In this episode of Entrepreneur’s Enigma, we sit down Don Samoil, who is a prominent figure in the Philly startup ecosystem.

Don shares his journey from selling newsletters in 2nd grade to his current involvement in advising and organizing for the Founder Institute Incubator.

They discuss his early foray into real estate, then pivoting back to technology and his work with startups.

Don also reflects on the challenges and rewards of being an entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of values and execution.

As an influential mentor, he sheds light on the impact and evolution of the startup landscape, leaving listeners with valuable insights and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Key Moments

[06:15] Cofounding is like marriage: communication and honesty.

[08:38] Passion for chasing dreams and adding value.

[10:44] Entrepreneurship is tough, filled with doubts.

Find Don Online

https://founderkeystone.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-samoil-ts/

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Transcript provided by CastMagic.io

Seth [00:00:00]:
Entrepreneur’s Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship to the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs, how we learn from adversity. Every week I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneurs Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast.

Seth [00:00:34]:
I’m your host as always, Seth. Today. I have a good buddy of mine. One of the lead organizers of the Keystone cohort of the founder Institute Incubator. That’s how I met Don. Actually, he found me and suckered me into being one of the mentors. He kinda guilt to me. It’s like, come on.

Seth [00:00:50]:
These people need you, Seth. No. He has over 25 years of experience starting, growing, managing, and or assisting innovative startups. And he has a wonderful wife that lets him do it. So yeah.

Don [00:01:03]:
Very true.

Seth [00:01:04]:
Let’s him play, and she works hard so that he can, you know, venture out and help the startup world. So thank you. He is on the board of directors or advisory board of several companies ranging from AI to health to international commerce. He manages the Philadelphia area chapter of the Founder Institute. So Keystone, we call it. He works with early early adopters in areas such as blockchain, cybersecurity, open source software. He is also the cofounder of the first mobile marketing service for the $1,000,000,000,000 Hispanic consumer market. So he’s been around for a while, at least 25 years, if not longer.

Seth [00:01:44]:
I think I think he’s been doing stuff longer than that. So, Don, how’s it going, buddy? How are you doing?

Don [00:01:49]:
I’m well. Thanks. Appreciate being given the opportunity to chat with you here.

Seth [00:01:53]:
Awesome. So how did this all get started? Have you always been an entrepreneur at heart, or did you do some corporate back in the day?

Don [00:01:59]:
You know, funny, actually. You know, have you always been an entrepreneur at heart? You know, I I’ve just flashed back to, I think it was 2nd grade or something. My my just I completely forgot actually. My my sister and I, we created like a a newsletter that we did on a typewriter and then had my father Xerox at work or whatever, and sold these, you know, kind of, you know, kid story magazine, whatever for 10¢ a pop or something. Yeah. So I guess I’ve always been an entrepreneur.

Seth [00:02:35]:
That’s great, but have you done the corporate grind at all?

Don [00:02:39]:
Not really. The funny thing is Oh, you can blast. So, I, I I was doing computer science at McGill, and this is, you know, back in the day when I used to I don’t know if I wanna sit in front of a terminal all my life. Right? Because, you know, PCs were something that you, you know, you did for fun. If if you were doing serious business, it was on, you know, big heavy monochrome terminal. That’s where you did, you know, programming. I had a friend who was making a lot of money in real estate. And, one day said, I’m stuck.

Don [00:03:10]:
You need to get the keys from my office and go do an open house for me. I’m like, I’m sorry. Have you met me? I’m I’m like computer geek. He’s like, no. You you open the door. You hand them you know, my receptionist will give you the the flyers. You hand them a a thing. And then after 2 hours, you lock the door.

Don [00:03:28]:
Okay. So I let people in. You know, they started asking me questions. I walked around the house. I had read the flyers. So, yeah, there’s 2 bathrooms, and there’s a finished basement, and blah blah blah. And there was this young couple that that was asking me a lot of questions. And so I tried to and, you know, when I finished and locked the door, he said, you know, those guys seemed really interested.

Don [00:03:52]:
And he called them and they bought the house. So wow. I was like, oh,

Seth [00:03:57]:
did you get commission?

Don [00:03:58]:
He, he bought me dinner. Oh,

Seth [00:04:01]:
that’s so nice of him.

Don [00:04:03]:
Right. But, I was like, okay. I can, you know, sit in front of a terminal, you know, and work for somebody else. Or I can run around, be my own boss and and just you open doors. People come, they buy the house. Easy peasy. So my my first job was just was actually in real estate. And and Oh, wow.

Don [00:04:23]:
You know, I, you know, I mean, as, as a young kid, you know, just learning the ropes, it was challenging, but

Seth [00:04:30]:
it is still challenging. Yeah.

