January 9, 2025 • 33 mins
Julie's Big Gorgeous Goals: Official Workbook is here! Order your copy today.
Welcome to Figure Eight, where we feature inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs who’ve grown their businesses to seven and eight figures. Today, we’re joined by Lori Weir, co-founder and CEO of Four Eyes Financial, a fintech company. Lori, an experienced entrepreneur, began her journey in 1996. Her first venture was an adventure-based learning company in New Brunswick, inspired by a consulting project on incentive travel.
Lori later transitioned into consulting, focusing on organizational design and operational efficiency. Through her work with wealth management firms, she identified inefficiencies in risk profiling and investor communication. This insight led her to co-found Four Eyes Financial in 2015 with her partner, leveraging his technical expertise to build a product that simplifies and improves the investment process.
Lori shares her experiences scaling a tech company, the importance of securing funding, and the challenges of constant innovation. Despite being based in New Brunswick, away from major financial hubs, Four Eyes has successfully attracted talent and contributed to the local innovation economy. Lori emphasizes the value of aligning skills with vision and making informed decisions to scale effectively.
Lori Weir is the co-founder and CEO of Four Eyes Financial. Lori is a people and business builder. In her 30 years of entrepreneurship, she co-founded and was the managing partner of two successful consulting firms; helping some of Canada’s most profitable companies, including JD Irving and Scotia Wealth, align processes and employee behaviours to drive positive client experiences. Lori’s background in strategy development and execution governance led Four Eyes Financial, a company she co-founded in 2015, to earn both the 2023 RegTech Company of the Year & Best Wealth Management Regulatory Solution (Canadian Regulatory Technology Assoc). Lori is the past chair of ALS Canada and Marathon by the Sea, her volunteer efforts have taken her abroad including work in Economic Development in Latin America.
Connect with Lori through LinkedIn or learn more about Four Eyes Financial on their website.
You can connect with Julie on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Find Julie's writing at her blog or by ordering her book Big Gorgeous Goals and the brand new official companion workbook!
What did you think of this conversation? We'd love if you'd rate or review our show!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Julie (00:04):
Welcome to Figure Eight, where we feature inspiring
stories of women entrepreneurswho have grown their businesses
to seven and eight figuresrevenue.
If you're in the mix of growinga bigger business, these
stories are for you.
Join us as we explore where thetough spots are, how to
overcome them and how to prepareyourself for the next portion
(00:27):
of the climb.
I'm your host, Julie Ellis.
I'm an author, entrepreneur anda growth and leadership coach
who co-founded, grew and exitedan eight-figure business.
This led me to exploring whysome women achieve great things,
and that led to my book Big,Gorgeous Goals.
(00:47):
Let's explore the systems,processes and people that help
us grow our businesses to newheights.
If you're interested in growingyour business, this podcast
will help.
Now let's get going.
Hello and welcome to thisepisode of the Figure Eight
(01:07):
podcast.
Today, I am joined by Lori Weir,who's the co-founder and CEO at
Four Eyes Financial.
Lori is a people and a businessbuilder and a serial
entrepreneur who is now workingin the fintech space and
building her company there.
I'm very excited to have herwith me today and I say welcome
(01:31):
to you.
Thanks for joining me, Lori.
Thank you so much for invitingme, julie.
I'm really happy to be here.
I'm so excited to have our conversation because I love
talking to a diverse group ofwomen entrepreneurs and all the
reasons that we start businesses, because we see needs in the
world and I'm interested for youto share a little bit about
(01:54):
what your entrepreneurialjourney has looked like.
Lori (01:58):
Yeah, I'm happy to share, share.
So I've been an entrepreneursince 1996, which is likely a
year in which some of yourlisteners have yet to be born.
So but what's interesting aboutbeing an entrepreneur is you
know once once you are one youkind of are always one and but
(02:22):
my my journey has been reallyinteresting in that you made the
point entrepreneurs really wantto.
They see a need in the worldand they want to, you know, to
meet it head on.
And my first business wasactually an adventure-based
learning company that I startedin Atlantic Canada and that came
(02:43):
from a consulting project thatI had working with the province
of New Brunswick to help themidentify if there was a market
opportunity in incentive travel,and so you're likely aware of,
you know, sales organizationsincentivizing their teams and
(03:04):
people to achieve targets bysending them off to places like
Vienna or Australia or somereally sexy places around the
world Las Vegas or whatever itmight be but destinations all
over the world.
They categorize different typesof clients that they try to
(03:24):
attract to their destination.
Part of that is meeting andincentive travel, and so that
was a project that I had, andduring that research, of course,
there aren't you know, sort ofworld renown.
You know we don't have likeanything akin to the Eiffel
Tower or you know the experienceof West End London.
(03:46):
However, what we do have in NewBrunswick is a lot of nature, a
lot of adventure and a lot ofopportunity for quiet reflection
.
And when I was doing myresearch to see what kind of
product was available in NewBrunswick we do have some very
high-end properties here and Ithought to myself, well, what
(04:06):
kind of people actually winthese types of incentive travel
programs?
And in my research I discoveredthat the same people tend to
win again and again and again,regardless of what the prize is.
So the destination wasn'treally the pull, it was really
coming from within theindividual who, you know, wants
to win.
So these are, you know so,serial winners.
(04:28):
And I thought, you know, Ithought people like that would
really like an opportunity tohave further development, and I
set about actually puttingtogether some programs that
would be encompassingmotivational experiences, time
for reflection, um, motivationalexperiences, time for
reflection, um, experiencingsome of the natural beauty of
(04:48):
the province through kayaking,uh, being in the woods, doing
high ropes, experiences, thingslike that.
And I worked with an individualto build out these programs and
I presented it to the provinceand I thought it was such a
fantastic idea and they werelike I don't think so, and so,
uh, I really was sold on it andI said, well, we need something
like this.
In don't think so, and so Ireally was sold on it and I said
, well, we need something likethis in the province.
And so the person I partneredwith to develop the programs we
(05:10):
started a company and so throughthat work evolved throughout
the years different types ofconsulting into organizations
around organizational design,creating operational
efficiencies.
So, beyond the individual, whatcan the organization do to help
create, you know, theopportunity for people to win in
(05:33):
their work, and that includedeverything from leadership
development to, sales training ,to Lean Six Sigma and
operational efficiency types ofprogramming.
And one of my clients happenedto be in wealth management and I
(05:54):
had a number of firms that Iworked with in wealth management
in the GTA.
I had clients in AtlanticCanada like JD Irving.
But through my work with wealthmanagement, I saw a real
opportunity to create someoperational efficiencies in the
back office.
