In pictures: Ottawa’s fastest-growing companies feted by business leaders

The founders and executives of some of Ottawa’s top-performing companies gathered to network, relax and celebrate each other’s success at TCC Canada’s Collaboration Centre on Elgin Street Tuesday.

OBJ’s fastest-growing companies of 2023 were feted, with 140 attendees joining for cocktails and canapes. 

Representatives from many of the 10 fastest-growing recipients, as well as dozens of other movers and shakers from Ottawa’s business community, toasted the success of the winning firms, bringing together industries as diverse as personal care products to mental health software. 

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One thing the recipients had in common was growing their company revenues at triple- to even quadruple-digit percentage rates.

“Growth like this is impressive at any time, but particularly so in these past few years of incredible challenge and uncertainty,” said OBJ editor in chief Anne Howland. “I think all of us have to give these recipients a big round of applause, and support them as they continue to navigate choppy water.”

The Fastest Growing Companies program is supported by presenting sponsor GGFL Chartered Professional Accountants, an Ottawa-based accounting firm.

Here are this year’s winners:

1. Bushbalm

Growth rate: 1,026%

Last year’s rank: 1

Bushbalm are specialists in bikini line skincare and hair removal.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in relation to the fast growth of your company?

The challenging economic times have made us pivot our business strategies. During COVID, the growth in e-commerce was rapid, but has reverted to the average in 2022. Our business was primarily focused on e-commerce, but we had to pivot to other channels. This has paid off for us in the long run, but pivoting the business model is very hard in the moment. We saw our e-commerce sales growth slowing and needed additional channel opportunities to expand and diversify. Managing multiple channels is difficult, but having only one channel can be risky.

What did you do to address it?

To diversify our channel strategy we had to look into what other opportunities existed for the brand. We opted to work on small waxing salons, as there are over 360,000 of them alone in the United States. This meant we had a big opportunity to scale the business on a larger untapped channel. We set up a small team to test the market and have since scaled it to be a much larger part of the business. In 2022, we added more than 1,000 waxing salons to our distribution model, which has been a big part of our new channel strategy. We will continue this strategy.

What has been your biggest lesson learned?

It’s critical to be a diversified business model. Although scaling one specific business model is a faster way to grow, it can also be a faster way to slow. You always need to evaluate your business and see if you have risks associated with your business model. For instance, we now have over 1,500 waxing salons selling Bushbalm products. Our risk of losing all 1,500 accounts overnight is extremely low. However, if we were with a major retailer, you can lose them all at once. Diversification is key. We’ve now added Amazon, retail stores and waxing salons, so we can manage slowing growth in our e-commerce business.

2. Noibu Technologies Inc.

Growth rate: 954%

Last year’s rank: 2

Noibu detects, prioritizes and resolves critical e-commerce errors to deliver better digital experiences and prevent lost revenue.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in relation to the fast growth of your company?

One of the significant challenges is managing the increased workload and demands of new customers. As the customer base grows, the startup must ensure that it has the necessary infrastructure and resources to meet their needs. Failure to do so can result in dissatisfied customers. Another challenge is maintaining the startup’s culture and values as it expands.

What did you do to address it?

As the company grows, it is essential to invest in scalable infrastructure and resources to meet the increased workload and demands of new customers. This can involve implementing new software, automating processes and increasing server capacity. Establishing regular team meetings, check-ins, and project management tools can help ensure that everyone is on the same page. Foster a strong culture and values by developing and communicating a clear mission statement, establishing company values, and promoting a strong sense of community and collaboration. Hire strategically by focusing on hiring employees who share the company’s values and are committed to its mission.

What has been your biggest lesson learned?

Successful startup companies understand that the business landscape is constantly changing and they need to be able to adapt quickly. This can involve pivoting the business model, adjusting the product offering, or shifting the target market based on changing customer needs and preferences. As we enter into the age of doing more with less, it is important to lean on the existing team and look for opportunities to automate.

3. Sampford Advisors

Growth rate: 817%

Last year’s rank: 8

Sampford provides mergers and acquisitions advisory services for technology companies.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in relation to the fast growth of your company?

Keeping up! Our business began to really scale just before COVID as our reputation in the Canadian marketplace began to grow and then COVID gave it a further boost by really accelerating software mergers and acquisitions. Being able to staff up with the right team members that fit the existing culture has always been our biggest challenge, but it was even more prevalent during COVID because of a lack of talent and how quickly we had to scale compared to previous years when we had time to anticipate staffing needs. This is especially the case given we are a services business.

What did you do to address it?

We built relationships with Carleton University and the University of Ottawa and increased our presence on campus by doing various teach-ins, speeches and presentations. We also established a more formal internship program so that we could hire full-time positions more consistently from former interns. In particular, we made use of Ottawa U’s and Carleton’s co-op programs to recruit for internships all year round (versus just recruiting summer interns).

