From Heritage to Hustle: Embracing Roots and Rising High | Ft. Akshay Maharaj Ep.062 - My Thick Accent

Episode Transcript
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Gurasis (00:00):
So on this podcast, we have celebrated the inspiring
stories of many first generationof immigrants who are making
remarkable strides in theirfields, blending cultural
heritage with fresh perspectivesthat enrich Canada's diverse
landscape.
Today, I'm thrilled tointroduce someone who is
recognized as Canada's top youthentrepreneur of the year 2023

(00:20):
by Leaders of Innovators.
He's the co-founder of Avview,a multimedia translation,
dubbing and content distributioncompany, helping creators
expand and monetizeinternational audiences.
He has even worked closely withfamous YouTuber Logan Paul.
His journey is fueled by anunwavering self-belief and
determination.
Drawing inspiration from themindset of top athletes, he

(00:43):
knows that mental strength oftenoutweighs technical skills.
His perseverance and trust inhis decisions have been key to
his success.
Please welcome Akshay Maharaj.

Akshay (00:56):
Thank you so much.
Really excited to be here todayand hopefully get in some
really interesting topics andtalk about the journey and where
we are today and a little bitmore about who I am behind the
scenes of a view.

Gurasis (01:08):
Absolutely very, very excited to have you on the show,
akshay.
I'm looking forward to thisconversation because just seeing
that, how old you are and thework that I've been doing, I was
pretty inspired and I feel likemany of the listeners will be
extremely inspired.
But just by the, by the sharedwork that you have done and even
the trajectory that you havefollowed throughout your life,
so very, very excited to getinto all that.
Thank you?

Akshay (01:28):
Yeah, I mean, it's been a really interesting journey,
right.
I mean this entire path startedfor me in this idea of high
school.
And so you know, when I was 16,17 years old, I had no idea
what the future had for me otherthan this path of formal
education and potentially goingto this route of sciences med

(01:49):
school and whatever comes afterthe fact of that, but obviously
a bit of a curveball, to say theleast.

Gurasis (01:57):
Absolutely.
We'll get more deep into that,but before that.
So this episode is part of myseason two of the podcast and
I'm trying to turn up the funfactor a little bit, because why
not?
So I'm going to start with somefun questions.
Tell me what's your go-tobreakfast.

Akshay (02:15):
Oh, this is a tough one.
I might get some flack on this.
I'm not much of a breakfasteater in general, I normally
have a double shot espresso witha little bit of milk, but today
, actually this morning, I had amaple walnut bread with this
organic Nutella.

(02:35):
You can say it's like theorganic hazelnut chocolate
spread.
It's really really good, reallytasty, and it tastes like
there's no artificial sweetenersnothing in it.
Maybe that might become my newgo-to breakfast.

Gurasis (02:49):
Well, sounds amazing.
I think I'll definitely give ita try.
Okay, so the next is share afavorite song or a dialogue or a
movie and tell us why it'ssignificant to you too.

Akshay (03:09):
So there was a point in my life back in university
second year university wheremyself and my housemate used to
challenge each other to work out.
Just that's, it's very simple.
Just, we have to work out oncea day and we had a calendar we
had posted on our wall.
Every day we'd work out, wecross off this little box and at
the end of our workouts we tryto push each other as much as
possible to really really go ashard as we can to get the best

(03:29):
benefits, not only stressing outour body but also pushing our
mind, because that's somethingthat we want to train.
And at the very end of ourworkout, there was three songs
that we always, always played,and one song in particular was
from the movie Fast and furious,uh, and it was when they were
out in the pacific islands, yeah, and it was called coming home

(03:53):
and the way it starts is just somoving.
I mean, you have the, theinstruments that come in, then
you have the actual musicianthat starts singing.
And what triggered thismotivation for me was I thought
back to my heritage during this,because of my family being
brought up in the PacificIslands, it felt like I was not

(04:15):
doing this on my own, but I hadthe force of everyone with me to
push myself even that extramile.
And even to this day, when I goand play hockey or I have a big
meeting coming up or I havesomething where I need to push
myself, I will throw on thatsong and instantly, instantly, I
will feel just rush ofmotivation, inspiration, just to
get back at it.

Gurasis (04:34):
Wow, I love that story.
You know.
I'm sure like we all have thisone song or something that hits
you at some time, whether itmaybe it could be like a good
moment or a sad moment at timesas well, and like pulled you out
from that you know grief orsadness, so I love that.
Thank you for sharing that.

Akshay (04:51):
Music has always been such a big factor of my life and
even recently I fell in lovewith this one trombone player
from.
He used to play at a collegeout in the US.
Player from he used to play ata college out in the US.
And the way they play, thepassion, the motivation, the

(05:12):
pride they have, oh it'sunbelievable and I'm such a big,
big, big fan of that.
Hank Bilal is his name.
He's a phenomenal, phenomenaltrombone player.

Gurasis (05:19):
So if you had to teach like one phrase or something in
your mother tongue I'm not surelike what would I say your
mother tongue would be whatwould you teach us and what does
it mean?

Akshay (05:33):
Oh, this is horrible for me.
This is absolutely horriblebecause and one thing funny
enough as I go through thisentire journey, I am upset at my
parents, more so upset atmyself, because I was never
willing to really pick up mymother tongues, from both my
mom's side and my dad's side,which in the past, I was so

(05:55):
embarrassed of it.
So why are you speaking to mein Hindi?
Why are you speaking to me inGujarati?
Speak to me in English?
What's going on here?
But now, as I get older, I'mrealizing what the heck was I
thinking.
I wish I knew this, I wish Iknew the languages better, I
wish I understood them better.
I'm at a phase where I canunderstand most, but when it
comes to speaking, I am horrible, beyond horrible.

(06:20):
So that's something thathopefully, next time we have a
conversation, I can give yousomething, I can teach you
something that's in my mothertongue, but for now,
unfortunately, I am so out whenit comes to that.

Gurasis (06:31):
Okay, but I'm still gonna put you on the spot once
again.
There must be something youknow, some word that comes
naturally to you or somethingthat comes very often in
conversations at home could be,or maybe a name of a dish,
probably.

Akshay (06:46):
Oh goodness, okay, so, okay, this that I will tell.
Okay.
So there is this one Fijiandish that my grandma would make
and she'll make it really justfor me, because I seem to be the
only one in my family thatseems to like it a lot.
It's called Roro, roro and Roro.
You eat it with bath, you seeit with rice, and it's this

(07:09):
Fijian plant.
It's similar to spinach Similar, but not exactly and they soak
it, they boil it and they mix itdown with coconut milk and they
add spice to that and it's thislike soupy, uh, milky, spinachy
uh dish that you can eat withreally anything.

(07:33):
And it is literally my everyany type of holiday festival.
If my mom ever says, okay, Iwant to make something more
traditional, what do you want?
I'm like, okay, please makemore, because I love that dish
and even right now, thinkingabout it, I start craving it,
maybe in my head.

Gurasis (07:49):
Trying to get my mom to make something awesome.
So it's called Roro, right,roro, yeah, that's correct.
So if you could teleport backto a particular place, you know
where would you go and whatwould you do.

Akshay (08:01):
I think if I had to go back and I was actually
reflecting on this not too longago I would love to go back to
India when I visited there in2010.
And the reason why I would loveto go back is because when I
went there, I never reallyappreciated the culture and,
being someone that has Indianheritage, I was so scared.

(08:26):
I was this kid who visited thisnew country that had no idea
what the really, what thelanguages were.
I was so skeptical of the food.
I was so tucked away here whereI live, where when I explored I
just this first mindset wasjust defensive Okay, put up my
blockersers, not try toentertain a bunch of stuff.

(08:47):
Try to become more western while, I was there, rather than
experiencing the culture foritself.
And so I would absolutely loveto go back and and you might say
, okay, actually, why don't yougo back now?
The reason why I want to goback then is because I was with
my family, and I was, inparticular, with my grandfather
before he passed, and to be withhim in that moment and

(09:08):
understand that experience andtake in the culture, take in the
religion, understand my roots,my heritage, even better would
be something I would do in aheartbeat to give me the
opportunity to do that, and Iwould love to revisit that
moment wow, I think it's alsobecause when you were in your
teenage, you become sort of likea rebellious and you just want
to embrace canada and the placeyou have grown up in.

Gurasis (09:30):
And what is this india?
Why they don't know language.
I think that's why you sort ofnever appreciated it back then,
right, 100.

Akshay (09:37):
I mean you.
Yeah, I grew up in thisneighborhood where, at the time
uh, you know it it was majorityCaucasian individuals and a lot
of farmland, and I played hockey, I was playing soccer and
everyone my peer group was allCaucasian and I never had this
mix of South Asian in my lifeoutside of seeing my family and

(10:00):
my relatives on Sundays andwhatnot, but this was a big gap
of my life that now, as Ireflect back, I was missing In
the moment you don't evenrealize.
And so I feel like, 100%, you'reright.
I mean, you have this idea ofoh, this is weird, right, this
is weird, strange, this isdifferent.
And I think back, I kick myself, I'm like why was I thinking

(10:22):
like that?
I need to appreciate, embracethis.

