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#95 Health & Business w/ Ameya Juvekar
31 Plays1 month ago
Ameya, originally from India, earned an MBA from Queen's University and has a background in digital transformation. At the Toronto Star, he spent five years leading digital media and advertising initiatives, launching innovative products to meet evolving market demands.
In 2019, Ameya founded ScaleUp42 to help small and family-owned businesses compete in the digital marketplace. The company quickly became a trusted partner for e-commerce retailers, offering strategic marketing support to empower growth.
In 2023, he launched HealthBuddha, a platform connecting users with health practitioners to make natural therapies more accessible. Ameya’s work reflects his passion for innovation, community building, and empowering others in health and business.
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Transcript
Introduction & Guest Background
00:00:31
Find A Way Podcast
Hi, everyone. This is episode 95, Health and Business, and today our guest is Ameya Jevkar. Ameya is originally from India, earned an MBA from Queen's University, and has a background in digital transformation. At the Toronto Star, he spent five years leading so digital media and advertising initiatives, launching innovative products to meet evolving market demands. In
Founding ScaleUp 2042
00:00:50
Find A Way Podcast
2019, Ameya found ScaleUp 2042 to help small and family-owned businesses compete in the market in digital market space.
00:00:59
Find A Way Podcast
The company quickly became a trusted partner for e-commerce retailers, offering strategic marketing support to empower growth.
Launching Health Buddha
00:01:04
Find A Way Podcast
In 2023, he launched Health Buddha, a platform connecting users with health practitioners to make natural therapies more accessible.
00:01:12
Find A Way Podcast
Amaya's work reflects his passion for innovation, community building, and empowering others in health and business. Welcome.
00:01:18
Ameya
Thank you so much for having me.
00:01:20
Find A Way Podcast
So before we get started, can you share more about your business or businesses that you currently have?
00:01:26
Ameya
Okay, for sure. Thank you. Thank you for having me. So currently I own two companies, a Scale of 42 and Health Buddha. Scale of 42 is basically it born out of the need to help small and mid-size or family owned businesses. um At the time when digital transformation was so rapid and a lot of small businesses were struggling. So I started that company with ah the focus to support small business owners with strategic thinking, technological and digital thinking so that they can pivot and their business models in the digital space. Interestingly, COVID came along at the time and that just accelerated. So
00:02:17
Ameya
ah the vision that I had got supported with the changes that COVID bought brought along. And as the demand increased, we grew in and the healthcare care space specifically because telehealth became a thing.
Growth and Strategies in Telehealth
00:02:33
Ameya
And because of that, those those types of practitioners who could do telehealth, especially naturopathic doctors, they were the ones who came to us and said, hey, you know what, we need help. So we started working on them. We started building programs, strategies, marketing campaigns for them with Scale 42. And then we realized that what we are doing for a few naturopaths and clinic owners in Toronto and Ontario areas, we can take it ah nationwide and North America wide if we can use some of these learnings and
00:03:14
Ameya
services that we have, we productify them into a platform that would that would essentially do the same thing that we do, but at a larger scale. So that's how Health Buddha became a thing a couple of years ago. And in 2023, we started to seriously put some thought together and put some team and, you know, some real ideas together, go to more and took that product to market. And yeah, and we're doing pretty okay now. So and that's how this it started.
Focus on Sustainable Business Support
00:03:49
Find A Way Podcast
That's a very interesting set of one thing let you to the other, but also I really appreciate working with a small businesses and family owned businesses in digital transformation because we do have a lot of support for startups these days, but not enough for.
00:04:01
Find A Way Podcast
small and family businesses that might need the support that are not necessarily on a growth scale, but that they are sustainable businesses that our country needs to, you know, to generate economic value.
Transition to Entrepreneurship
00:04:13
Find A Way Podcast
um And I'm curious, I love to hear like what inspired people to entrepreneurship. So what inspired you to transition, you know, working from a large media company to becoming an entrepreneur and launching your two businesses?