What has been your biggest lesson learned?

Always be recruiting for new talent.  Even if we have no new open positions, we are always building a pipeline of candidates that we can leverage if we need to. We are also continuing to hire interns/co-ops every semester so that we can get their help in managing peaks in workload, and recruiting for future positions. Instead of using interviews and other testing, we can work with someone for four months.

4. Fellow

Growth rate: 729%

Last year’s rank: New in 2023

Fellow is where teams gather to have productive team meetings and meaningful one-on-ones.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in relation to the fast growth of your company?

In order to sustain our growth rate, we need to focus on moving up-market. While our lead flow has been steadily increasing, it hasn’t been growing as fast as we would like. Additionally, the law of large numbers means that we need to expand into larger deals to continue our momentum. Although we closed a $100K+ deal last year, we have yet to replicate that success. To achieve this, we are targeting companies that have initiated proactive measures to solve the meeting problem.

What did you do to address it?

To successfully move up-market, we need a comprehensive go-to-market approach. Our marketing team is working on defining and targeting our ideal customer profiles to better resonate with mid-market customers. We are also launching new initiatives to increase our lead count in this segment. To aid these efforts, we are hiring a VP of marketing with experience in navigating this stage of growth. Our sales team is evolving to cater to mid-market customers, who require a more strategic approach.

What has been your biggest lesson learned?

Overcoming challenges in outbound and top-down selling. During the category-creation stage, it can be difficult to sell to mid-market and enterprise-sized organizations since they typically lack a designated “company meeting owner” at the executive level. While they may have owners for other areas like task management or customer relationship management, the meeting problem is often treated as an ad-hoc initiative. Our focus is on inbound strategies to attract customers who are seeking solutions.

5. Food Cycle Science Corporation

Growth rate: 426%

Last year’s rank: 6

Food Cycle is the inventor of the FoodCycler, the science-backed solution to food waste.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in relation to the fast growth of your company?

Maintaining our company culture is a crucial part of our growth strategy. We recognize that, as we scale, it becomes increasingly difficult to preserve the unique values and culture that helped to propel us to success in the first place. Moreover, striking a delicate balance between seizing new opportunities and staying focused on our mission and core objectives is essential.

What did you do to address it?

We continually reinforce our core values to maintain a strong culture, ensuring every employee understands and embodies them. We know that hiring plays a vital role in preserving and enhancing our company culture, so we take the process very seriously. When recruiting new employees and looking at skills and qualifications, we also consider whether they will fit our company culture well. While there may be pressure to hire quickly to keep up with the demands of a growing business, we take the time to find the right candidates.

What has been your biggest lesson learned?

We must build and protect a company culture that empowers people to take calculated risks while embracing failure and seeing it as the learning opportunity that it is. By building and protecting our strong company culture, we can foster an environment that encourages bold ideas, creative solutions, diligence and focus. Ultimately, success comes from finding the intersection between passion, societal need and economic viability.

6. Sidi.io

Growth rate: 426%

Last year’s rank: 7

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in relation to the fast growth of your company?

We have been focused on building the infrastructure to support our growth. The challenge we have faced is remaining nimble, efficient and people-centric while we grow. It is easy to get distracted by policies, procedures and processes. While those are necessary tools for building and maintaining a stable company, it is essential to put people, performance and profit at the core. With growth comes a slew of challenges and opportunities from which to learn.

What did you do to address it?

Remaining humble and maintaining a beginner’s mindset keeps us grounded, which is important to ensure we scale responsibly. We have levelled up tremendously as professionals by investing in training and leadership development. While it is imperative for any scaling company to build out its infrastructure, we have recognized that the people — our team, clients and partners — truly fuel our growth. We are doubling down on people and investing in their success, which in turn helps Sidi.io to thrive.

What has been your biggest lesson learned?

As Sidi.io grows, it is of paramount importance for us to stay focused on our “why.” Our priority is to play a fundamental role in the revenue growth of our clients by effectively leveraging digital marketing to generate tangible business opportunities for them. By connecting our clients with their prospects, we are not only helping our clients to grow their business, we are also improving the quality of life of their customers. We have learned and are constantly reminded that being laser-focused on people directly correlates to rapid growth. The goal is to never lose sight of this as we continue to scale.

7. Aydin CPA Professional Corp.

Growth rate: 317%

Last year’s rank: new this year

Aydin is a small local CPA company in Stittsville.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in relation to the fast growth of your company?

What did you do to address it?When we first started the business, it was mostly referral by word of mouth and demands were easily met as we were a small startup business. Once our company became more well-known over time, especially during tax seasons, our business development picked up speed with many new interested clients in our services, as well as current clients who are expanding in their operations with different needs. Despite our excellent clientele growth, we didn’t have enough team members to meet the needs of our clients.

