Building Global Creative Teams

Mike Pinkus: Over the last 10 years at ConnectCPA, we've had the privilege of witnessing the incredible journeys of over a thousand businesses. We've been there for the thrilling highs and daunting lows of entrepreneurship. We've celebrated wild successes and monumental exits, and we've also stood by businesses as they've navigated the stormy seas, facing roadblocks and challenges that every entrepreneur encounters in their day-to-day grind. Join us as we dive deep into the stories of these resilient individuals who dared to dream, who persevered, and who were a testament to the power of entrepreneurship. This is their journey, their lessons, and their triumphs. Welcome to GrowthTales. I'm your host, Mike Pinkus, co-founder of ConnectCPA.

Mike Pinkus: I am excited for today's guest, Aaron Nemoy, founder of Crowdiate, an alternative model to the typical advertising agency. Crowdiate helps brands uncover big ideas through global creative competition by leveraging crowdsourcing, coupled with world-class strategic planning, creative direction, and production management. Crowdiate helps uncover the best ideas and brings them to life for their customers. 

Aaron comes from a strong marketing background, having worked for companies like Campbell and Kraft Heinz, where he saw firsthand that agencies were not always able to hit the mark with their ideas and concepts for big brands. This led to the aha moment for Aaron, where he thought there could be a potential by expanding the reach for big ideas by adapting a model through creative competitions. This concept would lead to a whole new world of untapped creative ideas that big brands had never seen before. Having run a growing company for over seven years, Aaron had a lot to share on everything from building trust with large companies to the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Aaron, and I hope you enjoy this episode.

Hey, Aaron, thank you so much for joining me today on GrowthTales.

Aaron Nemoy: Good to be here. Thanks, Mike.

Mike Pinkus: Uh, we've known each other a long time. I've been a big fan of the business model. I don't know a ton about marketing, but I've learned a lot from our conversations that we've had together. But why don't we start off, Aaron, can you explain a little bit about what Crowdiate is? And it's a bit of a different business model, so I'd love to hear from you explain the model.

Aaron Nemoy: Sure. Uh, well, my background is in marketing. Um, so, uh, I really got to the business in that sense. I started in CPG brand management, um, and developed a passion for brand strategy, um, developed an understanding of the value of big creative ideas and their ability to grow brands and drive business. Um, and along with that came this, uh, increasing frustration with the traditional agency model, um, and the way that brands typically went about developing, um, creative ideas.

Um, and so as a client, I became quite experimental, um, trying different creative models, crowdsourcing platforms, advertising competitions, um, and ultimately all of these pieces inspired, um, what we now do at Crowdiate. Um, and so in a nutshell, um, we try to give brands a better way to uncover breakthrough advertising and innovation ideas. Um, and we do that by running a global creative competition. So with any given brief, we're not relying on just a handful of people to try to, you know, crack that big idea.

Um, we're casting a wider net. Uh, we have a global community of creative talent around the world, and so any given project, um, we try to open up the process to find the best ideas.

Mike Pinkus: And how many people, Aaron, is that opened up to? So you're effectively crowdsourcing ideas from experts in, in, in a wide span community. How many people does that reach out to? Do you, do you pick specific targeted people based on who the potential customer is? Or is it just like a wide net?

Aaron Nemoy: Yeah, when I explain the idea, I think, um, people jump to whatever version of crowdsourcing, um, they're familiar with, um, which tends to be, um, you know, more of a marketplace of ideas, um, where people tend to get treated, uh, like numbers and everything's, you know, to some extent automated. We try to take a more involved, higher-touch approach. And so, um, I guess while we do have a number of people in our community, it's less the big number that we focus on, and it's really more a smaller subset, um, of our community that's actively engaged, that we, um, that we really try to get to know on a personal level.

So we work, um, closely with our clients to make sure that the, um, that the brief, that the strategic inputs that we're feeding into the community, um, are, are thoughtful. Um, we're working with big brands, so it, it's not the, it's not like a self-serve platform.

Aaron Nemoy: So, uh, you know, we're working, uh, closely with our brand clients as partners, um, and then we're helping our clients sort of work with the ideas coming out of, um, coming out of that, um, sort of crowdsourced ideation.

