This week, we chat with Daniel Delgado from Trade Space. Our conversation dives into starting up a new business, supporting others, and the importance of having the right attitude. Daniel also tells us about his experiences with past failures and what he's learned, and let's us in on where Trade Space is headed in the years ahead.
Then on The Podium (now with a more appropriate introduction!), your two favourite hosts talk about their top 3 inventions before their time. Napster even gets an honourable (somewhat) mention.
Beep boop chhrsssshhhh! (That's the sound of your internet downloading this episode).
Check it out today on our website at www.thebizdojo.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to check out our Insta: @bizdojopodcast and on Facebook (www.facebook.com/thebizdojo).
The Biz Dojo - Podcast, Production & Professional Coaching
Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter
This week, we chat with Daniel Delgado from Trade Space. Our conversation dives into starting up a new business, supporting others, and the importance of having the right attitude. Daniel also tells us about his experiences with past failures and what he's learned, and let's us in on where Trade Space is headed in the years ahead.
Then on The Podium (now with a more appropriate introduction!), your two favourite hosts talk about their top 3 inventions before their time. Napster even gets an honourable (somewhat) mention.
Beep boop chhrsssshhhh! (That's the sound of your internet downloading this episode).
Check it out today on our website at www.thebizdojo.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to check out our Insta: @bizdojopodcast and on Facebook (www.facebook.com/thebizdojo).
The Biz Dojo - Podcast, Production & Professional Coaching
Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter
Welcome to Episode Three of The Biz Dojo with Seth and JP. This week, we had a great conversation with Daniel Delgado, one of the founders of tradespace. Yeah, I
JP Gaston:thought our conversation with Daniel is a unique one for sure. He's He's had a few different experiences in his life. And he's, he's leading a interesting business, especially in these times, I think trade space is not something that's offered anywhere else, you've got a lot of office space environments, but not a lot of those small business type space environments where you can actually bring together different industries in one spot.
Seth Anderson:It's really like an entrepreneurial incubator, if you will. And you know, that that's what really attracted us to it, when Caitlin was looking for a space to kind of get her business going, Caitlin being my wife, and the business being curvy bridges, and, you know, we did look around quite a bit at different spaces, just because she had sort of outgrown the kitchen. And, you know, it was, it was really nice, because tradespace, not only did it, you know, offer all of the sort of the basic necessities of running a business, you know, things like Wi Fi, printing a desk, you know, just all sort of the basics. It also, you know, provided a whole bunch of resources and other people and other entrepreneurs to interact with, which was pretty cool.
JP Gaston:One house, do you get that, right, like, as a small business, I feel like you're either just operating in your own space entirely, and you're not really dealing with anyone else and getting any pointers or, you know, having those social interactions, or, you know, you eventually get to a point where you're big enough that you you have your own sort of office space, your own warehouse, those sorts of things. And, again, you're not really interacting with others in the industry. So you're still just kind of living on your own experience.
Seth Anderson:Yeah, totally. And even just through a few conversations, like we were able to get leads on a on a variety of things that, you know, we wouldn't have otherwise. And, you know, so it was really great for that. And interestingly, though, I don't know if it's a flaw in the business model, but one of the, I think the tough parts about that business model is just businesses change really rapidly. So, you know, part of the business model that they do have there is, you know, they don't, they don't have a long lease, anything like that, you can sort of move in, move out. And that's what ended up happening with us is, you know, we moved in there. And then our life situation changed pretty dramatically just over the last few weeks, and in deciding to make the move that we are and the new house that we bought affords us, you know, some space that we didn't have in this house, okay, like I've run a business from there. So, you know, I think that's one of the the challenges that you know, that business model is up against his, you know, people situations change, and especially right now with COVID. And, you know, we take, we get into that a little bit on the pod with Daniel, just on, you know, the the dynamics of the business and just how everything's changing so quickly. It can, it can put a lot of stress on to a new business model, like the one they're running, you're just happy to have your man cave back from all the clothes that were hanging around, because you didn't have any space. That hasn't been a plus i, i don't know why, but like, there's like five things in the world that stressed me out and one of them is clothes everywhere. And that's the Caitlyn decided to get into. So there are moments where I just look around and I'm like, I'm gonna go upstairs for the rest of the
JP Gaston:day. I'm gonna go upstairs to podcast with one of the other five things in my life that stressed me.
Seth Anderson:So anyway, let's get into it with Daniel, great conversation about co workspaces, co warehousing facilities, and what what they're up to at trade space. This week
Voiceover:on the pod. We talked to Daniel Delgado from tradespace, about starting the business, learning from failure, and what it means to help others succeed. So welcome to Episode Three.
Seth Anderson:Today in The Biz Dojo, we've got Daniel Delgado from tradespace, which is a well why don't you tell us a little bit about what you do right now, Daniel, I happen to meet you, my wife through my wife's business. You guys, I think I have a pretty cool thing going on with tradespace, a co working facility based here in Calgary. Maybe just give us a little bit of background about, you know, how that came to be and what you guys are up to?
