SPEAKER_01 0:02

Today's guest has built a career around helping businesses think bigger than their local markets. Samir Moustaev is a commercial account director with Export Development Canada, where he works closely with Canadian companies looking to expand internationally and navigate the opportunities and challenges of global trade. Samir is originally from Azerbaijan, but now based in Calgary. He brings a truly international perspective shaped by experience across finance, business, development, and international markets. He is also the host of the Global Nomads Podcast, where he explores entrepreneurship, leadership, and the stories of people building businesses across borders. Samir, welcome to the Future Ventures Scaling with Clarity Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Hi Maxime, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here today and record this podcast with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

I'm super excited. Um, I know you and I have known each other for quite a few years, um, but it's the first time that I'm having you um on the podcast. And why don't we start it with kind of like you are an immigrant, I'm an immigrant. It's kind of funny. My daughter yesterday came and interviewed me. She's like, You're the only immigrant I know. Can I interview it for my school project? I'm like, what about mom? But but mom grew up here, so for her, there's no accident, there's nothing. So I was the immigrant. I've been here for 30 years, anyways. What was your journey? How did you come to Canada? Why Canada? What attracted you here?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Well, uh, when we were discussing this with my wife, and this is many months ago, we're thinking about different countries, and Canada made the most sense to us in terms of both will welcome this and how Canada is built a lot by immigrants. And so honestly, one of the things we found here is that everyone is an immigrant, so you're not feeling really left out, you're part of the community, part of a different communities. You can see cultures come together, cultures mingle, uh benefit from the best experience that each people have, and uh yeah, and that's what really attracted us. And then when we were looking at different cities, we chose Calgary for a number of specific reasons. And one of those reasons was Calgary was the third best city to live in globally when we were immigrating. So, you know, that was kind of an obvious choice. You want to live in a great city, in addition, uh, my cousin was here, so that was also kind of a benefit to have someone close, uh family here. So, but you know, looking back, we've never regretted the decision. We love Calgary, we love the people here, we love the entrepreneurial mindset of the people here and the openness. I uh the willingness to connect to help each other. Uh that is a great advantage that Calgary has.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

I mean, Calgary's an amazing city. We moved to Calgary in 2006, and uh that was the year that Calgary turned a million people in population. I think that uh I I don't remember what the latest census post states, but I think we're at 1.75 or something like that. That's like 20 years later. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yeah, it's something around those numbers, and I think it doubles during stampede so yes, it does, and stampede time is coming along.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

It's uh is there something that that that I mean you grew up in in Azerbaijan, but it's not internationally. Is there something that you're missing uh from Azerbaijan kind of like, or is it just kind of friends and family?

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Well, I will say that Azerbaijan and Calgary is a bit similar in a way because Azerbaijan's main economic drivers are agriculture and oil and gas, same as Canada. So industry-wise, it's very similar from a perspective of um kind of uh the mixing of people is also simple because Azerbaijan, especially Baku, the capital, is a very multinational uh city. Well, I miss the most, I would say, outside friends and family is food. That's uh the biggest thing. Uh, we have a big food culture, and the variety of different types of food back home is amazing. So unfortunately, there are no Azerbaijani restaurants, and uh, I'm not the one to start a restaurant, but maybe some of the people listening to you will be inspired and they say, Hey, then we need to start an Azerbaijani restaurant in Calgary. Like, I would be the most happiest and the most loyal customer there.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Interesting. Is there a a sizable Azerbaijani community in Calgary, or that's not the case?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

No, I would say yes again, because of oil and gas. A lot of engineers, a lot of people, different professionals who work in the oil and gas field, be that finance, be that HR, a lot of them are XBP employees, British Petroleum, not to mix with uh Boston Pizza. But um, and this has happened to a couple of friends of mine, so that's why I'm saying that. But uh, there's a sizable community, and I really enjoy the community because it's a very united community here. We organize events together, have uh uh New Year celebrations, no ruth celebrations. We raised the flag recently, so yeah, do a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

That's amazing. That's amazing. I mean, that's great when we're just staying close to uh to the community. Um just just before we move off uh the personal side and and talk about business and scaling, um, you are very well known around the city. Um, your expert networker. Uh kind of like what's the biggest misconception that people have about building meaningful professional relationships?

