More Money Podcast - 324 Successfully Launching a Startup in Canada - Marc-André Campagna, Co-Founder and CEO of oxio

Episode Date: April 14, 2022

Calling all budding entrepreneurs, today’s bonus episode is for you! We often hear from the founders and CEOs from the U.S., but how different is it to start and find funding for your startup in Canada? The answer to that and so much more is covered in today’s episode. Joining me on the podcast is the co-founder & CEO of oxio, a Canadian home internet provider that offers fair and affordable pricing (and the one I currently use for my internet in case you're wondering).  Marc-André Campagna is from Baie-Comeau, Quebec and as I mentioned is the CEO and co-founder of oxio. After helping his parents move and set up their internet, it sparked his interest in developing a more affordable internet provider that put Canadians' needs first. This led him to drop out of Law School at Laval University to start Accès Télécom (now oxio) along with his friend Francis Careau. In this episode, Marc-André shares what it was like to launch a successful startup in Canada including finding investors, participating in an incubator program, and understanding the importance of networking. He also explains how oxio is shaking things up in the telecom industry by putting the customer experience first and why Canada needs to move away from oligopolies. For full episode show notes visit: https://jessicamoorhouse.com/324 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

and welcome back for a bonus episode of the more money podcast this is episode 324 and i'm your host jessica morehouse welcome back to the show um so excited to have you here because i've got a very special guest we're gonna be diving into a topic i have never explored um and i'm super curious to kind of know the answers i've got the uh one and only-Andre Campagna. He is the co-founder and CEO for Oxio. There's been some ads on the podcast about this new to Canada internet provider that is making things more democratized and just more user friendly and just kind of an option that isn't some of the big telecom companies. And so I want to have Marc-Andre on the show to discuss how the heck he created this company

and also his entrepreneurial journey and some tips that he has for other people that want to create their own startup, get venture funding, all of this really exciting stuff that I have no real clue about because this is just a very different world than what I'm used to. So very excited to have Mark on the show. So a little bit about Mark. So he is from Quebec, as you will notice. He went to law school at Laval University, but he dropped out and he started AXA Telecom with Francis Caro. There's my French accent for you.

You know, I do know French. Not enough to have a podcast interview in French, but I can, you know, I can get by. I can get by. Anyways, together, him and Francis turned XA Telecom into Oxio. And now today, Mark spends his time in Quebec City, Montreal and San Francisco. And when he's not working, he's probably running. Oh my gosh, I do that too. We have so much in common. Literally and figuratively somewhere as far away as possible from the city. Okay, we're a bit different. I like the city.

Anyway, Mark eats hummus on the regular and leads by example when it comes to staying true to your whole self. For Mark, there is no work self and home self. He's actually pretty fed up with that way of thinking. That's interesting. Work is just another part of life. That's why Oxio's culture focuses on work-life integration, being empathetic to the other parts of our whole self and creating ways to support them. Anyways, we have a lot to discuss in this episode. He honestly

gives some really great advice, especially for anyone who does want to create a startup or has a business idea and is Canadian specifically. So you're going to get a lot out of this. So without further ado, here is my interview with Mark. Welcome, Mark, to the More Money Podcast. I'm very excited to have you on the show. Hi, it's nice to be here. Yeah. So we've got lots to talk about. I feel like this is the first time I've had like, you know, a CEO from a Canadian startup and I have a lot of questions, I feel like the kind of startup world and the, you know, just the whole kind of like Silicon Valley, Canada, it's just so far removed. Like, it's not, I'm not involved at all. But I'm very interested in what

what what goes on and how someone if they want to do that, how does that all kind of work? But before we really dive in, and I answer, I ask you all of my pressing questions about, you know, how does one do this? And is it really like some of the TV shows that I watch? Share a little bit more about yourself, your background, how and how did it kind of lead you to this point where now you're the co founder of Oxio? Yeah, so I became Oxio's co founderfounder because my parents were scared of me touching their furnitures when they were moving from the city to countryside. So it's not the typical CEO Silicon Valley background.

At the time, I was in law school and still living at my parents' place. And when we moved, the only thing they asked me to handle was their Wi-Fi. And I actually didn't know a single thing about telecom as well. So I called the only person I knew working in that space, which is Francis, my co-founder. And that's the first time I got exposed to how bad the telecom situation in Canada was. There was only one provider, TELUS, at 75 bucks a month.