You know, basically, asinvestors, and if you have a
(06:16):
financial advisor or somebodywho's giving you advice about
your investments, you want toknow, you know kind of bottom
line am I invested in the rightproducts, products that meet my
risk tolerance, that are goingto help me achieve my goals, and
the rest of it is kind of noiseto most people.
What I found in the backgroundis how difficult it was for
(06:38):
organizations to present thatsimple message back to clients
because of risk rating ofproducts and the complexity of
that and that changes every daycreating a risk profile around
the product and creating a riskprofile around the individual so
the individual investor, whichalso changes because we start
new jobs, we lose jobs, we getmarried, we have children and
(06:59):
all these things that change ourrisk profile as a person and I
saw an opportunity to createsome efficiencies around being
able to bring that data togetherto present back to clients in
an efficient way.
That didn't take, you know,like six weeks, but you could do
in six hours.
And that was kind of thegenesis of starting Four Eyes
(07:20):
Financial, which we did in 2015.
I did with my partner in life,who's also my co -founder and is
also an entrepreneur and he hadhad previous technology
companies, and so we set aboutto build this experience and
solve that problem for investors.
Julie (07:40):
Well, and I think it's interesting because, you know,
when I started adirect-to-consumer e-commerce
business, we did not have atechnical co-founder, and it was
something that we always kindof said you know, in the perfect
world, if we did it again, wewould have wanted somebody.
So it does seem like you hadthese insights from the
consulting piece you were doingand then you had a co-founder
(08:01):
who could bring the technicalpiece and kind of bring that
together, which seems like areally good it is.
Lori (08:07):
It's great and some people say I don't think I could ever
work with my partner.
It's a 24 seven commitment.
But I think one of the reasonsit really works for us is for
the very fact that you know westarted the business in our
forties, so we know ourselvespretty well and we're very
different people and we bringdifferent strengths to the table
(08:27):
and we are both so committed tothe same vision and goal that
you know the differences in ourapproach, which are very
different in how we do things.
We can easily I would sayeasily, most times easily.
Sometimes it's a struggle workthrough those things to move the
company forward, but havingthat technical expertise is
(08:50):
critical.
I really don't know how peopledo it without, because it's a
bit of a black box in some cases, like in and around.
That for our business has beena strong mandate for me as the
CEO to make sure that we canactually see into the black box
(09:10):
and see how things are moving.
But yeah, it definitely hasbeen great, I think, for our
young management team as well,to have leadership that is
product focused, technicallyinclined, innovation focused,
and also, I'd say what I bringto the table is a revenue
generation focus organizationalstructure design, creating
(09:36):
scalable processes, you know,making sure that the company's
financed to go to that nextlevel of growth, and so both of
those things are critical torunning a successful company,
and you know that complementarynature of our skill sets seem to
work out really well.
Julie (09:56):
Oh, that's good.
Well, and the scaling of atechnology company is not the
same as what it would take toscale up more a consulting side
company where you're doing itwith human capital.
You know, in this way you youneed to scale up by adding to
the black box, really, and andenhancing what you the base
level product and, you know,iterating on it and keeping up
(10:19):
with the regulatory environmentwould also be very important in
the financial services realm.
Lori (10:24):
All of those things a hundred percent.
And one of the things I learnedabout running a technology
company is that you're neverdone building.
It's never done and and.
And I think most people wouldthink, well, yeah, there'd be
enhancements, but I think theextent of work done on the
(10:45):
product, enhancing the productand a great point that you just
mentioned, which is theregulatory requirements, are
also evolving and changing andyou have to be ahead of that and
work that into your solution.
So, yes, it is very differentthan running a consulting
company in that regard.
And also, I think you mentionedjust the financing of that.
(11:06):
So if you're always building,you know that that requires
money to you know to kind offlow into the business to enable
that and and making sure thatyou've got the capital to do
that.
Julie (11:22):
Yeah, and so that's where, then you know,
fundraising comes into play and,like learning a skill set
around you know, going out and Imean people talk about it being
wildly distracting fromactually the roadmap of product
and the roadmap of how you'rebuilding the business when
you're out and you're trying toraise rounds of capital and
(11:44):
bring people on your board andthe kinds of things that, yeah,
absolutely.
Lori (11:47):
And you know, I think it's a really key part to any
successful innovation company.
Innovation is expensive, and soa core part of leadership's
responsibility is to make surethat you're engaging externally
with all kinds of differentpartners, including financial,
potential financial partners,and it is a significant part of
(12:11):
of the role.
And yeah, and I, you know, didmy own sort of how to capitalize
a scaling tech company informalMBA this past 12 months as I
thought about how do we do this.
You know we are going to marketin the US in 25.
We've been in earnestcontemplating this for a couple
(12:33):
of years.
We've done some marketreadiness work with consultants.
We've, you know, kind of donesome things that aren't capital
intensive, but now we're readyto go and this was a critical
piece to enable that.
We're ready to go and this wasa critical piece to enable that,
and it was, you know, it wasdefinitely extremely valuable.
(12:54):
I learned a lot and, like mostof us in life, things that we
wish we'd known before.
But you know what, today's anew day and start now, and I
think there's a lot of reallygood resources out there too,
(13:14):
but the thing is there's no oneway to do it, and I think
sometimes the world presentslike there's a clear path on how
to capitalize your business andbring money in.
And it's either you're, youknow you're going to self fund,
you're going to bootstrap oryou're going to do this sort of
equity.
You know seed series A, youknow kind of roll up in that way
and you know.
And then there's companies thatdo a mix of many things.
(13:36):
There's a lot of ways toapproach it and you have to
figure out your own businessmodel, what you're trying to
achieve, what makes sense foryou know the mission that you're
on, and but figuring out howthe rest of the world thinks
about it is really important sothat you can make a choice.
Julie (13:58):
Yeah, yeah, and that yeah.
How can you dilute as little aspossible as you take in the
early money that you need to getgoing, so that later you you
have more control about whathappens Exactly?
Lori (14:11):
That's it.
And I think a lot ofentrepreneurs and early date,
you know they're so desperate toget people behind them to
believe in what they're doing.
They're willing to give up alot in order to make that happen
, and that's understandable.
I wouldn't, you know,completely empathize with that,
never judge that, and you knowit's like anything in life.
(14:34):
You know, looking backwards andsaying what you would have done
is, you know, that's just,that's not the way the world
works, or how life works, and wehave to make the choices that,
with the information we have andare presented to us, not look
back and just move forward andsay, okay, this is where we are
now and how can we, you know,get to the next step?
Julie (14:56):
It is one of those interesting things, though,
where, considering how manypeople have done it and and how
many people are currentlyfiguring out how to do it, that
you can't Google and get theanswers.
It's always surprising to me inentrepreneurship that you know
there are there.
