May 8, 2023: What it takes to build an elite product

What is Chexy?

Chexy is the first tenant-facing payments platform that allows renters to pay rent by credit card, earn rewards & build credit on rent, all while bringing rent payments into the 21st century.

What is the insight/reason that you launched this business?

I've been a renter in Canada for the last 10 years and grew tired of how antiquated this industry remains, especially when it came to payments. Now more than ever, there is an opportunity to create value in paying rent for tenants.

How did you get started?

We started by doing a lot of interviews with landlords, tenants, and realtors. While this process took six months, we wanted to ensure we understood the problem before building a single line of code.

How did you find your Co-Founders?

I have two great co-founders. Abtine and I have been friends since university and over the years have discussed many business ideas. Ben came to us through the YC founder matching tool when we were looking for a third co-founder and chief technology officer.

How did you get your first customer?

Being B2C and targeting a similar profile of tenants to us, we found our first customers through connections within our personal networks.

What is the long-term vision?

Our long-term vision is to solve problems within the entire residential renting lifecycle for both tenants and landlords. We want to build a single source of truth for renting, from searching properties to ongoing communication between tenants and landlords all in one platform.

Interesting metrics (number of customers, growth in the last year, etc.)

Since launching the beta version of our platform over a month ago, Chexy is on track to process over $1,000,000 in rental payments next month.

Who are your customers and how do you help them?

We target millennials and Gen Z tenants located in metropolitan areas across Canada. We want to reach people who understand the value of rewards, and credit building and want to make the most of their biggest expense.

What is your biggest victory? What setback(s) did you overcome to get here?

To date, our biggest victory has been the organic traction we’ve been seeing since launching our platform in beta and the engaged audience we have as our early users. In addition, we successfully closed significant financing earlier this year while being pre-revenue. Raising in these macroeconomic conditions is no easy feat, which is why we are grateful for the support of a strong network of investors and advisors.

What piece of advice would you like to pass on to other Founders?

To be successful in the early stages, you need to have unique insight into the problem you are solving. That insight changes over time and it's important not to get blinded by early indications of product market fit. Always talk to customers, partners, and suppliers, and continue to study your market inside out.

What are the highlights of working at your company?

The people! There isn't anyone at Chexy who isn't passionate about helping the modern renter. We all know and understand the struggle, as we are - and have been there ourselves. And although we are remote first, connecting with each other in our office enables us to innovate to take care of our customers.

Learn more about Chexy and the Intuit Prosperity Accelerator: Toronto here.

TechTO's Founders Journey Series gives you unparalleled access to some of today's top Founders and Leaders from across the Canadian Tech Ecosystem.

We chat with our guests about their journeys to building their current business and the lessons they learned along the way.

On a recent episode of The Founders Journey, we spoke with the current Co-Founder and CRO of DealMaker, Mat Goldstein.

Named one of North America's most innovative lawyers by the Financial Times, Mat has practiced on Wall Street and Bay Street, and built and advised numerous startups before founding DealMaker.

In today's podcast, we discuss:

• His background as a lawyer

• Early years

• Influence for building DealMaker

• Lessons learned

• The challenges of the current market

• What you need to know when looking to raise

• Best advice for Founders today

• The future of DealMaker

• Taking a backseat as a Founder, and why it's critical to the future of a business

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts

In this episode, we cover:

(0:00) Intro to Mat and DealMaker

(2:40) What does it take to plan and grow a business

(5:00) The journey to building DealMaker

(5:35) Choosing your Co-Founder

(7:40) How to know when to execute your idea

(10:20) What was the first step you took when launching DealMaker

(12:51) Using DealMaker to raise money

(15:49) The early challenges of building DealMaker

(25:05) What allowed them to raise

(27:22) How a company can be successful using DealMaker

(32:59) What Mat is doing today, and what makes his role unique

(40:51) Taking a backseat as a Founder

Where can you connect with Mat?

Find him on LinkedIn 

Looking for new space? What about Twitters?

The Twitter Toronto office is up for sublease.

It is 16,500sq feet of fully turn-key office space with all the furniture and equipment needed to get started.

Check out the virtual tour here and if you are interested email Liz Nucci

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Data Scientist, troph.ai (St. John's, Newfoundland)

Why is this cool? At troph.ai, their mission is to revolutionize coaching in sports - eSports and the real world - by leveraging the latest in data and AI, making coaching affordable and accessible to every child, hobbyist, and athlete. Build bots, leverage LLMs, and take on the challenges of a growing startup.

Senior Project Manager, Abdera Therapeutics (Vancouver, BC)

Why is this cool? Abdera is a precision oncology company developing next-generation therapies. They are looking for individuals who are ready for the opportunity to transform the way people living with cancer can be treated.

*Reply to this email and let us know the jobs you'd like to see

Check out the interesting content, events, and happenings for the community here:

• TechTO: Retail | May 24, 2023: Learn from Lauren Steinberg, Amber Foucault, Drew Cashmore, Marie Chevrier, Kelly Brawn about all things technology, brands, and retail

• TechTO TechExit Social | Vancouver | May 29, 2023: Get ready to connect and meet new people in Vancouver! We're excited to be back! More announcements coming soon

• TechTO: Together | June 5, 2023: Learn from the top Founders and creators in Canadian Tech. Whatever your goals are, this event can connect you with like-minded individuals that will help you level up and reach your goals.

Want to showcase your company, events, and opportunities to 60,000 subscribers across the Canadian Tech Eco-system? Reach out to [email protected] to learn more!