From Educator to Serial Entrepreneur: Building Purpose-Driven Businesses | Daniel Maveneka

Batje (00:00.739)
Welcome back everyone to Humour Career Insights. Today's guest is Daniel Mavenneca, who is a builder of businesses. He builds businesses by first paying attention to people, to systems and to the real problems showing up in everyday life. Daniel is a serial entrepreneur. He's based in Mississauga, Ontario, and he's a career educator with over 20 years in Ontario's public school system.

That foundation led him to create Ontario Online Schools, a fully accredited online high school serving students in Canada and internationally, built with trusted colleagues and former students. Alongside education, Daniel is also the founder of Minga Coffee Company, a social impact venture working directly with pharma cooperatives in Tanzania, as well as the mind behind Bridging Generations and

initiative focused on digital literacy and online safety that he's building with his own children. Most recently, he's developing Check In Canada, a personal safety app designed to support people who live alone or are socially isolated. A powerful reminder that the most meaningful businesses often start with simple human needs. Across all his work, one theme is clear. Entrepreneurship for Daniel is not hassle. It's a long-term career choice.

rooted in relationships, trust, and impact. Let's get into that conversation. Daniel, welcome to Humor Career Insights.

Daniel Maveneka (01:31.992)
Good morning, Bash. Wow. I'd like to meet the guy you just described because he sounds awesome.

Yeah, let's get into it. Let's get into it.

Batje (01:42.915)
Yeah, so you describe yourself first as a husband, father, educator, mentor, before we talk about entrepreneurship. We talk about you talk about the how right before you talk about the why or rather the why before the how. How has that identity shaped the kinds of businesses you choose to build?

Daniel Maveneka (02:03.918)
Well, that's a great and challenging question. I think that if you sort of look at my background, I was born in Zimbabwe. I'm Ashana and...

The concept of family and moving the generations forward is an important one to me. In Shana we say, kusumu zirat zinza type situation. So I moved to Canada in 1997. I went to university here and I got a job in education. I didn't initially come to Canada expecting to do an education, but looking back on it and realizing that my mother was an educator, my father is an educator, my grandfather on one side was a, on my father's side was an educator.

It's just educators everywhere. Indeed, my wife is an educator, her father's an educator. So looking back now, I was always going to education, but there's always been another side of me that...

felt like I needed a little something more than that.

I've got my grandfather on my mother's side was as it was an entrepreneur. He had shops and was a big farmer in the Rishavani area. So when I moved to Canada and started my career in education, it's a great career, very rewarding, but it's the kind of thing where once you get a job in a school system, you can just hang around for 30 years and then retire. Then you'll spend 10 years enjoying your retirement. Then you get sick and you die. And that just didn't seem like a good

Daniel Maveneka (03:32.864)
use of The opportunities that have been afforded to me coming from Zimbabwe going to Canada So then you sort of start looking around and you're always looking no matter how long you've been here you've always got that lens as a Zimbabwe and looking at things and You know anybody who knows Zimbabwe, it's not when I'm trying to dream. We can always look for things We're always looking for opportunities and gaps and when you come from countries where the system is not so

structured and set up as it would be here in Canada, in the West, then you find some real opportunities. And so my business thing has always been just trying to fill a need that I see through the different lenses that I have, firstly. And then secondly, to connect it to the family thing, it's important for me to build a legacy and prepare my kids for the world that's coming.

When I started school here in Canada in 1997, there were no iPhones or smartphones with apps. By the time I graduated four years later, smartphones and apps were a real thing. So no matter what education is doing, we're building skills today.

Batje (04:36.748)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (04:51.214)
But those skills must be useful tomorrow when technology has changed. So the reason that family comes first is that once you've stabilized your family, then you sort of look around to what can we do to put them in a better position later on in life, seeing that, seeing the opportunities from the Zimbabwean lens. I don't know if I answered that question. I'm really nervous, but we'll calm down and we'll get there.

Batje (05:13.335)
You answered it very well. I'm so more in the narration of the story that you can see how family is such an integral part of you and everything that you do. You talk from far back as your great grandfather, right? And I'm like, wow, you know, that legacy, it's really important to you that to pass on a legacy.

And it's fairly evident in the work that you do. So let's talk about that work that you do. Let's talk about these ideas that you have, these brilliant ideas that you have. Are they, is it the idea first or is it problem solving? Because it seems every single idea that you have, every single idea that you implement starts with the problem. And yeah, I want to talk about that a bit and see if that is the case with you, because in entrepreneurship we always say,

I had a brilliant idea, but where does that idea come from?

Daniel Maveneka (06:14.126)
Hmm. The short answer is I think my approach to any of my ventures is always to solve an immediate problem or solve a better yet solve a problem that's coming up. My wife always laughs that.

I'm, it's as if I was born five years too early. So when I was in university, for example, we like to have a good time. But like I said, there were no smartphones, things like Yelp and all that didn't exist, but we were learning technology at the time. So at one time we had this website called what's on the go.ca, which would tell you what's happening in the city of St. John's from Monday to Friday. You want to go to restaurant, a bar, a club. And we did that and...

That was to solve a problem, which is that we'd get together and say, hey, what are we gonna do tonight? And there was no way we could figure that out. So I think that it is to solve a problem is why I start most businesses. Semicolon, however, comma.

Ideas come all the time. I watched this one podcast. It wasn't a podcast. It was a a TED talk several years ago. It was actually introduced to me by a friend of mine knowledge. Nimara who's another entrepreneur out in Montreal, Canada and excuse my language here, but it's called how to not fuck yourself over and Thatch will include a link to it. I know your shots, but this is it. What I basically talked about was that

We as people always have good ideas. If you put five people in a room and give them enough time to talk, they will come up with at least four or five really good ideas. The problem is the follow-up of that idea. Sorry.

Batje (07:48.389)
Yeah, so I'm gonna.

gonna stop you then I'm gonna ask you to go back and say and say how to how to how to blip blip because YouTube is gonna kick us out yeah they're gonna they don't like certain words yes so if you go how to you know if it's yes or you just say it's how to you know it's how to blip

Daniel Maveneka (08:02.88)
Okay, all right. So that's... Okay, sorry, that was the actual name of the TED Talk. yeah. Okay, what if I say, how to not screw yourself over? Would that work? Screw yourself over.

Batje (08:20.357)
but you know the word, starts with an F or something like that. Okay, so I will, can read, you can, where can you start? From, I'll just, you know, come back and then you can start maybe from, shall I start from the question again?

Daniel Maveneka (08:21.824)
Okay. Okay.

Daniel Maveneka (08:36.758)
Yeah, just ask the question. What comes first, the idea or the problem? Yeah.

Batje (08:41.129)
Yeah, yeah, I'll start from the so you connect it to that. editor will connect it to that and then just do that.

So in your experience, what comes first, the idea or the problem to solve?

Daniel Maveneka (08:58.412)
In my personal experience, I think I try to solve problems.

Perhaps that's a function of being an oldest child. Perhaps that's the function of my educational upbringing at St. George's College in Harare, Zimbabwe. Go Dragons! Perhaps it's being a teacher, right? Like we want to solve problems and I think also part of it is being the Zimbabwean background again where, you know, the world doesn't always work out well so you got to fix problems. So think I've always approached it from the perspective of if I see a problem that needs to be fixed,

If nobody else is doing it, then I believe, I have come to believe that I'm competent enough to do it. This is not something that was always a characteristic of my personality. However, on the topic of ideas, I think it's fair to mention that I watched this Ted Talk once called How to Not...

yourself over. We're going to keep it clean because of the algorithm. I was introduced to me by Knowledge Nimada, who's another Zimbabwean friend of mine. He's an educator and entrepreneur in Montreal. And what basically the thesis of this TED Talk was that if you put five people in a room together and just let them talk within an hour, they'll come up with three, four really good ideas. But very few of those ideas become reality because we're comfortable in what we're doing.

And so that risk of trying out an idea and a venture, we stop ourselves, right? I'll get to it later. I don't have the money for it. I don't have the time for it. But really what we're saying is, what if I fail? And for me, I don't mean to sound braggy, but life has been good to me.

