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Former Halogen, Solace CEO Les Rechan joins software firm Knak as adviser

April 30, 2024

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Knak has attracted more star power to its brain trust as it looks to build on the momentum that has made it one of the region’s fastest-growing tech companies. The Ottawa-based firm, which specializes in a no-code platform that simplifies the process of creating email marketing campaigns and landing pages, last week added longtime tech executive Les Rechan to its board of advisers. Rechan, the former CEO of Ottawa tech firms Solace and Halogen Software, joins a powerhouse board that also includes former Cognos chief executive Rob Ashe, former Cognos marketing executive Leah MacMillan and veteran entrepreneur Pascal St-Jean. Co-founder and CEO Pierce Ujjainwalla said Rechan, whose background includes lengthy stints as a senior executive at IBM and chief operating officer at Cognos before it was acquired by IBM in 2008, will be a key mentor as Knak beefs up its sales team. “Les has done that a bunch of times,” explains Ujjainwalla, who cut his teeth in marketing at Cognos and later IBM when Rechan was part of the senior executive team. “We’re really excited to have his leadership around helping us build this amazing foundation.” Rechan’s appointment comes at a critical time for Knak, which just crested the 100-employee mark and was named to OBJ’s 2024 list of Ottawa’s 20 fastest-growing companies with three-year revenue growth of 127 per cent. Knak’s drag-and-drop solutions are gaining “really good traction” with blue-chip clients that include Fortune 100 companies, Ujjainwalla says. But he believes there’s much more market share on the table, and he feels Knak still hasn’t found the most effective way of tapping into it. “We see a big opportunity in the market, and to capture the opportunity we need a bigger, scalable sales team,” says Ujjainwalla, who earned a marketing degree from Carleton University and began developing the tools that form the basis of Knak’s platform after leaving IBM in 2010 to launch his own consulting company, Revenue Pulse. “We want to make sure we get it right.” He and his team – which includes chief marketing officer Mychelle Mollot, who worked with Rechan at Cognos, IBM and Solace – will lean heavily on Rechan’s expertise as they prepare to hire a vice-president of sales and craft a “playbook” to help new sales reps hit the ground running. Creating an effective sales training program is easier said than done, Ujjainwalla explains. While he and co-founders Brendan Farnand and Patrick Proulx know the business inside out, translating that knowledge – and Knak’s unique value proposition – to others in a way that resonates can be a struggle. “Brendan and I are both marketers who have kind of learned how to do sales, but neither of us were trained sellers,” Ujjainwalla says. “When you’re a founder, you kind of take that stuff for granted – it’s just in your head. It’s getting that out of your head and into your sales team’s arsenal.” Rechan, he says, “knows the people, process and tech that you need to get that done.” In addition, Knak’s newest mentor brings a toolkit full of intangibles that include an “ability to get people fired up,” Ujjainwalla adds. “He’s a good motivator. I remember always looking forward to his all-hands presentations at Cognos. He’s a unique guy, and he’s pretty inspiring.” Rechan now resides in Naples, Fla., where he runs his own consulting firm and sits on several boards. He still returns to Ottawa on occasion, and Ujjainwalla jokes that he’ll probably turn to the sharp-dressed Rechan for sage counsel on more than just sales and revenue growth. “I hope to get some fashion tips from him as well,” he says with a laugh. Meanwhile, Knak is set to expand its footprint at its headquarters on Gurdwara Road in Ottawa’s south end, where it currently occupies 13,000 square feet and plans to add another 5,000 square feet with room for an additional 30 employees. Ujjainwalla says Knak remains well-funded after raising US$25 million in venture capital in 2021. Finding skilled talent is a little easier now than it was a couple of years ago during the tech hiring boom, he adds, but other challenges abound – among them how to effectively integrate artificial intelligence into Knak’s software. “We’re trying to use it internally; we’re trying to build it into our products,” Ujjainwalla says. “But it’s so new and there are so many unknowns. We’re very fortunate in that a few of our customers are the companies that are building the AI, and we’re actually working with those companies to build out our generative AI capabilities. So I feel we have a bit of an advantage there, but it’s a constantly changing environment. “It’s like any startup. We’re doing a lot of stuff for the first time, and there’s still lots of trial and error.”