SPEAKER_00 5:47

I guess you know, uh, first of all, thank you for your compliment. I appreciate that. I try to be active in the market, and as an immigrant, that's the biggest uh challenge, is that you're not growing up with the same people as your peers are growing up with. Uh, I have a lot of friends who are my age, but they went to university with uh with other professionals, and it's kind of easier to grow their network for them because they knew those people from um you know from very early on. So I guess the biggest misconception is is exactly that that the immigrants' challenge is to start building a network from scratch, and sometimes people may assume that no, it's as easy as for everyone else, but unfortunately it's not. You have to do the double, the triple of the effort being in more places and finding ways to remind yourself uh or remind about yourself to people that you have met. Because this is what I tell to a lot of people who move here and uh ask me for uh networking advice. I ask them, if you go to a networking event, how many people do you meet? So let's assume it's 10 people. How many of those 10 people would remember you, do you think, after let's say a week? Maybe three people. How many of them will remember you after a month? Maybe one person. So, what do you do to make sure that you stay in touch and you stay top of mind on for those people? I found personally LinkedIn to be that answer. I use LinkedIn all the time. I publish things login lib and and I try to make it you know different styles because I have some more fun stuff, I have professional stuff that I put on uh on the page, I have an article that just got published and I publish it today also. So different things, but that way you're you know, people see you on LinkedIn and they remember you. And I find that to be the best way because at the end of the day, it's important to be remembered by people.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

You have any any kind of like uh case hack in terms of like wearing like insanely gaudy, colorful shoes, or crazy hair, or like a clothing item that makes you stand out or make you make it makes you memorable.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Well, I was thinking of those items, you know. Uh I have some friends who have colorful glasses, to your point. You know, I know some people who like their jackets and they're always choosing their jackets, or some people who like some socks or find interesting kind of shoes to be remembered by. And this has happened unintentionally, but I always have a like a little bag, and uh people remember me by my bag now, which was unintentional. I guess it's a Eastern European thing that having a little bag with different type of it is the Bortellino, yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yep, yep, exactly. But um I found it funny that people remember me by PiPad. So you know, you you don't know what something that you use out of habit becomes a symbol of uh what people remember you by.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah, yeah. That's so interesting. But you found it, like there's an item of clothing that now it's uh associated with you. Yeah, exactly. Samir, if we're to if we're to talk about uh international trade and exporting it, I'm uh super interested in getting your perspective because you you said at the intersection, you have a bird's eye view of of uh of trade and and uh export. And I don't know to what extent these statistics are true, but my understanding is that many Canadian companies say they want to export, but very few actually do. What's the real barrier um for those companies? Is it capital knowledge? Is it theory? Is it something else? I mean, I know we have the Trade Commissioner Service, there's there's lots of resources out there. What's holding Canadian companies back from uh uh you know hitting it on the export market?

SPEAKER_00 9:53

I think it's a combination of um aspects, personally. One of those things is with the amount of companies that I talk to, I find that there is a little lack of knowledge in terms of going to international markets. It's not an easy kind of thing to do. Because if you're looking at traditionally, Canadian companies would export to the US, and US is great because you can put things on a truck and you can just send the truck across uh the border, and it's quite simple. Plus, there's no language barriers, there the culture is more or less similar, and the legislation is easy to understand or comprehend for the Canadian businesses, plus, there's a lot of advisors that can help you uh to expand into the US. With other international markets, I guess there's a couple of nuances. First of all, there's a lack of knowing those markets. So in some markets, you need to have people uh to be aware of you, like you will not be able to close a deal through an email. You have to be there, you have to travel, uh, you have to shake hands, spend time with those people to build trust. So it takes time. The second thing is when it comes to you know, let's say transportation, I've had conversations where I've been explaining to people what a bill of lading is or what kind of transportation documents exist in general, what inca terms they should be interested or looking at considering uh how those things are structured, even the way some documents are signed. I find it interesting that you know the basic commercial terms, and I'm not just talking about like um the inca terms, but I'm talking about in general, like how do you get paid? What are the documents required for you to get paid, like those kind of nuances? People typically don't have a lot of experience in, so that kind of makes it challenging because usually uh with people, if you don't know, you don't want to touch it because you're afraid of making mistakes. But then again, there's a lot of resources to your point. The trade commissioner services, EDC is one of those resources. The government of Alberta also has a very strong trade team that is dedicated to help Alberta companies in particular. There's the trade accelerator program that is offered by uh Calgary Economic Development. So there's a lot of resources out there, and I guess because there's a lot of resources, it may be a little bit overwhelming at the same time, just because you don't know where to start. But I think if you are the first-time exporter, the best way to start is going to a TAP program. TAP will give you a good foundation, but then also having conversations with people like myself, if you're in Calgary or people like uh like my colleagues at the Trade Commissioner Services, just to start those conversations and help shape it, because that's what we're here to do. We're here to make sure that exporting becomes more accessible and that you are being successful in those international markets. Because we want to make sure that when you're taking the Canadian flag and going into those new places, the flag is you know waving strongly, and at the same time, you're able to bring foreign money into Canada.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Samir, um you've seen a ton of companies in in in the different roles in banking, but now with with EDC. Have you developed some kind of a pattern recognition in terms of what companies are successful in achieving export success versus the ones that are not? And are there common pitfalls that companies should be on the lookout when uh focusing on growing the export market?