To meet the demands of our rapidly growing business, we expanded our team to ensure that our business would operate at its best. We worked hard and effectively, which is why we were able to accomplish this rapid growth. Being an entrepreneur requires love and passion because your performance will reflect these qualities. We have also fulfilled one of our goals to establish our own office to serve our clients to the best of our abilities. Determination has proven to us that goals can be achieved and that we will continue to achieve them as we grow.

What has been your biggest lesson learned?

My biggest lesson learned is that life is full of surprises and the key to success and growth is believing in yourself to achieve your goals. When setting goals, it is beneficial to define a clear and concise vision and then define the mindset, behaviours and actions that will take you there. In order to do that, you must leave your comfort zone. As they say: “A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.” Never allow failure to discourage your goals and always chase your dreams.

8. TryCycle Data Systems Inc.

Growth rate: 315%

Last year’s rank: new this year

TryCycle is a digital mental health software company.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in relation to the fast growth of your company?

Focus. As a company you have a really good feeling that you know you are doing the right thing in the right markets when your product has application in many other market verticals. The challenge is sticking to building out those use cases without being distracted and spreading yourself out to try and be everything to everyone. Those slight course changes can compound and send you off in the wrong direction.

What did you do to address it?

Number one was to listen to your core, key customers and find out how you can help them solve their problems. Being a great listener and attentively picking up cues for how we can be a creative solution provider really helps build out a product that is valued in your market vertical. As with most startups, you need to do what you can to extend the cash runway. Get creative with selling solutions, look at different avenues to get cash in the door from a variety of sources. Having a product that your customer values also has an advantage where they are willing to pay for customization and development.

What has been your biggest lesson learned?

The team and the team’s belief in the mission is paramount. Having an engaged team that has low turnover allows you to continue your mission in your market with consistency. Building a culture that is exciting and people want to be a part of not only gives the benefit of continuity in your company’s mission, but also has the benefit of a group of people committed to the same mission. A large part of that belief in the mission comes from knowing you are providing value to customers.

9. Purecolo

Growth rate: 234%

Last year’s rank: 10

Purecolo is a no-frills co-location facility offering data centre space and uptime peace of mind to clients.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in relation to the fast growth of your company?

What did you do to address it?Uncertainty! With trades/materials in short supply and an elongated build window, we need to plan out demand months in advance. As many companies are uncertain about the future in these market conditions, it has made it hard to grow, as we also need to grow responsibly and not just spend whatever it takes to grow. Many companies will look to capture revenue at all costs, but it is important to run and grow things sustainably, a core fundamental of our business and mission.

We have leaned on the resale market for a lot of our high-cost capital expenditures to ensure that we are getting the best bang for our buck, while also saving the environment by diverting equipment from landfill and not consuming new raw materials to make new appliances for our use. We also work closely with our clients to ensure that their growth is mapped and verified so that we have a very good line of sight on what current and future growth will be. While rose-coloured glasses work great for visionaries seeking a Series A, we prefer to run a fine-toothed comb through our projections to ensure they are real and not just a potential dream.

What has been your biggest lesson learned?

One of the biggest lessons we learned this year was the importance of legacy planning. One of our trusted partner organizations had a “lynchpin” employee suffer a stroke and ultimately put some of our growth projects on a delay because all of the knowledge that person brought to their organization was lost. While this is only a minor headache to our growth, it stressed the importance of sharing the load and ensuring there are plans in place to move forward should the worst and unexpected happen.

10. Knak

Growth rate: 212%

Last year’s rank: new this year

Knak provides codeless email and landing page creation for enterprise teams.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in relation to the fast growth of your company?

Finding, training and retaining top talent is our biggest challenge. The talent market has gone through some volatility recently, which has made it more difficult to pull top talent from other organizations. With the fast growth that we have had at Knak, training at scale has become more difficult and we have had to put more time and resources into developing our training program. We have a big organization with a lot of teams that all require different types of training. Between the Great Resignation and the looming recession, we have been looking for new ways to keep employee happiness and engagement high to keep attrition low.

What did you do to address it?

What has been your biggest lesson learned?We have hired internal recruiters and trained them on how to find top talent and widen their talent pools. We have implemented an automation tooling system to help us track our interviews and score our candidates better. We have also honed our interview process to make sure we are getting the best out of people to determine their talent and culture fit for our organization. Onboarding is critical here at Knak as it sets the tone for the employee journey. We are currently working on developing training programs for our executives and all people leaders here at Knak.

It’s all about the people. We have a people first culture and have worked extremely hard to maintain this as we grow. We don’t want to lose what makes Knak such a special place to work. That being said, working at a startup is difficult. There are many ebbs and flows and sometimes you need to make tough decisions for the betterment of the team.

Photos by Mark Holleron.