{"id":5742,"date":"2023-10-20T12:26:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/?p=5742"},"modified":"2025-03-03T14:17:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T19:17:32","slug":"launch-visits-knak-hq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/2023\/launch-visits-knak-hq\/","title":{"rendered":"Launch Visits\u00a0Knak\u00a0HQ\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Launch Visits\u00a0Knak\u00a0HQ\u00a0\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/IMG_1123-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Launch participants with Pierce\" class=\"wp-image-5744\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal x_ContentPasted0\">The Launch program has kicked off successfully this fall. Student founders in Launch have had the chance each week to connect and learn from successful entrepreneurs to help the students grow their businesses. Recently, the Launch group visited&nbsp;<span class=\"markjwspj02yd\" data-markjs=\"true\" data-ogac=\"\" data-ogab=\"\" data-ogsc=\"\" data-ogsb=\"\">Knak<\/span>, a startup from Ottawa. Founder and CEO Pierce Ujjainwalla welcomed students into the&nbsp;<span class=\"markjwspj02yd\" data-markjs=\"true\" data-ogac=\"\" data-ogab=\"\" data-ogsc=\"\" data-ogsb=\"\">Knak<\/span>&nbsp;HQ on Prince of Wales Drive to share his experiences starting and growing his own successful business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal x_ContentPasted0\">Pierce was inspired to start his own company when he noticed room for improvement in his experience in email marketing. Since starting&nbsp;<span class=\"markjwspj02yd\" data-markjs=\"true\" data-ogac=\"\" data-ogab=\"\" data-ogsc=\"\" data-ogsb=\"\">Knak<\/span>&nbsp;in 2015, the company acquired thousands of users and raised 25 million dollars in funding. Pierce highlighted that in his journey he took many small steps that eventually led to his business in a way that ensured him and his cofounders financial security and work-life balance. He says, \u201cyou want to be all-in with your business, but you can start small and test it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal x_ContentPasted0\">Students in Launch had the opportunity to learn from Pierce and discuss their own challenges and triumphs in their businesses, learning from Pierce\u2019s experience. The group discussed valuating a company, choosing between venture capitalists and angel investors, and finding the right timing for business decisions. Pierce emphasized how helpful it was having cofounders as starting a business is a lonely job, and it helps to have people equally as committed. The students finished their visit with a tour of the&nbsp;<span class=\"markjwspj02yd\" data-markjs=\"true\" data-ogac=\"\" data-ogab=\"\" data-ogsc=\"\" data-ogsb=\"\">Knak<\/span>&nbsp;HQ which inspired many to see how their company could grow, too. Pierce left the students with his biggest piece of advice for decision-making in a business, \u201cdo the best you can with the information you have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"5745\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/IMG_1106-scaled.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-5745\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"5747\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/IMG_1100-scaled.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-5747\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"5749\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/IMG_1119-scaled.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-5749\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"5743\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/IMG_1118-scaled.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-5743\"\/><\/figure><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Launch program has kicked off successfully this fall. Student founders in Launch have had the chance each week to connect and learn from successful entrepreneurs to help the students grow their businesses. Recently, the Launch group visited&nbsp;Knak, a startup from Ottawa. Founder and CEO Pierce Ujjainwalla welcomed students into the&nbsp;Knak&nbsp;HQ on Prince of Wales [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-stories"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5742"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5756,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5742\/revisions\/5756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}