A thought-leader with an unquenchable thirst for learning

It takes passion and drive to build a company from an idea to a successful business. Fay Arjomandi is a thought-leader and a visionary, who has a particular desire to constantly seek out knowledge, a vital characteristic for any entrepreneur.

Fay has an electrical engineering degree from Concordia University and is the co-founder of three technology startups. Her experience, successes and challenges, not to mention her disruptive thoughts on innovation, gave precious advice to budding entrepreneurs.

Today, Fay Arjomandi is what we could call a “serial entrepreneur”. As a specialist in wireless communications, software applications and protocol development, she has authored 12 patents, made her name in Silicon Valley, and co-founded three startups that built location-based services, quality of service, and multimedia content distribution platforms used by mobile operators globally.

Her voracious curiosity led her to make choices that reflected her tendency to grow on all fronts and her passion for learning: working on multiple startup projects, enabling corporate innovation, and stimulating social change.

In her early career, Fay was a hair stylist and she initially wanted to become a makeup artist. Eventually, she went back to university despite people telling her she was too old. “I thought that it was worth trying, and I could always go back to being a makeup artist. Yes, I was going to lose money and time, but I would learn a lot. Learning is worth all the effort.“

Fay managed to finish her undergraduate degree in two and a half years and started her career at full speed: “I didn’t have career plans. I always wanted to have work experience while studying electrical engineering. I started working for free for the learning experience and ended up with a full time job after 3 months when I graduated. After a year and a half, I came up with an idea and decided to leave my job. I founded L3 technology, a software solutions for making mobile application more easier. After 3 years I sold it. Then I started Mobilia. After, I got bored and launched a new company.”

Fast forward to 2011, she created Vodafone’s first accelerator — Vodafone xone — which became the global Beta brand for the group. She expanded the brand and operating model to Italy, Spain, Germany and Egypt. She was also the President of Vodafone Americas Foundation, with the mission to enable mobile technology to advance social change. Among her recent projects, Fay co-founded and is leading product development at mimik, a company that develops pragmatic cloud solutions to turn any computing device into an edge cloud server. In case you thought this wasn’t enough, Fay is also the Chairman of H2 Wellness in Vancouver and Advisor to Studytracks, an educational app that brings music into the learning process.

Some might define this as ADHD, others as following one’s guts and infinite curiosity. When asked about her secret to manage and allocate her time and energy, she answers: “Nothing special — just doing things from 6 am to 10 pm everyday.”

Recognize the system, but don’t become the system

As she recalls from her past experience, Silicon Valley and Palo Alto used to be the places where you solved problems, where you made PCs accessible to everyone. However, Fay now has a more pessimistic view over what she calls “Shallow Alto,” where people seem more concerned with social status and rubbing shoulders with famous tech founders, as opposed to building startups with meaningful impact. She prefers to be based in Canada and considers that the Canadian government gives the best financial incentives to start a company.

However, she still encourages young engineers and entrepreneurs to experience the razzle dazzle of the West coast: “go there as an observer and never forget your target. Yes, companies are all about financial success, but as a person, don’t lose touch with your original motivation.”

Pick projects that give you butterflies in the stomach

When Fay decides on projects, she does not think of the potential difficulties, but sees the big picture and the potential scale of the positive impact if the problem faced would be solved.

Choose your collaborators wisely

It is crucial to find people that share your vision and complement you and your skills. Indeed, skills can be learned, but personality fit is crucial.

Embrace technology

Yes, nowadays, when you start a company, you have to have an understanding of technology, even if you are a marketing or sales specialist. Don’t be scared of it. Don’t run away from it, because you need it, all the time.

Jump in it with both feet

You can’t be an entrepreneur and think of limitations. Fay has seen a lot people that try to keep their jobs and work on their startups on the side. However, she rarely witnessed any of them succeed. Startups are not for the faint of heart. If you engage in it, don’t limit yourself. You can have financial limitations, but it’s about taking calculated risks. Find your team members, keep your day job during 3–6 months if you need to, but then jump into it, with all your heart and soul.

Learn, learn, learn

As mentioned earlier, Fay did not know how to run a company at first. She moved from hairstylist to electrical engineer. She did a lost of research, and welcomed any discussion and talk with colleagues as a learning opportunity. Today, she is a believer in experiential learning — forming patterns of comparison with her previous experiences and base of knowledge. For example, when she was learning about cancer cells and diseases, she compared cancer cells with telecommunications signals to understand how they were expanding, developing, and creating networks by drawing parallels from her area of expertise

“I started embracing a decentralized system 9 years ago. Of course, cloud solutions are all about creating micro-servers, but decentralization is not limited to technology,” Fay remarked.

Younger generations and Millennials are shifting towards decentralized workplaces, life goals and skill sets. Trends are changing, hierarchy is eroding, and more people are working across multiple companies with individual skill sets becoming a strength.

With her numerous activities and interests, it is no surprise that Fay is a strong believer in decentralization. As a result of her extensive experience in big corporations and startup creation, she also has a strong opinion on the traditional corporate world: “Eventually, people start identifying with the job that they have. They are scared of losing their jobs as compensation is based on performance criteria. People are used to doing the same thing over and over again, so when faced with a new concept, they are scared of losing their job. They are protecting the existing instead of embracing innovation.”

Today, Fay is convinced that vertical integration is collapsing and that there is a shift in large organizations. People thinking horizontally is considered as a new asset — the workforce is seen as one gigantic pool of collaborators. So if we have to remember three things from our fireside chat with Fay Arjomandi, it would be: have a passion for learning, solve big problems, and embrace decentralization.