Batje (10:26.417)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (10:43.15)
Like my career in education has been really good to me. The fact that I've been able to come to Canada and establish this life that I have is a blessing. It really is a blessing. It was not something I did by myself. I was supported by family. I was supported by friends. I was supported by strangers. And so now I have that opportunity. And if the worst that's going to happen is it didn't work out, and so what? Because when I was younger, said, oh, the people will laugh at me. And it took a while to realize that the people don't really think about

me that much. So whether I succeed or fail, it doesn't matter. So give it a try and you never know. So problem solving first, but also if you get an idea, try and run with it. Batch, I'll send you the link to that podcast, the TED talk. I think people should listen to it. It's only 15, 20 minutes long, but it really did change my mind and change my mindset about how to approach problems.

Batje (11:34.533)
Yeah, yeah. Thank you. I look forward to that link because it's something that that we all struggle with as as entrepreneurs or even just as as individuals. Right. For me, the ideas are constantly there and implementing. And for me, the yeah, it's always, I don't have time. I'm still doing this. I'm still doing that. And then fast forward like a year or two later, I look around and I'm like, hey, so and so.

actually did implement that idea that I had and it is working out fine. So had I, had I actually done it? And it's interesting when you say that I'm actually saying what if I fail? Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (12:06.712)
Cool.

Daniel Maveneka (12:20.11)
It doesn't matter. They're not thinking about you. I have these conversations with my teenage daughter, Nyasha. And as all teenagers, they worry a lot about sort of what other people will say. And I'm often telling her, look, I've been teaching high school for over 20 years. I promise you that in a class of 30, 29 of those people are thinking about themselves and worrying what is everybody else thinking about?

Batje (12:23.141)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (12:45.9)
And the one person who's not worried about it is the one who's happiest. So don't worry about what the world has to say or what they think. Do you. And if it works out, great. And if it doesn't, you're still better because you tried. There is a book by Canadian author, Robertson Davis called Fifth Business. It's one of my favorite books. And there's a line that sticks with me all the time. He said, the greatest curse is to live the unfulfilled life.

So imagine you get to the end of your life, however you imagine it in your concept, and you look back, and all these opportunities are there that you could have taken, you could have tried to branch off into different places, and then you didn't. Well, the guy who did is standing right next to you at the end of that line too. So you're like, hey, I did nothing, but I got here. You gotta try, you gotta try, because what's the worst that happens? Especially in a situation like where I live in Canada, where there's so many opportunities, you just gotta go out there and try it.

Batje (13:40.335)
And try. Yeah. You mentioned 20 years in education, in higher education. When did you... And you obviously were always, you always had what we call the side hustles, right? While you were doing in education as an educator, when did you realize that these side hustles can actually become a career and leave the education sector?

Daniel Maveneka (13:40.566)
And that's my attitude, yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (14:08.674)
don't know that there was a natural break or a big aha moment. If we talk about the online school, example, Ontario's always had a system that allows for the public education system, which is in my mind, the best education system in the world. It really is. We'll get into it later, the differences between.

Batje (14:16.88)
Yes.

Batje (14:26.065)
Mm.

Daniel Maveneka (14:30.434)
the various education systems. But Ontario has always had a good public education system. as society progresses, whether it's in school, people are starting to learn hybrid, there's more learning online.

So it was back in 2017, actually, the government of Ontario, I believe it was 2017, you can fact check me here, but the government of Ontario announced that all high school students would need to take a certain number of courses online as a graduation requirement. And of course that caused a bit of turmoil because society doesn't like change. If you look at a classroom today in many parts of the world, it looks exactly the same as it was when people who are now standing at the front of the classroom teaching went

Batje (15:04.196)
Yeah.

Batje (15:09.211)
Peace.

Daniel Maveneka (15:13.85)
themselves, right? So they don't like change. But if you sort of think about it, you speak to people in the private sector, a valuable skill that students who become employees and business owners later on after high school is the ability to work online, the ability to work hybrid. So when we talk about ideas and opportunities there, I remember I was watching this announcement and I've been in the system for long enough to know the capacities of the systems, its strengths and its weaknesses. And at that moment, there was no capacity for all the students in Ontario to take all those

online courses at one go. Problem, the government has mandated that they'll have to take X number of online courses, but there isn't a capacity within the public school system. So what do you do?

build an online school then. And so that's what we did. I hadn't been in school administration at the time. But again, shout out to the government of Ontario. They make it really simple. There's a manual you can go there and you follow the requirements. I did at that time have my masters in education. So I had the professional qualifications, but I'm not the only one. So I went to work and I spoke to a few people about it. And for X reason and Y reason, I think the conclusion was like, we can't try it because what if it fails? And I thought to myself, well, okay, give it a shot. And it's been a slow and steady process.

Batje (16:22.063)
Mm-hmm. Mm.

Daniel Maveneka (16:25.072)
the process we've been in business now since 2018, we were certified I believe, it's now 2026. yeah, from one sort of little problem you solve to another, that's what happens. And we've now been able to help a variety of different students from that student who wants to do a specific course that's not offered at their high school to that immigrant who comes with qualifications from a different system and they need to get courses for the Ontario system to

Batje (16:30.821)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (16:54.944)
children, to students who especially after the pandemic who perhaps had anxiety and mental health issues and couldn't function in a regular school system but still wanted to graduate. So yeah, you solve problems. I'd like to, I can't wait for the day when we have 10,000 students enrolled. We're not there yet. We're still a relatively small school, but we do good work and so we've stayed in business and all that came from literally sitting watching the news, hearing what the premier was saying, connecting what I knew and then going about and doing it. And I didn't do it

Batje (17:21.834)
Mm. Mm.

Daniel Maveneka (17:24.878)
all by myself, I did not know how to design websites. So I called a friend of mine who is...

Chris from Paispanogia is a great innovator. He's a hustler. And so then he helped me build a website and I didn't, couldn't teach all the subjects. So I went to colleagues and friends that I'd worked with and I said, Hey, do you mind coming and teaching this? And through trial and error, we figured it out. And now we have what I think is the most progressive, one of the most progressive schools in Canada, because we've moved away from a pedagogical approach where the teacher tells you information. And when you regurgitate it, you demonstrate your learning to inquiry based where you're given a problem.

Batje (17:55.824)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (18:01.71)
you try to solve that problem, you learn the skills for that course requires. So because of that, we don't worry about AI and students cheating because you're solving a problem. And if you're using AI to help you try to solve that problem, that's actually what we're trying to do. Whereas the old model of school has students now writing essays in pen and paper because they worry that kids are just going to use AI to do the work. Right? So you got to be dynamic. You got to shift, but got to be ready to try it. And so, yeah.

Batje (18:11.345)
Mm-mm.

Batje (18:21.968)
You

Batje (18:33.467)
Yeah, so the school is fully credited. Okay, okay. And is it global? it like, okay, so can someone who is in Kenya, for instance, can they learn at the school?

Daniel Maveneka (18:38.85)
That's right. Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (18:53.486)
Yeah, absolutely. our current model is asynchronous learning. So the lesson materials are there. Every course is facilitated by a qualified teacher. And actually, we've gotten teachers, not just people who are practicing teachers now, but also people who have work experience. So for example, at our science programs, they're taught by a teacher who

left teaching to go into engineering. So he understands the theory of education because he's been a teacher, but he also works in the industry so he can have real conversations with the students who want to go into engineering, that sort of thing. And yeah, so students can, from anywhere in the world, they can enroll with us and they can get an Ontario secondary school diploma, which listen carefully, all you parents who are out there paying for your child to do O level and A level and GCE.

Batje (19:21.553)
Mm.

Daniel Maveneka (19:44.61)
That's first of all, disclaimer. That's what I did. I did A levels at St. George's and I was able to use those O's and A levels to get into the Canadian experience. But my pathways were limited by the subjects I took.

in A level. So I did Geography, History and English. That automatically pushed me towards the arts. I came and I was going to be a lawyer and you can do that. But with the Ontario Secondary School Diploma, you do 30 courses from grade nine to grade 12. And a grade 12 can do everything, must do math and English, but they can do humanities. They can do sciences. They can do physical education. They can do business, computers. And so therefore when they get to university, the pathways are far wider open than students who do O level and A level. I was in Tanzania

last June looking into some coffee and we'll get to the coffee a little later on. I'll tell you about Mbinga coffee, that's right. But Mbinga coffee just to jump to the future, Mbinga is a region in southern Tanzania. It's not the Mbinga that we use from Zimbabwe. Although I hope to one day become Mbinga in Zimbabwe.

Batje (20:30.231)
Minga coffee is.

