Janet Bannister, managing partner of Staircase Ventures.Sam Singh/The Globe and Mail
I was at McKinsey in 1999, helping launch brands online, and I realized technology was going to transform every single industry in every functional area. I called some folks in Silicon Valley and was introduced to Meg Whitman at eBay.
eBay’s business was 80% to 90% in collectibles. I was responsible for non-collectibles, and I tripled or quadrupled that business year over year.
It was doubling its employees every six months. Meg used to talk about hiring missionaries instead of mercenaries—people who cared about building eBay because of the impact it could have, as opposed to someone who’s concerned with getting to the top of the heap.
When I transferred back to Canada four years later, the first thing I did was benchmark how Canada was doing. The percentage of online Canadians going to eBay was the highest of any country, but the conversion rate was half.
I thought we needed to start a classified business built on the habits and preferences of Canadian consumers—they spent a lot of time doing research online but preferred to transact in person. The folks at eBay initially said, “No way—Craigslist is already there.” But I persevered.
eBay launched Kijiji in eight other countries, but Canada was by far the most successful, and I was promoted to global head of Kijiji.
Real Ventures was looking in 2014 to hire their first partner in Toronto. I was excited about building strong, trusted relationships with founders and working alongside them to build successful businesses.
There are three things we look for in founders: One is a growth mindset—somebody who’s always learning and wanting to get better. No. 2 is grit, resilience and hustle. Three is the ability to attract, retain and motivate outstanding people. If you can’t do that, it doesn’t matter how great you are.
You need to be able to clearly articulate a vision and help people understand why they’re important in achieving that objective. It’s about helping people be the best version of themselves by giving them the right guidance and feedback so that they can grow and excel.
We think about AI in two areas. How are companies using AI internally to make operations as efficient as possible? And how are companies using AI in their value proposition to consumers?
I worry that AI is another step that will polarize wealth, particularly in the U.S., because fewer people are benefitting from it.
Canada has produced great tech companies—you just haven’t heard of them. A lot of them are business-to-business, so they tend to be below the radar.
I meet with a dozen VCs in Silicon Valley each month, and they all say, “Janet, we want to get to know all the great Canadian tech companies, because we see great technical talent there, and the cost of building those companies is significantly less than the cost of building them in the U.S.”
We look at 2,000 companies a year. We’ll invest in four. You need to really stand out. That means having a unique vision and knowing how to achieve long-term differentiation.