In this exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Vickram Agarwal, visionary entrepreneur and founder of S1:E2, shares his groundbreaking approach to bridging the gap between strategy and execution for small and medium-sized businesses. With a career that spans global brands and diverse industries, Vickram brings a hands-on, dynamic methodology that goes beyond traditional consulting. His passion lies in rolling up his sleeves alongside founders and leaders to deliver real, measurable growth—helping businesses transform fragmented digital ecosystems into cohesive, revenue-driving engines. From refining customer acquisition to building in-house expertise, Vickram’s insights illuminate how Canadian SMBs can build sustainable momentum in uncertain markets. This conversation offers invaluable lessons for entrepreneurs ready to turn strategy into action and write their next chapter of success.
Vickram Agarwal is a visionary entrepreneur, blending digital innovation with bold leadership to create and scale successful ventures. His career spans industries and continents, from working with global brands to founding companies built on transformation and growth.
S1:E2 positions itself as a catalyst for businesses ready to scale, focusing on bridging the gap between strategy and execution. What inspired you to launch S1:E2, and how does your approach differ from traditional consultancies in supporting small and medium-sized businesses?
S1:E2 was born out of a frustration I kept seeing over and over – strategy getting stuck in slide decks and never making it to execution. I’ve worked with global brands and bootstrapped startups, and the pattern is the same: businesses know what needs to be done, but they struggle with how to do it, and more importantly, how to sustain it.
What makes S1:E2 different is that we don’t just stop at strategy. If you stop at strategy, which many consultancies do, then you don’t get the real-world “feel” of how those strategies play out. It’s like the difference between driving a manual versus an automatic transmission car. In a manual, you feel the engine, the road, and the momentum. it’s responsive and dynamic. In an automatic, you’re relying on an onboard computer to make those calls. At S1:E2, we prefer the manual approach – we stay close to the ground, engaged in real-time, with constant feedback.
We partner with founders, owners, and senior leaders to roll up our sleeves and execute. We focus on growth – real, measurable, bottom-line results. That means helping our clients build systems, drive customer acquisition, and scale in ways that make sense for where they are in their journey. Traditional consultancies often give you the plan and walk away. We stay and help build the engine.
Many SMEs struggle with scaling due to execution gaps and adapting to new technologies. Can you share a real-world example where S1:E2 helped a client overcome these challenges, and what were the key factors behind their success?
We worked with an Ontario based financial services client who was spending more than they should have to acquire leads – and not seeing any lift in quality. Their digital infrastructure was fragmented, and the attribution model they were using didn’t reflect what was actually driving business.
As part of their lead acquisition strategy, we identified an opportunity to communicate with ethnic communities using their language. That move helped us drive down lead acquisition costs significantly. But once those leads came in, we saw a new challenge – low response rates. That then led us to build and execute a strategy to improve contact and conversion rates. This is the S1:E2 way: we stay focused on core business objectives like customer acquisition and revenue generation. Strategies evolve through execution feedback loops. We don’t stop because we’ve delivered the strategy – we iterate until we get the outcome.
In the same engagement, we also tied together a fragmented digital ecosystem. Vendors were working in silos… SEO here, paid social there, email in another corner – with no line of sight to what was actually moving the needle. We restructured their paid media, implemented a clearer attribution model, and aligned everyone on business goals. When you shift the conversation from metrics like web traffic and follower counts to revenue and cost per acquisition, it becomes easier to make spending decisions. Suddenly, spending more on your website isn’t an expense, it’s a path to making more money.
Your experience spans global brands and multiple industries, from automotive to financial services. How have these diverse insights shaped your methodology for helping Canadian SMBs achieve sustainable growth and resilience?
I’ve worked in Dubai and Toronto, but my client base has included businesses across the Middle East, UK, USA, and Canada. The environments differ, but the fundamentals stay the same: growth only happens when strategy and execution are aligned.
Canadian SMBs are incredibly resourceful, but they often face real constraints – time, people, budget. I bring the structure and discipline I learned from working with large organizations and apply it in a way that’s flexible and fit-for-purpose.
One of the biggest gaps I’ve seen is fragmentation. Digital ecosystems are full of specialists – SEO, SEM, social, content, analytics. All speaking different languages. What we do at S1:E2 is stitch all of this together. We tie execution back to business goals and build attribution models that connect measures to money. Once a client sees how $1 spent leads to $X earned, decisions get easier and growth gets clearer.
S1:E2 emphasizes building client-side centers of expertise, enabling businesses to rely more on in-house capabilities. What are the most common hurdles you see when helping organizations make this shift, and how do you guide them through the transition?
The biggest challenge is confidence. A lot of teams have the right people, but they just don’t have the right support, structure, or clarity. Businesses default to outsourcing because they don’t believe they can do it themselves, or they’ve never been shown how.
We work with our clients to co-build the systems and playbooks they need, and more importantly, we teach them how to use them. We embed learning into the doing. That means getting in the trenches with internal teams, training them on how to think strategically, and giving them the tools to run with it.
It’s not a quick fix, but it’s the kind of shift that pays off over time. When teams own the process, the wins are more meaningful and more sustainable.
Finally, what advice would you offer to small and medium-sized business leaders who are navigating uncertainty and looking to write the next chapter in their growth story?
You don’t need to do everything at once, but you do need to do the right things consistently. Growth isn’t about big, flashy moves. It’s about building momentum over time. I like to think of it like a flywheel: it takes a lot of effort to get it going, but once it starts spinning, the energy sustains itself.
Focus on the fundamentals. Know your customer. Get clear on your goals. Build systems that support execution, not just intention. And surround yourself with people who bring clarity, not complexity.
Most importantly, carve out time to think. In the early stages, you’re stuck in doing-mode. But real growth happens when you create space to zoom out, spot patterns, and make deliberate decisions.
Stay focused, build your flywheel, and let that momentum carry you into the next chapter.
