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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to Calgary's podcast with Mario Tanaguse on Canada's podcast network.
[00:12] SPEAKER_02: Joining me today is Nikhil Sonpal, who is the founder and CEO of Mobility Quotient in Calgary.
[00:20] SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us today, Nick.
[00:22] SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me, Mario.
[00:23] SPEAKER_02: Well, let me just start by asking you, Nick, what is Mobility Quotient and what do you guys do?
[00:30] SPEAKER_00: It's a product search engine for local businesses.
[00:34] SPEAKER_00: So the idea is it's Google local.
[00:37] SPEAKER_00: It's the convenience of using something like Amazon from an app or web perspective.
[00:43] SPEAKER_00: But we connect you to local shoppers.
[00:46] SPEAKER_00: So shoppers don't have to do anything to be on the site.
[00:48] SPEAKER_00: We use the same kind of technology that Google does to be able to get your products indexed.
[00:54] SPEAKER_00: But we have a proprietary AI driven cataloging system that allows you now to run your e-commerce site as you would have it.
[01:02] SPEAKER_00: But you don't have to do anything to be able to get that digital traffic to your site.
[01:07] SPEAKER_00: The key for us is to help you find local.
[01:11] SPEAKER_00: So you can keep buying local.
[01:13] SPEAKER_02: How important is that in these days and these competitive days, I guess, in the market?
[01:20] SPEAKER_00: That's a good question.
[01:21] SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you look at what my wife has been doing for last year, she's been doing a lot of online shopping.
[01:26] SPEAKER_00: And we look at our friends that live within our community.
[01:30] SPEAKER_00: Small business in my opinion remains the soul of a community.
[01:35] SPEAKER_00: And we've seen them go through very hard times.
[01:37] SPEAKER_00: And part of it is they've been trusted into an ecosystem that they are unaware of or now have to be suddenly become experts in.
[01:46] SPEAKER_00: And the challenge becomes how do I go and shop at a local store and know what the trinkets are that they're selling that are unique to that store that have a history or a story behind it.
[01:56] SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it exists.
[01:58] SPEAKER_00: So what we do fall to is open an app and search through it and find something that we can quickly browse through press a button and order it and it gets delivered.
[02:08] SPEAKER_00: That's fantastic from a convenience perspective, but I think detrimental to small business as we've seen it.
[02:14] SPEAKER_00: So it certainly did not start off as a philanthropic initiative.
[02:19] SPEAKER_00: But the idea here is to really help consumers find local product because I don't unlike many people now.
[02:27] SPEAKER_00: We don't refer to what our parents did or grants parents did with yellow pages.
[02:32] SPEAKER_00: We don't look for businesses.
[02:33] SPEAKER_00: We're looking for products and they happen to be at these businesses and then we'll go through this transactional relationship with them.
[02:41] SPEAKER_00: But oftentimes if it's a small business, there are neighbors.
[02:45] SPEAKER_00: And so that's the key.
[02:47] SPEAKER_02: You know, a lot of businesses, you know, obviously have to get into the digital world these days or else they're toast really, right?
[02:57] SPEAKER_02: If you're if you're not.
[02:59] SPEAKER_02: But I don't think they understand or what's totally involved, right?
[03:05] SPEAKER_02: They just think set up a website, put some products on and do some online shopping.
[03:10] SPEAKER_02: They think there's a lot of not to use the word badly, but ignorance in this area, so to speak.
[03:17] SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't say it's ignorance. I think it's just it's it's a new experience.
[03:23] SPEAKER_00: And if you're a business owner, you understand your product.
[03:26] SPEAKER_00: There's there's a history behind similar to everything that you have behind you or that I have behind me here.
[03:32] SPEAKER_00: There's a story behind it. There's a reason why we have it on our walls.
[03:36] SPEAKER_00: There's there's emotion attached to it.
[03:38] SPEAKER_00: And so as a business owner, that's what you're passionate about. That's what you're focused on.