Daniel Delgado:Yeah, of course, by the way, thank you so much for for having me here. Really appreciate it. So yeah, trade pace, essentially was born out of necessity from my business partner, Jordan Tetro myself. We met at an event, the Calgary construction Association, and there was this event happening and and at that point, I wasn't a bit lost because I was doing some general contracting my background really some I'm an engineer. Yeah. And then we run to each other. I think we connected we were saying look, how can we you know, generate business for each other to help each other out. He's a general contractor, he came his background is from the real estate industry. So he, at that point, he was in already doing general contracting. And then we just started to get together just to bounce ideas on how we generate motivation for each other. Okay, I was a member of our co working space. And I started saying, look, I am working there and and then I feel like I'm not very satisfied there. I feel like I don't click with the businesses that are there, what's happening. And we started well, it would be great if we can have a space where we can collaborate with other people. So we were doing it already between Joel and myself, right? Like, we were just bouncing ideas. And, and essentially what happened was, he was saying, like, well, he's struggling having tools and materials in his garage, and he just was a man. So hey, it would be nice. If we can put a bass together, we get some intrapreneurs to get into this industry. And essentially, we can grow from there. And that's how we got started. So essentially, that was our initial original plan. So traceries was born a
Seth Anderson:couple interesting points in there, I think, one from an entrepreneurial perspective, it can be tough. And it sounds like you're kind of in a space of sort of figuring out, you know, what direction you want to go or what business you might want to get into. And you probably, at that point, aren't even really thinking about, you know, having a co working area or facility like that probably wasn't the concept you were after especially, I'm just assuming, you know, you said you're an engineering background. So you're kind of thinking probably more in that space. It's always interesting, because you don't know you don't necessarily know what you're going to get into, which I think is sort of where you landed. And I think the other thing is, it sounded like, you know, you and Jordan sort of met by chance and getting into business with somebody else, especially in a startup can be a risky proposition, it can be a challenging, how did you know that? You know, you and Jordan were a good fit in that regard, and that this was going to be something that was going to work out?
Unknown:Yeah, you know, that's a great question. Because this is, I think, honestly, it was luck. Because I had had, I have had business partners before. And other ventures, by the way, like, I failed, like three companies already before, the three like, and I run into business partners and all that. And I honestly, it wasn't pure lock and unlock happened because of the now I see it differently. Okay, I feel this is something that I didn't came up with. But there's, I would call it like a guru that I that I think in in entrepreneurship, his name is navall, Ravi Kant. Hopefully I'm pronouncing properly. But anyways, he, he co founded Angel list there in DC in Silicon Valley. And essentially, he says, when you are seeking a partner, there are three things that needs to be in place. One is high energy, intelligence, and integrity. So if you have the three of them, that's a baseline, to have a great partnership. So at that point of view of luck, because I didn't think about that, but that's what happened that where we connected, we had the energy, we had the intelligence just enough required for us to get going. And then we have integrity, to work with each other. And you need those threes. Because when timing gets tough, that's what makes things move forward. And honestly, just pure luck. Now, I do understand that concept. I look at it differently, anytime assessing a partnership opportunity, but it was pure luck. So
Seth Anderson:you touched on it there a little bit when times get tough, you sort of have that base or that anchor to go back to and the energy intelligence integrity. Is there ever been any situations where you know, you sort of got down the road on this? And you're like, man, I don't know what I got myself into? Or like, Am I going down the right path? And you know, one of those three elements kind of came through and you knew you were on the right course?
Unknown:What happened? Is he at that at that point, I already had experience. I tried to do an online business building an online community tried to monetize that I tried to build like a digital agency. And I tried to do some general contracting business. So I learned many important lessons in those three ventures. And what happened with trades PCs. I like a few months back, I run into a book called the lean startup. Okay. And they essentially explained this framework to to tackle uncertainty in a startup and to focus on what's important. So we essentially in in that book, by the way, that's a book that applies to technology companies, but principles they apply to any business, I believe. So because we use that approach, because of the lessons or previous lessons. If we always felt like pretty comfortable that we were making progress now. Is it challenging? Yes. Like every day, you don't know even today, we don't know what's going to happen. And really, you know, you don't really know every always in uncertainty. I think as time goes by, we are just the risk in what we're trying to do. But we never really understand what was what's the outcome, honestly. And we wouldn't know until later To be honest, but, but we certainly had a feeling that in Jordan did so many things before, too, we have the feeling in data that we were on the right path, we were on the right path. And that's what has helped navigate, because it's a lot of decision making. On the goal, to be honest, how they say, in Silicon Valley, it's like, you jump off the cliff, and you start building the airplane going down. So that's true. And prescaler just teach you what things you should be built first to make sure you don't crash. You know, and, and you manage that I think that ability to manage that iteration is what makes you confident, but hey, you always will have uncertainty, and delegate tasks. And what I mean by that is like market conditions, will be perhaps customer base and all that. But
Seth Anderson:yeah, when in sort of unprecedented times over the last, you know, six to eight months in terms of you know, market conditions, global pandemics, all those kinds of things, and, you know, probably to some degree, I'm sure there's some some business casing that was done that looked really attractive, and then all of a sudden, you throw a global pandemic, in the mix, you throw in the variable of people, and, you know, anytime you have people involved in anything that's going to, you know, produce some unexpected outcomes. So, you know, how did you guys kind of get through those waters? And then we're not even through those waters, we're probably right in, you know, potentially the middle of sort of that, that global pandemic response. But, you know, those are trying times for the best businesses in the world. How have you guys navigated through that? You know, obviously, we're still we don't know really what's happening. But
Unknown:one of the things that one of the things that we learned was going back to honestly, the principle of the lean startup is being able to adjust quickly, people, people quickly, and then if they choose to falter our vision and our mission, and use our values and guiding principles to make those calls, is what helps us to navigate that, for example, like our mission in our trade with is to enable or enable our members full potential. So during COVID, when we're making decision, we are thinking of how can we enable our member birth full potential, how we can make sure that our members are getting what they need. And at the same time, we're looking at, obviously, our financials, we're looking at everything, but that basically making principle based decisions is what helps us to navigate through that now, uncertainty. Certainly. It's like toss. We I think we were lucky through COVID. I don't think I don't think we did. Bad, I don't think we did great. I think we continue to grow the way that we weren't growing before. And because one of the things, Tracy, we have about 60 companies right now. And some companies that were doing great, some companies not so good, some companies will come and say, Hey, I cannot pay my membership. What can I do in Hey, we're going to support you in some other members that were doing great. And trying to support all their members. So so it's been for us, it's been okay. And in fact, we believe that this COVID situation, it's actually gonna help us position ourselves better than before. Because what we offer tradespace It's a lot of more certainty on what you do, which that's what a lot of startups require. Right. So I thought small companies, I would say,
Seth Anderson:yeah, and then obviously, that's how we ended up meeting. And I think that's one of the things that, you know, my wife and I, with her business, curvy britches, we were attracted to, you know, all the variety of other entrepreneurs in the space and, and, you know, we got a vibe of high energy right from day one. And I think, you know, just to touch on your guys's mission, because I think that's, that's pretty cool. And it speaks to kind of your core values and why you exist, but enabling our members full potential is, you know, at the end of the day without without having the members your business model doesn't work. So I could see in a world you know, especially all of a sudden the revenue starting to go down, you have uncertainty on you know, who's gonna you know, you who your members are going to be, and you can start to maybe panic and think about the bottom line first and, and maybe you you make decisions that aren't, you know, with your members, best interests, and at the end of the day, you're still a business but, you know, there's sort of this fine balance of You know, staying true to your mission and helping those people, you know, also going through a tough time. And, you know, on the other side of that there's some of that goodwill and, and maybe decisions that weren't entirely bottom line focused, you know, pay off in the long run. And it sounds like you guys have kind of wrestled with that a little bit. Have you? Have you found a recipe that works on that front where, you know, you kind of find you're straddling a line between being a charity and going too far, but or helping someone out and seeing their problem and helping them get through? How do you sort of distinguish the line there?