Daniel Maveneka (20:48.386)
But it's, when you look at that education model, right, with the GCEOs and A levels and your IB programs, those are really high stakes assessments. You study for two years to get to your A levels, then you've got one day to get everything you learned in two years out on a piece of paper. What happens if something bad happened in your life yesterday, right? Somebody bereaved me, or you just woke up not feeling that. That's two years of your life gone. But with the Ontario Secondary School Diploma, you're evaluated throughout the course.

And then the grade you get at the end is a reflection of what you did throughout the course as opposed to just on one day. So you have better opportunities to enter different fields in university. There's less likelihood that you're not going to be successful because even if we had a final exam, if you've been achieving 80s and 90s throughout the semester and then suddenly on the day of the exam, things don't work out for you and you get a 40.

We don't average. We do what we call triangulation. The teacher looks at the whole student and their whole performance and then says, is a fair reflection of the student's work? So parents, if you're out there in any part of the world, contact us if you want your child to get a diploma through the best education system, I think, certainly in Canada and probably in the world, and then be able to use that to get into universities all over, whether it's in Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, England, Australia, Canada, they can do that.

Batje (22:12.827)
Yeah, as a parent myself, know that, you know, making the right decisions in terms of education for your children is, yeah, it's really critical because it sets them up for the future, right? And there I heard you, I heard the educator in you and I was thinking.

What were some of those early moments where the educator in you conflicted with the entrepreneur and how did you resolve that tension when you were founding this online school?

Daniel Maveneka (22:44.3)
Hmm. yeah. Well, so when you go into into business, the goal is to make money. That's that's that's why you go into business, but I spoke to

I had a conversation with a very successful banker who I know here in Canada. He's something of a business mentor of mine, Andrew Mushori. And he said that, you know, that Oprah line of, you find something that you can do and you enjoy doing it, then you'll never work a day in your life. So that same sort of attitude is what he talked to me about. So in answer to your question, we often have situations where a student will need a course, but financially they're not able to pay what they can.

Batje (23:12.111)
Yes.

Batje (23:25.2)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (23:25.654)
And so you're kind of conflicted. You're like, well, it costs me money to operate this. So to give it to you for free, then I'm losing money and that's not a good business model. But then the educator in me says, okay, you know what?

Batje (23:30.053)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (23:40.866)
help them out anyway. So we were able to then get creative about payment ways, for example, because typically here when you buy a product, especially online, you got to pay for it first before you get delivery of the product. All right. That will be an example of that. And so just the creativity of, know what, why don't you pay what you can and then hopefully by the end of the course, you've got it done. There've been other instances where students want to take the courses well as they really need them, but they don't even have a computer. Well, I'm sure if your house is anything like mine, there's probably five or

Batje (23:51.643)
Yes, yes.

Daniel Maveneka (24:10.8)
six Chromebooks lying around somewhere and everything. Give them that. But what business is giving away materials for people? But we do that, right? So it's that pull of, as an educator, you want to help people get to the next step. As a business person, you're hoping that that help will help you make some money, but...

Batje (24:12.815)
Yes. Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (24:30.848)
I found that in any situation where it's a real story where I can help somebody, that's what I'm going to do first. Because we don't advertise in newspapers or on TV. I don't know what kids advertise these days, but we don't advertise there. Our work is our word.

And so coming back to that story again of that student who needed financial assistance to get through, we ended up getting a whole bunch of other students directed to us through the student because we'd helped them out so much that they paid it forward. So if I had been really tight on that few hundred dollars with that one child, I wouldn't have made much more. And that was a real learning for me there. And a reminder, again, back to St. George's College, we're meant for others. For the greater glory of God was something we wrote every day on a piece of paper.

Batje (24:56.348)
yes.

Daniel Maveneka (25:15.237)
thing and things will eventually work out. And if not for me then they'll work out for somebody else.

Batje (25:19.791)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's more of a balance, not necessarily one above the other.

Daniel Maveneka (25:28.402)
Yeah, I mean, lean to as an entrepreneur, you're leaning towards profitability and everything else like that. But as a decent human being, again, business courses will tell you that it takes five years from the start of a business before it even hopefully reaches profitability, right? And only what, 30 % of businesses get started out. So just do what you feel is right. And chances are it'll work out, it's been my experience. And if it doesn't, well, it wasn't for you, but...

Batje (25:33.37)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (25:53.836)
the lessons you learn from that failure, then prepare you for the next venture. Because we've been everywhere, Bash. There was a time when I was importing secondhand tires from Germany to Zimbabwe. That business didn't work out, there was a lot of learning in that business, which has now redounded well as we're in the business of importing coffee from Tanzania to Canada.

Batje (26:04.899)
Yes, I remember that.

Batje (26:10.245)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (26:16.19)
So somebody looking at that small window of time would say that the entire business didn't work out. But looking at it from a longitudinal perspective, that was an important step. You look at that one student who got to get their diploma for less than the other diploma would be a failure. But longitudinally, number one, the success of the student, but number two, the work they were able to do to get us other students, longitudinally it's success.

Batje (26:16.443)
Yeah.

Batje (26:31.6)
Yeah.

Batje (26:42.139)
Hmm. So that's lessons learned, isn't it? And being a successful entrepreneur is about learning the lessons, but also not being afraid to fail. I think that was, you know, my conversations that I've been having with entrepreneurs since the beginning of this particular season. That's one theme that has come out, that success is not being afraid to fail.

But now I'm hearing from you that not just not being afraid to fail, but learning lessons from the failures and moving on, moving on.

Daniel Maveneka (27:17.258)
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure we've all seen that post of Michael Jordan, right? Like he missed 90 % of the game closing shots he Now the basketball fans are gonna jump on me here, but like he missed a lot of shots that he took, but he also made a lot of those shots. And the shots that he took and he missed, then he got better and he practiced. You're not magic, right? The only instant get rich quick scheme is to win the lottery.

And if you're not going to win the lottery, you're going to have to take steps. If you watch a newborn child learning how, not newborn, but toddler learning how to walk, no child just suddenly was crawling and then stood up and like, yeah, okay, I'm done with that crawling. I'm walking. Steps and stumbles, steps and stumbles. And then you eventually make it. And once you make it, you don't look back on, yeah, but that third time that I fell, was not cool. Right? Like, cause you move on with life. And, and, and so, yeah, don't be afraid to, to, to, to try. Don't be afraid to fail. And when you do fail, I've always put in quotation marks because you only

fail when you're dead. Idris Elba was in his 50s before he became famous. Who wouldn't want to be Idris Elba in this moment right now? You keep trying and trying and trying until you make it and because of the way time works we can't go back in time anyway so don't worry about it.

Batje (28:31.397)
A lot of what you're saying is really reminding me of episode two of this season with Professor Lonnie Strickland. If you have not listened to it yourself, I would recommend that you go back and listen to it. It's a lot of the lessons that you're talking about. He talks about, you know, strategy for entrepreneurs, and there's a lot of that. But I want to move on now to talk about Mbinga Coffee Company and particularly

in terms of the fact that this is a joint venture with friends and with some farmers in Tanzania. Why was it important for you to build a business that directly connects African producers to the Canadian market? Firstly, And that building it with friends. I'm seeing that theme in your ventures. Your relationships, yeah, your businesses are rooted in relationships.

So yeah, firstly, why was it important for that African connection and then the rootedness in relationships of your ventures.

Daniel Maveneka (29:40.83)
Yeah, also the answer to the first part of question was important because like I said, I was born and raised in Zimbabwe. I still consider myself a Zimbabwean even though I live in Canada and have citizenship here. And the story of the third world is the exploitation of the people and the resources. I remember I once asked a group of people who were here, okay, and said, hey guys, where's the best coffee in the world from? And an argument broke up.

Was it Italian coffee or French coffee? I said, where's the best chocolate from? Belgium, Swiss. I'm like, where? Because in both those countries, there is neither coffee bush or cocoa bean grown there. It's all from what we'd call the tropical belts, the s-hole countries, as Trump calls them, like the third world. They go there and we need to We'll stop and get started again.

Batje (30:22.683)
Hmm.