And the cherry on top, there was a cap on data at like 40 gigs or something. So Francis and I decided to roll up our sleeves and try to solve my parents' problem. But we ended up trying to solve the whole country's problem at the same time. So that's really how we got started. And that was the beginning of Access Telecom, which was the first iteration of our company, which then morphed into Oxio, which is the company we operate today. I mean, did you always kind of have this idea that you would be an entrepreneur? Like, what did you go to school for?

What were your kind of plans before you ended up, you know, building your own company? Yeah, I was in law school school it was more to make my parents proud I feel I didn't had a single entrepreneur in my um in my family uh and before that I've always been an entrepreneur since I was 14 years old uh when I was 14 I was importing fake luxury brands from China and sell them in high schools, uh, like the, all the Louis Vuitton, um,

Lacoste, all those brands. And I had a sales team that was, uh, dispatching the gears, uh, in all the high schools in Quebec. Um,

so I was always an entrepreneur and also it was, I don't know why, but I ended up having best friends who their parents were always entrepreneurs. So when I was going to their place, having dinner and stuff, I was always mesmerized by the conversations that was going at dinner. And I think that's how I got interested into entrepreneurship. And I remember like really vivid moments of asking a lot of questions to my parents, friends who didn't understand why a young 12 years old was so interesting and how they make money and revenue and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, that's how I got started. And I've always been interested, but before Oxio, it was more like side hustles or like

importing fake luxury brands. It's not a real business. So it was more freelancing. And then when I was in law school and we moved to the countryside, that's how I got exposed to my first real big problem that I thought we could solve by starting a company. That's how we got started. Interesting. I'm curious because I feel like, you know, similar to, you know, you know, similar background in that I don't know anyone in my, you know, family. We didn't even really have any family friends that ran their own businesses or

were entrepreneurs. And so when I made the kind of big leap to start my own company, you know, not that it's the same level as yours, it is really a small kind of get up. But it was intimidating, because I'm like, I don't know what I'm really starting from, from, you know, kind of zero experience. But I feel like we're in this world where there we see a lot of people, especially younger people starting these startups and then becoming, you know, super famous. I mean, I don't know. I'm just like watching a lot of TV and there's so many kind of series coming out about, you know, entrepreneurs and, you know, like the guy from Uber and all that kind of stuff.

And it's fascinating because I feel like there's been a big shift probably that, you know, really kicked off from like Facebook and seeing, you know, Zuckerberg, you know, create this huge company that's, you know, changed the world. I think it's kind of inspired a lot of people to think differently, like, oh, maybe, you know, you don't have to have family that already have, you know, a small business for me to get that experience. Anyone can kind of create their own company and do a startup. But I bet, you know, you mentioned, before I hit the record button, you know, when we're discussing, you get a lot of questions from people who want to start their own businesses or kind of getting their, you know, just getting started and want to get some advice. I think the hardest part is, okay, I've got this great idea, or there's this, you know, problem that I feel like I can have a solution for. How do I get started? And especially in Canada, because I think the huge focus is in the US, like there's so many,

you know, all the startups you hear about are in Silicon Valley. If you're in Canada, because I think the huge focus is in the US. Like there's so many, you know, all the startups you hear about are in Silicon Valley. If you're in Canada and have no plans to move, you know, to America, like what are your, how do you do it in Canada? How different is it? Yeah, first, it's a great timing to do so. With COVID now, Silicon Valley is more of a state of mind than an actual place. But there's still a lot. Like you can start a tech startup now anywhere in the world, but access to capital is still

really closely linked to your location and the big financials hubs, right? So if you want to start a company and go the venture capital route i'm not giving advice to people who want to bootstrap their business which is amazing as well i'm just talking about like going to the venture capital route first you should think twice about it and have really strong convictions about what you're trying to output into the world because as soon as you let investors in you can still be a majority shareholder. And I highly recommend you stay a majority shareholder in the first rounds of funding. But it's not your company anymore.

It's your company. And also there's other people involved in the company. But if you have strong convictions, that's really cool. And I think you should try to take a stab at it. But there's one thing I wish I knew before starting Oxio when it comes to fundraising. And it's this, like, especially if you're a founder from Canada and you don't have a network in the venture capital space, I think if you think you should reach out to 10 investors, like you need to close a couple investors to start your company, you should reach out to 10 investors. Like you need to close a couple investors to start your company. You should reach out to at least 100.