Unknown:That's like an equation that we're trying to figure it out every day. I think it's like a fine balance between the meishan and also being disciplined on making decisions. Because we have members like literally that their revenue went like, hey, Siri, lightning, just like boom, it goes to zero, we see we feel the pain. And well, hey, I don't know that they also have to pay the bills, right? Like someone is looking at us. But we strongly believe that when you are being generous to somebody, somebody else is generous to you. So it's like conservation of energy, I think, you know, so I think once you you help out one member, somebody else forgive you. And I think it would have been not having the character of like understanding that probably can cross you. Because if you're not generous, if you're not really truthful, to your statement, your members know, you remember feeling, I think once you go to trace, but you can feel an energy. And that's something that you cannot fake. And that's why companies typically stay at least two years there.
Seth Anderson:No, that's, that's great. And, yeah, you can't fake authenticity. But at some point, you know, whether it's members or customers or whomever, you know, I think I think as humans, we seek out on authenticity and legitimacy from whoever we do business with. And like you said, there's, there's a vibe, when you walk into tradespace, even just from the outside looking in, it's bright, it catches your eye, and that vibe carries on once you get in there. And I know one of the things that, you know, Caitlyn said, when
JP Gaston:we first got there, just how nice everybody was like she didn't, she didn't expect everybody to be so nice and so forthright and so accommodating. And, you know, especially like you said, that was in the early stages of sort of a COVID, response, and new and wearing masks and all these other things. And, and still to go in there and have such a great experience was a big plus for us. And why we ended up choosing to be there, I was just thinking that's got to be especially tough, like the the recognizing that startup businesses, you've been through a few, they often have their failed points. And they often fail, fail early, but some take a little bit of time. And they might be in the space, like, like you're offering. And that's when, you know, they recognize that their business model doesn't work, or it's just not a business that's going to survive in this market. And yet, you know, you're trying to offer or understand how to offer who to offer a hand to at the right time versus holding up a business that might not be a good model, like how difficult is that to discern? Or does it does the model not matter? And you just want that business to keep trying?
Unknown:That's like a great question and assumption data, like I'm always into all kind of podcast, reading books, and really trying to understand what a Hollywood has done. And I'm just like, copying everything, right, like really trying to understand what makes them other people successful. And there's this person, let's say that you tried everything fast. And if you see a fail, and you just kill it real quick. And but that doesn't mean that when you really believe that something is going to work that you are going to give up because it's not about giving up either. So it's just being radical about understanding of if something is working in that decision, you can make it in terms of business one on one, right like understanding Do I have product market fit? Or you said just me wishful thinking that something is just cool, right? That happens a lot? are we adding value? Do we have a strong value proposition? When you ask those questions, and you assess from a principle standpoint, I think you can determine whether something works or not. For example, I had a venture where I tried to do a website called salad pies calm and and I was trying to monetize I literally with techniques and everything. And I got to got my website in South America from three visitors to 5000 a day using SEO techniques and everything. And I'm okay, I went to get traffic and then I'll try to monetize it. Right. Like That was my strategy because I google and I was following some people that influenced me and for the online business and, and I discovered quickly that my, the market that I was trying to target they are not ready to pay online, which is in South America. I don't know if that changed, but they're not willing to pay for digital products, right? Like my goal was like, Hey, I'm going to create some courses because that's working in North America, right? Like, Hey, I'm going to create some courses I'm wanting to create some support. My my planner and that project was to Help immigrants and I do believe business business is about adding value doing something positive. And society gives you money in return for that problem that you solve. And that's true, but you need to understand that Look, I don't, I'm not going to monetize it, and you just have to give up, and hey, you're the tough part. It's like, you might be one year and a half, two years in into a project and, and you are like, hey, this isn't working, you just have to kill it. And that's, that's the way that I approach things. But now, when you try something real quick, and you get some traction, that gives you more, essentially validation, and you keep trying, you keep trying, and again, that's something that I didn't came up with, like the lean startup, approach to, to startup for sure,
Seth Anderson:there must have been a really difficult decision to make, you know, you're invested in something and it sounds like, you know, the website concept that you had helping out immigrants, like, everything was there, like you had all the ingredients for the recipe. And it didn't, it didn't work out. And, you know, a lot of people would just kind of keep going and keep pushing, and keep trying to make it work, despite the market telling you, you know, it's not ready in this instance, which is what it sort of sounded like, like, you know, the markets just not ready to do business in this way. It could be the best idea in the world. But, you know, you can only push rope up a hill for so long to kind of take that step back and be like, okay, like, I love this idea. I've put all this time into this thing. And it's not going to work. And I'm gonna have to just remove it from my mindset and go after the next thing. Walk us through a little bit, because you've touched on it, but like, How hard was that of a decision to make? Because I think it sounds easier than it probably was in the moment.
