IAM1588 – CEO Helps Students Revolutionize the Education System to Achieve Professional Success

Guillermo Elizondo is a computer science engineer who has always been interested in creating an impact on society through technology. When he was only 17 years old, he developed his first online education app.

While attending college, he co-founded Territorium Life alongside Gerardo Saenz, a company pioneer in EdTech that revolutionized the education system to reflect the qualities and skills sought by the current job market. Territorium is an AI-powered skills cloud, which, through personalized learning experiences, helps the student to achieve professional success.

• CEO Story: Guillermo and his co-founder have been partners since high school, and then in college they founded Territorium. Both had been in a lot of social work and in order to focus on their business, both partners dropped out of college. Surprisingly, upon telling the university of their plan, they were offered that their project would be credited to their college, so they took a different approach to learning by building a simple platform for each student to take online.
• Business Service: Helping students to move from education to work. Creating a skill profile for the student. Online education.
• Secret Sauce: Data based on skills is making the transformation. The transitional platform.
• CEO Hack: Surround yourself with great people with more experience. Planning ahead.
• CEO Nugget: Have a strategic plan for your life. Organizing everything, and that your family and work are a part of it.
• CEO Defined: Finding a set of people to work for you, more skilled than you and with values. Chief of HR. Making sure these great people have the set of tools needed.

Website: territorium.com

Linkedin: memoelizondo

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Transcription

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00:28 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share precisely the information you're searching for. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:56 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today, Avieremo Elizondo of Territorium Life. Guillermo, it's great to have you on the show.

01:07 – Guillermo Elizondo

Thank you, Gresham, Very happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

01:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. Super excited to have you on the show and talk about all the awesome things that you're doing. Of course, before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Yermo so you care about all those awesome things Yermo is a computer science engineer who has always been interested in creating an an impact on society through technology. When he was only 17 years old, he developed his first online education app.

While attending college, he co-founded Territorium Life alongside Gerardo Signs, a company pioneer in edtech that revolutionized the education system to reflect the qualities and skills sought by the current job market. Territorium is an AI-powered skills cloud that through personalized learning experiences, helps the students to achieve professional success. Yermo's great again to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:00 – Guillermo Elizondo

Ready to speak to the I AM CEO community. Thank you.

02:03 – Gresham Harkless

All right, let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here, a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:10 – Guillermo Elizondo

Great, great. So, well, a little bit about the story of how I started the company with my co-founder. We were both in college, as you said. We had an initial company when we were in high school. When we were in high school, it was mostly around classroom collaboration. In those days, basically, we did not like the traditional LMSs or online platforms that were on the market and we wanted to create something simpler. Also, my co-founder and I were on a lot of social projects. We are from Mexico, so we went to low-income communities to teach kids English, also to teach them math, and teach them also software development, and coding. So we like it a lot.

We wanted to create something that helped to change the way people learn and we created that first company while being in high school. As building that company, we went into college, we were growing that company. As I said, it was mostly around an app for classroom collaboration. While we were growing the company, we were not going to classes because we started traveling. I started traveling around Mexico. I went a lot to Mexico City, so I was not going to classes. So one day I said to my co-founder, hey, we need to drop out.

That's the only way we can continue growing that company. He told me yes, which will drop out, which will focus on our company. So what happened is that that day I decided to go with my mother. Just as context here in Mexico, normally you still live with your parents while in college. You don't go away. So I went with my mother and I told her, hey mom, I'm thinking of dropping out. She told me in a pretty serious manner, hey if you drop out, forget about your last name. I was really, she was serious. She put all my stuff in my luggage. That night I slept at my co-founder's house.

I was thinking, hey, how can I finish college and at the same time continue building a company? So I thought, hey, I need a meeting with a college president. So we went to the college president. That university was already a customer for us on that initial project that we had from high school. I told him, hey Mr. President, we are thinking of dropping out. To my surprise, the president of the university told us, Kate, this university is transforming. I want to propose something different. What about if we give you credit for what you are doing in your business? It was great. I told him, hey, that's a great deal.

He told us, hey, you just need to document everything, work with your team, work with the academic staff on how you are going to show that you are developing the skills that you are supposed to develop while going to classes. What we did was we needed to create something just to put evidence in there so that someone could validate that evidence and then give us credit for college.

By doing that, we created a very simple platform in which Michael founder, and I were uploading stuff of things that we were doing in our business so that then teachers and professors could go in there and validate it and show that we were progressing on the Skills that we were supposed to develop on the learning outcomes of each of the courses. That's how we really created our product and that's how Territorium started because we found out it was very interesting.

We were developing something that was not a transcript with courses and grades, but really a skills profile of us. We started thinking, hey, this can help a lot of other students. Building a full profile based on skills, and then using that data to help them, to move them from education to work, understand which are their gaps, give them learning experience recommendations, and help universities and institutions, educational institutions, transform more into the skills-based approach. So that's basically how we started then the rest is history. We have now over 10 million users worldwide and we are growing our user base around the globe.

06:58 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely love that. I appreciate you sharing that so much. So I know we touched on a little bit upon, you know, Territorium Life and how you're serving your clients. Can you drill down a little bit more and tell us how it works, how you're making that impact for those, all those users that you've been able to impact?