00:04:26
Ameya
ah Well, I think there is there are a couple of things, or maybe two or three things actually. One is that there was a certain sense of drive that I already had. I think that was a bit of an innate quality that I had that, you know, everything that I did in the last 20 years, I had, I always wanted to take some sense of, I wanted some sense of ownership. And when I say ownership, not equity, but more of responsibility, accountability to drive certain decisions, autonomy, right? To make decisions and
00:05:03
Ameya
and drive value. So I would always look for that even when I was working with large organizations. um And so I was leading a few initiatives within the company that I was working with. um But then the second thing that came along was the identification of an opportunity that was actually solving tangible problem, right? And because there is a I do a lot of sales myself and um
00:05:34
Ameya
I like to do sales of the products and services that I truly trust is creating value for for it's its users or its customers.
Identifying Market Gaps
00:05:45
Ameya
And because of that, um it became just a very organic thing for me to start looking for entrepreneurial ventures rather than you know and have wanting that autonomy to make decisions, wanting to solve those problems um like every other ah every entrepreneur does, and and then finding the right fit. you know And then the third part was that I found a market that had that gap that was willing to accept me. and There was a bit of a personality fit as well for me. And my so and again, my company is, I mean, I guess for every founder, the company takes the personality of the founder, right? so
00:06:24
Ameya
as my company evolved, you know, my personality had the right fit with health and wellness side of those things. Um, since I appreciate that part of, uh, lifestyle a lot. So it does those three things, you know, that came together and just happened.
00:06:39
Find A Way Podcast
I appreciate that. It's a good guide and this is not a guide, but like it's a good idea for people that listen to our podcasts and maybe think about entrepreneurship, but they don't know where it's to start.
00:06:48
Ameya
Mm-hmm.
00:06:48
Find A Way Podcast
and um And I agree with you. I think like you can see a lot of startups, even my own when I had it, which is like the team, the culture takes shape around what the founder really believes in and like the founder, like you know mission values and all of that.
00:07:05
Find A Way Podcast
Uh, so I appreciate that. So how you mentioned it a little bit, but I want to dig a little bit. Uh, I want to dig deeper on it. Um, how did you like your experience at Toronto star shape your understanding of the challenges faced by small businesses? Cause you said, it's like, Oh, I saw this market. Like, was it i experienced it like on the projects that you were doing, if you can share at Toronto started like, Oh, they really have this, this challenge in adopting technology or adopting digital marketing.
00:07:32
Ameya
Right, so when I started my my first job at Toronto Star, my job was to find digital media products that we can then ah leverage to create new revenue streams for Toronto Star and its um and it's subsidiary, Metroland Media. right so And Metroland Media would work with thousands of small, mid-sized companies across Ontario.
00:08:00
Ameya
ah so I got to learn a lot about Ontario's landscape, how it differs, like a big city like Toronto versus a small town like Huntsville. you know And just understanding how the businesses what the business needs are since my job was to find opportunities to convert a traditional media media sales opportunities into digital sales opportunities. right so Since I was so connected with the local businesses, my job was to meet them, understand their challenges, and and try to solve those challenges with what uh, Torstar, uh, with, with Torstar's media products, right? So that is exactly what I'm doing now. Uh, but instead of using one company's media products, I have pretty much access to all the company's media products out there, which, uh, that's how skill of 42 started, right? To that, uh, I had access to all the, you know, it's a marketing agency, it's a marketing strategy company.
00:09:10
Ameya
So we could potentially just go learn about the companies, so the the businesses, and build a custom strategy for each one of them. um So that's basically how I got involved with small, mid-size family-owned businesses.
00:09:27
Find A Way Podcast
That's super interesting. um Like you've seen this gap and I know you said you're basically doing the same but using multiple media agencies or multiple media conglomerates to offer the the products.
00:09:37
Ameya
Platforms, products, yeah.
00:09:40
Find A Way Podcast
Yeah. I'm curious to hear You know, you said a little bit and it's a something that really I am passionate about, which is health and healthcare care and wellness. And you mentioned like, oh, like we had COVID and then this practitioners were able to like transition. Love to hear what are some of the unique challenges ah this practitioners face in the digital space? And like what what drove you to that?
