. In the process, the organization has created an entirely new business unit through which it has built a substantial real estate portfolio for its stakeholders while providing reliable services to its clients.

“Our vision is to become a leading healthcare manpower planning leader across North America through a combination of local and international healthcare human capital talent acquisition, placement, and career development in partnership with public, private, and Inter -government stakeholders,”- Mr. Lukenge explains.

Assisting Clients During the Pandemic

Overall, the pandemic proved advantageous for NEXIM and gave the business an ideal balance of risk and reward to expand its services. During the pandemic, NEXIM Healthcare grew its service area to the entire province and became a province-wide provider of its services. Due to its ability to combine lodging, site-to-site transportation, and the creation of isolation hubs for staff supporting various clients, NEXIM Healthcare quickly established itself as the go-to business for anyone in its region experiencing a COVID-related staffing crisis.

“Through earlier preparations and a solid business plan that prepared us for the pandemic without us actually knowing it was coming, our operation and logistics units fit perfectly in the country’s drive to lower community spread; hence we experienced rapid growth and grew our business by 150% year vs. year during the pandemic,“- remembers Mr. Lukenge.

Building An Unique Ecosystem to Support Remote Regions

With the help of Mr. Lukenge’s visionary leadership, NEXIM has become one of the very few healthcare staffing firms that have created a distinctive ecosystem to support organizations in remote locations with third-party staffing services without passing on high costs for short-term stays and logistics. NEXIM assists its clients in reducing their costs while still maintaining margins for itself by combining its expertise in real estate, vehicle fleet management, and management services.

NEXIM is one of Canada’s very few 24/365/7 days completely staffed healthcare staffing organizations. It provides seamless scheduling, intake, and timesheet tracking via a technology suite that combines scheduling, payroll, and accounting into one. This enables NEXIM’s clients to monitor staff on shifts from the comfort of their homes to the site with digital time cards used for payment and invoicing.

Looking at The Future

Presently NHCI is diversifying around its core services of providing third-party services to the healthcare industry. NHCI is also planning to set up a countrywide PCC network to help train both social and healthcare workers and to help  quickly integrate IEHPs into the Canadian labor force.

Also, through NEXIM’s philanthropic program NIDO, Mr. Lukenge intends to increase the number of scholarships for East and South African students to 10k yearly. Presently, through its 4E framework, NIDO provides scholarships to 400 students. Additionally, through the NIDO program, Mr. Lukenge aspires to help healthcare organizations with their international healthcare staff recruitment plans while helping them craft faster integration  protocols for  IEHPs.

“We are taking NEXIM Canada-wide though remodeling a dilapidated  commercial unit  which we are  equipping to become a  large Hub in the city of Hamilton, which will contain operations, shared services, and logistics unit hired based on  the different time zones   In Canada ,”- he says.

Entrepreneurship is a Game of Patience

Mr. Lukenge believes entrepreneurship is a game of patience, persistence, discipline, and comfort in loneliness; for the most part, an entrepreneur will work alone toward a business and idea. So, he suggests that young entrepreneurs should never forget it’s a long journey whose results can even take years to manifest, so when things do not work on their time, they should not despair.

“For those starting out, I can say that– our society or world has many needs or problems; find a way to solve one at a price that few can beat and let everyone know about it. Be disciplined and patient in a delay while working hard but find time to play. Remember to bring as many people with you as you can. The rest will take care of itself,”- he concludes.

Mário Leite da Silva: Assisting Clients in their Specific Business Problems

Mário Leite da Silva began his career in the banking industry and the assurance division of one of the Big 4 corporations. He has twenty-five years of experience, 15 of which were spent in top management positions with numerous industrial companies, business family offices, and financial institutions in several nations, including several listed companies on the stock exchange.

Mário was also an experienced university and post-university planning and management control professor until February 2020 and a member of the General and Supervisory Board of Porto Business School till April 2019. Mário also has extensive experience as a member of risk, audit, finance, and remuneration committees.

