All posts by Lindsay Lynch

Music is important to the Shift community. Classical tunes echo through the speakers, members dish about their next Red Rocks show and companies even base their livelihoods around it. One company that lives and breathes music is the personalized streaming service, Deezer. Led by Deborah Jourdan, the Denver team is a collection of ten strong individuals that help the Paris-based company thrive in the competitive landscape of streaming music.

Deborah and team, could you tell us how Deezer works? What are its differentiators from other streaming services?

Deezer a music streaming service and that aims to create the most personalized music experience for our customers and our partners.  For customers, we do that by using elements of man and machine to play the best new and old music tailored for each individual. For our partners, that means customizing our offering to their audience. With Sonos, a speaker and home systems company, we give their customers access to lossless audio. For Cricket Wireless, a wireless service provider, we provide users a great value at $6/month.

Where and how was Deezer created?

Deezer was founded in 2007 by 23-year-old French programmer, Daniel Marhely. He wanted to find a way to simplify music streaming for his friends, so started the project from his bedroom. He quickly realized the value of such a product, so gathered a small team to build the product. Once music labels and investors caught on, Deezer took off and is now one of the largest music catalogs in the world.

What keeps you going in the day to day? 

We are inspired by the creative minds in the music industry, and a fast-moving product that we all use daily. The unique combination of tech startup meets funky music label keeps us excited and busy every day!

Any exciting news or trips up next for Deezer? 

Our team is constantly traveling, with trips to Los Angeles, Atlanta, Paris, and Miami on the books over the next few months.

Ambition can be a tough attribute to find these days. But we’re lucky to see this trait alive and well within our community. One of our most valued members, Tara Westlund, encapsulates so much drive that it’s contagious. She works long hours and always has a smile on her face. How one does this–we do not know. So we sat down with the motivated millennial to see what makes her tick and how she gets through some of her most challenging days.
Tara, tell us about your gig. I know your in finance, but describe to us layman folk what it is you do and how small businesses can benefit from your services?

I work for a company called Financial Designs, Inc. FDI is a team of insurance and investment specialists, CPAs and attorneys. We work together to create comprehensive financial strategies for independent contractors, physicians and small business owners. We know which insurance plans you need and how to maximize your investments. We’re prepared to take care of all of your tax needs, and will help you decide which steps to take to protect your money. Our clients appreciate having one place to call… And we simplify the process so they can spend more time doing what they love.

Give us a little background on yourself. How’d you get into your current career?

As much as I enjoy financial planning, career planning probably wasn’t my strongest talent!  Mostly because I wanted to learn and do everything from computer programming to oil painting. After graduating from Vanderbilt, I worked in software development. It didn’t take long to realize it wasn’t for me… I packed up and spent 9 months adventuring my way across Southeast Asia and Australia. I came back and decided I wanted to help people have the financial freedom to follow all of their crazy dreams – be it traveling the world, starting a business or having a big family. I went to work with my father at Financial Designs. The FDI advisors have been incredible teachers and mentors. I’ve been with the team 3 years now and am currently in the process of attaining my CFP^® designation.

What about your job inspires you?

To me, it’s about connecting and helping people. Money is tough – It keeps a lot of people up at night. I love giving people comfort and the confidence that their futures are secure – and that everything is going to be okay. When people have that security, they can spend more time and emotional energy pursuing things they’re passionate about.

Are there clients that you’ve worked with that motivate you?

Most of my clients motivate me! I work with many emergency physicians. That field lends itself to a lot of intensely driven, hard-working and selfless people. Some of our clients that work long night shifts in the ER are also ultra-marathoners, National Geographic photographers, published authors and community servants. They inspire me to be great at what I do professionally but also to pursue all the other awesome experiences life has to offer.

That’s so great, Tara! Sounds like you have a paved a strong path. Do you have any big events coming up?

My next three months will be pretty consumed with studying for my board exam. After that (and a big celebration with my Shift family, of course!) I’ll be headed back to Southeast Asia for a few weeks with my family. I’m looking forward to lots of scuba diving, hiking, yoga, photography and so much delicious food!

One of the biggest perks of Coworking spaces is the vast network of innovative companies that exist within the walls. One of the more ground-breaking start-ups is Tokken, a secure mobile payment app for the cannabis industry, led by Lamine Zarrad. Zarrad is in the midst of creating something big within one of the largest growing industries in Colorado. Check out our interview with Shift member and banking pioneer:

Lamine, thanks so much for taking the time to meet with us. I know your schedule has been jam packed with travel these days. Could you tell us a little bit about Tokken?

Tokken is a digital bank that offers a consumer-focused, secure payment system that replaces cash. Our platform leverages the latest technological innovation in cryptography and data management to offer banking and payment services to a growing segment of the under-banked and un- banked.

