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[00:01:12] I first started back in 99. I created my own e-commerce website. Um, you know, at the time everybody was all big on dotcoms and I'm like, Okay.
[00:01:21] I need to do something big on dotcom.
[00:01:23] What can I sell it? I don't know. So then I was trying to different things and trying to brainstorm it. And funny enough, my, my dad at the time was manufacturing these craft products. So it would be called them, like for tole painting. So predominantly women would buy them and they're made out of pine and maybe it's, you know, like a little sign and would, they'd told, painted nicely and nice pastel colors, like, oh, "Home Is Where The Heart Is" and things like that.
[00:01:45] So he kind of said, Hey, I'll sell you some of these I'm like, Okay. cool. So now I gotta figure out how to build a website and how to get credit cards. This was before PayPal and everything like that. So I contacted my local telecommunications company, which was like NBTel at the time.
[00:02:02] They built me a shopping cart feature. It was super clunky, super terrible. We use like visa manera, credit card processing, but it kind of worked. And I built a website and the way I did it was I went to Amazon's page and I went Right- click, Save As, and I saved their page.
[00:02:19] And then I started to try to learn how to code it and kind of put it in HTML and make it look not terrible. And so I launched it, and no one came and no one bought. So then I started to go into these forums where people hang out in these ladies with predominantly ladies would talk about
[00:02:40] Tole painting and running classes. And I started to get in there and, you know, say what I had. And then I realized I was onto something because instead of somebody, you know, who's a hobbyist by one or two of an item, you know, two or three different things. I could sell it to the teachers who were like, they buy 10 or 20 for their class and they keep coming back and keep coming back because they keep running more classes.
[00:03:02] So I was on to something there. So that was kind of my first real taste of entrepreneurship. So I did that for a few years and then I ended up graduating university. I went and got my CPA, my accounting designation and worked for KPMG in Halifax, Nova Scotia, back in Canada. And then, had a bunch of student debt, so I needed to pay my student debts.
[00:03:25] And normally like people in Nova Scotia would go to Bermuda. That's kinda the thing, you know, you go do a couple of years Bermuda it's tax-free and I was lucky. I'm like, Okay.
[00:03:34] Bermuda is like, subTropical. And then my dad mentioned to me, Well, what about Cayman islands? I hear that's pretty cool and sexy.
[00:03:41] I'm like, yes, that sounds sexy. So I looked it up, got on a call and next thing I know, I'm like, Okay.
[00:03:46] great. You can move to Cayman. You get a job there. So I moved to Cayman, worked there for three years and just did kind of the corporate gig, you know, . It was like university, except people had money- like it was all young, single for the most part, moving down, you know?
[00:04:01] And you're just like, this is fun. You know, you work, I'm going, you go hang out, play boat, whatever scuba dive is a big thing. So I did that for a few years. Cayman there's just either insurance or audits for hedge funds and things like that. I like businesses that do stuff.
[00:04:15] And part of why I got into accounting at first was I needed more than just an undergrad degree. I needed something else. I get a CPA and they'll basically pay for my schooling and I can see a bunch of cool businesses along the way, doing audits. One thing led to another friend of mine from university, he was working for a startup.
[00:04:30] They were just launching in Canada. He used to be the President. He's like, Hey, do you want to move here? And I'm like, well, things are pretty good. But at the time my wife's office was starting one in Toronto too. So we're like, Okay.
[00:04:41] Maybe this is the move for us. So in 20, I think that was 2006. We moved to Toronto, you know, start up really fun.