In 2020, Mário realized it was the right moment to launch his consulting project with an unequivocal and differentiated market position focused on value creation for his clients and not a mass market consulting company fighting on daily rates and with junior consultants. This led to the launch of PTCG, an independent management consultancy boutique that assists clients in their specific business problems related to planning, management, and control, change management, strategic planning, corporate finance, restructuring, project management, and specific challenges arising from family businesses. PTCG has the skills of a large management consulting company without its cost structure, so the company believes it can offer a highly competitive proposal with total flexibility to its client’s needs.

Rethinking the Way of Doing Business

PTCG operates in a reasonably relaxed work environment, and its team members get along well with each other. As part of its process of rethinking how it does business, the organization also promotes the introduction of fresh ideas and carefully considers each suggestion.

As the organization’s founder, Mário believes diversity and inclusion are essential topics not because they are now on the business leaders’ agenda but because they effectively increase the results of the companies. “It’s one of the topics that today, as members of some HR committees, we work more carefully given the cross-cutting impacts it can have on our organizations,“- he explained.

Creating Value for Clients

Since its inception, PTCG has grown a client base that recognizes the value that the company creates in each assignment independently of the experience of the promoters. “This is something special. To realize that the initial vision was right and that we can have a direct impact on our client’s portfolio, our teams, and our community,“- Mário said.

Looking at the Future

Under Mário’s leadership, PTCG wants to continue on the path of growth with consistency and profitability. PTCG also wants to help its teams to have a positive impact on its clients’ business. It is currently working on launching a new project that combines IT technology with management know-how as it believes that lifelong learning platforms are essential to improve its clients’ performance and to give them the tools that meet the current market volatility and complexity requirements.

Suggestions for Younger Self

Mário believes that when someone aspires to launch a new project, the individual should develop the concept carefully and study the market, competitors, and the client’s needs. He feels it is always better to be present in a context of growth, so it’s essential to tackle the timing for the launch properly. It’s never an easy journey, and young entrepreneurs must stay prepared to make some hard decisions. However, if the individual believes in the project and the vision, he/she should fight for it.

Towerwall: Pioneering Cyber Security Consulting

Established by Michelle Drolet, Towerwall helps its clients by providing them with continuous monitoring and protection against current and evolving cyber threats. As the industry’s leading data security preparedness partner, Towerwall’s end-to-end solutions help to bridge the gap between plan and action to ensure its clients’ security.

Michelle also co-founded the annual Information Security Summit in partnership with Mass Bay Community College, with the purpose of creating an open forum for knowledge sharing between cyber professionals, vendors, and students. Additionally, the summit also serves as a vehicle to raise funds to provide academic scholarships in the field of cybersecurity for MassBay students in their Cyber Program. Till date, more than $55,000 has been raised for scholarships. Michelle also serves on the college’s advisory board to help shape its cybersecurity curriculums.

Recently we got a chance to sit down with Michelle to learn more about Towerwall and how the cyber security company is safeguarding its clients from modern-day cyber threats.

Below are the highlights of the interview.

Please tell us about your professional journey.

Michelle: In college, I studied criminal justice, so from an early age, I’ve been interested in stopping the bad guys. In 1993 I was hired to run the US operations for an IT consulting business that was making inroads into cybersecurity. The company was acquired by a public entity, but I grew disenchanted with its direction and found a way to buy the company back. Since 1999 we’ve been offering customized cybersecurity preparedness and end-to-end solutions that bridge the gap between plan and action to ensure resiliency for organizations of all sizes.

Please throw some light on Towerwall and its services.

Michelle: Regardless of company size, almost every modern organization struggles with cybersecurity. Our clients trust Towerwall to provide them with continuous monitoring and protection against current and evolving threats. We learned early on that there is no single piece of technology or system that will keep any organization completely secure. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. That’s why Towerwall developed an operational security approach that distinguishes our services in the market. A methodology that is not only consistent, repeatable, and measurable but also flexible enough to adapt to the changing threat landscape. We call this customizable approach the “7 Dimensions of Cybersecurity,” which all organizations, regardless of industry or security maturity, should adopt to establish a multi-dimensional, multi-layered, proactive security defense.

