What does “Think Bigger” mean to you?

Startups and scaling ventures are constantly pushing to “think bigger.” Having a steady belief in one’s ability to think big, scale and succeed, is a common driving force for ventures that see success and build innovations that change industries. For Canadian company CondoWorks, “think bigger” has become its theme. This motivation propelled Co-Founders, Braedon Hebert and Erik Levinson, to create CondoWorks, an accounts payable Software as a Service (SaaS) that is already sweeping through North America as a leading technology for property management companies.  

CondoWorks online software replaces traditional paper-based accounts payable (AP) processes and the need for manual data entry, offering users an AP automation platform that allows invoices to be easily processed and paid. Built with property management in mind, the technology addresses the additional complexities of high invoice volume, multiple stakeholders and the need to keep accurate financial records across multiple properties. “In this industry, we have to unlock the doors of the people who are eager to be early adopters of new technology,” says Hebert. “General aversion to technology in this industry means that we needed to lean on those willing to adopt the technology to build proof points that demonstrate our impact on the property management processes.” More than doubling its customer base in the past six months, CondoWorks has successfully gained traction in the industry, providing a tool that compliments the systems that have been propelling property management forward and integrating with nine different accounting systems to allow users to seamlessly consolidate their workload into this game-changing SaaS.

CondoWorks is a recent i.d.e.a Fund recipient. Supported by a $10-million Government of Canada investment through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), the i.d.e.a. Fund is led by Innovation Guelph in partnership with five Regional Innovation Centres (RICs): WETechAlliance, Haltech, Innovate Niagara, Innovation Factory and TechAlliance of Southwestern Ontario. The program helps high-potential ventures access the tools they need to succeed by providing financial and business advisory supports to develop or redesign products, services, processes, and technologies that reduce impacts on the environment and create made-in-Canada solutions. 

“Our goals are geographic and horizontal expansion. We got our start in condo management, but we want to expand further because we know that our product can be implemented in a variety of other-use cases. We’re now asking ourselves what the longer-term goals are and what potential we have to scale and build,” says Hebert. With “thinking big” steering the CondoWorks team into a successful and forthcoming 2023, the company has started unlocking new doors through its i.d.e.a Fund project that will further accelerate its traction. Other project goals include customer acquisition and go-to-market strategy. In hiring a new full-time employee for sales and customer acquisition, the CondoWorks team has since expanded into Quebec, offering a French-language version of its SaaS, secured its first U.S. customer (and subsequently four more) and utilized the i.d.e.a Fund to power its future growth. 

Evolving into a fintech payments company within an accounts payable solution, CondoWorks’ customers will continue to feel the inherent value of digital systematizing of these once grueling and time-consuming property management processes. “One of the key success metrics for CondoWorks has been its evolutionary software,” says Aman Samra, Startup Advisor at TechAlliance and CondoWorks’ dedicated advisor. “The company’s ability to continue innovating and implementing new and advanced tools into its software means that customers are consistently getting the best product available. The Co-Founders’ malleability and forward-thinking approach to their SaaS technology is inspiring to witness and something all founders should harness and be inspired by.”

Currently nearing the end of a seed funding round, the CondoWorks team is focused on fundraising and strategic growth, challenging themselves to think bigger—beyond Ontario, beyond condos and beyond property management. 

To learn more about CondoWorks or request a demo of their platform, go to www.condoworks.co

To learn more about the i.d.e.a Fund, go to techalliance.ca/idea-fund

To learn more about FedDev Ontario, go to https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/feddev-ontario/en