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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_01: Hello, this is Robert Smile, come to today with Canada's podcast where we talk to
[00:09] SPEAKER_01: our entrepreneurs who are making it here, happen here at British Columbia, Canada.
[00:13] SPEAKER_01: As co-founder of Vancouver-based real estate software company Spark, Simian Garrett has
[00:19] SPEAKER_01: been responsible for lending some of Spark's top real estate clients in North America.
[00:24] SPEAKER_01: Years of living abroad in Asia and building his experience in the real estate industry,
[00:29] SPEAKER_01: fueled his ultimate vision to transform and streamline how new developments are managed
[00:35] SPEAKER_01: and sold with an extensive background in selling and marketing property.
[00:41] SPEAKER_01: Simian has been involved in the sales of over 1,000 homes internationally, which helped
[00:47] SPEAKER_01: bring Spark into more than 80 cities worldwide.
[00:52] SPEAKER_01: Well, Simian, welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:55] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for taking the time today to be here for all our listeners.
[00:58] SPEAKER_01: Of course, thanks for having me.
[01:00] SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's get started here.
[01:02] SPEAKER_01: I want you to tell us a little bit more about yourself.
[01:04] SPEAKER_01: Are you from Vancouver, British Columbia and give us the details on your current business?
[01:09] SPEAKER_00: Sure. Yeah, I know I was actually born in Toronto, but when I was about six months old,
[01:14] SPEAKER_00: I actually moved to Asia because my family was living and working there.
[01:17] SPEAKER_00: So they flew back to Toronto, had me as a kid, and then moved back to Asia, essentially, to China,
[01:23] SPEAKER_00: where I spent the next 16 years of my life, essentially.
[01:26] SPEAKER_00: So I spent most of my life in mainland China, Hong Kong, and then for high school,
[01:31] SPEAKER_00: I actually went to Malaysia. I was in a boarding school in a city called Penang.
[01:35] SPEAKER_01: Do you speak Cantonese or Mandarin?
[01:37] SPEAKER_00: When I was really young, I spoke Cantonese because I was in sort of junior,
[01:40] SPEAKER_00: senior kindergarten in Hong Kong, and then I moved up to Northern China, where I
[01:43] SPEAKER_00: pretty much transitioned almost completely to Mandarin.
[01:46] Speaker UNKNOWN:
[01:47] SPEAKER_01: So you can speak both.
[01:48] SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
[01:49] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
[01:51] SPEAKER_01: That's got to help in Vancouver, huh?
[01:53] SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's kind of how I got into all of this is I was living and working in China
[01:57] SPEAKER_00: after university, and I moved to Vancouver, and I fell into real estate essentially because
[02:02] SPEAKER_00: I was a white guy that spoke Mandarin and Cantonese.
[02:05] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[02:05] SPEAKER_00: All the buyers at that point were flying over from Asia and trying to buy property here,
[02:09] SPEAKER_00: and it was just a really easy transition, not something that I planned,
[02:13] SPEAKER_00: it just kind of what I fell into, and I happened to be decently good at it.
[02:16] SPEAKER_01: Hey, if you got the skill set, use it.
[02:18] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
[02:19] SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
[02:19] SPEAKER_01: Okay, so tell us about Spark.
[02:22] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so Spark.
[02:23] SPEAKER_00: Spark kind of came about through that whole journey of me working with a number of big developers
[02:28] SPEAKER_00: and helping them sell and market projects from North America into Asia,
[02:33] SPEAKER_00: and it really came out of a frustration that I had with the industry itself,
[02:36] SPEAKER_00: which was Excel spreadsheets, old legacy,
[02:40] SPEAKER_00: agnostic platforms, all things that I was using day to day, my job.
[02:45] SPEAKER_00: And eventually I just cut Sika.
[02:46] SPEAKER_00: Well, really I got sick of traveling that much first.
[02:48] SPEAKER_00: I was on a plane once every four weeks for about two and a half years.
[02:51] SPEAKER_00: And I just kind of came to this realization after meeting a group of guys that worked in tech
[02:56] SPEAKER_00: that I had some expertise in this market, and I think I have an idea that could work.