Services include establishing a program and developing policies, conducting security audits and risk assessments, threat detection and response, guidance on abiding by compliance and regulations, penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, vendor questionnaires, employee awareness training, and many other security services. Our customer engagements last for several years, and these include Foundation Medicine, Middlesex Savings Bank, Dean College, Milford Regional Medical Center, Perkin Elmer, and local SMBs.

What are the primary challenges of the industry?

Michelle: The primary challenge facing our cybersecurity industry has really been about the glaring shortage of professionals who are well-versed in security, risk management, and compliance. To meet this high demand for skilled talent, Towerwall launched an innovative service called virtual CISO — a personal service to take on the responsibilities and duties associated with the Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO), the virtual Data Protection Officer (vDPO), and the virtual Chief Privacy Officer (vCPO). These roles are brought in-house for client engagements on a fractional or interim basis. These fractional services roles also act as a huge competitive differentiator and advantage.

How is Towerwall disrupting the entire industry for the better?

Michelle: Cybersecurity is multi-dimensional. Organizations need a partner who can deliver a coordinated end-to-end solution response. We like to guide our clients through all the phases of cybersecurity. That’s why we developed a unique security approach (the “7 Dimensions of Cybersecurity”) that is not only consistent, repeatable, and measurable but flexible enough to adapt to the changing threat landscape. As a market leader, our content marketing focuses on sharing the latest in active threats, vulnerabilities, and tactical steps our clients can take. Each month we hold webinars and in-person events to keep our clients and prospects informed and engaged.

Please explain the effect of the pandemic on Towerwall. How did you overcome it?

Michelle: Because we are a security tech company, most of our staff were already working remotely, having been set up with secure VPN connections long ago, ensuring business continuity in the face of the pandemic. We were fortunate to have hired people who are truly self-motivated. Also fortunate to have had 70% of our staff working remotely before Covid hit. We didn’t miss a beat. Today we support a hybrid work week with limited staff who do come into the office. This is what we believe creates a proactive, positive corporate culture that make our team deliver to the fullest.

What are your priorities for 2023?

Michelle: Towerwall plans to continue to grow and expand both our customer base and consultants globally. Our business model is all about partnerships. Recently we forged new vendor partnerships with Pentera and CyberSaint (adding them to our stable of 50-plus cyber-tech partners) to help our customers manage their cybersecurity programs as well as assist our consultants when conducting risk assessments. Other partners include Alert Logic, Varonis, LogRhythm, KnowBe4, Tenable, Sophos, and many other recognized brands.

Give us a piece of advice that you would share with entrepreneurs just starting out.

Michelle: For young entrepreneurs just starting out, it’s important to state your values clearly and upfront.  We believe in finding the right balance between work and family. Our values are about having focus, determination, and compassion. We all face challenges in our personal and business life, but the ability to persevere is the difference between success and failure. Particularly in business, nothing is more important than solving your customer’s needs. We often compete and win against larger players because our team has a ‘run through the wall’ attitude. Make teamwork a priority.

Mehul Mahicha: An Illustrious Film Director Personality creating Engaging Creative Content for Brands

Mehul Mahicha is an Animation Film Director, Producer, and Co-founder at Vivi5 Studios. He is an exceptional film designer in the business of storytelling. Along with his partner, Co-Director Rita Dhankani, the duo aims to help growing brands reach their true potential by connecting them with their audiences, through engaging-impactful film communications!

The Initial Journey

Animation is something that interested Mehul since childhood. It was magnified after his post-graduation in Animation Film Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 2002. He started working in the industry as an Animation Director and worked as a Content Creator for Kids’ Channels in India. During this period, he also worked under some illustrious mentors like Sir. Rammohan at Graffiti Multimedia, Prakash Moorthy at Miditech, and Eeks Suresh at Famous Studios.

In 2009, he started his journey as an entrepreneur Co-Founding “Vivi5 Studios” with fellow NIDian & partner, Rita Dhankani. And in the past 14 years, they have partnered with some of the renowned Advertising Agencies, Corporate houses, Startups, and NGOs; in the country and across four continents.

