The Startup Podcast: Inspiring Action and Embracing AI with Bart Jenezon

Komal Rangoonwala: Welcome to the Startuped podcast, the show where we dive deep into the world of startups and entrepreneurship. I’m your host, Komal Rangoonwala, and today we have a truly inspiring guest with us. He’s the founder, CEO, and chief inspiration officer of **1nspiring.com, a platform dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs and innovators. Please welcome [Bart Jenezon](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenezon/)**! Thank you so much for joining, Bart. How are you?

Bart Jenezon: Thank you so much, Komal, for inviting me. I’m really happy to be here and looking forward to our conversation.

Komal Rangoonwala: Wonderful. Thank you so much. So, what is Inspiring.com? I was very curious to see an adjective as the name of the company, not ‘inspired,’ not ‘inspiration,’ but ‘inspiring’ as the continuous process. Can you tell us about what Inspiring.com is and how you got to name it?

Bart Jenezon: Yeah, there’s a long story and a short story, but first I’ll explain it shortly. Inspiration, I think, is everywhere. A lot of people are so busy that they don’t even look for it anymore. So, inspiration is everywhere, but it has to find you working. That’s originally the foundation of our company name. Inspiration is everywhere, but as an entrepreneur, you need to keep on moving, you need to keep on working, and if you don’t go for it, then it will never ever happen. So it’s a verb, and that’s the big difference. Here we are, and we would love to inspire anyone in the world, to support them one way or another, and most of all, just by supporting them in a way of, “Okay, there are more people like you and me, and we are here together to somehow create the future, to create the world and make it a better place.”

Komal Rangoonwala: Absolutely. So, how did you come to think about helping startups? Is this what you’ve always done? Did you have a startup of your own before?

Bart Jenezon: I’m 50 years old now, and I’ve been involved as an entrepreneur for 24 years. When I was at the Harlem Business School, we were already involved in our first startup. It was in those days that the internet was actually popping up; it was the very beginning. Our business school was fully oriented on the small business industry. So, for me, it was a kind of basic or logical sense to pursue an entrepreneurial career. In my family and neighborhood, everyone was talking about the entrepreneurial path.

But it was a different sense than it was actually when I was starting up. In the beginning, it was more like a fairy tale, like “if you start your own company, you will be rich and famous.” Entrepreneurship has nothing to do with the rich and famous. I had my lessons, and that was actually the beginning of my transformation. Instead of building companies to become rich and famous, I started to think about impact and value and how you can reach out to more people.

In the beginning, it was more struggling, finding my own way. And then I transformed it into a way that, “Okay, now I get it. Now I see what it’s all about. Maybe it’s time to help others and forget all the things about being rich and famous, and try to be just a part of an ecosystem, try to create a better living or a better way of living altogether.”

That was 10 years ago. I founded Inspiring.com after a couple of years of searching for my next step. I came up with the word inspiration as an energizing topic. For me, it’s most valuable when I get energy and feel good. It’s all about inspiration. If I focus on the inspirational part, I’m able to contribute in life, contribute to others, and if I keep on inspiring, it will all come back. I think then we have the ecosystem working. That was the beginning of my breakthrough in life. Now I’m much more enjoying it, meeting up with people like you, and passing forward the entrepreneurial spirit. That’s exactly what Inspiring.com is all about.

The Wisdom of Experience: Learning from the Journey

Komal Rangoonwala: That was a wonderful story. The coolest thing about talking with seasoned mentors and founders is that they’ve seen how things used to be. They had difficult times, and they were there when “startup” was just a buzzword. They didn’t have everything handed to them, or access to everything as we do now. I think they can truly appreciate, and are able to make much more wisdom from the knowledge that is there. It’s not just data and information; it’s the wisdom they can give. That’s something I really enjoy while talking with experienced founders like you.

And second, you mentioned that even your family and friends were talking about startups and entrepreneurship. I think that is rare in most cases. Most of the time, it’s just one person trying to explain it, which is so difficult because people really don’t understand what a startup or entrepreneurship is about. That’s an amazing story and a great circle to have and to be in.