And if you're not comfortable with people saying no to you, you'll have to find a solution to build a thick skin because no matter who you are, I don't care, you're going to get a lot of no's. And when I say reaching out to 100 people, I'm not saying like acting your way out of it and find someone in Fiverr to build you a spreadsheet of 100 potential VCs and send them a fishy email through MailChimp or something. Like the VCs will see right through you and won't even reply.

So I mean, you need to find 100 VC and personalize the email, look into what companies they invested in and ideally hustle your way through a warm intro from a founder that invested in. If you don't know anyone in the venture space, just like me when I was starting, use LinkedIn. There's a lot of founders who would love to pay it forward. They've been through pain to raise their rounds. So if you reach out to them and you would like a warm intro,

they're going to take an intro call with you. If they think your business has some potential, they're going to be happy to make the intros. And to give you a concrete example, there's an amazing young entrepreneur from Halifax called Zach Laberge, a 15 years old great entrepreneur who was raising a couple months ago, 270K to start a company. And to close this round, here's what he did.

He sent 1,662 emails. He had to took at least 150 meetings and he ended up with eight investors doing the round. So it's, it's a numbers game. Like you don't. And the last thing that I would say to that is a lot of people would, will, um, will define the value of their startups by how the VC sees their company. So if a VC say that their company is not going to scale, like they have a negative view on their company, it's going to impact the way they value their company. But you should not do that. Like it's, you're the best person suited to know if your company's worth it or not.

And anyone else, I don't care who they are, they don't have the same amount of data to value your company or not and see if it has potential or not. And anyone else, I don't care who they are, they don't have the same amount of data to value your company or not and see if it has potential or not. You're the only person, you're the only judge in this. Yeah, it sounds similar to, you know, if you want to be an actor, get ready to go on a lot of additions and a lot of rejection, but hopefully you get, you know, one or two roles or something like that, or even like applying for jobs. I remember, I mean, this is years ago now, but when I first moved to Toronto, and you know, didn't know anybody here, you know, I defined a job and I applied to hundreds of jobs. And it's a numbers game, right? It's like you apply to hundreds of jobs, get like a few interviews,

you just need that one job. So similar, it's like you just need that one or two, I guess, kind of initial investors who believe in you. And then it kind of gets a little bit easier. But yeah, at the start, it must be difficult. I can't believe a 15 year old. I mean, that gives me hope if a 15 year old from Halifax is able to raise money and doing it kind of on his own, you know, not with any kind of, you know, help from someone who is already in like the field or something like that, you know, then people who are not teenagers might have a good chance to do that. That's pretty incredible. I'm curious, though, you know, because you mentioned a few things, you know, that that's, you know, one way to go about but I guess you in advance of, you know, asking these VCs for money, you need to

already have all the kind of work done with your business, you know, have a business money, you need to already have all of the kind of work done with your business. You need to have a business plan. You need to look like you mentioned, you need to already have a valuation for your company. You know, in that respect, is it important to have some kind of already business education or background? Like how do you know all this stuff? Is this possible to learn on your own because the internet? Yeah, because because the internet, right? So normally how you'll raise is that you'll have to build a pitch deck, which is a document pretty much telling the story of your company and the problem, the solution, your team, what are your business model, etc. And there's infinite amount of resources to find what a good pitch deck is. And you can go online. And I think the website, it's DeckShare or SlideDeck.

I don't remember the name, but you can go on that website and look through like Airbnb pitch deck that they use to raise their seed rounds. So you can have a lot of great examples. And there's also Y Combinator, which is the most prestigious startup incubator in the world. They share a lot of great information on YouTube. And they also have a startup class that I don't recall the name, but still, it's really cool. And people who want to know how to build a startup company in the venture capital space,

they should really look into Y Combinator and even try to apply if they want to join. It's a really great program. Yeah, well, I'm curious. Honestly, I feel like the only information I know about startups is from watching the TV show Silicon Valley, but you mentioned Incubator. I know, isn is from watching the TV show Silicon Valley. But you mentioned incubator.