[03:44] SPEAKER_00: Suddenly what the rules have changed on us.
[03:48] SPEAKER_00: And it's not like it was a gradual process.
[03:50] SPEAKER_00: Ecommerce has been around for many years. I started my career in the dot com era.
[03:55] SPEAKER_00: I've seen firsthand how digital has evolved.
[03:59] SPEAKER_00: I found that this company MQ, 10, a little over 10 years ago for that purpose to help organizations go through what is now being dubbed as the D.
[04:08] SPEAKER_00: Digital transformation. It seems that technology companies like coming up with new buzzwords every couple of years to keep it fresh.
[04:13] SPEAKER_00: But I think the fundamentals remain the same.
[04:16] SPEAKER_00: And something now, the rules that used to work no longer apply.
[04:22] SPEAKER_00: So digital is now suddenly in this, what used to be science fiction is now becoming reality.
[04:28] SPEAKER_00: And for many small businesses, it's the difference between existing and not.
[04:31] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
[04:33] SPEAKER_02: If you go back in time and just curious, why you started the company and what got you into this area.
[04:42] SPEAKER_00: Well, it's a little bit of an interesting narrative.
[04:46] SPEAKER_00: So I think as many folks have engaged in cycling, I did as well.
[04:51] SPEAKER_00: I did from a mental health perspective.
[04:54] SPEAKER_00: It's certainly been a challenge working from home with two little ones that I have.
[04:58] SPEAKER_00: Mine are five and two. And my daughter, whose two is going on 15. She's the boss.
[05:05] SPEAKER_00: So I love it. You know, I have to say it was quite a quite a adjustment for her to be coming on my Zoom calls every morning with my team.
[05:14] SPEAKER_00: And wanting to say hi. And then she's okay. If she doesn't get a chance, then she's shall we say an unhappy customer for the rest of the day.
[05:24] SPEAKER_00: But it's been it's been challenging.
[05:28] SPEAKER_00: And mentally for me as an entrepreneur.
[05:31] SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, we can certainly dive into that later in the segment. I'm sure.
[05:35] SPEAKER_00: But for my sanity, I wanted to do some cycling to get out there and do some physical exercise.
[05:39] SPEAKER_00: I've been an avid mountain bike for many years.
[05:42] SPEAKER_00: I put it aside for my children and trying to spend time with them logistics and all of that.
[05:46] SPEAKER_00: But now that I'm working from home for a large portion of it as many folks are, I started cycling.
[05:53] SPEAKER_00: So fast forward come winter.
[05:55] SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to really stay inside. So I got myself a fat bike.
[05:59] SPEAKER_00: I engaged in cycling over winter, which I thought I would never do.
[06:03] SPEAKER_00: It's been fantastic. And I love it. I am sold.
[06:07] SPEAKER_00: Then I fell. I broke two ribs in January 6th.
[06:11] SPEAKER_00: And so my wife said, well, what are you going to do now? You need a hobby?
[06:14] SPEAKER_00: And I said, well, what does any tech person do when they're down and out for the count for eight weeks?
[06:20] SPEAKER_00: They'll just build another app.
[06:21] SPEAKER_00: And so I sat there and I thought, OK, I'll look for products that are going to help me once I'm back up on the seat, be able to start riding my bike again.
[06:33] SPEAKER_00: And lo and behold, I go to Google and try start to find cycling products in Calgary.
[06:39] SPEAKER_00: And it tells me that there's only two large institutions in Calgary that sell biking products.
[06:44] SPEAKER_00: And I know that to be inaccurate.
[06:47] SPEAKER_00: So I started going through looking at these individual site and I said, gee, wouldn't it be nice if there was something out there that would aggregate all this information for me?
[06:59] SPEAKER_00: Expedia did it for the travel industry.
[07:02] SPEAKER_00: Why don't we do something like that for for local businesses?
[07:06] SPEAKER_00: And so that's how the idea involved evolved.
[07:09] SPEAKER_00: And we had the first version out March 1st.