SPEAKER_00 13:29

I guess the biggest thread is the the companies that are not as successful are usually the ones that are not as serious about export. Because the best way to say it, export is like taking a mirror and looking at yourself and/or inside the company. Because if you have any cracks, those cracks will become evident when you're exporting. So you want to make sure that you're not approaching export as a one-time thing, but you're building a company around the notion that you will be exporting sooner or later. Canada's market is limited. We're only, what is it, 40 million right now in Canada? So if you're looking at, if you're thinking about you know real growth opportunities, you have to be thinking about growing internationally. And you have to be strategic about your approach to exports. You cannot say, hey, I'm gonna, you know, think about going to let's say the UK and ship a couple of goods there, and that's it. No, like it has to be strategic, you have to build those relationships, and the ones that are successful is the ones who approach it as a growth target and do it diligently, just like with anything in business, you have to make sure that you have a strategy and you're slowly executing on that strategy.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Super. Um, Sabir, is there a region or are there regions that Canadian businesses are overlooking that they're just holding a lot of potential where just not thinking about them?

SPEAKER_00 14:59

I would say the Asia Pacific region has been one of those regions. EDC has done tremendous amount of investments into it helping Canadian businesses go into those markets. We have a lot of offices there as well. I think sometimes in general there's a perception of the I'm gonna call it the sexy market, just because you know, you're looking at say Western European markets, you're looking at the USA, you're looking at Australia, and those markets are more developed, so you're thinking, oh, I'm gonna have more success. But those markets are also it's more difficult to compete in because there's other established companies that would have the same type of culture, would have the same types of um principles in terms of um technology and what they're using and all those kinds of stuff. But whereas if you're going to some less developed markets, they still have the cap capacity to pay, they still, you know, they're growing, especially in the, like I said, in the uh Asia-Pacific markets, the mid-market segment there is increasingly uh growing. And of course, that will mean that there's going to be more people that are able to pay for goods and services that Canadian companies provide. But and I guess that's the biggest misconception that happens when people are thinking about which market to go to. The other nuance to take into account is that when you're thinking about you know which markets, you have to understand who your competition is going to be in those markets. Is it going to be easy to compete? Will uh will your product have demand? Do you need to adapt your product to that particular market? Do you need to change maybe the coloring scheme or maybe the name? Because sometimes you see you can read a lot of those stories where companies did not adapt their marketing strategy, did not adapt their even logo strategy, and had uh failures in different markets. So you have to do some you know some background research. My favorite example on uh a company being very unsuccessful is Target entering the Canadian market. Because if if there's a book about how to successfully navigate expansion to international markets, I would suggest your listeners to read a couple of articles about what Target did incorrectly, and they basically hit every single point that they should not do, and they did it, and that's why they were unsuccessful here when they entered the Canadian market. So do your research, understand it, and plus understand where there will be demand, like I said, because what I'm seeing right now, for example, Asia Pacific, they do enjoy a lot of uh agricultural products from Canada. I see more and more agricultural products, be that on the primary ag of things, be or be that on the secondary or in the food processing side, um, more companies exporting to those regions.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Interesting. Um in addition to agriculture, um, so from a region specific, you you talked about Asia, Asia Pacific, from uh opportunity or industry specific, where what are the growth opportunities? There is it's uh agriculture, like what other industries are uh are ripe for export?

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Well, all industries are ripe for export, to be honest, as long as you find your your right market, exactly. And that's the the key is uh doing preparing a business plan and understanding which markets are right for you. There are tools that you can search online, some of those are free, some of those are not free, to see which markets import uh your goods, and you can then identify and say, okay, if this market imports my good, let's see if there is some kind of competition in those markets. Who are the main importers? And you can say, okay, if the main importers um are from let's say Europe are from um Australia, maybe it will be more difficult for Canadian market company to enter, but maybe it will be easier, so you have to understand also those nuances. So, yeah, it's it's uh honestly case by case, I would say. And for each individual company, I I'm gonna say do your research to be able to better understand what kind of a market you want to enter it, because there's you can find success in a market that people typically don't think about just because that market is underpenetrated.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah, yeah. I mean, those this is kind of the alpha that everyone is looking at like markets that are overlooked but hold a lot of promise. Um selling into governments, foreign governments, what's the interrelationship between EDC and CCC? Like, do you guys team up, or if if a company is looking to export or to sell into foreign governments, kind of like how should companies approach it?