I know I'm not terrible. So you mentioned incubator. What is that? And is that something that, you know, if someone has a startup idea, they should, you know, look into besides trying to do it on their own? Yeah, it depends on what you need from a financial standpoint, but also as, uh, as an, as a help standpoint in the sense that if you, if like we did a Y Combinator, uh, last year, uh, we got in how it works is that you have to apply. They take like a hundred of, uh, of company, uh, ish per batch. Uh, they do two batch a year, I believe.

And, um, it's, it's on a three months schedule. So how does it work? Is that, uh, if you, if you get in the invest, um, I think that now they've changed and you, they can invest, um, as much as 500 K USD in your company for starters, which is, um, a really good numbers to get going, a really good number to get going. Good number to get going. And then you're on an intense schedule for three months. And the whole goal of it is to show the entrepreneurs,

the founders that how much they can accomplish in three months if they put their mind and soul into it. So it's a really tight schedule. And you also get introduced to all the Silicon Valley players. And every week you have a conference from one of the biggest founders that, one of the biggest YC founders, like the guys from Airbnb, Stripe, DoorDash, Twitch, all those kind of amazing companies.

And you get to learn from them as well. People there are really generous of their time. So I would highly recommend anyone in Canada that wants to play the VC game to try to apply. And yeah, so that's how it works. And after you've did the three months program, it doesn't stop there. You're now part of an alumni group

like you would be part of an alumni group at university. And we have our very own social media that we can use to reach out to other funders and other investors that got into YC and that are part of that group. Oh, that sounds like a great networking tool. That sounds like super valuable. Cause I always kind of think too, you know, if you're, if this is like your first startup and you're just, you know,

getting started, it would be helpful to, and you don't know anybody. Cause you know, again, you're just, just getting started, doing something like an incubator like that, or having some sort of mentor would probably be essential. I'm curious, you know, if you are just, you know, started like really at the early stages of your startup, what kind of people should you have on your team? Like, you know, sometimes it starts with you, maybe a co-founder. Who else is essential to to make sure you've got, you know, kind of some of the key pieces in place? That's a great question. For sure, it's different from startups to startups, right?

But if I talk only by experience, I would say that, you know, Francis and I are, I believe are a really great fit because we're two polar opposites. Like if you, like you see, you look at our, we are fans of 16 personalities tests and everyone in our team does it. But if you look at our results,

we're like opposite, at exactly the opposite of every single point of that personality test. And I'm really interested into like the business side, the scaling side, the financing side, the HR, the culture, like the people side. Francis is really interested into networks, technology, where all of this is going.

Like we have a lot of different interests and that really, really helped us build a relationship over the years. So I would say that most thing that I see is that founders will start a company with a friend, but they're going to realize along the way that they're pretty similar and they actually want to have

the same kind of role in the company. And that can become problematic down the line. So that's a thing that I would recommend looking into and make sure you have the right co-founder. And also, yeah, just, I mean, just to get like my first round of funding was from Kima Ventures, which is an European fund. Because my idol in the telecom space was Xavier Niel, which is the founder of Free, the biggest telecom disruptor in the world and he was my idol i wanted to learn from him so i just sent a cold email to the manager of that fund at the time and i actually got a reply and he actually decided

to invest in my company so oh wow i was yeah it was it was pretty amazing so i would and he actually is the one who led our 25 million series a um um, in June last year. So it's, it's like, and it started with a cold email. So I would say like, like go have fun in the internet, look at people who have done it, uh, aim high and cold email them. Like, uh, if you don't have anyone in your network and you want to make sure that you're making all the right calls and you're never going to make all the right uh, if you don't have anyone in your network, uh, and you want to make sure that you're making all the right calls and you're never going to make all the right calls, but you want to make some good calls, um, look at, look, look over the internet and try to find people that you think are

like-minded, um, and that will help you scale the company because it's all about, at the end of the day, it's all about human relationship, even though you're in tech, right? So yeah, that's what I would recommend. Yeah, no, I think that's great advice. It sounds like with kind of any community, but especially like the startup kind of community, like you said, it's all about relationships. It's all about networking.