Are you always feel like youdon't know what you're doing.
Lori (15:17):
There's always an aspect there is, and one of the things
I will say, though, is I findthat there is more available.
I think a lot of thisinformation was kept close to
people's chest, for I don't knowwhatever reason, but one of the
things that I have noticed isthere are people out there who
are in the, you know, investingtime to be thought leaders in
(15:42):
this space, that have consultingpractices that are really
focused on helping firmscapitalize ideas into
significant size globalbusinesses, and they're out
there presenting a lot ofinformation that I know.
When I originally started thebusiness in 2015, that
information just wasn'tavailable through a Google
(16:02):
search, but on LinkedIn and inGoogle and other places.
Now, I think, in the lastcouple of years, there is more
information, and I think the keystarting point is understanding
what your business model is,because every business model has
a different need in terms ofcapitalization and how that
looks, how much you know youneed to give up in order to gain
(16:24):
what makes sense for you interms of your long-term plan.
You know, do you want to buildout a geography and then sell
into private equity?
Do you want to grow the companyglobally?
What are like?
And you know it's easy to askthose kinds of questions, but in
any given day you might have adifferent answer yourself,
depending on how the day isgoing.
Julie (16:45):
It's true, it's so true.
Well, and certainly I mean oneof the interesting choices that
you've made is to build yourcompany outside of a big
financial center.
I mean, most people would thinkof a company like yours
starting in the Toronto area andin Canada and growing in that
kind of an environment.
(17:05):
But you know, you were livingin Atlantic Canada.
That's where you've built youradult life and so you've really
built a business there andattracted talent and done all
the things to really bringpeople to you.
Lori (17:19):
Yeah, it's true New Brunswick is not the center of
financial services in Canada,and that's certainly been
brought to our attention morethan once.
But what's great about that isyou can build a company anywhere
, especially an innovationcompany, a software company, and
we are able to attractincredible talent, people who
(17:43):
have moved to New Brunswick togo to school here, who want to
stay here, new Brunswickers bornand bred.
That's part of our mission atFour Eyes.
When we started the company wasto solve the problem that we
mentioned earlier, also toprovide interesting employment
in technology leading edgetechnology to New Brunswickers
(18:05):
and to help sort of strengthenthat part of our economy.
And originally, when we startedthe company with that mandate,
I thought this is a NewBrunswick or an Atlantic
Canadian challenge.
But what I've learned is thisis really a Canadian problem to
be solved.
We have our main industries,which we're aware of that have
been brought to light,especially in the conversation
(18:27):
around tariffs that arehappening now and automobiles,
natural resources, lumber paperall these kinds of oil gas that
we're known for, which areamazing industries.
There is a need for Canada tocontinue to invest in and grow
(18:48):
its innovation economy, and I'ma big proponent of that, not
just in Atlantic Canada, but forthe country, and I'm thrilled
to say that, you know, of our 60employees, all but three
actually live and work in NewBrunswick and we're able to hire
really great talent because thepeople who come to join us want
(19:08):
to be in a community.
So they don't want to, you know, live in New Brunswick and work
for a company in Silicon Valleyor someplace else around the
world.
They want that touch point.
So we have an in-office culture.
I'm at my office today.
Yesterday we have an office inSt John and one in Moncton, new
Br, brunswick.
I was at our Moncton office.
You know we had about 12 peopletogether put the Christmas tree
(19:32):
up and had a moment, you know,together decorating the tree,
having some hot chocolate andthese, you know, kind of
connecting points are reallyimportant to the kind of people
who choose to work at Four Eyesand I think it really helps us
with retention and you knowwe're introducing people not
only to interesting ourtechnology is built on AWS, but
(19:55):
also to financial services as asector which they would not be
exposed to otherwise.
Here, and I think you knowwe're in wealth tech, which is a
subset of FinTech, and that isa sector that will continue to
grow, and so the folks that arejoining us fresh out of school
and who are learning.
It's great for their careertrajectory wherever they choose
(20:18):
to go right.
Julie (20:20):
Well, and I mean interesting because it makes me
think of that sort of wealthtransfer stat that's out there
which I think, for Canada alone,is in the trillions over the
coming sort of decade.
And so I think you know peopleare interested in wealth tech
because they want to protecttheir assets and protect the
money as it moves in betweengenerations.
Lori (20:42):
Yes, absolutely.
And I think just evenunderstanding what you know
investing is and what it meansand the core pillars of life are
health and wealth for asuccessful life, and being part
of understanding what does ahealthy, you know sort of
investment strategy look likeand understanding that from a
(21:07):
deep knowledge perspective, butalso literally seeing how the
sausage is made by beinginvolved in our business, I
think is is incrediblyenlightening to people and, just
as individual employees, helpsthem make really good choices at
a young age around it and, toyour point, around you know sort
of wealth transition.
It also helps them with membersof their family as they think
(21:30):
about what does good look likeand none of us really know what
wealth management is going tolook like 20 years from now.
But people are always going towant personalized advice from
someone they trust and at thisstage, you know a lot of people
of people say, well, is ai goingto kind of replace the
traditional advisory model?
You know, personally I don'tsee that.
(21:53):
Um, there are self-directedopportunities and passive
investing available for peoplecurrently.
Yet people still are lookingfor someone to um to guide them,
give them confidence in theirchoices, stay invested when
things are troubled in the worldthose kinds of things that are
(22:14):
really important, and also tounderstand.
Ai is great and we use it inour platform and machine
learning.
We are focused on using it toits fullest ability in a very
structured, thoughtful way, butwe are providing, you know,
solutions that help the industryperform.
(22:35):
It's always going to rely onjudgment and until AI has
demonstrated good judgment, Ithink we're you know.
I think things will movequickly, but at the same time,
that trust and personal touchwill.
I don't think that will ever goaway.
Julie (22:53):
Yeah, yeah, as it evolves.
Lori (22:55):
there's still a role for for relationship in this process
, but we can definitely take thecost out of it, like the, the
busy work right, all the stuffthat people are doing behind the
scenes so that they canactually give really good advice
.
Yeah.
Julie (23:09):
Right and actually do what people want to pay them for
.
Exactly, and that is really theat the core of it.
So when you imagine startingthis business, I'm sure that
things looked a little differentthan they look today in terms
of what you thought the productwould be like.
And you know, I think, that theneed you're trying to meet is
(23:32):
probably not changed, but howyou're meeting it is changed,
and I'm curious about what thatjourney has been like.
Lori (23:38):
Yeah.
So you know when the rubberhits the road is when we really
learn and get in market and alsounderstanding what isn't in
market Right.
