Q&A with Canadian entrepreneur Michael Serbinis
Michael Serbinis was a guest of the master of engineering innovation and entrepreneurship program at Ryerson.
Michael Serbinis, a Canadian serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist who has led tech companies such as Kobo and worked alongside Elon Musk, has learned more than a few things about how to succeed.
Now at the helm of League (external link) , a data-driven platform designed to provide an operating system for employees to engage with their health, lifestyle and benefit programs, he recently visited Ryerson and took some time to talk failure, passion and the next big thing in tech.
Serbinis’ visit to Ryerson was part of a month-long entrepreneurship series hosted by the master of engineering innovation and entrepreneurship (MEIE) program. Following his keynote, MEIE student Aly Burtch and program alum Wesley Kosiba facilitated a Q&A with him. Here’s an excerpt of the discussion:
Q: The MEIE students in the room are going through the process of identifying value. How do you go about identifying value, and how do you determine what to pursue?
A: I got this advice a long time ago, which was, don’t worry about the money - the money will come. Go find something that you will be really passionate about. Then, when the going gets tough, you’ll stick to it, because you are simply passionate about the mission and you know what that mission can do to make people’s lives better. Focus on that, and not the economics. The economics are going to change and you will think of new business models.
Q: Have you ever had a great idea that you thought would be amazing, having learned later that it wasn’t so great?
A: There’s failure every day. Think zero to hero. I’ve spent a lot of time in zero state, and in every one of these companies, I’ve absolutely hit a point where I’ve just wanted to quit. Most startup classes will talk about the “pivot” as this magical point in time when everything changed, and everything started working for the better — I don’t think about it that way. I am constantly looking for how am I making it better today or tomorrow.
Wesley Kosiba (left) and Aly Burtch led the Q&A with Serbinis.
Q: Since you are so immersed in the tech space here and in San Francisco, I want to take this opportunity to ask you, in your opinion, what is the next thing to watch? What is going to be big?
A: Something that really struck me last year was the number of space companies. Who knows what a rockoon is? Rocket-balloon, or basically a rocket that can be launched from a balloon versus a horizontal or slightly horizontal platform like your typical rocket launcher. There are tons of Rock-oon companies in Canada and in the U.S. now.
And all kinds of other satellite companies like micro or nano sat companies, such as Kepler.
Another category is longevity. I was at the Cleveland Clinic with their foremost expert in longevity, and he talked about the fact that from the early 1900s, we’ve been adding a month of longevity every year to the average life expectancy. Do the math – we’ve added a lot of longevity, so people that were born around 1900 had a very different and a much shorter lifespan than everyone today. Cleaner water, vaccination, access to medical, that’s less of a factor. Why is it accelerating? All sorts of technology.
Q: Could you provide one key takeaway from each of your ventures?
A: With Docspace, it was more about believing in yourself. I don’t know if you can teach that — I think it’s helpful if you have mentors or examples that you can look at.
The Kobo business – that was a very David vs Goliath story. It was an impossible battle, getting- kicked-out-of-the-first-meeting, venture-capital type story. Finding the way, there is always a way. We figured out what Goliath was not so strong at, and we leveraged that, and we found the enemy of our enemies in every country.
League, we aren’t done yet. Healthcare is 4 trillion dollars across the U.S., about 4 and change including Canada. Super giant and complex. What happens is that you have a bunch of successes, everyone thinks that obviously the next one is going to be as well. It’s easy to get complacent and easy to not do the academic exercise, and not say wait a minute, if I were investing in this company, what would I do differently? Don’t be complacent.