SPEAKER_00 19:48

So the way EDC is structured, EDC is more about supporting the Canadian businesses. We uh kind of when you're selling to a foreign government, there could be a couple of nuances that happen. First of all, you may have a cash crunch because you're not getting paid on time, and it's not because they're paying you late per se, but maybe those are the terms that you negotiated with them. So that's where EDC would come in in terms of mitigating some of those working capital requirements that the company may have. The other nuance I always find is when you're selling to a foreign country, even if it's a government entity, even if it's a quasi-government entity, even if it's a private company, you don't know your buyer as well as they are know themselves. You're not participating at their board meetings. So you don't know what kind of financial situation they're in and what kind of a non-financial situation they're in as well. Because it's not always about their inability to pay, it's also about their unwillingness to pay. And how do you mitigate risk in terms of not getting paid by a buyer in a foreign jurisdiction? And there, of course, there are a couple of options. LC terms, for example, or documentary credits is a great way to mitigate some of that risk. But the one of the things that EDC offers, for example, is AR insurance, insurance your receivables to make sure that in case you're not paid by a foreign buyer, you get paid by an insurance company. And the DC is a um uh is a crown corporation, but there are also some private insurers like Alliance Trade, uh Aeon, and so on, and COFAS that provide the same kind of insurance, and depending on what the company is looking for, that's where they can they can reach out to and see to get the best quote for themselves. Whereas I am, of course, biased. I am going to say we uh EDC has its own advantages in comparison to some of the other companies, but protecting yourself from non payment is quite important. Because let's let's assume it's a ten million dollar company that's like the top line sales is ten million, and they entered a new market and they have an outstanding. Invoice for a thousand. Well, probably an invoice for a thousand dollars, if it doesn't get paid, they can absorb it. Yeah. But what if that invoice is not a thousand but is a hundred thousand? What if it's one million? You know where are the stakes? If you if it's a one million and you don't get paid that one million, how easily can you absorb it? I've seen scenarios where one invoice for a company doing about 10 million and an invoice being in the vicinity of 200,000, 300,000 was not paid, and the company in um a year, year and a half went under because they were unable to manage the cash flow afterwards. So it's serious matters in terms of like protecting the business. Like business owners have to understand how to mitigate risk uh when they're doing business with international buyers.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Are these products expensive uh in terms of like getting export credit insurance or like uh something that companies should always consider um for when the risk profile justifies it?

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Well, honestly, it's one of the most complex products to price because you're looking into a number of factors. You're looking at country risk, so which country you're exporting, you're looking at industry risk, which industries the company is operating in. You're looking at buyer risk, so which buyers there uh are actually their financials, what they look like, how much information does the trade credit insurance agency have on them? We're looking at, of course, the tenors of the receivable, the limit requirements, and the distribution of risk. Are we looking at one buyer or are we looking of a set of hundred buyers? So the risk is not as concentrated. So when you take all those factors into account, the pricing becomes difficult. So you should always at least strive to get a quote. Usually, with most of these organizations, getting a quote is free, and and then you can decide if it makes monetary sense for you. But usually, you know, if you are going into a market that you didn't know, and I'm gonna premise this as well. I'm gonna say that even if it's the US, because people typically assume that you know it's just across the board, it's gonna be easy to get payment and whatnot. But we see quite a lot of claims coming from buyers, not payment in the US. And like I mentioned earlier, it's not always about their unability to pay, it's also about their unwillingness to pay.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

With um with everything that's happening, uh, well, particularly driven by the craziness in the United States, have you seen any kind of retraction in globalization? And how have the tariffs impacted um the Canadian economy? Or I'm assuming like everything, it's got pros and cons and opportunities and and fallbacks, but kind of like what's your perspective from the vantage point that you hold?

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Well, I guess the biggest perspective that I have is wait and see what will happen to Cuzma. Um the trade agreement between Canada, US, and Mexico, because that's kind of the renegotiations are coming up, and that's going to be the biggest question. Because if you look at Canada and the tariffs from last year, the of course it depends on the province. Ontario and BC were more affected by tariffs, and Alberta has been affected by them. You have to really understand um kind of the nuances of how CUSMA will be negotiated and which industries will fall out into those exemptions and which industries will not fall. So it's early to say what it looks like. Um it is and we will wait and see. But on the pro side, because I always like to think that there's a silver lining, I find that this was an opportunity for Canadian businesses to explore other markets because the amount of conversations that I have had personally about thinking about new markets to export to is tremendous. And one thing I will note that it's never about completely forgetting about the US market. No, US market is next to us, it's a great market, there's a lot of opportunities there, but the it's like the old adage like don't put your all your eggs in the eggs in one basket, yeah. Yeah, diversify. And now companies are really thinking about diversification and thinking about exploring those new opportunities and new markets. So I feel that's the biggest positive that that has happened through this.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

And yeah, in terms of market uh redirection from the US, has like have we seen have you seen more Asia Pacific, more Western Europe? Kind of like where has some of this trade uh flow redirected?

