How I Got Started I started my own company in 1988 doing marketing and that business evolved through different phases to what Enquiro is now. In the mid 1990’s the Web started to become a force – it became a game changer in the marketing place. The majority of people were now using search engines to find information so that became our focus.

We decided to focus exclusively on search engine marketing in 1999. We put a website up and later that first day we had our first client, a lawyer from Montreal. He found us through a search engine and we were in business. Back then the web was a much smaller place and you could show up in search engines very quickly.

Advice for Startups Follow your passion. This is not a place to get rich quick and a lot of entrepreneurs go in thinking what’s the quickest path between me and a cash-out? Do what you’re passionate about. If you’re passionate about it and you do it right, the money will come but there are a lot easier ways to earn a pay check than to start a business. Do something because it lives in your belly and lives in your heart. As your start-up grows you’re going to need to surround yourself with a team and if you have that passion your team will share it with you. It’s not without its trials and errors. Passion is what sustains and drives you through the up and down times. It’s a bumpy road, it’s not smooth, and there will be days when you want to pack it in and days when you can’t imagine doing anything else.

Be the best in the world. One of the things that is unique about being a start-up is that there are very few times in your life where you will have the chance to be the best in the world at something. By creating your own company you can define the space that you excel in. I’ve gone into my industry saying I want to be the best at it. There isn’t anywhere else where you have more flexibility at defining what you want to be excellent in. If you’re going to go into something, go in with the goal of being the best at it. If you’re the best in the world at something, you’ll find a way to make a living at it.

Be careful about investors. We didn’t have to raise capital to any great extent – we bootstrapped it. Investors, if they are angels or venture capitalists, or even a bank manager have got different criteria when they will put their money in. Ideas are important but it’s the people who execute on the ideas who will make the company work. Investors are now looking at the people because they have taken their lumps. They ask themselves “Do these guys have the passion to make sure that this thing gets done?” When they are looking at making a decision, you’d better make sure that you’re convincing them that this is what you’re passionate about. Where do you go for the money? It’s different for everyone but the minute you sell a piece of your idea to someone else it becomes their idea as well. It’s very easy to take money from someone and not realize the cost associated with it. Investors will, in turn, feel an ownership over the idea and direction of the company. Entrepreneurs don’t realize it when the cheque is sitting in front of them.

Bootstrap it. We started in our basement and looked at saving money where we could. Thinking back, the one thing that was important was we didn’t get caught up in the need for offices and a big image. Sometimes entrepreneurs get caught up in the trappings of what a business looks like versus what the core of the business is. You need to make sure the customers end up winning. If they aren’t winning, the financial model will fall apart. Don’t worry too much about what your status is and what it looks like from the outside – look at what you’re delivering to the client. Run it lean and mean. Be customer centric and look into your customer’s shoes. It is an exceedingly rare talent that people often lost sight of it – you never should.

Mistakes to Avoid The biggest mistake was when we sold a piece of our idea to someone else for an investment. We didn’t think it through fully and it was almost fatal for us. We managed to turn things around and refocus our business but it’s very tempting to say yes when you have people who want to put money in you. If your idea and passion are strong, there won’t be a lack of people interested in investing in you. I think we learned the hard way that raising capital is not necessarily the best route. You have to do what’s right for you in your heart and for your customers and let that drive you rather than chasing the largest investment cheque. You’re in business to help your customers, not to attract venture capital money. You can get distracted by going out and raising capital. It can be detrimental to the business.

You can’t spend enough time on people. Ultimately people will be your best asset. Even if you hire a software developer, the value of that software will be dependent on the person creating it for you. Spend as much time as you can getting the right people. When people look at sustainable competitive advantages or barriers to entry it always comes down to people. We’ve worked hard to make sure that everyone who works here understands our core values and we try to be a customer centric service provider. We try to be a curious company that looks at better ways to do things. It becomes a lot easier to see who fits your core once you’ve developed it. Don’t let mistakes linger if you make one by hiring the wrong person. When you make those mistakes don’t be afraid to face up to them and move on.

Anytime we’ve made a mistake hiring it was because we paid too much attention to what was on paper and not enough to our feelings towards that person. We got wooed by the resume and the story and the skill sets so we hired them but in almost every case it didn’t work out. You know most often in your heart when the fit is right and we’ve found that the experience may not be exactly what you’re looking for but if the person is right, they will catch up really quickly. We tend to not get too hung up on what’s on paper and spend more time getting to know the person and what’s important to them. Get to know the person as a wholly rounded individual and what their intellectual interests are. How do they look towards bettering themselves? You’re not hiring a placeholder from 8 to 5, you’re hiring a person and where that person works very well is when you tap into that person’s goals and dreams. That’s where you get the return on investment. If you’re acquiring that asset it’s worthwhile getting to know them.

Most important interview question: What do you want to do? What are your goals and objectives? What are the areas of growth that you have identified for yourself? It’s important to get some sense of where they want to take their lives.

Opportunities to Watch There are so many opportunities in the online space. We are just scratching the surface right now. For most of us, we were introduced to the Internet in the 1990s and we’re just barely a decade into it. There are tremendous opportunities in how we are connecting with each other, with information, and how the Internet makes its way into every aspect of our business.

The other area is to look at your markets from a global perspective. Don’t put your blinders on when you start looking at your markets. Look at China and India – they will impact us in North America. Do everything from a global perspective and be smart about the opportunities that are coming to you.

The other thing more specific is to look at mobile computing. Increasingly the majority of our computing will be done on our handheld devices. When we have constant access to the Internet we will be facing another big game changer. There is a ton of opportunity in mobile computing that will be coming out in the next decade.



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