But the short answer is we have over 15,000, um, members within our creative community, um, from all over the world—over a hundred different countries—um, representing almost every agency, um, not representing their agency, but, um, you know, working within agencies. But also, more than ever, there's just so much amazing talent that is no longer tied to an agency, um, freelance and otherwise, as you know. And, uh, there, and, and we're able to bring them opportunities that they wouldn't otherwise get a chance to work on. And we try to make the experience as rewarding as possible. So, uh, you know, they're able to get the value out of participating, get recognized for doing great work.

Aaron Nemoy: Um, and so as we've grown, uh, we've really focused less on, less on trying to recruit, um, large numbers of people and, and really try to focus on the highest caliber of talent. When we started the business, um, and I still believe this, but the thought was great ideas can come from anywhere. And, and while that's true, uh, what we've found—maybe not surprisingly—is that, um, most reliably, the best ideas are coming from the most experienced creative people, um, who actually know what they're doing.

And so we really want to, um, appeal to those people and, um, and make it as rewarding as possible for them to stay involved.

Mike Pinkus: That makes a lot of sense. And I guess quality over quantity, given you mentioned that big brands is who you're serving. So your ICP is like multi-billion dollar, big publicly traded companies. Is that the typical customer?

Aaron Nemoy: Um, it is. Um, depends on the type of project that we're working on. Um, but even, you know, within those big companies, ultimately it comes down to the people that we're working with—the clients—and we're trying to find those marketers, um, who believe in the power of ideas, who, they, they wanna find a smarter way of doing things, um, and they're willing to challenge the status quo.

Mike Pinkus: And I'm gonna pivot here a little bit, but I want—I'm kind of curious here—what made you want to become an entrepreneur? Like you were working in marketing with these big brands already, like gaining experience, and I'm sure there's a lot of opportunity to have grown a marketing career under that type of umbrella, because there's not a shortage of big companies building out their brands. Yeah, yeah. Uh, what made you want to go out on your own?

Aaron Nemoy: The question is probably more what made me go into marketing in the first place. Um, that's a better one. Well, no, only because my answer is boring. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I, I—except for maybe when I was a younger kid, I wanted to be a film director, um, or prior to that, a waiter—that was my dream job.

But no, as soon as, like, I’d say through most of high school, I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur because my dad was, um, and I was exposed to it and always talking business. And so, um, say it was in my blood or, uh, you know, just sort of part of life. And so I went to business school, um, for that reason—because I wanted to run a business—and I went into marketing, um, or brand management so that I could learn how to run a business.

So that first decade of my career, I was working at Kraft Heinz, Campbell's, leading brands like Goldfish and Kraft Dinner. Um, and I was running those businesses, um, you know, in a general management capacity. But it was really through those experiences, I got exposed, um, to, you know, what it means to, um, you know, build brands and, um, and developed a passion for marketing, uh, through that experience. So all of that kind of led me to what it is that we're actually doing now.

Mike Pinkus: And the actual idea for Crowdiate—did that come from seeing like a gap in the agency model and from your experience, or did it—was it just kind of organic that you came up with it? How did you come up with the model for—'cause you obviously saw a pain point that agencies, I guess, weren’t effectively solving for these brands in terms of getting amazing ideas, uh, for whatever it might be: a campaign, a project, et cetera. Where did that original idea come from?

Aaron Nemoy: So, yeah, there were a couple of pain points, um, that I was feeling. Uh, one was, uh, yeah, working with agencies, you, um, and, uh, I think I mentioned, uh, the brief—creative brief writing is, um, a really, you know, core part of marketing. And, um, it's a passion of mine. And, uh, we would often, you know, we'd write the brief, we felt pretty good about the strategy going in. And then, um, with the traditional agency, you know, they'll come in after, you know, a few weeks or longer, um, and present a handful of ideas.

Mike Pinkus: On all the ideas.

Aaron Nemoy: Yeah. Because usually it's, you know, it's maybe there's three or four ideas they're sharing, and either they're off strategy or they just didn't feel, um, like they were, you know, creative or original enough to get attention. It's not easy to come up with an idea that does, you know, that checks off all those boxes.

And so, um, what I was feeling frustrated by was being shackled to the, you know, the few—two or three or four people—that were working on the brief. And, um, these were, you know, world-class creative people. But, um, at the end of the day, you're still—you know, we're all limited by our own creative sensibilities. And, you know, when anyone reads a brief or a strategy, um, their mind immediately goes to a certain place. Everyone has their own way of thinking about things.