SPEAKER_00 26:50

It depends on the industry, I would say. I've seen some success stories for the energy industry in the Middle East, but also in Australia, especially on the LNG side of things. I've seen some success with the agri-food in uh the, like I mentioned, in the Asia-Pacific markets. So depending on the industry, different companies uh finding different successes in different places, and also Europe. Europe is also a great example because it, of course, it's a market that is able to pay.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Yeah. Yeah, no, it makes sense. I mean, Colfast, I think it's a French company that provides the credit export insurance. Um shifting gears, um, future business and trade. Like, how do you think that AI is going to change international trade over the next decade?

SPEAKER_00 27:39

I am optimistic uh in that sense, because I believe intern um AI should make it easier to do international trade, at least from a research perspective. Of course, there's a nuance right now with hallucinations and those kinds of things when you're asking AI, so it can sometimes invent things that don't exist. But hopefully, in the future, when it's going to, you know, more information is being downloaded into AI, people use it better and know how to utilize it. It will be easier, I think, to explore which markets would make sense for the a company's particular business. Also, from a documentation perspective, I think it should make it easier to understand what kind of documents are required and for helping uh getting those prepared. I think I still think there's going to be a need for consultants and people who have dealt with documents, but at least it should be easier for the companies to understand that exporting is not as scary. So I'm positive on that side of things. I also hope that, and this is more of a broader conversation, but if we're looking at international trade, it hasn't changed in the last 150, 160 years that much. It's still paper-based. COVID did accelerate some of the things in terms of you know e-signatures and whatnot, but it's still very basic and early stage. Uh so I hope that with more technology, we'll be able to transform uh global trade into making it more transparent, and uh, of course, decreasing the amount of negative things that are happening in uh global trade. Because if you look at even the container statistics, what is it? Like less than three or two percent of containers are open globally to check what's actually inside. So hopefully it will be a bigger number then, and it will be an opportunity to make global trade more transparent and decrease some of the negative side effects of that. But I'm like I said, I'm an optimist.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

I think most most most immigrants are optimists if they're taking a chance on uprooting and starting life in a new place. You gotta be you you can be afraid of change. Um, unless you're pushed out as a refugee or something like that. But for the most part, we as immigrants see the world is half a calf half full.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Oh, 100%, a calf, half full, and plus the other thing that we have is uh adaptability. And I remember reading about this interesting statistic, but don't quote me on this because I don't remember exactly whether the Fortune 500 companies or unicorns, like startup unicorns, but the but I think it was startup unicorns, so that the majority of unicorns that were started up and became those unicorns, they were started by immigrant founders. Yeah, um, so I think that was a very unique uh statistic because yeah, you know, when you're an immigrant, you have to learn how to adapt, and when you're a business owner, you have to learn how to adapt as well. So those two things coincide. Just for us, it becomes a little bit of a second nature.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Yeah, I know I completely agree with you. Um I mean, uh, may I say that the immigrants rule the world? I mean, like you don't need to look further than like Microsoft or NVIDIA or Google, like yeah, maybe, but but even the Google founders say, where did he come from? I think he came from Belarus.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

I know for sure from the Soviet Union, but I don't remember which particular part of it.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Well, I mean, his dad was a PhD, and so uh he was a professor and he freelocated it, but uh the other uh like when we when when I look at my own primary observation in terms of our portfolio companies, the the best founders that we find are ones that have some form of that have overcome some form of adversity. We love athletes, we love farmers. Um the so like they're the hardest working people that you can find. The like there's another stat that uh the vast majority of US presidents came from some form of adversity, like uh uh divorce, or one of the parents died, or something like that, which forced them to be resilient. Uh Angela Dackworth, uh UPEN professor, talks a lot about like she's written a book about grit and resilience, but it's uh as an immigrant, you have to have great resilience and adaptability in spades.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Yeah, yeah, definitely. It's uh definitely the issue because when you come to a new country, trying to adapt is not easy. No, because there's a lot of challenges that go from a cultural perspective, from a non-cultural perspective, language barriers are the kind of barriers that come around when you're an immigrant. So going through all that does create resiliency.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Okay, I if I can just take you back to the previous point that you were making. I'm I'm actually very interested because we're I I can't disclose it publicly, but we're working on something uh around legacy and traditional industries. And so I'm looking to get your perspective first too. You said international trade hasn't changed much in the in the last 100 plus years, things are still done in the old way. Um, some of the stuff we're working on is kind of integration of this. Uh, because you have the the vessel owners, you have the freight forward, freight forwarders, you like it just it's just paper. It and even with Canada customs, they have to get paper stuff. And if the case configuration differs, the shipment gets helped. And then like isn't it like if you have 10 units of something, but it's packaged in two boxes of five, isn't the same thing as like one box of ten? But it it doesn't work that way. So, where do you see the opportunities in international trade in terms of if you if you're if you are a startup or you're looking to disrupt it or looking to introduce a product or a service?

