A self-described serial entrepreneur, 25-year-old Parth Patel is the co-founder and CEO of Tazwiz Inc., an online marketplace that enables users to connect with each other to complete task-based work. The initial platform under the name EMS (Employee Management System) was born in Patel’s Scarborough, Ontario bedroom in 2017. It failed miserably and after some tweaking re-emerged as iHired, which then morphed into Tazwiz by 2018. After winning several startup competitions, Patel and his team knew they were on to something. In 2019, they secured pre-seed investment and opened their first office in Oshawa,Ontario. From there, the team expanded from 3 to 10, plus another 8 overseas. With a mobile app developed and a successful soft launch, Tazwiz received its closed seed round from a U.S. investor. Since the official launch in 2020, the company has grown 600% monthly and has launched four initiatives: a partnership with the Ontario Long Term Care Association to build the hybrid Link to LTC, which matches students in the medical field with long term healthcare facilities;Foodwiz, a contactless grocery delivery service for ethnic communities;TazwizCare Aid, a financial aid program for entrepreneurs, startups and SME’s to access cash and credits on the Tazwiz platform donated from half of the company’s closing seed money ($260K); and Instant Tasks, a tax service for students, the self-employed and small business. Entrepreneurship is in Patel’s blood. While pursuing his computer science degree at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology, he co-founded a few businesses including Carbon Tetrad, a web design and business branding company and Hype Fashion, an online e-commerce store where the primary focus was on providing options to underserved students. Patel credits Seneca’s business incubator, Helix for helping him take his online marketplace idea to thenext level. Always in pursuit of higher learning and self-education, Patel is currently pursuing his Master of Management Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Queens University’s Smith School of Business.
Where did the idea for Tazwiz come from?
Tazwiz started off as EMS – Employee Management System, a software we developed for employment agencies to use to manage their internal operations. However, after we did our market validation we failed horribly and didn’t even manage to get one client to buy our software. We didn’t give up. We quickly took apart the business model and turned it upside down and created iHired. Over months of trial and testing iHired turned into Tazwiz, the platform we know of today.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
Typically, my starts at 7:45 AM. By 8:30 I’m ready to go and do my morning prayers and meditation. I take my first meeting at 9:30 with our marketing team, we typically ideate on upcoming projects and plan out the day. Then I leave for the office at 10:45 and conduct a stand-up meeting with the team to plan out the action items and things that need to be done. Work ends at 6:45 PM, I head home and have dinner with my family and then get back to work till about 1-2 AM. One important thing that helps me be productive is my To-Do list. Every day I wake up and write my To-Do list, everything I want to complete and need to do is written and planned out before I even step out of my bed.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Some of my best ideas have come to me while in the shower. On a serious note, usually the best way I’m able to bring ideas to life is by talking about them with my team. We have this remarkably interesting activity which I learned from another person. When someone says an idea, you don’t knock it down or say anything negative instead you say “And we can …” something positive to add on and build on the idea. This way we can take the idea as broad as possible and as a group narrow it down afterwards.
What’s one trend that excites you?
Definitely entrepreneurship, more people prefer to work for themselves now which is really exciting. The digitization of everything, as we are seeing, technology is being applied everywhere. And of course, the Gig economy. Full time jobs are being replaced by task-based jobs and that’s good for Tazwiz.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I’m not afraid of failure. I embrace it because it is from failure, we learn the most and can figure out what isn’t going to work and what is going to work. The faster you fail, the faster you’ll win.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would tell myself to take more risks and go after what scared me the most. I would also live outside my comfort zone a lot more.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Entrepreneurship is all about how fast you can execute with a broken or no product at all because we all have access to the same tool. However, the person that’ll win is the person that’ll use the tool first.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Look back at how far I’ve come and reconnect with friends as much as possible – even if things are super busy, always make time for family and friends. Meditate and morning prayers to help the mind be in peace.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
The word ‘No’ wasn’t a part of my dictionary. My entrepreneurial journey has been filled with nothing but “No’s,” however I never accepted that as an answer and always found a way to make whatever I’m working on possible. I focused on how hard I could work, and sheer will to not give up and keep trying no matter how many tries it took.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
My first venture was a failure (EMS). I learned everything I could and used it to my advantage and from the ashes of that failure I was able to create iHired which lead to Tazwiz. Even though I felt defeated and, a bit angry that employment companies wanted to stay in “the way they’ve always done things,” I was also motivated to figure out a way to show them that what I was offering was the tool of the future. So instead of trying to sell them on the idea, I built my own employment platform.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Gig economy. Find your niche “Barbers”, “Makeup Artists”, “3-D printers” and create a supply and demand economy and act as the tool that connects the customer and the tasker.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
I invested in an E-reader and it has been the best $100 I’ve ever spent. Reading is very important as an entrepreneur, you’re able to get mentorship from great businessmen and women without actually meeting them or even knowing them at all.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?
Google Calendars has become my best friend, it helps me stay organized and on top of everything.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
Tribe of Mentors by Timothy Ferriss
It is a wonderful book for entrepreneurs as it has snippets from successful individuals from the industry.
What is your favorite quote?
Failure will be a part of your process; persistence will be the key to your success – Parth Patel
Key Learnings:
• Build a team that will work as hard as you will, but you’ll always have to put in that 1% extra
• Embrace failure and learn as much as you can from all your downfalls
• Live outside your comfort zone because you can never create a successful business living inside the comfort zone.
Carlyn runs the day-to-day publishing operation here at ideamensch and interacts with our awesome customers and entrepreneurs. She is likely editing this with a cat on her lap.