Exclusive Interview – Sumaya Kazi

Posted on 01. May, 2007 by DeanHunt in Business Advice

RetiredAt21.com has managed to secure a world exclusive interview with one of America’s leading young entrepreneurs. Sumaya Kazi, Executive Director of The CulturalConnect has been recognized by BusinessWeek Magazine as one of America’s Top Young Entrepreneurs. While BusinessWeek may have just written about her, we  have had the opportunity to do a full-length interview with her.

Sumaya Kazi Interview

Sumaya Kazi, 24, was recently recognized by BusinessWeek Magazine as one of America’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs Under 25 and the only solo woman featured in its Global Top 75 Entrepreneurs list. She currently serves as the Executive Director and Co-Founder of TheCulturalConnect.com, a burgeoning media publishing company that publishes five weekly e-magazines dedicated to young, driven and forward-thinking adults around the world. To date it receives more than 500,000 hits to their site monthly with a readership that spans 100 countries. The CulturalConnect has been widely regarded as a refreshing and important young professional destination. She also serves as the Executive Director and Co-Founder a new non-profit organization that was started to create a young adult and professional movement towards awareness, giving and change. Aligning her team with the United Nations Millennium Development goals, her team has architected an innovative technology model for viral social fundraising.

1 – What inspired you to create TheCulturalConnect.com ?
The vision and creation of The CulturalConnect was really an amalgamation of a few different frustrations I had – professional, cultural and personal.

Professional: I became pretty frustrated with traditional business publications and the lack of stories done on amazing young professionals. I knew there were many out there. I also recognized that no one was taking an active effort in putting the spotlight on them. Knowing this, I felt the need to display the amazing efforts of young professionals I am privileged to learn about through friends and acquaintances. Sometimes all someone needs to be motivated or inspired to do something professionally is to get guidance from their peers – whether this is in words of advice, to be able to see someone doing something that they are interested in, or learn from someone else’s mistakes.

Cultural: Young ethnic adults and professionals are usually not too familiar with being a part of a strong “cultural community,” at least not in the same sense as their parents and grandparents understand community. As soon as one graduates and embarks on the professional world, that sense of community/identity is for the most part weakened. One of our goals with our magazines is to really put the spotlight on individuals related to our reader’s ethnic background so that they are able to identify and learn more about what others with similar backgrounds are doing. It also highlights those individuals that step outside of “stereotypical” professions within their community.

Personal: Based on my work experience in marketing and public relations, I recognized the unfortunate fact that many really great non profits out there don’t get the media attention that they deserve. Unless there is a financial crisis or natural disaster, non profits are rarely written about in the press. No one really knows about the dedicated, self-sacrificing individuals that are behind the scenes making our world a better place to live in. There is an unfortunate gap between young professionals actively participating in the non profit world. We are truly a one of kind set of publications in that we are actively trying to bridge this gap between the two worlds.

2 – What were the main challenges you faced in getting TheCulturalConnect.com off the ground?

Lack of experience! My team and I knew very little about the world of media publishing and entrepreneurship. I had an idea and we simply decided to roll with it and take on the challenges as they came. Outside of that, time was another challenge. My team and I work full-time jobs so The CulturalConnect was and continues to be a successful business that we manage and grow in our evening and weekend hours. Anytime you put a constraint on time you’re bound to have challenges!

3 – What single factor would you say helped you the most in getting TheCulturalConnect.com where it is today?

Having a smart, driven, ambitious, reliable and forward-thinking staff. The true success of The CulturalConnect is because of the amazing dedication my staff has towards researching, connecting with, interviewing and profiling the young professionals in the for-profit and non-profit communities. Every single member of our staff is either a full-time student or full-time employee and yet they still find the time and energy to make these articles come alive! I have to say that my staff and the people we profile each week definitely continue to inspire me on a daily basis.

4 – Did you want to be an entrepreneur when you were a child?

No. I wanted to be the first woman president of the United States of America. I also wanted to simultaneously be an astronaut, ballerina, doctor and teacher. At that age, in my world, doing everything all at once seemed possible. To some degree, I still believe I can still juggle multiple careers.

5 – If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started. What business related advice would you give yourself?

Network like crazy. I didn’t realize at the time of our launch that our website and set of magazines were going to turn into an international platform for young professional networking. I’m sure it would have been helpful to have already been networked with the media publishing community as well as various ethnic communities to be able to soak up and leverage the knowledge we would have learned then.

6 – Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?

I definitely believe that entrepreneurialism can be learned. Some individuals might just be “natural” at it, but anyone that can take an idea to launch, be patient, look at the bigger picture, are driven and can realize the importance of surrounding yourself with smarter people has the potential of becoming a successful entrepreneur. I currently volunteer what hours I can each week to mentor underprivileged and under resourced high schools students in entrepreneurship (www.BUILD.org). The students have no history of entrepreneurialism – but yet, with support and patience they have all developed into very cool super young entrepreneurs. If they can be 15 years old and launching a company that is making profit, I have a strong feeling most everyone can as well.

7 – Is there anyone that you look up to and model yourself on?

I look up to and constantly re-evaluate myself based on all the inspiring individuals I work with as well as the amazing young professionals I am fortunate to come across in my career. I really feed off their motivations, inspirations, drive and dedication towards progress. I’m most inspired by those young change-makers in the non profit community that work around the clock to alleviate the world’s most pressing issues. If I had to pick one person that I do look up to, I would say its recent Peace Prize winner and fellow Bangladeshi Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank (also called the “Bank of the Poor”). He started the micro-credit revolution by lending money to a network of women who were struggling in poverty. Now this economic model has spread and has been successful in other countries.

8 – What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Surround yourself with people smarter than yourself. It can only breed success.

9 – What is the best thing about being a successful young entrepreneur?

I’m flattered and honored that others out there consider me ‘successful’. I have very high standards for myself so I don’t use that term to define myself. However, I will say that based on what others do think of me at this stage of my career, it is much easier pitching a business idea or communicating a new idea to someone. I don’t get as much pushback as I would have a couple years ago.

10 – What are your plans for the future?

I’ll be applying for grad school to pursue my MBA in the near future. I definitely have plans (with the help of my staff) to continue growing The CulturalConnect to the massive potential it has. I also plan to continue helping Sun Microsystems (my full time gig) continue to kick ass in the technology industry. Additionally, I recently started a non-profit organization that is dedicated to creating a young professional movement towards awareness, giving and change towards the world’s most pressing issues. I’m really excited about this latest endeavor and can’t wait to see it unfold.

I encourage anyone that has questions or comments, to feel free to email me at sumaya@theculturalconnect.com