Unknown:You know why? Like, it is tough, absolutely. Like, the toughest part is like, it's like, when you're playing bingo, or I don't know, the casino, or anything that you put some money in, you lose a little bit, and then you feel like you have to keep going because you have to recover what you put in, right. And in this case, it's not really money in it just for the effort that you put in and what you believe in, in the toughest part for me was really, I put a team together of five people. I'm originally from Venezuela, and who is helping a tons of people in Venezuela, right? I help through that project to some people immigrate from Venezuela to other countries. And I just felt like I let them down. Right? Like, that was a big thing for me, because I was in Canada was working at that time doing some construction projects, project managers union, contracting, putting their money towards the website. Now the toughest part, because I've one of the things he's like, I really want to help. I don't know, if you're familiar with the situation is happening and what's happening in Venezuela. At that point, people were like, just like, very desperate to leave the country. And I'm helping these kids, right. Like, when I say kids, like a maybe like, younger than me, but but they're just getting out of the university and they're in. They have incredible talent. And it's funny, like, it's, it's tough, because like, I really, really want him to succeed. Like, I felt like, hey, when I wasn't when I thought that there was no hope. And I'm like, I want to give you hope. And I feel like I let them down. That's what it felt. So that's what the tough part. But I had to realize, like, Look, this is not it, I'm gonna come back, I'm gonna do something else. And I'm gonna, this is just gonna be an experience. It is something that is going to teach me some discipline, maybe be more analytical, maybe understanding better what I'm doing to help out others. For me, it was for sure. Now that I remember that, that that's the thing that that really, really I struggle with. I had like about a team of, you know, I would say like, five to six people I can't remember exactly. But hey, there's something positive. There's one of those that then to actually move to the neighbor country, which is Colombia, and they're doing great. And by the way, like, I think I introduced to you, David, he's helping me deal with many projects. So he helped me with you know, trade peace on data marketing and web and, and then also, he helped him with my engineering practice. I still have my, my practice. That's another business that I that I'm running in. And so I feel really good that that I leased for example, like David's wife, we learn tons of principles through that experience. She's doing great. She's killing it. He's doing great. I know that the other people that are doing great throughout experience so but it was devastating at a time that for sure. Yeah. I felt like I essentially let them down. That's what how it felt for sure.
Seth Anderson:I know that feeling. I mean, I can think of it in the workplace. One of the things that came to mind for me when you were talking about that, I was involved in hockey for quite a few years as a GM of a junior B hockey team and you know, we did a lot of cool things. We had a lot of success. We went to the the League finals three years in a row and And especially that last year, you know, some of those kids, you know, they were 18 1920 years old, and I think I was like, 2526 at the time. And, you know, we'd spent four winters together, and we built up a, you know, a pretty good program. And, you know, we had a really great regular season and, and we got to the finals, and we didn't end up winning, and I always felt like I kind of like I let the team down or that, you know, didn't come through, in the end, when it all kind of was on the line, you know, a couple of years later, when you're out of it, and you look back on it, and you know, some of those kids ended up getting opportunities to go to university to play hockey, some of them, you know, got got the opportunity to travel and do all these things, and a bunch of different doors open in life or, or, or, or through hockey or through the opportunities that were afforded through them through the program. And there was probably way more good than came out of that, then, you know, the not great feeling of losing in the final. So it was a little different we're talking about in your situation, but I just felt that feeling of feeling unfulfilled, like you didn't quite get it across the line. But then, you know, when you get a little removed from it, if if you if you were doing it for the right reasons, and you had a principled approach to why you were doing it, I think often we create more good, good things out of it, then we even think in the moment. So just
Unknown:shorts are like business to be honest, like, quite often find it analogies, hey, you're talking about teams, you're talking about alignment, you're talking about value, you're talking about F or you're talking about difficulty in your there's so much that you draw from from spring into business, like all the time, I tried to use analogies from poor to better than I and hey, I'm not an athlete or anything like that. But I did sport through my life like growing up and whatnot. And, and when you're winning when you're doing things and when you're aligned, whatever situation took place, that's going to be carried through for three, whatever journey each person is having. Absolutely. You've been talking a fair bit about, about the online business. And I think we're, we're we're in the middle of launching what I will call an online business with this pug that's perhaps particularly interesting for the two of us. But it often seems, for some people like an easy venture to get into. And I believe it's not having kind of been on the outskirts of it and working a little bit in it here and there.
JP Gaston:But tell us more about your experience online and what you know what some of the pitfalls are, that people don't seem to think about when they're when they're going to the their Wix and, and whatnot. And, you know, clicking a couple buttons to make a website.