Give us a little background on yourself. How’d you get into your current gig?
After six years in the Marine Corps, I earned degrees in Business Administration (B.A.) and Public Affairs (M.A.), with a focus on policy analysis and public finance. I worked briefly at Merrill Lynch before joining the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) as a Bank Examiner. During that time, I saw an opportunity to improve the banking system by incorporating the blockchain technology to create a transparent and cashless payment system that is compliant with US banking regulations, effectively extending banking services to large segments of the population—such as the cannabis industry—that are currently “unbankable.”

What is it about Tokken that inspires you most?
I am inspired to bring true innovation to the banking sector, which still operates largely by concepts that were developed in 15th century Florence. Numerous individuals and corporations are left without access to basic services offered by chartered financial institution because of antiquated risk management models. Tokken is reinventing existing risk analytics to generate accurate and dynamic models that will allow us to develop a robust compliance program which, combined with our unique blockchain technology, will allow us to extend financial services to clients who currently operate outside the banking system.

What’s up next for Tokken?

I will be a featured speaker at the PayThink Conference in New Orleans in September, a gathering of leaders from across the financial services industry. I am also looking forward to launching the beta testing round of our service later this summer.

You can learn more about Tokken on their website or contact them here.

The great thing about shared workspaces is that there is a mutualistic relationship that exists. Yes, the space itself helps its members grow and become more productive. But it’s the members that make the space that much better. A prime example is Ms. Miya Hirabayashi. Miya, aka Boss Lady, makes even Beyonce look like a slacker. Yeah, I just said that. With her very own (very successful) creative freelancing career, Miya has proven that you can rekindle your artistic flame and make it your livelihood. Here’s how she did it.

Mama Miya, drop a hot one on us. Tell us what you do. 

I am a creative gun for hire. I love assembling teams of talented people (or working with talented teams) to get things done. I’ve branded and launched snack food companies, guided large fashion brands through rebrands, and helped smaller companies brand themselves for growth. I love to be super hands-on with all facets of the design and strategy process, from concept to execution.

Miya wasn’t always making brands cooler, prettier and more complete. She had a different path to pave…

I came into this career in a really roundabout way. I was always super artsy and creative as a kid, but I never really gave any thought to being creative as a career. I was also really passionate about social justice, and felt like that was more of a “career” than being an artist. So out of college, I joined Teach for America and then started a PhD in Education Policy at Columbia. I was interested in statistical methods for suggesting causality with large datasets. Because you can’t randomly assign things like race or socioeconomic status, you can’t say that x causes y without tweaking your methods (correlation doesn’t equal causality, as we numbers nerds like to say). I really enjoyed thinking about the problem of using data to figure out how to affect change with policy. I loved the programming and problem-solving aspects of my studies, but I always felt this pull to do other creative things.

Finally, on a whim, I looked up graphic design programs in the area, and Parsons was having an information session the following night. I went, I applied, and the rest, as they say, is history.

She’s inspired by her job every day. But how can all that exterior inspiration translate into something more internal? She shares how…

Everything about my job inspires me. I love the opportunity to work on a lot of different projects with different people; I love the fact that my job is basically to notice things—trends, colors, juxtapositions of things, textures—and then recombine them to make something new and awesome. It’s a really great way to live, to be compelled to notice things around you and take inspiration from your surroundings.
I am working with an agency right now that is really awesome. The principal prioritizes hiring great people, so her team is really incredible to work with. They’re all driven, really creative, and super smart. I never want to be the smartest or best person in the room, because there’s no opportunity for growth in that scenario. (That said, I always try to be the hardest-working because who wants to follow a leader who won’t pull her weight?) With this agency, I’ve learned so much about the power of great teams under a dynamic leader.

And finally, we asked Miya where she’s off to next. And what words she can leave us with.

My biggest trip coming up is moving back to the SF Bay Area with my family this summer. I’m from there and have been trying to get back since I moved to New York almost 14 years ago. I feel really fortunate that the opportunity to go back opened up, and I can’t wait to be closer to my family.

I’m also going to NYC a few times this month—mostly for work, but I’m also running the Brooklyn ½ marathon at the end of the month, which is one of my favorite races to run.  

In terms of words of wisdom or inspiration, I would say that it’s never too late to follow a path that you know you should be on. I’m really grateful for my past experiences because I think having honed analytic abilities makes me a better designer, but I knew deep down that I should have been doing what I’m doing now. Back then it felt like a huge derailment to quit my PhD and go back to school, but in the grand scheme of things, it was a blip on my career trajectory. 

Want to hire Miya for a project? Visit her at www.heymiya.com.