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Well, first of all, to your point, you know, the devil is in the details when it comes to international trade. Your paperwork has to be impeccable and has to be very correct. And that's actually goes back to your earlier question, terms of one other difficulty that Canadian businesses face, because when they're doing business in um locally or just with the US, the paperwork is good, but there could be uh discrepancies that no one really cares about. But whereas when you're going globally, you may need to make sure that your paperwork is very on point and it becomes a bit of a new challenge. So I've seen those challenges as well, especially when I was working at HSBC in the trade finance desk before. Um but then in terms of but speaking about HSBC, so to give you an example, HSBC tried to disrupt that market, uh is working on that, utilizing blockchain technologies and bringing Freud uh freight forwarders, custom brokers, customs themselves, insurance companies, buyers, sellers, all on one platform to make sure that uh to make sure that trade can be done digitally. But the challenge is when you're to doing blog through through blockchain, you need to have everyone on board, everyone has to be there. But how do you make sure that all of those parties and some of those parties can be different jurisdictions? One party can then fall off, and you need to bring a different party. It's a it's a big, big undertaking. So the question is how do you make so for a startup founder that's thinking about an idea, how do you take and make that simple? What do you create to be able to make uh the digitized of trade quicker? Maybe it's taking an aspect of a part and making working on that, maybe it's looking at the whole thing in general, but it's it's a chunky process. And HSBC has had some success, but I think uh you know it's a long way for glob before it becomes globally adaptable.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

Um thank you for saying this. And and and we experienced it firsthand because when we're when we're trying to aggregate the international trades, like we're dealing with with suppliers that are using EDI. And again, from an eco-term perspective, EDI kind of was the standard many years ago. Uh some are some have API, some have EDI, some are forcing us down a CSV path. Um, so it's it's very disaggregated in terms of a standard. And so what I think that is needed is um multimodality, uh, so that you can kind of remove that friction, so be able to ingest those um yeah, but what egress in uh uh ingressing egress points to to to be irrespective of what exists currently because you're not going to go and change the what currently exists, so you have to kind of uh slowly transition onto a new platform or new way of doing things. Um do you think that I are you seeing examples where AI has made advancement in this space to make it faster? We talked about blockchain, blockchain is a different technology. What's nice about it is it's just it it's very secure and executes perfectly when you have all of the right parameters in place. But kind of like what are you observing in that space?

SPEAKER_00 37:27

From an AI perspective, I haven't seen personally any big movements on that. Like I said, I'm more hopeful that AI will bring some of those advances and uh some answers in the future, but right now it hasn't changed a lot. I guess the biggest advantage where AI comes at the moment is maybe filling in some of the documents that uh already exist and making sure that the documents are coherent and uh what's the right word for it, and standardized. That's kind of it. But right now, yeah, like I said, AI is early stage, but we will see how that will track in the future and what founders will come up with. Uh in the because I think there's a market for that, and I think there's a demand for that, especially when we're like I said, we're talking about securitization, making sure that uh the goods that are being transported, especially dual-use goods, all of that is protected.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

Yeah, I uh I'm I mean I'm very happy to hear you say that. Like we we just released a feature for some of our clients that allows them to create and update purchase orders using their voice, so 11 Labs um bot or WhatsApp or Telegram or SMS text or email, whatever, whatever way they want to uh create or update this. And as you know, a purchase order document and uh pro forma invoice, the data doesn't necessarily match, but we we're using the AI to match the information, try to identify it using the semantics. So, like that this actually works, and that has created a lot of efficiency uh in efficiency for our clients, because now I don't have to go through emails and try to chase this, and that kicks off a process where the supplier has to verify once the once the AI has taken, they have to verify that the information is correct because then we're automatically pushing it out to the freight forwarders so that they can share it with the customs or other uh customs authorities.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

That's a great example of how you can use AI for that, you know, taking that information that you have in your brain and just downloading it and let AI and do its magic to make sure that it's all comprehendable and easy to absorb. Uh, same idea was you can look at contracts, for example. If you have a standardized contract, uh and you need to adapt it instead of going and manually adapting it, just use AI to kind of adapt the necessary features. Okay, but you know, it all depends on how you utilize AI. I guess uh the biggest question is don't replace yourself with the AI in that sense because you're still the expert, you're still the company, the especially if you're talking about businesses, you're still the business owner. So you don't want to make sure that you are there double checking, so going back to trust but verify scenario, but it's easy to quickly verify and make sure everything is correct than just to write from scratch.