Bart Jenezon: Thank you for mentioning it. It’s definitely important to talk to people who have been there, but also who will accept that you are working on some crazy ideas that may never work out, and that people don’t laugh at you. They should encourage you to move forward and find the next solution.

It was funny; last week or two weeks ago, I met one of my first inspirations, besides my own dad, an old neighbor. I read a book last summer by Guy Kawasaki, “Art of the Start,” and he said it’s super important to thank someone who inspired you. So I decided to reach out to him. I used to hang out with his son, so I connected with him. We made an appointment for coffee, and he suggested visiting his parents. So we did, and I told my old neighbor, “Uncle Peter,” “I would like to say thank you for inspiring me when I was a little boy.” For him, it was super nice because he’s 88 and wasn’t aware of it. He was really surprised. But for me, it was also a kind of thank you that I want to extend to other young people, different people with different backgrounds.

I was very lucky that my own dad truly supported me to go my own way. It didn’t matter if it went right or wrong; it was always good for him. Even if I made huge or awkward mistakes, he wasn’t judging me. He would say, “I love you all the way, but please learn from it. This is maybe not the right way. Please improve yourself and find the right way.” That’s so important because a lot of the solutions we are looking for take time to truly find the right way to take advantage of them. If we judge people too quickly, it will never happen. And that’s what we want to do with Inspiring.com. It’s like a community of practice. Everyone who wants to go for it is welcome to share their ideas. I’m a gatekeeper; I try to open doors and welcome people. Welcoming people is super important in life, but also trying to tell people, “Okay, I think you need to first work on this before you ask for funding or help. First, show people what you’ve got, and then let the magic happen.” Thank you for mentioning it, because that’s basically the starting point for entrepreneurial success.

Komal Rangoonwala: Absolutely. Kudos to that style of parenting. I agree that those gestures of just thanking the person who inspired you go a long way. It means a lot. And I agree, it’s very important to welcome ideas, but also to set boundaries and say, “Do the homework, and then get back to me.”

Bart Jenezon: There’s another hidden lesson in this small story: even when you’re having difficulty or struggling with complicated circumstances, we don’t need to push them back or fight against them. We need to somehow embrace it and try to adjust and move on, and find a solution. For me, especially the first 20 years of my work, until my 40s, I was only looking for a successful next step. When things happened, I was fighting back instead of just accepting it. Now, if I have an unpleasant conversation, I smile and say, “Thank you for your time,” and I just move on. This was the last time I’m meeting with this person because I don’t feel comfortable with it. Then there’s no point of issue because that person goes on, and you go on with your life. And that’s also for the really large issues in life. The most complicated thing is people fighting against each other, sometimes without a real clue or reason. Even if there is a reason, it will not solve the issue. But let’s talk about the entrepreneurial path; that’s more important, but it’s an important lesson.

Komal Rangoonwala: Absolutely, I completely agree. I too started thinking about how this kind of lesson is applicable in other aspects of life because it seemed like a general lesson you can apply to pretty much any aspect. So I appreciate it.

Strategies for Startup Success: The Inspiration Canvas and AI Integration

Komal Rangoonwala: Can you tell me about the strategies and methods you follow when you help startups?

Bart Jenezon: My own lessons learned were the most important steps to understanding the process of an entrepreneurial way of working. It’s not about brilliant ideas transforming into the next unicorns in a couple of weeks. The entrepreneurial way of living is really hard work. It will take a long time to get people following your path. When I was struggling myself, I read hundreds of books, a little bit addicted. Each time there was a new release, I bought it, read it in one night, and still couldn’t find it. After a while, I decided to bring all the books back to the library or pass them on to someone else.

Most importantly, I found it in myself. Instead of looking in the outer world, I started looking for the inner world, more in silence, more in nature, thinking about feelings or experiencing feelings, and then trying to listen to that kind of feeling. For me, it’s a mix between a more spiritual path and a more rational way of working. But the theories, models, and frameworks — I was, and still am, super excited about all kinds of frameworks that are able to simplify complicated circumstances and situations. If people start talking and you don’t have a clue, try to bring it back into a framework or a model and see if you can find the essence of the story.