00:10:07
Ameya
Um, well, the practitioners told me what they face, the problems that they face, right? So when they realize that the traditional business model is not going to work for them because they have to pivot to digital and telehealth, they needed infrastructure. Now it's, it's one thing that you have an infrastructure like a Zoom platform that allows you to do telehealth, but, um,
00:10:37
Ameya
But then how do you drive the user now to book an appointment with them? So now they need to build an ad campaign around um around their business, but they also need a web infrastructure, having a good website and ability to reconnect with the audience that they have captured over over their website. So they need it.
00:10:59
Ameya
different media ah technologies, whether you call it technologies, whether you call it platforms or services and pretty much the entire. um So they that's how it started with practitioners.
00:11:16
Ameya
um But then you spend a lot of time with in one you know so in one space, you start to get deeper into it, and then you start to become more acquainted with it. It's very easy for for a service provider to offer digital marketing or web development services, but then offering digital marketing and web development services specifically that meets the needs of that domain.
00:11:47
Ameya
ri that that is a minor difference and that minor difference create exponential results. Right? So this is where i we realized that, oh, we we have started to learn a lot about what these practitioners want. We have started to learn a lot about what their users want. And having a good understanding of both the sides of that equation, we were able to start develop products and services that um that actually started creating value for both the sides of the business. and when
00:12:23
Ameya
the customer is happy, the practitioners are happy too.
00:12:28
Find A Way Podcast
I appreciate that. And going
Entrepreneurial Challenges
00:12:30
Find A Way Podcast
to the other side now, because you said about the good things, I'd love to hear some of the key challenges you encountered building both businesses and how did you overcome them. So if you have like one or two examples.
00:12:41
Ameya
Well, the first challenge is I think I need to get out of my own way, right? So that was one of the feedbacks that I got from one of my advisors like, man, you gotta get out of your own way. And it's it's hard because there are certain challenges that come that came my way and I was equipped to solve those challenges because at the time when I was new, those were sort of easy challenges to solve.
00:13:15
Ameya
The difficulties began when I started finding success and being able to manage day to day, yet think about the future.
00:13:27
Ameya
and build for the future, that's that's difficult. right And in thinking about the future, letting go of some amount of control, that creates some kind of cognitive dissonance. And that was one of the challenges that I had to face myself, like complete transformation of my mindset was one of probably the most biggest challenges that I've solved. And I've come to realize that no material challenge is as great if i am you know if I'm able to maintain my mental health and solve problems in a healthy way. The second big problem is managing people. And the reality is that as much as we want to
00:14:19
Ameya
be able to support people, help ah entrepreneurs grow. or you know we No matter how what our intentions are, we still have to manage people. so that's Another thing that is the challenging thing is managing day-to-day relationships.
00:14:38
Ameya
um Financially, there weren't I believe that I I haven't been, I knock on wood, haven't had big challenges because having an agency where you get paid first, you know that helped to keep the cash flow going. you know So we weren't really burning a lot of cash, but now that we are working on Health Buddha, which is a platform and capital intensive platform. Cash flow management is is is is very important. As long as we are able to hang in there in the market, we believe that and we are solving problems every day and we believe that we will survive and and thrive. But yeah, and managing cash flow would be my third big challenge.
00:15:25
Find A Way Podcast
Um, I really appreciate what you shared, but especially when you said like, get out of your own way. I think that as entrepreneurs, it's easier when we haven't achieved success to spend hours thinking creatively and spend hours developing product and all that. When the urgency has come down to it and you have to learn how to manage your time effectively to be able to solve all the other issues, but also have the head space to be creative and create new solutions and all that. That's a big challenge that I think a lot of entrepreneurs experienced, at least I did as well. Um,
00:15:55
Find A Way Podcast
So we're going to move more into a little bit of a personal
Influence of Upbringing on Leadership
00:15:59
Find A Way Podcast
question, which is how has your background and upbringing in India influenced the way that you approach innovation approach innovation and leadership?