Unknown:Yeah, I mean, like, obviously, I didn't succeed on that. But what I learned was that while I'm there, there's a thing, right? Like, when when you think about it, like maybe you see a YouTube ad and tells you like, hey, let me show you how you make money online quickly, right? Well, I don't think it's like that simple like, because you have to have, you have to master multiple skills, right? Like, you have to really be good at many different things. For example, when you're doing an online business, guess what, you have to be good communicator, writing, you have to be good at understanding psychology, or what you're trying to do, you have to be good at understanding, essentially, some technology, right? Like you're creating your website, you have to be good at numbers. Why because it's all about numbers with online, you have to be good at understanding financials, you have to be good at making sure that that you keep learning, there's so many things that you have to get right. And it can be done. But it's so much up from work that easiest your first time, you're going to be in a massive learning curve. And at the same time, you're trying to execute and you're trying to, you know, navigate through psychology, because psychology to the business, right? You have to be good at marketing, you have to go to sales. It's extremely, extremely exhausting. And again, you might have tons of money and you try to do and if you are someone say hey, you're an experienced business person and you feel contract everything you have some money in you put a good business case, and hey, it might succeed. But yeah, you're gonna suffer like, but again, if you are basically making all those calls with some principles, again, went back to principle, you will succeed, right? But my recommendation to anybody doing any sort of online businesses to test real quick to see if you sell something or not, we get fancy about gross and these and then, but if you are able to sell something really quick, whatever it is, even if you haven't built that, try that first. You know, we've got a trade space, we didn't have the space. We just sold the space. And then we found the space after you know, so we tried to find people that they were looking for a space and and we say sure we got it We didn't even have a space. If I had to do something online, I will try to make a cell first. And then I've tried to build everything around the cell to support that. I think that's an approach that I would that I would try that for sure.
Seth Anderson:I think, you know, the book, shoe dog, I think talked about that. I don't know if you guys read that one, but the story of how Nike got started. And basically, how he went to, you know, I think it was Japan. And I think he called it Blue Ribbon shoes or something like that, he told the shoe manufacturer, that he had the shoe company based in Portland. And, you know, this is back in like the early 70s, I think it was, and anyway, none of that actually existed, but he had enough time to get home. And basically, you know, pretend that it existed. And from there, you know, obviously, multiple years later, and several iterations later, Nike was sort of formed out of the more or less a white lie, basically, you know, the shoe company that didn't actually exist. But, you know, sometimes an idea or a concept or a business plan can be that powerful that, you know, you had you you believe in your ideas so much like, I'm sure you and Jordan, you weren't worried about the space, he just knew that if you got the people, and you got the your you remember, setup you like finding the space, it's just, it's just going to happen. And, you know, I think some people try to get sometimes get that backwards, they're like, Oh, well, I it's an online business, and people will just come to it. But if you don't have a why, or a business that you can scale or sell or a market, you know, the simple fundamentals of business, you know, you know, you don't really have anything, so if you don't know what you're selling, why you're selling it, or what your product is, you're not going to be successful, I think not at all and you touched a great point there is there's this person called Nico coronas. Like he is one of the partners of I believe it said the restaurant called Alinea flow and pronounce it properly. And they did Open Table when they were recording. I think it was a Tim Ferriss show.
Unknown:And he's talking about, like, he remember what his dad used to tell him about business. Like he said, Hey, I will try to go and make things complicated with financial models and crazy thing, and his dad would be like, hey, Nick, simple is just three shoe boxes, you know, money comes in, money goes out and what is left, you know. So the way that I look at it is like, Okay, get the money in and try to figure out how you keep something, you know, if you don't have the sale, there's nothing right? Like you might be having that. What is left in a lot of people start with it, for sure. And you start with what is left and nothing comes in, guess what? Your negative, right, there's nothing you're gonna be in debt. No, I
Seth Anderson:love the simple concepts. I think we'd like to overcomplicate things sometimes, and, you know, big corporations. I think we've probably all been in that space and a lot of people with a new model or a different way of looking at things, but you know, three shoe boxes. I love that. That's that's a very simple, but effective way to look at it. So Daniel, just kind of pivoting gears here. What? What's on the horizon for tradespace? I mean, you know, obviously, you guys have been in business for a little while, things seem to be going you know, pretty well, for the for the most part, you've got all kinds of different members in there. I know you guys are getting into fulfillment and shipping. I think it's one of your newer ventures that you guys are working on. But you know what's on the horizon? What should people be excited about?
Unknown:We are cleaning up our model, we are validating, making sure that it's really strong. We're now trying to create what we call our minimum viable company. He's like how to create a meal of our company, meaning that we have a company that has a strong value proposition company that has a good business model, strong Business Economics, and and then a company that can create a network effect who would be able to scale it. So we are in that path right now, essentially, looking at it every day where, okay, how can we continue to add value to our members, right now we have our space. Now, as you mentioned, we have fulfillment we identified a need that came from within our organization, again, like it came from our members. So we're looking at our members and seeing what our members are needing. So that's how we evolve, right? Like we see a few steps here we we see further space, if that functional need that our members have, you know, you need the space. And we're trying to build infrastructure to support them in other efforts. We see truth base in the same 10 year where multiple cities across North America and we see ourselves as a hub for growth Tracy is more than a warehouse is more than a fulfillment center is more than a place where you go and connect His truth is we see as a platform for growth. That what we're building right now we're building our team, the infrastructure to support entrepreneurs to the poor mom and pop we are trying to figure that out. How do we make sure that our ideal outcome in the future is here straightaway We open our trade schools in Manitoba in Regina, Saskatchewan, or, you know, maybe in Austin, Texas and, and there's an entrepreneur that it's up like a plumber. And, and then essentially comes in and hey, these plumber, he just wants to, you know, have a job, make some money for their family, the sad, they just want to be like, you know, a solopreneur and be happy we'll give you that will help you achieve that, hey, you come in you want to be you want to conquer the market that you're in sure we can help you with that, they'll help you with that. It's just one about that, or like how we help you achieve what you want to get to a lot of the CO working spaces. So it goes around in tech startup. And that's actually right, like, startup like pretty sexy, because if you have a really good one, it's it's typically a homerun. Right. So everybody's chasing the the hot startup, right like, but we're trying to help the, the, you know, the workers that are the that essentially drive that our economy, the plumber, the, you know, the manufacturer, the e commerce that people that are doing simple things, that's where we were going, we're building that infrastructure, we're looking for strategic partners, we're in that journey in exploring what are the partners that we have to seek in order to achieve that, because we do, like we strongly believe that jobs are going to be created, we have seen more than, honestly, since we started trade space two years ago, more than 50 jobs created indirectly, we have seen companies grow and from one person to 40, people like moving out of the space growing amazing, you know, from having those conversations there and bouncing ideas and getting it to the next level, we want to create that infrastructure. And it does a very complicated task. Because we're not an incubator, we are not an accelerator, we are just a platform really like when people will come in and and grow. So that's what we're trying to go for sure.