And so, um, so there was that. So put that aside for a second. And then on the other hand, the other kind of half of my job in marketing—if, if you could break it up this way—and, uh, you know, in terms of brand building, there's the communication, and then there was the innovation: developing and launching new products.

And on that front, it was almost even worse because we weren't even working with an agency. Um, we would just run brainstorm sessions. We'd bring together different people from our team, different departments, um, maybe from our agency, and we would just all together try to brainstorm some new product ideas. And again, we were limited by, you know, the minds in the room that were working on the business, and we weren't really getting any fresh perspectives or any external perspectives.

And so during this time, I also got exposed to some different crowdsourcing models, um, and, um, advertising competitions.

And the idea of putting out a brief and getting different ideas from bright minds, you know, around the country or around the world, um, I just found so appealing. It made so much sense to me, um, you know, to not limit yourself to just the handful of people that are working on the business—especially at that conceptual phase where you're trying to find that, you know, that big idea that makes it all work.

And so, um, no one was—so, you know, ultimately I described how our business works, but no one had put together the pieces in this way. Um, giving brands the ability to run these kinds of creative challenges with a high caliber of creative talent working on the briefs.

There were some production crowdsourcing platforms for filmmakers and graphic designers. Um, and there were some industry competitions that would happen annually, um, often serving not-for-profits. But putting it all together in a way that, um, was a viable alternative for brands any time of year, um, was something that hadn't been done.

Mike Pinkus: And it, it, it makes a lot of sense. I think the comment you made about even a world-class marketer kind of lives in a box. Like, you know, when you go to see a band and, like, some of their songs just sound identical, like through the set.

Aaron Nemoy: People.

Mike Pinkus: People have a style to what they do, and it's not like—it’s a great analogy—it’s a limitation. Yeah. But it’s a limitation. It’s like by just bringing in a new mind that does things differently, they might not be as world-class on a whole as one individual, but they might be the ones that come up with something so out of the box—

Aaron Nemoy: You got it.

Mike Pinkus: —that people aren’t seeing it. Right?

Aaron Nemoy: Yeah. And they may not be the best, um, people to actually bring it to life, but they have the spark that, um, you know, because they happen to live in Australia and saw something, or they were raised in a country or exposed to, you know, other points of reference or cultures that, you know, if not for those influences, they wouldn’t have, you know, had that idea. Um, it’s, uh, it’s not something that you can replace by just, you know, working with a couple people and racking your brains.

Mike Pinkus: Yeah. And I'm a huge proponent of a model like that. Like, we run a remote team, and the internet has given way for being able to hire talent in different geographic locations. And like you said, there’s cultural differences, upbringing differences, and I think that diversity does bring, like, new talent to the table that you wouldn’t naturally see—especially if it’s a local agency.

Aaron Nemoy: Yeah.

Mike Pinkus: Where maybe the whole team is just like all Toronto-based. They do things a certain way.

Aaron Nemoy: Yeah. There's very much like a local echo chamber effect that happens, where you can kind of feel like a lot of the work that's happening here, um, feels similar. And, you know, for us, when we see ideas coming from different places, you can tell right away like, oh, this did not come from here—in a good way.

But there's so much value in having that diversity of thought. Um, and not for the sake of diversity, um, you know, the way it’s often used. But, um, it is true that because it's, um, you know, truly a democratic system—we’re trying to democratize creativity—the best idea wins. We’re not looking at gender, race, age.

And, uh, specifically with age, just because of industry dynamics, there's so much ageism. So much of the best talent has the most experience and is no longer, um, you know, working within the traditional agency system.

Like the average age of a creative person is in their twenties. Um, whereas I'd say most of our best people are, you know, well, well beyond that because they have the experience and the, um, you know, the expertise in the various categories that we’re working with.

So yeah, there’s a ton of value in getting that diversity of thought.

Mike Pinkus: And how hard has it been—like, the idea makes perfect sense—but how, how hard was it to start generating customers and move toward like a product-market fit, when the risk for the type of ICP or customer that you deal with, Aaron, is these are big brands.

They have obviously a budget that they have in place related to different marketing initiatives, but there's big risk because of the fact that they're, they’re doing big business, right?

Aaron Nemoy: Yeah.

Mike Pinkus: And so, like, it seems safe sometimes to deal with the shiny agency over certain elements of a thing. How did you first get those first few customers, knowing that there’s the risk element, you're new? Like, how did you build that trust?

