Biography:Zachary Laberge

From HandWiki
Zachary Laberge
Zachary Laberge at Halifax Office
Born (2005-10-05) 5 October 2005 (age 18)
Toronto, Canada
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forFounder & CEO of frenter

Zachary Laberge (born October 5th, 2005) is a Canadian technology entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of frenter, a Canadian software technology company, that has raised CAD$350k in investment to date.[1][2] frenter is a B2B Software Company focussed on helping rental businesses streamline their operations through software.

Early life and education

Laberge developed a passion for entrepreneurship at the age of 10 when he watched a youtube video about a 16 y/o founder named Ben Pasternak who had started a company at 16. That video inspired him to create his own company, he ended up creating a drop-shipping company with the help of some YouTube tutorials allowing him to sell cheap products from Alibaba at a markup on his own simple website.[3]. After that Zach started a dog cookie company called "Bernie's Biscuits" named after his dog Bernie who had over 10k Instagram followers at the time. With the help of his Father he setup a Kickstarter Campaign and raised over $5k for his idea and began selling his product across North America. [4][5]

frenter

V.1

In January 2020, whilst at home Laberge came up with the idea for frenter, a marketplace app for people to rent out their under-used items.[6] 1 year later, Laberge had raised a $80k fundraising round, built and launched his product. [7]The company grew in a few months to over 2,500 users and 1,500 items listed and even acquired Rentbridge, their Alberta based competitor in August of 2021 growing to 11 cities across Canada. [8]

Pivot and V.2

After the Acquisition Zach realized after speaking with many of their rental business clients, he realized that there was a need in the market for a new form of the current operating procedure that rental businesses had been using for the last 50+ years. That same month he acquired Reesale(An app that allows for automated and bulk listing of items on various online marketplaces) to continue expanding frenters capabilities.[9] Laberge then pivoted the business towards B2B Saas focusing on creating a vertical operating system to help small-medium sized rental businesses streamline their operations and logistics. Following the pivot in December of 2021, he raised a CAD$270k Pre-Seed round of funding from John Risley, Connetic Ventures, Killick Capital, Gaingels, and Dispatch Ventures. [10]

Awards

1. Atlantic Business 30 Under 30 2021 Recipient[11]
2. Volta Pitch Contest Winner[12]

Learnings and Advice

Laberge career has been very significant for him only being 17 years old, he mentions his biggest teachings are the following:
1. "Be like a Sponge": Everyone in the world can teach you something so always be listening and gathering information from everyone. [13]


References

  1. ↑ "Frenter closes $270k raise" (in en-US). https://entrevestor.com/home/entry/frenter-closes-270k-raise. 
  2. ↑ Nichols, Trevor (2 September 2021). "15-Year-Old Halifax Founder Says His Growing Business All Started With YouTube" (in en). https://huddle.today/2021/09/02/15-year-old-halifax-founder-says-his-growing-business-all-started-with-youtube/. 
  3. ↑ Nichols, Trevor (2 September 2021). "15-Year-Old Halifax Founder Says His Growing Business All Started With YouTube" (in en). https://huddle.today/2021/09/02/15-year-old-halifax-founder-says-his-growing-business-all-started-with-youtube/. 
  4. ↑ instagram.com/bernie_thesharpei
  5. ↑ ""Next generation entrepreneurship with Zach Laberge, Founder & CEO @ Frenter". Point of No Return. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  6. ↑ Nichols, Trevor (2 September 2021). "15-Year-Old Halifax Founder Says His Growing Business All Started With YouTube" (in en). https://huddle.today/2021/09/02/15-year-old-halifax-founder-says-his-growing-business-all-started-with-youtube/. 
  7. ↑ "Site Says Try It All Without Buying It All" (in en). 5 April 2021. https://entrevestor.com/2020/entry/site-says-try-it-all-without-buying-it-all. 
  8. ↑ "Frenter Acquires Rentbridge" (in en). 22 August 2021. https://entrevestor.com/2020/entry/frenter-buy-rentbridge-raising-450k. 
  9. ↑ Chen, Vivienne (5 October 201). "How this one 15-year-old entrepreneur built and acquired two no-code startups". Bubble. https://bubble.io/blog/frenter-rentbridge-bubble-acquisition/. 
  10. ↑ "Frenter closes $270k raise" (in en-US). https://entrevestor.com/home/entry/frenter-closes-270k-raise. 
  11. ↑ (in en-US) 30 Under 30 Zachary Laberge. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6861010952272302080/. Retrieved 2022-03-18. 
  12. ↑ "Frenter Wins Volta Contest" (in en-US). https://entrevestor.com/home/entry/frenter-wins-volta-contest. 
  13. ↑ ""Be like a sponge": 15 year old founder, Zach Laberge". Coffee, Eggs and Inspiration. Retrieved 2022-03-18.




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