Seth Anderson:Do you ever see a world that he said for mentioning, helping the every man or a plumber, and, you know, with real estate costs being what they are, it can be cost prohibitive for a lot of small companies to kind of get into a space at a reasonable cost? So do you see something developing in the future where maybe you have like a premium model that you know, a certain base of customers go after and then maybe more of a value model where you know, it's more affordable for those startups that just need space? And you know, maybe that there's like a value chain there where you can kind of get business literacy programs that you know, depending on, you know, what you're looking for?
Unknown:Yes, absolutely, yeah, we see that it's like tsumura, like to a restaurant like you can come in and say hey, I'm I came in for whatever you serve. And then I want data, one data, you can take it to where you want to take it, right. So we want to kind of tweak partners and different knowledge areas, partners and differently, many multiple things. For example, right now it's happening, we have partners internally that their specialty deliveries, specialty fulfillment, so we're iterating. And yes, absolutely, our goal would be like, today, you can start trading for e commerce for $55. If you want, or you can have your own space, you know, you can start at a 50 we want to have many different options. So the barrier to entry is pretty much like nothing, we're offering that platform and that's the key, we want to make sure that whoever wants to really be an entrepreneur and, and and do something, whatever they want to be there. If it's lifestyle, or they want to be you know, executive or get to the executive level, they can do it out of 60 companies, or maybe we have had like coming and going maybe 80. But right now we have 60 there all the time and out of maybe 100 I can't remember right now how many total have come through maybe two or three, we felt like they were not like aligned with other the other head, it's gonna be easy. Typically, the companies are coming in now truth be they are really, they're really, they're really validated their DNA entrepreneurs, and they grow. It just seemed it just amazing. It's just amazing how that happens. And that's what I love. I love the you know, the businesses that are not making headlines or anything, because that's what our economy is built on and those sort of businesses, we certainly will do everything that we can to make sure that anybody has a chance. If you are an entrepreneur, for example, today, we have this amazing story. We don't have a display for this company. He essentially he does car detail and he's not on a wheelchair. And he just working hard. He just has employees and he just doing it, he could be living off the government and he just going and doing it and making it happen. Like he has the DNA and he has he hasn't been privileged with with perhaps some mortal capacity, but he has been privileged with enterpreneur DNA he just making it like he's growing like crazy. And he's happy you You know, he, and that whole we want to be like, Hey, we will make sure that here you can grow if you if you come with your DNA essentially. And I don't think either you have to be special or anything, I
Seth Anderson:think it's a mindset, honestly, it's such a grind to be successful. And the old thing is, every overnight success, you know, there's 15 years that it took to become an overnight success. You know, that's a, that's an inspiring story. I'm pretty sure I've seen that on Instagram, you guys have reposted that a few times his detailing company, that's, that's so inspiring, because, you know, you see people able bodied, all the talent and skill in the world, you know, and don't fully capitalize on it, those stories are out there everywhere. And, you know, anytime you can kind of see someone who maybe hasn't had the best hand of cards dealt to them and make the best of it and have that entrepreneurial spirit and come in every day and, and have pride in their business that those are I love those stories. And I think that's a that's a large part of why we wanted to do this is to kind of get those stories now. He's
Unknown:like, super inspiring. When I, when I see that it's like, a there's no reason there's no excuse. on that. I guess we'll end off here today is just what are you working on? Personally, I
Seth Anderson:mean, it touched on the meditation, but you know, as a, you know, an entrepreneur, business owner, Father, the husband, you know, all those things, can you start putting all the hats on? Or all the titles, it gets a little overwhelming, but what do you do to kind of keep yourself fresh? Keep sharpening the sword keep keep getting better learning, you know, what are some of your go twos?
Unknown:Yeah, so I think one other thing for me is like things that are intense, like, if I'm working in tents, I like to also go and, you know, I like to go to the mountains to when I go fast, or, hey, just the workout. Hi, Darryl, interval intensity training more, I like to read, you know, I'm always I'm always seeking like knowledge. So that's something that I do a lot. I'm always trying to think of things and to understand, to improve so. So I think that I think those physical activities, one of the things that I really, really love to do is also spending time with family, you know, have a little one, though, one year old, and a four years old, I love spending time with her with my wife, we love to travel. That's something that I really, really do to to ground myself, like travel as well, exploring new cultures. And again, that connects again with feeling of needing to learn so much. So for me, an ideal way to relax is, is really like traveling around the world, like we did last time that we did, we were in Asia, we traveled for like about like a month, month and a half. We're in different countries learning different things. I feel like that gives me a lot of life. So that's what I do. For sure. I feel like that gives me perspective coming back and I get like, supercharged out of that. It's
Seth Anderson:very cool. I really appreciate you taking the time to come on today. I really enjoyed learning more about trade space and your journey and love to have you on again down the road here. Thanks for coming on. And we'll be in touch. Thanks a lot. Thank you guys. Okay, have a good one. And we'll stay in touch.