So, especially, I think, forpeople who are providing B2B
technology solutions, you knowwe talked about understanding
(23:59):
what, how to really go aboutcapitalizing your business in
the best way possible for youthere was very little
information.
I think the same holds true forreally getting a good lay of
the land from a competitiveanalysis perspective on B2B
software that's in the back end.
You know that is challengingand you get to learn that by
(24:21):
being in market.
And then you also understandwhere there's clear
opportunities that you may nothave recognized, and I found
that certainly the case for FourEyes.
So in our solution, you know wehad, we ended up building out
what we now call it.
You know, simplifyingcompliance from a front end,
know your client am I investedin a suitable product
(24:44):
perspective, but we also providewhich wasn't part of our
original product iteration apost trade surveillance,
monitoring and desktop forcompliance officers so that they
know that they're meeting theregulatory requirements
presented in Canada by CERO usedto be known as IROC and also
(25:06):
that they're meeting thesuitability requirements of the
individual clients and theircompanies' policies and
procedures, and so our platformenables the data to flow through
the front and experience withthe client to the back end
around post-trade surveillance,and that is unique in in the
(25:26):
marketplace interesting, so Iwould think that makes you
desirable.
Julie (25:33):
But of cracking into selling to in a highly regulated
industry as a new player isalways a challenge in terms of
like how you build that rightand that comes over time as you
add clients and they have goodexperience and they go through
(25:54):
audits and they're successful.
Lori (25:59):
Those things all help to build credibility in the market
and you know, you always needyour first person to raise their
hand and say they're willing.
And we were very fortunate tohave our first client who
continues to be a client todaywho was willing to raise their
hand, and I think anyentrepreneur will tell you,
getting that first customer isis tough and it's exhilarating.
Um, and it's a critical.
(26:20):
You know that's the first stepto the rest of the journey and
um, uh, for us now going intothe US, that's, you know, that's
what we also have to achievenow.
We have a proven product inanother market, but we all like
to think we're very differentand in fact, there are
differences from geography togeography.
So we have to go through thatsame proofing path with our US
(26:45):
growth as well and find someonewilling to raise their hand and
say I'm going to take a chanceon these guys.
Julie (26:51):
Yes, and you had mentioned to me before that you
know, 2025 is your year forlearning about the US market and
about how you want to play init and what your role is there,
and my reaction is I thinkthat's a great way of looking at
it, because it can be hard whenyou're in learning mode, like
(27:11):
when you keep hitting oh, it'sanother dead end, it's a door
that won't open, it's a you know, and so you're sort of seeking
and learning and trying to, youknow, figure out where you're
going to get your toehold, andthat can be sometimes difficult.
Lori (27:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
And we, you know we don't knowwho that first customer is going
to be.
And so we, you know, we have athesis and we're going to go in
and we're going to approach themarket.
The great thing about being ina niche market is we know
exactly where those buyers areso we can go have the
conversations, test our, ourhypothesis and see what we learn
(27:48):
, and come back and modify andgo back in and, and you know
it's, it's about acceleratingthat and doing that quickly to
advantage.
That will, you know, that willhelp us by the end of the year
say, okay, we've got our firstclient now and that's what we're
, that's, that's the target.
Julie (28:07):
Yeah, Yep, and getting the toehold with those first
clients so that you can grow upthe you know the smaller ones,
the medium ones to the bigplayers.
Lori (28:15):
Exactly right, yeah, and I think one of the things that
sets us apart in the market isthat we're enterprise grade
software, and and that's great,except, you know, selling into
that space requires a lot ofresources, and so we definitely
have the same path that we tookin Canada, which is start with a
(28:36):
smaller firm, move up tomid-sized market and then
approach the enterprise onceyou've got those proof points in
place.
I'm excited about that, though,because once you get to that
enterprise level and there arevery few competitors at that
level will be positioned, willbe positioned to win.
So, as an entrepreneur, I'malways focused on the future and
(28:58):
I'm very optimistic about it.
Julie (29:01):
That's great and and exciting and I'm sure there's
going to be a lot more learningand it'll be interesting to hear
in a year from now where youfeel like you're sitting.
Yeah, I know what happened wasexpected, what was completely
(29:22):
unexpected and what was in themiddle where you were like huh,
not exactly, but okay
Yeah, I know exactly, right,and so I expect we'll be on
generally heading, you know,like if we're heading Southwest,
we'll be heading southwest.
But you know, are we travelingby water, by road, by plane?
You know, figuring out allthose things then, yeah, it's
(29:42):
definitely going to be a journey.
It's one that you have to be, Ithink, mentally ready for from
a resource perspective, readyfor and feel good about the
people you're traveling with.
And I'm excited because we'vebuilt out our team for Canada.
We've grown our youngmanagement team to run the
playbook here in Canada, and soreally, it's going to be myself,
my co-founder, our head ofgrowth, who really were, you
(30:05):
know, kind of ran the, you know,the entrepreneurial playbook in
Canada and we're going to runit again in the U S and so, and
so you know, I'm kind ofthinking about it like this is
going to be fun.
We're starting again and we'regoing to put our energy into
this.
And, yeah, we don't know whatexactly roadblocks we're going
to hit along the way, but we'llhave at the end of the day.
(30:28):
You know, if we've signed ourfirst customer, we've
accomplished our mission, if weknow a lot more about what it's
going to take to do that, andwe're close.
That will also be successful.
Yeah, it will.
It will and I guess, yeah, it'sabout now hiring people who
have connections and experiencein that US market, who can help
(30:53):
you get to the people that youneed to sit around the table and
talk to.
Lori (30:56):
Absolutely, and you know this talent is expensive and
hard to find, and one of thethings we're investing in this
year as part of that is adisciplined RevGen process.
We're putting a new VP of aRevOps in place this year, and
I'm not a fan of, you know, justselecting somebody with a great
Rolodex and hoping for the best.
(31:19):
These are long sales cycles, soyou know, 18 to 24 months a lot
can be spent and a lot of timewith.
You know we don't expect peopleto go in and close deals
quickly, so we need to know thatwe're doing all the right
things to accomplish that,though, and so definitely we're.
You know we're keeping our eyeon, and we do have someone in
(31:42):
market that we're working with,but ideally there were.
You know we're not outsourcingour sales.
We're actually hiring peopleand setting up our presence in
the US in 2026.
Julie (31:53):
hiring people and setting up our presence in the
US in 2026.
Well, and I think that'll beexciting times and I look
forward to hearing more from youabout how it goes.
Thank you so much for talkingwith me today, and I'm excited
to see how Four Eyes grows andchanges over the coming years.
Lori (32:09):
Well, Julie, I really appreciate the work that you do,
bringing forward theseentrepreneurial stories and
journeys, sharing them.