Daniel Maveneka (30:39.564)
Where do we pause here? Okay, so just pause there and restart and I'll do my answer. Yeah, so in terms of the first part of your question, it really comes from the fact that I was born and raised in Zimbabwe. I still consider myself a Zimbabwean, an African, even though I live in Canada and got Canadian citizenship. But the story of resources for as long as I've been alive has been the exploitation

the resource and the people in Africa for the Western market, right? So I remember we had a new at a party over here once and we were just talking and the question came up Where's the best coffee in the world come from people said French coffee? I said, you know Italian coffee Italians take great pride in their Italian coffee Or you know, where's the best chocolate from Switzerland Belgium?

Batje (31:11.887)
Hmm.

Batje (31:20.027)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (31:31.072)
And that's poppycock because they don't grow any coffee, or coffee beans in those places. All those resources are taken from Africa and then refined over here and sold at an upscale price that doesn't benefit the local people. And so I know this.

Batje (31:45.339)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (31:47.758)
And so when the opportunity came up to do something about it, it's no good just posting on social media, hashtag, you know, feed the people, blah, blah, do something about it. You go to start to, um, you go to a high end coffee shop and they charge you $20 for a cup of coffee that has three beans in it. That's $20 cup of coffee.

cost more than a 50 kg bag of the raw coffee beans that are being hand picked and walked up and down mountains.

in the coffee growing areas of Tanzania. And that's just not right. There's a way I believe of doing business where I can be successful without exploiting the people who are doing the hard work. I'll send you some videos and pictures back that perhaps you can add to this podcast. The hardest job that I've ever seen is the coffee picking job because they're grown. The coffee is grown on mountains that are this sheer. The people have to walk up and down hand picking them. It's too steep for machinery.

Batje (32:21.467)
Yeah.

Batje (32:33.937)
Mm.

Daniel Maveneka (32:48.364)
And it's all done by local farmers who are just one step above subsistence farming. They grow three, four bags of coffee and they'll sell it and get maybe enough to put their kids through school. By the time the system has done its thing, those bags of coffee are worth thousands of dollars over here. Maybe they can get a few dollars and...

here maybe I can get a few less dollars and the world can be a better place. Now in terms of partnership, like I said I was born and raised in Zimbabwe but in university I met my best friend Eric Ngwaiile who is now an entrepreneur himself out in Nova Scotia, Canada.

And his family has always been in the coffee business in so far as in his rural areas, as we say in Zimbabwe, coffee is what they do. But it's always just been something that was grown and then sold to the AMCOS and all they were ever involved in was basically just getting it out of the ground and bringing it to the distillers, bringing it to the, I've lost the word now, the people who process it, right? Well, not even that, they're still exporting mainly

Batje (33:36.315)
in.

Batje (33:48.635)
Yeah, the manufacturers.

Daniel Maveneka (33:54.06)
the raw material out of Tanzania into the Middle East and into North America and into the West. And then there it's roasted as if there's no roasting process in Africa. Why can't we export?

the finished product that costs $18 for a 340 gram bag of coffee, why can't we make it there and then the people who make it there make the money as opposed to the resources. So anyway, Eric had always been, we went back, we went to Tanzania eight years ago for a sister's wedding and then whilst we there we went and checked out the land and we sort of talked about that idea I saying about people would talk about, like, hey, you know what? We can get involved in this coffee business and we can bring it in here because all the specialty coffee people are buying.

It's not from France or Italy, no offense to my French and Italian friends, but it's all from East Africa. And then you're just relabeling it. But that was before I'd watched that Ted Talk. So we talked about it, we talked about it, and we got back home after the trip to Tanzania for a sister's wedding, and we didn't follow through on it. And so then eight years passed, and we haven't done anything about it. We've just talked about it.

Batje (34:49.105)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (35:00.546)
And then we went back again this last June, having decided, you know what, let's really do it. And so we're able to actually go out to the coffee growing region. We looked at the whole process of it.

And then we took the necessary steps. We incorporated a business here in Canada. We got our food safety licenses from here in Canada, our import licenses, because that's one of the things that the TED Talk talked about. If you get a good idea, immediately do something to get that idea in motion, right? Because the ones who know physics know that it takes a lot more energy to get a sitting object to move than to maintain that momentum. So once you've committed, well, we've got the business registered, we've got the website registered, we've got our food safety license.

Batje (35:27.153)
Yes.

Batje (35:37.883)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (35:39.722)
It's moving now. Now we're compelled to keep going as opposed to just talking about it. And so we're really excited about how this is going. We're able to provide better quality coffee than most importers because most importers are buying it from the auction floors. But because of our relationships with the people in the coffee growing region, we're able to get it literally. The farmer brings it to the AMCOS, which is the coffee cooperative. And then we can actually ask them, OK, we'd like 10 tons of

Batje (35:42.809)
Yes, yes.

Daniel Maveneka (36:09.682)
Peaberry coffee 10 tons of triple-a grade and we can get that before the the importers who get it from the market do so we get it for a lower price But the price that we pay is still better than what the farmer would get if it was sold at the at the auction

Right? So the farmer is making way more money selling to us. We are doing better because we're buying it from cheaper because we've got it there. And we're so then able to provide a premium product that is of higher quality than what's on the market, but at a lower price and all because we have that lens again to see it. Right. you, I don't know if, if, if you've ever flown over, East Africa.

Batje (36:28.548)
Yeah. Yeah.

Batje (36:48.055)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel Maveneka (36:54.508)
and you compare what you see over the out the window as when you fly over North America. North America our farms are in grids, they're in patterns, it looks professional. In East Africa it just looks so disorganized because it's not one farmer with 3,000 acres, it's 3,000 farmers with one acre. So it looks disorganized but actually they're able to provide...

Batje (36:54.704)
Yes.

Batje (37:01.656)
Yes. Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (37:16.814)
the product that we need. So again, if you can shift your mind out of seeing it from a North American perspective and you can see from a local perspective, there's a lot of opportunities there. And again, because Zimbabweans no chaga chaga, we can look for things. It seemed like a no brainer. And so here we are now. I'm huge in big C coffee. Even though don't really drink this stuff, I prefer my tea.

Batje (37:37.616)
Yeah, I prefer tea too. But I'm impressed by how you went for a wedding and you saw this opportunity. Are you always looking for opportunities?

Daniel Maveneka (37:53.07)
I don't know that I make a mental choice to say today I'm going to try and find something. growing up in Zimbabwe, for example, I never met my member of parliament ever. Not even, they didn't even bother campaigning. I never met them. But here in Canada, the member of parliament's office is right there. Right? You can walk in and you can meet them. I tell this story because in open societies like, like, like, like,

Batje (38:09.04)
Yeah.

Batje (38:15.899)
yes.

Daniel Maveneka (38:22.956)
the Canada that I live in, there are so many opportunities that if you just look around, you will find them. I was talking to my daughter and she's getting the age now where she wants to get a job and she wants to have her own money. She can't wait for Christmas and birthdays to make her own money. So she was saying, you know what, maybe I'll get a job at the local coffee shop, at the local grocery store. But because of technology, they've brought in these self-scanning machines. And then because of what the economy is now, a lot of these jobs that used to be

Batje (38:24.484)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (38:52.88)
done by young people are now being done by adults who are supporting families, it's hard for teenagers to get jobs. But you know what she's really good at? She's a really artistic kid who's really good at makeup and nails and that kind of art. So.

Batje (38:56.538)
Yes. Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (39:08.776)
Because I used to be a media studies teacher and by day I'm teaching kids about how to work on social media and how to create I thought well why don't you instead of going and working for somebody else start your own thing and so my idea was Why don't you start doing people's nails and everything else like that and it didn't quite work out that way But now she's got herself a posh mark store because one of the things she likes to do is put together outfits and fashion And she's really creative that way so now you have a 14 year old girl who's operating an online thrift

Batje (39:21.391)
Yeah.

Batje (39:33.871)
Yes.

Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (39:38.592)
because that's the opportunity that exists out there and we're looking for it. My son, for example, he's 12 and he loves video games. I remember I used to love, we had the great Nintendo growing up and my parents were like, hey, I'll say it in shawty and then I'll translate it. See, understand my game, they didn't get my book. Leave those games alone, read books because back when I was growing up, formal education was the only means of, what was the main vehicle to success.

Batje (40:05.103)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (40:05.41)
But would you be surprised to learn that the gaming industry now, more now generates more money than movies and music combined. So the opportunities are there for him. So now we don't discourage the game and we still expect him to go to school and do well in school. But if he wants to game, go and game my son, because maybe you'll become a developer, a creator, or maybe you'll become a professional athlete who games. Right. There's so many opportunities here that it is.