Don [00:04:32]:
When I came back to the states, people were like, okay. You’re gonna do real estate? It’s like, well, you know, I miss technology. I enjoyed the whole

Seth [00:04:39]:
Oh, because you were up in Canada. You’re in McGill in Canada.

Don [00:04:42]:
Yeah. So I decided to get in involved with, at the time it was, you know, fax and telex and private data network communications. Yeah. You’ve

Seth [00:04:54]:
age yourself, buddy. You age yourself.

Don [00:04:57]:
I know. Sad but true. Yeah. And then, got involved. So the, the worldwide web was getting out there and I found a startup that was evangelizing this new thing called a website. And, I sold some of the first websites to Samsung and hearts mountain and Hunter Douglas. And I just thought, yeah, it was just right place, right time. Right.

Don [00:05:19]:
So I was like, you know, hey. You need this thing called the website, and this is how customers gonna wanna, you know, learn about you and get in touch with you. And

Seth [00:05:27]:
This is pre Google, everybody. Pre Google.

Don [00:05:31]:
Yeah. I mean, Yahoo was new at the time. Right? So that was my first startup. And then I got involved with the company behind the Amazon. If you like this book, you might like these books recommendation engine.

Seth [00:05:43]:
And Oh, that’s cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Don [00:05:45]:
And so I ran around North America selling what we called personalization and, had a lot of fun, met a lot of great people, and, yeah, could after that, just could not even envision working in a corporate setting.

Seth [00:05:59]:
We’re gonna take a quick break here from our sponsors and get right back to the show. And God bless your wife because she likes you. Well, she just also knows what’s good for you. She knows what’s good for you, that this is Don. This is the way Don’s brain works. Let’s let Don do what he’s good at. I’ll do what I’m good at.

Don [00:06:15]:
100%. And, you know, that’s you know, you probably heard me talking about with people about cofounders. Right? That, being a cofounder in a company is very much like a marriage. It’s it’s critical that you you communicate proper, that you know who you’re dealing with, that you be honest. I mean, be honest and truthful and above board. And, you know, I I’ve always been honest with my wife, and and so she knew what she was getting into. And, and yeah. And and, you know, it it it works.

Don [00:06:47]:
And and she gives me the the leeway to do my thing. And and hopefully, you know, some years I do really well and some years not so much. That’s the startup world. Right? So Are

Seth [00:06:58]:
you are your kids? You have kids. Right? So are they entrepreneurial?

Don [00:07:02]:
Just furry kids. Cats and dogs, I’d I’d love to.

Seth [00:07:05]:
I have no kids. So, so they they’re entrepreneurial because they follow you around.

Don [00:07:08]:
There you go. Nieces and nephews and cousins, and I’ve tried to get so so, I’ve managed to recruit one cousin now to, to to be, an EIR with our keystone chapter. And Nice. Yeah. So he he’s he’s got the entrepreneur bug, but most of them are, yeah, just doing the the the corporate thing. And and if that’s what makes them happy, that’s fine. So.

Seth [00:07:35]:
Exactly. Well, you, but you rubbed off on one of them now.

Don [00:07:37]:
There you go.

Seth [00:07:38]:
Uncle Don rubbed off on him and says, I wonder what uncle Don’s doing. That’s fun.

Don [00:07:43]:
God help him.

Seth [00:07:45]:
God help him. God I mean, look. I mean, look. In the odds in in the cohorts, if this is my gonna be my 3rd cohort coming up down to I think you’ve done 4 total for Keith for Keystone. And it’s amazing how when these guy when these guys and gals come in, they are green. Even if they’re not green, they’re already halfway started on the pot on their, journey. They’re green. Like, we you know, call back to Peter, you know, who I’m who I’m working with.

Seth [00:08:13]:
He quit his his spiel halfway through the first time he did his pitch. And I’ll never let him forget that because now he’s does really well with his pitch. But it took founders Institute, took Don and then all of us to kind of whip him in shape. It’s, it’s a great thing, you know? So Don, what is the best thing about being an entrepreneur in your mind?

Don [00:08:38]:
To me, it’s I guess it’s, it’s the ability to do something that you’re passionate about. And, and look again, if you are passionate about, I don’t know, you know, being a doctor or a lawyer or what have you, and you’re in a big firm and great, fantastic. You’re adding value to the world. But for me, being able to chase dreams, I truly believe that the cure for cancer, the cure for for a lot of our ills as a society, Somebody’s working on it in their basement, in their garage. And that’s what just, you know, that’s what keeps me up at night. And that’s what gets me up in the morning is find Peters and help them figure out their path and be successful. And I think Peter, for example, will add value to the world. He’s in good

Seth [00:09:29]:
places like that.

