September 2, 2025
Episode 227 – Dan Novaes – Standing at the Forefront of Innovation in Technology and Entrepreneurship
“I was naturally an entrepreneur at an early age, I didn’t even know what the word was at the time, but I was always right on the brink of mischievous and trying to push the boundaries.” – Dan Novaes
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- Dan Novaes is the CEO of Mode Mobile and creator of the EarnPhone. Mode Mobile is revolutionizing the mobile industry with its “Earn As You Go” software, enabling millions of users to turn daily smartphone habits into passive income.
- Under Dan’s leadership, Mode Mobile achieved 32,481% revenue growth (2019–2022), earned the #1 spot in software on Deloitte’s 2023 Technology Fast 500 List, and pioneered a fundraising model leveraging 30,000+ everyday investors. Now, they’re on a mission to reach 1 million shareholders while tackling a $1 trillion market opportunity.
- In this episode Patrick sits down with entrepreneur and visionary Dan Novaes, co-founder of Mode Mobile. Dan shares how a string of early failures led to the creation of the “EarnPhone” — a platform that transforms everyday screen time into real income — and how he hyper scaled the concept from $100K to $25M in just three years.
- The conversation dives into Mode Mobile’s evolving business model and ever-expanding opportunities to explore. Dan reflects on the challenges of building and restructuring teams, the importance of core values (AACCT), and the ways Mode Mobile has embedded recognition and feedback into its culture.
- From his curious and opportunistic entrepreneurial beginnings to his vision of taking Mode Mobile public, Dan opens up about leadership through turbulent times, leaning on mentors, and embracing accountability at the top. He also shares innovative ways for everyday users to become shareholders, including a first-of-its-kind points-for-shares option within the app.
- Packed with insights on resilience, innovation, and purpose-driven growth, this episode offers an inside look and important insights of what it takes to build a company, stay aligned with your values and bring relevant, forward-thinking solutions to a market that is ready for them!
- Show Notes
- [00:42] Patrick introduces his next TEDM guest Dan Novaes.
- [02:30] Dan and Patrick get rolling right into it with the premise behind Mode Mobile, making time spent on our mobile phones an income generating activity, and how to engage with their EarnPhone software.
- [05:08] Dan takes us back 12 years and shares the story of what inspired this technology innovation – essentially a series of failures that started with an app builder idea and landed on the EarnPhone concept. A concept that built and hyper scaled from $100K to $25M in 3 years.
- [09:27] Business model: Dan explains how they bring money in to monetize their product and pay money out to their users. Advertising has played a big part and now they’re expanding to differentiate and diversify their model. Shifting away from hardware and spending more time in the software sandbox provides them a more profitable way forward.
- [14:05] Android is the primary platform as their offering tends to attract a more budget conscious customer, and the operating system has traditionally been more congruent with Android. They are seeing an opportunity to branch out into the IOS landscape and thinking about product offerings that are captivating to that cohort.
- [16:04] Building a team isn’t always easy. Dan explains the ups and downs over the past 10 years of building a team in a volatile landscape. He provides an example of the model he’s interested in to structure their team to be scalable and successful.
- [20:43] Entrepreneurial at the core, Dan started his journey at an early age pushing boundaries, not in a nefarious spirit, rather and opportunistic one. The hard reality of paycheque and taxes came with his first job to earn money for a car sound system that left him disenchanted to say the least. He recounts the story of how he turned that deflated realization into an idea to use his employee discount for gain.
- [25:26] The art of entrepreneurialism was not from his parents; but they were strong supporters who gave Dan a lot of leeway, arguably more than he should have had in retrospect, and he was able to have the many experiences that shaped his journey. Dan explores the nature vs nurture concept and where he’s observed and experienced both.
- [29:17] A visionary leader, Dan has built a team rooted in core values. Tumultuous times demanded a close look at what those values were to identify how they would forge ahead. Values have evolved along with the company, and they have cultivated a more aligned and relevant team, who play to their strengths.
- [33:17] Dan shares a few nuggets and insights around their core values (AACCT) with the way they’ve enacted and embraced these values in their culture, not simply a few nice words in a handbook. Dan provides a great tool they use to recognize employees. Feedback and improvements are now embedded into their core operating system as a company.
- [40:02] Future vision. With rising credit card debt, and the pressures of inflation Dan sees a high demand for what they’re offering at Mode Mobile. The goal is to keep expanding the business model and take it public in the next couple of years. Loyalty, innovation and value add are at the forefront of Dan’s vision.
- [45:17] Dan explains the ways to buy shares in Mode Mobile – one is through crowd funding with a minimum $999.90 investment up to $250K. No funds? No problem. They have introduced a first ever opportunity through their app with a points-for-shares offering and yet another option to claim free shares.
- [47:44] Technology against the world. Does Dan share a similar entrepreneurial archetype to a Steve Jobs or an Elon Musk type?
- [51:48] Leadership and mentorship. Dan brings us in to how he approached leadership during the company’s dark times 3 years ago, recognizing self awareness and transparency would be essential. When he identifies tools that need to be sharpened or a mindset that needs to be broadened, Dan wastes no time seeking the support of mentors and coaches.
- [57:04] Accountability starts and stops with the CEO. Dan feels the job of a CEO or founder is to find their blind spots or hire someone to bring them out and develop a culture of candor within the leadership team.
- [59:09] Challenging times have presented opportunities to gain intensive, concentrated learning and while he wouldn’t want to go through them again, Dan is grateful for the experience.
- Well, Mother Nature took the reigns on this interview and provided the final bow on this episode. Thanks Dan and Patrick!
- Connect with Dan
- Earn with Mode
- Selected links and people mentioned from this episode:
- Mode Mobile
- Bonusly
- Crowd funding with Mode Mobile
- Connect with REIN Canada
- REIN Canada
- CEO@reincanada.com
- REIN Channel
- X
