Brendan King

People didn't want to share their home online like they do today with, you know, house and thumbtack and all those other great services.

But there was a huge demand for this reputation intelligence.

And because we'd sold the small businesses before we, you know, we knew that we're like herding cats and the cost of acquisition of SMB is extremely high.

So we said, let's find someone who already sells to small businesses.

Let's take this reputation product to them and see if we can take it to market.

And you know,

What we found in 2008, the industry was changing for advertisers.

We went to Yellow Pages and newspapers whose revenue was falling off a cliff.

The reason it's falling off a cliff was because before 2008, before the advent of the iPhone, Google, and internet everywhere, and information for the consumer, if there was advertising, what were your choices?

You could pick up the phone book.

call the store or you could go there and they'd always have a chance to sell.

So traditional advertising was fantastic.

But that all was changing in 2008, 2009, 10, where people now were going online and they're researching a company.

So if you see advertising today, you know, you go online and if you can't find that company, the advertiser just paid for demand for somebody else.

So we always like to say the best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of the Google search results because nobody goes there.

So we wanted to make sure your listings are proper so you're found.

And then after you're found, you have to have a good reputation.

No one goes for a two-star barber.

No, no, we raised from VanEdge and BDC.

So VanEdge is a Canadian VC.