00:16.020 --> 00:18.270 Vlad Sherbatov: Vaulte is a Toronto based startup that 00:18.270 --> 00:23.370 specializes in verifiable digital signatures. Meyer, 00:23.400 --> 00:24.900 welcome to the program. 00:25.619 --> 00:26.639 Meyer Mechanic: Thanks for having me Vlad. 00:26.000 --> 00:28.850 Vlad Sherbatov: Why did you decide to start a company? And 00:30.740 --> 00:33.050 why did you decide to start Vaulte? 00:33.000 --> 00:35.890 Meyer Mechanic: Vaulte started when me and my co founder 00:35.962 --> 00:39.936 Demetri. We're having beers one night, and we're asking 00:40.008 --> 00:43.838 ourselves the question, why can't you sign your will, 00:43.910 --> 00:48.318 digitally, the law said that it had to be in writing. But all 00:48.390 --> 00:52.798 these other laws have changed for digital signatures, why not 00:52.870 --> 00:57.205 wills? And the more we dug into it, and the more we dug into 00:57.278 --> 01:01.685 digital signatures, the more we started to realize that there 01:01.757 --> 01:05.587 were kinks in the armor, that these things weren't as 01:05.659 --> 01:09.778 protective as we thought they were. And that if we really 01:09.850 --> 01:14.330 wanted something that you could sign your will, with, which is 01:14.402 --> 01:18.810 you know, all of your worldly possessions. We need to rethink 01:18.882 --> 01:23.290 these from the ground up for compliance. Both of us liked the 01:23.362 --> 01:27.408 idea of building something for ourselves. That's kind of 01:27.481 --> 01:32.105 important, if you want to be an entrepreneur. It's funny because 01:32.177 --> 01:36.585 different things motivate you at different times, when you're 01:36.657 --> 01:41.065 building a company. I think in the phase where we were coming 01:41.137 --> 01:45.400 up with an answer, what was fascinating to us was the hunt. 01:45.472 --> 01:49.952 Why didn't this have an answer? What do we need to put into an 01:50.025 --> 01:54.504 answer? What can we do? And then once we had that answer, then 01:54.577 --> 01:58.912 well there was the next jump off, is we're going to dedicate 01:58.984 --> 02:03.103 our full time to it. And that was, is the opportunity big 02:03.175 --> 02:07.800 enough? Can we do something with it? Is this a hole that we want 02:07.872 --> 02:11.846 to dive down for, you know, potentially the rest of our 02:11.918 --> 02:16.470 lives? And all of those answers were interesting. And they test 02:16.543 --> 02:20.950 your mettle every day. Because when you're in the slog of it, 02:21.023 --> 02:25.430 and you know, something in the codebase isn't going right, or 02:25.502 --> 02:29.910 you have a customer who's not happy with something, you know, 02:29.982 --> 02:34.029 you question those decisions, but at the same time, what 02:34.101 --> 02:38.220 motivates you through is I'm doing something interesting. 02:38.900 --> 02:41.090 Vlad Sherbatov: Did you always want to be an entrepreneur, or 02:41.090 --> 02:45.110 did this something that you decided to do right before going 02:45.110 --> 02:45.770 into Vaulte? 02:47.160 --> 02:50.276 Meyer Mechanic: I had a very safe route planned. And I went 02:50.349 --> 02:54.988 into my MBA, knowing that I had a safe route plan for when I was 02:55.061 --> 02:59.772 done with it. A third of the way through, something happened that 02:59.845 --> 03:04.122 kind of derailed that plan. And that pushed me into a world 03:04.194 --> 03:08.399 where I was able to really explore, I was suddenly in open 03:08.471 --> 03:13.110 water. And I really got to open my eyes to say like, oh, this is 03:13.183 --> 03:17.677 what life is like on the open water. And I kinda got the catch 03:17.750 --> 03:21.446 for sailing. From there. Building your own boat and 03:21.519 --> 03:25.651 sailing across the ocean just seems like the next natural 03:25.723 --> 03:30.435 step. And it feels great. One of the things that gets underlooked 03:30.507 --> 03:35.002 so often when you're starting a company, is the fact that none 03:35.074 --> 03:39.713 of us can do it alone. The most important thing you're gonna get 03:39.786 --> 03:43.773 as an entrepreneur is your community. Surround yourself 03:43.845 --> 03:47.760 with good people, surround yourself with good mentors, 03:47.832 --> 03:51.964 surround yourself with good accelerators. Before I give a 03:52.036 --> 03:55.733 shout out to any of my professors, I need to give a 03:55.806 --> 04:00.518 shout out to my partner Dimitri. He's our he's my CTO, he's my co 04:00.590 --> 04:04.939 founder in this. And you know, the nights that we're up till 04:05.012 --> 04:08.854 two in the morning, just discussing how to build this 04:08.926 --> 04:13.420 thing have been fascinating ever since. of the professors that 04:13.493 --> 04:17.842 inspired me that have sort of gotten me to this point. There 04:17.915 --> 04:21.684 was Neil Buckley at York University, who was my game 04:21.757 --> 04:25.961 theory Prof. Which sort of taught me about the math behind 04:26.033 --> 04:29.948 how people think. There was Francesco Bova, who was my 04:30.020 --> 04:34.659 accounting Prof, at Rotman, too, who's answered some of the most 04:34.732 --> 04:39.154 insane questions for me, even now. Last year, we were talking 04:39.226 --> 04:43.648 about blockchain economics on your balance sheet, which is as 04:43.720 --> 04:47.852 boring of a subject as it sounds, but the actual answers, 04:47.925 --> 04:49.520 they were fascinating, 04:49.979 --> 04:52.349 Vlad Sherbatov: don't forget to subscribe to the Smarter Loans 04:52.401 --> 04:55.647 YouTube channel for more videos that will help you make smarter 04:55.699 --> 04:56.730 financial decisions.