Start-up Spotlight - Marmot Labs
Author: Kamil Rextin <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KamilRextin"?rel=author">Google+ | Twitter
I met Josh Wright co-founder of Marmot Labs which just launched Decision.io on a hazy Tuesday morning at the Communitech Hub. Yes - it does seem that the Communitech Hub at the Tannery Building is the ‘place to be’ to hang out with, build and start companies. It’s the cool space in town - a mix of industrial and modern interiors with red bricks, exposed ceilings with massive ducts snaking throughout. The walls are adorned by contemporary art - map of the world made from Apple Circuit Boards, Christie Digital MicroTiles, an installation made exclusively with BlackBerry PlayBooks (they are not THAT bad), and paintings by local artists.
Josh, full of energy and enthusiasm was happy to spare some time to chat with me about Marmot Labs, their first product Decision.io, and of course about everything in between.
So how did it all start?
Jesse (Guild) and Duncan (McDowell) - my two co-founders and I have known each other since we were about eight years old. We grew up together and we’ve always been sort of coming up with business ideas. We’ve known we want to start something up for a while now, but this is our first real go at it.
We were the sort of guys that spent our time making business plans crazy ideas like wind farms as early as 15 or 16 years old. We soon realized we didn't have the money or the expertise to undertake that one.
Later, after we finished school, we decided to take the MBET program together which was a great experience. It really gave us a chance to really work with each other and learn to start and build companies focused on solving real customer needs and problems.
So what sparked Marmot Labs and Decision.io?
During our MBET degree, we did a lot of work with Professor Paul Guild and we started thinking how we can help companies innovate better. How can we help business allocate scarce resources more efficiently? Where is the best place for money to be spent on innovation or how do we decide which are product to develop next?
We worked on the idea for a little while and we came up with massive development plan that would take a long time and a great deal of money! So we decided to break it up into smaller pieces which is where Decision.io was born. It was a great starting point from our perspective. I had been working at the Accelerator Centre near the university and there I had experienced some grant administration work. Jesse & Duncan were working with Venture Services Group at Communitech and dealing with all kinds of application and review processes. We saw a pretty clear need to have a system for group or collective decision-making when it comes to application review.
There’s lots of other areas and use cases that Decision.io, but we decided to validate granting, startup support and university applications first. In essence it is a an online platform for collective decision making where (our) customers can capture their decision making processes. It’s very easily configured and you can set it up however you like, in a very short amount of time. You can aggregate data from various sources and set up a funnel with multiple stages of review. The idea is that streamlining this process online and making this very accessible to a team of reviewers can help you make higher quality decisions and really enrich the conversation around this type of review. Each of the reviewers get a log in, they can come in rate, rank, review and make comments for different items at various stages of the funnel.
The items can be lots of different things but we’re starting with online submissions. So our early target market is grant agencies, startup support programs like incubators and accelerators, as well as educational institutions.
Why start so young? What drove you personally to start a venture and not take a job?
Essentially, this is a really interesting way to build experience, keep challenged, and do something different. I love the risk and the pressure.
I get bored really easily so having the ability to do a lot of different all at the same time and trying to figure out a lot of new things that you have no idea about. I never thought I would be writing employment contracts or SR&ED claims, but I like the idea of figuring out how to execute on whatever is needed. You are on the fly figuring all that stuff out as you go, and it’s pretty fun.
When I graduated undergrad, I wanted to be an investment banker because I wanted to be a millionaire by the time I was 30. I am 29 so it’s getting pretty close, but either way, I really enjoy the path my career has taken and I’m excited to see what happens next. Getting rich was one motivation at the very beginning but since I’ve gotten into it and started learning about entire ecosystem, support, organizations the community here in Waterloo, I really realized that I am in it to solve problems for customers and build a sustainable business.
