in some ways, lloyed lobo's unconventional path to success began at the age of 10, when his family fled their home in kuwait in the wake of the 1990 persian gulf war. lloyed (beng'05) travelled with his parents—his mother grew up in the slums of mumbai and his father was a farmer—before the family immigrated to canada when he was a teenager.
watching his father rise from being a dishwasher to a celebrated chef and benefiting from his mother's insistence that he pursue his education, lloyed developed the determination, grit, and persistence that helped him become a successful entrepreneur, wall street journal bestselling author, and community builder.
"luck and risk are two sides of the same coin," lloyed says. "the ones that get lucky are the ones that never stop flipping risk."
taking a leap of faith at lakehead
describing himself as a smart but rebellious kid, lloyed admits to neglecting his high school studies, but once the family arrived in canada, his mother insisted he apply to colleges and universities. with a computer engineering technology diploma from toronto's humber college in hand, lloyed chose to attend lakehead after learning it had one of the country's only accredited software engineering programs.
lloyed appreciated the small class sizes and easy access to his professors, but he knew that he didn't want to sit behind a desk from 9 to 5 writing code.
"i wanted to get into software because i felt that software would control the world. software is its own engineering discipline because you learn to design, develop, and launch it," he explains.
lloyed believes the relationships you build in university can be more important than anything you learn in class. and he met someone at lakehead—classmate alex popa (beng'05)—who ultimately changed the course of his life.
"alex is my best friend and my business partner," lloyed says. "he's a phenomenal engineer and finance person, but he's not into public speaking, marketing, and selling—which, for some reason, is easy for me. we were partners in every project including our 2005 lakehead undergrad thesis on collision avoidance in real-time vehicles—a simulation of self-driving cars. alex built it and i presented it."
in 2014, lloyed co-founded traction, a community that empowers more than 100,000 innovators through connections, content, and capital. his traction conference (above) gathers influential founders and thought leaders to share how they built their organizations.
honing his sales skills on the road to success
intent on becoming an entrepreneur, lloyed worked with a series of startups—doing everything from cold calling to product management, sales, and marketing.
when alex called in 2011 to suggest they team up to launch boast capital—a consulting firm to help small businesses access research and development (r & d) tax credits and funding in canada and the united states—lloyed jumped at the chance.
"i quit my job and moved into alex's apartment in calgary, and the rest is history," he recalls.
together, they built a sizable company with offices in toronto, calgary, vancouver, and san francisco, and they did so without any outside investment. in 2017, boast capital became boast.al, a fintech platform that uses scalable intelligent software to help innovative companies get money more quickly and with less risk.
"each year, governments provide billions of dollars to fund businesses, but it's a cumbersome application process. it's prone to frustrating audits, and getting the money takes a long time; boast uses artificial intelligence to automate that," explains lloyed, who received an outstanding young alumni award from lakehead in 2017.
"last year, we gave out several hundred million dollars to businesses to develop new products or improve existing products. innovation drives the world—every dollar spent on innovation returns $20 to the economy. vaccines, robots, and clean drinking water were all a function of innovation, yet 90% of innovations die on the vine. our purpose was to change that situation."
giving back and paying it forward
lloyed has always believed in providing a leg up for other young entrepreneurs, so he wrote a book last fall, from grassroots to greatness: 13 rules to build iconic brands with community led growth, which became a wall street journal bestseller.
he encourages 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛
and aspiring innovators to approach entrepreneurship through the lens of what he calls the five c's: communication, community, creation, commerce, and consistency.
"after graduating from lakehead, i asked other entrepreneurs: what's the best skill you need as an entrepreneur? and they told me it's communication—this is what you do all day, convincing customers when you barely have anything functioning, convincing employees to work for you, convincing investors—it's all communication."
developing a community is the next step in building an iconic brand. "your companions matter—hang out with five entrepreneurs, and you'll be the sixth one," he says.
lloyed urges young entrepreneurs to take on creative side projects, and constantly apply what they've learned. successful businesspeople also need to learn about commerce and selling.
"but even though you may be the best communicator with the best community and be the best creator who knows everything about commerce, without consistency, you have nothing. consistency is the secret ingredient that turns small actions into big outcomes. overnight success is nothing but compound interest on consistency over a long period of time."
family, frailty, and the art of reinvention
lloyed and his wife vivi with their children. "success is a long journey," lloyed says, "and when you're an entrepreneur, work-life balance doesn't exist, so think deeply about work-life integration."
lloyed credits his parents and his wife vivi, a physician, as the driving forces in his life.
"when i married vivi, nobody thought i'd amount to anything, but i said, 'don't worry, i'm going to retire at 40'," he says.
two weeks before lloyed's 40th birthday, a private growth equity firm bought half of his and alex's shares of boast, making his financial dreams a reality. however, soon after, in january 2021, lloyd caught covid pneumonia and spent weeks in the hospital.
while recovering, he realized if he were to die, his only regret would be that he hadn't spent more time with his wife and kids. money, business, accolades didn't matter. a few months later, lloyed decided to leave the day-to-day operations of boast and stay on as a board member of the company.
"i'd turned into a workaholic, neglecting my wife, my kids, and my family to chase this dream. after i left boast, however, i felt i'd lost my identity, but vivi helped me see that my glass was half full."
lloyed now spends summers in san francisco and the rest of the year in dubai. he sits on the boards of several companies and enjoys spending more time with his family.
"prioritize your well-being and the things that bring you joy. business is a marathon, not a sprint, so brace yourself for that journey."