‘Screw it, just do it’: Branson
British billionaire Sir Richard Branson says innovative ideas from up-and-coming entrepreneurs are the key to lifting Calgary out of its economic downturn.
“You haven’t done too badly, actually, when I look at the figures for Calgary,” Branson said recently during an appearance at Chinook Centre.
“I think one of the reasons you haven’t done too badly is the amount of entrepreneurship that is taking place in Calgary. The new jobs were all created from entrepreneurs and from new companies and, sadly, the big companies generally end up losing jobs. The more you can encourage people to be entrepreneurial the better.”
The Virgin Group founder was in Calgary to announce the winner of Virgin Mobile Canada’s Pitch to Rich Contest, which encouraged Canadians to pitch a mobile-related business idea for a chance to win $10,000 toward their idea. The winners also received a mentorship meeting with Branson.
“Entrepreneurs getting in there and competing with big companies make big companies better, and entrepreneurs are just wonderful in that they’re coming up with ideas to fill gaps in the market, improve people’s lives, because that’s the only way that entrepreneurs are going to survive, all the time,” he said.
Contest submissions were evaluated based on the criteria of the business idea being easy to understand, answering a consumer need, being viable and making people’s lives better.
The winning entry was Swob, a mobile app co-founded by brother and sister Alexander Florio and Stephanie Florio of Toronto, which matches students and potential employers in the retail and food services industries through a Tinder-like swiping system.
Branson said his advice to young entrepreneurs like the Florio siblings is to learn through experience.
“My phrase is ‘screw it, just do it,’ and just get out there and learn the hard way,” he said.
He said there’s a need not just in Calgary but Canada as a whole for young innovators to take the reins of the economy by selling their ideas.
“I think Canada’s getting better,” Branson said. “Canada was and still is dominated by a lot of very big companies, but big companies get fat and flabby and therefore that leads to good opportunity for entrepreneurs to come and stick their finger in their stomach and shake them up a bit.”