Driven by the idea of having an adventure and the unknown possibilities and exciting opportunities surrounding entrepreneurship, Eva and Jane turned their passion for giving advice, finding resources, and making introductions into a thriving business.
Introducing Launch Pop
Launch Pop is an eCommerce & start-up launch lab where founders and companies have the opportunity to kickstart their own businesses in as little as a month. Eva and Jane’s team brings over 10 years of experience in design, brand management and growth to the table and so far they have helped 25 businesses to bring their passions to life.
We spoke to Eva and Jane about their journey as female entrepreneurs to find out more about their lessons and personal experiences so far.
What did you eat for breakfast?
Eva: Boiled eggs
Jane: Coffee
What’s your workout?
Eva: A run in the morning on the Santa Monica boardwalk
Jane: I like to go to the gym and do HIT workouts after a quick jog. I also enjoy cycling.
What picture is on your phone’s home screen?
Eva: Palm trees from Punta Cana
Jane: It’s black. My phone is black so I decided to go for a clean sleek look.
Tell us about your work. What inspired you to start your business? Where did you start and where are you now?
Eva & Jane: We always enjoyed grabbing coffee with friends and even strangers to hear their story and their entrepreneurial ideas. Giving advice and even finding resources and making introductions was always something I love to make time for. So it was natural for us to partner, start Launch Pop and spend our days helping founders launch their companies.
What do you see for your future?
Eva & Jane: We’re still at a stage in our company where new things/ideas are happening every day! We’ve built a playbook to launch companies but we always experiment and apply new learnings everytime. We see ourselves building products that will help entrepreneurs launch and validate ideas faster. No matter what new products or services we introduce, our mission will remain the same: Helping entrepreneurs build businesses.
How large is your business? How many employees do you have?
Eva & Jane: We have 3-5 team members and 2 strategic partners . The team is small but mighty! We definitely want to keep it small and high quality.
Tell us a success story about funding your business.
Eva & Jane: Our business is fully self funded. So far we have accelerated 25 businesses in 8 months and have made over $500,000 in revenue.
What do you see as challenges for you and your business? What are some opportunities?
Eva & Jane: Because we are a small team, we are very picky about who we work with. With that the challenge is managing the demand right now and getting really good at qualifying companies and founders. As a result, we have the opportunity to build really good quality partnerships to support these founders, such as VCs.
Tell us a story about a success in your business or a mistake you overcame?
Eva & Jane: To our luck (or curse), we had a lot of traction on day 1 of Launch Pop and there was such a thrill to help entrepreneurs. We took on everyone and anyone. There was one month where we launched over 5 companies. Imagine just launching one and the emotions that came with it? Now multiply that by 5. We both had a breakdown at least once a week because our entire team was very stretched.
What do you love about being an entrepreneur?
Eva: There’s a fictional story out there about being an entrepreneur. You don’t become an entrepreneur to escape the 9-5 routine. You don’t become an entrepreneur because you can be the boss of your own company to call yourself a founder or CEO. These make entrepreneurship sound glorious when it’s not true at all. You choose to become an entrepreneur because you thrive in the unknown. You’re resourceful because problem solving gives you a high. You stay in it because you cry, you get mad, you get scared, you also are extremely thrilled at rare times. These are the emotions you get when you are an entrepreneur, and you will never get this at a 9-5 job. That is why I love being an entrepreneur because I crave to live and breath this way.
Jane: I love the adventure. Being an entrepreneur is not easy and most of the time it’s super stressful and a rollercoaster ride. Although that’s the case, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. I enjoy the surprise challenges that come my way and thinking creatively to problem solve. You definitely have to love the process vs. chase after the end dream. The highs are VERY HIGH and the lows are REALLY LOW. I think you have to be a little crazy to try and be an entrepreneur and enjoy the ride. I guess you can call us a little crazy 🙂
Meeting other entrepreneurs is also something that I love. Not a lot of people can relate to entrepreneurs. It’s lonely and hard but when you meet other entrepreneurs that understand the struggle, there’s a strong bond that forms.
Being an entrepreneur means that you are in control of writing your life story fully on your own. It means that every decision you make in life affects your career. It’s a lot of pressure but it excites me that I am writing an adventurous story.