[03:01] SPEAKER_00: And I do some of the initial clients that I think I could sell it to.
[03:05] SPEAKER_00: And so really what Spark came out of was the ability to streamline, like you said earlier,
[03:11] SPEAKER_00: the sales marketing and management of new development projects.
[03:14] SPEAKER_00: So we work with developers and project marketing firms essentially taking their digitizing
[03:19] SPEAKER_00: their process all the way from the early conception of a project. So when leads are registering
[03:24] SPEAKER_00: on a website, managing that relationship all the way through to the all the communication,
[03:30] SPEAKER_00: the allocations of units, the purchase and sale, the digital document signatures,
[03:34] SPEAKER_00: the disclosures, all the reporting, and then the completion of those units.
[03:38] SPEAKER_00: So we essentially live as the backend infrastructure for developers and project marketing firms.
[03:44] SPEAKER_01: Okay, did you need financing to start this company and how do you currently make money in the business now?
[03:49] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so when I started Spark, I was quite young and a little bit naive. And I didn't know
[03:54] SPEAKER_00: anything about venture capital, seed, round financing. I didn't even know people raised money for
[04:00] SPEAKER_00: companies. I just kind of started it as a business, which now seems like a strange way to do
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: something. But we didn't raise money for the first couple of years because I never even thought
[04:10] SPEAKER_00: about it. We'd put some money away in the early days and we were essentially self-funded for
[04:15] SPEAKER_00: the first couple of years. And through that, we ended up getting into an accelerator program called
[04:20] SPEAKER_00: GrowLab that's essentially after about a year and a half of graduating from that, we got our first
[04:27] SPEAKER_00: basically line of credit from BDC for $150,000. And that was really what took the business from being
[04:32] SPEAKER_00: a sort of idea into actually being able to hire our first employees, sort of being able to move
[04:37] SPEAKER_00: out of my apartment, which was nice. And then transitioning now into what is a much larger
[04:43] SPEAKER_01: company that was at that point. Okay, you are in an absolutely great market for real estate.
[04:50] SPEAKER_01: Obviously, Vancouver is growing and it's basically a big part of the industry there is real estate.
[04:58] SPEAKER_01: I want you to give me a key piece of knowledge or information about your industry that our listeners
[05:03] SPEAKER_00: can learn from. Yeah, I think so there's really there's a lot of information out there that
[05:11] SPEAKER_00: is not disclosed to the general public I think in new developments. It's not like you can go into
[05:16] SPEAKER_00: a house. These are homes that are being sold off of a piece of paper and a PDF. So it's not quite as
[05:22] SPEAKER_00: transparent I think as a lot of other real estate industries. And I'd say the most interesting
[05:27] SPEAKER_00: thing probably that I've seen is that the best time to buy a unit is either to be the very,
[05:33] SPEAKER_00: very first buyer or to be the very last buyer. In the most cases, in most cases, mainly because people,
[05:38] SPEAKER_00: you know, developers have to hit construction financing. And so the early sales are really,
[05:43] SPEAKER_00: really important. So they're usually going to be a little bit more aggressive to get those sales
[05:46] SPEAKER_00: quickly so they can get their construction financing. And then at the very, very end, they just
[05:51] SPEAKER_00: want to close the project out. So in the middle is kind of where you end up getting probably not
[05:55] SPEAKER_00: saying you're going to get a bad deal. Most of these deals are still really, really good. But the
[05:59] SPEAKER_00: best price you're going to get is going to be at the very beginning or maybe the very end of a
[06:02] SPEAKER_01: project from what I've traditionally seen. Okay, good. What is a long-term vision and what
[06:08] SPEAKER_01: will your company look like in the future? Do you see the company expanding into other areas
[06:12] SPEAKER_00: and where beyond Vancouver, BC or even Canada? Yeah, I mean, so we currently work in about
[06:17] SPEAKER_00: in what 80 cities in North America. We've actually recently started to pick up clients internationally.
[06:22] SPEAKER_00: We just signed some clients in Panama. We signed some clients in Costa Rica. We have clients in Dubai.