Batje (40:13.296)
Mmm.

Batje (40:30.254)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (40:30.87)
irresponsible for somebody to come from a family that sacrificed a lot to bring him to Canada for these opportunities. Then you just get comfortable enough that you don't have to struggle day by day to figure out what to put, you know, what am I going to eat? And do I have a roof over my head? Then you're comfortable. Then you're just sitting. But what about the sacrifice of all those who work to get you here? Don't you owe history the responsibility to hustle as hard here as they did there to get you here. And if you bring that African hustle to

Batje (40:37.328)
you

Batje (40:40.91)
Yes.

Batje (40:50.288)
you

Batje (40:55.097)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (41:00.278)
an open Western society, there's no excuse to fail. Yeah, and that's just how I look at it.

Batje (41:03.585)
Mm, mm.

I like that. I like that. And I'm going to use that as our break. We're going to take a break and we will be right back to talk about how on a thread that to the narrative of Africa rising and also the family aspect that you just you just brought up. Yeah, so we'll take a quick break.

Daniel Maveneka (41:12.93)
Okay.

Daniel Maveneka (41:33.036)
Hey!

Batje (41:33.038)
Yes, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch. Yeah. Take some water, water. Well done. Yeah, I'm loving the conversation.

Daniel Maveneka (41:39.214)
See you.

Daniel Maveneka (41:43.566)
Once you get me started, just have to like, you when I'm going too far, just touch your ear or something because I can talk for days. I can talk for days.

Batje (41:52.41)
my goodness, have 40 minutes. We're 40 minutes into this. Okay, so yeah, my break, I should have taken it earlier, but that's okay. Yeah, it will be cropped. Yeah, yeah, it will definitely be cropped and stuff. Yeah. Okay, so yeah, we're gonna, really, this is gonna be quicker. Gonna talk about, you your thoughts on like the global conversation on Africa's rise in the world right now.

Daniel Maveneka (41:59.502)
You can always crop it around like, because I think you, you, you, you,

Daniel Maveneka (42:21.07)
Alright.

Batje (42:21.336)
And then I want to talk about that family aspect to take us into bridging today. Yeah, it's going to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I wonder how to do this. Let me start with the bridging because, you just you're talking about kids.

Daniel Maveneka (42:28.376)
Perfect, yeah, that's a great one.

Daniel Maveneka (42:38.37)
Well, no, actually bridging, just thought about the family because bridging actually came from conversations about family. yeah, just starting to, Africa Rising, yeah, so with Africa Rising, we can talk about that and then we'll segue into the importance of family. And then from there, then I can say, well, actually the third thing that we do bridging is actually a result of family. Yeah, that works.

Batje (42:41.775)
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah.

Batje (42:54.096)
Family, yeah.

Batje (43:00.088)
He's a result family. Yeah, because I was going to take from, you you spoke about to attend, I spoke about Nya Shasoda pride and then. OK, so one, two, three. Welcome back, everyone. I am having an incredibly interesting conversation with Daniel Mavinega, who is a serial entrepreneur. And right now we're going to talk about this global conversation going on, Daniel, about Africa rising. Do you want to throw your hat in the?

Throw your hat into that conversation.

Daniel Maveneka (43:32.736)
Absolutely. As Mark Carney said at Davos two weeks ago, we're living through a rupture where the old system is falling apart and a new one is being built. And I've always believed that the

If things are done right, the center of this new world will be Africa. We have the resources, we have the population that is still young and growing. We've got weather, know, climate change will hit, but we'll be pretty safe in Africa compared to the rest of the world, right? And there's opportunities. And I'm so pleased whenever I read a news article about African countries and their leaders taking back their resources. So we talked a little earlier about coffee, about chocolate, for example. In Ghana, the president, prime minister,

Batje (44:14.832)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (44:17.328)
me for not knowing his official title, was talking about bringing in a law that would outlaw the exportation of raw chocolate and force people to buy the finished product there and then they can still use. And that's wonderful. I think a lot of people are sleeping on Africa, which is great because then that just creates opportunities for us. But if you are an entrepreneur watching this, go to Africa and see what's out there.

because it's all out there and the people are great. The weather's so much better than the minus 12 I'm living through right now in Mississauga. So yeah, Africa is on the rise.

And I think that's also because family is super important to the typical African structure. And so if you can make good relationships there, for better or worse, doing business in Africa will be like doing business with family. So yeah, like this, the next century is going to be Africa century and the successful businesses are going to be those who have the, who are on the vanguard of...

Batje (45:02.191)
Yeah.

Batje (45:10.308)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (45:22.99)
bringing of working with Africa and Afrikaans because it's in the name Afrikaans. Yes, we can

Batje (45:29.89)
Yeah, that's the first time I've heard that, but I like it very much. You mentioned family and it's an integral part of your life and what you do. And you talked about your daughter and your son before we took the break. So I want to talk about that and how you founded Bridging Connections, is it?

Daniel Maveneka (45:36.12)
Copyright copyright. Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (45:58.434)
Bridging Generations, okay, so Bridging Generations is a program in simple terms, a program where we get high school students to go to senior living communities to talk to them about how to avoid falling victim to frauds and scams and financial ruination.

Batje (46:16.016)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (46:17.282)
How it originally started was actually, again, goes back to the gentleman who I told you about, Nirmar of Montreal, who told me about that TED Talk about how to knock yourself over. We were talking about just generally fraud and how, because he's into cybersecurity, and he was telling me that the weakest link in any cybersecurity plan is always the human aspect, right? You can put in all the firewalls and all the guys in the world that you want, but...

Batje (46:31.952)
Hmm. Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (46:44.366)
The human being is going to be the one that lets the criminals in to your organization, to your personal information. You're the one who's going to click on an email and then officially email and then get robbed. You're the one who's going to answer the phone call and get scammed online. Right? If you don't answer that phone call, you don't click that email, the criminals can't get in. So he said to me, well, if you want to scams, seniors getting scammed, then they need to be educated. And so we're sitting out actually in the back deck of my house right now. was like, somebody should do that.

Batje (46:52.282)
Yes.

Batje (46:56.515)
Yes.

Batje (47:00.761)
Yes.

Batje (47:07.792)
Mmm.

Daniel Maveneka (47:12.75)
And this is hilarious because I'm an educator and this was already, I already had the online school. He's an educator too, right? We come from a long line of educators and we sat there for a long time. Somebody should do something. Then eventually was like, well, why don't you do something about it?

Batje (47:15.749)
you

Daniel Maveneka (47:25.774)
Okay. And again, we just kicked the idea around. And then a couple of days later, we went over to, um, to a family get together and one of our relatives, uh, it came out that they had fallen victim to a crypto scam to the tune of $30,000 that they'd lost in the crypto scam. And this is not somebody number one who really had $30,000 to lose, but they weren't a fool either. Like the scam was so sophisticated and had gone on for over two years and the log on and the, the, the, the, the scammers had set up a website that looked exactly like a normal

Batje (47:38.798)
Wow. Wow.

Batje (47:44.452)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (47:55.73)
trading platform and the only discovery was being scammed when he tried to withdraw money and then they suddenly start saying you got to pay taxes and everything else like that and so this really hit home that this is our problem now right like because when something bad happens to our parents generation then we are responsible for you can't just let your parents be destitute because well you you should have known better right that's that's not how it goes and so that was another sort of

Batje (48:05.648)
more.

Batje (48:11.514)
Yes.

Batje (48:16.068)
Hmm. I know.

Daniel Maveneka (48:24.032)
it pushed the notch up just a little bit. Then my mom who was an educator again here in Ontario and she was teaching through the pandemic. So she's part of that generation that are very familiar with it, laptops with their Chromebooks, with their iPads and everything else like that. She'd get these messages and be like, hey, is this a real thing or not? And so fortunately she had myself, she had my siblings, she had a grandkids, like, no, this is not it, this is not it.

Batje (48:44.591)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (48:50.05)
The younger people were educating the older generation on how to avoid these scams.

