Our mission at Chroma is to help solve wealth inequality by optimizing personal finance for working Canadians.
Tell us about yourself?
I started my career in finance, working in investment banking and then moving to a private equity firm after a few years. After that, I joined a tech startup called SkipTheDishes. It was at Skip that I learned I loved building things and trying to solve complicated problems that make people’s lives better, especially for people in our backyard of Canada.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Read Crossing the Chasm before you start your startup.
What problem does your business solve?
We help renters build their credit scores and access affordable, convenient credit when they’re in need.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
35% of Canadians rent their homes, and they’re dramatically underserved and underbanked. Wealth inequality will be one of the biggest social challenges we face, and we think it’s important to try to help.
What is your magic sauce?
We’re different from our competition in two main ways.
- Any renter anywhere in Canada can use our product – it’s not tied to your landlord.
- We have world-class customer service that shines through in our customer reviews.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We’re building powerful technology to revolutionize personal finance – starting with rent. Our vision is to do for personal finance what robo-advisors did for personal investing.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Building a company from scratch is really, really hard. We started out as a property management software, but we realized that wasn’t a very interesting space to play in.
How can people get involved?
To any renters (or landlords) out there, we’d love to hear from you. If you think you (or your renters) could benefit from our product, please visit www.chroma.ca or drop us a note at hello@chroma.ca.