Strong relationships, a good track record and customers harbouring pent-up demand for a service goes a long way in the startup game. Even when things go wrong. Just ask Bogdan Frusina, founder of Waterloo-based Dejero.
Prior to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Frusina, whose company got its start by helping news organizations move information remotely without the need for expensive satellite trucks, leveraged a relationship with CP24, the specialty cable channel, into a meeting with CTV, who wanted Dejero to help the network livestream the Olympic torch relay from one end of Canada to another. Nothing of its kind or scale had ever been attempted.
Robert Hurst, then the president of CTV news and current affairs, said something to Frusina along the lines of, “Can you do it?”
To which the then-Dejero CEO confidently replied: “Sure, we can make that work.”
The reality, as Frusina explained to an audience Tuesday at Communitech, was something quite different.
“It was a concept,” at the time, Frusina admitted. “[The technology could] barely could hold a screen for more than a couple of minutes.”
Once the relay began in Victoria, B.C., problems quickly unfolded. The technology and the bandwidth underpinning the livestream of the event failed – spectacularly.
“Nothing worked,” said Frusina. “Nothing.”
Bogdan Frusina: “Now we’re delivering connectivity into a lot of new
verticals.” (Communitech photo: Sara Jalali)
Eventually, days later, the problems were (mostly) ironed out. Relationships remained intact. And the event was, by and large, a success, one that taught the company plenty and has since helped transform Dejero into a world leader in what it calls “reliable connectivity, anywhere.”
“That’s what it’s about in the beginning – getting the opportunity,” said Frusina. “I always believed that whatever product or service, make sure there’s a customer willing to pay for it, use it, and enjoy it. If there’s not that [return on investment], it doesn’t matter what you do.”
The event Tuesday was called Pizza with the Prez, a series of occasional talks delivered by Waterloo Region’s tech leaders about their struggles and successes.
For Frusina, success first emerged in 2003, when he was asked to help provide connectivity for reporters travelling with political leaders during Canadian election campaigns. Similar to the Olympic torch relay, Frusina admitted he didn’t quite know how he’d pull it off. But he did.
Eventually, Dejero, which was formed in 2008, was able to prove to TV networks that it could dependably move images and content without the need for costly satellite trucks by blending and aggregating available cellular, wireless and satellite networks into one robust, dependable, cost-effective pipe – and it did so at a time when the demand for streamed content was turning rabid. The company, in other words, was at the right place at the right time.
“No TV station would say, ‘I want to keep spending on [satellite] trucks and old technology,’ ” said Frusina.
“So it was easy to build a niche, build a story around it, go with a simple value prop with those customers that you can grow.”
Today, Dejero has grown to 136 employees and “has 100 per cent of the Canadian market, over 40 per cent of the U.S. market, 50 per cent of the Australian market [and] 20 per cent of the U.K. market.”
The company played a role delivering connectivity services for the winning team in the Tour de France cycling event last summer and last spring helped provide live coverage of the Royal Wedding – the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Last November, Dejero won a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for “excellence in engineering creativity.”
As successful as the company was delivering solutions for media companies, Frusina said the company realized several years ago that in order to reach a next level and attract serious investment it needed to expand its product offering and reach. Once again it was in the right place at the right time, as the demand for cloud-based services grew.
“Now we’re delivering connectivity into a lot of new verticals,” said Frusina. “Public safety is a pretty big one. Utilities. Transit. We had core technology and we took that and made it relevant to someone else.”
Which explains, in part, why the company was able able to raise nearly $50 million in 2017. Dejero added 80 employees in the past year to service its growth and more are on the way. The company now has offices in Buffalo and the U.K. And Waterloo remains home base.
“[Waterloo is] a fantastic region,” Frusina said. “I think the culture is right. The dynamics and stabilities of governments is really good. We have a great talent pool here. We offer really good culture, really good diversity.
“I’ve travelled all over the world. I couldn’t pick a better place than Canada.”
It all started with a willingness to reach a bit beyond what was comfortable, hold on when things turn bumpy – and then deliver with some hard work and smart technology.
“The only way you can learn is from your own mistakes,” Frusina told his audience.
“Start with something small and have a great team and make it work.”
