Ian Kane is the Founder and COO of Ternio. Ternio provides products to enterprise customers that give blockchain and cryptocurrency real world application. Ternio is best known for their BlockCard, which is a crypto VISA card that allows users to spend Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies anywhere that VISA is accepted. Ian has worked in technology & digital media for over 10 years with a heavy focus on business development, sales, and strategy. His career started as the 1st employee in a media startup which grew into a $50mm a year business during his tenure.

Entrepreneurial Role Models:

When business started difficulties overcame:

“there were many. First was a lack of funding. We took a small Angel round when we started Ternio but all the institutional and venture capital routes that we took ended up being just dead ends for us. They were either not interested in what we were doing or they were offering very, very predatory terms which I think is common to for entrepreneurs at early stages. They usually kind of just take the money and they end up giving up a sizeable portion of their company which is a lot of future value. So anyway we ended up wasting a lot of time with those firms that didn’t have our best interests in mind or the companies. When you are raising money for your start-up it is a full-time job and every minute you dedicate to raising money for your start-up is a minute you have taken away from dedicating to your company and building your business. So that was definitely frustrating ”…[Listen for More]

Favourite Books:

Favourite Quote:

“Formal education will make you a living, self-education will make you a fortune” Jim Rohn

Also mentioned

“be stubborn on vision but flexible on details” Jeff Bezos

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” Bill Gates

Recommended Online Resources:

The Entrepreneur Way – Learn from successful Entrepreneurs with Free Daily podcast interviews that reveal their business success secrets

YouTube, LLC is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. Three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—created the service in February 2005. Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion; YouTube now operates as one of Google’s subsidiaries.

Google LLC – is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware.

Blogs

Publications

Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:

“just keep going. It sounds easy but it’s much harder to execute… Persistence is the one factor that determines success. And so, you could fail nine times but if you get up and keep going then the 10th time may be what gets you across the finish line. And so, to have that level of assistance you need to have a lot of conviction in what you are doing… If you see a spark with your business then you need to keep fanning that flame at whatever cost is necessary to get across the finish line ”…[Listen for More]

More About Ian Kane:

Ternio

You can get your own Blockcard at Get Block Card

Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:

“Your mindset is the first and most rewarding paycheck you will ever receive. Protect your dreams and never put them on hold.” Unknown

Other Quotes From the Chat with Ian Kane:

“I wish we would have started with a block or a crypto VISA card platform first. It’s easy to say that now to you right but I wish we would have been more receptive to the feedback we were seeing in the market”

“hindsight is always 20/20”

“I would say the number one secret to success is persistence… I do believe that hard work and persistence. And when somebody is telling you it can’t be done, to give up your need to keep persisting… and I don’t mean persistence at all costs and if nobody is buying your product you shouldn’t continue with it but I do think that if you see a little bit of a glimmer of hope and a little bit of success you need to keep going”

“it doesn’t matter what you do or what you know but how much work and how much time you put into it and something you really believe in, and have conviction in, I think that’s what’s the number one factor in determining success”

“the other thing I would have done is I would have focused less on making things 100% perfect before we go to market and probably more or less getting to like 95% there, release and then improve based upon customer feedback on that release. I think that there are a lot of people that are so focused on making things perfect that the end up not even getting it out to market. With any start-up you have your MVP, you get it there, you iterate based on customer feedback, you keep kind of expanding from there. I wish earlier on we focus more kind of just putting things out into market”

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