S02E09_CAAT_v4.mp3

Russell Evans: [00:00:05] This is Contributors, a show exploring how today's Canadian business leaders are building a better future for Canada. So, Jade, who do we have on the show today? 

Jade Towle: [00:00:15] Hey, Russell. We have Shahrzad Rafati, she is the founder and CEO of BroadbandTV Corp., otherwise known as BBTV.  And BBTV is a media tech company. They're really advancing the world by helping creators succeed. And what's really interesting, they have over 35 million pieces of content in their purview. They're actually the second largest video property worldwide in terms of unique viewers. So think of Google, BBTV is right after them. 

Russell Evans: [00:00:50] I'm actually really excited to talk to her. I think her story is a really interesting story in terms of a business model that amplifies creators, like content creators and allows those individuals to really have global reach. The other thing that's really interesting about her is she did a really interesting pivot. Originally, BBTV was a set top box and she pivoted away from that into her current business model, which is so much more successful. So I want to dig into that as well. Let's talk to her. So, Shahrzad, welcome to Contributors. 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:01:36] It's great to be here and thank you so much for having me. 

Russell Evans: [00:01:40] Can you open Shahrzad by telling us a little bit about yourself and your background. 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:01:44] Of course, I grew up in Tehran in Iran during the war, and it was really a time where content was rationed and very much inequality. This gives you a background of also why I started BBTV. You know, we had access to a handful of TV channels, but even at that time, I could see the power of content, even at the small scale. So I was very young, but I already seen enough of the world to know that I needed to make a difference, and I wanted to, a different future for myself. Experiencing inequality firsthand really created this desire in me and the passion to be a positive change. Which really brings me back to my favorite quotes from Gandhi, which is, "Be the change that you wish to see in the world." And that's why I moved to Canada to have access to more inclusive and of course, equal opportunity. When I was 17, I moved to Vancouver with just one suitcase, no computer skills and very little English. And really it was my passion for math and tech that drove me to pursue computer science in university. And again, it was around this time that content played a big role in my life in terms of helping me learn the language and exposing me to, of course, new cultures. And it was around this time that I built the business model for BBTV. 

Russell Evans: [00:03:07] That's amazing. There's a lot there that I want to unpack. So, so interesting that you tie your background and your childhood in Iran to what you do today. So can you tell us a little bit more about that? Growing up in Iran, did you feel like there were things that you understood about the world and about your country that you weren't seeing reflected on television? Like, were you aware of the fact that that sort of the world as depicted in the media was not the full story? 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:03:39] Oh, absolutely. I mean, look, content was truly rationed. I mean, you think about it, we have four channels. One of them was Imams, All Imams All Day. And the second one was, you know, the occasional movie. You know, I grew up during the war, so inequality was really an everyday thing and and really experiencing that and wanting to make sure you're, you know, play a part in democratization of content and being able to actually help folks, whoever that wants to tell their story, empower them to tell their story which is really that citizen journalism making sure that everyone is empowered to tell their story. It was you know, it was the passion. It was definitely something that I was passionate about from earlier days. So when I moved to Canada, I saw that as an opportunity where with BBTV, I could start a global business that helped content creators tell their story and grow an audience and reach audiences and to make sure that we are not just hearing curated stories, but really to play a big part in democratization of content. 

Russell Evans: [00:04:48] I'd love to go back kind of a half step and talk about the beginnings of BroadbandTV. I believe at the beginning you were in the hardware business. Can you tell us a little bit about that? 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:05:00] I always knew from the time that I was a young teenager that I wanted to build a global business, and I believe that true success is really in how we can impact the world through our business. And that really business is the greatest platform for positive change. And this is why, you know, I'm so passionate about what we've done at BBTV, not only in helping with democratization of content, but also in building a quadruple bottom line business where leader and creator economy, which is really the future of entertainment. You know, our mission is through the help creators and media companies grow their audiences. Correspond as it relates to your growing audiences, it's also to be able to earn more revenue when it comes to that content. We're that one stop shop that helps creators and the creator economy with solutions that we have to be able to reach a greater audience and monetize the audience more effectively. And today we reach about 600 million people monthly, including viewers in Canada. We have 35 billion monthly views, and we work with thousands of content creators from individual content creators like AzzyLand to large content creators like Sony Pictures or Paramount Global or Lionsgate or NBA. Of course, as an entrepreneur, as a good entrepreneur, you always have to listen to try to understand industry and of course, pivot as required. So I started the business, as you know, also providing the set top boxes and OTT boxes to Canadians so they actually get to consume content, not just content that is available through cable networks, but also any content from any region that is produced. And soon enough, you know, the streaming platforms, they gain traction yet YouTube and now you have many more like Instagram and TikTok and what have you. So it was just more so I've had building solutions to amplify audiences of our audiences exists. So our model evolved, changed as the industry changed because really we I started the business 18 years ago where the industry wasn't really defined. 