Aaron Nemoy: Yeah. No, I, I—well, I can see how it would seem risky. I like to think that it's riskier to just rely on your agency team than to—

Mike Pinkus: You know what I mean, when you bring something new to the table or a new concept at the table.

Aaron Nemoy: Yeah.

Mike Pinkus: They need to first see you deliver one or two times to—

Aaron Nemoy: Yeah. Yeah. But no, we—there were, there were some marketers I spoke with that felt like, you know, until we could prove ourselves, they would take another look at us once we had some success under our belt. So you always have to find those early customers that are willing to give it a shot.

And, uh, because, you know, with our model, we're—we are sort of building a two-sided ecosystem. So we actually need to have—we need to recruit the creative people to work on the projects, and we need the clients to believe that we have those people that can work on the projects.

So it was a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation. We were trying to recruit people, but really, it’s those projects—especially those big brand projects—where the brand attracts new, um, new recruits to join our community that allowed us to grow that side.

So we would try to build up our community. And then it was really, you know, once we found those early customers, that's when we could really promote it and use those initial projects to ramp up our community building.

But going back to your question, in terms of how we got those early adopters—I didn’t realize it at the time, but my experience working in brand management—I wasn’t thinking of it as networking or trying to set myself up for a business in this field. But, you know, it was hugely invaluable to build a network of people, in this case, peers that I still connect with and that trust me because we’ve worked together, that were willing to give us a shot.

So, you know, in the early days, that’s definitely what it took to get our foot in the door. But I think, sort of as you just said, the model makes sense once you hear about it, and then you need to trust that we can pull it off.

But it didn’t take long. It didn’t take long for us to find that first customer, and then the next. And so we were able to get to profitability pretty quickly. And again, because we're working with relatively big brands, from pretty early on we were building up a roster of clients that we could then show to the next prospect.

And we got some good success under our belt early. Obviously, we're still learning along the way. And, you know, with every project, you're learning something new and improving the model. But it actually did work from the start.

Mike Pinkus: And that makes a lot of sense because, I mean, you went to a top business school, you were working in a high-profile marketing job, so you had good experience. And I think that gave some authority when you were starting out the company. And now if you go to your projects page at Crowdiate, I can see it's Fortune 500 and 100 companies and really recognizable brands that you've worked on.

So congrats, by the way, on all the success of working on all those companies—because it's impressive that you’ve done all those projects with really well-recognizable brands.

But I want to ask you now a question about what have the challenges been like? I mean, you’ve now gone to a place where you’ve proven there’s a market, you have repeat business, you're working with those really big customers who are now coming back to you to keep implementing a model to get those ideas.

Aaron Nemoy: Well, let me say one more—I’ll say one more thing on that, and then I’ll answer your next question here about the challenges.

When we started, the vision was always that we wanted to be a place where the best creative people in the world could come work on, you know, some of the best brand creative challenges in the world, from brands outside of our local market. And it was really not until COVID where the borders truly came down.

Mike Pinkus: Mm-hmm.

Aaron Nemoy: And we were able to—because, you know, to your point around remote work—our community is global and decentralized. But to actually be able to bring briefs from different markets wasn’t happening as much.

But now we’re able to work virtually with clients that are based in the US, Europe—

Mike Pinkus: Mm-hmm.

Aaron Nemoy: Brazil, Dubai, you name it. Which just makes for, you know, a much more thriving, more interesting place for creatives to work on these challenges.

Mike Pinkus: Is most of that post-COVID, you’re saying?

Aaron Nemoy: Well, like, from early on—like, pretty much within a few months of COVID happening—we started working with Amazon in Europe.

Mike Pinkus: Oh wow.

Aaron Nemoy: And then after that, we started—we had done some work with Hershey's in Canada—but since then we were able to start working with Hershey’s in Dubai and the US.

Mike Pinkus: Oh wow.

Aaron Nemoy: And Reckitt in the UK. And then yeah, it sort of kept going, and then we’re able to kind of work with these clients in various markets from there.

Mike Pinkus: Incredible. Yeah. And I’m gonna take us back to—I’m gonna take us back to the challenges.

Aaron Nemoy: Yeah.

Mike Pinkus: Because I know there’s probably been—

Aaron Nemoy: There's probably been many—ask the hard question that I was probably trying to avoid subconsciously. 

