What did you learn in 2017? Startups share some insights

Lessons to ponder as you tackle new year

EGrowth Curve ntrepreneurship is a process of endless learning. To surface a few of the lessons 2017 dealt out, I asked some entrepreneurs I covered in the first half of last year to share their best learnings. Here are seven lessons to ponder as you tackle your own new year.

Based in Pickering, Ont., ZoneTV is a content creator and aggregator whose custom programming helps cable providers retain customers being lured away by YouTube and other streaming sources. In October, ZoneTV rolled out a new wave of cloud-based “Dynamic Channels” covering topics such as sports, fitness, fashion and food.

The trouble was, says founder Doug Edwards, Zone’s cable clients weren’t ready to get behind the technology. “We learned that you need to understand what other market pressures and priorities your customers may be facing, and work with that challenge to demonstrate your value proposition to get to the top of their priority list.” of Things partner, and also purchased a table for its Seattle HQ. The tables use a Windows operating system, but McCann had been wary of getting close to Microsoft because it once developed a similar product. But after meeting Microsoft executives last year, he decided to pursue a relationship. “Be totally forthright with potential competition, even when you’re not sure how they may react to your vision,” says McCann. “It was really exciting to get such global recognition, and the trickle-on effects have had major impacts on our sales and marketing.”

Hyr.work is a Torontobased platform that connects needy employers with contingent labour. In other words, it helps hourly employees find side hustles with retailers, restaurants and other companies that need help on short notice. Launched last February, the platform is now operating in Toronto and New York, and Hyr just closed a seed-financing round.

While Hyr aims to solve the headache of employees who don’t show up, even its own community had absentee issues. “Our biggest disappointment was the lack of accountability of a small percentage of our workers,” says co-founder Erika Mozes. She says the company has dedicated “serious learning” to finding new ways to motivate its part-time workforce. “Understanding your customer is the most important thing you can do as a business. Getting into the mindset of our workers has been paramount in understanding how to reinforce good behaviour instead of simply penalizing bad.” excitement at Val d’Or that the company was snapped up in May by Vancouver gold producer Eldorado Gold for a shiny $590 million. (Most of Integra’s executives promptly moved down the street to launch a new junior, Integra Resources, which is now reassessing a gold property in Idaho.) “Being openminded on data was a big part of the success of Integra Gold,” says former IG chair George Salamis, now CEO of Integra Resources. “The mining industry was very set in its ways, and we dared to do something different.”

Science teacher Chris Prendergast had a great year, too. He appeared on Dragons’ Den to promote his invention, the JamStack, a wireless amplifier that works with your mobile phone to replace the external speakers, pedals and cables that musicians generally have to lug around. Better still, he turned down a deal with the Dragons in favour of a private financing.

But it didn’t come without drama. Prendergast says he was disappointed that a potential investor “changed his terms” at the last minute: “I learned that nothing is done in business until it’s done.” But he says he ended up with a better deal that will enable him to launch his product properly this year.

Norm Bradley is a retired engineer in Vancouver who is promoting better beachcombing with his design for a sandal into which people with foot problems can slip their orthopedic inserts. Last month he received his first shipment of sandals from a Mexican factory, and can’t wait to get them into specialty stores for testing.

Still, his original hope was to sell his design patent, and save himself the chore of business-building. He’s received a few offers, but says they didn’t fully value the business’s potential. Final lesson: “Things only work out if you make them work out.”