Thank you Rev. Evelyn Bourne (Ambilike), Rich Dornisch, and many others for tuning into my live video with Margaret Williams, MS, ACC! Join me for my next live video in the app.
The Empowered Leader is a video podcast for high-performing professionals doing the real work of leadership in seasons of transition, disruption, and transformation. Each episode brings bold insight and honest conversation to help you lead with Vision, Agility, and Mastery.
This episode features Khalil Jezini, founder of Kornerz Social Network, in a conversation originally recorded live with Margaret Williams, MS, ACC. What begins as a casual chat about tech glitches and dogs quickly unfolds into a deep look at resilience, calling, and what it really takes to build something that matters.
The Empowered Leader: From Wakeboarder To Founder
How Khalil Jezini built Kornerz Social Network on grit, faith, and genuine connection
Meet Khalil: Athlete, Entrepreneur, Connector
Khalil calls himself “an entrepreneur since I can remember.”
Born and raised in Manaus, the capital of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, he grew up on skateboards and soccer fields, then moved into wakeboarding and high-performance sport. For him, that was the first training ground for business.
“Being an entrepreneur, being an athlete, being a human being. They all have the same challenges, just in different frameworks.”
Sports taught him:
Grit
Risk mitigation
Planning and teamwork
How to fall, get hurt, and still get back up
At 15, he moved to Texas as a high school exchange student. His nickname was simply “Brazil.” From there he earned a degree in Business Administration and later a MBA, then opened his first business at 17: a motorcycle dealership with his brother.
“We were a year apart. He was great with numbers. I was great with people. We complemented each other.”
Their partnership became his first real classroom in entrepreneurship.
From Motorcycles To The Creator Economy
In 2013, Khalil and his brother decided to “go to the internet.”
They built a matchmaking platform connecting brands with creators on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and early digital spaces. This was long before “creator economy” became a buzzword.
“We used to call them bloggers and opinion leaders. We had to explain to brands why they needed to partner with creators. Substack wasn’t even close to what it is today.”
The platform grew fast.
Thousands of creators on one side
Brands from Brazil, France, Germany and beyond on the other
Significant funding
A 30-person team
By working so closely with creators, brands, and everyday users, Khalil saw the backstage of social media:
the complaints, the pressure, the misalignment between what users actually needed and what platforms were designed to do.
That friction became the seed of something new.
The Birth Of Kornerz: A Different Kind Of Social Network
When COVID hit, everything froze. Events paused. Budgets stalled. The business had to pivot.
Khalil realized something simple and personal.
“I love philosophy. I might be reading Freud or Plato and think, ‘I wish I had someone to talk about this with.’ But my friends weren’t into it. I knew someone, somewhere in the world, was doing the same thing. Reading alone and wishing for a real conversation.”
He looked at existing platforms.
Instagram. YouTube. TikTok.
They are powerful engines for business and reach, but not built for deep, interest-based connection.
So he asked:
What if there were a place where you could walk into a “room” and immediately find people who care about what you care about?
Business.
Well-being.
Philosophy.
Economy.
Growth.
That question became Kornerz Social Network.
“Kornerz is not about doing things better than Instagram or Substack. It is about being different. Our value proposition is connection. User first.”
Kornerz is designed as:
A user-centric social network
Focused on small-group video conversations
Built around themes, interests, and genuine dialogue
A place for people who are tired of shouting into the void and scrolling past noise
Khalil calls it a classic David vs. Goliath story. The challenge is huge. But the feedback is powerful.
He has watched adults cry in Kornerz sessions.
“We asked them, ‘Why did you come to Kornerz? Why did you come back?’
They said, ‘I found what I was looking for. I just wanted to connect with other people.’”
How Rich Joined The Story
At one point, Khalil began reaching out on LinkedIn, searching for people who might resonate with his vision.
One of those messages went to Rich Dornisch.
“I sent him the app, asked for feedback. He joined a session. Then another. Those feedback calls turned into meetings. The meetings turned into collaborations. The collaborations became partnership.”
Eventually, Khalil made it official.
“I told him, ‘We need someone like you. With your experience and background. We can’t pay in cash, we’re early-stage. But we can pay in equity. Would you like to join us?’
Right there, he said: ‘I want to be part of this legacy.’”
Nine months later, they are co-founders building Kornerz together.
The Founder Mindset: No Plan B, Only Iteration
Khalil’s philosophy on entrepreneurship is blunt.
He sees it like high-level sport:
Everyone wants the NBA
Few are willing to shoot the same shot thousands of times
You will win some days and feel like you need a job the next day
He once told an investor, half-joking, “I must be stupid because my life is a roller coaster. One day I think, ‘I made it.’ The next I think, ‘I need to look for a job.’”
The investor’s reply: “Buckle up. That is entrepreneurship.”
Khalil’s framework:
Love what you do
If you do it only for money, fame, or status, you will not have the endurance for the pain and uncertainty.Be willing to get hurt, again and again
As an athlete he tore a ligament in his ankle trying a complex wakeboard trick. It forced him back to the basics. In business, “sprained ankles” look like failed experiments, painful pivots, or funding gaps.Plan, Do, Check, Act
He lives inside a constant loop:Plan the next step.
Do it.
Check results with real data and real users.
Act on what you learned.
Iterate, do not rush
“Most companies don’t die of competition. They die of suicide. Impatience. Pouring money into a product that is not ready. Trying to rush what still needs time.”
No plan B
This is where he gets very clear.
“For me, high performance requires going all in. Michael Jordan. Michael Phelps. Steve Jobs. They did not have a plan B. Failure was not an option.