SPEAKER_01 40:31

Yeah, I completely agree with you. Um I know that we're coming on to time, but I I I I have a couple more questions that they wanted to ask you. And um one of the questions is what's a belief that you that you hold strongly that many successful business people would disagree with.

SPEAKER_00 40:50

That many successful business owners would disagree with. I guess the uh the belief I don't necessarily believe that sales is everything. So of course you need to have sales for for the business to strive. But sometimes I see business owners chase the sale without thinking about the consequences of the sale. Because ultimately, uh sometimes you yes, you sold the product, but then you didn't think about how to ship that product to that market, and that would cause issues, or you you sold it, but you sold it on 120-day terms, and that's really disrupts your working capital cycle. So um it sometimes if it's let's say a $10 million company and they receive the $50 million contract, that can really hurt the company as well, because if they're not prepared to execute on such a large contract, yeah, they may be happy. Yes, we're you know, we we can grow five times in size, yeah. But at the same time, if you're not prepared for that, it's going to be very hard to maintain it. I've personally seen more companies fail from success, from growing too fast, than from downters or economic recessions and whatnot. Just because if you're not prepared for to execute on that, it's going to be it's it's gonna affect the business, it's gonna affect your reputation, it's gonna affect the mental health of your employees at the end of the day if they're rushing and trying to fulfill those orders. So I think that would be the biggest thing that I find is that it's great to have good sales, but you need to make sure that you have the capacity to execute on them. And if you don't have a pathway to increase that capacity, be maybe you need to go and borrow some money to get some new machinery. Maybe you need to find a strategic investor to come in and help you with that. And sometimes, maybe as the CEO, you need to step down and find someone who has experience with uh leading a sizable company because that's another nuance, right? Like when you're a small business, it's one approach, when you're mid-market, it's another approach, when you become large, it's another approach. So maybe you don't have the expertise to be here when you're here, so you need to step down and bring someone who has, even if you're the founder. So, but yeah, I I would say sales is the bigger one. You have to be happy about your sales, but also be strategic about them.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Appreciate it. Yeah, you have to have a strong foundation upon which to build. Um, what's the best advice you have ever received, Samir?

SPEAKER_00 43:37

From a personal perspective or from a business perspective?

SPEAKER_01 43:41

Both, you choose.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

I received so many interesting advice over the years, but I guess the thing that really stuck with me and the thing that I work on every day or kind of think about every day is just be yourself. I think nothing be that on a professional level, be that on a personal level, being genuine, nothing will replace that. And that's how again going back to your earlier conversation about uh building networks and uh being out there in the market, that's how you build relationships. If you're yourself you you will build those good relationships around you. And of course at the end of the day you will not be friends with everyone. There are going to be people that are not your people and that's fine. That's you have to accept that. But if you are not being genuine people will sense the fakeness and it will uh do more harm than good. So be yourself. Don't be afraid to be yourself sometimes you might need to wind down depending on your sense of humor. I wind down my sense of humor because you know I'm uh from Eastern Europe so I can be very direct and I can be very cynical so I download down a little bit yeah but at the end of the day you have to be genuine yeah yeah I completely agree with you like some some of the jokes that you would make in your um country of origin they just don't land the same way here in Canada. Exactly exactly yeah I mean you if I remember correct you're from Bulgaria as well right so yes I am you you would have the similar sense of humor to me yeah yeah for sure for sure I mean like I just kind of reflected on my conversation with my daughter last night when she was interviewing me like I I like probably the biggest shock that they had when it came to Canada is political correctness.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

That that that concept didn't exist back then what you see is what you get like if it's on your mind it's on your lips whereas here everything is just all communication in Canada at least that's my perspective goes to some form of a filter before it goes out yeah maybe it's not a bad thing to have a little bit of a filter now and then so yeah I don't disagree there's never there's never such thing as like as as being all bad or all good it's it's it's typically a spectrum and just kind of matter of of uh perspective as the way it lands on the spectrum.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