Unicef India, UNDP, Ashok Leyland, Dentsu Webchutney, McCann, Leo Burnett, DDB Mudra, Tata Sky, Tata Elxsi, SBI Card, Amazon India, DataShurbs, Razorpay, are some of their esteemed clients over these years.

Mentoring is Mehul’s second love after filmmaking and he is ever ready to guide his team at Vivi5 Studios, film students, and aspiring designers in this domain. He is also an External Advisory Board Member for MIT Design Institute, Pune, and a frequent External Jury member at Srishti School of Design.

About Vivi5 Studios

Think, design, create, and connect to bring impact!

Vivi5 Studios is an award-winning one-stop Film Content and Design Agency building stellar Brand Stories for growing businesses.

“When I say stellar brand video content, I mean we do what it takes to grab your audience’s attention, make them pause and hear what you have to say, and ultimately take action to bring you results. How do we do that? By blending storytelling mediums, and design thinking,” states Mehul.

Both Mehul and Rita, come from multidisciplinary backgrounds such as animation, film, art, design, advertising & film-making. And as avid design thinkers and mentors, they make sure they cultivate the same in their teams and help them develop as design thinkers first and then as designers or animators. They nurture a creative team to cater to varied sectors but also multiply the studio’s expertise as a multidisciplinary film and design agency.

Apart from a good quality product/service, every growing business needs a good story to communicate its ‘brand’ value to the customers. Vivi5 Studios help them to do so by designing and developing unique custom-made engaging stories to build up this brand awareness amongst their users for greater returns.

Their USP is a varied story-telling palette such as 2D & 3D Animation, Stop Motion, Motion Graphics, and live action. In short, they do what it takes to help their clients sell better when it comes to creating promotional and awareness films in the most effective ways across varied platforms and geographies.

Their main offers include Content creation from Concept to Screen, Brand Identity, Advertising Films, Brand Films, Corporate Videos, Promotional Films, Explainer videos, Education Films, and Brand Design Consultancy; for both Broadcast, Digital Platforms and at times for print media, as well.

As brand communication experts, their job is to get an in-depth understanding of the brand/client, their requirements, and their target audiences; and bring them the right kind of film and design solutions.

Mehul is proud to share that his partnerships with clients are for the longer run, and his client’s success is his success “What helps us create unique solutions is our design thinking process. It is the magic mantra to building success stories for our clients,” adds Mehul.

Wall of Achievement

  • FOXGLOVE Awards 2022 – Best use of Animation for PSA ‘BHOOK’ The Hunger
  • ANN Awards 2022 – Best use of Animation for PSA ‘BHOOK’ The Hunger
  • FOXGLOVE Awards 2020 – Best CSR Film for ‘HAPPY EARTH DAY
  • FICCI Award 2017 – Best Animation Ad for Y K ORGANICS MYNTRA, INDIA
  • FICCI Awards 2016 – Best Animation Film (nomination) For ‘Wahga Time’ I Khalifa University, UAE
  • TASI Awards 2015 – Best Animation Film (nomination) for Right to Education I UNICEF, India

Cherishing a Collective Growth-Driven Environment

One thing that keeps team Vivi5 going is their common love for storytelling for brands. The company works for diversified industry verticals such as Automobile, Fintech, Healthtech, Lifestyle, E-Commerce, Fashion, FMCG, Health, E-learning, Telecom, Electronics, Consumer Products, Banking, etc. Their primary aim is to create content that touches the hearts and ignites the minds, of all their stakeholders.

Vivi5 Studio’s vision is to empower collective growth for all its Stakeholders: Clients, Teams, and companies. That’s their 3-win formula.

The Studio believes in collective growth and that’s what keeps Mehul motivated. His studio provides consistent in-depth design knowledge, why-s & how-s, and practical experience while unparallel scope on upgrading creative skills for its employees through day-to-day learning and knowledge sharing that is at par with any international design institute.

Current Market Trends

Today’s content has become more user-specific. It’s not simply limited to one celebrity using a product that influences many buyers. Rather it’s the buyer, who is now a celebrity influencing the sales. Personalised content has taken over center stage as there has been a remarkable sales increase of 20% when brands nurture individual customer relationships. Nearly 92% of the buyers trust individual recommendations.