[06:27] SPEAKER_00: We have some clients coming on from New Zealand. So it's starting to branch out more organically.
[06:32] SPEAKER_00: But the goal for us really is to be the number one player in the New Development Software.
[06:36] SPEAKER_00: So that's been our goal, not just in North America, but globally. And so we're kind of building the
[06:41] SPEAKER_00: infrastructure and an platform that really can speak to all of those different markets.
[06:46] SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's talk a little bit about Vancouver and doing business there. What are the biggest
[06:51] SPEAKER_01: benefits for you being an entrepreneur in Vancouver, BC? I want you to give us some of the good points
[06:56] SPEAKER_01: about starting a company here, but also want you to give us some of the tough things of
[07:01] SPEAKER_01: challenges you had over the years. So our listeners can learn from them.
[07:05] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so I think, you know, Sparks have been around for almost 10 years now. And this is,
[07:11] SPEAKER_00: that was kind of before the Vancouver Tech scene really started to take off. And it kind of
[07:15] SPEAKER_00: transitioned through the Vancouver Tech scene really becoming, you know, quite prominent in Canada.
[07:20] SPEAKER_00: In the early days, it was very, very hard to raise capital in Vancouver. So when we actually were
[07:24] SPEAKER_00: trying to raise money, there was a lot of small check writers and not a lot of deals that actually
[07:30] SPEAKER_00: got done. So it took out, you know, I probably did 500 pitches, you know, to raise our first million
[07:35] SPEAKER_00: bucks, which really is a ton. It's more than I would ever, ever do now at this point. And so I
[07:41] SPEAKER_00: think in the early days, it was just a very, it was just a very immature market as far as the tech
[07:45] SPEAKER_00: world world went. Even though it was a very strong real estate market, which gave us a decent
[07:49] SPEAKER_00: advantage, it was hard for us to raise money. And that was kind of a challenge, but I think the
[07:54] SPEAKER_00: benefit of Vancouver also on the flip side is that you have people are in Vancouver because they
[07:59] SPEAKER_00: want to be here. It's not because they have to be here. It's because they come from Toronto,
[08:03] SPEAKER_00: they move to Vancouver because they like the mountains, they want to ski, they want to be in the
[08:06] SPEAKER_00: water, they like the weather. So you end up getting a lot of interesting talent that in some cases
[08:11] SPEAKER_00: is a lot cheaper and, you know, or, you know, it's easier to acquire good talent in Vancouver,
[08:17] SPEAKER_00: at least historically than it was in places like Toronto or New York or Seattle or places like that.
[08:24] SPEAKER_00: Just because people, you know, people are willing to take the cut because they actually want to
[08:27] SPEAKER_00: be in the city. And I think those are, that was, that was what I found in the early days. And we,
[08:30] SPEAKER_00: you know, we have some of our best employees that have been here, you know, 99% of the people that
[08:35] SPEAKER_00: work for Spark live and work in Vancouver. And so we're, we're pretty much 100% Vancouver based
[08:40] SPEAKER_01: company. So it's easy to draw people in saying, hey, do you want to work in live in Vancouver?
[08:46] SPEAKER_01: It's a great opportunity. And usually the answer is yes. Yeah, I mean, it's a total lifestyle.
[08:51] SPEAKER_00: Exactly. I mean, it's, it's a total lifestyle city. You know, when I think it also lends itself
[08:56] SPEAKER_00: to a good work life balance, right? People here do are generally, I think, a little bit happier,
[08:59] SPEAKER_00: you know, maybe they're not working the 18 hour days, but I think when they are working, they're
[09:02] SPEAKER_00: more productive and they're also able to do a lot of extra, you know, extra curricular outside of
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: work stuff that keeps them sharp and, you know, keeps people in shape and the health of people is
[09:11] SPEAKER_00: better generally. And I think the mindset for most, the most part is, is really positive here.
[09:17] SPEAKER_01: Good. Okay. So I mean, you've been doing this for 10 years now. You've learned a lot. You've
[09:26] SPEAKER_01: got to go back to the beginning. If you were to start all over again and you just moved to
[09:29] SPEAKER_01: Vancouver, BC, at this time, you don't know anyone knowing what you know now. What would you do?