JP Gaston:Well, thanks to Daniel Delgado for a great conversation and make sure you check out tradespace on Instagram. We will also post it to our at The Biz Dojo podcast instance. So make sure you're signed up there and following us there and checking it out. I do think it was an interesting conversation that that Daniel is so far ahead of his time. You know, I think a lot of entrepreneurs are always thinking of the things that they could be doing. And like many he had some things that were ahead of his time. So I think that's a really great topic for this week's episode of
Voiceover:this is The Biz Dojo poco
Seth Anderson:I'm glad you got to use your sound effects JP, this brings me joy.
JP Gaston:Me too. So Seth, what are your What are your top three inventions or things? Or people that were that were ahead of their time?
Seth Anderson:Well, JP, I'm glad you asked. I have three very exciting things. I don't have any people in my list. So I've got a person all leave the people to you. But I'm going to start number three things that were ahead of their time with a drink. And the drink I'm going to start with was actually I didn't know this until doing a little bit of research on the Google is founded by Canadian company clearly Canadian. I'm sure many of you have heard of it and try their delicious carbonated water flavored beverages at some point or another. But they had a drink back when I was probably like 12 or 13 called orbits. You know, I'm looking at a picture of them right now. And they look as delightful as I remember them being i don't i don't even know like I can't actually remember drinking one. But I do remember them being like the coolest thing ever. And then just like being gone.
JP Gaston:Yeah, they were around when you were 12 and 30. And that was it. That was
Seth Anderson:that was their life. And now I'm looking at it. And I'm going like, it's basically bubble tea. Maybe they just missed the market. Yeah,
JP Gaston:they were probably 15 years too early,
Seth Anderson:they did a limited run in like 2013. Or they brought it back for a minute. But, you know, it didn't, didn't take off. So that that's my first one on my list of top three things.
JP Gaston:But by 2013 orbits was a discount flight company online, so probably had some branding issue.
Seth Anderson:To be honest, I thought it was called orbit until I googled it. Moving on to my number two item. I don't know how to totally say this. So I think I've got the word right. But it's actually a pair of hockey skates. So my dad had these skates. And he never played hockey really, in my life that I can remember, I think he played a little bit of beer league when I was like really little, but, you know, he never, you know, really played much, but he did have a bag of hockey equipment. And at some juncture, he had acquired these, what I used to refer to as space gates. And now and again, the Google machine has helped me find them. They were dos 601, pump hockey skates, and you can have your own pair for 6999 on Final clearance. At hockey world calm just in case you were wanting to get your own pair space gave final clearance.
JP Gaston:For for like the last 30 years they've been sitting the final clearance. We're trying to get rid of this last fare,
Seth Anderson:they they basic Well, they apparently the original price was 299. So I mean, that was that was a big price tag back in the 90s. And you can actually zoom in on these things and what they have on them on the back of it, it appears to be something of like an elbow pad or something that's been adhered to the back of the skate. And what that is, is it's actually like a pump device. So that once you tie your skates, you can pump them up and get that inflation around your ankle. I guess
JP Gaston:you're really selling them
Seth Anderson:for some reason that never took off. But they were, you know, at the time, I thought they were very cool looking. And now I'm looking at it going that is a monstrosity of an apparatus on there. And but you know, who knows, maybe that'll be a thing. Couple years down the line. I just feel like maybe they they were a little bit early to market.
JP Gaston:How many times did the Air Jordans come but you'd think they would have come back as Air Jordans were were popular, right?
Seth Anderson:Yeah. Well, yeah. Maybe it was a missed marketing opportunity. And we should get
JP Gaston:some cross promotion from 2002.
Seth Anderson:Exactly, exactly. These were definitely mid 90s, if not early 90s. In fact that featuring the original dose pump system, these skates have a white tuck plus holder, and steel, excellent support and are built for pro level support and comfort. So I mean, those really sell themselves.
JP Gaston:I just ordered do.
Seth Anderson:Oh, I just realized it's currently unavailable. They don't actually have any Yeah,
JP Gaston:it's because I just ordered the last.
Seth Anderson:Okay. Number one thing that was before its time, and I couldn't even find anything about this online. That's how before its time it was but prior to, you know, TSN and Sportsnet, having, you know, 24 seven coverage of everything related to hockey or whatever. There used to there was trades in like in a former time, and you would have to usually get like a newspaper, or you know, somehow hear about it live on TV or something to know when a transaction occurred. And what I used to do, because I was so into trend trades and free agent signings is there was actually a hotline in yellow pages, like the front of the phonebook, there was this like series of hotlines for various things. And one of them was a hockey transaction hotline. So I would call that number on my landline telephone like 40 times a day. And it would be like a robot reading the transaction. So it would be like Trevor Linden traded to New York Islanders for toddler twosie and Brian McKay. And I would just sit there, and I would listen to all the transactions, especially in and around those, you know, free agency days and whatnot. And the worst part about it was, every time you call you had to listen and write from this Start. So I would have to listen to the same transactions. Here if there was a new one,
JP Gaston:what's extra funny about this is on our last episode, your mother joined us for the podium and talked about how much you love lists. And not only did you love lists on paper, it sounds like you loved listening to lists over landline telephone hotlines.
Seth Anderson:So I don't know if I just made this up in my head, or if this is actually a thing that I'm pretty sure this is a thing that existed. And you know, before James Duffy and the panel could live, tweet or give me my information in the immediate fashion that exists today. There was a phone and a hotline that I used to get that information as a teenager, I guess you would say so that is, that is my top three. Thank you for thank you for asking JP, what are your top three inventors inventions or products that were before their time?