Canada needs more entrepreneurs, the world needs more
entrepreneurs, and I'm sure thework you're doing is is fueling
someone's passion and givingthem the confidence to to take
the leap, and so thank you forthat.
Thank you.
Julie (32:29):
Thank you so much.
I hope so that sharing thestories that I know about in my
you know corner will help people, because I think we do what we
see as possible and so I lovesharing stories, and thank you
so much for talking with metoday.
Thanks, Julie.
I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
(32:49):
Please remember to hitsubscribe on your favorite
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Figure Eight isn't just apodcast.
It's a way of seeing the big,gorgeous goals of women
entrepreneurs coming to life.
If you're interested inlearning more, you can find my
book Big, gorgeous Goals onAmazon, anywhere you might live.
(33:12):
For more about my growth andleadership training programs,
visit www.
julieellis.
ca to see how we might worktogether.
Read my blog or sign up to getyour free diagnostic.
Are you ready for growth?
Once again, that'swwwjulieellisca.
(33:36):
When we work together, we allwin.
See you again soon for anotherepisode of Figure Eight.
Welcome to Figure Eight, where we feature inspiring
stories of women entrepreneurswho have grown their businesses
to seven and eight figuresrevenue.
If you're in the mix of growinga bigger business, these
stories are for you.
Join us as we explore where thetough spots are, how to
overcome them and how to prepareyourself for the next portion
(00:27):
of the climb.
I'm your host, Julie Ellis.
I'm an author, entrepreneur anda growth and leadership coach
who co-founded, grew and exitedan eight-figure business.
This led me to exploring whysome women achieve great things,
and that led to my book Big,Gorgeous Goals.
(00:47):
Let's explore the systems,processes and people that help
us grow our businesses to newheights.
If you're interested in growingyour business, this podcast
will help.
Now let's get going.
Hello and welcome to thisepisode of the Figure Eight
(01:07):
podcast.
Today, I am joined by Lori Weir,who's the co-founder and CEO at
Four Eyes Financial.
Lori is a people and a businessbuilder and a serial
entrepreneur who is now workingin the fintech space and
building her company there.
I'm very excited to have herwith me today and I say welcome
(01:31):
to you.
Thanks for joining me, Lori.
Thank you so much for invitingme, julie.
I'm really happy to be here.
I'm so excited to have our conversation because I love
talking to a diverse group ofwomen entrepreneurs and all the
reasons that we start businesses, because we see needs in the
world and I'm interested for youto share a little bit about
(01:54):
what your entrepreneurialjourney has looked like.
Lori (01:58):
Yeah, I'm happy to share, share.
So I've been an entrepreneursince 1996, which is likely a
year in which some of yourlisteners have yet to be born.
So but what's interesting aboutbeing an entrepreneur is you
know once once you are one youkind of are always one and but
(02:22):
my my journey has been reallyinteresting in that you made the
point entrepreneurs really wantto.
They see a need in the worldand they want to, you know, to
meet it head on.
And my first business wasactually an adventure-based
learning company that I startedin Atlantic Canada and that came
(02:43):
from a consulting project thatI had working with the province
of New Brunswick to help themidentify if there was a market
opportunity in incentive travel,and so you're likely aware of,
you know, sales organizationsincentivizing their teams and
(03:04):
people to achieve targets bysending them off to places like
Vienna or Australia or somereally sexy places around the
world Las Vegas or whatever itmight be but destinations all
over the world.
They categorize different typesof clients that they try to
(03:24):
attract to their destination.
Part of that is meeting andincentive travel, and so that
was a project that I had, andduring that research, of course,
there aren't you know, sort ofworld renown.
You know we don't have likeanything akin to the Eiffel
Tower or you know the experienceof West End London.
(03:46):
However, what we do have in NewBrunswick is a lot of nature, a
lot of adventure and a lot ofopportunity for quiet reflection
.
And when I was doing myresearch to see what kind of
product was available in NewBrunswick we do have some very
high-end properties here and Ithought to myself, well, what
(04:06):
kind of people actually winthese types of incentive travel
programs?
And in my research I discoveredthat the same people tend to
win again and again and again,regardless of what the prize is.
So the destination wasn'treally the pull, it was really
coming from within theindividual who, you know, wants
to win.
So these are, you know so,serial winners.
(04:28):
And I thought, you know, Ithought people like that would
really like an opportunity tohave further development, and I
set about actually puttingtogether some programs that
would be encompassingmotivational experiences, time
for reflection, um, motivationalexperiences, time for
reflection, um, experiencingsome of the natural beauty of
(04:48):
the province through kayaking,uh, being in the woods, doing
high ropes, experiences, thingslike that.
And I worked with an individualto build out these programs and
I presented it to the provinceand I thought it was such a
fantastic idea and they werelike I don't think so, and so,
uh, I really was sold on it andI said, well, we need something
like this.
In don't think so, and so Ireally was sold on it and I said
, well, we need something likethis in the province.
And so the person I partneredwith to develop the programs we
(05:10):
started a company and so throughthat work evolved throughout
the years different types ofconsulting into organizations
around organizational design,creating operational
efficiencies.
So, beyond the individual, whatcan the organization do to help
create, you know, theopportunity for people to win in
(05:33):
their work, and that includedeverything from leadership
development to, sales training ,to Lean Six Sigma and
operational efficiency types ofprogramming.
And one of my clients happenedto be in wealth management and I
(05:54):
had a number of firms that Iworked with in wealth management
in the GTA.
I had clients in AtlanticCanada like JD Irving.
But through my work with wealthmanagement, I saw a real
opportunity to create someoperational efficiencies in the
back office.
You know, basically, asinvestors, and if you have a
(06:16):
financial advisor or somebodywho's giving you advice about
your investments, you want toknow, you know kind of bottom
line am I invested in the rightproducts, products that meet my
risk tolerance, that are goingto help me achieve my goals, and
the rest of it is kind of noiseto most people.
What I found in the backgroundis how difficult it was for
(06:38):
organizations to present thatsimple message back to clients
because of risk rating ofproducts and the complexity of
that and that changes every daycreating a risk profile around
the product and creating a riskprofile around the individual so
the individual investor, whichalso changes because we start
new jobs, we lose jobs, we getmarried, we have children and
(06:59):
all these things that change ourrisk profile as a person and I
saw an opportunity to createsome efficiencies around being
able to bring that data togetherto present back to clients in
an efficient way.
That didn't take, you know,like six weeks, but you could do
in six hours.
And that was kind of thegenesis of starting Four Eyes
(07:20):
Financial, which we did in 2015.
I did with my partner in life,who's also my co -founder and is
also an entrepreneur and he hadhad previous technology
companies, and so we set aboutto build this experience and
solve that problem for investors.
