Nikhil Bedi (’21 MBA)

Nikhil Bedi, '21 MBA, is an entrepreneur, investor, and champion of start-ups. Nikhil wears many hats as an Executive in Residence at Innovate Calgary, a Partner and Founder at BreezeLearn – a software engineering firm with a global footprint, and an advisor with RetinaLogik. In this month’s profile, Nikhil shares his dynamic career journey so far, spanning a variety of different industries and fluid roles – from founder to investor – within the start-up community.

What kind of work are you doing? What have been some highlights over the course of your career?

I wear multiple hats in the startup ecosystem. I'm an investor, advisor and entrepreneur myself. I write pre-seed and seed stage cheques into early stage start-ups through a VC fund I work for, and myself. I also own a software engineering firm called BreezeLearn, headquartered in Calgary with a regional office in Nigeria. And I advise a few early-stage start-ups, mostly on fundraising, and sales strategies. 

A few highlights have been:

• When my first company, Shiv Plastics, hit 500 employees (when I took over it was 20 employees)
• At Shiv Plastics, we launched a microfinancing arm for daily wage workers and e-rickshaw drivers. We helped create entrepreneurship opportunities for over 200 people and that was a very rewarding experience. 
• Writing that first-check for an early-stage start-up (~15 so far) and seeing the venture really take off.

How did you decide to pursue your mba at the Alberta School of Business?

I've been an entrepreneur throughout my career. Before joining the MBA program at the Alberta School of Business, I ran one of the largest high-impact polystyrene recycling and plastic product manufacturing companies in India. After getting a small exit opportunity from that business, I decided that I wanted to step into the start-up and deep technology space. I didn't have a background or education in this space so I thought a master's degree with a focus on this space would be a good idea. I learnt about UofA's MBA program that had a stream focussed on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and that was it. I had found my next move.

What was it like to move to Canada as a student?

The move to Canada was exciting but very daunting at the same time. In addition to the vast temperature and weather difference between New Delhi/Mumbai and Edmonton, it was hard to imagine that I'd have to go back to being a full time student in a country where I knew no one. However, the journey turned out to be much easier than I thought it'd be and it has probably been one of the best decisions in my life. 

What are some of your favorite memories from your time at the UofA?

There are so many, here's a few:

• The orientation trip to Banff was awesome. It was truly a mesmerising experience looking at lakes we'd only seen in Windows wallpapers before. There couldn't have been a better way to kick off the MBA program.
• The first-ever virtual gala that the MBA Association team organized, which I was a part of (I might be biased haha).
• All of the in-person social events in the first year, Chinese New Year, Christmas Themed Bar Night, Diwali, Holi etc.

How did you get involved in the start-up community in Alberta? 

In Summer 2020, I secured an internship position at the University of Alberta Health Accelerator. This program was focused on helping early-stage life sciences, digital health and med-tech start-ups at the UofA, transition out of the lab and into the real world. I worked with many exciting companies through my position here and got deeply ingrained into the start-up community in Alberta. Rest is history.

Part of your work now involves advising start-ups and small businesses - what do you find are some of the most common areas of struggle, and what advice do you give to help founders overcome those struggles?

One of the most common struggles I see in early-stage founders with software products is that they focus too much time on perfecting the product, in isolation of their customer, and before launching it in the market (adding a bunch of features, making the UI superior etc.). This often delays the product launch, and there's very high chances that you're going to over engineer/overcomplicate your product for your customer.  

My suggestion to those founders is - build the most basic version of your product that solves the exact problem your business is focussed on solving. Launch it to a few select customers, and take detailed feedback. The truth is, if you are solving a real problem for your customer, your customer will not care much for the UI/UX or the extra bells and whistles you've added. If your product makes their life easy, they will use it, and they will tell you what additional things they'd like. Iterate from there and improve your product over time.