Founder Spotlight: Michael & Mathew (Slickspaces) — Revolutionizing Guest Services Space One Community at a Time
I had the great pleasure of spending time with Slickspaces in Vancouver. Both the team and the business illuminated as community business leaders of tomorrow.
Founders, Michael and Mathew, came together to join forces on 1 mission: to revolutionize the guest services space in a unique way. Michael (CEO) sprouted as a serial entrepreneur since the age of 10. Learning key operations from his past businesses paved the way tosuccess for Slickspaces from Day 1.
Mathew, Chief Technology Officer, leads the product and is equally strong in software and hardware. I had the opportunity to sit down with each of them to discuss their different takes on entrepreneurship today and what tips they would give others who are starting out.
“Coachability, an ability to learn on the fly and perseverance are key traits of great entrepreneurs. Matt has them all plus a deep knowledge of trends in the short term rental market.”— Clay Braziller, Advisor
Go grab your coffee and check out their live interviews.
About Slickspaces:
“Travel, sustainability and technology had a baby” — Slickspaces.com
SlickSpaces’ founders were both working towards a separate yet shared vision. To make travel accommodations easier to get into (they hate lines and looking for keys) and more sustainable (they really hate wasting energy). With backgrounds in building sustainability and technology integration they’ve created something that fulfils both of their dreams.
“Well positioned for success in the mushrooming short-term rental industry, Michael and his fellow founders have already distinguished Slickspaces by developing a paradigm-shifting solution to a critical challenge through their ability to listen to and follow his customer’s needs.” — David Dunnison, President & CEO at Global PVQ Canada, Harvard Business School.
About the team and environment:
When I arrived at their Vancouver headquarter, I noticed they had the opportunity to be surrounded by other community supporters such as BC Tech. Slickspaces won this great office space in a previous competition. One thing that I noticed about Slickspaces is their growing team and many moving parts. Slickspaces deal with both hardware and software. Because I got to walk into such a dynamic environment, I did a series of insightful interviews with the Founders that can be found here!
“Michael has a very clear vision on how technology will solve some fundamental pain points in the short term accommodation market. Michael possesses a combination of both industry and market knowledge and technical savvy that’s been key in Slickspace’s early development and market intro. It’s impressive to see the customer engagement the team have made in such a short period of time.” -Andy Edelmeier, President of Braemar West Capital
What does this company’s typical day look like:
Mornings:
· Gets to work at 6am
· Operational: Team meetings to discuss specific objectives such as contracts & upgrading to powerful accounting/CRM/etc.. software tools.
· Product: Focus product direction on scalability and channel distribution for Slickspaces’ future. This was handled by the CTO.
· Other: Work on tasks for the competition
Afternoons:
· Operational: Work on new community grants for their stage
· Other: Meetings with mentors to review upcoming presentation, business analytics, and content.
Evenings:
· Operational: Share feedback from individual meetings, discuss upcoming tasks for new hires.
Next Milestone
Bringing disruptive global innovation one community at a time has shone the spotlight onto Slickspaces.
Slickspaces just entered the BC New Ventures competition 2017, a 13 week competition. Their beta is making impressive footprints within the short term rental industry across North America. If you are in property management, be sure to keep updated on their leaps of achievements via their social media: Twitter and Facebook. Their direct contacts are listed below.
In conclusion, after spending time with this energetic team, it was clear that Canadian companies like this can achieve greatness by doing good.
Contact info: Michael Driedger and Mathew Hunter
Email: info@slickspaces.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-driedger-06363a13/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathewhunter/
Website: https://www.slickspaces.com/
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