Gurasis (10:25):
Yeah, I think this would be a great segue to talk
about.
Talk more about your childhoodand your formative years.
Tell us a little bit more aboutthat and also when your parents
moved.

Akshay (10:35):
Yeah for sure.
So I'll start with more of myparents' story.
My mom was born and brought uphere in Canada, but her parents
had moved from India before theywere in state of Gujarat to
Canada in the 60s and then mydad came here to Canada in the

(10:55):
70s and so they both had most oftheir life grown up here.
I mean the fact that my dadcame from he came from Fiji at
the time and he was only 10years old when he came to Canada
.
So you know a lot of his lifewas here.
And when my brother and I wereborn, you know we lived in

(11:16):
Brampton for a short period oftime then.
We being very whiteneighborhood, really at its core
at the time.
It was something that you knowwe had to really try to fit in,
I guess you could say, and soall my extracurricular
activities, my school, was fullof me trying to fit in a little

(11:40):
bit more and not trying to fitthis mold of what the
traditional culturals and Indianpaths were, and a lot of those
were in ways forgotten in public.
But we still maintained a senseof cultural identity at home
and traditions at home and myparents brought us up in this
more of a Hindu spiritualhousehold more than anything,

(12:03):
and that's something that youknow I definitely really
appreciate, more today than Idid back then?

Gurasis (12:08):
What about the celebrating Indian festivals?
Or were there any enough Indianfamilies or friends that you
were visiting?

Akshay (12:15):
So our family group, we maintained quite small, quite
tight-knit, I would say.
We did celebrate all the majorfestivals, be it Navratri,
diwali, everything you name it.
We were doing something for it.
That's something that my momand dad always maintained in our

(12:36):
life.
Even to this day, we make surethat all these traditions are
still being taken care of, and Iunderstand and appreciate why
we're doing certain things today, you know.
An example is I just bought acar recently and the first thing
I did after driving off the lot, you go to a temple and you get
a blast.
Exactly, you did all the, all,the all the puja there.
And you know, I think that that, to me, having that sense of

(13:00):
tradition, was very importantand as I continue to grow up and
, you know, as I continue tolive, it's something that I want
to hold dearly to and somethingthat I value a lot more, I
would say, today thanappreciative, than in the past.

Gurasis (13:20):
What I'm going to ask is something like I think I
already know the answer, but wasthere any specific role models
in your family, or maybe thecommunity, who inspired you
during your upbringing?

Akshay (13:29):
It's always been a running saying in my family that
my grandfather has been a verybig part of the success that we
have here as a family.
First off, when I grew up hewas this stern, big and he was
the chief of police at Fiji.
So he was a big, big guy and hewas very tough, but he had such

(13:51):
a gentle soul and he just caredabout everyone else so so well
and he really valued everyone'sopinions, thoughts.
He was very meticulous.
He didn't say much but when hedid speak he was very precise
with what he said.
He valued education.
It was a big, big part of hislife.
And so, you know, I look back atsome of the things I've done in

(14:11):
the past and every time I had abig milestone or achieved
something in school or inextracurriculars, you know he
would be the first person Iwould call and say you know,
this is what happened, this iswhat's going on, and so
definitely that was a bigmilestone, a big, big individual
in my life.
And then, you know, as I beganto get a little bit older and I

(14:35):
started to really look up to mybrother quite substantially and
the path that he's taken and theway he deals with conflict in
particular, was something that Istrive to do as well, and so
I'd say these are the two major,major, major role models in my
life that I look up to a lot.

Gurasis (14:53):
And how would you say, like your parents' values and
expectations, you know, somehowshaped your educational and
career choices?

Akshay (15:02):
I by no means am I the perfect mold for what my parents
maybe had set out.
I would say my brother isprobably a better mold of that.
But you know, ever since I wasyoung, they've always expected
the most out of both my brotherand I, whether it's

(15:24):
extracurriculars, whether it'sacademics.
The expectation of you get 100%the expectation of.
We will give you all theresources, we will take away any
challenges so you can focus onwhat's most important, so you
can thrive in school andtherefore thrive in life.
Thrive in school and thereforethrive in life.

(15:46):
And so appreciative ofsomething and so grateful for
some of the opportunities thatthey had provided me when I was
younger, because it gave me anopportunity to work on myself
and also work on what wasimportant at that time, whether
it be academics orextracurriculars.
Fast forward, you know, a fewyears post high school.
You know that's when definitelysome conflict arise.

(16:06):
When I went up and took thefirst biggest decision of my
life was going in for businessoutside of this world of
sciences, and that was obviouslysomething that I had support in
at its core.
But also I knew deep down thatthis was a path that had a lot
of ambiguity, had a lot of doubt, because it's something that no

(16:27):
one in our family had everpursued this side of business
we're very direct of.
You go to science or you go touniversity for a degree.
Then you set yourself up for amore of a formal degree
afterwards, whether it's.
Md or PhD or master's in somesort, and then you go wherever,
whatever right.
It's a very clear cut path.

Gurasis (16:47):
It's like what you decided, so to say.

Akshay (16:50):
Exactly exactly.
And so taking this more of anunconventional path, you know,
was a bit of a challenge atfirst, but then, you know,
moving forward into some of thedecisions and then also taking
more of a reduced course loadand nearly I mean I haven't
dropped out of school, but closeto was definitely a lot of

(17:11):
tough discussion, a lot of youknow, understanding of you know
here's what I see myself doingand here's the impact I have,
and I'm sure we'll get into thatlater on the line.
But but yeah, I mean definitelytough, but nonetheless they
believed in me and some of mybiggest supporters today are my
parents.

Gurasis (17:30):
Definitely.
You know, uh, I had somebody onthe podcast.
I think she was my third guest,so she was originally a
Vietnamese.
Like her family background wasVietnamese, but she was born in
Russia and whenever she would goto school she would say that I
was kind of torn between twoworlds of outside being a
Russian and then coming backbeing a Vietnamese.

(17:50):
Did you at any point have thatduring your childhood, or maybe
like high school time?

Akshay (17:57):
To be honest, I don't believe.
So.
I feel like, you know, myidentity growing up was always
this idea of you know I am aCanadian.
In a way it was always kind ofmasked with thoughts and I feel
like that was brought on bytwofold, Like one being the peer

(18:17):
group I surrounded myself withall had that core identification
, had that core identification,but then too, I think, given the
extracurricular activities andjust the things I surrounded
myself outside of, just peerswere also just wrapped around
this thread of Canadian identity, and you know, I look back at
that.
it's something that you know.

(18:38):
Has that really impacted mylife?
I don't know.
I think at my core I stillbelieve, you know, that I have
this feeling of, you know,gujarati side from my mom and
this Fijian side of my dad, andthat's something that I will
never leave and so I'm veryproud of having.
But I think, you know, as Ilook forward to pursuing my life

(18:58):
, and maybe this side of Fijian,this side of Gujarati, will
come out more and more, maybebased off who I surround myself
in the future.
But again, I think right nowit's so wrapped and intertwined
with this Canadian feeling thatyou know, it's something that
I'm always so open, right.
I mean, if my life turns in away where I want to, you know,

(19:19):
explore more of this culturalside, I am so excited for that
and I'm so eager.

Gurasis (19:30):
I'm so excited and ready for you know you do talk
about, like um, saying that youhad the canadian identity, but
if you see that canada ingeneral is also pretty diverse,
right and does a country likecanada which is so diverse, has
that had any influence of yourworldview in any way?

Akshay (19:41):
uh, yes and no, right for sure, I think.
I think we're seeing a rise ofimmigrants, whether it's from
India, whether it's from China,whether it's from all around the
world, coming to Canada and Ifeel like I love that, I love
seeing it, I think there's asense of diversity that is
coming here and that's somethingI always appreciate towards the

(20:02):
Canadian ecosystem.
I don't know, and I think thisis mainly because of where I'm
located geographically,literally, geographically is.
You know, I'm just not exposedto so many of them, right?
I think if I was living morecloser to the GTA and I was
living in pockets of the GTAwhere I was embodied with the

(20:23):
food and the more of thecultural side and the religious
centers and the people, 100%, Ifeel like I would be more, more,
you know, impacted by that.
But I think right now, justgiven how segmented I am from
those communities, it it reallydoesn't impact me as much as

(20:43):
maybe I thought it would.
To be honest.
I mean, look at, I mean,ancaster is, as I mentioned,
right, majority Caucasian andeven when I go and play hockey,
it's a handful, maybe one or twoethnic individuals right in the
entire league, and so, you know, you definitely appreciate
seeing them.
I know I have a bond with them,but at the same time, it's so

(21:06):
one-offs.
Unless, you know, I commutedowntown and then, of course, I
have the team there that is fullof ethnic individuals, which I
love.