So I started working with Lean Startup, following the Lean Canvas, the Business Model Generation, especially the Value Proposition Design Canvas. I was really inspired by Simon Sinek with the Golden Circles (“Start With Why”; people don’t buy what you do, but why you do it). I was excited about those frameworks, and I still am, but somehow I was missing the actionable point of the approach. So, I started working on my own framework, inviting other people to collaborate with me — 10 people, 20 people, and then even more than 100 people just playing with the content and the framework we were working on. We came up with a simple name: the Inspiration Canvas. I have a simple card here; it’s like tic-tac-toe. You draw four lines, and you can put your ideas on paper.

The starting point of referring back to the well-known international experts is that they are brilliant at simplifying whatever you are working on. But then you need to find a way to move on, and you are the only one responsible for moving on. You were the one who reached out to me, who scheduled this call, who had a little patience with me. That’s exactly what I try to tell entrepreneurs: they can read all the books, they can go to all the seminars, but they need to go outside, talk to potential customers, validate with them, go hand in hand, instead of developing complicated applications or software products, and then after losing a lot of time and money, coming to the conclusion that it won’t work.

So, the framework is built on Lean Startup, Business Model Generation (especially the Value Design Canvas), and Simon Sinek’s Golden Circles. We put that all together in the Inspiration Canvas. It’s just like tic-tac-toe, short and simple. The promise is: sketch out the Inspiration Canvas in one hour, and you get your business plan in one day. Then you have all the time in the world to execute your dreams, because that’s what it’s all about.

Komal Rangoonwala: Okay, okay, sounds good. So, do you have a specific platform or app that helps you do this, or is it just like that card?

Bart Jenezon: It all starts with a piece of paper, trying to capture ideas. It was a bit like when you have a meeting, and by the end, people go their own way, and the next time you meet, everyone has forgotten what the conclusions or action points were. So we summarized it, put it on paper, and after a session, we’d provide a reflection. Then we created the framework, and people responded, saying, “Hey, I’d like to have a tool or cards.” So, we made complete instruction cards. We even made stickers people can put on their laptops or notebooks.

Five years ago, we made a small digital booklet and started printing it and giving it away. Three years ago, I was invited by a friend to talk to an entrepreneurial publishing company in New York. Now, my work is published by Morgan James, a cool publishing company based in London, New York, Melbourne, and Vancouver. They support me as an entrepreneur to collaborate and think about programs and how to evolve as a company or person. Now, we have an application, a community, a platform, books, and e-books. It’s translated into eight languages, and we are close to launching an AI platform where you can ask an online coach anything from the book, and it will respond immediately. If you want to work on your business plan, you can just put it there, and by the end of the day, you’ll have a complete business plan for your team.

It’s the combination. Some people like the book, some like printed materials, others prefer a call like this, and some like to meet. I think it’s super important to offer it in a way that’s convenient for the people looking for that kind of inspiration and support.

Komal Rangoonwala: Right, that sounds like you have various channels and mediums for everybody, whether it’s someone meeting you in person or someone completely remote. So I think that’s great.

Bart Jenezon: Yes, and I started learning English about 10 years ago. If you had met me 15 years ago, I would have had great difficulty with it. But if you want to have more impact, it’s important to reach out in all languages. So now I have people in India supporting me who speak Hindi. I have people in Romania and a good friend from Russia. People from all over the world with an entrepreneurial spirit, like-minded people, who try to help others truly make dreams come true.

Komal Rangoonwala: That’s great. Love it, love the idea.

Bart Jenezon: It’s not only an idea.

Komal Rangoonwala: Yes, absolutely. It’s a lot more than just an idea. It’s actually the execution, and it is helping so many other ideas.

Bart Jenezon: What we always say: you need to stand up as an entrepreneur. Then you need to start up; you need to work on paying customers, support them — that’s the actual foundation. And then, if you found them, you need to think about, “Okay, what is the right way to build my company?” It’s the transformation from problem-solution fit, product-market fit, and then to operating profit. It’s complicated, but if you hold on and keep on working and keep on inspiring, then definitely your ideas will come true.

The Future of Inspiring.com: Scaling and AI Concerns

Komal Rangoonwala: True. So what are the next steps? After, let’s say, the business inspiration canvas is filled out, what happens next?