[09:35] SPEAKER_01: And how would you go about starting all over again? That's not true. So would you do anything
[09:39] SPEAKER_01: differently? Would you do the exact same thing? Was there things you felt? She, I wouldn't make
[09:44] SPEAKER_01: this mistake again. I do this differently. Anything like that in Stenzone? Yeah, I mean, there's,
[09:49] SPEAKER_00: I actually did a, I did a talk not too long ago and people were saying, you know, if you'd
[09:53] SPEAKER_00: basically the same question, what would you change or what would you do? What's your advice for
[09:57] SPEAKER_00: for people coming into this? And I think really looking back, I would have saved myself a lot of
[10:01] SPEAKER_00: headaches if I had figured out how to pay taxes properly for a company. And that was, I think
[10:07] SPEAKER_00: that was a really big thing that I didn't know when I, you know, when I started Spark, we didn't know,
[10:10] SPEAKER_00: it was kind of like the wild, wild west, you know, I didn't know how to set up a GST account. I
[10:15] SPEAKER_00: didn't know how to file taxes properly and it kind of got us into an interesting point at,
[10:19] SPEAKER_00: you know, in our early days because we kind of were just running off of the idea of a business.
[10:24] SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I would have, I would have structured those types of things, obviously a little bit
[10:28] SPEAKER_00: better. I mean, I would have saved, it would have saved us a lot of headache in the, you know,
[10:32] SPEAKER_00: in the future. But, you know, but generally I really can't, I really can't complain. I mean,
[10:36] SPEAKER_00: I got really lucky with a super solid team, four out of the five people that I started with are still
[10:41] SPEAKER_00: at the company. And, you know, they're kind of the foundation. And I really, I think I, I came out of
[10:46] SPEAKER_00: that, you know, really, really lucky at the very beginning. Okay, let's talk about your routine,
[10:51] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneurs, how are very routine oriented? What does the first hour look like for you when you
[10:55] SPEAKER_01: get up the morning? Do you have a specific routine or a ritual that helps you get motivated to start
[10:59] SPEAKER_00: your day? Yeah, I'm, I'm really not a morning person, to be honest. I'm a, I'm a night worker,
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: I'm a night thinker, I stay up late, I'd like to get, that's my quiet time, that's when I get a
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: lot of stuff done. The morning for me is like, I really have, usually my first hour of my day is just
[11:16] SPEAKER_00: blank. I don't really check my email, usually first thing in the morning, I have a coffee,
[11:21] SPEAKER_00: I take my dog for a walk, I kind of clear my head, it's not really, you know, I don't really turn
[11:25] SPEAKER_00: on my brain till probably at least 930. So I think, you know, the beginning of the day for me is really
[11:30] SPEAKER_00: just like a, it's a slow burn into getting my brain into a place where I can actually start to make
[11:35] SPEAKER_00: some real decisions. And I've just never been, I've never been a morning person. So I'm almost the
[11:40] SPEAKER_00: opposite, you know, the last hour of my day is probably my most productive where I do my reading,
[11:45] SPEAKER_00: I do my research, I watch, you know, updates and on the market, I look at architecture, that's kind
[11:51] SPEAKER_00: of what I'm really diving into a lot of the, you know, things that I think a lot of people might do
[11:54] SPEAKER_00: is their first thing to kind of get their day going. Plus you're in a global business, right? So you're,
[11:59] SPEAKER_01: are you taking calls late at night as well? Is it, or you just have to cut off? I mean, do you have a,
[12:05] SPEAKER_00: a little bit of both? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we have clients that are kind of all over the place,
[12:10] SPEAKER_00: I'm not really answering a lot of those calls, but I'm getting emails, I like to respond to emails
[12:13] SPEAKER_00: that, you know, whenever I get them, usually as soon as possible. And so I'm, again, if I get an
[12:17] SPEAKER_00: email at one of the morning, it's something important, I'm going to answer it, and I'm going to respond
[12:20] SPEAKER_00: to it because my brain is kind of on then. Yeah. Okay. Do you think entrepreneurs have to be weird
[12:27] SPEAKER_00: or unique in a positive way or wired differently? I think, I think yes and no, I think where,
[12:37] SPEAKER_00: you know, my definition for entrepreneur is, it's probably different than I think what the general
[12:43] SPEAKER_00: entrepreneurial term, I mean, if I, if you'd asked me if I was an entrepreneur when I first started
[12:46] SPEAKER_00: Spark, I would have said no, because I didn't even really know what that word meant. I was just a guy
[12:50] SPEAKER_00: with an idea that started a business, and I think there's a separation between being an entrepreneur
[12:55] SPEAKER_00: and having a business. I would say now I've become much more of an entrepreneur in the way that I think.
