Eric Arnold is no stranger to failure. In fact, he failed out of college, got fired from two companies, failed at nine different startup ventures and lost everything on a bad investment.
In this episode, Diana Britton speaks with Eric Arnold, CEO of Planswell, about how he has learned from those failures and has been given a second chance with the firm.
Toronto-based Planswell, which was founded in 2015, was humming by late 2019 and was in the middle of another funding round. Then accusations of sexual harassment within the company ranks surfaced, and investors pulled out of that funding round. Arnold had to fold up shop, with some 60 employees losing their jobs.
But in 2020, he had the opportunity to buy the Planswell brand, and he retooled the software to work with retail financial advisors.
In this episode, Arnold opens up about the ordeal, which turned into a social media storm about how he and his firm reacted to the accusations.
Planswell CEO Eric Arnold
Eric discusses:
- How his early experiences in life shaped his entrepreneurial drive;
- How a car accident that occurred when he was 17 years old, killing his father, grandmother and family dog, impacted his life and family;
- The journey that led him to start Planswell;
- How the allegations of sexual harassment at Planswell impacted the company and its funding;
- How he would have approached the situation differently; and
- How he is doing things differently at Planswell today.
If you have a struggle and wish to share your experiences and help others in similar situations, please reach out to Diana at [email protected].
The Transparency with Diana B. podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, Spotify and wherever podcasts are found.
