A&S alum Azrah Manji-Savin shares secrets for a good pitch, a strong LinkedIn profile and a profitable startup

When Azrah Manji-Savin was a student at U of T, being an entrepreneur wasn’t in her sights.

A&S alum Manji-Savin is now co-founder and CEO of Syzl, a kitchen-sharing marketplace. Looking back, she realizes her desire to see change — like when she helped start a first-of-its-kind feminist club at Trinity College — were early signs she had the aptitude for entrepreneurship.

“We saw something, and we wanted to change it,” says Manji-Savin, who earned her honours bachelor of arts in 2012 as a member of University of Toronto – University of Trinity College. “I do think that drive for change and disruption has to be part of your DNA as a founder.”

It was only after Manji-Savin came across a problem she felt she and her partner and co-founder, Adrian Savin, were uniquely equipped to solve did she consider starting her own business. Manji-Savin saw that many women, immigrants and racialized people who sell food lacked the infrastructure to grow their business. Syzl works by setting them up in unused commercial kitchen spaces.

“I don’t sugarcoat how challenging being an entrepreneur is but it’s incredibly rewarding because you get to bring all your super innovative, disruptive — to use the cliché — ideas and you get to implement them quickly,” Manji-Savin says.

Her advice to other entrepreneurs looking to follow in her footsteps is to make sure the problem is worth solving.

Figure out if someone’s willing to pay for that solution,” Manji-Savin says. “And I say that glibly, but people highly underestimate the amount of research that goes into this.”

Manji-Savin knows what investors want. Recently, she beat out hundreds of pitches to earn top prize at the Collision tech conference in Toronto.

“The secret to a good pitch: Know the story,” she says. “Know how to tell the story of the people that use your product. Know how to tell the story of yourself and your journey. At the end of the day, it’s all about relaying that to somebody who has no idea what you do.”

As for students who are considering a future career as an entrepreneur? Manji-Savin says now is the time to make mistakes.

“Go into clubs, go into classrooms, try things, experiment, mess up, make mistakes, learn how to bounce back from them,” she says. “Take advantage of this time to really, really flesh that out.”

Manji-Savin also says students looking to bridge the gap to the working world should cold call and cold email professionals they admire. She says when she gets compelling and polite messages on LinkedIn, she almost always sends a message back.

“Be extremely personal. Personalize that message to whom you’re reaching out,” Manji-Savin says. “The second thing is you’re asking for someone’s time, so you need to be accommodating for that person. If you take that consideration, that time, that extra effort, it goes a long way and it’s super admirable.”

As a former employee of LinkedIn, Manji-Savin has become adept at using the platform. According to Manji-Savin, the best things people can do to improve their LinkedIn profile is keeping it up to date and adding their own perspective.

“It’s a place to balance your skills and your personality,” she says. “So, comment on articles you find interesting, follow the work influencers you really admire and look up to and take that opportunity to share your unique voice and perspective from a working life.”