[07:12] SPEAKER_00: And then I wanted to make sure that the products that we brought brought to market.
[07:16] SPEAKER_00: And that included a web website and an app for both Apple and Android.
[07:22] SPEAKER_00: Because those are the two effective marketing channels along with web.
[07:26] SPEAKER_00: So we want to make sure it was accessible.
[07:28] SPEAKER_00: It was easy.
[07:30] SPEAKER_00: And just as it's a household name for shopping or for traveling part of me, which is Expedia, I want to do the same thing for shopping.
[07:37] SPEAKER_00: And so that's how it that's how it started.
[07:39] SPEAKER_00: And we did our press release on April 12th.
[07:42] SPEAKER_00: And it's been it's been fantastic.
[07:43] SPEAKER_00: We're just north of 400 stores now on the site and approaching.
[07:49] SPEAKER_00: I think 450,000 products across 20 communities that we've looked at.
[07:56] SPEAKER_00: And we're on target at this pace looking at it.
[07:58] SPEAKER_00: It's May 7th.
[07:59] SPEAKER_00: We should have crossed the million product threshold before the month is out.
[08:06] SPEAKER_02: So just as an aside, I know your experience was a bad one, but I kind of chuckle because I said,
[08:14] SPEAKER_02: Oh, so my mind is going, oh, so that he's one of those crazy guys.
[08:19] SPEAKER_02: I see sometimes out there riding their bikes in the winter.
[08:23] SPEAKER_00: You know, I never thought I would be that guy.
[08:25] SPEAKER_00: My brother-in-law is a avid bikeer.
[08:28] SPEAKER_00: He's been for many years.
[08:29] SPEAKER_00: And he rides in the dead of winter.
[08:31] SPEAKER_00: And I thought he was absolutely insane.
[08:33] SPEAKER_00: And then having now experienced it is amazing for the location that we're at for the scenery is just majestic.
[08:42] SPEAKER_00: And to have the sun beating down at minus 10 with snow, no bugs.
[08:48] SPEAKER_00: It's that's a serene.
[08:50] SPEAKER_00: It is it is almost meditation on wheels.
[08:52] SPEAKER_00: I thoroughly enjoy it.
[08:55] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, excellent.
[08:56] SPEAKER_02: Hey, I just wanted to ask you.
[08:58] SPEAKER_02: So what is so co-local?
[09:02] SPEAKER_00: So the name.
[09:04] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[09:05] SPEAKER_00: So so co means market in Swahili.
[09:09] SPEAKER_00: So I was born and raised in Kenya.
[09:12] SPEAKER_00: And Swahili in Swahili, Soko means marketplace.
[09:15] SPEAKER_00: It's a gathering place in old school traditional back in the heyday place where there was commerce and and community is where Soko.
[09:26] SPEAKER_00: That's what Soko was about.
[09:28] SPEAKER_00: And for me, I really wanted that essence to carry forward because a lot of business owners have we've been chatting with over the last few weeks.
[09:36] SPEAKER_00: And the first question is, what is this?
[09:40] SPEAKER_00: So we explained it to them.
[09:41] SPEAKER_00: It's a search engine for local products will index your store and they said, how much does it cost?
[09:48] SPEAKER_00: And we said, it's free.
[09:50] SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
[09:50] SPEAKER_00: What is the catch?
[09:51] SPEAKER_00: How do you make money?
[09:53] SPEAKER_00: And I said, well, we make money like any other search engine.
[09:56] SPEAKER_00: The expectation is preferred or preferential positioning, but I have very heavy emphasis.
[10:01] SPEAKER_00: Critical emphasis on local.
[10:02] SPEAKER_00: So your local business, I can't have a different business in Toronto or Vancouver overtake your position in Calgary.
[10:10] SPEAKER_00: It's impossible.
[10:11] SPEAKER_00: The architecture does not allow it.
[10:13] SPEAKER_00: And they're a flabbergasted that something like that is available and is present for them.
