Introducing Steve Davis, CEO of Operto

Sara Lindquist:

I'm Sara Lindquist from FUSE. We're an early-stage venture firm based right here in the Pacific Northwest. And just like the founders in our portfolio, we are just getting started. We believe that founders deserve more, more urgency, more community, more expertise, more reliability - more of everything. And we aim to deliver. Join me as I introduce each of our portfolio companies in the FUSE family to date.

Today, you'll hear from Steve Davis, CEO of Operto. Join him and FUSE partner, Brendan Wales, as they fire through a few topics about the business, how it's been going and growing, and how Operto is shifting the paradigm of short term rental check-in and guest experiences.

Let's get started!

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Brendan:

Steve, it's great to be with you!

Steve:

Brendan, lovely to finally meet you.

Brendan:

I know. I feel like we've known each other, but it's the first time - we just met each other in person and we just had a two-hour board meeting, but we're going to continue to talk about Operto. Really excited for you to share the story with our audience.

Steve:

Yeah, thanks. It's the culmination of what - six, eight weeks of getting to know FUSE - and getting to know how you guys help businesses like ours scale, and we're super excited to have you involved. So off to the races we go!

Brendan:

That's right. This is going to be fun! So I'd love to hear a little bit about your path and how you came to be running Operto.

Steve:

In my former life, I was actually on the national field hockey team for Canada, probably didn't-

Brendan:

You were an athlete?!

Steve:

Probably didn't know that, but yeah, so I was actually an athlete of some level. And in 2004, my team unfortunately missed the Athens Olympics by a goal. We lost to Argentina in the final of the Pan Am games. And at that point I sort of said, "I'm 27. I should probably get on with my life here." So decided to go back to school and this was my heritage.

Brendan:

Was this full-time?

Steve:

Yeah. It was full time. Yeah, it's professional in some countries. Yeah, for sure! And so decided to go do my MBA and my family's South African, so I ended up in Cape Town and ended up doing a stint there. And after that, I was actually recruited by Apple, so I ended up sticking around in Johannesburg for a couple years and then started my career really at Apple in a marketing role for Southern Africa. And then that led me to London where I was the head of the advanced data analytics team for Kantar, running massive projects for Unilever, and Proctor & Gamble, and some of the big FMCG players.

After that, I moved back to Vancouver during the Olympics, and decided I wanted to put down my roots here a bit. And I've been involved in a number of sort of startups, helping companies scale, a couple of exits, and have just been in and around the burgeoning technology scene here in Vancouver.

How did I end up at Operto? I got a phone call from a recruiter about two years ago now saying, "Hey, listen, we've got this cool tech company I'm doing a placement for, I wonder if you want to throw your hat in the ring." And a few injuries later, I was offered the job, and two years later I'm sitting here. So that's how I got here!

Brendan:

Yeah, there we go. Olympics to London, to Vancouver. That's great. What was the moment when you realized that you felt like you should run the company? Like obviously there's the call about the opportunity, but then dedicating a meaningful part of your life is a big step.

Steve:

It really was the moment that I met Darren Huston (founder of Operto), we hit it off. It was amazing actually. The first time I met Darren, I was actually up in the Shuswap where he sort of grew up and I happened to be vacationing up there - and I was literally in board shorts and a t-shirt and we were just kind of shooting the breeze. And then I got off the call and I still didn't know who he was - and I jumped on there, I was like, "Oh my God, I was just talking to the ex-CEO of Booking.com." And I had no idea. And I was like, wow, if this actually pans out, I can't imagine working for a better mentor. And I think the opportunity to build a technology company in a "red-hot" vertical with the guidance of someone of that level, presented a once in a lifetime opportunity to do it. So that was a very easy decision for me to make.

Brendan:

Yeah, no for sure. And I got to spend some time with your team today - really great to be in the office. Why do you think your team's the group to do it, to pull this off, to own this category?