Bart Jenezon: The most important thing for myself is that I, as an entrepreneur, also need guidance. Sometimes I need a lot of help from others to move on or find my next step in business development. So for myself, the most important thing is that the impact we are making has nothing to do with me. I love to tell stories. I love to share my background and how it all began. I would like to say thank you to all the people who supported me, also some people who may not be close to me anymore, but that’s how it goes in life. So that’s the story I would like to share with the people in the world. But I need to learn to let it go, to let it grow, and listen to the people who are much more experienced in how to scale your company. That’s basically what I set for myself this year as a personal challenge. So I try to step outside of my company, try to think about, “Okay, how can we create products and services that we are not really necessary to run or to be there during those sessions?” That’s the most important challenge.

And the other one is, I think if you asked me last year, I would have had a completely different answer. In the beginning, people would say, “AI, what is it? Can it help? Will it help you?” I’d say, “Oh no, I’m not sure.” And now I’ve even learned to cook with AI. Every night, I do the cooking at home, and I’ve learned to make the most beautiful fish and put it in the oven with all the tips and suggestions I can find on ChatGPT. It really helps me. So, we are now, for a couple of months, investing a lot of time and money into the launch of a couple of AI tools. With those AI tools, you can speed up the process of ideation. You can really sketch out an idea in a couple of seconds, share it with people — mentors, peers, teammates, or family members. It will be a supportive product or service where you also can create experiments or run a couple of experiments with different ideal customer profiles, target audiences, or writing styles. All the AI features, we put them all in one place. We are just finishing in one or two weeks. It’s a really supportive tool where people can use the tooling, the frameworks, but also use AI to come up with a different point of view or different opportunity. We are just human. On the one hand, we are very special and unique, and on the other hand, we overestimate ourselves. We overestimate that we are super intelligent. I think we are intelligent, but don’t ever overestimate it to yourself. Just try to think, “Maybe I’m not so clever,” and try to think other people can help or technology can help you. That’s definitely a breakthrough.

Komal Rangoonwala: Right. So, I hear a lot of founders talking about integrating AI in their products and how it can help. Because we are also doing the same, and a majority around the world are doing the same. Do you have any specific concerns around this? Do you have any concerns about the accuracy or the precision of information, and could customers, clients, or founders be at a loss if there are any errors or inaccuracies?

Bart Jenezon: I’ve got a couple of quotes that just came to mind. The first, and most important thing, is “Be you.” That’s the only thing you need to do. People talk about AI, but you need to interpret it yourself: “How will it help you? How can you take advantage of it?” If you get crazy feedback, think for yourself, make up your own mind. It’s the same thing my mom and dad raised me with: “Make up your own mind. You can go and ask for advice, but you need to make up your own mind.” And that’s what I also do. I have a lovely daughter, 17 years old, and sometimes she’s right, sometimes she’s wrong, but she needs to make up her own mind. AI is a supportive tool to quickly generate multiple resources and learn from that, but you need to make up your own mind.

I always say that to people. I’ve invited Mr. Michael McRruchi, an Australian guy living in the US, who is inspiring and teaching on the human aspect of life. I think we need to be much more human. Try to be vulnerable, try to be open, try to be transparent, try to be lovely, try to be anxious. Try to be you. That’s the only thing you need to do. It’s the same with cooking, and it’s the same with customer validation: the proof of the pudding is always in the eating. So if it doesn’t taste good, then it probably isn’t good. It’s so super simple, and people need to keep it super simple. That’s basically my mantra, and that’s my main message for today: Keep it super simple, make up your own mind, and make it happen. Just do it.

Komal Rangoonwala: So the advice would be to be the judge yourself rather than depending on it; use it as a tool to get more knowledge or a different perspective or information, but you are the one to make the wisdom out of it. It’s your call.

Bart Jenezon: I have a funny example. My daughter asked me last week to look at some assignments. She shared a link, and I was able to jump into the file. It was incredible. There were two assignments I was asked for feedback on. One was about World War 2, and the other was about the housing problem in the Netherlands, where homeowners have created a lot of wealth because prices went sky high, and those without a house remain poor. She created those two assignments on very complicated topics, but with the resources she found online, it was very easy to understand. That’s so super nice, I think, for people nowadays that we have those resources.

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