[13:00] SPEAKER_00: But I don't, I don't think you necessarily have to be weird or quirky. I think I, most of my friends
[13:05] SPEAKER_00: group, you know, have their own companies or run their own companies, and yes, some of them are a
[13:09] SPEAKER_00: bit weird and some of them are just pretty normal, normal guys. But I think if you think about trying
[13:14] SPEAKER_00: to become an entrepreneur, that's where it becomes really hard to be an entrepreneur. You know,
[13:19] SPEAKER_00: I think those things just have to fall into place naturally, and I think it has to be something that
[13:22] SPEAKER_00: you generally associate with and you're passionate about that you are specifically, you know, having
[13:27] SPEAKER_00: have a real good way to try to solve that problem, instead of trying to create a problem that you
[13:31] SPEAKER_01: then try to solve. Okay. Entrepreneurs love to read and learn and educate themselves. What books
[13:38] SPEAKER_01: are you reading now and why are even audiobooks podcasts? Can you recommend any books for listeners
[13:43] SPEAKER_00: who are also entrepreneurs? Definitely. I'm a big, I'm a big audiobook for sure. So I like to
[13:51] SPEAKER_00: listen to books while I walk my dog. That's really what I do on the way to the office. I listen to
[13:54] SPEAKER_00: audiobooks from the way home. I do the same thing. I'm a big autobiography fan, so I love reading
[14:00] SPEAKER_00: about real life stories of real people. Right now, ticket to ride, story of Disney.
[14:08] SPEAKER_00: Huge one that I really actually just I just finished that, but it's phenomenal.
[14:12] SPEAKER_00: Very short, it's been a story from Blackstone is another one that I really, really enjoyed recently.
[14:18] SPEAKER_00: One that's a little bit more off the cuff that I started, which is kind of not really in line with
[14:22] SPEAKER_00: that is called the Economy of Misfits, which is really a way to look through an entrepreneurial lens
[14:28] SPEAKER_00: from non-traditional industries like the mall or pirates or things like that. So that's one that
[14:33] SPEAKER_00: I actually found kind of interesting recently. And my mom actually gave me that book for Christmas.
[14:38] SPEAKER_00: Only non-audio book that I have. I could recommend for you. Shoe Dog. Phil,
[14:42] SPEAKER_01: Mike, have you read that one? Oh, I've read Shoe Dog. Awesome. Yeah. That's when I really like.
[14:47] SPEAKER_01: Any online or offline tools used on a daily basis?
[14:52] SPEAKER_00: I mean, Slack is a huge one. I mean, my entire company essentially is run through Slack.
[14:57] SPEAKER_00: All of our messages, all of our history, all of that stuff. I mean, it's probably one of the
[15:00] SPEAKER_00: big pieces that I use. I mean, as far as just the app ecosystem of Apple, for sure, is really big
[15:07] SPEAKER_00: for me. Everything from mail to the text messaging to FaceTime. That's a huge one that I use. But I
[15:14] SPEAKER_00: don't really use a ton of apps. I'm not like a, you know, I use the general notes app and things
[15:20] SPEAKER_00: like that. But I don't have much of these quirky, funky little things like a lot of my friends.
[15:24] SPEAKER_00: Use them just not really how my brain works. Okay. You touched on this earlier.
[15:31] SPEAKER_01: Vancouver, British Columbia, being a lifestyle city. How do you balance work and how do you relax
[15:35] SPEAKER_01: and not think about work? You ski, bike, kayak, golf, hike or something? You'll per guy.