  • Influencer marketing is the most evident trend and has grown multifold, especially during the lockdown. B2C and D2C communications seem to have a great scope when it comes to content creation and business generation. It is in fact, responsible for the fast-growing technology solutions that are equally influencing marketing and advertising strategies. When one sees nearly 4000+ apps being created every day globally, one knows it’s an internet swaraj.
  • Reels are on fire. It’s one trend that every brand is leveraging. Unscripted or scripted, polished or crude; these reels are welcomed by audiences who are content creators or are aspiring to be one. Live videos are helping brands attract leads, get rich customer data, and generate new businesses, and most stay future-ready.
  • Interactive storytelling content is yet another promising format that works well for the current shorter-attention-span criteria for effective communication. More and more brands are building interactive and immersive storytelling content, as they don’t want to lose their audiences amidst many brand promotions, where each is working on bringing more impressions with every post. Brands are moving to bring an immersive storytelling experience.

“If you observe any of the content today, it’s within the first 2 to 3 secs of the video you see the CTA appear to hold the viewer’s attention from clicking the ‘skip ad’ option. Hence, businesses are moving towards more engaging and immersive storytelling narratives now more than ever,” states Mehul.

All in all, it’s a chain effect. With a focus on personalised advertising, there’s a change in the way content is being designed, optimized, and showcased. Storytelling for brands is changing to a concise format to engage the audiences of today, in the quickest way possible.

Getting Future Ready

Vivi5 Studios aspires to assist more and more businesses on their potential growth path through its expertise. “Storytelling has always been as immersive but translating it into a physical space experience is something we are aiming to do,”– explains Mehul. The company is currently in talks with brands to collaborate where its designers, animators, and visualizers can work with programmers, engineers, and data specialists to come up with immersive storytelling solutions for its clients and audiences. With a symbiotic association as such in the upcoming times, Vivi5 Studios aims to expand its horizons and reach a wider audience base.

“As a creative content agency, we will always face new challenges while keeping up with the latest trends in the marketing and advertising industry. We also need to bring more awareness of the importance of capitalising on immersive storytelling video content to growing businesses. And how can they make the most in their social media and the digital marketing campaigns to enhance their brand positioning and generate more value.”– says Mehul.

To bring this awareness, Vivi5 Studios is actively talking about creative storytelling and its need for the hour, through its publications on LinkedIn Vivi5 posts.

They are also developing IPs to help create effective yet affordable video content for brands, who want to engage with their users on regular bases but find it tough to test the waters at a cost that is way beyond their marketing budgets.

A Promising Time

“As we move from the Internet of Things (IOT) to the Internet of Place (IOP)and the Internet of Ownership (IOO), we foresee a paradigm shift in all sectors. Metaverse and Web3 will transform every aspect of the business narratives. Challenge it that it’s going to change how you interact with customers, how we work, products and services we offer, how we make and distribute them, how we run and operate our business/es, everything in-between and beyond.”

Vivi5 Studios is excited to take up this new challenge as it is working towards building content that will be easily adaptable to this versatile, evolving, expanding continuum. Being a multidisciplinary creative agency that is known for creating excellent content in the past amongst its partners, and where information can seamlessly be transformed from 2D to 3D to Live action, Mehul is sure that Vivi5 Studios is ready as it already has the expertise and tools to hone the upcoming new trends of communication of the future.

As an executive director of the studio that offers creative content, design, direction, and production, Mehul aims to explore new ways to ‘immersive storytelling’ in the Metaverse that will shape the future of content in the coming years.

Words of Wisdom

“These are exciting times for all of us as we see 5G on a rollout in India, leading Metaverse & Web3 to come into play. There will certainly be more competition and more challenges, and we all will be part of it. But in the end, a good-story will always be at the core of it all. And it will be our focus, all the time.” – Mehul.

Melanie Kossan: Cultivating Happier and Healthier Souls through Natural Remedies

A lifelong entrepreneur, natural wellness Aadvocate, leader, mother, and innovator, Melanie Kossan is a woman of many virtues.

