OPINION
Monday, April 6, 2015 5
The Challenges to Launching a Start-up
An interview with Nejeed Kassam, CEO of Networks
for Change
ophelie zalcmanis-lai › contributor
N
e j e e d K a s s a m g r a d ua t e d from
Osgoode Hall Law School in 2 01 4 .
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 startup, and what’s to come.
Zalcmanis-Lai: Before Networks for Change, and the
many other ventures you have been involved with,
there was just Nejeed. Where does your motivation
come from?
K a ssa m: 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.
Z alcmanis-L ai: During your time at McGill, you
started your first nonprofit, End Poverty Now. How
did this come to fruition?
K a ssam: 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.
Z alcmanis- L ai: You definitely stayed busy after
graduating from McGill. How did this all parlay into
law at Osgoode in 2010?
K assam: 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 m a ke g reat
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.
me that I belong in a social enterprise, the perfect
combination of business and social good.
Zalcmanis-Lai: What’s most memorable about your
time at Osgoode?
K assam: 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.
“Understanding law is the ticket
to understanding society.”
Zalcmanis-Lai: Why did you take a break?
K assam: 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 ju