[15:41] SPEAKER_00: In the summer, I bike a lot. So I have a peloton and I actually just kind of got pretty into
[15:46] SPEAKER_00: the Peloton worlds, which is kind of the dicting in a good anabad way. I definitely ski as much
[15:52] SPEAKER_00: as I can. So I try to get up on the mountain, you know, being in BC, you know, some of the best
[15:56] SPEAKER_00: skiing in the world is, you know, within an hour and a half of Vancouver. So I definitely try to get
[16:00] SPEAKER_00: up as much as I can there. And then, you know, I still play soccer and I play tennis. I'm see,
[16:04] SPEAKER_00: you know, when it's raining, it's not as ideal. But those are two things I definitely, you know,
[16:08] SPEAKER_00: spend quite a bit of time doing in the summer. Okay. If you weren't doing what you do now,
[16:13] SPEAKER_01: what would you like to do for a profession? I would like to build, run and manage hotels.
[16:21] SPEAKER_00: I've always been my, that's always been the thing that I, you know, I think one day when I,
[16:24] SPEAKER_00: you know, if, if Spark sells or I somehow come across a huge chunk of cash, I'd love to build my own
[16:30] SPEAKER_00: hotel at some point and run it. I love the hospitality. I love the food and beverage world.
[16:35] SPEAKER_00: I love travel and I like that experience of creating, you know, relationships with people through
[16:40] SPEAKER_00: through a business like that. Here are people, person, an extrovert. Would you say that? Yeah.
[16:47] SPEAKER_00: I think I, I am an, and I'm not, I'm an extrovert as long as I have enough time for myself.
[16:53] SPEAKER_00: To be alone, I'm not, I can't be out all the time and seeing people all the time. I need that time
[16:58] SPEAKER_00: to just like decompress and download. But yeah, I'm for the most part, I'd say I'm definitely more
[17:02] SPEAKER_01: on the extrovert side. What kind of job would you not like to do? Couldn't do it. Oh, I mean,
[17:10] SPEAKER_00: there's probably a lot that I, that I wouldn't want to do. I would not want to be a flight attendant.
[17:17] SPEAKER_00: Because I think I would just have huge anxiety about not being able to enjoy the places and
[17:22] SPEAKER_00: getting to go to with them all without being able to actually be there. I think that's probably one
[17:26] SPEAKER_00: that I definitely would not, not want to do. Okay. In business, what is your favorite word
[17:31] SPEAKER_01: quote or sentence that you like to use? Is there anything that you use a lot with your employees or
[17:37] SPEAKER_00: clients? I'm not like a huge quotes, quotes person. I mean, I, I only really have a couple of quotes
[17:45] SPEAKER_00: that I use and it a lot of times with my family. One that I really resonated that I've always used
[17:49] SPEAKER_00: since I was a kid is actually a saying from Mount Sedong in China. And it's when approaching a tiger
[17:55] SPEAKER_00: use a long stick, which you know, you can interpret that in a lot of different ways. And I've
[18:00] SPEAKER_00: definitely used it in a lot of different ways. And I actually kind of find it more like a funny
[18:05] SPEAKER_00: approach to a quote. It's not something serious. It's not something inspiring, but it's kind of
[18:09] SPEAKER_00: one of those things that I use when I when I'm a little bit unsure about a problem or
[18:14] SPEAKER_00: or something that I'm trying to figure out. And I don't know, I always found a lot of the the writings
[18:20] SPEAKER_01: of Mount to be pretty interesting. Okay. What's your least favorite word sentence you do not like to hear?
[18:28] SPEAKER_00: Anything with the word synergy in it.
