12 Key Takeaways From 500 Global

500 Global Canada Batch 2 is over. I’m heading home, and while on this long flight, I decided to write a few words with my reflections about those three months (that felt like a year).

My journey with 500 Global started way before July 2022, when my company, The Hair Routine, was invited to join the Canadian chapter of the program. Ever since I started this venture, I have believed 500 was the big accelerator I wanted to be part of, as many companies and founders I admire and look up to were part of it before. Envisioning my career and the path I wanted to follow, I knew I wanted to be there.

I felt an instant connection during the Zoom interview with the program manager. I mean, I was pitching a haircare company to a bald guy that did not relate to the problem. It was a great icebreaker; we just laughed about it! It was one of the most relaxed and comfortable pitches of my life.

On the first of August, we left Montreal, heading to Calgary. On the way to the airport, I suddenly felt the need to cry. Not a sad cry. Some tiers needed to roll out my eyes quietly, and I could not even understand why. I thought it was just happiness. Now, looking back, I know it was “goodbye” tears. I was saying farewell to the person I was and getting ready to change, grow and welcome a new version of myself.

A few moments in life shape us to the core so fast. For me, the program was one of those moments.

Demo day stage ready for the pitches.

Here are 12 takeaways from those three months that I’m taking with the future/now me:

1. Be with like-minded people. We all love our lifetime friends, but sometimes life puts us on different paths. We get different jobs, and as entrepreneurs, we might feel like “outsiders” with the 9 to 5 crew. Making friends and spending your time with entrepreneurial-minded people can be very comforting;

2. A diverse community is a rich community! Different backgrounds, languages, ethnicities, and neurodiversity make us discover an entirely new world by just learning from hanging with our peers. With a trained eye, it’s not hard to see that entrepreneurs are a “bunch of weirdos,” and that’s absolutely awesome;

3. Be in touch with your customer. Don’t be shy; jump on calls with your customer. Get to know how they are and the commonality between them. Understand why they love your product and why they keep coming back. That’s the only way to know your audience and be able to add more value to them;

4. Jobs To Be Done! Get to know your customer and the people around you so that you know how to help them and communicate with them the benefit you provide them. People, in general, are not invested in our methods and features, which probably, are not appealing to anyone other than you. Make sure to express what is the functional benefit, the social benefit and the emotional benefit you provide;

5. One-line pitch. Know how to introduce your company with a memorable phrase, 5 to 7 words, and that’s it! The goal is to say the one benefit your company provides and generate curiosity;

6. VCs are not ATMs. A lot of them are entrepreneurs too. Read more about it in this article;

7. Shake the trees! Your local entrepreneurial community is not static and set in stone; it’s fluid and always in motion. There are always new people to meet, whether they are other entrepreneurs, investors or even customers. When you feel that there’s no one new to meet or things to do, just SHAKE THE TREES;

8. The only metric that matters or OMTM. Make sure to have one important metric that you know moves the needle forward for your company, and be obsessed about improving it. Make sure it’s a reasonable goal, not too high that you never get to celebrate it and not too low that it becomes too easy. Check it daily, if possible more than once a day, and discuss it with your team;

9. Weekly experiments. Have an idea of what might impact your OMTM, implement it in a minimal way for a week, know how to measure it and check the results. If it works, you maintain and scale it; if not, trash it and move to the next;

10. Keep an eye on your KPIs. This one is related to the one before, but it deserves its own takeaway. Build a KPIs dashboard with your OMTM, secondary metrics, and experiments and update your numbers weekly. Observe the connection between your actions and your results;

11. Being in nature is energizing! Surprisingly long trails and hikes do not make us more tired; they can be an excellent way to rest our minds and prepare us for long work days! I learned that with the short one-day trips to the totally-worth-to-visit Banff National Park;

12. You don’t have to suffer during your entrepreneurial journey. Even during the lows and hard times, there’s space and time to have fun, laugh and make friends! Cheering and celebrating are as essential as the work you put in.

I humbly dedicate this article to my fellow founders-friends that shared those three months of learning and growth and to the resident mentors Tash and Shaheel, for all the lessons, to the Canadian program team, Simon and Rosa, for taking care of us, to all the visiting mentors that joined us and to the Alberta Innovates team that made it all possible. Thank you so much!