[10:20] SPEAKER_00: So and that to me really brings me validation as an entrepreneur because I often feel like we need that to say that we're doing something that does hopefully make a difference.
[10:30] SPEAKER_00: Because we do have to get quite engaged and and and passion into the business itself for it to to move through because many folks think we're possessed or insane or both.
[10:42] SPEAKER_00: So so called local is local marketplace.
[10:45] SPEAKER_00: That's effectively what it translates to.
[10:47] SPEAKER_02: Okay, super.
[10:49] SPEAKER_02: Tell me what you like about being an entrepreneur.
[10:56] SPEAKER_00: I've been asked this question many times and I think my answer change is depending on when it's asked because that is the true representation.
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: I feel of being an entrepreneur.
[11:08] SPEAKER_00: It is an ebb and flow emotion that is attached to being a business owner.
[11:14] SPEAKER_00: The one thing I say that really empowers me when I wake up in the morning and I don't get much sleep.
[11:21] SPEAKER_00: It's usually about four hours, three and a half four hours.
[11:26] SPEAKER_00: Is to see folks grow in their position.
[11:31] SPEAKER_00: They join a small company.
[11:33] SPEAKER_00: They have these idealistic views of being able to make a difference and being able to do that.
[11:39] SPEAKER_00: And they can they can see that.
[11:42] SPEAKER_00: Large organizations you tend to be quite siloed.
[11:45] SPEAKER_00: And in a small company you can you really get to experience a lot of different different facets of the business.
[11:51] SPEAKER_00: Sometimes quite concerning, quite scary.
[11:57] SPEAKER_00: But quite quite of it quite an adrenaline rush.
[12:00] SPEAKER_00: So for me, it's about watching team members that join my organization grow and learn.
[12:07] SPEAKER_00: Things that they don't want to do.
[12:10] SPEAKER_00: And things that they're quite excited about doing and really setting their.
[12:15] SPEAKER_00: Their future for their entire career path.
[12:17] SPEAKER_00: And so being a part of that experience, I think, is quite empowering.
[12:21] SPEAKER_00: And being an entrepreneur, it allows me to be able to do that without having to navigate the political rivers that run through larger organizations.
[12:30] SPEAKER_02: True. What about on the negative side, so to speak, what don't you like about about long is your podcast.
[12:40] SPEAKER_00: No, there certainly there certainly challenges.
[12:46] SPEAKER_00: I think the biggest challenges context switching.
[12:49] SPEAKER_00: Really being able to decide the difference between what is important.
[12:55] SPEAKER_00: And what is urgent.
[12:58] SPEAKER_00: And yeah, an old boss of mine told me that.
[13:03] SPEAKER_00: That is going to be the biggest hurdle.
[13:05] SPEAKER_00: I didn't quite understand what he meant.
[13:08] SPEAKER_00: Until having run the business for a few years and said, hmm, that's, that's a challenge.
[13:13] SPEAKER_00: And I think that's, that's the biggest.
[13:18] SPEAKER_00: Learning that I'm still taking on every day is how does one balance.
[13:22] SPEAKER_00: What is critical or urgent.
[13:26] SPEAKER_00: Or perceived, I should say urgent to.
[13:29] SPEAKER_00: Is important for the business to continue.
[13:32] SPEAKER_02: So do you think a lot of entrepreneurs get.
[13:37] SPEAKER_02: Kind of sites white in what they're doing and the important things that need to be done.
[13:44] SPEAKER_02: Kind of get overtaken by stuff that really isn't important.
[13:50] SPEAKER_00: Well, I use the word perceived.
[13:53] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[13:54] SPEAKER_00: On purpose.
[13:56] SPEAKER_00: Because.
[13:57] SPEAKER_00: So as an entrepreneur, I think we fall into two categories.
[14:00] SPEAKER_00: If I were truly simplified down and perhaps it's too, too simplistic a view.
[14:05] SPEAKER_00: But I try and keep it to a point where I can remain sane is that we fall into two buckets.