Gurasis (21:17):
So now, akshay, I would like to pivot towards your
transition from science tobusiness.
You know, transition fromscience to business.
You know, and if I'm not wrong,you were in med school working
in your neuroscience lab doingrna research and alzheimer's
research and all that stuff, youknow.
Then, when your co-founder, youknow, garnett, introduced this
business idea to you and I alsoheard the story that where, uh,

(21:40):
you were in your, I believe,english lecture and a teacher
asked you, you told her thatyou're feeling pretty lost and
she asked you to go for a walk,and then you came back and
decided to go for it.
Right, tell me, like, whathappened in that walk and how
did that help you make yourdecision?

Akshay (21:58):
So the whole neuroscience side.
I wasn't even in any universityat the time, I was actually in
high school doing that.
So it was in my grade 11 andgrade 12 year in particular
summer I was working at McMasterUniversity and part of the
neuroscience and lab and I wasdoing RNA research there.
Really, really amazingexperience working with master's

(22:18):
students, phd students,undergraduate students and that
really, you know, furthered mylove for science.
Actually being in that wet laband when I was making this
decision applying touniversities, I was caught up in
this idea of I have thisscience comfortability right,

(22:41):
that's my comfort zone, I canfall back on it, I understand it
, I know I can do it.
I know what my path is going tobe like.
But then I have this feeling ofbusiness and at the time, web
Transit International waspicking up, we were making money
, we were making six figures ashigh school kids and I was like
this is great, this is awesome,this is so much fun.

(23:01):
Why can't I do this for therest of my life?
And that that was also thisfeeling.
I was sitting in in an englishclass and it was during my ib
english class and it was near,right near the end of the of the
year, during, uh, april, apriltime, and we had, uh, you know,
already written our ib exam.
So we're just there, we're just,really just present in the

(23:21):
class and my teacher, danSheeler he was one of the wisest
guys you know, very direct,very to the point, very literate
guy.
And I told him, mr Sheeler, I'mreally caught up in this loop
of do I go down the science sideor do I go down the business
side?
And he's like what do you wantto do?

(23:41):
I'm like I don't know.
I have all these opportunities.
I have so much to go down thispath of this path, this path.
And he literally told me he'slike okay, actually leave the
class, go for a walk and comeback.
When you come back, I want youto have a better understanding
as to the directions you want totake towards this.
I said, okay, sure, as a highschool kid, I'm like you want to

(24:03):
take.
You know, let me go for a walk,I'll go for a walk and the high
school I went to has big, bigland, all these soccer fields,
maybe like 10, eight soccerfields, massive, massive land.
Yeah, I went for a little walk.
As I was going for a walk, Iwas thinking in my mind and it's
interesting because I look backat that conversation I had with

(24:24):
myself and how I was thinkingabout all the alternatives,
thinking about the differentdirections I wanted to take,
thinking about the plans Iwanted to do.
I wasn't a huge risk taker,right.
I mean, my entire life was verycomfortable.
Everything I needed was, forthe most part, provided.
It was a very comfortable life,and it was at that point of

(24:45):
time I realized what's going todifferentiate me today than
anyone else is being able totake on this risk and being
comfortable with taking on risk,whether that's risk in sciences
, whether that's risk inbusinesses.
And as I came back around andwent back to the class, I told

(25:05):
them I want to pursue somethingthat has risk, because if I feel
like I can push myself throughthat challenge, through those
hurdles, I will come out abetter person than when I came
in.
And I think his answer to thatwas just okay, right, like he,

(25:25):
he didn't.
I mean he doesn't care, rightFor him.
It's it's like you need tofigure this out on your own.
I will help you, but at the endof the day it's a decision,
absolutely.
And after that I had, you know,pushed my application to Queens.
Pushed my application to Queens.
It was my one business school Ihad applied to and gone into.
The rest of it were allsciences.

(25:46):
And even during my IB exams,when I was writing it, my
parents went to Queens, touredthe business school.
I hadn't even gone to thecampus, I had no idea.
I played a hockey tournament inKingston in the past.
That's all I knew.
It was a hockey, a smallston,in the past, and that that's all
I knew.
Was this like it was a hockey,small town, whatever it is.
And, um, you know, with thatlast little push, I said to

(26:10):
myself okay, let's, let's dothis, let's just try, let's try
it out, let's push myself to toget there and let's see what
happens.

Gurasis (26:17):
And the rest is history right yeah, and you know I've
also heard you talking aboutmaking decisions in that
particular time.
Somehow, at that moment, youhad this ideologies of keeping
doing things for the sake ofpleasing people.
You have talked about that also, I've heard you.
So at that moment, whathappened?

(26:38):
What was that?
You know, euphoria moment.
You were like, ok, I'm notgoing to care about all these
things anymore, I'm going to dowhat I want.

Akshay (26:48):
What happened there yeah , I mean, this is something that
I live by today is this idea ofyou have to sometimes be a
little selfish, and I feel likewe're in this world where the
nice people can sometimes betaken advantage of really
quickly, really, really quickly,whether it's taking advantage
of really quickly, really,really quickly, whether it's
taking advantage of time,resources, financially taking

(27:09):
advantage of and I felt like Iwas living my entire life to
just impress this idea of what Icould become Parents.
You know how, how great would itbe for them to go to an event
saying, oh yeah, both my kidsare doctors, physicians.

(27:29):
It's great, right.
It's like, as I ego has a pride, you have that feeling of, yeah
, doctors, right, and and and.
Then you have this push ofsociety.
Okay, you know, you made it,you're, you're, you're a
physician, you're a doctor,you're, you're at the top of the
game.
You push through what everyonesaid you couldn't and you went
through all these eight, nine,ten years of school and I was

(27:52):
sick of it.
I told myself, what am I goingto keep doing?
Am I going to keep livingthrough the lens of other people
?

Gurasis (28:03):
Am I going to start making my?

Akshay (28:04):
own decisions and start living the path that I want to
live and that honestly resonatedso well within me, where, from
that moment onwards, I startedto understand that there's only
one person in this world thatcan make these decisions, and
it's myself.
I'm happy to take in all theinformation, happy to listen,
give me the advice, give me theresources, give me whatever I

(28:26):
need, but at the end of the day,I have to deal with the
consequences of those actionsthat I make, and in the past I
didn't have consequences becauseeverything was so
straightforward, my life was solinear, it was so easy to make
decisions you go to school, youcome home, you go to
extracurriculars, you study, youeat, you go back to sleep.
It's so linear when, if Irealize that, if I actually want

(28:49):
to disrupt something in thisworld, I want to create change,
I want to do something impactful, I need to make my own
decisions towards that.
So that was a mentality and Istarted to really really
understand that during my secondyear of university, after
coming off of a reallychallenging first year, a very,
very tough first year, Irealized I had to substantially

(29:12):
turn my life around in some wayand start understanding who is.

Gurasis (29:16):
Who is the person in here and who did I want to be no
, I love that and I'm so gladyou did that and I really hope
somehow it inspires ourlisteners also, because I think
I've talked about this actuallyso many times on the podcast.
You know, in the 60, 70conversations that especially
the people from the Asianheritage right, the common
denominator is this that doingthings, keeping in mind the

(29:39):
social ramification of things,you know, and all those people
who have actually not caredanymore, are the ones who are
actually, you know, making markright now.
You know, just look at yourselfright now.
You know, and for me also I'mmy father, I think I have never,
I didn't even try the threegeneration old business.

(29:59):
I completely gave it away.
I said I'm gonna do somethingof my own.
I packed my bag six years agoand I just came to canada.
I was like I'm to do somethingof my own.
I packed my bag six years agoand I just came to Canada.
I was like I'm going to dosomething of my own.
It's not that I hated thebusiness, I just felt like maybe
the way it was being run frompast so many years, that's not
the way I want to do it andthat's not exactly something I
don't see myself doing.

(30:19):
I want to do something of myown.
That was the decision.
It was hard, obviously, toconvince parents and just like
you said that, oh, our child isa doctor, he's a physician in a
society, in a group setting.
You are saying the same was inmy case, because everybody from
my maternal side is a doctor,all of them are dentists, and
they wanted me to kind of getinto the same thing.

(30:41):
I said, no, I'm not going toget into that, so Can I get into
the same?

Akshay (30:47):
thing.
I said, no, I'm not going toget into that.
So I totally, totallyunderstand what you mentioned.
That's right.
I mean the pressure is really,really tough towards it.
And I mean I think back to someof the discussions of, you know
, not pursuing law school, whichwas that was a big push.
Okay, go down this law schoolpath, go down this professional
degree path.
And I don't blame my parents.
In fact I feel like I would bein the same position as my
parents if I had a kid, becauseit's security at the end of the

(31:11):
day.
Right, it's security.
You have these degrees.
These degrees open up doors.
Those doors open up for somekind of financial security at
the end of the day and whateverit might be, and I don't blame
them at all for that.
I think I think what they didmakes a lot of sense.
But at the same time, you know,I and I have this saying where,

(31:32):
like you know, if I had to betall the chips in the world on
someone, I'd bet them on myself,because I believe that much in
my ability to figure it out,even if I don't have all the
information, I will just figureit out right, and you can say
that, everyone can say that, butactually believing it enough,
telling yourself that, enough toactually do it, is something

(31:54):
different.