Russell Evans: [00:07:15] I love that. I think there's there's something really interesting about your original idea as well as kind of how, how it evolved, having done some research into your concept, was really to bring kind of that wider spectrum of options to the family television, to the living room, which, which I think, to be honest, I think your idea was a little bit ahead of its time. And then I think the way in which you've evolved is, is rather than bringing kind of all the existing content into someone's television, into someone's living room, it's really like you've become a broadcaster, you're actually partnering to create more and more content. 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:07:54] And I think the other aspect of that is talking about democracy and democratization of video content is really about empower, helping and empowering SMEs. 

Russell Evans: [00:08:04] So, Shahrzad, can I just jump in for a second? By SMEs. I think you're referring to subject matter experts, the content creators that have the knowledge. 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:08:12] Right. If you look at creator economy as a whole, you're looking at 104 billion dollar economy. You look at Canada. In Canada, we have about 13 billion as far as total scope of digital video and tens of thousands of obviously content creators. The ability to also be able to actually empower local creators to have a global audience is really important. If you think about it. When you look at digital platforms like 90 percent of the watch time for Canadian content, for example, on YouTube happens outside of Canada. This really is a great showcase of how do you actually expose Canadian talent and Canadian culture to the rest of the world, which is the case in every other country. How do you enable these local stories to be told? One of my favorite things about if you kind of just, you know, thinking about Canada, you think about all the underrepresented voices, right? And these new talented artists, like if you're looking at a [00:09:09]Donna, Madueke, [1.0s] you know, talks about black women to embrace their natural beauty, we have Hacksmith that encourages youth around the world to learn about steam and obviously steam literacy. You have the hallucination that creates awareness around First Nations electronic music. Or to Francophone we have [00:09:34]Katherine Franco talks [1.2s] about parenthood relationships in Francophone communities. And I think that's what's so special about it, because it's not just about turning the TV on and watching very much so curated content that may not actually speak to all the voices that makes every culture so rich at the same time. I'm sure you know this, Russell, because when you look at your revenues, having the ability to actually reach a global audience and to expand, bring that level of awareness around Canada and what's happening in Canada, the rest of the world. And I think that's really the two true power of content democratization is being able to connect with audiences and have a diverse ability to reach a range of them across the globe. 

Russell Evans: [00:10:30] I agree completely. I think any any sort of list of who is the biggest star in the world right now would have to include The Weeknd. And I think for a lot of people, that would be a clear number one, as nobody's more important to global, global music right now. And The Weeknd is somebody who is Canadian, who I think we all know is from Scarborough, Ontario, and was able to make it as an artist because of the democratization of content exactly the way you described it. He is someone who became famous on SoundCloud, and ten years earlier, would he have been famous? Maybe not. Maybe he would not have been able to get the breaks to get a record deal. Even if he did, he might have been an artist like the Tragically Hip that was famous in Canada but never made it globally. But because the technology existed, he had, you know, access to SoundCloud. He right away had a global fan base before he even had a record deal. And I think that's what's so exciting about kind of where we are right now. 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:11:34] Oh, absolutely. And I think if you think about it, that relationship is also different, right? You think about the relationship between digital talent and their audience. It's a lot more authentic, right? You kind of look at Gen Z, Gen Alpha, you know, the way they actually consume content and the way that they're influenced is very different, right? Because you're able to have that one on one interaction with your specific favorite artists. And I'm not talking about weekend as it is today, right? As you actually have creators that are building audiences, they're listening to those audiences to see what content they're looking for as far as what they should be creating. So that you're also seeing this massive shift in terms of what trust and authenticity really means, which is what has led into this also shift in ad dollars, because at the end of the day with advertisers, agencies, they always follow eyeballs and give it ads. So much of gen z and millennials, they are consuming more content on digital platforms that they would do any any other place. And as a result of it, you're seeing this massive shift. If you look at like, for example, that total ad spending globally is about more than 800 billion, like 600 billion of that is now allocated to digital advertising. Right? So we are definitely seeing this decline in actual ad spending simply because across all ages, more and more people are actually choosing more of a personal convenience and a relationship that is more authentic and trustworthy. And that's why we are so excited about creator economy and how every brand and every advertiser can actually build that connection with audiences through creator economy. 

