Getting to No. 1 in a Winner-Takes-All Market

Toronto-based Wishabi Inc. makes circulars—those flyers retailers mail out once a week with local deals and specials. As with all media, the circular is slowly going digital. It's not a new concept. Wishabi is just one of several companies offering retailers digital versions of their circulars. But Wehuns Tan, co-founder and CEO of Wishabi, says his company's approach sets it apart from other companies offering print digitization. "Our job is to help reinvent this whole process of communicating with consumers," explains Tan. "It's not about a piece of paper anymore; it's about retailers creating a relationship with customers and telling the story every week of what's going on in your stores."

Tan and his partners Matt Cheung, David Myers and David Au-Yeung—all ex Microsoft employees—didn't want to take a standard approach like some others in the space. "We're doing to flyers what Google did to maps," asserts Tan. "While Google wasn't first in the market, MapQuest was, Google won the war at the end of the day because it focused on the consumer experience and on building and application that helps people make decisions."

Wishabi is working hard to stay ahead of its competitors. "If you look at Google Maps, it's a winner-takes-all market. Now, Google is the leader and the second-place guys, no one really knows. Similarly, in our world, we have to keep pace with all of our competitors." In addition to watching what other companies are doing, Tan and his partners keep a close eye on emerging technologies in retail and media "How is ecommerce and mobile transforming? How is media changing? What's new in social media? We spend a lot of time looking at trends, researching consumer behaviour, the newest apps and technologies out there and asking, 'How do we bring back that innovation for our retail partners?'" says Tan.

It's this focus that Tan believes will make Wishabi the Google of print digitization. And, like Google (or fellow Canadians HootSuite and PayPal) Tan knows that it's not enough to win the Canadian market. Global success is what matters. "By working with the best U.S. retailers—Macey's, Sports Authority—we are able to bring innovation to the next level," says Tan.

Competing on a global scale will bring even more competition. Tech companies are emerging that plan to offer retailers super targeted proximity marketing using Apple's new location-based system, iBeacon. Once implemented, the system would let retailers push a greeting or offer to an iPhone user passing a nearby iBeacon.

Tan says Wishabi's competitive advantage is its approach: "When we work with a retailer, it's not a vendor/supplier relationship, it truly is a partnership What has really fuelled our exponential growth is that we give [the client] the ability to execute quickly. We work with them to really understand what they want us to do and then give them the agility and speed that they need in order to compete."

Tan on failure. "Iteration? It happens all the time. The key is being able to fail fast—learn from it and move on."

Tan on success. No matter how well you're doing, remember this: "At any time someone can come up and try to disrupt you."