Julie (07:40):
Well, and I think it's interesting because, you know,
when I started adirect-to-consumer e-commerce
business, we did not have atechnical co-founder, and it was
something that we always kindof said you know, in the perfect
world, if we did it again, wewould have wanted somebody.
So it does seem like you hadthese insights from the
consulting piece you were doingand then you had a co-founder
(08:01):
who could bring the technicalpiece and kind of bring that
together, which seems like areally good it is.
Lori (08:07):
It's great and some people say I don't think I could ever
work with my partner.
It's a 24 seven commitment.
But I think one of the reasonsit really works for us is for
the very fact that you know westarted the business in our
forties, so we know ourselvespretty well and we're very
different people and we bringdifferent strengths to the table
(08:27):
and we are both so committed tothe same vision and goal that
you know the differences in ourapproach, which are very
different in how we do things.
We can easily I would sayeasily, most times easily.
Sometimes it's a struggle workthrough those things to move the
company forward, but havingthat technical expertise is
(08:50):
critical.
I really don't know how peopledo it without, because it's a
bit of a black box in some cases, like in and around.
That for our business has beena strong mandate for me as the
CEO to make sure that we canactually see into the black box
(09:10):
and see how things are moving.
But yeah, it definitely hasbeen great, I think, for our
young management team as well,to have leadership that is
product focused, technicallyinclined, innovation focused,
and also, I'd say what I bringto the table is a revenue
generation focus organizationalstructure design, creating
(09:36):
scalable processes, you know,making sure that the company's
financed to go to that nextlevel of growth, and so both of
those things are critical torunning a successful company,
and you know that complementarynature of our skill sets seem to
work out really well.
Julie (09:56):
Oh, that's good.
Well, and the scaling of atechnology company is not the
same as what it would take toscale up more a consulting side
company where you're doing itwith human capital.
You know, in this way you youneed to scale up by adding to
the black box, really, and andenhancing what you the base
level product and, you know,iterating on it and keeping up
(10:19):
with the regulatory environmentwould also be very important in
the financial services realm.
Lori (10:24):
All of those things a hundred percent.
And one of the things I learnedabout running a technology
company is that you're neverdone building.
It's never done and and.
And I think most people wouldthink, well, yeah, there'd be
enhancements, but I think theextent of work done on the
(10:45):
product, enhancing the productand a great point that you just
mentioned, which is theregulatory requirements, are
also evolving and changing andyou have to be ahead of that and
work that into your solution.
So, yes, it is very differentthan running a consulting
company in that regard.
And also, I think you mentionedjust the financing of that.
(11:06):
So if you're always building,you know that that requires
money to you know to kind offlow into the business to enable
that and and making sure thatyou've got the capital to do
that.
Julie (11:22):
Yeah, and so that's where, then you know,
fundraising comes into play and,like learning a skill set
around you know, going out and Imean people talk about it being
wildly distracting fromactually the roadmap of product
and the roadmap of how you'rebuilding the business when
you're out and you're trying toraise rounds of capital and
(11:44):
bring people on your board andthe kinds of things that, yeah,
absolutely.
Lori (11:47):
And you know, I think it's a really key part to any
successful innovation company.
Innovation is expensive, and soa core part of leadership's
responsibility is to make surethat you're engaging externally
with all kinds of differentpartners, including financial,
potential financial partners,and it is a significant part of
(12:11):
of the role.
And yeah, and I, you know, didmy own sort of how to capitalize
a scaling tech company informalMBA this past 12 months as I
thought about how do we do this.
You know we are going to marketin the US in 25.
We've been in earnestcontemplating this for a couple
(12:33):
of years.
We've done some marketreadiness work with consultants.
We've, you know, kind of donesome things that aren't capital
intensive, but now we're readyto go and this was a critical
piece to enable that.
We're ready to go and this wasa critical piece to enable that,
and it was, you know, it wasdefinitely extremely valuable.
(12:54):
I learned a lot and, like mostof us in life, things that we
wish we'd known before.
But you know what, today's anew day and start now, and I
think there's a lot of reallygood resources out there too,
(13:14):
but the thing is there's no oneway to do it, and I think
sometimes the world presentslike there's a clear path on how
to capitalize your business andbring money in.
And it's either you're, youknow you're going to self fund,
you're going to bootstrap oryou're going to do this sort of
equity.
You know seed series A, youknow kind of roll up in that way
and you know.
And then there's companies thatdo a mix of many things.
(13:36):
There's a lot of ways toapproach it and you have to
figure out your own businessmodel, what you're trying to
achieve, what makes sense foryou know the mission that you're
on, and but figuring out howthe rest of the world thinks
about it is really important sothat you can make a choice.
Julie (13:58):
Yeah, yeah, and that yeah.
How can you dilute as little aspossible as you take in the
early money that you need to getgoing, so that later you you
have more control about whathappens Exactly?
Lori (14:11):
That's it.
And I think a lot ofentrepreneurs and early date,
you know they're so desperate toget people behind them to
believe in what they're doing.
They're willing to give up alot in order to make that happen
, and that's understandable.
I wouldn't, you know,completely empathize with that,
never judge that, and you knowit's like anything in life.
(14:34):
You know, looking backwards andsaying what you would have done
is, you know, that's just,that's not the way the world
works, or how life works, and wehave to make the choices that,
with the information we have andare presented to us, not look
back and just move forward andsay, okay, this is where we are
now and how can we, you know,get to the next step?
Julie (14:56):
It is one of those interesting things, though,
where, considering how manypeople have done it and and how
many people are currentlyfiguring out how to do it, that
you can't Google and get theanswers.
It's always surprising to me inentrepreneurship that you know
there are there.
Are you always feel like youdon't know what you're doing.
Lori (15:17):
There's always an aspect there is, and one of the things
I will say, though, is I findthat there is more available.
I think a lot of thisinformation was kept close to
people's chest, for I don't knowwhatever reason, but one of the
things that I have noticed isthere are people out there who
are in the, you know, investingtime to be thought leaders in
(15:42):
this space, that have consultingpractices that are really
focused on helping firmscapitalize ideas into
significant size globalbusinesses, and they're out
there presenting a lot ofinformation that I know.
When I originally started thebusiness in 2015, that
information just wasn'tavailable through a Google
(16:02):
search, but on LinkedIn and inGoogle and other places.
Now, I think, in the lastcouple of years, there is more
information, and I think the keystarting point is understanding
what your business model is,because every business model has
a different need in terms ofcapitalization and how that
looks, how much you know youneed to give up in order to gain
(16:24):
what makes sense for you interms of your long-term plan.
You know, do you want to buildout a geography and then sell
into private equity?
Do you want to grow the companyglobally?