Don [00:09:30]:
Yeah. He he’s he’s gonna do well for himself. He’s gonna do well for his his investors, and so everybody’s going to make money. He’s also gonna add value to the world, right, by allowing people to explore their their causes and and make, you know, have an impact rather than sit around frustrated like, oh, I really believe in x and I don’t know how to how to, you know, do anything about

Seth [00:09:52]:
it. Exactly. And and you can sit back say, I I helped them along the way, you know.

Don [00:09:58]:
Yep. That’s you know?

Seth [00:09:59]:
Like a proud papa. Exactly. A proud papa saying, like, look, you know, I remember who’s a little fledgling, then, his head from his backside. You know?

Don [00:10:08]:
To your point. Right? You know, when when we do these graduations and I see these amazingly polished pitches and and and, you know, so on. And I think back to, you know, how they came in on the 1st week. It’s like, yeah. I’m very proud that I had, you know, just a tiny little Every 14 weeks. Yeah.

Seth [00:10:24]:
Yeah.

Don [00:10:25]:
Just, you know, up a little bit of of of, you know, impact on on helping these people achieve that.

Seth [00:10:33]:
As well. Yeah. So as entrepreneur, what keeps you up at night besides trying to cure cancer and all that stuff? What what worries you about? Like, what’s the downside to entrepreneurship in your mind?

Don [00:10:44]:
Well, for for you know, I mean, definitely entrepreneurs are, you know, you it it’s tough. Right? You you have to have, I mean, I am lucky. Right? I’m I’m, you know, over the the hump. But if you don’t have an income or you don’t have, you know, the ability to withstand the world is hard. Right? People are tough. Sometimes well meaning, right? They give you tough love. You know, I’ve had plenty of friends and families say, you know, your startup is never gonna make it. It’s a bad idea.

Don [00:11:21]:
Why don’t you go get a job with IBM? You’ll have a roof over your head and so on. So, yeah, it it’s it’s incredibly difficult. And and my concern, I guess, if you will, right now

Seth [00:11:37]:
Yeah.

Don [00:11:37]:
Is AI. Right? AI is beating the world. Yeah.

Seth [00:11:40]:
It’s a change.

Don [00:11:41]:
And we are going to see up like, you know, what we went through, right, with the dotcoms and the the Internet changing all of these business models. This is gonna happen but exponentially faster because AI is advancing so quick. I mean, paralegals, copywriters, there’s a lot of people that are already feeling significant pain, where this technology

Seth [00:12:08]:
is gonna be adapters or or or perish. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So here’s a good question. What is the most important thing to carry with you all the time? Now you can go as woo woo as you want on this time.

Don [00:12:24]:
I I’d say look, yeah, to to get touchy feely, which I don’t usually do, but your values, right? Because that’s that’s what’s gonna sustain. Right? I mean, no matter what, you know, your idea, there there are no, you know, ideas that so many founders. This is the other thing. You know? You you could have a great idea, but execution is 90 plus percent of it.

Seth [00:12:50]:
Mhmm. Absolutely.

Don [00:12:52]:
You know, just because you think you have a great idea, that that that’s great. But you you’ve gotta you you gotta execute on it. So, and having the faith in yourself and and the values and believing in what you’re doing because it Absolutely. It it it’s it’s gonna take a lot of time and energy and effort. And you you need to be able to look in the mirror when you’re doing this.

Seth [00:13:16]:
So Mhmm. Absolutely. So, Don, they can find you online at founder at keystone.com. That’s founder keystone.com. You can also look for Einstein on LinkedIn. I’m gonna get you to change it at some point. His avatar is him you look a little bit like Albert Einstein. So I guess it kinda works, you know, shorter hair, you know, less wacky hair, but, you know, you’re your own Einstein.

Seth [00:13:42]:
But look for look for Don on LinkedIn, where he’s quite active as well, but you won’t see a smiling face yet. I’ll give him to change it at some point. But, you know, right now, it’s Einstein writing e equals mc squared on on the blackboard. So it’s fitting for what he does. So I liked it very much. So, Don, this has been so much fun. Nice quick interview so people can get to know you. Check out founder keystone.com.

Seth [00:14:06]:
We’re always looking for more mentors. And, you know, I think we we’re pretty filled up for this cohort. Right? I mean, we’re we’re when this comes out, the cohorts can be halfway done, but, you know,

Don [00:14:18]:
There’s always room.

Seth [00:14:19]:
Right? But we all we’re always doing that cohort.

Don [00:14:21]:
Always looking for more good people to be part of the part of the program. Help helping founders, you know, making it happen.

Seth [00:14:31]:
Love it, Don. Well, thanks so much for being on my friend.

Don [00:14:34]:
Thank you. My pleasure.

Seth [00:14:35]:
That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the marketing podcast network at marketing casts.net. Gold theme gi. I hope you have enjoyed this episode.