00:16:00
Ameya
yeah
00:16:08
Ameya
well i Well, there is definitely, there's a lot of India. there's definitely a lot of cultural um foundation that I have, having been from India, well, you know, it's a hustle to just survive day to day over there, right? And you're basically in everyone's personal space and to just be able to move forward, um it's a bit of a hustle, right? So there was always that, that there was always that that hustle in me because
00:16:43
Ameya
Not just India, I think the fact that I'm born and raised in Mumbai, which is the kind of financial capital of the country. you know It's is a place where entrepreneurship, you know there is like you know you have you have you have American dream, there's also a Mumbai dream right in in India. it's ah It's a similar thing. like You go to Mumbai, you become big, but you're born and raised there, so you are kind of already in that space of wanting to be successful yeah you know in in your profession and the career, there's always that. um But also my background in the sense that you come from multicultural country like India, um you get to learn a lot from different types of people, right? So there are people who are artistic, there are people who are finance oriented,
00:17:35
Ameya
people who are traders and and merchants, and then you have a cat people who who have excelled in academia, and you you you meet these kinds of cross-section of people, and that creates an appreciation for all the different you know things. like so i feel I owe it a lot to my background.
00:17:57
Ameya
Uh, the fact that I have been able to experience all of this, so I can bring creativity, a little bit of sensitivity in my business, you know, not just being a capitalist who wants to grow and scale, but also want to be able to find some greater good in what we are doing, you know? Uh, so it was, so I'm, I feel blessed for the fact that I have this background where I was able to, to.
00:18:25
Ameya
incorporate all the cultural education that I've gotten on the streets of Bombay. I really am grateful for that. Yeah.
00:18:35
Find A Way Podcast
I love that. And I think in ah in a similar way, I'm from Sao Paulo, Brazil. And in a similar way, a lot of people like it. There's a Sao Paulo dream where a lot of people go to Sao Paulo to like, for like, to be financial district and all that. But I also think that growing up in this large, unforgiving cities,
00:18:53
Find A Way Podcast
just makes you create a grit that's like even when I talk about my experiences in university they're completely different from people from here like I was doing internships from the gecko like I got I started at university I was already doing because like you have to get ahead I needed a certain amount of internship hours to even graduate Right, like it was always very competitive, you're always competing and all of that. And, ah but I'm also happy to hear that you also found your way in those experiences in trying going, which is something that I did as well as like, what why can I do that's also for the greater good. And what can I do that will, you know, that has a mission towards it.
00:19:29
Find A Way Podcast
um I'm curious to hear you mentioned a little bit about mental health before.
00:19:32
Ameya
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Personal Interests & Recharge
00:19:35
Find A Way Podcast
And ah what are some of the things that you enjoy doing outside of work to recharge and stay inspired as an entrepreneur?
00:19:42
Ameya
Well, I do a lot of things actually. I enjoy sport. I think it sport is a great way to disconnect and recharge. So nowadays, since it's cold out there, I skate a little bit, but I also do yoga, hot yoga. I love hot yoga and pilates. So these are the things that I have in my day to day.
00:20:08
Ameya
um Just going out, you know um vacationing. and i don't Being an entrepreneur, it's hard to vacation, take a long vacation. you know so I try to stay in the time zone, you know so I don't have to leave the time zone, so I would go nearby. Recently, I went to Boston.
00:20:27
Ameya
um and also You know, it's it's interesting because as an entrepreneur, you're looking at things and, you know, you're going to cities like Boston, which has got historical significance for of for Americans, you know, and North America, and you know, you start studying people. And that also sort of starts to, you know, give you different perspectives, you know, and change a little bit of mindset. But yeah, I mean, mostly if I'm in town, usually,
00:20:56
Ameya
I'm just, and I play a lot of cricket. I am, uh, I'm the captain of a cricket club, which I'm waiting for summer because then the summer comes and then we are all like Saturday, Sunday, it's all about cricket and friends.
00:21:06
Ameya
So that's something that I enjoy doing as well. But yeah, you got to do the best of what you get in Canada.
00:21:13
Find A Way Podcast
You know what, I've tried most sports that I had access to. I've never tried cricket. I think I need to, I think I need to, I'll ask you for a lesson.
00:21:19
Ameya
Oh, you should come out.
00:21:22
Find A Way Podcast
yeah Because I've tried every sport around this, and but cricket, like it's not something that has been played in Brazil.