JP Gaston:Yeah, I'm going to start at one that should probably pick number one, given the times we live in. But I find that the other two are, are more interesting. And frankly, I want to end on the one I think is hilarious. So the electric car, the first electric car was actually invented before the 1900s. And yet here, we are still talking about how we can even get them to, you know, be a viable part of the market and much of the world. Given that, you know, in I think it was like 1890 or 8091, the first one came out, given that, you know, we're 130 years later, we're still we're still trying to make them a part of our everyday life. I feel like they might have been a little bit before their time. That
Seth Anderson:is pretty crazy that how long 100 plus years? Yeah, like 130. I mean, if you're if you if you got futures back then stock and then it's an interesting one, I think, I don't know, I did see a video about this a couple years ago or a year ago that you know, there was this guy, it was like a TED talk. And he was claiming, you know, stop, don't buy another gas vehicle. Because you know, within five years, everything will be electric
JP Gaston:that TED talk was from 2011. It was, I don't know.
Seth Anderson:All I know, is there's still an awful lot of gas and diesel powered motors on the road. And I don't see the infrastructure popping up that would support such a revolution in the immediate term, but they've
JP Gaston:had 130 years.
Seth Anderson:All right, what's what's number two?
JP Gaston:number two on my list? I'm not sure if you had one of these. I used to go to the local video store. Not blockbuster. This was pre blockbuster. And I used to rent these. The Sega Dreamcast. I don't know if you remember that?
Seth Anderson:I do. I do. I remember. Actually one of our future. Our next week's guest, Nate Harper from strange giant pictures. He had a Sega Dreamcast, when again, we were I don't know. 12 1314. somewhere in that range. And I remember playing a lot of crazy taxi. Yes.
JP Gaston:Crazy Taxi, for sure. And I think there were a couple of really good fighting games on it, too. But they also had the web browser, the first game system that actually had a web browser. Yeah. Keep in mind that at the time, the web was there, you know, it wasn't filled with graphics and videos and all sorts of streaming and social networks. It was you go into a University's web page to to check your online email or you checked out hotmail like it was it's a very different space than it is today. But yeah, they were ahead of their time to Pete booch. That's that's what the internet sounded like back in the day.
Seth Anderson:What's the thing with the downloading and everybody got sued that was Napster, Napster, that would have been a thing around then
JP Gaston:yeah, for sure that Napster before it tried to become a legitimate business.
Seth Anderson:I mean, you talk about things that were ahead of their time Napster. I mean, look at Spotify and iTunes now multi billion dollar
JP Gaston:fine iTunes or, you know, legitimately
Seth Anderson:No, I know, but the premise of it,
JP Gaston:they're legitimately ripping off musicians.
Seth Anderson:I mean, the industry changed and now they you know, Napster was sort of the disrupter yeah that led to you know the legit the way the business runs now,
JP Gaston:I mean, back when you used to wait, you know, two to three days per song, let alone trying to download a full album.
Seth Anderson:Well, and what was that guy's name that ran Napster? I can't remember Sean something or other Yeah, I forget. And like he was he was like a villain. Right like, like a straight up pirate like If that guy from like the entire music industry, but if he would have been like some CEO and a big suit that thought of it and, you know, sort of commoditized and packaged it up the way that iTunes did, then he'd be like, a god, like a business God. So it's interesting, like, which side of the ledger you end up on, depending on, you know, sort of if you're sort of, at the beginning of it, or after that first person through the wall.
JP Gaston:Yeah, no, for sure. I also think it's interesting. We went from Dreamcast to Napster. And we're gonna have, we're gonna have seven on the podium. I'll go to my, my, my top one, and this is actually a person so that, you know, at the time, the, the item had been invented, it just hadn't been used, where it where it was being used. So Jonas hanway was a man who lived in London, and hated rain, with a passion. I mean, if you like live in in Vancouver, and hate and rain, like that's maybe one of the worst places in the world to live if you can't stand it. So he actually traveled around a bunch ended up in France for a while where they were using umbrellas on a regular basis, came back to London, and was the really the first person in London to use an umbrella. And he used to get booed, and garbage thrown at him and constantly having to dodge stagecoaches running him over because he was using an umbrella. Now, I don't think you can, you know, walk down the street in London without seeing everybody having an umbrella at their side for the sudden rains that they often get, but for his time, he was he was speaking of villains he was, he was a villain in London, because he was trying to keep himself dry, which is just crazy.
Seth Anderson:It is amazing. And it just got a wonder like, what were the people who were booing and throwing their hot garbage?
JP Gaston:Like, I can't imagine just standing there soaking wet.
Seth Anderson:And just boom, there you How dare you, you know, stay dry.
JP Gaston:Yeah, what's funny is there's like, there's books about it. There's even like kids books about it about you know, doing your own thing and not listening to others that I like, I think it teaches it teaches us an important lesson and teaches us just how ridiculous people can be.
Seth Anderson:You know, it's funny of all the things I've ever done. I've never been like actively booed on the street or thrown have have had garbage thrown at me. But maybe I need to push the boundaries to get out of my comfort zone a little.
JP Gaston:Hey, wait, wait, just wait to this show gets more popular. I'm sure that we'll have our haters out there.
Seth Anderson:There was a there was a tweet a few years back when the Blue Jays were doing really well. Jose Bautista and it said if you ain't got no haters, you ain't poppin so
JP Gaston:I get on. You're just not popping yet.
Seth Anderson:Where's the written word? Oh, we wouldn't ya know yet. We're on our way up. We're on the way up. All right. That was That was fun. Looking forward to next week. I think our podium next week is top three places we've eaten on our travels or crazy things that we've eaten. So that's gonna be a fun one with
JP Gaston:me. Yeah, he's, he's been all over the planet. So we're, we're bound to get some some really good ones in there.
Seth Anderson:Awesome. Well, thanks, everyone for listening. I look forward to catching up with you next week.
Voiceover:Thanks Daniel Delgado for joining us today. Next week, as we speak with Nick Harper pictures you been listening to The Biz Dojo