[18:32] SPEAKER_01: Hopefully my most hated my most hated word in the world. I hate it. Yeah. If you had to take one or two
[18:38] SPEAKER_01: words to describe yourself, what would it be and why? I would say particular is definitely
[18:48] SPEAKER_00: a way I've described myself. I really like the things that I like. You know, it doesn't mean they
[18:53] SPEAKER_00: have to be fancy or cheap or interesting or not. I'm just a very particular person in what I
[18:58] SPEAKER_00: know what I like to eat, where I like to go, how I like certain things done. And then I also say
[19:06] SPEAKER_00: probably passionate. If I like something, I'm very much all into it. And I will put all of my time
[19:14] SPEAKER_00: and effort and and brain power into understanding it better. So I say those are probably two,
[19:19] SPEAKER_00: both start with P, I guess, but those are those are my two words that I'd say probably describe me
[19:23] SPEAKER_01: pretty well. Anything keeping you up at night these days is business. Go to bed with you or you
[19:29] SPEAKER_01: just drop it and worry about in the morning. Are you getting up in the morning, ready on a journal,
[19:35] SPEAKER_00: anything like that? Yeah, I mean, I'm a I'm a pretty low low stress person. I mean, I grew up
[19:41] SPEAKER_00: moving around a ton when I was a kid, you know, being thrown into all sorts of situations. And I
[19:46] SPEAKER_00: I don't carry a lot of stress generally. And so I'm not, you know, I don't really get, you know,
[19:52] SPEAKER_00: that type of anxiety going to bed or holding things with me. I really like, you know,
[19:56] SPEAKER_00: sleep asleep when I'm tired. I pass out, I wake up the new day. I don't I don't tend to draw those
[20:01] SPEAKER_00: things with, you know, unless you're if we're going through a big financing or something, of course,
[20:05] SPEAKER_00: you know, I'm going to be thinking about that. But generally speaking across the board,
[20:10] SPEAKER_00: I don't really get kept up at night by, you know, work related things.
[20:15] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Do you have any advice that you may have received that you can pass on to entrepreneur
[20:21] SPEAKER_01: sort of Canada? Has anyone ever told you anything or said anything that he kind of resonated with you
[20:25] SPEAKER_01: that said, I think that's some really good advice, maybe more than one? Yeah, I mean, a couple things.
[20:31] SPEAKER_00: I think one thing that I've that I've had that I've seen to be true that I never believed when I
[20:37] SPEAKER_00: was, you know, in the earlier days is that, you know, everything's going to take three times as long
[20:42] SPEAKER_00: and cost twice as much. One of one of my mentors in the very beginning, I got any mark actually told
[20:47] SPEAKER_00: me that and it is proven to basically be, you know, true. If not, you know, even on the lighter side,
[20:53] SPEAKER_00: you know, if you think something's going to get done times it by three, once it's going to get done,
[20:57] SPEAKER_00: you think it's going to cost as much times up by two and always plan for that because that's just
[21:01] SPEAKER_00: that's just the way the world works. You know, nothing happens as easy as you think and you kind of
[21:05] SPEAKER_00: got to be, you kind of got to be ready for that. And that's one thing that I've, but I've always kind
[21:09] SPEAKER_00: of, yeah, I hate it because I don't like things being pushed. I don't like it when, you know,
[21:15] SPEAKER_00: timelines aren't hit and I don't like things going over budget, but it's just kind of the reality
[21:19] SPEAKER_00: of, you know, the world of being in any sort of startup or entrepreneurial organization and stuff
[21:24] SPEAKER_00: just takes a lot longer than than you think. And the other thing is, if I can give you one more,
[21:31] SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, make sure that people are at the core of whatever you're doing. And, you know,
[21:37] SPEAKER_00: working with a good group of people is the difference between a successful company and just a great
[21:43] SPEAKER_00: idea. And I think that, you know, making sure that you build and you care and you understand the
[21:48] SPEAKER_00: needs and wants of the people around you and making sure they understand the same thing about you
[21:51] SPEAKER_00: and put a lot of effort and time into, into those relationships because those are really the ones
[21:55] SPEAKER_00: that are going to carry you and even though you're also carrying them at the same time.
[21:59] SPEAKER_00: So you're talking about clients, people that work with you across the board. Yeah, across the board.
[22:05] SPEAKER_01: You're a person in a way that you identify the fact that we are in a business and people are the
[22:13] SPEAKER_01: most important thing that comes along with that whole. Yeah, totally. Yeah.