00:21:22
Ameya
Yeah, you should come out. Yeah.
00:21:28
Find A Way Podcast
Like no one talks about it.
00:21:29
Ameya
Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:30
Find A Way Podcast
Well, if it's played, I don't know, like where I'm from.
00:21:30
Ameya
Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:32
Find A Way Podcast
with these So yeah, it's, uh, now I'm curious who got me captivated on that.
00:21:32
Ameya
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:37
Find A Way Podcast
Um, and I appreciate you saying like in sports, is it's something that I don't know if you heard the other episodes, but I am a really big proponent on, um, sports saved my life more than, than once, but also my, like my mental health, everything comes down to exercise, being able to clear my head.
00:21:55
Find A Way Podcast
Uh, some people meditate. I am more of the like extreme sports or like long hours kind of girl, but yeah.
00:22:01
Ameya
what kind of what's What's your support?
00:22:01
Find A Way Podcast
Um, I really. Um, well in the winter I snowboard, I am training for a triathlon right now for half Ironman.
00:22:09
Ameya
Oh, cool.
00:22:10
Find A Way Podcast
Yeah. If everything goes well, I did ultra marathons in the past. So 50 to 80 K races on foot, trail running. Uh, so I train, I train a lot. Yeah. it's it Yeah.
00:22:20
Ameya
That's awesome. Wow. yeah
00:22:22
Find A Way Podcast
Um, so we have a thing on the podcast where our previous guest leaves a question for the next guest. And, uh, the past guests left you the following question.
Mentoring Newcomers
00:22:33
Find A Way Podcast
What are you doing or what will you do to make other newcomers' lives easier in Canada?
00:22:40
Ameya
Oh, that's a very good question. So this is okay. Firstly, I have a lot of time that I dedicate to just talking to people because I do mentor with an organization um that helps new immigrants find mentorship, like get the mentorship so that they can start networking and getting their jobs. So I do that a lot. um I've already started doing, I mean, it's been, I've been doing that for years, but I think something new that I would like to do with the newcomers in Canada is spend more time in just sharing my experience. That's one. And the second thing I would like to do is,
00:23:24
Ameya
a it this is interesting, a little controversial maybe, or let me argue on this one, is that I would like to achieve the right kind of success for myself, my organization, build a company here,
00:23:39
Ameya
So, you know, it's like when I see some people, right, I say, OK, that they give me hope. You know, so what I would like to do is I would like to give hope because.
00:23:54
Ameya
If I look back 20 years and I was doing this exercise recently, look back 20 years, find this moment in your time you know and ask yourself, would you have imagined where you are at not at right now right now? And I would have like million years. There was no ways I could have predicted where I'm at right now with everything that I have today.
00:24:16
Ameya
and And it is, so for someone, when I look back and I see this is where I could be, you know, I would like to, and that gives me hope, you know, that, okay, if I look at myself 20 years ago and I would like to build something of my, you know, of success, of value in the right way, so that the newcomer to Canada can say, you know, it can be done. It can be done, you know.
00:24:46
Find A Way Podcast
I think, I don't think that's controversial enough at all. I think it's super important. I even remember one of the first conferences that I went, not the first conference that I went to Canada, but one of the, when I was going to conferences, especially for SAS, the first Latina that I saw on stage.
00:25:02
Ameya
Mm-hmm.
00:25:02
Find A Way Podcast
And I'm like, Oh, people that are like me, you know, like representation does matter.
00:25:05
Ameya
Yeah.
00:25:07
Find A Way Podcast
And like seeing other people achieving success after becoming like newcomers, like it is challenging. But it is possible, and that is one of the reasons why we created this podcast to share the stories, right?
00:25:16
Ameya
Yeah.
00:25:16
Find A Way Podcast
like So they have a space to to share it. So I love that. I don't think it's controversial at all. um So more of a broad broad question here.
Defining Success
00:25:25
Find A Way Podcast
What is success to you if you could give me like a phrase?
00:25:28
Ameya
Uh, a phrase but okay I'll try try to do phrase if not we'll convert that into a sentence um I think success for me is living it every day you know you just be experiencing that sense of growth personal happiness connection with myself
00:25:35
Find A Way Podcast
Or it can be a sentence or no.
