It’s January 2008. Seven software executives are sitting in Brendan King’s living room in Saskatoon. They’ve been working together for the better part of a decade. Some of them have known each other even longer than that.  They know they want to build a software company, but with young families to provide for, they decide to form a company and do consulting work while they build out a business plan to raise money for their software company. 

Passion, determination, agility, and drive. This is the story of Vendasta.

Working out of now-CEO Brendan King’s house, the group devise a plan to connect home service providers to their customers through social media. This plan is MyFrontSteps.

The dream becomes reality: MyFrontSteps and secures $3 million in venture funding from Victoria Park Capital. 

They quickly secured space in Innovation Place, ordered computers, and moved in on a -40 degree day in January of 2008 (and yes our first computers were all Dell)!

VendAsta (camel case was very hip at the time) adopts an iteration of its ‘sail’ logo, loosely inspired by the story of a Saskatchewan man who attempted to build a ship on the plains to sail back to Finland (true story). Did we mention there was an actual sailboat in the office?

The reputation management solution grows in popularity and the team starts dreaming up new digital marketing software solutions to build in-house. 

By 2011, VendAsta grows to 27 adventurers and moves to the historic Avenue Building in downtown Saskatoon. The following year, they launch the SMB-facing dashboard Business Center (now known as Business App).

In spring 2013, VendAsta gains another round of venture capital funding for $8.5 million. It also launches another owned and operated product called Social Marketing, and begins building its Digital Agency fulfillment team (now known as Marketing Services). This is also the year it held its inaugural Ideas on Tap.

By 2014, the company welcomes its 100th employee and launches its CRM Sales & Success Center. 

In 2016, Listing Sync Pro is launched, Marketing Services expands, and the Vendasta blog explodes onto the Martech scene. Vendasta is named to Canadian Business Magazine's Growth 500.

Vendasta receives a $3.34 million interest-free loan from the Government of Canada under the Western Innovation (WINN) Initiative. It launches Listing Sync Pro, starts building its Marketing Services fulfillment team (then called Digital Agency), and first publishes the Vendasta Blog. 

Vendasta kicks off 2020 with the YXE Elevator Pitch competition at Ideas on Tap, a Customer Service ExcellenceAward from CanadianSME, and a place on the ‘Canada’s Top Employers for Young People’ list. Little did we know, the COVID-19 pandemic was about to hit! 

When it did, our mission was to protect local! We moved quickly to launch the Local BusinessOnline Toolkit and the Conquer Local Community and Conquer Local Academy to help partners and their SMB clients weather the economic storm.

In May 2021, Vendasta secured a record $119.5 million in financing for further accelerating the sales growth of its end-to-end ecommerce platform. It is the largest information and communication technology venture capital round in Canadian Prairie history. A previous record set in 2019 was also by Vendasta! 

We also welcomed Vendastians to the new headquarters at Saskatoon Square. Work continues on the top floors, and we look forward to our grand opening party in September 2021! 

In October 2021, Vendasta welcomes CalendarHero to the team.  The acquisition marks an important milestone in the company’s strategic growth plan, with CalendarHero bringing more than 100,000 users into the Vendasta ecosystem.