An interview with Nejeed Kassam, CEO of Networks for Change
Nejeed Kassam graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2014. Currently articling at Ricketts Harris LLP, he is the CEO of Networks for Change (NFC), a social enterprise that celebrated a soft launch of their flagship product, Keela, at the United Nations in February 2015. Keela.co is a collaborative project management platform designed for the social good sector, complete with an integrated social space. Ophelie Zalcmanis-Lai sits down with Nejeed to discuss Keela, Osgoode, challenges to launching a start-up, and what’s to come.
Before Networks for Change, and the many other ventures you have been involved with, there was just Nejeed. Where does your motivation come from?
My motivation comes from my family. They taught me to be a good citizen to the people of my community, to the country, and to the world. My mom and dad were born in Tanzania, in east Africa; they left as kids because of economic and political turmoil. They were lucky in the sense that they were both educated in the UK and then went on to become dentists. They worked so hard to give us the best education possible, and I owe my strong values of work ethic and excellence completely to them. Those values—whether it’s in the nonprofit world with End Poverty Now or a social enterprise like Keela—are fundamental to my existence and are what makes me get up in the morning.
During your time at McGill, you started your first nonprofit, End Poverty Now. How did this come to fruition?
My first nonprofit venture was in grade eleven. I love hockey and wanted to do something cool that engaged people about social good. So I started organizing this thing called Hockey for Hope. It was a twelve hour marathon hockey game in Vancouver. We raised over $60,000 through this one event and it all went to Canuck Place Children’s hospice to help kids with terminal cancer. It was a brilliant cause because it taught a lot of young people who took part in this game that social good could be fun. That’s where it started. In my first year at McGill, I ran the Make Poverty History campaign in Montreal. That was a lot of fun. We did a LiveAid in 2006 where Justin Trudeau and I emceed and it was awesome. Justin and I go way back and when he agreed to come, the media came, along with over a thousand people. I have a friend who was a guitarist for the event and he said that was the best show he ever played. It was simply electric. When the campaign came to a close, I was searching for something to fill that void and that’s where End Poverty Now was born.
You definitely stayed busy after graduating from McGill. How did this all parlay into law at Osgoode in 2010?
When I was thirteen I gave a speech at a birthday party that my parents threw for me, stating that I was going to be a lawyer, but I didn’t even know what a lawyer was. During my undergrad I was actually quite against the idea of being a lawyer. But then I worked for Senator Jaffer in Ottawa, first as an intern and then I took contracts. I wrote speeches, researched, and assisted her in writing legislation and policy. It never got through, but it was such a fun process to learn. She said to me, “Nejeed, in order to make great change in Canada, you have to go to law school.” So I went to law school. After I graduated from McGill I went to Oxford, but didn’t finish because I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease six months in. I was a machine who couldn’t do his machining anymore. I was lost. I was in the hospital for weeks on end. Someone like me, who had a BlackBerry at my side in 2005, had a difficult time with that. Your life changes when you’re sitting in the hospital; you’re given some perspective and you reassess. But through all that I ended up at law school. I did my first semester and ended up taking a year off to work for the UN in Serbia, and then in Egypt. I launched Conversations for Change, the film, and then I went back to law school and finished. Now I’m articling.
Why did you take a break?
The study of law is very academic. I am not an academic person. I try hard; I’m not one of those guys who did well at university because I just “did well.” No, I was at the library until it closed every day for four years, literally; End Poverty Now was run from my phone at the library. Academia doesn’t come easily for me. It’s hard. I did my first semester at law school while struggling to find an identity and personality; who I was in this new city, new setting. I took some time. That gave me perspective and showed me that I belong in a social enterprise, the perfect combination of business and social good.
What’s most memorable about your time at Osgoode?
Osgoode is phenomenal. It is full of brilliant, dedicated, hard working people. These are the people who inspire you. Osgoode has a strong ethic of pluralism. People from every different opinion, walk of life, religion, and race all co-existing (debating, but co-existing). That was one of my favourite things. That ecosystem is amazing.
