SHAHRZAD RAFATI

Founder and CEO, BroadbandTV Corp.

BroadbandTV is the second-biggest video property in the world, generating tens of billions of page views from 578 million unique viewers each month by empowering a whole generation of story tellers who are also transforming the way content is produced and consumed. All told, the Vancouver-based company has a global audience watching more than 49 billion minutes of content on its platform per month, with a local presence in 28 countries and 10 languages.“Ultimately, we are the peacemakers between the fans and content owners,” says Shahrzad Rafati, who founded the company in 2005. The company is also not that far off the dream of world domination that Rafati came up with while at university, shortly after immigrating to Canada from Iran in the mid-’90s as a precocious, but apparently selfreliant 17-year-old with one suitcase, a lack of computer skills and minimal English. Since then, she’s picked up a host of awards too numerous to list and become a well-known champion for equality and diversity. Her company, she says, has a 0% pay differential between male and female employees and 46% of its managers are female, slightly outpacing the 43% of female employees overall. She chalks up her success to the classic entrepreneur traits of risk-taking and perseverance, but it’s also in her blood as both her parents were entrepreneurs, her mom in textiles and her dad in real estate. Here’s her story and some advice.

My parents were both inspirational people and I admire both of them massively. Growing up, I always knew that I wanted to create a truly global business and that I could truly make a positive global impact.

I grew up in Tehran, Iran, at a time when content was rationed and I only had access to a handful of channels. Funnily enough, they actually played Gandhi every Friday, which really taught me to be the change that you actually want to see in the world. I was really young, but I had already seen enough of the world to know that I could make a difference.

Content has played a great role in my life. It helped me learn the language, it exposed me to new cultures and suddenly there was so much more of it. Being a minority, being a woman, and not speaking the language at first,

especially when you’re in your early 20s, definitely doesn’t help you build confidence, and it really doesn’t help especially with financing. But, look, I’m a big fan of going after big pools of opportunity. It takes the same amount of time to solve a big problem as it does to solve a small problem.

As a younger woman, I had to work on myself, I had to work on building my confidence.

I like the idea of disrupting industries in a positive way. That’s ultimately what we do at BBTV.

When I started BBTV in 2005, it was around the time when you could look at companies like Apple and devices like the iPod that were fundamentally changing the music industry and even though the distribution and monetization of the music industry were not clearly defined, the

shift in consumption trends was a clear indication of where content was heading. Audio was the start of the evolution in this space, and it was clear to me that video would be next.

I’m a big fan of content anytime, anywhere, with no boundaries, whether that’s geographic boundaries, language boundaries or format.

When I look back at the key challenges for the first five years of the business, the space was not defined and was changing very rapidly. As an entrepreneur, you have to follow your vision and remain clear on what you are ultimately trying to achieve, and not get distracted by all the changes in the space, especially when you’re working in an industry that is truly in its infancy.

When you do things for the first time, you need to be open to failures. But you also need to fail fast and learn from your mistakes quickly. One of the mantras at BBTV is quick failures.

Change is good because it makes you stay close to the industry, listening to the customers and understanding the trends and making sure your products and services are relevant.

You won’t succeed if you don’t have passion for what you do. Vision, of course, you need to think about your long-term vision and not lose it. The best entrepreneurs avoid the shiny object syndrome and they don’t get distracted by short-term gains.

Hard work is an absolute given. We sometimes talk to people and they say, ‘Wow, BBTV is so massive,’ but it’s been 14 years. It’s been a long time. We always talk about perseverance. There will be bumps, there will be road blocks, so there are times when you have to push hard.

I’ve received a lot of advice over the years and you have to be selective about the advice you take on board. One piece of advice that stands out to me, which I also think about personally and professionally, is to always do the right thing and you will never regret it.

If your only goal is to make money, I don’t think you’ll ever succeed. And if you do succeed, you’re not going to be satisfied.

Follow your passion and make sure you can be the best at what you do. I’m as passionate about this business as I was 14 years ago. I work as hard as I did 14 years ago. I love this industry, I love what I do, I love my team and I love that we have shared values and that we’re solving a really interesting problem.

I really believe business is the greatest platform for change. Mark Rennie from Salesforce and Charles Schwab from the World Economic Forum say this all the time.

If you treat people right, they’ll treat your customers right, and that will help you build great solutions, and that will help your market leadership and that will ultimately help your shareholders. I believe what the Whole Foods CEO said: The clock goes one way, not the other way.

Over half of the women in the world don’t have their own income. That’s a quarter of the world’s working population. They can help us build stronger economies and build stronger opportunities overall. Closing the gap could add another $20 trillion to global GDP, which is an increase of 26% if women play an equal role to me in the labour market.

We need to eradicate this idea that it’s all up to women to increase their participation in the economy. Men should take ownership and participate as they are in the majority of decision-making roles. It’s the responsibility of all leaders to set the tone when it comes to gender equality.

An entrepreneur needs to have an appetite for risk. If you do have that appetite for risk and you have found your passion and you’re willing to work hard, then you can be an entrepreneur. But a lot of times people aren’t willing to take that big of a risk.

For the first five years, you’re not going to get paid. Forget it, you’re not going to pay yourself. Money should not be a factor. This is why you see a lot of entrepreneurs in their mid-20s, because when you’re in your 40s it’s a bit harder than when you’re in your 20s. You have to feed your family. I lived on yogurt.

Sometimes people need a little bit of a push, especially women, you question yourself too much. It’s just a little bit of a push and a nudge so they can just jump in.

All leaders have good intentions, but it’s time for us to start setting goals, setting KPIs, to make Canada No. 1 in terms of equality.

I care a lot about equality. At BBTV, equal is equal. As an organization, you don’t just measure success by your financial performance, but you’re also looking at your employee, social and environmental KPIs (key performance indicators).

Practising equality is not just the right thing to do from a moral standpoint, it also helps your organization. Whether you want to be a market leader, or you care about your revenue, profitability line or impact on innovation, you can achieve all of that by practising those values.

My personal mantra is you become what you believe. It came true for me and I think it can come true for anyone.