Justin Shimoon

A successful company is really based on the quality of support you provide your customers.

 

At an early age, Justin Shimoon had a love and strong passion for technology and marketing which continued into his collegiate years. Justin attended Carleton University and received his degree in electrical engineering and minored in telecommunications. Without wasting any time, he dove right into the internet marketing world and founded his first company in the year 2000. His company, Sitebrand, which is a digital marketing company, helped to personalize consumers experiences online using relevant messaging. Working alongside Justin was a team of personalization experts who helped shape him into the leader and CEO he is today. Justin’s first experience as a young entrepreneur and CEO gave him the experience and drive for the creation of his other businesses later in life.

After the selling of Sitebrand, Justin Shimoon realized a need in the market that wasn’t being met. Due to the increase in use of dating sites and consumer website signups, people didn’t want to freely give out their phone numbers. During that time, there weren’t enough solution options, so Justin wanted to create and easy to use platform for this type of situation. This leads us to the mobile development company, AffinityClick, as to which Justin serves as founder and CEO. Focusing primarily on telephone and communications solutions, AffinityClick created an app designed to allow people to create disposable phone number for particular situations such as this.

With Justin leading the charge, AffinityClick has seen a funding round that raised over $1.7 million from outside investors. The company has totaled over seven million downloads and achieved a 4.5 star rating that includes almost 10,000 reviews within both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Justin Shimoon’s AffinityClick team launched the Hushed App and other voice over internet protocol (VOIP) enterprise solutions within the company. His understanding of technology and the current landscape has given him the tools he needs to continue creating software and companies that provide simple solutions.

Justin continues to grow AffinityClick and Hushed, it’s most renowned product while serving well over 65 countries. His passion and immense understanding of app development, technology, and startups, has made him become a successful software mogul. Along with fully engaging himself in AffinityClick daily operations, Justin Shimoon has a passion and curiosity for all things technology such as emerging trends like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrency. His passions also lead him into other aspects such as digital marketing and how to be a successful leader.

Justin Shimoon has learned many valuable lessons during his journey as a CEO and founder, that he hopes to continue to share with others that are in a similar stage of their career. He will continue to define the VOIP industry, rising as a leader among tech companies. Justin is immensely proud of all his accomplishments and success but will continue to proactively explore the needs of consumers, in order to create new software products that provide the best simple solution. Having developed into a well-rounded leader, Justin will continue to garner the respect and attention of other companies and industry leaders.

Where did the idea for your company come from?

I came up with the idea actually over dinner with a good friend. He was talking about how he really wanted to keep his business life and personal life private, but his corporate phone didn’t allow him to do that so he needed to keep two phones on hand. One for work and one for business. Then I asked, what if you could you use only one phone, but have two phone numbers attached to that phone? Then I went back into the office the next day and looked at solutions in the marketplace, there were very few, which then sparked the launch of Hushed App for Android 3 months later. Then 3 months later we launched iPhone which got the company going!

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

I try to get through all my emails and phone calls as soon as I get into the office, once I’m done with that I talk with my team to see if they need anything from me or any outstanding questions. We Use Asana task manager so I make sure I go through all tasks assigned to me. Also internally we use Slack which allows for great internal communication and idea sharing amongst the team, the great thing about Slack is I can physically be anywhere in the world and keep up to date with what is happening at the office!

How do you bring ideas to life?

A lot of it has to do with research and looking at trends. I like to go to personal blogs such as Medium, TechCrunch and of course mainstream media. From there I try to see what trends the market is going in and where things will be 12-16 months out. If there is a real idea, I usually bring it to my CTO to get him to chime in. If he likes it we explore it further and try to get a working prototype of the idea with one or two resources before we push it across the company. Of course any new idea needs to work with our current strategic roadmap, usually, we can flesh things out in the prototyping stage to see how strategic it can be.

What’s one trend that excites you?

I love communications with mobile, this is something that I think will continue to evolve and push the envelope on how we communicate with our peers as well as our family and friends. With the evolution of data and 5G we are bound to see more “killer apps” get created. AR and VR will be at the forefront of how we communicate and engage.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

I ensure that by the end of the week, I have read through all my business emails and have made sure that I have archived them or responded. If I don’t have an answer, I tend to snooze anything I cannot respond for the next week. Email is still the #1 form of communication to anyone outside of our company.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Be patient, always integrate your ideas because usually, the first idea is not the best.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

A successful company is really based on the quality of support you provide your customers.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Save your money. Cash is king and make sure you are always in a position to make decisions that do not involve sacrifice because you don’t have the money to execute on your ideas.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

We focused on getting a product or MVP (Minimum Viable Product) out as quickly as possible usually within 3 months. Listen to your customers as they will tell you pretty easily if the product has legs.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

Hiring the wrong people. This is key as you are only as strong as your weakest link. Make sure you constantly review your team and ensure they are growing with you and the company. Don’t be shy to cut your losses.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Build privacy related products, this is an area that will continue to grow.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

$100 gift card to Amazon and giving to an employee for outstanding achievement, and making sure others in the company recognize this.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

Slack is by far the best piece of software we use to help declutter your inbox with internal emails and go to online chat.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t – just a very practical look at how you should evaluate your day to day decisions and know when to move on.

What is your favorite quote?

“Keep the change you filthy animal”

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