Batje (48:56.75)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (48:56.928)
And to go back two generations where families lived, if not together, but within close proximity of grandparents, parents, and grandkids, there was a lot more intergenerational learning there. And it wasn't just a one way street. It's not just the young people teaching the old about technology. Older people have a lot of wisdom that they can share with younger people because there's nothing new under the sun. we, in our family, have a situation where

that technology gap was being bridged by younger people with the older members of our family. So now how do I make this a bigger, than just my family? Well, what was the problem that we're trying to solve? We two problems. The first one was that, the first one was that,

seniors were being scammed and it's only going to get worse, right? Like they got all the money, the boomers have all the money, they have access to technology and the economy is getting hard. So the harder the economy gets, the more the scams get out there. Now with AI and all this, the scams are just getting more and more sophisticated. All right, so problem number one, how do we solve that problem? Problem number two, and I go back to my educator hat, one of the requirements for graduation of high school in Ontario is that students have to do 40 hours of community service.

Batje (49:43.158)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (50:11.258)
And a lot of students have difficulty finding meaningful opportunities for community service. Yeah, I could say I picked up an hour of litter in my community, but that's not really what we're trying to do. And so I thought, well, what if we could teach these students how to do presentations at homes to seniors?

Batje (50:19.322)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (50:32.864)
about how to avoid falling victim to scams. This solves a lot of problems for a lot of people. It provides students a meaningful opportunity to actually do what they do in school every day, because in every high school class, you're doing a presentation. So that's a skill that you're learning in school, but using it in the real world. You're getting your community service hours. You're also getting a chance to hang out with seniors, because not every child has a grandparent or a senior near them where they can be.

On the other hand, it helps seniors because again, if you've ever been to a senior living community, a lot of them are wonderful, but it's a senior living community, right? So now they suddenly get an opportunity to be visited by young people who want to be there, who are teaching them stuff they're interested in knowing, right? Because whether you have 16 or 60 or 86, you're still interested in technology and everything else like that. So they use this technology, they have young people who are teaching them that stuff. And then they can also...

Batje (51:07.31)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (51:28.834)
Deprivatize their experience with scams. So like we go in and the students will talk to the kids The students will talk to seniors about you know Whether we talked about phone scams or internet scams or romance scams But a lot of it is actually the seniors talking to the students saying hey, I saw this Can you explain to me? Why is this a scam? Is this a scam or is it not and the third benefit is also it goes to senior living community companies themselves because

If you have seniors in your community who are falling victim to scams, that's not good for your brand. So if you can educate your residents so that they don't fall victim to scams...

Number one is good for their personal finances and peace of mind, but it's also good for your brand. And there's legislation coming down the pipeline, certainly here in Canada, that is going to put more responsibility on senior living communities, on our banking companies, on our telecom companies to do more than what they're doing right now. And a program like Bridging Generations is one of the things that these companies can be doing to try and ameliorate the effects of scams on seniors. And it all came from just

Batje (52:06.82)
Yes,

Daniel Maveneka (52:33.872)
wanting to, it all came from having a senior in my immediate circle be affected by these scams. And yeah, so then we just put the program together. It's an extension of the Ontario Online Schools Program.

Batje (52:39.716)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (52:48.91)
students go in and they present twice a year. present in October and then they present six months later. And then so that gives them more than the 40 hours of community service they need. They're trained actually as part of one of the high school courses that we offer. It's called TOJ Four Seats Gerontology and a training program for them there. So they get a high school credit out of it. And then when they graduate, they actually get a bursary because we do charge the senior living communities for us to come and do the service. But part of what they pay for is to actually get a

Batje (53:16.591)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (53:18.956)
is to get a post-secondary bursary that's given to our students who present at those communities. So it's another opportunity for an outing for the seniors. Those seniors who attended the seminars when the students presented go to commencement to watch the students who presented to them graduate and then they hand them their bursaries that are given in the name of Ontario Online Schools Bridge and Generations, as well as the senior living company that the senior lives at. So it's another one of those win-win-win situations there.

Batje (53:33.968)
Batje (53:46.926)
Yeah, yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (53:48.238)
And it all came from a conversation we found out that a family member lost $30,000 because they were scammed.

Batje (53:54.638)
Yeah, and that is a problem. I like how you're solving problems because the scam, the number of spam calls that I am getting and I realize now that I really just need to ignore them.

And you you talk about cyber security, right? I just had a conversation with a cyber security specialist and this is exactly the same thing that you said your friend was talking about, you know? So it's definitely a common problem across the world. And the humanity aspect of it, of that, they target seniors, right? And educating them. It's a lot. It's a nice, it's a nice connected puzzle.

which explains why you called it bridging connections. Bridging generations, yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (54:48.99)
Bridging generations. Yeah, but you know what it has it's been very frustrating too at the same time because it's new and Just like there was a lot of pushback when the Ontario government said that students had to take a certain number of their courses mandatory online

I find, our experience has been that often times you'll approach communities and you'll say, hey, you should have this program. And their instinct is just like, well, who else has done it? Or I've never heard of it. And then they push back. But the smart ones who can see beyond tomorrow can see that it is better in business to be proactive than reactive.

And that is something that we keep reminding people that you don't want to bring us in after several members of your community have been robbed, after their lives have been shattered, after everything they've worked all their life to gather is gone. Come to us before that happens. And unfortunately,

Batje (55:36.495)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (55:46.882)
We can't prove a negative. If we stop a bad thing from happening, it's harder to quantitatively demonstrate that than if we look at bad things that happen. as we've existed now, we've been doing this for going on a year and a half, more and more people are learning about this. More and more progressive leaders in the senior living community are approaching us and bringing the program into the communities.

This, I just remember that question you asked about the balance between doing good and making money. We are obviously with the bridging generation looking to do a lot of good. But when you come back to me in two years, because you will, and then say, can we get that program at that price that we turned down two years ago? Hey, my friend, the world doesn't work like that. That's going to be a conflict that is definitely gonna be won out by money.

Batje (56:19.365)
Yes.

Batje (56:32.794)
Yeah

Daniel Maveneka (56:41.95)
joking like we've had a really great experience the students have loved it and one of the things I tell students whether it's at the public school role at the online school role or just talking to my daughter my friends is that if you want to be employment guaranteed in the next 20 years you need to cater yourself to

the senior care industry, because the population of boomers is as a percentage of our overall population, speaking here specifically to Canada, they're going to increase. We're going to need more senior living communities, more therapists who are focused on senior ailments, more entertainment, more everything for seniors. And so one of the things that we like about the Bridging Generation program is that the students who present take a course on senior care.

Batje (57:11.556)
Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (57:29.806)
And then they realize, you know what? Some of them realize, this is an industry I can go into. And so now they've got a foundation in school. They've got connections that the senior living community they use that they did the presentation with. So that's a natural pathway into an industry that a lot of people don't really think about when they're sort of talking about what they want to do out of high school. So yeah.

Batje (57:30.224)
you

Batje (57:34.063)
Yes.

Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (57:50.86)
We're really excited about that. And I'm of all the businesses, I'm probably most proud of that one. Cause I think that one has the most social impact and also because it probably affects me the most. need seniors to not be robbed because I'd like my grandchildren, my children to inherit something from their grandparents. And if the, everything is gone by scams, then life is going to be difficult. And one day I hope to get older too.

Batje (58:06.65)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (58:13.99)
And hopefully it'll be a world where scams against seniors have been eradicated because there's so much education about scams that it's no longer a good business for scammers. So there's a little selfish component there.

Batje (58:25.88)
Yeah, and there you go again, solving problems.

Daniel Maveneka (58:29.806)
I try, I try that, I try.

Batje (58:33.539)
So you work with your children in in bridging generations. What has that taught you or what have your children taught you about entrepreneurship, about leadership, learning or anything? Have they taught you anything?

Daniel Maveneka (58:54.13)
it's a learning all the time in both ways because it's there's a difference between Daniel dad and Daniel boss. Right. You just have to be.

If we're going out to work, then the expectation is that you're to be ready to do the job and to do the work and everything. So you go with the presentation and it starts at 10 o'clock on a Saturday. You have to be ready to go and do that presentation on a Saturday. But at the same time, when you're working with your own kid, you can't fire your kids. So you need to find ways to communicate what you need from them in a way that will work with your child. And then...

Batje (59:18.265)
if

Daniel Maveneka (59:32.256)
Yeah, so that's one thing there. But even more is that I have ideas in my head. So

when I was building the presentations, for example, you build them and you think this is working, and I think that I'm at the cutting edge of technology, then my daughter will look at it say, have you considered this? Or, yeah, no, this doesn't work. So a fresh perspective. Never underestimate what these children know. They've had access to information and technology that we didn't even dream of having. We couldn't even conceptionize at their age. They're really smart. Give them the opportunity to demonstrate that.

