We hear a lot about building a community and creating startup ecosystems, but what does that really look like? Our guest today, Brendan King, Co-Founder and CEO of Vendasta has built both a community-focused platform and has helped build the startup ecosystem in Western Canada. Vendasta helps small and medium businesses create SaaS offerings by combining best-of-breed software vendors and the expertise of local media companies.
About Brendan King:
Before founding Vendasta in 2008, Brendan served as COO and a Director of Point2 Realty solutions, growing its membership to over 165,000 agents and brokers in 85 countries. In 2007, he was named one of the '100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders' by Inman News. Prior to that he founded and sold two successful computer retailing operations and also worked for Cameco Corporation as a Geophysicist. Brendan holds an Advanced Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the University of Saskatchewan.
In this episode we discuss:
01:31 Brendan’s career journey
04:39 Lessons he learned that gave him grit and stick-to-itiveness
05:48 Why he and Vendasta are focused on the SMB segment
07:15 How Vendasta helps serve SMB with a three-sided marketplace
10:15 Pain points Vendasta addresses for SMB
12:56 The mistakes he made and how they can solve problems for time-starved businesses
14:28 Helping build a startup ecosystem in Western Canada
16:51 The way Vendasta is adjusting to remote work
19:50 Why resuburbanization is a trend moving forward
21:52 How remote work is exposing Vendasta to stronger recruiting competition
23:40 What Canadian investors can do to further accelerate the startup scene across the country
28:02 What government in Canada has done to support Vendasta
31:16 The decision of when to go public
34:53 What other communities around the globe can do to jumpstart a startup ecosystem
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Vendasta CEO Brendan King on Building a Vibrant Tech Ecosystem for Small Businesses