What about your business matters most deeply to you? How does it engage your values?
Eva: Launch Pop is so much more than just helping founders launch their brand or company. We literally embed ourselves with them as if we are co-founders. It’s funny because we always create internal emails with each company and when we help do outreach, we always sign off as the co-founders — even though we’re not. Our mentality and our drive is like a co-founder for their company. We face challenges together emotionally and
Jane: Helping other entrepreneurs achieve their goals/dreams is very important to me. Starting a company by yourself is very scary and lonely. I’ve been there personally myself and if Launch Pop existed when I started my first company, I would have definitely applied. Knowing how hard launching a company is from a business and emotional perspective, it’s important for our team to embed ourselves with our startups like we are apart of their team. The best day is always launch day when we get to see the founders see all their hard work come to life.
What would you say is your “entrepreneurial superpower?”
Eva: Because I’m not a specialist at anything, I am a generalist that just make shit happen. I come from a design background, but I can walk into a room and sell as well.
Jane: Being able to move quickly, problem solve and get anyone excited.
Who is the entrepreneur you admire most right now? Why does s/he inspire you?
Eva: My mom and dad came to Canada in the 1980s. At some point my dad had only $2 in his bank when I was just a little baby. We shared a mattress in a basement on Spadina. He took that $2 and turned it into a job at a bar, waitressing, taking English classes at George Brown College and then eventually starting his own construction company. Although I’m Canadian and spoke perfect English growing up, I wore hand me down clothing until grade 7 and first thing people would ask me is, “how long have you been in Canada?” I never got to join fun camps growing up. Instead, I spent my evenings helping my dad write invoices, draw floor plans and call phone companies about our phone bill. Looking back, that was his way to train me to become who I am today. And today, he owns 5 properties in Canada and has built a superhost profile on Airbnb. I admire his bold decisions, spontaneous lifestyle and generosity.
Jane: My dad. He inspires me because he worked so hard in a country that he wasn’t familiar with and problem solved his way through life. He is constantly looking for new opportunities and is a huge optimist.
What’s the best and the worst thing about being an entrepreneur, as a woman?
Eva: As a woman who doesn’t even like she’s of age to drink, it’s the best and worst. I love when I can surprise people and enlighten them over time…it’s like peeling the layers of an onion. Except this time, it doesn’t make you cry.
Jane: The best thing about being a woman entrepreneur is meeting other women entrepreneurs. There is a special bond between two female entrepreneurs and we love how we always want to support each other. We have gotten to work with many female founders and generally speaking, we find female founders to be much more organized, focused and able to juggle many different things at once. They also are much more open to being challenged, trying new things and collaboration.
As two female co-founders sometimes we are put into situations where we have to deal with inappropriate comments and actions. We are still learning how to deal with these types of situations. When we started Launch Pop, we were not as confident in our selfworth and were not able to negotiate with our clients. We’ve gotten to a place where we don’t budge from our expectations. This took some time for us and I think this is something we see commonly amongst women founders.
Do you think male entrepreneurs are “different” from female entrepreneurs, and if so, how? If not, why not?
Eva & Jane: After launching 25 different companies with 25 different founders, there is really only one big difference that we see between male and female founders.
Male entrepreneurs are willing to take more risks. They are willing to take bigger bets and put more on the line than women. Males are naturally more confident in their ability to succeed than women. Confidence that things will work out is the type of resilience that any entrepreneur needs in order to succeed.
We hope to help more women at Launch Pop in the future and instill more confidence in them.
What the best advice you ever got, and from whom?
Eva: I once caught up with a friend in Toronto because one of our mutual friend passed away. He’s a co-founder of his own company at 26 years old and his last message to his partner was “we made it, we did it.” We talked about the future and about the money we make today. Many want to work hard today so they can have a better future. But the reality is, we are not entitled to our future and the money you are saving won’t “realize” until you spend it. I’m not saying to splurge all your money today. The best advice I got from my friends is to live your life. Because all we have are our moments today. When you focus on today, you’ll make bolder decisions and live fuller.
Jane: The best advice I ever got was from my father. He taught me to never give up and that there is always a way to find a solution. He taught me the notion of resourcefulness and tenacity.
Find out more about Launch Pop here.