If I had a plan B, part of my mind would already be preparing to quit. So my mindset is: it’s this. Or this. I will pivot inside the vision, but I will not walk away from it.”
He is not talking about being stubborn. He is talking about being relentless while still willing to admit when something is wrong and needs to change.
“I go back to my team, my investors, my users and say, ‘I was wrong. Let’s reverse, fix it, and find another way.’ That is part of the job.”
Authenticity, Boundaries, And Haters
As you grow, you attract attention. Not all of it kind.
Margaret raised the reality: as leaders rise, circles shrink. People project their fears, insecurities, and expectations.
Khalil’s answer: authenticity or nothing.
“If you are not authentic, you become a dog chasing your own tail. You act one way in one room, another way in another room. Then the environment controls you.
If someone talks trash about my hair, I am fine. I wear my hair this way because I love it. Not to perform for others.”
Authenticity, for him, is freedom. It keeps him grounded through praise and criticism.
Margaret adds the leadership edge:
People pleasing has to end.
You will trigger people who are not ready to hear truth.
Numbers matter less than integrity and impact.
What people remember is not every word you said. They remember how you made them feel.
How To Choose Advisors When Everyone Has An Opinion
Both in sports and business, everyone has advice. Coaches, investors, friends, other founders.
Khalil is clear about the limits.
“A coach on the sidelines can say, ‘Move your arm like this. Shoot like that.’
But only the player feels the weight of the ball and the speed of the game. It is the same in business. My investors get a monthly report and a one-hour meeting. They do not see everything I see.”
So he listens. Takes notes. Reflects. Then decides.
Some advice will be perfect for his current stage.
Some will be wrong for his product or timing.
His job is to filter, not obey.
“If you show your plan to ten people, you will get ten different answers. None of them have all the inputs you have as the founder. You have to own the final call.”
Planning Like A Wakeboarder
Khalil gave one of the clearest metaphors for planning from his days as a professional wakeboarder.
There was a trick he loved: a backflip with a cork 360. He decided one day he would land it.
So he broke it down:
First, learn to jump straight with control.
Then master the backflip.
Then master a 180.
Then master a full 360.
Only then combine everything into one move.
In business, he did the same with Kornerz.
Before writing a line of code:
He and the team interviewed people all over the world.
They asked what people loved and hated about current platforms.
They asked what was missing and what they wished existed.
Then, still without code, they ran proof-of-concept sessions on Zoom.
“We would invite people to a Zoom room and say, ‘Tomorrow at 7 p.m., we are talking about philosophy.’ These strangers would show up, we would put them in small breakout rooms, and they would come out saying, ‘I want more of this.’ That was our signal.”
Only after that did they build the minimum viable product.
Not pretty. Not perfect.
Just enough to deliver that same feeling through an app instead of Zoom links.
Then back to the loop: Plan, Do, Check, Act.
That is how he thinks about planning:
Have a North Star.
Break it into smaller moves.
Validate reality at every step.
Expect the path to twist, not run in a straight line.
Leadership, Faith, And Being Your Best Version
Near the end of the conversation, Margaret asked him what he would say to people still trying to discover their gifts and place in the world.
Khalil answered with something he calls an epiphany from 2015.
“I realized I am not here to compete with anyone. I received a gift. The gift of life.
I could have been born anywhere in the world. I was born in the Amazon rainforest to Jefferson and Ana Maria. So based on everything life has given me, I asked a simple question:
Am I giving my best back? Am I being the best version I can be?”
That question changed his life.
It led him to dive deep into spiritual texts, not as dogma, but as history and leadership lessons. He read:
The Bible
The Quran
The Bhagavad Gita
What he found in common: powerful examples of leadership, forgiveness, and service.
Three principles guide him now:
Love your neighbor as yourself
Treat others as you would treat yourself. Help for the sake of helping, not for what you can get back.Forgive freely
Hold less resentment. People often “know not what they do.”We are all in this together
He sees humanity as one system. Remove any one person, and the world is different.
“If you take Margaret out of the equation, the world is no longer the same, because there is no Margaret in it. That matters.”
Margaret resonates. She shares that she grew up with religion used to control and manipulate, yet still holds onto spiritual principles. They meet in that middle: grounded, spiritual, not performative.
Final Message To Founders And Leaders
If you are at the start of your entrepreneurial journey, or in a messy middle, here is Khalil’s distilled advice:
Find what you truly love
You will not survive the pain and uncertainty if the work itself does not feed you.Surround yourself with real people
Entrepreneurship is not an individual sport. The highest performers are always surrounded by great teammates, mentors, and sounding boards.Expect the roller coaster
Some days you will feel unstoppable. The next day you will be pricing out job listings. This does not mean you are failing. It means you are building.Be patient and refuse to quit
Most businesses die not from competition, but from impatience and self-sabotage.Be authentic, even when it costs you
Living for approval is a slow death. Build from your truth. The right people will stay. The wrong ones will exit.Remember your gift
You are alive. You are here. The only real question is whether you are honoring that gift with your effort, your courage, and your willingness to grow.
“The only thing I promise my co-founders is this. We are going to make it. I do not know how long it will take. I do not know how many times we will pivot. But I know this. I am not giving up.”
That is the heart of The Empowered Leader. Not perfection. Not certainty. Just a deep, ongoing decision to show up and give your best, again and again.
This post is adapted from a live video conversation between Margaret Williams, MS, ACC and Khalil Jezini, founder of Kornerz Social Network, on The Empowered Leader video podcast.
