Choose Happiness
“If you can put yourself in an uncomfortable position that makes you grow, then do that every single time.”
Start-Up: Yupp
Co-Founder: Justin
Location: Toronto
I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Justin about his team’s recently launched app called Yupp, which you can download from the App store.
What is Yupp?
If you are a nerd about your personal finances, this is 100% for you! Yupp aggregates all your expenditures from all your bank accounts, keeps track, notifies you, sorts, and provides insights about your spending. This is something I attempt to do manually through an excel tool, so this sounds like it will be a game changer for me.
Justin was a match ready to get lit
After working as an environmental engineer for 5 years, Justin was ready for something new, but he didn’t know what. However, he knew that he wasn’t looking for another conventional role where he would need to apply via a website and submit a resume. He had liked his job, but he didn’t feel like he was making the impact he wanted to make and wasn’t getting the challenge he was hoping for.
So, Justin embarked on a year long journey having conversations with friends to see how they got to where they were and if they knew anyone working on any interesting projects.
Eventually, Justin came across his now co-founders, Connor and Kevin, and he was intrigued by their similar frustrations and knew that he wanted to start a project with them. When they were exploring interesting projects, there were discussions around how they tracked expenses and the fact that the right tools didn’t exist, but that they could build them. They weren’t sure if they were going to work on this from the start, but conversations around this idea kept propping up and they couldn’t ignore it anymore.
Quitting your full-time job for your side project
Justin worked as an engineer and worked on this side hustle for about 2 months in tandem when he realised how much he had fallen in love with this new project and how happy he was with his co-founders, so he decided to make the full leap. He also realised what him and his co-founders were looking to accomplish was a lot and he didn’t want to be distracted anymore and needed to put all his energy into it to be successful.
Start Small
When it comes to starting a company, Justin believes that the need and value must come first, and then there will always be a business case for that. In the end, the idea doesn’t matter so much, but execution is very important. If you have an idea, go out and try it and try the easiest MVP you can (and it doesn’t have to be tech-based) and see if there is value there. For Yupp, one of their very early prototypes included Justin texting his mom every time she made a purchase for a day.
Biggest Challenge
For Justin, entrepreneurship has been an internal challenge and he’s really had to learn to trust himself and believe that he really can take the start-up to the next level.
Trusting your team
As a Founder, you won’t always be the expert at the table and it’s important to find others who complement your skills. Justin noted that he had to do this for the building of the app given that he comes from a mechanical engineering background and has managed large products and big budgets, but not the technical aspect of building an app. Luckily, he had very qualified co-founders. He noted that when he first met his co-founders, they had extensive knowledge in tackling technical challenges and methodical approaches to how things should be done. Ultimately, trusting them was not an issue for Justin, and he also noted that they’ve been very supportive in walking him through the process.
Yupp’s current operating team consists of 5 people, with 4 members coming from a tech background. As such, Justin takes care of everything else, including marketing/HR/financials/fundraising/product management. Justin noted that “I like to think that I clear all the other obstacles so they can just build the app and not worry about anything else.”
Best moment to date at Yupp
Launching the app a couple of weeks ago was a big moment for Justin as he noted that there are now complete strangers reaching-out to his team through their support email just telling them how they’ve been looking for something like this app for a while. Justin is all about providing impact and giving back to people, so he considers this going full circle from where they started.
Yupp’s approach to hiring
The initial hires included friends from university who heard about what Justin was working on and wanted to be a part of it. For anyone hired, they started with test contracts to see if there was a fit. The first 2 hires worked well and they also fell in love with the product. Justin also noted that his co-founder, Connor, is an incredible leader. For their final hire, they used Angel List and combed through resumes and went through interviews. Turns out that they like to hire people have an excitement for personal finance!
Fundraising in the Toronto market
Justin noted that early stage financing in Toronto is interesting because there is a benefit from an incredibly supportive start-up community, but it is a relatively small market with investors, who are largely focused on conservative investments and B2B companies. Luckily for Yupp, they were able to get in front of some angel investors through connections from their co-founder, Kevin. Justin noted that it was a challenge, but if one investor isn’t interested in the product, they were more than happy to connect the team with other people, who were looking to invest in personal finance, fintech, or early stage start-ups, or answer questions about how to get to market. At this point, Yupp has some awesome angel investors, and they will be looking for a next round of financing in the coming year.
One thing that surprised Justin throughout the initial round of financing was the lack of material for pitch decks for very early stage start-ups as he noted that at this point, there is a heavy weight on the team and product vision; the process is a bit less formal compared to later stage pitches and more of an art than a prescriptive process.
Current Market
Yupp’s current focus is on young professionals in the Canadian Market because the team had a better understanding of the retail banking market here. Justin also noted that Canadian consumers are more digitally inclined, making more purchases through debit and credit cards, which is very applicable to Yupp. Yupp has their eyes set on the US in the near future, and already has a bunch of users in the valley.
Staying Grounded
Justin encountered the saying “you can choose happiness” a while ago and it really resonated with him. He noted that there are so many things in life you can’t control, whether it’s your financial situation, or how people react to you, but you have complete control over your mindset and how you approach something. You will encounter tough days and sleepless nights, but you can choose to be happy and take everything in stride, even when you are being shoved in multiple directions.
Get to know Justin better
Justin was trying to do his best at being the most nerdy entrepreneur I’ve interviewed…
“If you are a nerd it means you have passion and excitement for something that other people have largely ignored.”
- Justin considers himself a board game addict. He is currently into A Feast for Odin, but he also likes the classics like Monopoly.
- If he wrote a book, he would call it “The Other Side.” He started a dungeons and dragons campaign at one point where the world was flat and on one side there was a reflection of the other and there was a small hole to get through to the other side.
- Something Justin wish he knew before he started his entrepreneurial journey was that you can’t really look at entrepreneurship just as a career because it becomes part of everything; Justin noted “I stay awake at night sometimes because I’m stressed, but also because I’m just [so] excited.” He emphasized how much it becomes a part of your life and no one can really prepare you for that.
Justin’s early years…
Growing-up, Justin was already building his entrepreneurial skillset through lemonade stands, selling pokemon cards, and pencil crayon-based mush. Justin noted that he was not so interested in the dollars and cents, but was really fascinated with the fact that you can create something that someone else wants and can solve their problems. He also had huge respect for his uncle, who owned a comic bookstore.
If you would like to learn more about Yupp, please check-out their website, or blog focused on positivity and mindfulness, which is both entertaining and insightful!