Mike Pinkus: Um, so I guess the question around challenges is, once you get that business is hard no matter what—and that’s for literally everyone—meaning you've got to hire employees, sometimes people bring on partners and other people that they're working with and collaborating with on a day-to-day basis. And like you said, you had to recruit the talent as well to build out the network side of this business.

What has been the most challenging aspect or a couple of the biggest challenges you’ve had in getting to where you are right now?

Aaron Nemoy: Um, yeah, I may have touched on some of it, but I’d say the biggest challenge probably is that most people aren't aware that an alternative model like ours even exists. And so they’re often not even looking for it—assuming that there’s no choice other than the status quo.

So I’d say, you know, just getting on the radar for us has always been the first priority. And then once they're aware of us and they actually want to work with us, they need to convince their team again to try something new and different.

So again, this has gotten easier over time as we’ve amassed more great case studies working with some of these brands like Nestlé and Pepsi and others. But that’s always, you know—for any marketer that doesn’t realize that there is another solution other than the traditional agency model or team brainstorming sessions—that you can actually effectively go out and open source concepts, and that there’s a model or a team like ours that’s able to sort of shepherd that process strategically and thoughtfully, it just wouldn’t be on the radar.

Mike Pinkus: It’s funny that awareness is even an issue for the marketing experts. It is an issue for everybody, because you have to be—it’s, I think before we started recording, it’s in all businesses a trust game, right? Especially I think with the type of customer that you’re dealing with. So trust is what’s paramount, I guess, right?

Aaron Nemoy: Yeah, and it’s ironic because we work in marketing, but we also have some of the most skeptical, cynical customers out there. And as opposed to—we do some B2B work—most of our work is B2C, working with big brands, trying to reach consumers through mass channels.

And so, in our case, for B2B, there’s really no way around the need to build relationships and actually have these marketing decision-makers—who are very busy and focused on their priorities—pay attention and take the time to actually learn about a different way of doing things.

And so there’s no great shortcuts there. But I think just by playing the long game and trying to genuinely understand what marketers are looking for and try to help them where we can, that’s typically how we’ve been able to find opportunities.

Mike Pinkus: Yeah. And that makes a lot of sense to me. And I was completely joking earlier, because I do understand that.

Meaning, like, if it was as simple as—

Aaron Nemoy: If you're so good—

Mike Pinkus: Yeah. First of all, marketing's a wide bucket, and attracting an ideal customer for product-market fit—where what you do is quite unique—is a different challenge than the way you would solve a problem for a big brand. Like, it's a completely different thing.

And that’s why—yeah, there’s irony in our own business, by the way, as well. Where we deliver finance and accounting to companies, we run into situations in our own world where we're growing quickly, things are moving around, and we have our own—like people wouldn’t expect that—but we can run into our own challenges internally on things that people think should be the easiest thing in the world.

But yeah, as we scale, the same challenges we would have with our own customers, we have with ourselves.

Mike Pinkus: Makes sense. And so, Aaron, I think for now that you’re at the size that you are right now, have you thought about what you want or where you want to go with Crowdiate over the next, like, two to three years?

Do you have a game plan in place of where you see the business going, or are you just taking things a day at a time and seeing where things go?

Aaron Nemoy: Um, well, to start, I love what—we do. And it's fun. And so in that sense, I'm in no rush to move on from it. But I'd say, you know, that bigger ambition that I just mentioned—to be a place where the best creative people around the world can work on some of the best brand challenges from around the world—we're far from reaching the full potential of that ambition.

Right now, still, the vast majority—90-something percent—of work that we could be doing still just goes to the same traditional agencies. And there’s this widespread recognition that the agency model is broken, but no one has any good alternatives.

Mike Pinkus: Mm-hmm.

Aaron Nemoy: Unless, of course, they discover us. And so we’re so far from becoming, I think, as ubiquitous as we’d love to be. And so our focus is just to keep doing that.

And on the other side—on the innovation front—this was maybe our biggest pivot, if you can call it that, or the most distinct application of our model from where we started: helping brands develop new product and branding concepts. That's become an increasingly important need. Because when it comes to growing brands, there’s advertising—which can be kind of hard to track in terms of what growth it delivered—but then there’s launching new products, which, in terms of driving incremental revenue, tends to be the most critical lever.

And it’s where there’s much less competition, in terms of the kind of fresh creative thinking that we bring to that side. So I’d say continuing to grow that side of the business as well will remain a priority for the next couple years.

