Dozr making great big push
Fast-growing startup rents out heavy equipment online
KITCHENER — Kevin Forestell has about 30 minutes available between meetings with venture capitalists in Silicon Valley to talk about the fast-growing startup Dozr.
Dozr, founded by Forestell, his brother Tim Forestell and their brother-in-law Erin Stephenson, is among the first cohort in the Lazaridis Institute Canadian Scale-up Program that is run by Wilfrid Laurier University.
As part of that accelerator’s six-month program, Forestell visited a different Canadian city every month to expand Dozr’s online marketplace for renting out heavy equipment. As it finished the program, Dozr moved into new offices in a historic fire hall at 318 Duke St. W. in Kitchener.
“About eight months ago we were three people,” Forestell in a phone interview from Palo Alto, Calif. “We are 22 today and we will be in the mid-60s in about four months.”
Dozr has a lot in common with high profile success stories in the sharing economy. Companies such as Uber and Airbnb are all about short-term rentals of underused vehicles or residences. The underlying technology isn’t anything particularly special in the age of big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
But the right marriage between Internet technology and existing businesses, or individually owned assets, can create new opportunities with swelling streams of revenue. Just ask Forestell, who marvels at what’s happened during the past 18 months.
For 13 years, Forestell worked in the family landscaping business and saw lots of big, expensive pieces of equipment sit idle for weeks at a time.
That sparked some questions. What about renting the equipment out to contractors who need it for a little while? What about getting other contractors to list their underused heavy equipment on the same website?
Dozr, launched in 2015, is growing faster than expected. While Ontario is Dozr’s biggest market, the startup is on the ground and growing in several U.S. states, including Ohio, New Jersey, Florida and Texas.
FairVentures, a subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., invested $2.5 million in Dozr last fall. Another Fairfax company, Federated Insurance, covers the equipment against mishaps and theft.
Forestell wasn’t asking venture capitalists for money during his visit to Silicon Valley earlier this week. Instead, he was telling them the story behind Dozr, laying the ground work for future raises of capital.
“We are letting people know what we are up to,” he said.
In six months, Dozr expects to have up to 75 employees. It will need more office space — either the second floor of the old fire hall, a satellite office or another wholesale move.
“I guess it’s a nice problem to have,” Forestell said of the expected space crunch.
It’s been a strange journey for the former landscaper.
“This time last year I was running a landscaping company, we had just started Dozr,” he said. “I never thought I would get
into technology, that’s for sure. It’s been pretty wild. Good though.”
The scale-up program at Laurier brings together entrepreneurs like Forestell with experienced hands who founded, built and sold startups. The scale-ups learn about mistakes that plagued other fast-growing tech firms.
“Hopefully, we can jump over those hurdles by knowing about them in advance,” said Forestell.
The other startups in the scaleup program include Intellitix, NoviFlow, Oculys Health Informatics, PostBeyond, QRA, StackAdapt, The Better Sofware Company and Tulip Retail.