JOSH GARELLEK
Entrepreneur. CEO. Realist.
About Me
I grew up in Montreal, Canada, a city known for being a hub for the arts and creativity. As a child, I attended a Jewish private school in Montreal, Canada. This was before the advent of Montessori schools for children with extreme ADHD, so I was never the best student and didn’t excel in the typical school system. After high school I studied abroad in Israel for a year. During this time, I broke out of my shell and transformed into the person I wanted to be. However, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I soon started studying at Concordia University, majoring on Psychology. I realized Montreal wasn’t for me and craved independence, so I transferred to Yeshiva University in New York. This is where my entrepreneurial journey really started where I found the freedom and independence to work on what inspires me.While studying in NYC, I worked as a bartender, waiter, and maitre d’, jobs that taught me valuable lessons that have benefited me on my entrepreneurial journey. I firmly believe that anyone looking to take the entrepreneurial plunge should spend at least 6-12 months in the food service industry. It will prepare you for most situations with customers and clients. I moved back to Montreal after graduation and started working with a small biotech company in the green cleaning space that specialized in using microbes to clean. After a few years, I decided to go solo and started a small e-commerce business selling crystals and healing stones. There were a few other failed business attempts along the way but that’s a story for another time.I quickly realized I needed support and knowledge so I took a job at an internet marketing and advertising company. I worked with some of the largest websites on the internet and tested innovative ideas to push the boundaries. After spending a few years in the corporate world learning all the skills I needed to start my own business, I decided to strike out on my own and founded Arctic Empire, a small independent game development company. I soon realized that I didn’t enjoy game development and was more interested in traditional marketing and selling. I shied away from sales at the beginning of my career, but then I discovered that I had talent. I doubled down on this and started to focus, which is what resulted in growth.I cannot stress the idea of focus enough. It is extremely challenging for an entrepreneur with ADHD and a passion for starting new projects. This is the one skill they don’t teach you at school. It is what you focus on that expands. I can confirm the importance of focus in every aspect of my life. Family life gets better. Relationships and friendships improve. Diet and exercise makes you healthier. This is also true even for bad habits.
My Work
The road to success isn’t an easy one, but you have to be willing to do difficult things and be fearless. There will be obstacles along the way, and you have to embrace the hardships to get the rewards. Over the years I’ve started a lot of projects, some have taken off, while others are, let’s say, learning experiences. Here’s my journey with all of its ups and downs.
ARCTIC LEAF
Arctic Leaf is my baby and has been my glue for 12 years. What started as a simple idea of building a social game back when Farmville was popular has turned into a full service design and development agency with over 70 staff, servicing multimillion- and multibillion-dollar brands. In 2015, I met my business partner Jon Coy, who was running a small agency called NewLeaf. Jon and I collaborated on a project and we realized we were each other's yin and yang. In July 2017, Jon flew to Canada and we put together a plan on how to move forward together as one company. Since then we have tripled in size, and have been able to support some amazing brands along the way.I faced many challenges along the way. While I was able to bootstrap my current company and show positive growth and earnings, I experienced immense pressure. I was constantly traveling, so my personal life took a hit as I was never home and was always tired and stressed. In September 2018 I stepped away from the company and took my life back. This was one of the hardest decisions I had to make as I had put thousands of hours- and hundreds of thousands of dollars - into the company. The company is something I am very proud of and a testament to what can be built with hard work but it came at an enormous personal cost. Nevertheless, it was an important learning experience and I have a lot of insight into what not to do with a company and plenty of valuable advice to give.
PARTNERPORTAL.IO (Acquired by Relevize)
PartnerPortal was born out of a need within Arctic Leaf. We found that there was no good way to track partner referrals, as well as details and leads from partners. We started the company in 2019. Since then it has successfully completed a funding round and is continuing to grow organically in the partner space as a modern partner enablement platform.
JUSTADDCANNABIS
Just Add Cannabis is one of my latest projects, a brownie mix that allows the consumer to add their own THC and CBD. JAC addresses a common issue when baking cannabis products, which is an uneven dosage with each bite. The proprietary technology in the mix evenly distributes the THC and CBD so that there is consistent dosage per piece and across the brownie mix.
NORDIK LEAF
After cannabis legalization in Canada, I invested in a number of early-stage cannabis startups in 2017/2018. Nodrik Leaf was destined to be a 250k Sqft licenced cannabis producer. During this process, I partnered with a group to bring a grow house to market. Unfortunately, we were never able to gain enough traction and sold the company in 2019.
Thank You
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