In this Ownr Success Story, we caught up with Sarah Stockdale, a Toronto-based entrepreneur, growth hacker, marketer and startup technology consultant in her trendy east-end office space. We learned about her growth consulting company, Valkerie, and what led her to start her own business.
Who is Sarah Stockdale?
Sarah has been working in early and mid-stage startup growth for 8 years. After completing her Master’s in Professional Communication in Ryerson, she was headed towards a career in Public Relations until an opportunity to work for an early stage startup was presented to her.
She started as a foundational team member of Wave, the innovative Toronto-based accounting software company. Since then, she’s been working in startup growth most recently at Tilt, which sold to AirBnB in early 2017. Following the sale, she decided to stay in Toronto and turn her side project into her full-time gig!
Starting a Growth Consulting Business in Ontario
In March 2017, Sarah started her own growth consulting business. For the past year and a half, she has been advising startups in Toronto, Vancouver and San Francisco on growth strategy, planning and hiring.
Why Sarah Loves Being an Entrepreneur
What may be the coolest part of her business is how close she becomes to her clients.
“I embed myself within one growth team every quarter and I get to work very closely with that company. It’s really fun and I get to work on a lot of different projects.”
She helps clients recruit experienced talent, develop digital marketing plans and grow their user base through activation and retention strategies, all while finding time to speak at events highlighting women in technology.
Most recently, she spoke to a packed house at Creative Mornings Toronto on the theme of ‘Community’.
Read more about 8 reasons for becoming an entrepreneur.
The Challenge of Registering a New Business
As the principal of a new consulting company, Sarah knew she had to incorporate her business in Canada. She looked to incorporate using traditional legal services through a lawyer.
“All of my conversations with lawyers sounded like I was going to get hit with hidden fees. Even though this was a straightforward incorporation, I couldn’t get a fixed price.”
Sarah was informed that contingencies, although unlikely, could arise, which would increase the cost of her business incorporation.
Finding an Online Solution to Incorporating
Sarah was initially hesitant about alternative solutions for her business incorporation because of the legal nature of the task. However, Ownr was recommended to her by her accountants (thanks, ConnectCPA!) and she knew she could trust their reference.
Ultimately, the clear and low-cost fee structure and extremely fast service is why Sarah decided to incorporate online.
“Ownr made a scary and expensive process into one that is easy and inexpensive. I was on a tight deadline to incorporate and it was really simple using Ownr. It took me less than 20 minutes to incorporate my business. It was really fast.”
Sarah’s Experience Incorporating with Ownr
Since her business incorporation, Sarah has used Ownr to access her incorporation and organizational documents, and change her business address.
“I was actually expecting an arduous process to change my business address but all I had to do was go [into the Ownr platform], type in the new information, hit enter and Ownr made the amendment for me.”
Now that she has trusted Ownr with the incorporation of her consulting business and amendments to legal documents, Sarah says she will always check to see if Ownr’s constantly growing service offerings can meet her legal needs before pursuing other options.
Ownr automated the government filings and name searches to amend the articles of incorporation along with all legal resolutions to properly change the corporation’s name.
The Future for this Growth-Oriented Entrepreneur
So, what’s next for Sarah? She’s really passionate about growth education and helping Toronto startups staff their growth teams with experienced talent.
She also recently launched Growclass, a growth marketing training company, and We Need To Talk About This, a weekly culture, feminism and comedy newsletter – It’s mandatory reading at our office!
Thanks again, Sarah!
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