Lessons in scaling from Vancouver startups

Vancouver’s tech ecosystem has seen significant growth in recent years — with the number of workers increasing by 88 percent between 2019 and 2023. But, its prowess in innovation isn’t new. The region’s contributions to advancing gaming, quantum computing, AI, cleantech, and other sectors span decades. 

The organizations behind them include Electronic Arts, which transformed gaming through cinematic storytelling with best-selling franchises like FIFA; D-Wave, which created the first commercially available quantum computer; and UBC, which ranks second in Canada for AI publications. Newer companies making headways include Clio, one of the early cloud-based legal practice management solutions and the first unicorn of its kind; Sanctuary AI, the maker of the world’s first human-like intelligence in general-purpose robots; and Moment Energy, the only North American company to secure a certification for using old EV batteries in energy storage systems.

What these emerging startups have in common, aside from their breakthroughs, is that they’ve grown to over 100 employees just a few years after their founding. This achievement stands in contrast to the majority of startups in Metro Vancouver. According to a 2024 report by the economic development service Invest Vancouver, an estimated 2.6 percent of tech firms employ 100 people or more, and only 20 employ 500 or more. These numbers highlight the region’s scaling challenge, which is cited as one of the pressing areas in which it falls behind other hubs.

This issue isn’t unique to Vancouver; it’s widespread across the country. One of the reasons is the shortage of sales talent making it difficult for companies to expand to a world-class size. Helping to address this gap in our very own backyard is The Bullpen, a tech sales consulting firm founded by sales veteran and former Slack and Zoom executive Theo Yeung. With a longstanding track record of driving ARR — including from $500,000 to $9.6 million — Yeung left the comfort of the corporate world to apply his experience growing U.S. unicorns to scale Canadian startups.

Now, Bullpen has established itself as one of the top North American firms. The company has significantly expanded alongside its clients, achieving a 7x revenue increase over the past three years. With many of its partners being local pre-seed-to-Series A startups, Yeung sat down with the Vancouver Tech Journal to share insights and takeaways for early-stage companies, drawing on examples from Vancouver’s leading startups.

Let’s start with your experience at Slack and Zoom. What strategies can early-stage startups learn from, and what should they approach differently?

Zoom and Slack, of course, have massive customer bases. If they want to test a new product or idea, they can just tap into that base and ask, “Would this feature be useful?” or “Would this change be an improvement?”

Early-stage startups don’t have that kind of luxury. What usually happens is these companies rely on their team or network to figure out what to build or change. The problem is, without feedback from the people who would actually benefit from using the product — and more importantly, buy it — they end up spending a lot of resources and money on roadmaps full of features that fail because it’s not what people actually want.

What I encourage startups to do is find any opportunity to do discovery and validate their assumptions — that there’s a real need and market for what they’re building. This could be through cold calls, emails, LinkedIn messages, or even attending events. Ask open-ended questions that encourage people to share more than just a simple yes or no, like “What do you think about this feature?” or “Why would you — or wouldn’t you — use it?”

The biggest validation is when someone says, “I would buy that,” instead of just, “Oh, that’s cool.” That’s the key difference — it shows the product is a must-have, not just a nice-to-have. A lot of founders have blinders on from thinking their company is going to be worth a billion dollars and then fall into the trap of mistaking interest for intent to buy, realizing too late that they should’ve talked to more people.

What shifts have you observed in the North American sales landscape over the past year that are shaping customer interactions across industries?

One of the biggest shifts we’ve seen is the move back to cold-calling. When Google and Microsoft implemented stricter limits on outbound emails — capping them at around 35 per day per account — we started seeing clients’ messages landing in spam folders or, even worse, their domains getting shut down for violating restrictions. So, we pivoted. Our outreach strategy used to be 50 percent cold-calling, 25 percent email, and 25 percent social media. Now, it’s 90 percent cold-calling, five percent email, and five percent social.

Our business has grown even more because of it. Cold calls let us gather incredible feedback from prospects — whether they’re interested or not. We find out why they would or wouldn’t use a product, what price they’re willing to pay versus what feels too expensive, and what other processes they’re looking to improve. All this data helps our clients shape their product, and for us, refine our pitch. With email, it’s way harder to qualify prospects. A lot of clients complain that fractional sales teams don’t understand their product or end up booking unqualified meetings. But with cold-calling, we can actually qualify prospects before setting up meetings.