Gurasis (31:55):
Yeah, that's, that's, that's what differentiates yeah,
definitely, going from thatpoint of a a like thinking about
and then actually doing andtaking that leap and going to
the B is a huge jump right andit takes guts and and a lot of,
I would say, like criticism also.
You know, and just like yousaid, our parents are not wrong.
You know, they are kind ofthinking about our security and

(32:17):
obviously they didn't know anybetter.
And I think I always say thatwe should really stop blaming
our parents and, like you said,if we would be in their place we
would do the same thing,because that's so much secure
path.

Akshay (32:26):
Exactly, I mean, they're so used to you.
Go to undergrad, you get your.
You get this path, this path,this path.
You're done.
Good, done, okay good.
Start your life right.
But oh, I can't start my lifenow.

Gurasis (32:45):
I don't.
This is my life also.
Also, getting this exposure tointernet had definitely opened
so many avenues to explore.
Right, and maybe that'ssomething which wasn't back then
and didn't know any better.
You know now there's so much todo, when at some I always say
this also like it would be sohard for our parents to even
imagine something like thiswould exist, like 20, 30 years
down the line.

Akshay (33:01):
You know, having this, having this, everything's like a
one click distance we'recreating jobs for, or we're
training students rather forjobs that haven't been created
yet, right, I mean?
And when that's the case, thosemore traditional paths are now
really quickly dissipating.
Right, I mean?
We're not seeing the need forcertain things that we had to

(33:26):
study for five years for get aprofessional degree, for Gone
Vanished, because now we havethe technology to do that
automatically.
And it creates this idea ofwe've seen this transition over
the last 20 years.
What's the next 20 years?

Gurasis (33:45):
what's the next exactly ?
that to me is so exciting solet's just talk more about you
know of you, and obviouslystarting from uh web translators
international, you know thename.
Tell me a bit inception aboutthe whole idea.
And also I think I think Ithink I read some somewhere you

(34:06):
bootstrapped for four yearsright, sending those cold DMs
and not getting enough responses.
Also, talk to me about theinitial years, because obviously
not getting any response, youknow nothing at all.
Did you at any point questionthat?
Oh my God, what have I myselfgotten to?
You know, yeah, yeah, totally.

Akshay (34:29):
The journey of a view in this case WTI, web Transit
International was a bit of anunconventional one, given how
early we started the companyMyself, my co-founder, garnet,
who lives actually just a fewhouses down from me.
Garnet and I grew up togethersince kindergarten and so we've
always had this bond witheverything we did.
We always competed.
In school he played high levelhockey AAA.

(34:50):
Growing up, I played AA.
Growing up, we were alwayscompeted in like academics,
always tried to be as good aseach other and push each other
as much as possible.
And you know it came to me withthis idea of you know you spend
so much time in high school asmost high school students did at
that time, watching YouTubevideos.
Right, I mean, there was noTikTok, there was Vine had just

(35:13):
kind of finished and we had kindof we're a little bit young to
get on the whole Vine fan pageand you know we had watched our
favorite content creators peoplelike Roman Atwood, whose entire
message was smile more.
People like Jesse Wellens, andI loved his cinematography.
Casey Neistat was coming up atthe time and I loved his
cinematography.
Casey Neistat was coming up atthe time and you know we're

(35:33):
watching this content and hecame to me and said actually,
what if we translated thiscontent and globalized it a
little bit?
I said, okay, yeah, let's do it.
Sure why not?
Right, let's give it a.
What do I have to lose?
Right?
It's either I work on this or Igo work at a golf course or
work some kind of other job inthe summer to make some money

(35:54):
for university.
So I said, ok, let's try thisout.
So, without any businessknowledge at the time, I was a
science kid.
He was going down high schoolbusiness.
So, take high school business,whatever it is, you learn basic
finance and accounting and somemarketing, whatever.
And we had created this coupleemails, couple dms.

(36:18):
We started firing it off to ourfavorite content creators.
Nothing, no response, nothinglike okay, this is interesting.
Why aren't they replying to us?
We're gonna give them moremoney.
This, this is a no brainer.
You know, fast forward.
A couple months later we findout about this program called
DECA and it's a business programfor high school students where

(36:46):
you can compete against otherhigh school students.
In return, you can win inOntario and this idea of going
international and it's thiswhole thing around business.
And I said to myself andgarnett said, why don't we try
this and we can actually applysome of the learnings of our
business to this and maybe wecan make it to california for
internationals?
And we said, okay, let's, let's, let's do it's, try it out.

(37:09):
So we started following this30-page business plan outline
because we wanted to take on the30-page business report which
we had written.
We're in a 30-page businessplan and as we were writing it,
we started reaching out indifferent ways to understand
what it is to cold message.
We started to understand whatit is to look professional,
understand how to build a simplelanding page.

(37:30):
Things like this Went on.
Wix created a very simplelanding page.
Looked like some kind ofconsulting service, because it's
all of these guys in suits andties and it looks so weird.
But we started launching thatand within six months of our
first message we got a replyback from a creator named Logan,
Paul and Logan said to ussounds really cool, cool, I'd

(37:54):
love to hop on a call.
Okay, I'll pause there.
I mean, we're two 16 year oldkids starting this company and
we just hear back from at thetime which was one of the
biggest vine creators, hasn'teven just started transition to
youtube.
Uh, wants to hop on a call?
I was was baffled.
I mean, like, watch yourcontent, Logan, I'm a big fan.
Like this is awesome, Likeabsolutely let's hop on a call.

(38:15):
So a couple days roll around andI was sitting in my room, which
is just my bedroom, which isacross the hall here, and I had
this IKEA desk with this bigwhite glass on it to protect the
wood, and I had these markershere, similar to these dry erase
markers like this, and all overmy desk I wrote everything

(38:40):
about the business andeverything about Logan the
prices we can offer, thediscounts we can offer, the
value we can add to him, hisrecent videos, what he talked
about in his recent videos, whathe likes to do in his video,
everything all over my desk andI use this as like my notes.
Logan calls me.
It's about 8, 9 pm our time.

(39:01):
Talk to Logan.
Logan.
This is what we can do for you.
This is what we have in store.
After 30 minutes, he says Iwant to try this.
Okay, how do we get this thinggoing?
And um, the rest is history.
With logan, we did three freevideos for him in spanish and in
portuguese, and we um, westarted expanding that to five

(39:24):
languages and since 2017, wehave translated every single one
of his daily posts.
So quite a bit of content.
So if you actually go on hisYouTube channel any of the
videos from 2017, random one youclick on the little CC closed
caption button and you'll seethey appear in three to five
languages, depending on how farback you go.

(39:45):
And that created this snowballeffect, and you know it was.
At that moment, Garnet and Irealized okay, maybe we're onto
something, Maybe we're ontosomething.
And you know, we were these twohigh school students that were
clearing six figures a year inrevenue and we were very happy
with how things were running.
And I was in the back of myclass sending out emails on the
phone with like managers ofcontent creators while I should

(40:09):
be learning.
You know, functions andwhatever you learn in high
school math, you know it's funnyto look back at it, you know,
because it feels such a lifetimeago.
But that was only, you know, afew years ago.

Gurasis (40:22):
Wow, I'm totally in awe .
Like I told you in the starting, you know I'm so, so inspired
by you guys.
You know both of you when youwere in gardener.
I would love to have theopportunity to speak with him as
well, but tell me, like, afterhow many dms did logan actually
respond?

Akshay (40:38):
you guys back?
So we learned a few things.
Uh, number one is there's thisidea of hyper personalization,
and it's interesting becausebefore all these ai tools,
before all these AI tools,before all these mass email
tools, every email was soparticular.
When you got an email, it waswith a purpose of because I want
to send it to you Couldn't doall these mass email stuff, and

(41:02):
so we sent Logan two hyper,hyper personalized emails.
That's it, just two emails withwhat we do, how we can benefit
him, how much it costs.
I think it was like it was long.
It was like five paragraphsbecause we didn't know the full
like format of it.
It was long.
We're kids, and the first onethat we followed up I think it

(41:25):
was like a week or two later hereplied to that follow-up.
And it was a similar vibe whenwe messaged all the other
content creators, people likeFouseyTube right, who recently
blew up and now he's off and Ihope he gets better, but he was
one of our next customers and wehad people like yes Theory,
mark Rober, techsmart.
These are all the creators thatwe had worked with and it all

(41:49):
started with this hyper, hyper,hyper personalized email.
When I say hyper, I mean inliterally the first paragraph,
we talk about how we appreciatetheir content from the side of a
fan, and we told them we'rehere because we care about your
content, we want to see youthrive in international markets,
and that's still something thatwe do today.
You know, sure, we have theemail sequences, but before we

(42:10):
set up any sequences, we makesure that they're
hyper-personalized to everyonewe reach out to, because it's
reach out with the girls.