What are like?
And you know it's easy to askthose kinds of questions, but in
any given day you might have adifferent answer yourself,
depending on how the day isgoing.
Julie (16:45):
It's true, it's so true.
Well, and certainly I mean oneof the interesting choices that
you've made is to build yourcompany outside of a big
financial center.
I mean, most people would thinkof a company like yours
starting in the Toronto area andin Canada and growing in that
kind of an environment.
(17:05):
But you know, you were livingin Atlantic Canada.
That's where you've built youradult life and so you've really
built a business there andattracted talent and done all
the things to really bringpeople to you.
Lori (17:19):
Yeah, it's true New Brunswick is not the center of
financial services in Canada,and that's certainly been
brought to our attention morethan once.
But what's great about that isyou can build a company anywhere
, especially an innovationcompany, a software company, and
we are able to attractincredible talent, people who
(17:43):
have moved to New Brunswick togo to school here, who want to
stay here, new Brunswickers bornand bred.
That's part of our mission atFour Eyes.
When we started the company wasto solve the problem that we
mentioned earlier, also toprovide interesting employment
in technology leading edgetechnology to New Brunswickers
(18:05):
and to help sort of strengthenthat part of our economy.
And originally, when we startedthe company with that mandate,
I thought this is a NewBrunswick or an Atlantic
Canadian challenge.
But what I've learned is thisis really a Canadian problem to
be solved.
We have our main industries,which we're aware of that have
been brought to light,especially in the conversation
(18:27):
around tariffs that arehappening now and automobiles,
natural resources, lumber paperall these kinds of oil gas that
we're known for, which areamazing industries.
There is a need for Canada tocontinue to invest in and grow
(18:48):
its innovation economy, and I'ma big proponent of that, not
just in Atlantic Canada, but forthe country, and I'm thrilled
to say that, you know, of our 60employees, all but three
actually live and work in NewBrunswick and we're able to hire
really great talent because thepeople who come to join us want
(19:08):
to be in a community.
So they don't want to, you know, live in New Brunswick and work
for a company in Silicon Valleyor someplace else around the
world.
They want that touch point.
So we have an in-office culture.
I'm at my office today.
Yesterday we have an office inSt John and one in Moncton, new
Br, brunswick.
I was at our Moncton office.
You know we had about 12 peopletogether put the Christmas tree
(19:32):
up and had a moment, you know,together decorating the tree,
having some hot chocolate andthese, you know, kind of
connecting points are reallyimportant to the kind of people
who choose to work at Four Eyesand I think it really helps us
with retention and you knowwe're introducing people not
only to interesting ourtechnology is built on AWS, but
(19:55):
also to financial services as asector which they would not be
exposed to otherwise.
Here, and I think you knowwe're in wealth tech, which is a
subset of FinTech, and that isa sector that will continue to
grow, and so the folks that arejoining us fresh out of school
and who are learning.
It's great for their careertrajectory wherever they choose
(20:18):
to go right.
Julie (20:20):
Well, and I mean interesting because it makes me
think of that sort of wealthtransfer stat that's out there
which I think, for Canada alone,is in the trillions over the
coming sort of decade.
And so I think you know peopleare interested in wealth tech
because they want to protecttheir assets and protect the
money as it moves in betweengenerations.
Lori (20:42):
Yes, absolutely.
And I think just evenunderstanding what you know
investing is and what it meansand the core pillars of life are
health and wealth for asuccessful life, and being part
of understanding what does ahealthy, you know sort of
investment strategy look likeand understanding that from a
(21:07):
deep knowledge perspective, butalso literally seeing how the
sausage is made by beinginvolved in our business, I
think is is incrediblyenlightening to people and, just
as individual employees, helpsthem make really good choices at
a young age around it and, toyour point, around you know sort
of wealth transition.
It also helps them with membersof their family as they think
(21:30):
about what does good look likeand none of us really know what
wealth management is going tolook like 20 years from now.
But people are always going towant personalized advice from
someone they trust and at thisstage, you know a lot of people
of people say, well, is ai goingto kind of replace the
traditional advisory model?
You know, personally I don'tsee that.
(21:53):
Um, there are self-directedopportunities and passive
investing available for peoplecurrently.
Yet people still are lookingfor someone to um to guide them,
give them confidence in theirchoices, stay invested when
things are troubled in the worldthose kinds of things that are
(22:14):
really important, and also tounderstand.
Ai is great and we use it inour platform and machine
learning.
We are focused on using it toits fullest ability in a very
structured, thoughtful way, butwe are providing, you know,
solutions that help the industryperform.
(22:35):
It's always going to rely onjudgment and until AI has
demonstrated good judgment, Ithink we're you know.
I think things will movequickly, but at the same time,
that trust and personal touchwill.
I don't think that will ever goaway.
Julie (22:53):
Yeah, yeah, as it evolves.
Lori (22:55):
there's still a role for for relationship in this process
, but we can definitely take thecost out of it, like the, the
busy work right, all the stuffthat people are doing behind the
scenes so that they canactually give really good advice
.
Yeah.
Julie (23:09):
Right and actually do what people want to pay them for
.
Exactly, and that is really theat the core of it.
So when you imagine startingthis business, I'm sure that
things looked a little differentthan they look today in terms
of what you thought the productwould be like.
And you know, I think, that theneed you're trying to meet is
(23:32):
probably not changed, but howyou're meeting it is changed,
and I'm curious about what thatjourney has been like.
Lori (23:38):
Yeah.
So you know when the rubberhits the road is when we really
learn and get in market and alsounderstanding what isn't in
market Right.
So, especially, I think, forpeople who are providing B2B
technology solutions, you knowwe talked about understanding
(23:59):
what, how to really go aboutcapitalizing your business in
the best way possible for youthere was very little
information.
I think the same holds true forreally getting a good lay of
the land from a competitiveanalysis perspective on B2B
software that's in the back end.
You know that is challengingand you get to learn that by
(24:21):
being in market.
And then you also understandwhere there's clear
opportunities that you may nothave recognized, and I found
that certainly the case for FourEyes.
So in our solution, you know wehad, we ended up building out
what we now call it.
You know, simplifyingcompliance from a front end,
know your client am I investedin a suitable product
(24:44):
perspective, but we also providewhich wasn't part of our
original product iteration apost trade surveillance,
monitoring and desktop forcompliance officers so that they
know that they're meeting theregulatory requirements
presented in Canada by CERO usedto be known as IROC and also
(25:06):
that they're meeting thesuitability requirements of the
individual clients and theircompanies' policies and
procedures, and so our platformenables the data to flow through
the front and experience withthe client to the back end
around post-trade surveillance,and that is unique in in the
(25:26):
marketplace interesting, so Iwould think that makes you
desirable.