Russell Evans: [00:13:19] Yeah, absolutely. I read recently that 70 percent of teenagers are saying that they trust influencers over the mainstream media. I wonder, what do you think that this means for Canadian business? 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:13:38] At the end of the day, whether if you're Canadian or non-Canadian, you have to leverage greater economy to be able to reach audiences, you know, gen z and millennials. I mean, every brand has a generational issue. You're not going to be able to actually reach younger generations through a traditional media. That's simply the reason why you have 600 billion of actually. Ad spend that is going to digital advertising. Right. Simply is because of the scale of the fact that gen z and millennials are not going to be otherwise reachable. And every brand that is able to actually connect with the right creators to be able to tell their story is going to be successful. That's exactly what we do at BBTV. You know, we help brands, we help advertisers to connect with the younger generation and to make sure that they tell their story in the most authentic way. I would say whether if it's working with BBTV or however you go about connecting with digital audiences, it is an absolute must. 

Russell Evans: [00:14:41] Something that I thought was really interesting as well is that you have been most famous for your work with influencers, but you do have other lines of business. And another line of business that I found was really interesting was that you work with the legacy media as well to help them kind of leverage their content and tell their story via emerging technology. So I got the I got the impression that you were kind of reaching out to I don't necessarily want to name your clients, but you were reaching out to kind of traditional cable networks that were really big in the early 2000s and saying, "Hey, you created these shows, you created this content, you still have an audience that cares about these things, but you need to get them onto YouTube. You need to get some of this content onto TikTok. You need to get some of this content into, you know, cool T-shirts that people want to buy. And you're having a lot of success with that." Can you speak to that? 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:15:38] The way we went about building our solutions was just really we were a one stop shop for content owners, rights owners, creators to become more successful. It really doesn't matter if you're Sony Pictures or if you're AzzyLand. At the end of the day, the objective is the same. How do you actually reach an audience, grow it and monetize it? And that's exactly what we do. As a matter of fact, we started working with enterprise, for example, the NBA was one of our longest standing partnerships of more than 12 years. And really the idea there was how do we actually make sure that we can capture the fan base and monetize the fan base as effectively as possible. And as you said, because each of these touch points ultimately help with better content creation, better distribution and better monetization. 

Russell Evans: [00:16:28] I've read that you talk about the quadruple bottom line. Can you tell us a little bit about what is the quadruple bottom line and why do you use that model? 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:16:37] You know, when we talk about quadruple bottom line, it really means that, you know, we are measuring success not just based on financial KPIs, but we're looking at people's social and environmental KPIs. And this is important because I truly believe that business is the greatest platform for change. And in order for you to be successful, you really need to look at setting KPIs and goals across all the bottom lines, right? Whether if it's your people or if it's your social or environmental KPIs, as we do with our financial KPIs. I think a lot of companies are comfortable as far as their budget exercise. They set both short term and long term goals with our financial KPIs and we need to do the same thing with everything else. And I would tell you that we have worked very hard and we're very proud that a BBTV, we have a zero percent pay gap for the last five years, not just for gender lens, but no matter how you slice it. So I'm very proud that over 40 percent of our employees and managers identify themselves as female and also 40 percent identify themselves as BIPOC. And it's the same thing, Russell, at the top, when you are looking at our board composition, we have 50 percent female and 50 percent BIPOC representation at the board level. I really believe in setting the right policies, setting the right goals to be able to achieve this. And I'll be happy to share some examples of what we've done. For example, we've implemented a gender interviewing policy that really ensures that we always interview these true qualified female and male candidates for every [00:18:24]pay role. [0.2s] Pay equality. If you think about pay equality and diversity, these are very much tied into performance targets for our managers. So what we do is we really, just like with any other business pillar, building a quadruple bottom line really requires the willingness and the desire to be accountable to progress. And we treat all of our KPIs at the same level with the same level of accountability, whether you're looking at our revenue results and gender pay, our carbon footprint or our community hours. And I think this is why we've been very successful. 