[14:11] SPEAKER_00: One's that are bootstrappers.
[14:14] SPEAKER_00: And others that are venture funded.
[14:19] SPEAKER_00: Bootstrappers are like me.
[14:21] SPEAKER_00: And we wake up, we sleep like babies.
[14:24] SPEAKER_00: We wake up crying every two hours.
[14:27] SPEAKER_00: That's, that's the life of a bootstrapped entrepreneur.
[14:29] SPEAKER_00: We don't have outside funding.
[14:31] SPEAKER_00: We self-invest.
[14:32] SPEAKER_00: We have different, either it's our investments, our personal investments that drive the business.
[14:38] SPEAKER_00: Or it's reinvested within the organization self or perhaps a different PNL.
[14:43] SPEAKER_00: For venture funders or venture entrepreneurs, pardon me, they have a new boss.
[14:49] SPEAKER_00: And the boss has their own agenda.
[14:53] SPEAKER_00: Their own perceived paths to success outside of the capital investment that many make.
[15:00] SPEAKER_00: Operating ventures, operating investors have their own ideology that you need to fulfill.
[15:05] SPEAKER_00: And so as entrepreneurs now, I think in some cases, and I won't say in all, of course,
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: but I think in some cases it stifles innovation.
[15:16] SPEAKER_00: This is because you can't wake up one day and say,
[15:19] SPEAKER_00: I have a broken rib, but why don't I build an app to do a search engine for local products?
[15:25] SPEAKER_00: That would have to go through an approval process.
[15:29] SPEAKER_00: And so what happens now is that what you're passionate about the opportunities you may see.
[15:35] SPEAKER_00: Have to go through a justification process.
[15:38] SPEAKER_00: And now you're going through, you know, my boss used to say,
[15:41] SPEAKER_00: they can all be one number one priority.
[15:44] SPEAKER_00: And I believe that.
[15:45] SPEAKER_00: But it is, is it the right number one priority?
[15:48] SPEAKER_00: And I think entrepreneurs that have been blessed, that have been venture backed,
[15:52] SPEAKER_00: that have funders that they ideologically connect with, I think they're going to be in sync.
[15:58] SPEAKER_00: For entrepreneurs that don't have that, I think it's going to be a very big challenge for them.
[16:03] SPEAKER_00: And for a bootstrapers like I, the challenge becomes that I have to make sure that I am fulfilling my end of the bargain from my team.
[16:13] SPEAKER_00: And that is to make sure that they don't have to wake up every morning and worry about where their payroll is coming from.
[16:18] SPEAKER_00: Because if I can do that, that is my obligation, then I'm going to get 110% from them.
[16:24] SPEAKER_00: If I don't do that, and I still enroll them into the chaos that is an entrepreneur,
[16:31] SPEAKER_00: they're not focused on that anymore.
[16:33] SPEAKER_00: They're not focused on doing what they excel at.
[16:37] SPEAKER_00: Many folks would join a small startup and they feel like I want to be part of a startup.
[16:42] SPEAKER_00: I want to feel the energy.
[16:44] SPEAKER_00: I think what a lot of folks don't understand is that chaos.
[16:47] SPEAKER_00: There is controlled chaos.
[16:50] SPEAKER_00: And so to be able to distinguish within that chaos, critical or urgent versus important,
[16:58] SPEAKER_00: is the biggest challenge.
[17:01] SPEAKER_02: Okay, super.
[17:02] SPEAKER_02: Well, that was great.
[17:03] SPEAKER_02: Nick, I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us today.
[17:09] SPEAKER_02: Oh, thank you for having me.
[17:10] SPEAKER_02: Okay, great.
[17:11] SPEAKER_02: That was Nick Hill, a Sun Powell, who is founder and CEO of Mobility Quotient in Calgary.
[17:18] SPEAKER_02: This has been Calgary's podcast with Mario Tonoguzi on Canada's podcast network.
[17:24] SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us today.