And when I've given them that opportunity, they've never disappointed me. Right? And so I love working with them. I think it's important that I work with them because a lot of parents want to show their children that hard work leads to success. But then we kick them out of the basement when we're working because they'll disturb us whilst we're working. It's not enough to just hustle. Teach your children.

Batje (01:00:29.22)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (01:00:34.606)
how you hustle. They may not continue your hustle, but that skill of working hard at it is so important. Right? They see me down in the basement working, I'm building courses and it's, daddy, you're still working. Why don't you ever take a break? Well, my son, I can rest later. And that's teaching him that you know what? There's time to rest, there's time to work.

Batje (01:00:36.172)
and

Batje (01:00:42.778)
Hmm

Daniel Maveneka (01:00:57.166)
And then when we go on vacation, like, oh, this is the best vacation ever. Yeah, we can afford this now because of that hard work. And those are, think, as valuable lessons as teaching your kids kindness, as teaching them to look twice before they cross the street, because it's going to be a much more competitive world out there when they are in their 20s, right? Go back 30 years ago, the power was in the West. The knowledge and the technology and everything else was in the West.

Batje (01:01:06.512)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (01:01:25.624)
but we talked about Africa rising. My grandmother in Matinda has a smartphone. One of the things we did when we went out to Mbinga was we got a mobile wifi hub that costs us the equivalent of 30 US dollars a month and a bunch of Chromebooks that cost us 130 dollars. And we set up a computer bank at this local school.

Batje (01:01:27.503)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (01:01:47.882)
All they have to do is plug it in and then the students can use it. We didn't hire any computer teachers. We didn't give them a curriculum. We just said, here you go. Here's technology. These kids are so advanced and so with it, they're now building apps. They're starting little businesses that they have out there with that technology. So if your child is not hustling out there,

They're no longer competing with the 350 million people in America or the 44 million people in Canada. You're also competing with 1.6 billion people in Africa, 1.8 billion people in India, and 1.3 billion people in China. So what skills are you giving them? And so that's how I look at it with my children. I'm looking to build an empire that they'll inherit one day. It'd be nice if there's something for them to inherit, but if they've learned and inherited the ability to hustle.

Batje (01:02:18.49)
Yeah.

Batje (01:02:36.719)
Hmm.

Daniel Maveneka (01:02:36.802)
which is not something that comes naturally to Western children who, you know, don't have to do that. You are dropped off and picked up every day. There's always food in the fridge. So where do you learn that hustle then? If we don't teach them, then we have done a disservice to all those people who worked hard from my grandmother to my grandfather to my parents to get me to where I am having a conversation with you now. If all that wisdom and knowledge ends with me, then what was the point of it?

Batje (01:02:41.882)
Yeah.

Yes.

Yes.

Batje (01:03:06.02)
Yeah, yeah, the importance, the importance of legacy and inheritance, that the inheritance that we give our children is more than money, it's more than wealth. Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (01:03:19.374)
Money comes and goes, you know, I mean for those of us who remember Zimbabwe in 1998 to about 2008 where a five dollar bill used to buy money and then by 2008 people were buying bread with baskets full of money. Cash doesn't mean anything. It's great, but it's not the most important thing. It's what you learn and what you can give to society. That is the true reward.

Batje (01:03:34.928)
Mm.

Batje (01:03:43.758)
Yeah, Daniel, thank you for your time. But before we go, we've spent like quite a lot. I think we're almost in an hour now. We're going to an hour. But I don't want to let you go without talking about check in Canada. You mentioned the senior population increasing and that these challenges there, right?

and you've already seen a problem, you've identified a problem, and Check-in Canada seems to be the solution. I wanted to give you some time to talk about Check-in Canada.

Daniel Maveneka (01:04:20.342)
Okay, so this is breaking news right on this podcast because we just finished the build for the demo last night. We will be launching it in a little while once we get all the kinks out. But basically, if you look at Western society, specifically Canada,

We're surrounded by people and connected with people all the time on our devices, but a lot of people are isolated and lonely. So if you're living in the city, I have a sister, my sister Rachel, love her dearly. She lives in Toronto and she lives by herself. We check in frequently, but not all the time, as life happens. And if something were to happen to her on a Thursday,

Thursday, Friday, she wouldn't go to work. Maybe she typically, Friday, she doesn't go into work. She works from home or something. The weekend goes through. Then Monday, we might look for her. Maybe we checked in on her on the weekend, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who sometimes gets messages on WhatsApp. You plan to respond, then you don't quite get around it. Basically, it could be Tuesday or Wednesday before somebody's looking for you and realize something's gone wrong because she lives by herself. So we created an app. It's elegant in simplicity.

Batje (01:05:16.911)
Yes.

Batje (01:05:21.806)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (01:05:30.894)
And basically you just check in once a day or twice a day. You set up what the check-in is with the app. It doesn't collect any of your personal data. It's a free app that will be launching on all the stores. And as long as you check in, then that's fine. If you don't check in, say for example, I have it set up that I'll check in every three days when we're building it. After the third day, if you don't check in, then when I set it up, I had contacts that I put inside. like, okay, then that app will send a message to Bash and say, hey, Daniel hasn't checked in a couple of days. Maybe just send him a message.

and check it if he's okay and you know hopefully he's I just forgot to check or blah blah but if something bad has happened it gives you an opportunity to to be connected and somebody looking out for you because I was watching a YouTube video and this the original iteration of this app actually came from China and it's called Are You Alive? and the sad reality was that a lot of people live in a world where if you died it would take

Batje (01:06:04.944)
Hmm.

Batje (01:06:23.077)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (01:06:30.208)
a while before anybody noticed you were dead. Right? And so this is just another connection thing. And then of course we tie it into the abridging generation thing. And so far as we built it so that every day when you check in, it gives you an anti-scam or a scam prevention tip.

And again, this app did not take a lot of time to build because we've used a lot of the apps that are coming, the AI apps that are coming in now. And then once I had the basic idea, I got some friends who were in technology and app building. And so we worked on that one together.

And yeah, connection is so important in life. We live in a world where we can communicate with anyone in the world, but how often do you communicate? I, and you know, if anybody's listening to this part and rolling your eyes, go through your phone and look up how many conversations did you have on your phone over the last week that weren't work related?

Batje (01:07:11.172)
Yes.

Batje (01:07:26.672)
Mm.

Daniel Maveneka (01:07:26.734)
How many times did you call somebody just to check in on them? Or did somebody call you just to have a laugh? And I think that a lot of us will find that that number is not as high as we'd like it to be. But if you even have anybody who you can call who checks in on you, you're very fortunate. A lot of people. And this is not a sad story. You move to a new city to get a job, and everything else is successful. But most of the people you know are work people. Who's looking after you?

Batje (01:07:38.158)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Batje (01:07:49.422)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (01:07:50.454)
And so this little app, elegant in simplicity, can at least make sure that somebody's looking out for you if something happened. And so we're very excited about it, and we'll be launching it later on this winter, certainly before the spring. And we hope it takes off.

And then hopefully one day we'll get to a time when it's not needed. But I personally believe it's a needed app right now because connection is everything. And a lot of us are living a living unconnected lives, which then leads to social problems. Just a here, a friend of mine who came out of rehab recently. And he's like, do you know what the opposite of addiction is? And of course it's sobriety, I said. And he said, no, the opposite of addiction is connection.

Batje (01:08:15.056)
Mm.

Batje (01:08:20.964)
Yes.

Batje (01:08:24.783)
Yes.

Batje (01:08:37.008)
you

Daniel Maveneka (01:08:39.488)
If you're not connecting with the people around you, then you're going to connect with either the brown bottle or the substance or something like that. So in a world where we're seeing so much mental health issues and so many addiction issues, this is not going to solve all the problems. But if we know that a lot of people are falling into the trap of addiction because they're not making any connections, then everybody who has the capacity to help people get a little more connected should take that opportunity. So that's what we're doing with the app there.

Batje (01:08:45.028)
Mmm. Mmm.

Batje (01:08:51.204)
Yes.

Batje (01:09:07.569)
Yeah, yeah. And that is definitely solving a big problem in society that we live in now. That social isolation. We really we think we are connected, like you said, you know, you look at your conversations, your WhatsApp conversations or, you know, social media, right? It gives us that false sense of you're connected because it's there.