[22:18] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah. Spark cells are pretty, you know, from a consumer perspective, a pretty boring product.
[22:23] SPEAKER_00: Right? We're not something you're going to go into the store and be like, oh, that's so cool.
[22:27] SPEAKER_00: Or that's sexy. Or, you know, I like it. I understand it. You know, we're an infrastructure CRM
[22:32] SPEAKER_00: backend management platform. Right? That's not it. That's a, that's a mouthful for anybody that,
[22:37] SPEAKER_00: you know, half my friends don't even know what I do exactly. But the way to get around that and
[22:41] SPEAKER_00: make that interesting and sell to people, you know, is through the relationships you can build
[22:45] SPEAKER_00: around that with people that are in the same world. It also is the people that work with you and the
[22:49] SPEAKER_01: people that you work for as well. Do you think starting in Vancouver with its robust real estate
[22:55] SPEAKER_01: economy gave you the rocket fuel to expand rapidly into other markets?
[23:02] SPEAKER_00: I think, I think, I think from the outside, I think that's probably a true statement. But I think
[23:07] SPEAKER_00: internally it was actually when we signed our very first big New York client was really what
[23:12] SPEAKER_00: gave us the propulsion to go, you know, much, much faster. And Vancouver is a small world, but
[23:19] SPEAKER_00: it's a very clicky world. It's a very insular world. You know, Vancouver doesn't really do anything
[23:23] SPEAKER_00: outside of Vancouver. And that is good if you're in it. But if you're not in it, you're trying to
[23:29] SPEAKER_00: break into it, it can be really, really tough because there's a lot of tight bonds and tight
[23:32] SPEAKER_00: relationships. So, you know, working in Vancouver has been, you know, amazing. But it's also been
[23:37] SPEAKER_00: really, really tough because being a newcomer and trying to start something in the city, you know,
[23:41] SPEAKER_00: it's hard to get into those, into those circles. Whereas, you know, the East Coast has proven to be
[23:46] SPEAKER_00: a little bit more, hey, this is a good business. Let's give it a try. It's not, it wasn't as much about,
[23:52] SPEAKER_00: well, who are you? Why do I trust you? Etc. Etc. So, yeah, I think, yes and no, it's been a phenomenal
[23:58] SPEAKER_00: place, but also it's been, it's been really challenging. Has networking pre-pandemic, has
[24:03] SPEAKER_01: networking been an important component to expanding your business, not just in Vancouver, but
[24:11] SPEAKER_00: globally? A hundred percent. I mean, 30, 35 percent of all of our deals, even to this day,
[24:17] SPEAKER_00: come from referral. And that referral has been, you know, friends or friends or people that we've
[24:23] SPEAKER_00: met or, you know, from conferences or events or dinners and keeping those relationships up. And so,
[24:28] SPEAKER_00: I think, when 100 percent networking has been a huge factor into, you know, what's helped Spark grow.
[24:34] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. Okay. We're going to wrap things up. Singing, how can our listeners get whole of you? Is there
[24:39] SPEAKER_01: anything you'd like to add before you leave us today? Well, it's pretty easy to get ahold of me.
[24:44] SPEAKER_00: I mean, simianatspark.re. Let's S-I-M-E-O-N at Spark.re. We also, we just launched our brand new
[24:51] SPEAKER_00: website and did it and did a brand revamp as well. So that just came out within the last couple days.
[24:57] SPEAKER_00: So I mean, if I'd love to hear feedback on the website on the brand, we've had the same brand for
[25:03] SPEAKER_00: quite a while now. And I think this was a really big internal push that we put out there.
[25:07] SPEAKER_00: It was a lot. It was a huge, huge team effort for all of us to get out there and do that. So yeah,
[25:13] SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything's on the website. Spark.re. I mean, you can find me on LinkedIn. You can find us
[25:18] SPEAKER_00: on Instagram. You can find us on Twitter. We're pretty, we're pretty active. And I'm kind of
[25:22] SPEAKER_01: in and out of all those channels. Okay, that is. Thank you for coming on the show. I've learned a lot
[25:28] SPEAKER_01: about you and I'm sure our listeners have as well.
