Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Sydney Wong, Founder and CEO of VenturX, located in Montreal, QC, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
VenturX is a platform that prepares startups for funding in these innovative ways. This is for pre-seed and seed stage startups. VenturX Capital is the angel fund arm of VenturX. The targets are startups with MRR showing traction, in Canada and USA, in agnostic and already have a lead investor.
Tell us about yourself
My story started a few years ago: I was crazy enough to go to Silicon Valley with a one-way ticket, no job, no VISA, and no apartment! A friend from San Francisco said if I was serious about tech and startup, I should move to Silicon Valley. I bought a one-way ticket the very next week. I attended every MeetUp event, visited the Yahoo campus, and met as many people in different sectors as possible. I met young, confident entrepreneurs who struggled through many obstacles to get to where they needed to be in order to compete. Every Uber driver, every dog walker on WAG, and every house cleaner on TaskRabbit knew the direction they wanted to go. They didn’t shy from sharing their ambitions with strangers.
I understood a bit better what “startup” means to this assertive culture, and something changed inside me. I had the opportunity to see people and places that others overlooked for decades. The startup industry is like a battlefield with few winners, but the opportunity I saw and built my company mission around was “What would it take to produce more winners?” When I returned to Canada, I wanted to bring that kind of startup structure and energy to benefit Canadian Entrepreneurs. That is how VenturX was born.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I was named Top 100 Entrepreneurs and Innovators of 2022.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Balance. Dealing with family death while running a business.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- North Star Metric - The North Star Metric (NSM) is a metric that a company uses as a focus for its growth. This number best reflects the amount of value that your company brings to your customers. In addition, the North Star Metric gives direction to your company's long-term growth versus short-term growth. What is your north star metric?
- "If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat!" - Sheryl Sandberg. I was offered an opportunity to go to Silicon Valley, and it inspired my business and changed my life.
- "It is not about how many times you fall; it is about how quickly you get back up." - Barbara Corcoran. Failures will come along the way, but you cannot drive forward by continuing to look at the rearview mirror.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
I am an author, female Canadian entrepreneur, and Founder and CEO of VenturX, a conduit for startups to track metrics. As a successful entrepreneur, I enjoy helping others by giving life advice and self-improvement tips. I also enjoy learning as much as I can about how to be productive and have a balanced life, as I believe that this is the key to being successful.
Due to the pandemic taking over our lives at this moment in time, mental health is becoming increasingly important and is a growing concern. To ensure that working individuals from all around the world are mentally and physically well, I have come out with How To Have A Good Day, where I write under the pen name of ‘David Adams’ to give my best tips and tricks on how to increase individual wellbeing while being locked down.
I'm also a podcaster, and I run a YouTube channel to interview investors in order to bring to life my personal mission. In the investment industry, we keep saying, "It's about the people," but after sitting on countless judging panels at startup competitions and working through thousands of impersonal pitch decks, I found that there isn't a way to really get to know the faces behind the financing and this was a way to do that.
I have had the opportunity to interview some of the most successful investors in cryptocurrencies, Jason Calacanis' Syndicate, and many more. Here is a sample.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://venturx.ca/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/venturx_team/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VenturX_team
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneywong1/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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