What are some of the things you learned that you have taken with you into your life today, right now?
I wrote this in my application letter to law school and it still holds true: “Law permeates everything we do.” It regulates the water we drink, the roads we drive on, the rules our businesses live by. Understanding law is the ticket to understanding society. It’s one small piece, but I think that is something I confirmed while I was there. I was given more tools, and if you’re trying to make change, you must understand change from a social and legal perspective. I’m grateful to Osgoode for giving me that.
Now we have Networks for Change and Keela. When and how did this begin?
In 2006, I was sitting in a room at a leadership conference in New York City. I was one of the Canadian representatives, and I was listening to people talk about sanitary wells in Ghana. One was from a for-profit social enterprise and one came from a nonprofit. They were talking about how they had built these wells, and I (maybe just being a smartass) asked, “Have you two talked to each other before?” They responded, “We’ve never heard of each other before.” And that is when it clicked that the inefficiency that exists in this sector is phenomenal. People don’t talk to each other; they don’t know what’s going on. That’s not good. This is when the idea of addressing this problem with technology was planted. I did research, tried to get it going, it didn’t work, tried again, it didn’t work… But then the pieces fell together, the right staff came along, and we had a vision of Keela. The internet had grown and changed in a way so that we were able to bring new technology to the sector.
It was full stride in 2013, when we incorporated. We explored the possibility of starting it as a nonprofit, but changed that idea for two reasons. One, I’m a big believer that the idea of compassionate capitalism is what drives us forward as a society. I also think that businesses run more efficiently than nonprofits. It’s part of the problem we’re trying to solve. But I also wanted to build products that were not just for the nonprofit sector: social enterprise, corporate social responsibility, international organizations—these are all part of our client base. In 2013, that began and last month we launched; the dream became real and now it’s really real.
Keela was launched at the Youth Assembly at the United Nations. What was going through your head during this time?
I have had the privilege of speaking around the world and keynoting lectures with thousands of people. What gets me every time, whether it’s eleven people or eleven-hundred people, is the hope to get through to the audience. They are young, driven change-makers, and if I can help them channel their energy in the right way with the right tools, then I’ve done something worthwhile.
What have been some of the challenges in launching a startup?
Money! It’s the most fundamental challenge. But beyond that, almost as fundamental, was developing a practical vision together. To take a problem like a $100 billion inefficiency in the nonprofit sector; how do you solve that? Well, I had an idea of how I wanted to attack it, but it was a broad dream. Turning an idea into software is hard; I’m a political science and law major, I don’t know anything about developing software! Hussain and Eric are the co-founders who helped turn the dream into a reality. It is my relationship with these two young men that is at the core of the company; we are a family. Don’t get me wrong, we fight like brothers too. But, it’s their ability to understand me, and me them, that allows us to innovate and move forward.
There are a lot of startups that have more money but are a lot less close. But we really are a family. I love the team; there is so much passion behind what we are doing. Eric and Wayne, our core software developers, took $100,000 pay cuts to work with us. They can barely pay their rent and food, but they believe in the possibilities of Keela. That’s both a challenge and blessing. Families fight but they also get to celebrate things like our launch in NYC. I was so happy to be there with them all.
Where do you see Keela’s future going? Any improvements or uphill battles ahead?
We are going to be the market leader in productive collaboration tools in the social good sector. We are going to destroy the sector. We have a noble cause and we have the best people. I’m positive we are going to have hundreds of thousands of users. I will do everything in my capacity to get us there. But more importantly, so will the whole team. I want to serve the social good community by drawing on experiences and feedback. People always talk about the concept of the “people’s president.” I want to be the “people’s software” for this sector. I want a “for us by us” attitude. I want the users of Keela to see us as a company of individuals who are one of them. If we can do that, we can own the market.
What about your future?
I’m turning thirty next year. I should probably figure that out.