07:13 – Guillermo Elizondo

Correct. So a lot of what we do and our focus as a company is helping students to move from education to work. So we're on the border between education and work. Basically what we do is instead of having that traditional transcript with courses and grades and credit hours, that don't tell us much about you, we're doing is creating a full profile of the student in which instead of saying, this student got a B In accounting 101, we say, hey, this student knows how to manage a P and L. This student understands about machines. So really it's creating a full profile of the students based on skills.

We call it the CLR, the Comprehensive Learner Record. But around that record, we start using the data to understand, hey, this student has these gaps in the skills required by the job market. This course can help the student improve their profile, and improve their probability of getting a job. On the other side, connecting the students to possible jobs to help them transition from education to work. That's basically what we do and that's how we help students.

We help institutions or educational institutions understand how they can help better their students get jobs and at the same time understand how they're progressing under learning based on skills, not on grades. Finally, also helps employers to take a look at profiles of students that might have the required skills so that they can take the jobs that they are posting.

08:46 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. So would you consider. What would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce? It could be for yourself, the organization, or a combination of both. But I almost wonder if that data piece that you spoke on and being able to kind of streamline that and kind of bring all those things together, do you think that's part of your secret sauce?

09:06- Guillermo Elizondo

Yeah, I will say our secret sauce accompanying is really the data. As you said, the data based on skills is making that transformation. Universities, and educational institutions, are finding out now that they need to transform. In the future, universities will not be the same as they are today. We're at an inflection point in which we are providing a unique platform that helps them on that transformation, helps them on that transition. I will say we are the transitional platform. On our side is a very seamless, easy transition from the traditional transcript to a comprehensive learning record with skills. I think that's our secret sauce. I will say, as you said, the data, but also the seamless way in which we do that transformation.

10:02 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely love that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:14 – Guillermo Elizondo

That's a great question. I'm thinking about it. A lot of what has helped me through time is surrounding myself with great people with more experience than me. We started very young age and I have learned a lot from people. But I will say that something that helps me a lot myself, I'm being productive is really, you know, I even plan every single minute of my day. Normally I will start my days or I will say my weekdays, my weekends are. I try not to plan because it's nice to have some days that you don't plan anything and you just go with a wave. But normally, and that has helped me since I was very young, is like, hey, I start my day very early, five in the morning, started with some exercise, having healthy habits, because if you're not healthy, you will not have anything.

I learned that the bad way. Then planning like every single. I will say that minute, but hey, having these 15-minute slots, even hour slots of things that I will do, and everything is mapped back to these strategic points that I'm trying to move forward. So in that way, every time I plan or I plan my week, I'm very thoughtful of how I'm using my time and how I'm using, hey, these 30 minutes will be used for strategizing on this part.

Hey, these 50 minutes that I was thinking of doing this, that's something that someone else can do. So in that way, I'm very thoughtful and mindful of what I'm doing every day. That has helped me a lot through time. Maybe it sounds like I'm micromanaging myself, but it really helps me to move things forward.

12:29 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes so much sense. I believe, too, that a lot of times when you see people reach a certain level of success, you start to realize they do have that thoughtfulness, that mindfulness, and as much of the day as they can, every single minute, if at all possible.

12:44 – Guillermo Elizondo

As with everything in life, there are important things in life, right? Your family, your health, your job. But plan everything around that. Like, hey, if you have a strategic plan for your life, everything should have a piece in that, and everyone, every stakeholder should also have a piece of that. Make your family part of what you're doing. Make your work part of your family in a certain way. So it's really organizing everything and that's also something important that has helped me to try through time.

13:17 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's so powerful. I love that you said that. That almost sounds like your nugget, the piece of advice that you might tell your younger business.

13:24 – Guillermo Elizondo

So, and the other part, I think it's also very important is how at the end, the things that you do, how do they map back to your values and the people you surround yourself with? In my case, I always say that, hey, there are three very important values for us. Hunger, the force of spirit and loyalty to people. When you have that, very clearly, you look for people who are very hungry and growing, just like you. In the second part, they have the force of spirit that they're able to do anything that's needed to achieve things and to make that hunger possible to get more. In the end, also, the loyalty to people is, hey, organizations come and go, but we are building teams for life.

14:10 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, Guillermo, now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping for different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So, Guillermo, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:21 – Guillermo Elizondo

For me, being a CEO is about really, I will say two things. One, finding a set of amazing people to work with you. People that have the skills, people that are good, that share your values, that want to move things forward, that even are more skilled than you in doing things and making sure that you are finding the right people. It might sound like hr, but really in the end being a CEO is being really the chief of HR. It's because you are pushing the company, you're finding the greatest people, you're pushing the values and that's number one.

Number two is making sure that all those great people that you have the tools have the things needed to make things move forward. Of course sharing with them the vision of the company, saying where you're going, what you want, and how the organization can grow. But I will say that those two things that I said are the most important things.

15:35 – Gresham Harkless

Well, Guillermo, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best people can get a hold of you. Find out about all the awesome things you entertain or work on.

15:52 – Guillermo Elizondo

If you want to be in touch with me, just shoot up an email, I think Gresham, you have my email. I will say it. Maybe it's not that easy. Is cg.elizondo@territorium.com however, maybe you can put it in writing someplace.

16:13 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. To make it even easier, we're going to have the links and information in the show notes too, so that people can reach out to you and contact you. Find out about all the awesome things that you're doing. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:23 – Guillermo Elizondo

Thank you very much, Gresham.

16:24 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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