Professing the significance of self-care, she knew a little about CBD and dove into research further to benefit the community in that area. “If you don’t see a clear path for what you want, sometimes you have to make it yourself”, Mindy Kaling said, and Melanie Kossan perfectly fit in this picture.

The aspiring woman leader has always loved learning, but she has never been able to focus long enough to attend college or acquire a degree beyond high school. She asked questions, read, and listened to podcasts and audiobooks.

Her Initial Journey to Start Mtn Mama, LLC

With a supportive family and her zeal to make an impact, Melanie took to building the foundation of Mtn Mama.

The company manufactures all the products they market, and they are now manufacturing for other companies. Their B2B offerings range widely and include White Label, Private Label, and Wholesale. Essentially, they can create anything you want, label it with your name, and support you in marketing it.

To ensure maximum safety, I tried all the products extensively on my family, my dogs, and myself during the product research. I had a good feeling about the outcome. I’ve since developed all of my own formulations. Product creation is still one of my favourite areas of my job, and I still do it now. She added, “We develop topical and ingestible products for people and their dogs.

With Mtn Mama, Melanie’s mission is to: “Cultivate happier, healthier souls through the production and sale of natural remedies that relieve pain, anxiety, and other ailments which interfere with the lifestyle you DESERVE!”

Stillwater Hemp – The Renowned Montana-based CBD company

Incorporated in 2017, Mtn Mama produces, distributes, and retails all-natural CBD, CBG, and CBN topicals and tinctures for people and animals. Stillwater Hemp is a renowned CBD firm with headquarters in Montana. Here, products are prepared with only natural, organic, and premium cannabinoid extracts from hemp farming in the United States.

Additionally, they are providing business opportunities, Private Labeling Services, CBD School and CBD School 2.0, and training individuals on how to start their own CBD businesses. They also accept speaking engagements and have established the first CBD Distributors Association.

Melanie’s Definition of Success

Melanie believes deeply that when her clients are successful, she is too!

“When my clients and consumers share their success stories with me, I can see that I am doing something right. I enjoy listening to people’s tales since they are unique, and everyone has one. When someone tells me a story about how working with my company has impacted their life for the better, to me, that is success”, she further apprised.

Achievements Along the Way

Sharing accomplishments has never been easy for Melanie. Because it isn’t about her, it’s about her customers. Some of her clients have fur, but others don’t. In any case, she does this so she may watch them accomplish things they previously couldn’t.

The Enigmatic Future of Mtn Mama

Mtn Mama has grown from being a one-woman show in a home office to now having a skilled workforce, a manufacturing and retail facility in Columbus, Montana, and other locations. Their future plan is to accelerate their growth and boost sales.

“My aims are never time-bound because they can turn out to be just that. I’ll be ready to sell much sooner than I anticipate”, shared the inspiring leading lady.

Words of wisdom

I have learned a lot in this business. I’ve learned a lot of lessons the hard way, and I promise you – that is expensive! Always have a mentor or advisor—someone who has done this before. Don’t choose someone who is too encouraging. A mentor who will tell you when you are wrong, your new idea is garbage, or you are wasting your time on a particular project will be far more valuable than someone who only speaks in rainbows. Get a mentor.

From the CEO’s Desk – A Recent Case Study at Mtn Mama

I’ll close by sharing one of my favourite tales about a furry friend or client. Kota is a 12-year-old German Sheppard-Bull Mastiff mix. He is handsome and debonaire and dumb as a box of rocks. He has all heart and no brain. He will bring you a gift as soon as you walk in the door. You can admire it and express gratitude to him for it, but you cannot take it. He enjoys snuggling and being the “small spoon” as well. He was somewhat limping one day. He wouldn’t put any weight on that leg the following day. His ACL tore, according to Dr Vet. Kota would probably require both legs to be operated on, which would be incredibly expensive. He then started using the CBD/CBG/CBN supplement that Mtn Mama, LLC produces. He had previously taken it, but only sometimes. Now he took it in the morning and at night. Within days he was able to run around with his BFF Bea almost as well as he used to! His ACL will heal a little each day, and the pain will be minimal. But as long as he can play with Bea and bring me gifts, everything is right as rain.

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