00:25:58
Ameya
um and being okay with being pleasantly happy and peaceful about it.
00:26:05
Find A Way Podcast
I like that.
00:26:05
Ameya
yeah
00:26:05
Find A Way Podcast
That's awesome.
Ameya's Superpower as a Connector
00:26:07
Find A Way Podcast
And if you could choose a superpower, what would that be and why?
00:26:11
Ameya
oh Somebody called me recently a node and they said, that's your superpower. And I'm going to run with that because they said that
00:26:21
Ameya
You are like a connector, you know, if someone in, at least in that industry, but in general, also, I just connect people for whatever, like, you know, you should meet this person. I'll connect you with that, you know, and that's what I like to do because I just like to connect people and see where it goes. So that is my, my superpower. I think it's, is that I'm a very good connector at point where things, things connect.
00:26:45
Find A Way Podcast
I like that. Um, so I'm going to go to some rapid fire questions.
00:26:48
Ameya
Okay.
00:26:49
Find A Way Podcast
I'll give you two options and then you'll give me which one you like best.
00:26:52
Ameya
Okay.
00:26:53
Find A Way Podcast
Um, books or movies.
00:26:56
Ameya
Uh, both. Both.
00:27:00
Find A Way Podcast
Um, online shopping or in-store shopping?
00:27:03
Ameya
Oh, in-store shopping. Anytime.
00:27:05
Find A Way Podcast
Oh, wow.
00:27:06
Ameya
Anytime.
00:27:06
Find A Way Podcast
Oh, I'm always, I'm always fascinated by people. This store, the just in-store shopping. I'll pay devil to not have to go inside the store.
00:27:12
Ameya
Oh, no, no, no, I love.
00:27:13
Find A Way Podcast
and Yeah.
00:27:13
Ameya
I mean, I go once in a couple of years, a couple of times a year, but I absolutely love it. I like to touch and feel. I don't want to go and re return the stuff, you know? I hate to return stuff.
00:27:25
Find A Way Podcast
Um, adventure sports or relaxing spa day and sunset or sunrises.
00:27:29
Ameya
Oh, sports, any day, 100%. It depends who I'm with.
00:27:41
Find A Way Podcast
I like that. Um, okay. So, uh, we would love to get your book recommendations. I said, I'd like to read as well. So do you have any book recommendation for us?
00:27:49
Ameya
yeah 10x is easier than 2x yeah and i'm reading it twice the second time back to back right now yeah um
00:27:53
Find A Way Podcast
Okay.
00:27:59
Find A Way Podcast
That's awesome. Thank you for that direct. And well, before we close this episode, as ah you know, one of our previous guests always leaves a question for the next guest. So what question would you like to leave?
00:28:12
Ameya
ah that's you that's I did not think you guys can edit this this pause out right and so ah what question would I like to leave um what is what is your definition of an optimal outcome is by any chance this person is gonna be like calling me and letting me know what that answer is.
00:28:36
Find A Way Podcast
Well, you can watch the episode after yours and find or listen to it, but yeah um Well, thank you for telling your story and for your time.
00:28:38
Ameya
All right. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. Good point. Yeah.
00:28:47
Find A Way Podcast
I mean, is there anything you'd like to add before we close?
00:28:47
Ameya
Thank you. Well, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. um I really appreciate what you guys are doing as well, because this gives a platform for People like us do tell our stories and it's very important that some stories to be told.
00:29:05
Ameya
um And I really appreciate what you guys are doing here. And um if you're new to Canada, since you are this podcast is for, okay, just network, network, network, network, you know, that's how it happens.
00:29:21
Find A Way Podcast
I love that.
00:29:22
Ameya
Yeah.
00:29:23
Find A Way Podcast
um This is our episode 95, health and business with the May edge of a car. We'd like to thank all of our listeners and like to remind you that we'll be posting one episode biweekly, always with a different guest.
00:29:33
Find A Way Podcast
So make sure to subscribe on your favorite streaming platform.
00:29:37
Ameya
Thank you.