Gurasis (42:16):
That's a great takeaway .
You know hyper-personalizingthings.
I think that's what has workedfor you guys, but, like you just
said, you guys were just highschool kids.
Did that boost your ego in anyway?

Akshay (42:28):
uh, at the time I mean you know it definitely it was
great walking around the highschool halls knowing we have
this and and everyone.
I mean such a small communitywe lived in so everyone knew
what we're building.
Everyone knew kind of whatwe're doing.
we were known as, like the decakids and high school and whatnot
, uh, and so definitely, youknow, no complaints around that,
but uh, you know, as we beganto transition into university,

(42:51):
you know that's when a lot ofimposter syndromes start to
settle in and that's when Irealized that I'm a small fish
in a massive pond.
And even to this day, when Ithink about successes and the
highs we have and the revenuewe're generating, and then I
look at some of the othercompanies that are thriving in
this Canadian ecosystemecosystem or in the
international ecosystem, I'mlike I have so much more work to

(43:15):
do right, like I am so small incomparison to what we could
potentially be, and again, it'sa driving factor.
But at the same time, you know,I, in a couple or a month from
now, I'm going to be speaking atthe collision conference here
in toronto 40000 attendees,alongside a content creator that
has 8 million subscribers onYouTube, and you know I think

(43:35):
about the position I'll be in atthat time.
It's like, you know, what did Ido to deserve to be here, right
?
What value can I add?
And you start questioningyourself, you start doubting
yourself a little bit, right?
You have some of the biggestfounders, ceos, sitting on those
stages and then it's me, right?
And so, you know, you have thatself-belief of you know you got
there, but that's the same time, you know, something I've
always struggled with is thisimposter syndrome of do I

(43:58):
deserve to be here, right?
Have I earned my spot here?
I don't pull in 100 milliondollars in revenue like these
other companies, so what valuecan I start thinking about that,
right?

Gurasis (44:07):
which can lead to a very down, very bad downward
spiral yeah yeah yeah, actuallyI was about to ask you about the
imposter syndrome, but youalready mentioned it's, uh, it's
something that a lot offounders you know unfortunately
have to deal with so actually,can you like walk us quickly
through someone who is listeningto this, who would like to like

(44:29):
work with you guys orcollaborate with you guys?
How?

Akshay (44:31):
does that work for sure.
So I mean, we're always open toa few different opportunities
that we're consistently hiringfor.
Uh, so, number one, we justlaunched our entire qa portal,
which I am so excited about.
This and a lot of the abuseservices initially, are all AI
backed.
So we have trained veryspecific tailored models for

(44:53):
each one of our content creatorsto ensure their lingo, their
jargon, their rhetoric is alltranslated accurately.
But at the same time, webelieve that translations are
only as good as they areaccurate.
If you provide inaccuratetranslations, the context of
that content completely changes.
Yeah, exactly.
And so, and the reason why Ithink we're able to get so many

(45:15):
amazing customers is because weput the extra mile in with
quality control.
And so if you're a listener andyou understand a particular
language, or you're bilingual ortrilingual or your mother
tongue is a different language,please do reach out to us,
because we are always opening upindividuals who want to review
content.
Your job probably the coolestjob you ever have in your life

(45:36):
you watch youtube videos, youread a transcript and you and we
have an entire system built outwhere all you have to do is
highlight certain errors,correct it and you get paid.
And there's that.
There's even ones for editing,a super simple editing tool that
you have access to as well.
And then also, on the otherside is if you're based in a
different country, based in adifferent region you're

(45:56):
listening to this as well.
We're always looking for globaldistributors, so people in
different markets whether that'sin India, south America, europe
, wherever, it doesn't matterPeople who understand that
market extremely well, peoplewho consume their that market
extremely well, people whoconsume their local content
really well.
We're looking to bring on moreof those advisors onto the team
to help us understand thoselocal markets, the advertisers,

(46:20):
the creators, the brand partners, whatever it might be, and so
those are two of the biggestopportunities that we want to
have thousands of people on ourteam doing this, thousands of
people on our team doing this,because I believe and this was
something that not to digresstoo much away from this topic I
learned so quickly in thisentire journey was when you have

(46:42):
a company, you have theopportunity for economic change.
When we started, when we werehigh school students, we had
employees all around the world.
We had 70 translators that wewere paying monthly.
Wow, I was going to Food Basicswith my brother to use Western
Union to wire transfer money allaround the world I wasn't even

(47:03):
old enough to put it under mybrother's name and I received a
message from one of ourtranslators and he was in the
Gaza area and at the time, eventoday, a lot of struggle, a lot
of war, a lot of tough timeshappening in that area, and one
thing that Garnett and I focusedin on we wanted to hire

(47:24):
students.
We wanted to help students,help them, help their family,
help them transition out ofthose areas, move out of those
areas, and he messaged me.
He said actually, look, I'mhaving a lot of tough time with
uh you know, with the warhappening here.
Is there other ways I canreceive payment?
I go to western union say howcan I get this payment to them?
western union says we're nolonger sending money to this
area of the world okay I thenhave to email this kid who I was

(47:49):
paying, he was supporting us,he was helping us and say to him
look, unfortunately I can't, Ican't have you part of our team
anymore.
And even thinking about it, Iget so emotional because of how
difficult that conversation was.
And receiving an email backfrom him saying look gosh, I'll
pay for, I'll work for evencheaper, I'll work for literally

(48:11):
close, for literally close, I'mlike, look, it's not the
problem.
The problem is I literallycannot send you money, right, I
cannot pay you for your work andI'm not going to have you work
for free.
And it was such a difficulttime and I realized at that
moment that we're not justhelping one individual, we're
helping a family, we're'rehelping community, we're helping
everyone that he was providingmoney to.

(48:33):
And it was such a tough part ofmy life, going through that
little hurdle that taught me alot about the value we have for
our employees and how we have totreat our employees with such
kindness, respect and realizethat they're working for us for
a reason and it's something thatwe cater towards them to this

(48:53):
day, wow.

Gurasis (48:53):
I think all these experiences really educates you
to build an ecosystem that iscorrect for people to work in
right Exactly.

Akshay (49:01):
I mean you have to make an environment where people want
to work, or you have to make anenvironment where people feel
like they have accountability,ownership towards it.
There's this really amazingframework.
It's called the octalysisframework.
Octalysis framework super coolname, octalysis framework and
it's eight points to gamify aplatform.

(49:25):
Okay, well, now you might askme actually what the heck does
gamify a platform and employeeshave to do?
When you make the employeeexperience slightly gamified
with ownership, accountability,customization, they feel like
they're a part of the core team,and so something that I always
do every single time I talk toemployees, it's like how can I

(49:48):
tie one of these Octalysisframework pieces into this
conversation to feel likethey're no different than I am,
they're no different than Garnet?
We're all the same, we're allbuilding towards a greater goal,
and that has helped a lot.

Gurasis (50:01):
No, I love.
That Sounds incredible.
If any of our listeners wouldlike to work with Akshay, I'll
put the links to that in theshow notes.

Akshay (50:09):
Awesome.
Yeah, I always, always love tohave anyone reach out.

Gurasis (50:15):
So, akshay, before we get into the final segment, I
just have one thing I want totalk about, which I absolutely
loved while speaking with youlast time, which was about the
mindset right, and you weretelling me that if everything
today goes wrong, I will put allmy chips in the world on myself
to rebound and figure it out.
I have so much belief in myselfand my abilities and I have,

(50:35):
kind of this movie, set a kindof mindset nothing will be able
to put me down other than myself, and I love that.
I want to talk more about thatand also this influence that you
know um kamar uzman, the numberone ma fighter, has had on you,
where you mentioned the quote.
You know the reason I am thebest fighter because my mind is
stronger than everyone else.

(50:56):
I would love for you to decodethat for us, because I feel like
some, because most of mylisteners are immigrants, you
know, who are trying to navigatea life as an individual in this
new world.
I would love for you to tellthem how this mindset has helped
you grow in your life.

Akshay (51:13):
I love this conversation .
This is literally my favoritething to talk about ever, and so
you know, I'll kind of give youa bit of a backstory towards
why I started having thismindset change and transition
into how I have applied that tomy life today.
As I mentioned earlier in thisconversation, my first year of

(51:34):
university was a very tough year, and so you know, as a quick
notes towards that, number oneis I completely underestimated
the transition from science tobusiness.
I never expected.
You know, you hear, businessschool is super easy.
In essence it's it.
It is easier, I will say then,than the world of sciences, but
it is a transition in the wayyou learn, how you learn, how

(51:56):
you consume knowledge that I wasnot prepared for at all.
I was not prepared for that.
I didn't do extremely well insome of those first-year courses
that I had expected to myselfbeing a very high achiever in
high school, being around otherhigh achievers.
I felt very low at points.
And then buckle this on top ofnot taking care of myself from a

(52:16):
physical standpoint, from amental standpoint not sleeping
well, not eating well everythingthat I had structure in my life
fell apart, everything, andthis doubled down when my
grandfather passed away in thatsummer of my first year, which
caused me a lot of grief.
Throughout that period of time,and as I got ready for my second

(52:39):
year of university, I realizedone thing no one else will
change my life other than myself.
I can't go back to watch aDavid Goggins video a hundred
times because David Goggins isnext to me telling me in my low
points to get myself up and togo solve this problem.
I had to find that withinmyself.
I had to, and so, without anyidea of self-motivation,

(53:03):
self-inspiration, any of thisstuff, I just asked myself okay,
how do I take the smallest step, the smallest step to become a
better person?
What's the smallest thing I cando?
So I found this idea of these30 day challenges.
30 day challenges, 30 days, Iput.
I give myself a challenge.