And I think the key to doing that kind of in a natural way that makes sense is to like find people who would be naturally interested like you know make sense that you would reach out to the person because it's like obviously you'd be interested in your business because that's kind of his wheelhouse you want to make sure you're not just oh I really like you know you know this founder even though they have nothing to do with maybe your technology or your idea you want to make sure they are a good fit because then that's you know kind of a natural gateway into like hey we should get to know each other and see if you would want to participate in this and and it sounds like too in general the the community is very you know especially for people

that have you know are maybe they started as founders and now they're you know want to support other uh new startups it's very um supportive like they they i mean i guess there's some benefits like if that you, if they invest and then the company does well, then they make money. But I think in general, there's a good sense of, you know, helping kind of new upstarts a little bit. Yeah. Pay it forward is a really strong, really strong component of the community, I think.

At least the LT community in startups. And I think that a lot of people will want to help. And it's not only about investing in your company. A lot of the people who helped me the most were not part of our team, were not investors. They just wanted to help. And I wouldn't be there without them. So yeah. Well, that's good. And it sounds like too, that's something that now that you have your own company and have, you know, experienced some success, that's what you're also paying forward to. Cause you, you know, mentioned, uh, to me earlier that you, you know, get lots of emails from people asking questions and it's

just kind of part of the thing that you want to pay it forward. And I think that's great. Cause I, I personally, like, I mean, i do that all the time i get questions all the time about you know money problems and stuff like that and i always want to help because well a you just never you want to put out kindness and you want to put out you know positivity because i feel like it does come back to you if that's what you put out into the world but also you just never know how that'll have an impact on someone and how that connection could lead to some other opportunity in the future, not to be like opportunistic, but sometimes like that is what I think about. It's like, you just never know, like, I try to do it just just because I want to be a good person. But also, you just never know what how something can lead to something

else. And like, even if it's like five or 10 years, like, prime example, you know, very different kind of a situation. But my husband has been, you know, has his own business. It's he is a, you know, freelance audio engineer and his business is for sure all about networking and relationships. And it's crazy. Sometimes he'll get a new project to work on from someone that he met 10 years ago because you just never know how things will kind of, you know, so that's why it's so important to that, you know, never burn your bridges and and you know make sure you're you're

making natural uh organic kind of connections and kind of foster them i and i guess that's the other thing too with you it's like it's it's not just about the networking it's about then maintaining those relationships over time which can be a lot of work yeah yeah it is but at the end of the day you know i i almost take all my decisions in life to be able to sleep well at night. And like helping someone and pay it forward, I can guarantee you makes me sleep so well at night. So it's like I'm trying to be selfless in the way

and not expecting things in return. But at the end of the day, it's still selfish because it helps me sleep better. Yeah, there's no yeah, no selfless act. Like I feel like there's no such thing. There's no such thing you're always going to get. And whether that's just like a good feeling. So it's like, yeah, I want to kind of talk a little bit more about Oxio specifically. You mentioned at the beginning of this episode, you saw the big problem. And that's I mean, yeah, we've all as Canadians, we all recognize this big problem and that's i mean yeah we've all as canadians we all

recognize this big problem there's some really big companies that are conglomerates that kind of own the whole market share in terms of you know um internet and even like telephones and stuff like that and you know especially too when i you know moved to toronto because so i'm originally from vancouver and i think like telus and shaw are the big kind of companies there and then moved here rogers is a huge company here. You have limited options in terms of, you know, your internet provider. And they're all pretty much charging, you know, crazy prices. What was it, I guess, that got you thinking, hey, maybe even though I'm just like the little guy now, I can kind of create a solution to actually combat these big telcos?

Yeah. create a solution to actually combat these big telcos? Yeah, the first recipe to think that it's actually naivete, a lot of naivete for starters, but then also went down the rabbit hole. And I just, I always wanted to work on the biggest project that I could in my lifetime to try to have the biggest positive impact. And I just felt that when I started learning and reading about it, I just felt that the biggest moonshot that I could tackle in my lifetime for me was to break Canadian oligopolies. Like I don't really,

I don't really care how long it's going to take, but it's my mission to break the mold and break that, that oligopolies. Oligopolies are really not good for Canadians. They are also not good for democracy when you think about it because having a lobbying force as strong as the big three is not healthy at all.

