.png)
.png)
At Bold, we empower entrepreneurs by providing them with tools they can use to make their eCommerce stores truly awesome.
That means giving your store the ability to fulfill all the unique needs of your business – and more. Every merchant is different, so we give you the power to make your eCommerce platform not only perform exactly the way you want it to, but also to do things you didn’t think were possible.
Since the beginning, we’ve kept ahead of the curve and we want to help you do the same. Tens of thousands of merchants around the world trust Bold’s industry-leading innovations, effective sales boosting solutions, and world-class customer service.
CONNECT WITH BOLD
Interview with Stephan Maynard, Director and Co-Founder
After more than 12 years of running a successful eCommerce store, Jason Myers saw a need for some added functionality that was not available in the core Shopify platform or app store. Jason brought the idea to his long-time friend and designer, Stefan Maynard, over a few pub beers. Stefan was quickly on board, and suggested they partner with Yvan and Eric Boisjoli, two friends and ‘great developers’. Together, the four of them could build out the idea and make a few extra bucks on the side. Their very first meeting together took place at a Robin’s Donuts in Winnipeg in February 2012.
A few months of development and testing later, Product Upsell was released to the world, and “Shappify” (Bold’s business name at the time) was born. Not long after launch, the app received its first negative review. This feedback shaped the company’s mission to develop nothing but the best products and the best customer support. So they got back to work and rebuilt the app from the ground up.
Following the launch of their first product, the company hired their first employee, and one by one the founders quit their day jobs. In 2013, the team of five moved out of their makeshift basement office into their first official space and rebranded under their new name, Bold Commerce.
Our core focus is on eCommerce solutions. We empower merchants both big and small by providing them with tools to make their eCommerce stores truly awesome. Recognizing that every business has different needs, we offer our products right off the shelf, as well as more sophisticated custom solutions.
From day one, the founders agreed they didn’t just want to build great ‘products’, they wanted to build a great ‘company’. Every decision made was based not about what made Bold the most money, but what had the greatest impact on growing the total value of the company.
The company grew from the four founders to a team of over 300 employees in its first six years of business. Bold continues to outgrow multiple offices (including make-shift home offices and commercial garages) with no plans of stopping. In January 2019, Bold was pleased to share the news of our $22 million raise by the way of Series A financing, with the funds to be used to accelerate significant growth in Bold’s lineup of eCommerce apps and artificial intelligence-based commerce solutions.
Another key metric we look at is the number of merchants we’ve helped succeed. Today, we’re proud to say we’ve supported over 100,000 merchants succeed on multiple platforms.
Innovation and people have been the two major factors contributing to our success. We’ve always done things differently. At Bold, we host hack days we call “Innovate or Die Days” three times a year. The event is an opportunity for all employees to spend 48 consecutive hours building innovative and creative tools, programs, and anything they can dream up to help make Bold an even better place to work. Submissions have included a creative display of our positive merchant reviews and a Bold-inspired Mario Kart game. Every employee also gets 10% innovation time, which amounts to four hours per week to work on anything they need, to ensure people always continue to push the envelope.
Our people are another major factor contributing to our success. We continue to build a great company by bringing on the very best people! We believe in challenging each other to create the best products and to constantly improve, all to ensure we deliver the best results to our merchants at all times. We look for people who truly want to make a difference and ensure they continue to grow through mentorship programs, lunch and learns, and education funds.
One of the biggest challenges we face is our continued growth – we quickly outgrow our physical space, forcing us to move almost every year or two, and we are on a never-ending hunt for amazing talent. We plan to hire more than 200 people in the next 18 months, including some new and interesting roles. With that, it’s important that we stick to who are are, and that our culture and values stay intact.
We’ve been lucky to find most of our staff organically. Our employees have acted as great ambassadors for our brand and so we have grown largely through the community. We also have an amazing recruiting team who are always actively searching for the best talent. Recently, we’ve begun international recruiting initiatives where we have been fortunate to move over two dozen new hires from countries such as Germany, Brazil, Russia, and Ukraine, to name a few.
Although skills and experience are important, we care more about fit. Fit for us is people who want to work as a team—no egos, a constant desire to learn and grow, an entrepreneurial spirit, staying innovative, and continuing to think of new ideas. We also look for people who can think big. What more can we do if we put our minds to it? What limits can we push? What else can we do to set Bold apart?
We’re always working to create and maintain a place that keeps our employees fulfilled and motivated. We try to foster an environment that encourages creativity and innovation with an open and supportive workplace. We want our employees to grow both personally and professionally and feel they are making a difference.
We live by what we call the “Builders Code“, which sums up what Bold life is all about. It’s the shared set of practices, beliefs and values that help to shape who we are.
There’s a shift in moving away from this idea of having multiple levels of management, with an archaic approval process. We believe in allowing our employees the autonomy to create meaningful work along with a great environment and amazing people to share it with. We care less about who’s right, and more about what is right. Any idea is a good idea, no matter what your role is or how long you’ve been here!
For someone straight out of school, developers especially, we encourage them to try new things and put themselves out there, whether that’s tinkering around with a Github account or going to local meet-ups. It’s that motivation and curiosity that can give you an extra edge on the next guy. You’ll most likely have the same resume as 100 other people applying, what are you doing to stand out?
Our culture and our people are what has really driven our success. Having this group of hard-working people who truly ‘give a shit’ and want to achieve amazing things has gotten us to where we are today.
New Media Manitoba has been supportive of Bold since day one. Even from the early days, NMM supported our growth through business development initiatives, hosting different events and, more generally, creating a sense of community for those of us in this growing tech space.