(53:23):
At the end of 30 days.
That challenge becomes ahabitual routine in my life.
So the first challenge I hadwhat's the easiest thing you can
do?
Every morning?
You make your bed.
Guess what?
That was the first challenge Imade for myself Every morning, I
will make my bed.
Okay, super, super easy.
I loved it, turned into a habit.
Second challenge I startedtaking cold showers.

(53:48):
Third challenge meditation.
So on and so forth, and Istarted becoming obsessed with
this mindset of improving myselfincrementally, day by day.
Because even if I had the worstday I could possibly I didn't
do well in a class, or I got agrade back that I didn't
appreciate, or I had an argumentwith a classmate, or my

(54:08):
favorite team lost Anything cango wrong but I still achieved
those two small goals I had setout to myself making my bed,
taking a cold shower, meditating.
And so I started seeing thisincremental change.
I started feeling better.
I started feeling I had a morestructure in my life.
I started feeling like I wasable to achieve the small, small
goals.
During that time I started toreally double down on the world

(54:33):
of MMA and I started trainingBrazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
I had done high-level karate inthe past, competing all around
Southern Ontario, and I startedcoming back to that tie of my
life.
And Kamaru Usman at the timewas the pound-for-pound best
fighter in the world in thewelterweight division, lapping
everyone in the division,defeating everyone, not even
really losing a round, and afterone of his toughest fights he

(54:55):
said grab the mic off joe rogan.
So the reason why I'm the bestin the world is because my mind
is stronger my mind isstronger.
He may not have been the mostskilled fighter, he may not have
been the strongest fighter, buthis mind was stronger than
everyone else.
He wouldn't let anythingpenetrate his mind.
And I don't know why thatresonated so well within me,

(55:17):
where everything I do whetherit's an investor meeting,
whether it's a customer call,whether it's going to play
hockey I just have this mindset,this obsession with I can be
the best, I could possibly beright, I can do the best I
possibly can.
I can strive towards thatgreatness.
And it's so easy.

(55:37):
It is so, so easy for someone tolisten to this and say,
actually, you have it allfigured out right, you've
achieved it, you've done.
You build your company, you'vedone whatever it is you need to
do.
It wasn't like this, right.
Everyone starts from a place,whether it's a dark place,
whether it's a good place,whether it's a great place,
everyone has a starting point.

(55:57):
And I encourage every listenerthat's listening to this.
It doesn't matter how low youthink you are at, there's always
an improvement, but you have tobe willing to make that
improvement, absolutely yes, youhave to be willing to make that

(56:17):
improvement.
And as soon as I told myself,akshay, you have to make this
improvement.
I realized that and I startedthis transformation, this
journey towards self-improvement, this journey towards obsessing
with this idea of mindset,obsessing with no challenge, is
big enough for me to take onmyself, and that's a
characteristic that I am soproud of, something I am so

(56:39):
grateful that I've developed andlearned, and I continue to to
push on this.

Gurasis (56:44):
Wow, absolutely, absolutely love this uh mindset
that you have aks, and I wouldlove to like echo this one thing
that you said which will matterin the long run is something
which you said making sure,doing that small habits, doing
that small changes because, likeyou just said, it starts from
something dark place, good place, bad place, wherever the stage

(57:08):
of life you are at and also, thesame time, instilling that will
in you to be able to changeyour life.
Because, let's face it,nobody's gonna come and say,
actually get up from the bed andwalk, go out and work out, and
nobody's gonna come to me.
I go to see, come on, get upand reach out to akshay and ask
him if you would like to apodcast.
Nobody's coming.
I have to do it myself.

(57:28):
You know, and I I I cannot likestress enough on this that how
inspiring a figure you areactually to people.
You know, you don't know this,and I'm not just saying for the
sake of saying is because Iswear I can't fake it.
I am that person.
I'm so like straightforward.
You know, the friends who knowme, they know me like I'm pretty
straightforward.

(57:49):
I'm genuinely saying when I wasso, if I want to confess
something to you before thisrecording yesterday, when I was
sort of like researching andpreparing, I was kind of
intimidated by a whole journey.
Also, I was like I don't knowhow it's going to be.
Should I just continue thisrecording or maybe I should not,
right?
So this is actually testimonyto the fact that it is very
inspiring and I really, reallyhope that listeners learn from

(58:10):
this and create that shift intheir life.

Akshay (58:13):
Yeah, I appreciate it and look at the end of the day,
everyone's people right At theend of the day.
And you know it's funny becauseI was going through this is a
bit of a side story goingthrough my Y Combinator
interviews from my previousstartup and we were building
something that created oureconomy.

(58:33):
And in the room we enter there'ssix yc partners and the main
partner was michael siebel, whowas the co-founder of twitch.
Uh, formerly I was justin tvand he was one of the main
directors of yc as well.
The intimidation factor ofentering that zoom room for 15
minutes, knowing that the personwe are trying to convince our

(58:55):
crater economy startup platformis to the co-founder of Twitch,
one of the most successfulstreaming platforms in the world
, I kind of what it brought tomy mind was like nothing will
ever be as stressful as thatmoment ever in my life, ever, no
questions asked.
And I relate back to thatfeeling where people ask me

(59:15):
actually why aren't you stressedabout this?
Why aren't you worried about it?
I'm like nothing will ever beas difficult as that hurdle I
had to overcome.
Nothing will be as difficult asfeeling the lowest point of my
life and overcoming thosebarriers.
Nothing.
And you use that momentum in allthe small wins you have on the
day-to-day.
You use that momentum in allthe small goals you achieve on

(59:37):
the day-to-day.
And I tell you that becauseit's so easy to look down on
yourself at times.
So easy to look down like wheream I in my life?
Am I actually doing something?
Then you look at, reflect like,okay, we've made small steps
towards it, made small stepstowards that goal.
So something that I want toshare with all the listeners.

Gurasis (59:59):
Love that, love that, love this conversation.
Thank you for sharing all this.
Love that, love that, love thisconversation.
Thank you for sharing all this.
So, before we get into thefinal segment, this one quick
segment I have added in thisseason.
It's called know your host,where I let my guests ask me any
question they might have yeah,I love this part.

Akshay (01:00:18):
Okay, so I guess the first question I have for you is
you've talked to so many peopleI mean, you've had such
phenomenal conversations from somany different walks of life
that you've had conversationswith what would you say is like
the biggest takeaway that you'veapplied from a conversation
into your own life?

(01:00:39):
And I would love to hear areflection on one of the
experiences with one of yourguests.

Gurasis (01:00:44):
Absolutely.
I can tell you that the onething, the common factor between
most of my conversations, thatI, after each conversation, when
I talk to myself and I reflecton that because I do that
sometimes I think there's thisone person I was speaking to who
was also part of the season two.
Her name is Mushtaq and she'sfrom Afghanistan.

(01:01:05):
She was part of the war zone.
She's just mere 18 and she hasshe's making waves right now.
She's doing so much stuff, youknow, starting her own code,
green Afghanistan, trying toeducate women from all around
the world and everything.
Just listening to her story,where she has come from, what
she's doing right now, I think Iwould say that I have become

(01:01:25):
more grateful for my own life,because coming from those
situations and even having thatwill and desire to continue to
help people and continue to havethat positivity in herself, to
collect herself together andcontinue to get on this path,
just at the age of 18, issomething which is super

(01:01:47):
inspiring for me and I think ingeneral, I would say, from these
conversations I have realized,like I just said, I have learned
to count my blessings a littlebit more.
It's very easy to get caught upinto all the negativity that
surrounds us, the criticism, thehate that sometimes comes your
way, you know, and if I talkabout the fact of being an
immigrant, you know I've been aturban and sometimes I've been

(01:02:08):
certain rooms where I can seethose eyes are staring at me,
those side eyes, and weirdreactions and rude responses,
and I don't blame them if itworks for you, whatever, but
it's not something that I couldperceive very casually before,
but now I genuinely don't careanymore, you know.
So I would say theseconversations have made me more
stronger and it has allowed meto believe in myself and my

(01:02:30):
abilities a little bit more.
I always say this I feel likewhen I came to Canada six years
ago, I had this certain sort ofspark, and I think I lost that
spark maybe in the past three,four years, you know, but I
would say, like the moment Istarted the podcast, started
having this conversation, thatspark came back and I love that
and I think I'll continue to bethis way and you know, I think

(01:02:54):
obviously even this conversationhas allowed me to continue to
believe in myself a bit more andthis mindset thing that you
talked about.
That is my takeaway from thisepisode.

