Accelerate Okanagan mission is to give new and growing businesses in the technology industry the levels of competence, connections and community they need to thrive locally, and be recognized internationally.
Client Spotlight highlights AO Program client successes, challenges and entrepreneurial insights.
Ever wonder what happens to your email after you hit send? Launched in 2012, bananatag.com enables users to track their emails, so they know when, where and how a contact has interacted with their message.
Accelerate Okanagan shines the spotlight this month on Program client, Corey Wagner, Co-Founder and CEO of Bananatag.
What made you decide to become an entrepreneur?
I had the opportunity to start a water bottling business in Swaziland, which is where I realized that I loved building new things.
How did the idea for your business come about?
I was working in a sales role and we were struggling with knowing whether or not people had clicked links in our emails. I spoke with a friend, Isaac Oslund (one of the Bananatag Co-Founders), and after he created a simple system to solve our pain we realized there was so much more going on beyond what we were originally interested in.
Tell us about your product:
Bananatag tracks your emails right from your email client so you know when people have opened your emails or clicked links in them. We give you analytics on the emails sent straight from your email program.
What problem do you solve for your customer?
We have a couple different customer types. For individuals and sales teams we help deliver analytics so they can take the next best step in the sales process.
We also help larger organizations measure the success of their internal communications, so they can improve messaging and measure the success of their efforts.
How has AO helped accelerate your growth?
There are way too many things to list. We definitely wouldn't be where we are today without AO. Coaching, connections, partners have all been great.
As an entrepreneur, what keeps you up at night?
Trying to figure out where we can find great people to join the Bananatag team.
What's the value of being involved in the tech community?
It sounds selfish, but every time we get involved we get something back. Who wouldn't want to be involved? It's great!
Bananatag team. (Photo Credit: contributed.)
What advice would you give aspiring entrepreneurs?
Ask for advice. I feel like we were pretty good at it, but we definitely still wasted a lot of time figuring out lessons other people already knew.
How has being an entrepreneur impacted your family, social life, or relationships?
In the early days it was pretty rough; we basically sacrificed all of the above to get things going. As our team grows we've tried to sneak in a little more work/life balance for ourselves.
What have been some of your challenges and what have you learned from them?
Way too many to pick a couple. Similar to the questions about advice, I think what we keep on learning is the value of sound advice. Every challenge you face has someone who's already been through it. Whether it's customer acquisition, funding, revenue generation, there are people with experience you can lean on and you should take advantage of it.
What are 3 attributes needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
Be determined
Be able to recognize/hire great people
Be coachable
What roles are you looking to add to your growing team?
Great People. We almost always have roles for great people.
Officially:
Business Development/Sales Reps
Developers
Tech support
How would you describe the work culture and environment at Bananatag?
Bananatag is a casual and friendly environment full of talented individuals that are focused on growth, teamwork and winning!
Who do you look to for mentorship and advice?
AO has been great and we've been able to get mentorship/advice from AO Executive’s in Residence mentors (EIR's) as well as other companies in their programs.
What's next for your company?
We're going to be growing a lot in the next little while, so there are a lot of great things on the horizon. Stay tuned!
Corey from Bananatag. (Photo Credit: contributed.)
In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.
Excitinglychallengingfun
Bananatag has been a Venture Acceleration Program client since 2012. For more information about Accelerate Okanagan Programs, please click here.
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