And it's also not good for the economy as well because they do everything they can to stop competition, which jack the prices, and that also stops innovation. And also, if you're trying to fundraise in the telecom space in Canada, you're probably not going to be able to raise in Canada if you don't have ties with the big trees, because they are LPs in all the big venture funds. They have ties in one way or another with all the money that is flowing through the markets in Canada. And also when you see it on a global scale, Canada is lagging maybe 10 years behind what's going on in the European market, like my high dog Xavier Niel,

he introduced the world with like three euros, unlimited mobile plans and crazy internet plans and all that kind of stuff. And when you go to Europe and France and you get a SIM card, people are paying three euros a month for their services. So there's no way that we should pay a hundred bucks or 80 bucks or I don't know how much you're paying for your mobile bills, but it's still crazy that in Canada, we're still paying that. And price is one thing, but also innovation in the space is another thing. And one reason that Europe is so far away

from the Canadian market when it comes to connectivity is because they have open their networks. So everyone can access their networks and start deploying and offering services to the consumer. So there's real competition, there's free market, and the European market led the competition makes the noise. So in Canada, there's no free market. There's the CRTC that regulates the market,

which has strong ties with the big trees. I don't know if you ever saw the pictures from Ian Scott and the CEO of Bell having a beer together after the tech. No, but I always see in the news that the CRTC is going to make things more affordable, and then they reverse their decision. I'm like, I feel like something's not right. Yeah, it's not well, though. But there's light at the end of the tunnel.

First, there's Oxio that is working hard to solve that problem. We're trying to bring a lot of transparency in the market. You can go on their website and see our cost breakdown and how much money we give to the incumbents to use their networks to sell our services to the customer. There's also the founders of Freedom Mobile, which was called WinMobile that they just bid. They bid, Bryce and Tony like Avera just bid on buying back their company that they sold to Shonda Pass. So if they succeed into buying the company, there's going to be a fourth player in the mobile space

and I'm sure there are going to be real innovators in their space and they're going to kick incumbent bots. I'm really happy to see that coming to life. But yeah, so there's a lot of things happening. It's just it's going to take time and it needs a lot of work because it's so it's so deep into our societal cultures and and like how talcum works that like big uh government um employees are gonna like retire and go work for the CRTC or the big three and have big fat salaries. So like, it just doesn't make sense. The whole system doesn't make sense.

So do you want to kind of share a little bit more? How does Oxio work? Because like you mentioned, I think most Canadians kind of understand how the infrastructure exists. So it's like, there's the big telcos, they've got these towers that have the internet or whatever. And what does Oxio, like, how does Oxio, how, how are you able to offer, you know, internet for, you know, I think lower than the big telcos and also be very transparent. Like where does the money go? How do you do that?

Because you don't have your own towers. You're using other people's towers, right? Exactly. The thesis of Oxio is that there's not a real competitive advantage to deploying fiber optics networks or cable networks next to an already existing cable networks. People don't care about the technology they're using to have great internet. They just want great internet, great service,

great price, stable price, blah, blah. And where Oxio comes in is that we decided to actually build software to focus solely on the customer experience and the products and how we can use our software to create the best customer experience in the whole world for the Canadians when it comes to Telcom. So to do that, we had to focus on software. So we decided to start licensing existing Telcom infrastructure and integrate our software into that infrastructure and sell our services directly to the customer.

So we have our own network. It's just that our whole network is interconnected to the incumbents core network. And then we deploy our internet through the incumbents cables. So if you go on our website, you're going to see that you can enter your address and you're going to see if we're available in your area. We're available in

all the Quebec province, Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta next week. Yeah. And you're going to be able to see if we're available and you're going to work with Oxio to provide the best customer experience in the telecoms. Where the telecom industry is lacking is that telecom has the worst NPS of all industries combines when it comes to customer satisfaction. It's even worse than banks. Can you imagine? That is bad. Yeah, that is pretty bad, right? So we decided that, hey, the infrastructure to provide teleALCOM products is here. Let's use it and let's use that to offer a better experience, a better service, better connection, better troubleshooting software also. So we're proactive and we have a self-serve and self-healing mentality.

So instead of having to call customer support, wait an hour to get an answer when your Wi-Fi is not working. We use our software to poll and extract data to know when your Wi-Fi is not working and try to solve it before you even reach out to us. So that is where Oxio comes in. And we also, like I mentioned before, we have the whole transparency thing, which is really important to us because Telecom is a big black box for Canadians. Canadians don't know how telecom works. And if we can just educate and help Canadians understand how this whole thing works, I think that it's going to be the spark to change things or to shake things up in the industry.