Julie (25:33):
But of cracking into selling to in a highly regulated
industry as a new player isalways a challenge in terms of
like how you build that rightand that comes over time as you
add clients and they have goodexperience and they go through
(25:54):
audits and they're successful.
Lori (25:59):
Those things all help to build credibility in the market
and you know, you always needyour first person to raise their
hand and say they're willing.
And we were very fortunate tohave our first client who
continues to be a client todaywho was willing to raise their
hand, and I think anyentrepreneur will tell you,
getting that first customer isis tough and it's exhilarating.
Um, and it's a critical.
(26:20):
You know that's the first stepto the rest of the journey and
um, uh, for us now going intothe US, that's, you know, that's
what we also have to achievenow.
We have a proven product inanother market, but we all like
to think we're very differentand in fact, there are
differences from geography togeography.
So we have to go through thatsame proofing path with our US
(26:45):
growth as well and find someonewilling to raise their hand and
say I'm going to take a chanceon these guys.
Julie (26:51):
Yes, and you had mentioned to me before that you
know, 2025 is your year forlearning about the US market and
about how you want to play init and what your role is there,
and my reaction is I thinkthat's a great way of looking at
it, because it can be hard whenyou're in learning mode, like
(27:11):
when you keep hitting oh, it'sanother dead end, it's a door
that won't open, it's a you know, and so you're sort of seeking
and learning and trying to, youknow, figure out where you're
going to get your toehold, andthat can be sometimes difficult.
Lori (27:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
And we, you know we don't knowwho that first customer is going
to be.
And so we, you know, we have athesis and we're going to go in
and we're going to approach themarket.
The great thing about being ina niche market is we know
exactly where those buyers areso we can go have the
conversations, test our, ourhypothesis and see what we learn
(27:48):
, and come back and modify andgo back in and, and you know
it's, it's about acceleratingthat and doing that quickly to
advantage.
That will, you know, that willhelp us by the end of the year
say, okay, we've got our firstclient now and that's what we're
, that's, that's the target.
Julie (28:07):
Yeah, Yep, and getting the toehold with those first
clients so that you can grow upthe you know the smaller ones,
the medium ones to the bigplayers.
Lori (28:15):
Exactly right, yeah, and I think one of the things that
sets us apart in the market isthat we're enterprise grade
software, and and that's great,except, you know, selling into
that space requires a lot ofresources, and so we definitely
have the same path that we tookin Canada, which is start with a
(28:36):
smaller firm, move up tomid-sized market and then
approach the enterprise onceyou've got those proof points in
place.
I'm excited about that, though,because once you get to that
enterprise level and there arevery few competitors at that
level will be positioned, willbe positioned to win.
So, as an entrepreneur, I'malways focused on the future and
(28:58):
I'm very optimistic about it.
Julie (29:01):
That's great and and exciting and I'm sure there's
going to be a lot more learningand it'll be interesting to hear
in a year from now where youfeel like you're sitting.
Yeah, I know what happened wasexpected, what was completely
(29:22):
unexpected and what was in themiddle where you were like huh,
not exactly, but okay
Yeah, I know exactly, right,and so I expect we'll be on
generally heading, you know,like if we're heading Southwest,
we'll be heading southwest.
But you know, are we travelingby water, by road, by plane?
You know, figuring out allthose things then, yeah, it's
(29:42):
definitely going to be a journey.
It's one that you have to be, Ithink, mentally ready for from
a resource perspective, readyfor and feel good about the
people you're traveling with.
And I'm excited because we'vebuilt out our team for Canada.
We've grown our youngmanagement team to run the
playbook here in Canada, and soreally, it's going to be myself,
my co-founder, our head ofgrowth, who really were, you
(30:05):
know, kind of ran the, you know,the entrepreneurial playbook in
Canada and we're going to runit again in the U S and so, and
so you know, I'm kind ofthinking about it like this is
going to be fun.
We're starting again and we'regoing to put our energy into
this.
And, yeah, we don't know whatexactly roadblocks we're going
to hit along the way, but we'llhave at the end of the day.
(30:28):
You know, if we've signed ourfirst customer, we've
accomplished our mission, if weknow a lot more about what it's
going to take to do that, andwe're close.
That will also be successful.
Yeah, it will.
It will and I guess, yeah, it'sabout now hiring people who
have connections and experiencein that US market, who can help
(30:53):
you get to the people that youneed to sit around the table and
talk to.
Lori (30:56):
Absolutely, and you know this talent is expensive and
hard to find, and one of thethings we're investing in this
year as part of that is adisciplined RevGen process.
We're putting a new VP of aRevOps in place this year, and
I'm not a fan of, you know, justselecting somebody with a great
Rolodex and hoping for the best.
(31:19):
These are long sales cycles, soyou know, 18 to 24 months a lot
can be spent and a lot of timewith.
You know we don't expect peopleto go in and close deals
quickly, so we need to know thatwe're doing all the right
things to accomplish that,though, and so definitely we're.
You know we're keeping our eyeon, and we do have someone in
(31:42):
market that we're working with,but ideally there were.
You know we're not outsourcingour sales.
We're actually hiring peopleand setting up our presence in
the US in 2026.
Julie (31:53):
hiring people and setting up our presence in the
US in 2026.
Well, and I think that'll beexciting times and I look
forward to hearing more from youabout how it goes.
Thank you so much for talkingwith me today, and I'm excited
to see how Four Eyes grows andchanges over the coming years.
Lori (32:09):
Well, Julie, I really appreciate the work that you do,
bringing forward theseentrepreneurial stories and
journeys, sharing them.
Canada needs more entrepreneurs, the world needs more
entrepreneurs, and I'm sure thework you're doing is is fueling
someone's passion and givingthem the confidence to to take
the leap, and so thank you forthat.
Thank you.
Julie (32:29):
Thank you so much.
I hope so that sharing thestories that I know about in my
you know corner will help people, because I think we do what we
see as possible and so I lovesharing stories, and thank you
so much for talking with metoday.
Thanks, Julie.
I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
(32:49):
Please remember to hitsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform so you won'tmiss any episodes.
Figure Eight isn't just apodcast.
It's a way of seeing the big,gorgeous goals of women
entrepreneurs coming to life.
If you're interested inlearning more, you can find my
book Big, gorgeous Goals onAmazon, anywhere you might live.
(33:12):
For more about my growth andleadership training programs,
visit www.
julieellis.
ca to see how we might worktogether.
Read my blog or sign up to getyour free diagnostic.
Are you ready for growth?
Once again, that'swwwjulieellisca.
(33:36):
When we work together, we allwin.
See you again soon for anotherepisode of Figure Eight.
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