Another shift that we’re seeing is AI fatigue. With so many companies using tools to generate emails, it’s become easy for people to recognize when they’re being contacted by a bot. No matter how polished or grammatically correct an email is, it still falls short of the human touch. They’re typically formal, indirect, or overly detailed, with blocks of text; whereas our best-performing ones are conversational, straight to the point, and fit entirely on an iPhone screen without needing to swipe. The way we approach emails is different too. Many AI tools are designed to try and secure a meeting immediately with one email, whereas we work toward that goal through a series of personalized emails. The first aims to build trust, the second provides a relevant use case, and the third offers additional information.

What’s interesting is that we’re starting to see a preference for “non-AI,” similar to how people value non-GMO products. Six months ago, people were asking, “Do you use AI in your outreach?” But now, it’s the opposite. Clients are relieved when we tell them it’s us prospecting, emailing, and calling. It’s somewhat become a selling point for us — and our clients — to highlight that customers can interact with a real person instead of a bot.

Your team helps local pre-seed-to-Series A startups grow toward various goals. Can you share some takeaways from working with a few standout startups?

A great example is ScaleLabs, founded by Dallas Fontaine. It builds custom software to optimize workflows that off-the-shelf solutions can’t address. Many of its clients have legacy processes that are spreadsheet-heavy (think logistics, franchises, and wealth management), and much of the software available still forces them to adapt their business to the tool or juggle multiple to meet all their needs. ScaleLabs’ custom automation offering has been increasing in demand lately, as it’s added revenue for clients by over $500,000. So, it was looking for a firm with experience and a strong track record like ours to outsource prospecting.

Our team was able to jump in and take over right away. The company was booking a certain number of meetings a week, and we were doing the same number the next. Being able to match its results immediately, we wanted to take its strategy further and see where there might be wider opportunities. We validated some of the company’s assumptions and then improved its case studies, which helped to drive more leads and expand its presence in the U.S.

Initially, ScaleLab’s focus was on Canadian companies — and it still serves them — but we helped it find American companies dealing with annuities, similar to their Canadian counterparts. That led to securing more discovery projects and a 150 percent increase in its pipeline, valued at over $500,000. 

Takeaway: If you can sell to risk-averse Canadian companies, you can often replicate that success with their U.S. counterparts.

Another example is VanHack, founded by Ilya Brotzky. They’re a tech talent marketplace and recruitment platform with a community of over 500,000 tech professionals. Their services are used by startups like Neo Financial and Brex and enterprises including Deloitte and Rogers. With the economy improving, they were looking for support to scale up their offerings.

Through many calls and experimenting with different messaging, we were able to provide valuable feedback on what was working, what wasn’t, and where new pathways lie. That set them up to boost their recruiting services by connecting them with more companies needing devs that matched their talent pool. It also helped them sign 10 new partners for one of their programs that helps Canadian agencies and dev shops land more U.S. clients. With our support, VanHack has helped bring in $6 million in annual revenue for its Canadian clients.

Takeaway: It’s all about volume: finding companies that are actively hiring and then maximizing those opportunities by pitching the right value and addressing the pain points these companies are experiencing.

Rentatee, founded by Catherine Vracar, is a third example. They offer a cloud-based property management software that’s used by developers, landlords, property managers, agents, and tenants. They streamline the entire rental lifecycle — from leasing to management to maintenance and accounting — and offer perks like rental guarantees and performance tracking in areas like occupancy and rental income. The startup had previously worked with other sales firms that didn’t work out because they lacked expertise. What drew them to work with us was that our team has different specialties, including proptech. 

We were able to quickly find, and then double-down, on where the strongest market demand is. We discovered that a growing number of property managers are looking for a tool like theirs to automate tasks like credit checks and get smart recommendations on the best tenants to rent to. Now, Rentatee’s rapidly expanding across Canada and the U.S. while hiring like crazy to keep up with demand. They’ve also achieved a 170 percent increase in the number of units on their platform since partnering with us.

Takeaway: Contrary to the founders we talked about in the first question, Catherine validated her assumptions before creating features. She kept repeating that process to prioritize improvements and identify which to focus on when selling to drive growth for the company.

Is there anything else that you believe is important to share with pre-seed-to-Series A startups when it comes to scaling?

Talk to your customers — a lot of them. You gain so much insight just by having conversations, whether they buy from you or not. If they don’t, you find out why. You might also uncover new pain points they’re dealing with that you hadn’t considered.

For example, we have a customer in the U.S. that offers AI language testing. When immigration slowed down from new measures, schools had fewer tests to administer, and their market started shrinking. After speaking with a language school, they discovered a new opportunity in vocational training because B.C. now requires these schools to ensure students have English-speaking skills. That insight led them to pivot their offering.

We would’ve never found that out if we hadn’t had those conversations. It’s all about keeping the lines of communication open and understanding what’s happening on the ground. We keep prospecting, talking, and pivoting until we find the right market fit.

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