Last question for you Samir what's the kindest thing anybody has ever done for you the kindest thing oh like when you say the kindest thing you know the first person that comes to mind is my mom actually okay and um my mom has done a lot to help me grow as a person and as a professional and with everything that she has done over the years even now like she she's coming here this Monday and she's already like even now coming here is all thinking about okay what do you want me to bring from back home and all those kind of things. So I would say nothing can replace the kindness of a mother um and I think what what she has done for me the sacrifices all the sacrifices all the late nights all the nuances not to go into too too many details but I think that would be the the main person of course like I'm not I don't want to disregard like what oh the types of things my dad has done for me as well and my wife and some close friends and some not so close people too but I want to really focus on my mom and this answer. It's a very good question actually thank you. Yeah how often do you get to see your mom not as often as I would like like we chat uh nearly with my parents on a daily basis I try to give them a call on a daily basis to have a conversation and see how they're doing because Azerbaijan is far um we and it's expensive to be honest to travel there and back um so we we were there last summer so this time my mom is coming uh my dad is taking care of my grandma back home so they cannot come at the same time it's a good reason my grandma is still alive and healthy yeah but at the same time someone still needs to be there but it it yeah it's it's hard like once a year maybe um uh if we're lucky uh a bit more often but so far like once a year during COVID for example I haven't seen them for four years since I moved to Canada. Wow um so it it does become difficult and I'm an only child so I really you know miss my parents yeah but what can you do?

SPEAKER_01 48:46

That's the life of immigrant that's that's right that's right um would they ever consider it immigrating to Canada or home is home we'll see to be honest uh Maximum that while my grandma is still alive uh definitely not just because uh with her there it's uh kind of she wouldn't move and it would be work hard but then at the same time you see the challenges okay like I'm in my uh when I moved here I was 30 and was uh you know I speak English um it was easier to adapt with uh my parents they have their life my dad is an entrepreneur my mom uh teaches at the university back home for them to adapt from scratch would not be as easy and I don't want to take it out of their you know kind of a day-to-day life and bring them here and be and be the center of their life that's selfish okay okay okay okay well Sidmeer I really enjoyed the the conversation with you I got to learn more about you got to know I mean obviously we've known each other not as as close as we know each other now but I'm happy to uh to have had you on the podcast and looking forward to continuing the conversation and definitely to anybody listening out there looking for export help how do they how do they get in touch with you just reach out to you on LinkedIn?

SPEAKER_00 50:10

LinkedIn is the best place to go like as you know I'm an avid LinkedIn user so uh if they have questions please reach out happy to have a conversation and if they need to navigate them with internally within the EDC world but if I may uh maxim number to overstep here I would also encourage people to check out uh the global nomads podcast on YouTube and on Spotify it goes back to our immigration story because what we try to achieve with the podcast is to help immigrants and uh be that existing immigrants new immigrants or people who are actually born here as well to be honest a lot of advice that the professionals providing there that is beneficial to people that may either don't know about them or forgot about those type of things so we really try to bring professionals to share really valuable life lessons uh to build life in Canada what's the one podcast episode or guest from the global nomads podcast that really stands out for you is like if if if if anybody associates um the podcast that's kind of the the one episode or guest that that they associate with well I will say like all my guests are special because uh and all the themes that we covered they're different because we have entrepreneurs we have professionals from different aspects like for example we already have a career coach talk about career strategy we had a lady who has a language school talk about languages and accents uh branding but I'm gonna pull it out the first episode and the first episode was with Jan Eden who is a huge connector in the local market yeah uh an amazing person in general and a great connector great professional and she was the first guest and she was the first person I bounced this idea of in terms of starting the podcast or one of the first people and I would say watch that episode because that's special and it's a fun episode as well because I was it was the first time I was doing this uh thing and I I was new to it so I wasn't as experienced and a little bit clunky. Uh but the perspective that Jan provides is amazing to build the foundation and then of course afterwards people can watch whatever they like depending on what they're trying to learn.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

Yeah no it's amazing and I mean um she's a super connector um in the city and she's very thoughtful in terms of how she curates connections or how to make introductions the diners that she holds to make sure that whoever like if it's uh somebody coming from outside Calgary uh how do how does she connect them and to who does she connect them like yeah great person to know um yes absolute pleasure absolute pleasure to have you on uh if somebody wants to pitch you to come on as a guest do they just reach out to you on LinkedIn and say hey I have a great story to tell to reach out to me on uh on um my LinkedIn um okay always happy to have a conversation if there's people who want to sponsor it also reach out to me on LinkedIn all right here comes the call to action perfect no i i I love it I love it um thank you so much Samir it was a pleasure I know that uh uh we have to run off but uh uh let's continue the conversation uh thank you Maxim for having me I appreciate this conversation pleasure bye