Akshay (01:03:03):
I love that.
I think, being grateful for thepositions that we're in is
beyond important, right.
I mean look at where the worldis and in some, in some regions,
and the war that's happening,that's happening and and you
know to be grateful to be in aplace where I have a roof over

(01:03:24):
my head, I am in a beautifulhouse, I'm in a room and I'm
able to share this message, andtaking that in a way of of
positive impact rather thannegative impact, for sure, yeah,
I guess the other I mean.
Last last thing I'd love tolearn from you as well is
throughout your experience ofrunning this podcast, have you

(01:03:46):
looked up to any other podcasthosts or any other podcasts in
general that you're like?
I love the way this isstructured.
I love the way that theyinteract with their guests.
I love the way they askquestions, because I feel like
every podcast has this sense ofidentity tied back to it, and
I'd love to see if you took inany inspiration from some of the
other podcasts that are outthere, absolutely.

Gurasis (01:04:08):
I mean, I think I was a heavy consumer of podcasts,
akshay, since like 2014,.
To be honest with you, when Iwas even back in India, I would
listen to so many podcasts.
But I would say my podcastinglistener journey sort of started
as somebody who would listen tomostly Bollywood related
podcasts.
That was completely different.
But I feel like then I evolvedinto sort of like, you know,

(01:04:31):
self-help and maybe the crimeand the comedy and obviously the
educational and spiritual andall those.
I think I've transitioned intoall that.
But there are so many peoplewho have inspired me into all
that.
But there are so many peoplewho have inspired me.
But there's a few people Ithink I really which really like
educated me.
I would say to.
To start this podcast wassomebody like Pat Flynn.
You know he has this smartpassive income podcast.

(01:04:53):
I absolutely love that.
I'm not sure if you know him.
He's amazing.
You know I love that podcast.
You know a lot, lots, some greatnuggets you can get from each
episode.
And then, uh, obviously likehuman man labs.
You know that's amazing.
And then joe rogan obviouslywas there, and then I also like
how even jay shetty sort ofstructures his episodes.
Sometimes some of thosequestions are really, really

(01:05:15):
intriguing and kind of like itlike forces you to kind of look
within and question few thingsyou know.
So I like that and uh, and thenlike some comedy podcasts also
which I listen to and youwouldn't believe I've actually
taken a few of thoseinspirations from those
conversations also becausebecause me as a person, I'm not
that serious, I'm such a likeenthusiastic and like a chubby

(01:05:36):
person and I can't be extremelyserious all the time.
It was also one of my um, uhfeedbacks from the people who
end up knowing me, who werelisteners before.
Then they end up became friendsand they were like where is
this fun?
Good seas, why this?
We couldn't see this on thefirst season.
That's why I'm trying to takethat entertainment route on my
this season, right?

(01:05:56):
So, yeah, these are some of thenames I could think of.

Akshay (01:05:59):
Yeah, I love it.
I really appreciate I have tolisten to more podcasts I I've
been getting into a little bit.
The hoverman podcast is onethat I, uh huberman the one that
this one I've been listening alittle bit with, and uh the
occasional joe rogan one,especially if he's has a guest.
I love that.
Yeah, but I'm so excited aboutuh listening to more of your

(01:06:22):
podcasts and I listened to a fewbefore our conversation today
and such amazing guests you'vehad, so I'm really looking
forward to seeing the rest ofthe guests.

Gurasis (01:06:31):
I appreciate that.
Thank you for listening.
Okay, all right, so now we'rein the final segment.
Actually, I call it beneath theaccent because we are knowing
each other beneath the accentand I'm gonna have a couple of
questions.
You can answer them in one wordor a sentence, or however you
feel like.
The idea is just don't moreabout you.
So the first question is areyou an early bird or a night owl

(01:06:53):
?

Akshay (01:06:55):
this is.
This is a tough one because I Ifeel like I have such a
structure on my mornings andevenings, but if I had to pick,
I would say probably more earlybird than the night owl, to be
honest, yeah, okay.

Gurasis (01:07:15):
Definitely more early bird, a word that describes you
best Optimist.

Akshay (01:07:19):
I'm such an optimist.
I will always try to see thegood in something, even if it's
the worst thing ever.
I will try to see the good init.
And that has come back to harmme at times, but for the most
part I love being an optimist.
I think if you're a founder,you have to have a glass half
full mentality, or else thisprocess will be very challenging

(01:07:43):
very, very relatable.

Gurasis (01:07:45):
I can say that okay, what's your go-to comfort food
apart from ro-ro?

Akshay (01:07:52):
so this has been something that, yeah, yeah, this
has been something that I'vebeen loving to make lately.
Um, so I love cooking ingeneral.
Um, I love it.
I love trying out new recipes,trying new foods, but it's a
super, super, super simple dishthat has five ingredients, four
ingredients.
It's pasta either fresh pasta orjust regular pasta.

(01:08:14):
You thinly slice garlic andwith olive oil, you put garlic
and chili and then that's it,and then you put all your pasta.
You put the pasta in with thegarlic and chili and then that's
it, and then you put all yourpasta.
You put the pasta in with thegarlic and chili oil and then
you top it off with a ton ofparsley and lemon.
And it is so simple.
But the flavors because it's sosimple, it's only a few

(01:08:37):
ingredients are so bright and itis such an amazing dish,
especially before any big gameor anything going on.
I will have that because itjust brings me like peace, it
just like calms me down, it'slike, okay, this is like my
comfort.
I love it.
I can eat that every day if Ihad to.
Super simple, super easy.

Gurasis (01:08:56):
Love that I know what I have to cook tonight.
Thank you for that.

Akshay (01:09:01):
Yeah, give it a try.

Gurasis (01:09:04):
You will absolutely love it.
So what's your favoritechildhood memory?

Akshay (01:09:07):
favorite childhood memory, you know, I think I
think it has to be some of theexperiences I had with my like
grandparents growing up, um, inparticular with our like family
events.
Every sunday we would betogether, we'd spend a lot of
time together and just thecommute to Brampton being with
them, either playing pool intheir house, or my grandfather

(01:09:29):
taking me to hockey games,hockey tournaments all around
the US, those are experiences Iwill cherish for the rest of my
life and those are parts of mylife that I appreciate so much
and, you know, makes me missthem all the time.
Right, it's that you know thosemoments.

Gurasis (01:09:47):
Do you have any hidden talents?

Akshay (01:09:50):
I can solve the Rubik's Cube.
That's one thing I picked upduring the pandemic.
I'm not very fast at it, butsomething fun that keeps my mind
occupied.
When I'm just like watching ashow or something, I'll just
start fiddling around with it,okay.

Gurasis (01:10:11):
What's the best piece of advice someone ever gave you?

Akshay (01:10:15):
So this was something that my brother told me when I
was in the mix of writing my IBexams and I was so hard on
myself that I was just Icouldn't even get myself to
study because I was just.
I felt like so sick to mystomach thinking about how much
work I had to do and how behindI felt, and I just felt like I

(01:10:36):
wasn't good enough to do well onthese exams.
For context, my brother is asmartest guy.
I know he won every academicaward.
He's just a genius when itcomes to that.
He came into my room and he satnext to me.
He said look, you are no lessthan 100%.
You are no less than 100%.
And I took a permanent markerwhich maybe I shouldn't have,

(01:10:58):
but whatever and wrote it allover my room, on my mirror, on
my desk not on any walls, likethings you can still get rid of,
but every morning when I wakeup I see that quote you are no
less than 100%, and that hasbeen on my mirror since 2016,
2017.
And so every morning, I realizeI can do 100% of anything I put

(01:11:21):
my mind to.
I can achieve 100% of anythingI put my mind to.
I can achieve 100% of anythingI put my mind to.
There's no reason why I can't,and that fuels me every single
day.

Gurasis (01:11:31):
You are no less than 100% Love.
That Okay.
If you could be any creature inthe world, what would it be?

Akshay (01:11:36):
It's a good one.
I feel like I would probably bea lion Lion and this ties back
to my last name of Maharaj,which is the king of the jungle,
and and it has that has aferociousness to it, but it also
has that care for its family ittakes care of its family.
It's there.
It's there to provide, it'sthere to protect and it's there

(01:11:57):
to lead has the ambition thatmain it represents so much.
And to me, that's sometimes howI feel.
Whenever I get into a toughplace, I think about okay, well,
how would the lion do it?
It wouldn't just back down andleave.
It would attack, it wouldfigure it out, it would provide.
And that's something that I tryto live by.

Gurasis (01:12:18):
Very, very interesting, Cam.
Who's your go-to person whenyou feel stuck?