The other guys, I’d say the same for them - we wanted to build something that has an impact something that fills a void. We have followed a certain simple methodology as best we can – Identify a need that a potential group of customers have, get them to test out our solution and give us feedback and make sure they will pay for it. Rinse and repeat.
Being a Non-Technical Founding Team - Has it been challenging?
Its hard for sure. It was something that we battled with a lot at the very beginning.
We had a ton of different ideas and we have a product that always is improving - its about finding the right people to join your team who are technical.
We’re lucky to have Duncan who is UX / Web Developer / Front End Designer but finding the right people to join us that can actually code is always going to be a challenge. We have found some great guys to join full time and we work with a consultant to help with the planning and mentorship of more junior developers. It’s working really well, but we wouldn’t have gotten where we are today without these great and motivated dudes.
What’s the eventual goal for Decision.io?
The eventual goal for Decision.io is to grow our presence in our early target market and then explore different decision-making workflows within small to medium sized businesses and enterprise.
Working with Prof. Paul Guild, we have a big source of cool and cutting edge ideas for next steps and new products.
Are you aiming for an exit for Marmot Labs?
If someone came to us and said we want to buy you guys - we would have to think about it.
Until then, we are going with the mentality and motivation to grow a sustainable business and build it like we’re going to IPO. If we get into the market and can't get enough revenue then pivot. If we do get traction and people want to buy us we will talk about it and figure it out. At the same time if there is huge traction and growth and 10 years we do an IPO then great! Why not? There’s a lot of opportunity in decision making space itself.
As a company, what is your passion?
Our passion is innovation itself - innovation planning & product management. We really want to learn a lot and grow from there. There’s a lot of different use cases that Decision.io can be potentially applied to and we’re excited to explore these.
So what stage is Marmot Labs at right now?
We are currently in Open Beta and growing our revenue and improving our product.
We aren’t doing much marketing yet, but we are focused on streamlining our customer acquisition model. We were in a Closed Beta for 8 months. Our first customer was the first one to pay us.
And every customer since then has paid, which is lucky for us. It brings in some revenue and helps us bootstrap.
November 2012 we started working with the HYPERDRIVE Program where they used Decision.io for their Accelerator’s application review process - that was great for us in terms of learning but also proving and validating our idea
In our closed beta we acquired 12 paying customers. We went into open beta couple of months ago; now up to 17 and hoping to continue to grow quicker next month. For us right now it's about improving the product and building a story so eventually we can look at raising a private round of funding so we can get on our feet.
So what are some of the challenges of being in a startup? And do you think it’s being romanticized?
I recently read really interesting article which was about turning Startups into Hollywood - people get into startups thinking they will get rich and what not. Doesn’t always work that way. There are definitely some success stories that fuel that fire, doing huige early investment rounds and getting great traction; but it is still a tonne of work no matter what. People need to realize it’s not all that easy, it’s a grind everyday. An emotional rollercoaster with ups and downs. Some days you might be on top of the world and some days you might get some very critical feedback and feel like you’ve been hit by a truck. But the important thing is to keep pushing through the bad times and focus on the wins.
Being broke is another thing. Being a bootstrapped business, we can’t afford to pay the founding team yet. We will eventually get to the stage where we can raise a private round but so far, we are doing the best we can with what we’ve got. We have tried to keep grounded and we want to prove it out and show traction and growth. We are really excited to keep things moving forward!
What is your take on Kitchener Waterloo’s ecosystem vs. what they have down at Silicon Valley?
There’s good things and bad things. It’s a small community and you get to know most people. It gets pretty busy with events and there is a lot of support. Everybody is willing to help and there are some great mentors and community leaders. We have been really lucky!
I don’t have much experience in Silicon Valley, but it does seem like there are a lot of companies and so much more investment money available. It seems really competitive as well, but it definitely has the track record.
That story is building here in the Waterloo Region, but it’s not there yet. It’s a great place to build a company though and we think it’s only going to get better.
The key is to keep looking towards building a scalable and global business and to prioritize your time as best you can!