Mr. McFarlen is no stranger to the Entrepreneurial community in our province. The Business Incubator Manager at the Cultivator powered by Conexus, Jordan has a unique view of the business ecosystem. Getting his start in the high school education system, Jordan several years ago joined Conexus to help run the Cultivator, a hotspot in Canada for technology-based startups.

Fall in love with the problem

Many entrepreneurs create a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist. Jordan says in his world it’s called “innovators bias” where founders fall in love with their ideas to a fault. Always revisit the problem. Always ask yourself, “are we solving a problem or creating a solution for something that doesn’t exist.

Talk to your customers

Many people get too far down the rabbit hole without talking to customers. Customers know what they like, how they like it and how much they’re willing to pay for it. You are not your customer, you need to get out from behind the screen and talk to who’s using your products or services. You may be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

Will they miss you when you’re gone?

Jordan talks about when you’re giving away something for free be it a free trial, free service, free tester, take it away from your potential customer. You’ll soon find out if they miss you or better yet, if they demand your service back then you know you’re on to something.

You want to be a painkiller, not a multivitamin

We have a great conversation but one part that stands out in my mind was Jordan’s point on “You want to be a painkiller, not a multivitamin”. Do customers need you a little bit at a time, or do you solve a major problem for customers? He says the problem with many entrepreneurs is they assume their business is a multivitamin when they need to be thinking like a pain killer.