So, but when you do look and I've done that, I've done that audit because you look at your WhatsApp and you're like, when did I really have a conversation with this person that I think that I am connected to? And you find that, hey, I actually never really, it's either, hey, how are you? It's business or you are responding to statuses. And it's like, I actually never really had a conversation maybe for the last two years. Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (01:09:43.042)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel Maveneka (01:09:53.717)
Right, yeah.

Batje (01:10:01.488)
There's actually someone I looked at and I was like, do you realize that we only talk to say happy new year?

Daniel Maveneka (01:10:11.104)
Right, right.

Batje (01:10:13.132)
you know? Yeah, so that social isolation is a big thing and yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (01:10:19.594)
It's a big thing. And this is why a lot of seniors, to be honest with you, fall victim to scams, just to go back to the original generation thing, because they're so lonely, nobody calls. And so these con men, I try to remind seniors that it's not some guy sitting in his basement just hoping he can catch you.

Batje (01:10:25.199)
Yes.

Okay.

Batje (01:10:39.769)
No.

Daniel Maveneka (01:10:40.366)
The scams that cost money take months and months and months. They build a real relationship with you. They call in and they how's your grandkid doing? And this, that, and the next thing. They build confidence in you and then they rob you. And that wouldn't happen if these people were more connected with the real people in the real world. But unfortunately, in the world we live in today, a lot of people are isolated and the scammers are cutting in on that. And so, you know, we're going to try and solve all these problems one step at a time.

Batje (01:10:57.84)
you

Batje (01:11:04.514)
year.

Batje (01:11:07.93)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you so much. But before you leave, I know I said that before, but definitely I'm going to let you go now. I want just one last thing. Advice for anyone who's listening, professional, who's considering entrepreneurship as a career path, especially later in life, right? What's one question they should ask themselves before making the leap?

Daniel Maveneka (01:11:19.15)
you.

Daniel Maveneka (01:11:36.728)
the one question that you should ask yourself. And so I wish I had, if I had a time machine, I'd go back and ask me this question at 21. What's the worst that's going to happen? What's the worst that's going to happen? And understand that not everything you do is going to be a success, right? And it's not just going to happen by wishing it. You've got to get into businesses that you know something about.

Batje (01:12:04.164)
Yes, yes.

Daniel Maveneka (01:12:04.3)
Right? Don't hear that in Zimbabwe Nando's is buying chili. So I'm going to call my cousin there, send him money to buy chilies, get him to plant it and grow it. And then we'll sell it. That ain't going to work. Right? Stick to what you know, but don't be afraid. Think, look at the world we live in right now. What would my grandfather say if he knew all that we have at our disposal right now? Right? Anything you want to learn, you can learn for free on ChatGTP.

or any of the other AI ones, because I'm you know, no Finnish Tech DTP, but yeah, give it a try. Just give it a try because you just never know. And if it doesn't work out though, man, you spent a couple of months working on something and trying and feeling alive as you were trying to bring this thing from concept to growth. And in this world we live in where everything is so routine and mundane, maybe the success is that you actually got to feel alive trying to do something new.

Batje (01:12:30.831)
Yeah.

Batje (01:12:51.663)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (01:13:00.643)
Yeah.

Batje (01:13:00.836)
Yes, and you actually have learned new skills. It can never be a total failure, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Daniel, thank you very much for your time. I normally do like fun questions at the end just to close us off. Well, they're not really questions, just quick answers, you know, so yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (01:13:03.374)
Right. Right. Right.

Daniel Maveneka (01:13:20.446)
I can't be held responsible for what I do, but go on. Lightning round, let's go.

Batje (01:13:24.592)
Entrepreneurship or employment. Which taught you more about yourself?

Daniel Maveneka (01:13:31.702)
employment. It taught me that I don't often work well with others and so it's best to sometimes do it on my own.

Batje (01:13:39.746)
Okay, a belief about success you had in your 20s that you no longer hold.

Daniel Maveneka (01:13:45.254)
I believe that success was purely evaluated on the financial return of it. Now I realize that it's the process is as much a part of the success and the relationships you develop are also a part of the success. And whilst profitability is remains the goal.

If I can break even, but have learned something, have seen some new things that I never thought of or seen before, that's a win. Because when they eventually throw me six feet into the ground, I can't take it with me.

Batje (01:14:21.528)
as a problem solver now, the problem in society that keeps you up at night.

Daniel Maveneka (01:14:27.235)
Huh.

Daniel Maveneka (01:14:30.562)
Whoo, it keeps me up at night.

The fact that we are moving towards Gilead and the opportunities that exist for my daughter may not be the same of the same quality as that exists for my son. I worry that society might be regressing a little bit in terms of the progress we've made with equality and that is something that bothers me there. My daughter's nickname is Junior, which is unusual for a girl to have a nickname of Junior in Zimbabwean society when...

Batje (01:14:49.585)
Hmm.

Batje (01:14:57.763)
Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (01:15:04.952)
there's a son there, but I've always looked at my children equally but different. And I worry about the future for her more than I worry about the future for my son. And that's sad because we've done a lot of work to get to where we are right now. Yeah. Yeah.

Batje (01:15:14.48)
Mm.

you

Batje (01:15:21.774)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Last one. Entrepreneurship as a career choice. Worth it? Yes or no?

Daniel Maveneka (01:15:29.764)
yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm really enjoying where I am right now, what I'm doing. I can't wait to see what I'm going to be doing next. Because the goal is to build businesses with people so that they become self-sustaining and then there's gotta be something else that comes along next, right? The average life expectancy in Canada is about, what, in the 80s? If I can make it to the 70s,

That's still going to give me a a few decades. We won't say how many now, a few decades. And I certainly hope that when we're doing this, the same podcast, but with holograms in a couple of years, that the bridging generations and the coffee and the online school will be other stories, other steps on the path to wherever I'm going next. So yeah, it's been totally worth it. Give it a try, believe in yourself, bet on yourself as Fred Van Veet said. You never know where you're to go.

Batje (01:16:08.368)
Batje (01:16:12.463)
Yes.

Batje (01:16:21.956)
Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. That was going to be the last one, but you said something there that I just, I've got to pick up on. Finish this sentence. The most powerful businesses are built by people who

Daniel Maveneka (01:16:38.414)
are in it for the right reason, not for making a quick buck. Right? Because if you're in it, quick answer, sorry, I'm a teacher, okay? gotta elaborate here. No, if you're in it for money, then you get frustrated when the money doesn't come right away. But if you're in it to solve a problem, the money won't come until the problem's solved. So you're gonna keep at that problem until it's solved and...

Batje (01:16:46.404)
I love it.

Batje (01:16:50.416)
you

Batje (01:16:57.008)
Hmm.

Batje (01:17:02.372)
Yes.

Daniel Maveneka (01:17:07.416)
Coincidentally, the money will come along too. Yeah.

Batje (01:17:10.414)
And that is an upending to our conversation, leading all that to the one thing which is purpose.

Daniel Maveneka (01:17:18.734)
Thank you, and thank you all who are listening. We will send you, I got some great pictures and videos of our trip when we went down to Tanzania to the coffee. maybe your audience can see what it where does that coffee that they're drinking as they're listening and watching this podcast come from? We've got some clips from when they were presenting at the senior living home so you can see what that looks like.

Batje (01:17:20.57)
Thank you so much for your time. I will leave you to think about that.

Batje (01:17:37.305)
Yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel Maveneka (01:17:47.628)
And when the app launches, we will bring it back to this podcast and we will do a hard launch right here. So breaking news, you know it's coming and we're gonna break the news again when it finally arrives.

Batje (01:17:57.336)
I love it, I love it, Daniel. Thank you so much for your time. I'm looking forward to seeing some of those pictures. We'll shoot, we'll shoot. Yeah, we'll put them in the thing. We'll put them in the podcast and ensure that everybody gets to take a look at Bridging Generations and gets to see where the coffee actually comes from. I think that would be actually fantastic.

Daniel Maveneka (01:18:05.368)
Alright, perfect.

Batje (01:18:16.57)
Thank you for sharing and for sharing your career, your career story, for sharing your entrepreneurship story. It's a really fascinating story. You really are a serial entrepreneur and keep solving those problems. And to our listeners and to everybody that's watching, I hope you were inspired as I was by Daniel's story today. Until next time, stay inspired.