Mike Pinkus: Amazing. And final question—I don’t want to hold you too long here—is how long, first of all, how long have you been at it with Crowdiate? When did you guys start up?

Aaron Nemoy: It’s crazy to think—it’s been over seven years now.

Mike Pinkus: Wow. So that’d be 2017.

Aaron Nemoy: Um, yeah. Or maybe late 2016.

Mike Pinkus: Wow. So my question is: what is one or two pieces of advice you’d give to newer entrepreneurs or people that are in year one or year two of a business, trying to get going? Or just general business advice you'd give to someone who's at the level that you’re at in terms of scale and time in the marketplace?

Closing Thoughts:

Aaron Nemoy: Um, like advice to new entrepreneurs?

Mike Pinkus: Either or, actually—like, either or. But yes, new entrepreneurs is normally the focus. I normally ask that question only because hindsight’s 20/20, but I do like to ask people about advice they'd give their younger self, and that's kind of, yeah, a way of looking at it.

Aaron Nemoy: Um, I'd say, kind of thinking back to where we started, the first is to take the time—or find the time or give yourself the time—to nurture your ideas.

So I—you know, when we started chatting, I had mentioned sort of where the idea came from, where some of the inspiration or frustration for our business model came from. I probably had some pieces of the idea, some sort of vague semblance of what we could do. But it certainly didn't come to me as a fully formed business model.

And I also found it challenging to develop a business on the side of my day job—’cause at the time, like many of us, I was working full-time, treating my job like my business to start with. But just taking the time to actually write a business plan, even if you think you know what the business is or went to business school and know what you're doing—I find just getting it on paper is a great way to make sure you're thinking through the various aspects of the business.

And talk to people. Just keep talking to people and having conversations and bouncing ideas around. Conversation is just the best way to evolve your thinking.

And don't worry about holding your cards too close to your chest. I think many new entrepreneurs think they've got this idea and it’s brilliant, but they don’t want to tell too many people because someone might steal it and go do it before them. That’s so unlikely to happen.

If it’s an idea that you're passionate about and it makes sense for you to pursue, it’s unlikely that someone you’re chatting with is going to steal it. Most people aren’t that mean—and honestly, they don’t care.

Mike Pinkus: It's all about whether they care or not.

Aaron Nemoy: Exactly. Because unless you're transparent and seeking input from people, you’re not going to be able to progress your thinking. So all of that is probably one thing.

And then I guess the other, just generally, is to try and find something or work on something that you're passionate about. Because inevitably there are going to be highs and lows. And if you want to weather those challenges, it helps if you like what you’re doing.

Especially as an entrepreneur, sales is so important. And I wouldn’t consider myself a sales guy. I always thought I’d have to hire someone else to do the business development.

Mike Pinkus: Mm-hmm.

Aaron Nemoy: But really, you’re kind of always selling, in a sense. But if I’ve learned anything about sales, it’s to not try to sell. Especially in the kind of work and projects that we do. It’s really more about having meaningful, quality conversations—just kind of always be talking about it—and that’s how to sell more naturally.

The sales cycle can be long sometimes, especially in our case. So just having the patience to play the long game and stick it out. And if you are passionate about what you're doing, all of that will come more naturally.

Mike Pinkus: That’s great advice. And Aaron, I want to thank you for joining me. I think it’s a great business model. I told you when I reached out to you to hop on here that I love seeing businesses that break the mold. I think it’s really, really cool.

And like you said, it’s still a huge opportunity—even today—if 90-something percent of business is still under the old guard, just scratching. That’s your opportunity. It’s still early innings.

So thank you for taking the time today. And for anybody who is watching, is the best way to get a hold of you to just check out Crowdiate’s website and reach out?

Aaron Nemoy: Yeah, that’s a good place. You can reach out to me at aaron@crowdiate.com. And yeah, thanks for having me, Mike. This was fun.

Mike Pinkus: Yeah, appreciate it.

Mike Pinkus: That was Aaron Nemoy, founder of Crowdiate. Aaron shared some great lessons during our conversation, but two stood out the most:

Number one: Give yourself time to think and plan. While there’s nothing wrong with moving fast, you should still take the step to think through scenarios before going all in on your business model.

Number two: Work on things you’re passionate about. As an entrepreneur, you will always have some role in sales and connection building. People need to feel the passion—that you truly care about solving the problem your customers have.

That’s it for today. As always, keep scaling up and breaking barriers.