Russell Evans: [00:19:06] In your quadruple bottom line, do you believe that success in one factor will drive success in the other factors, and if so, why? 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:19:16] Absolutely. So when we looking when we look at people, KPIs, inclusivity, invites inclusivity. If you're working on specifically your BIPOC targets, I guarantee you that your folks that are identifying themselves as female employees, it will help with that. Because at the end of the day, I am a true believer that if you are an inclusive organization, one aspect helps you with the other. And then the other piece of it is we've talked we touched on this a little bit. I talk about this all the time. Plenty of research out there that shows that when, for example, just taking the gender lens as a female CEO, when women are well-represented at that at any organization at all levels at the top of the organization, the companies are up to 48 percent more likely to outperform their peers. So this is science. This is not really just an ethical matter. So building a quadruple bottom line business and actually lead both to a more ethical business, of course, but more importantly to a higher performing organization. And it's just so inspiring to see how the new generation of entrepreneurs are looking to these goals for their businesses right out of the box that out sort of the setting up their businesses, very different than my generation and the older generation where we're now looking at ways to optimize things. You know, any every young entrepreneur that I speak with, they care about their environmental KPIs. I'm proud to say we're carbon neutral across all the territories that we operate in. We track our landfill diversion, we look at our paper usage and we have made significant improvement where our landfill diversion rates are better than the province. And those are the things that I can tell you that this new generation of entrepreneurs are so inspiring as far as really caring about as they're setting up their businesses. 

Russell Evans: [00:21:23] That's amazing. I was thinking about there's Shopify. There's the great story of BlackBerry. There's artists like The Weeknd who we talked about. There's filmmakers like James Cameron. There are so many innovators that come from Canada, and I think in many ways we're punching above our weight in innovation. Why do you think that is? 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:21:45] I think everything comes with culture. And I would tell you that good artists, good leaders. We have many good leaders in Canada. And I think that look, I think at the heart of good leadership is empathy. And I think we we've seen this during COVID more so than ever before. We've seen this doing really significant movements in the world from Black Lives Matter to, we've seen this with obviously, their all day activities around the environment. And I think that at the core of good leadership. When I say leadership, look, as an artist, if you want to be a good artist, you're you're leading art your whole team as well. Right. You have managers. You have obviously labels that you work with. And I think that having empathy and making sure that you have good culture and great understanding of the world is going to actually help you be more successful. 

Russell Evans: [00:22:42] This show is called Contributors. How would you say that BBTV is contributing to a better future for Canada? 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:22:51] That's a great question. I would say in part, I believe that our leadership as a quadruple bottom line business is really core to how we're contributing to a better future for Canada. And we're leading by example in how to run a business that sets goals, track success and make progressive, positive impact and priority. If you look at our results over the last 18 years, I think the business of good is good for business, and that's what we're actually really what BBTV is. I think good business is also these two important milestones for Canada. I'm proud to say that BBTV  reached an incredible milestone in October 2020 where we launched an IPO and it was one of the top ten IPOs. And we also made history as one of the top ten tech listings of all time, as well as the largest across all the sectors with a sole female founder, CEO and the first in a technology sector. And we need more milestones like that because at the end of the day, half of half the population are women in Canada and we need to break new ground and pave the way for other women and girls who envision, of course, a future with more potential to be leaders. You know, at the end of the day, I truly believe that having women in positions of leadership is fundamental to the economic growth of our country and any country. And it needs to continue to be a very important factor for Canada's presence on the global stage. 

Russell Evans: [00:24:28] I'm wondering, as you look ahead to the next five, ten years, where do you see content going? And in particular, I'm interested, where do you see Canadian content going over the next ten years? 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:24:42] I would say that when we're looking at technology, look, it's just, you know, there's a lot of confirmation and obviously conversations around generative AI. And I firmly believe that generative AI is going to powering the Canadian content landscape for the next ten years and beyond. And that's one of the reasons why I believe that really innovation in generative AI is going to be a big part of Canada's competitive position in a global landscape. So I think if you look at it with World Economic Forum, we always talk about, you know, we're still in the thick of this fourth industrial revolution. New technologies and of course, new approaches are emerging, whether if you're looking at the physical landscape, digital landscape or even biological landscape in ways that are very so fundamentally changing. Of course, all of us, right, not just our businesses, our industries, the way we operate, right? So very much so. I think that innovation is going to be the key of how we look at creating content from particularly you look at generative AI, I think is whether if you're looking at GPT, GPT-4 or whether if you're looking at protocols for audio, video editing, it's incredible. You know, I'm truly excited about the work that has been done just in the last year with [00:26:11]the AI [0.3s] with audio, of course, and particularly video. And I think this is just the beginning of this many great things to come. And I think companies that need to be far more adaptive as far as adapting generative AI than what we've seen in the past, because this speed is completely a different pace. It's not just you know, AI is not really an if it's it's a now. And if companies are not really adopting it, they're going to fall behind. 

