Law and Business Podcast Episode 60 – with Polina Chtchelok – How to Define a Business vs. a Startup
39m
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Law & Business
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Coming aboard the "Law & Business" Podcast is Polina Chtchelok. Polina is an Australian lawyer and engineer. She started her career in the energy sector, where after having lived in 5 different countries and working on various investments and projects, she saw a business opportunity due to lack of specific legal services and she moved from working in-house to creating her own niche market law firm in a controversial and challenging business environment of Bolivia in South America. After completing Executive MBA from HEC Paris with specialization in finance end entrepreneurship her focus now is on development of financial and operational strategies for business growth. This episode on how to define a business vs. how to define a startup was fun to record and we hope you enjoy it, also. Anthony Verna: (00:02)All right. Welcome to the Law and Business podcast, the most blandly named podcast out there. With me today is Polina Chtchelok. Polina, how you doing?Polina Chtchelok:I’m good, and you? Anthony Verna:I’m well. How badly did I butcher your last name?Polina Chtchelok:It was actually quite well. Anthony Verrna:All right. Oh, good. Okay. That's because your last name is Polish in nature. Polina Chtchelok:Russian. Anthony Verna:Russian, I’m sorry, I keep making that mistake. I grew up near our Lady of Czestochowa, which is I believe a Ukrainian saint. So anyway, I've learned a little bit about trying to figure out some of the Eastern Europe… Polina Chtchelok: (00:53)The region of my last name is Ukrainian Cossacks. Anthony Verrna: (00:58)Okay. Okay. So, all right. Thank you for the diversion. Uh, Paulina is an Australian lawyer and engineer. Speaking of a diversion. You started your career in the energy sector after having lived in five different countries, working on various investment and projects. Polina, you saw business opportunity due to lack of specific legal services. And you moved from working with in-house to creating your own niche market law firm in a controversial and challenging business environment in Bolivia, in South America. And then after completing your executive MBA from HEC Paris, with specialization in finance and entrepreneurship, your focus is now on development of financial and operational strategies for business growth. So welcome because law and business is exactly where you and I collide and intersect and thanks for being on today. Polina Chtchelok:Oh, thank you for having me here. Anthony Verna:Hey, so we're going to talk a little bit about what you think of as an ongoing concern for a business versus a startup. And hopefully our listeners can take away some ideas for thinking about if you're a startup out there thinking about taking your startup, what do I need to do to be an ongoing business concern? Polina Chtchelok: (02:14)It's a very complex subject, and it's a very current subject because as you know, with COVID-19, there's a lot of businesses being impacted. You have to shut down, but at the same time, COVID-19 accelerated in entrepreneurship. It's accelerated creation of startups. Its accelerated people being innovative and creative because of their restrictions they've been under. They had to think of new ways of doing a business, implement changes to keep the business afloat and, and even the current customers, they change their habits. And you had to adjust to these changes in the habits of your customers. Anthony Verna: (03:06)I completely agree. And we see that as well. We're seeing a lot more trademark applications come through the door. We're seeing a lot of patent application inquiries, and a lot of people trying to figure out if their invention is something that they want to invest the time and the money to get a patent application. And, that really begins one of the thoughts, like how much have you invested of your own money in your business? Polina Chtchelok: (03:35)Well, before we get into this point in terms of how much we invest,
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Law and Business Podcast Episode 60 – with Polina Chtchelok – How to Define a Business vs. a Startup
Coming aboard the "Law & Business" Podcast is Polina Chtchelok. Polina is an Australian lawyer and engineer. She started her career in the energy sector, where after having lived in 5 different countries and working on various investments and projects, she saw a business opportunity due to lack of specific legal services and she moved from working in-house to creating her own niche market law firm in a controversial and challenging business environment of Bolivia in South America. After completing Executive MBA from HEC Paris with specialization in finance end entrepreneurship her focus now is on development of financial and operational strategies for business growth. This episode on how to define a business vs. how to define a startup was fun to record and we hope you enjoy it, also. Anthony Verna: (00:02)All right. Welcome to the Law and Business podcast, the most blandly named podcast out there. With me today is Polina Chtchelok. Polina, how you doing?Polina Chtchelok:I’m good, and you? Anthony Verna:I’m well. How badly did I butcher your last name?Polina Chtchelok:It was actually quite well. Anthony Verrna:All right. Oh, good. Okay. That's because your last name is Polish in nature. Polina Chtchelok:Russian. Anthony Verna:Russian, I’m sorry, I keep making that mistake. I grew up near our Lady of Czestochowa, which is I believe a Ukrainian saint. So anyway, I've learned a little bit about trying to figure out some of the Eastern Europe… Polina Chtchelok: (00:53)The region of my last name is Ukrainian Cossacks. Anthony Verrna: (00:58)Okay. Okay. So, all right. Thank you for the diversion. Uh, Paulina is an Australian lawyer and engineer. Speaking of a diversion. You started your career in the energy sector after having lived in five different countries, working on various investment and projects. Polina, you saw business opportunity due to lack of specific legal services. And you moved from working with in-house to creating your own niche market law firm in a controversial and challenging business environment in Bolivia, in South America. And then after completing your executive MBA from HEC Paris, with specialization in finance and entrepreneurship, your focus is now on development of financial and operational strategies for business growth. So welcome because law and business is exactly where you and I collide and intersect and thanks for being on today. Polina Chtchelok:Oh, thank you for having me here. Anthony Verna:Hey, so we're going to talk a little bit about what you think of as an ongoing concern for a business versus a startup. And hopefully our listeners can take away some ideas for thinking about if you're a startup out there thinking about taking your startup, what do I need to do to be an ongoing business concern? Polina Chtchelok: (02:14)It's a very complex subject, and it's a very current subject because as you know, with COVID-19, there's a lot of businesses being impacted. You have to shut down, but at the same time, COVID-19 accelerated in entrepreneurship. It's accelerated creation of startups. Its accelerated people being innovative and creative because of their restrictions they've been under. They had to think of new ways of doing a business, implement changes to keep the business afloat and, and even the current customers, they change their habits. And you had to adjust to these changes in the habits of your customers. Anthony Verna: (03:06)I completely agree. And we see that as well. We're seeing a lot more trademark applications come through the door. We're seeing a lot of patent application inquiries, and a lot of people trying to figure out if their invention is something that they want to invest the time and the money to get a patent application. And, that really begins one of the thoughts, like how much have you invested of your own money in your business? Polina Chtchelok: (03:35)Well, before we get into this point in terms of how much we invest,