Superangel.ca

For those of you who don’t know her, SPB, also known as Steph Paris Berks, has been throwing some of Montreal’s most popular student parties for a number of years. Concurrently, and along with partner Seth, she has built one of the leading student event promotion companies in the city, and has used her own academic path as the vehicle for creating an extremely far reaching customer base. Moreover, she has removed the separation that typically exists between a company and its managers, as she herself has become an extension of her business and the Fresh Productions brand. She has also parlayed her own unique identity into a quasi trademark that thousands of students, and her loyal Facebook / Twitter disciples, look to in order to get on the proverbial guest list at ‘tonight’s hot party’. She is a good example of the potential in student-backed businesses.

Here are a few words from SPB about Fresh Productions: “FRESH has been one of the largest student event planning, production & promotion companies in Montreal for the past ten years. We are the only university events company that also caters to local Montrealers, and for the past 3 years Seth Buchman and I have been hosting some of the biggest weekly events in the Montreal downtown area. Keeping our reputation strong with the promise to always deliver a banging party, we two best friends and business partners seem to run along yelling, T.G.I.F. (Thank God Its FRESH). Make sure to catch us weekly at Tokyo Thursdays or at our larger events, most recently the Kid Cudi concert at Time Supperclub. We work with the likes of Steve Aoki, DJ Klever, Barletta, Team Canada, Cobra Krames, Dj AM, LazRtag (LA), and Caroline D’Amore (LA Supermodel). Learn more and check us out at: Fresh Productions“. Make her your friend here.

Jordan’s Article in This Week’s Ottawa Business Journal

Click HERE or Logo for Article

Dan Shiff, a McGill B.Comm (1996) Graduate who worked most of his life on Wall Street at major firms including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley was unfortunately laid off during the recent financial crisis. Dan did what many newly terminated Wall Streeters did, he took a little time off and then hit the streets to find a job. Little did Dan know that his next job would be in a very different field with an ironic similarity.

“Dan started with YEP! Interactive in January of 2009, and is currently a Partner and Chief Capital Markets and Biz Dev Guy. What the heck does that mean? Well, to start, check out yepinteractive & yeprevenue. But from Dan’s perspective, YEP! has three businesses: 1) an affiliate network, 2) a social currency platform, and 3) a media platform. How did Dan become a Partner in 9 months? A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF DEDICATION, HARD WORK, and a little OCD, and MOST IMPORTANTLY….. his conviction and ability to call upon relationships that go back to when he started not only McGill, but every business card he has ever picked up. “I live by a few mottos. The first one is ‘Clients first, company second, and me third. The second is: ALWAYS (no matter what) UNDERPROMISE and OVERDELIVER. Finally, always keep up with your rolodex and NEVER be afraid to pick up the phone. If you are, take a step back and ask why.”

The affiliate network, YEP! Revenue, is just like a stock/bond trading floor, but instead of securities it trades “offers”, like beauty, diet, dating, financial, business opportunities, and mobile. Essentially all the display that advertisers need on the internet to secure real estate on the internet. That is where YEP! Revenue comes in. YEP! Revenue acts as a BROKER by putting advertisers together on a cost per action basis and earning a commission in the interim. YEP! Social is all things Twitter, Facebook, Video Games, and Virtual Worlds. If a user has the ability to use a credit card and spend money to “do premium things” in a virtual concept, YEP! Social can monetize that traffic. Finally, there has been some strong buzz about YEP! Media, and Wall Street is already talking, look out for big things to come.”

And Dan? He is nuts. He lives in Venice Beach, CA with his Bulldog Dr. Freud. Hit him up on Facebook or LinkedIn. I know he would love to hear from you. Oy ya, Dan is a hobby POV movie director/producer/editor (who knows where he gets the time!). Check out his latest film here about his most recent trip to Wall Street. Click here for his other film.

A few months ago I began hearing about WallStCheatSheet, currently the fastest growing financial media site on the web. Interested in learning more about their venture, I recently caught up with their CEO, Derek Hoffman, and asked why they launched their site and what has been the key to their success. Below is his response.

“We started our business after achieving an excellent track record (63% return versus a -48% return for the S&P) picking stocks on a blog through the bull market as well as the collapse. We watched good friends and family lose hard earned money while the financial media said, “Hang in there. Everything will be fine.” Well, it wasn’t.

We’ve stepped into a market where investors now demand responsible and objective reporting. Luckily for us, it has been like offering someone gas for $1 a few days after paying $4. Beyond that, they experience elation after reading our Premium Newsletter and finding both an entry AND exit strategy to help them properly take profits while cutting losses — something you won’t find on CNBC. We have assembled a veteran Board of Directors including Larry Kramer, the co-founder and former CEO of MarketWatch and Tracy Sigler, a former VP at Motley Fool. With their help, we are quickly staking our claim as the new media guys in finance rather than an enhanced version of the old [paragidm].”

My good friend, Kyle Brack, recently left his post at E&Y in Toronto to move to Boston where he is currently an MBA student at Harvard Business School. Although I speak to him quite regularly, I asked him to send me an article every few weeks on his experiences there, and below is his first submission titled “Getting my Bearings” – a SuperAngel Exclusive. Having completed my own MBA only 12 weeks ago, I really wanted to get a sense of what is the ‘Harvard difference’.

Part 1: “Getting my bearings” – I arrived at Harvard Business School (HBS) as a Canadian student a little unsure of what to expect, not to mention having never lived in the US before. The first week, before classes even started, was very busy as I was getting settled in my new apartment, learning my way around campus, and organizing the 200 or so cases that I would be studying throughout the first semester. Then of course came the numerous student organized social events, including a 500 person boat cruise and themed costume parties (who knew?). The night before the first day of classes, we got an email announcing our section placements. The section experience is one of the most important aspects at HBS, as we are divided into 10 sections of 90 students with whom we spend every day with for our entire first year. In my section (Section C!), we have 28 countries represented with some of the most talented and diverse individuals I have ever met. The section bonding continues outside the classroom and extends into nightly section social events, retreats, dinners and trips. With section mates, I have already traveled to Las Vegas, Colombia, and have plans for upcoming trips to India and Brazil.

For the 5 courses that we take during the first semester, my professors range from ex-CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to ex-Mossad agents (very cool). In addition, we have been fortunate enough to have weekly teleconferences with current international CEOs, and often find top executives actually sitting in on our classes and taking questions as we discuss case studies that they were involved with and which include the likes of Black and Decker, Zappos.com, Eden McCallum and Sun Microsystems.There are student clubs that cater to almost every professional and personal interest, of which I am a member of 6, and each one organizes speakers, conferences, social events and trips. It is truly an unforgettable and transformational experience with so many opportunities, the biggest problem I have it trying to fit them all in. Study, Social or Sleep…good thing I don’t need much sleep.

Part 2 to come: How HBS inspires the entrepreneurial spirit.