No, absolutely. I mean, you know, as you know, I now use Oxio for my internet and internet is essential for me and my husband because we both, you know, have home-based businesses and use the internet all day. And, you know, I really actually enjoyed the, you know, I didn't, you know, I didn't have to use the internet, you know, Oxio, but I chose to. And yeah, I really actually liked the experience. Like I told you, you know, it took me five minutes to sign up on your website. I also really did. I do like, you know, I love transparency, especially in like the financial world where there's so it's also a black box,

love transparency when it comes to pricing. And so you know exactly where your money is going. And yeah, the whole experience was actually pretty great in that, you know, I signed up, then I got my box of, uh, like, I don't know, my, my husband set it up quite honestly. I'm not the tech person in the family, but he said of like the router or whatever, uh, took two seconds. And I think we actually set it up because as we're recording this, it's March 18th on the 16th and it's, it's been great. So no complaints here, you know, at the end of the day, if I can sum it up in one sentence, we want to make networks and telecom frictionless. And to do that, we need software.

We need better customer experience. We don't need the actual networks. We need to change the way people access those networks and make it seamless. Well, I think, yeah, that's the biggest complaint I hear from people from the big telcos is it's not like the service like is generally fine or like like the actual like internet or telephone service you get is the actual customer service it is it is excruciating and that's why people get so angry they're like fine I'm never going to use telus again it's like well you only have two other options you know what I mean and so then you're going to really run out of options quick because you're going to feel

probably the same I mean this is coming from personal experience. I've used every single of the big telcos for either my cell phone or my internet. And that's why before using Oxio, we used another internet provider that was not one of the big telcos. Because I'm like, I'm never using them again. You're the worst experience. And so, yeah, I think that's really smart. So that's the one thing, especially as a millennial, I think we care so much about the user experience and customer service, that that is that's what we want.

We don't need another company building their own towers. And then it's gonna be worse, you know, internet service and all that kind of stuff. It's like, no, no, no, that's not the problem. The problem is, we don't feel like we're getting the attention that we need, or we're on hold, or we have to tweet them and maybe they'll answer us like it's it's and then you look to like you mentioned Europe and the United States and there's it's you know a different ballgame you can get like such cheap you know internet and cell phone plans and you know customer service that actually responds right away and that's something that we just don't have

in Canada yet until you start Oxio so it's, I'm glad there needs to be more, like you said, there needs to be kind of more democratization of the telecom space. So awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show and sharing, honestly, some really helpful information about, you know, what it's like to create a startup in Canada, because it's, you know, there's not a lot of information out there. And there's, but I know there's a lot of, you know, especially young people who want to start their own company and are trying to figure it out on their own. So I appreciate you being on the show and sharing your experience and some of your wisdom. And that was episode 324 with Marc-Andre Campagna, CEO and co-founder

of Oxio. You can find more information about Oxio at Oxio.ca. And if you did want to try it out, because I am a user, I do use Oxio myself for my internet services and needs. Make sure to use a promo code more money to get one month free. Once again, that's Oxio.ca. Use promo code more money to get one month free. If you wanted to follow Mark on Twitter, he has the best Twitter handle. It is Marky Mark Mark. I'm going to spell it out for you because you're never going to get it. I'm going to include it in the show notes. JessicaMurhouse.com slash 324. It's at M-A-R-K-Y M-A-R-K-Y M-A-R-C-C. That's the best. That's the best. I love it. I love a good Instagram handle that's like unique and amazing. Anyways, anyways, thank you so much for listening to this bonus episode.

Like I mentioned, there will be show notes for this episode, jessicamorehouse.com slash 324. If you want to check out the shows for any episode ever in existence, just go to jessicamorehouse.com slash podcast or go to jessicamorehouse.com slash podcast or go to jessicamorehouse.com slash the number of that episode um but yeah lots of uh good things on my website a new website coming very very soon very excited to share when that is all up um but yeah that is it for me thank you so so so much for listening to this extra episode and i will see you back here next wednesday with a fresh new episode of the more money podcast have a good rest of your week. A big shout out to my wonderful podcast editor, Matt Rideout.

Not going to forget that. Never going to forget to shout out Matt. And have a good weekend. And, you know, just take care of yourself. You deserve it. All right. See you next week. Thank you. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.