Grant Storry is the Director of Mobile Products at Beanstream, a provider of omni-channel (online, mobile & retail) payment processing, risk management and authentication services. It was founded in Victoria in 2000 and in 7 years, it’s gone through FOUR acquisitions!
Just announced yesterday, Beanstream has been acquired by Bambora, the world’s largest payments startup and Swedish FinTech Innovator.
It’s fantastic news as it brings money to Victoria and keeps the work here. It also had Grant in a really pumped up mood at yesterday’s Demo Camp at Experience Tectoria (it wasn’t just because he was excited there was beer).
“I have started to become more comfortable presenting in the last few years. I think it’s important let the passion for a project shine through in a pitch. The presenter’s energy can rub off on the audience and I find people really respond when the presenter is ‘all in’ and is able to convey authentic commitment to the project being pitched.”
For other companies who ever need to demo, Grant suggests looking up Simon Sinek’s TED talk “Start With Why” for a crash course on how to captivate a group’s attention.
VIATEC has worked closely with Grant and Beanstream and has been somewhat of a “lab rat” (in a good way), for their latest product that Grant showed off yesterday.
“Ground Control Cafe was the first alpha tester of sproutPOS and our first live merchant,” commented Grant. “I think Jill (of the cafe) and Michelle (of VIATEC), need to be put on a pedestal and celebrated for being willing to adopt our solution in the early stages. They have been instrumental in providing feedback to help us get our minimum viable product out the door.”
Beanstream now has over 650 merchants using sproutPOS across Beanstream and our banking partners.
Grant is a BC-native and has worked for Wondermill Webworks (founders of Neverblue and One Net were also staffed at this startup), Peter Gustavson at Custom House, Bet Smart Media (founder), and ZenBanx.
When Grant started with Beanstream in 2013 it was a contract to build a business case around mobile point of sale and a launch plan for North America. Towards the end of the engagement Craig Thomson (President) and Grant flew to the US to pitch the concept to the executive of Digital River. Digital River loved the concept and funded the project as a stand-alone innovation initiative. This allowed them to run the sproutPOS project as a lean startup within a larger organization pioneering a hybrid approach to product innovation.
“I wound down my other contracts and came on board with Beanstream full time to lead the initiative, and have been here ever since. The opportunity is ideal as we can capture all the benefits of being a startup: innovation, lean, agile, with the benefits of a larger organization: funding, resources, connections, partnerships, distribution”.
Grant has also become a father over the last 2 years and is getting to participate in a “human startup” which has been the greatest experience he’s ever been a part of.
“When I’m not spending time with the family, or working, I like to get out and enjoy the best of island life: scuba diving, sailing, thriving tech scene, craft beer and delicious coffee! Why live anywhere else?!”
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