Russell Evans: [00:26:49] So there's a question we like to ask, which we call the secret sauce question here on Contributors. And effectively what this question is, is that we reach out to people that know the CEO that we work with CEO or have worked with the CEO, and we say, what is the secret behind this person's success? And when I reached out to people that know you, Shahrzad, what they said was the most impressive thing about her as a leader is her ability to evolve over time and her ability to pivot to market forces. And actually, there was an analogy that was used, which is a famous, famous saying in Canada from a hockey player, I'm sure you know Wayne Gretzky, which is this idea of you don't skate to where the puck is, you skate to where the puck is going to be. Right? And that was the idea behind your business philosophy is that you always skate to where the puck is going to be. So with that said, how do you do it? 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:27:54] Well, thank you so much for that and thanks for reaching out to your network. And that's very humbling. I have to say, you definitely made my day. Look, I would say that 100 percent. I think any good entrepreneur knows how to pivot. And I think especially if you're an industry that is at the early stages of that being defined, you really need to be able to listen to your customers, understand trends and pivot as needed. And I would say that I get excited about that. I love being able to disrupt yourself and disrupt traditional industries because, you know, you're doing things differently and you're doing things more efficiently and with greater access and you're leveraging tech to solve problems. But I would say I thought you would actually say that I'm hardworking because I do put in really long hours and I'm passionate and I love what I do so much. But certainly, I think, you know, it's really our mantra. BBTV's it's really quick failures. And when I look back at the last 18 years, I can tell you that is certainly one of the reasons why we've been so successful is because, you know, you need to really understand what works, what doesn't work, and not fall on love with your ideas. Fail fast, fail forward. And that's really a mantra. 

Russell Evans: [00:29:20] I had a boss who said, if you're not failing, you're not really trying. 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:29:24] That's right. Very true. 

Russell Evans: [00:29:26] Now, finally, how can our listeners learn more about you and BBTV?

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:29:31] Oh, it would be BBTV.com as where we have all the information about what we do and of course our social channels. 

Russell Evans: [00:29:39] Excellent. Well, thank you so much for being on the show today. It was great to get to know more about you and BBTV. 

Shahrzad Rafati: [00:29:46] Thank you so much, Russell. 

Jade Towle: [00:29:50] Okay, Russell, that was an awesome conversation. I think there is two themes here that I'd love to hear more from you about. One is innovation, knowing when to zig when others are zagging. And let's also talk about the power of storytelling. And that's something that of course resonates to CAAT. We use stories all the time to share our mission, our vision, our purpose. 

Russell Evans: [00:30:15] Yeah. So a couple of things there. I think in terms of innovation, her innovation story is incredible, right? The idea that she was there right at the beginning, and because of her story as a new Canadian, you know, coming to Canada and learning English by watching videos on YouTube, it really set her up to see the power of kind of, as she says, democratization of that media. So she was in a really unique and valuable position to say, hey, there are all these people, all these, as she says, subject matter experts, SMEs. And she wanted to amplify their stories and she wanted to platform them because she saw that there was so much value there, and she was right. So I think that's really cool. And I think the other thing that she really brought to mind, as you say, storytelling was the idea that your story, your brand is much more powerful when you're not the only party sharing that right. Which she when you think about the NBA, and the NBA story being told by all these other content creators, there are something enormously powerful about that. And in our own small way, we're trying to do that at CAAT. We have our Playing Ambassadors program, and this is really individuals, in most case, CAAT members who share our purpose. They share our belief that every Canadian should have access to pensions and how they should have access to lifetime retirement income. And as a result, they're out there spreading the word for us and with us. So I think that's the kind of thing that really any Canadian brand can do. And there's so much value in that. If you can find people that share your organizational purpose, then you go from being one voice to being, you know, hundreds, thousands of voices. 

Jade Towle: [00:32:10] Yeah, absolutely. And I think the lesson here is that if you have an awesome story to tell and you have a really defined mission, it's only as good as those who hear it. 

Russell Evans: [00:32:21] I love it. That was a it was a great episode. I'm so glad we got the chance to speak to her. 

Jade Towle: [00:32:26] Absolutely. And if you want to learn about more lesson, please be sure to download our e-book lessons from the leaders. We have a lot more key takeaways and valuable action items for decision makers across Canada. 

Russell Evans: [00:32:42] We do. And how do you download that? 

Jade Towle: [00:32:43] You can go to Contributorspodcast.ca. It's right on the home page and we also have it in the show notes for everyone. 

Russell Evans: [00:32:50] Amazing. Thanks so much for listening and please join us again next time. 

Jade Towle: [00:32:54] See you next time. 

Russell Evans: [00:32:56] Thank you for listening to Contributors the podcast for Canadian leaders. We hope you'll take away some valuable insights and lessons from today's conversation to help us reach even more listeners, please subscribe, rate and review Contributors on Apple Podcasts. If you'd like to learn more about CAAT, visit us at CAATpension.ca.