Akshay (01:12:25):
You know it's a good question because there's so many
different go-to people basedoff of the struggle.
I am in right, if it'ssomething in business that you
know, I'll go to one of our leadmentors, advisors, and he
always been able to help us alot Ivan Yuen.
He was one of the founders ofWattpad and he's such a great

(01:12:46):
individual.
But when it comes to likepersonal stuff, when it comes to
just direction is lost, I go tomy brother.
I think he understands me best.
He's someone I can go to.
You know, if I don't know, if Ijust don't understand it.
It's not like he evenunderstands the whole business
world either, but he'll providerationale or just help me

(01:13:08):
understand my thoughts towardsit, and that's someone that
sparingly, if I have theseproblems.

Gurasis (01:13:16):
I hit him up.
So what's the most expensivething you own?

Akshay (01:13:21):
The knowledge in my mind , that's the most expensive
thing I own.
Are you kidding me?
No, uh, I would say mostexpensive thing, I I mean
probably my car.
I'll be honest, that's probablythe biggest purchase I've made
recently.
I did I bought a, uh, an x3m,uh, so bmw x3m 2024, so that's

(01:13:44):
that's probably the the biggestpurchase.
But uh, um, I mean outside ofthat, you know, I think, um, I
think it's such a cop-out answer, but I have to say you know the
mentality I have.
You know it's taken time to dothat, it's taking resources, uh,
and I feel like that issomething that costs the most

(01:14:04):
and what's the most expensivething you would like to own.
I don't know if this is anothercop-out answer, but you know, I
think you cannot put a price onthe pride and the ability to
retire both of my parentscomfortably.
To retire both of my parentscomfortably, and whatever that
cost might be.

(01:14:25):
That is the most expensive,even if it's $100,000, it
doesn't matter to me because thehappiness that that will bring
me will not be content ofanything else in this world that
I can buy myselfmaterialistically.
So that is, in whatever way,the most expensive thing I want
to provide.

Gurasis (01:14:45):
I want to be able to and the best answer award goes
to actually I think they theyknow that too, which is why they
support everything.
I love that answer.
All right.
So what's that one canadiantradition that you have adopted
wholeheartedly and what's onefrom your home country that you
have introduced to Canadians?

Akshay (01:15:06):
I think the one that I've adopted, as probably more
than some Canadians, is my lovefor hockey.
You know I've played hockeysince I was four years old.
Started skating when I wasthree years old, played
competitively all throughout mylife, even sponsored a hockey
team that I play on On Monday Iplayed three years old played
competitively all throughout mylife even sponsored a hockey
team that I play on a Monday.
I played three times a week,four times a week, even in some

(01:15:29):
weeks, and so that is somethingthat I embody and I love, love,
love, love the game of hockeyjust as much as I love MMA.
In terms of things that I haveprovided, and I'd say this is
something that I've gotten myco-founder on, and Garnet grew
up in more of a Caucasianhousehold where wasn't

(01:15:49):
necessarily really exposed to alot of different cultures and
foods, and so one thing thatI've gotten him into is the love
for vegetarian food as avegetarian growing up culturally
, because there's no meat, a lotof different spices, a lot of
different vegetables, the waysof eating vegetables that we
never even thought, and cookingprocesses and everything around
that and something that I liketo share with anyone I meet that

(01:16:12):
has never really experiencedthe traditional Indian style
food or Fijian style food oreven ethnic food in general is
let's bond over a dish, let'sbond over something when it
comes to food.
Let me show you that it's notthis curry smelly thing that the
stereotype is around.
No, let me show you howdelicious this can be, and

(01:16:37):
that's something that I love.
Maybe that's a lot of.
My passion for cooking is to dothat, taking different spins on
Canadian dishes and adding,like, an ethnic flair to it, but
I would say that's somethingthat I continuously love to give
back to the Canadian culture isthat love for food, love that,
if you could have any superpower, actually, what would it be?

(01:16:59):
Read people's minds.
I think for twofold.
One is you, I'm.
I'm an overthinker.
I really am.
I tend to overthink so much andunless it's clearly said to me,
I will start thinking about ahundred different scenarios and
ideas and whatever it might be.
You know, if I can readsomeone's mind, I know exactly

(01:17:20):
what they're thinking, if I canmake a decision on that.
The second thing is I think itwould be really cool to
understand the perspective andthe mindset of some of the
wealthiest people in the world.
Understand the mindset of someof the biggest athletes in the
world.
How do they compete in theirgame?
What's going through their mindthe second they enter the
octagon?

(01:17:40):
What goes through their mind asthey hop onto the ice, as they
enter the basketball court?
Whatever it their mind thesecond they enter the octagon?
What goes through their mind asthey hop onto the ice, as they
enter the basketball court?
Whatever it might be, it'll beso amazing to just be upset
again.
I'm so obsessed with thatmindset.
To be able to read that mindwill be unbelievable and what's
your favorite canadian slang orphrase?
a, a, I say a all the time.

(01:18:01):
Uh, I maybe it's because I amsurrounded by a bunch of say A
all the time.
Maybe it's because I amsurrounded by a bunch of hockey
guys all the time.
It would be interesting to seeif I said it during this
conversation, because I wouldn'tbe surprised if I hadn't.
A is probably the one phrase Ihave adopted.
Can you use it in a sentence,the one phrase I have adopted.

(01:18:26):
Can you use it in a sentence?
So if someone says, someonesays how's it going, I'm like
hey, hey, it's going all right.
Or, you know, I feel like it'ssometimes just a filler word at
the end of sentences.
If you say something at the endof an A, I think there's
different ways to navigate it.
But even at home I catch myselfsometimes even saying to my mom

(01:18:51):
like hey, what are you gonna do?
Right, like it's just, it'sbecome part of my vocabulary
funny enough.

Gurasis (01:18:54):
okay and finally, how would you describe canada in one
word or a sentence?

Akshay (01:19:02):
And you know I am beyond grateful to have grown up in an
environment here whereopportunity is available.
And you know I've done a lot oftravels to the US and there's
opportunity there.
But I feel like in Canada theopportunity for immigrants is
here, especially recently.

(01:19:22):
What I've been exposed to froma startup perspective the
funding, the grants,opportunities for startup
founders is phenomenal and I canwith confidence say that I
would not be in the sameposition I am today if it wasn't
for the support of those aroundme and the Canadian ecosystem
that has helped me thrive towhere I am today.

Gurasis (01:19:43):
And if you could leave me with one piece of advice,
what would it be?

Akshay (01:19:47):
around me in the Canadian ecosystem that has
helped me thrive to where I amtoday.
And if you could leave me withone piece of advice, what would
it be?
I think you're on such aphenomenal path when it comes to
this podcast and everythingyou're doing outside of this
podcast.
One thing I say to you, onething I say to anyone that's
aspiring to do something andcontinue to do something, is
dream bigger, dream bigger,dream bigger.
That's it.
Like that consistent mantra isalways chanting in my head of

(01:20:10):
dream bigger, believe bigger.
Right?
What's the biggest dream guestyou can potentially have and how
do we get that for you, right?
Dream that big.
And when we were starting thiscompany in high school, the
biggest customer Logan Pauldream bigger.
Okay, who's next?
Right?
That's.
One thing I'll say is I lovethe journey you're on right now

(01:20:31):
and I'm so, so, so excited tosee your name and headlines
saying this podcast hasinterviewed the biggest people
in the world and I cannot waitto see that, and so I am like
excited about that.
But I want you to continue todream big, dream bigger.

Gurasis (01:20:45):
I love that.
Thank you for saying that, andhow would you describe your
experience of being on thispodcast today?

Akshay (01:20:51):
Amazing.
I've been on maybe fourpodcasts now and this has been
one that I love because I'vebeen able just so relatable
talking to you about theheritage, the growing up as a
South Asian.
You know the transition I mean.
A lot of the podcasts and I'mso grateful for the
opportunities I've been on havebeen so focused on the business
and the growing the business.
This has been a different spinto it.

(01:21:13):
which has been really cool andsomething that I really haven't
talked about publicly at allever is is the upbringing and my
family side and some of thebeliefs and values and my
mindset.
Where it was really neatsharing this information and
hopefully I've been able to helpsome of the viewers.

Gurasis (01:21:34):
A hundred percent and thank you.
Thank you, akshay, for all yourkind words and I think I'm
going to definitely sleep onyour advice of dreaming bigger.
I think I'm going to have somecold emails to send tonight.
I'm going to definitely sleepon your advice of dreaming
bigger.
I think I'm going to have somecold emails to send tonight.
I'm going to do that, butdefinitely it was a pleasure
having you, akshay, absolutelylove talking to you and I look
forward to have you not only thenext season, all my coming

(01:21:56):
seasons.
I would love to unfold moreabout your journey and the
things that I've achieved.
Thank you so much for being onthe podcast and adding value to
my listeners and to me.
Thank you.

Akshay (01:22:05):
Thank you so much.

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From Heritage to Hustle: Embracing Roots and Rising High | Ft. Akshay Maharaj Ep.062

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}From Heritage to Hustle: Embracing Roots and Rising High | Ft. Akshay Maharaj Ep.062