Steve:

We were definitely the first in the space. The original iteration of the business started in 2016 when Smart Locks started to appear. And this whole notion of contactless technologies started to gather some steam. So I think in the vacation rental, and short term rental market, we're by far the best known entity. And for us the opportunity to take what we learned and now apply it into bigger installations, whether that's in the boutique hotel space or the chain hotel space - we've got just great, great people that have allowed us to move from smaller thinking to bigger-scale thinking. And we've added a lot of really, really great folks along the way. I think that at the end of the day, especially in tech, like you're only as good as the people that you work with and the talent you're able to attract to the journey. So yeah, we've been very selective, but the team's awesome. And very few people leave at this point.

Brendan:

Yeah. And if there was one word to describe your team culture, what do you think it would be?

Steve:

Accountability. That's one thing that I've tried to hammer into everyone is: own your outcomes. Especially when you're talking about scaling a business at what I would consider pretty quick speed. I mean, we did 400% last year, but it only works if people really take ownership over their work. And there's a culture of getting things done, on time and to a level of excellence that speaks to the brand. I think that's exactly the team that we've been able to put to together, and continues to be the kind of talent I'm trying to attract to the rocket ship as we continue to blast in this space here.

Brendan:

It's been almost two years since you took the helm?

Steve:

Yeah, since October 2020.

Brendan:

October, 2020. So a year and a half. What is it that you think makes it so that customers want to work with you guys? What is it about the product that makes people feel like "I've got to make this happen" and swipe the credit card?

Steve:

Yeah. So I think the first thing is that we have the best tech. There's no doubt. Just having been in the market for the longest, we've got an amazing array of solutions that people are looking for. I mean, now we've got the perfect storm of COVID, and digitally-native travelers who are looking for these kind of solutions - is hit at the right time.

Steve:

I think the other thing that we've done very well is we've managed to mix the technology with the human element. So we've got a customer service team - I was just sharing with you earlier - has a 98% CSAT score. But at the end of the day, when you're talking about hardware and software - hardware, especially - like things break. Humans do dumb things - they unplug base stations from the wall, they trip over cords, things break, lightning strikes, takes the power out - these are things that you can't always control. And so I think that having a set of human hands behind that business is always important - like, okay, what happens if there's a disaster? Who's going to help you get the system back online? How do you help people that aren't necessarily digitally native become more digitally native? And I think that we've struck a really nice balance between tech and human. And I think that that's why our customers never want to leave because they know that they're not going to get that level of authentic human interaction with their competitors - they just don't do it.

Brendan:

Five years from now, what do you think this business looks like?

Steve:

Wow, well, I think the space is blowing up. There's no doubt, it's not going to slow down anytime soon. I think you're going to see every new hotel moving into this kind of new paradigm of the contactless lobby. So you're going to walk through the lobby, it's going to
automatically check you in, you'll be able to walk to your room and begin your stay without ever having to talk to another human. You'll always be able to go and talk to a human if you want to, but I think a shrinking number of people are going to look for that.

So in five years, I think you're going to see this kind of wave hitting, where if you don't have that optionality for your guest, it's going to be almost deterrent for someone choosing your hotel versus not. So technology adoption's going to be there for sure. It's going to become table stakes. People are just going to expect to be able to unlock the door with their phone. I mean, it's just going to be, well, "I can't even remember a time when you couldn't".

Steve:

Where is Operto going to be? I think our big, hairy, audacious goal is to be the operating system that powers the accommodation industry. We work with a number of really great partners that have got point solutions, whether it's noise monitoring or smoke detection or insurance or different things that kind of pile in to our world. And as an operating system, we are able to help the end user create a technology stack that works really well with their business and allows them to go, "Okay, we're going to provide you with the burger and the bun and you decide what things you want inside your hamburger, what kind of experience do you want to provide for the end user? And we're going to help you craft that." And we're going to plug all these different service providers into Operto to ensure that you're providing that guest journey that you want. And I think that's the unique selling proposition that we have- and I think that that's where Operto becomes a multi-billion dollar company.

Brendan:

Great. We like multi-billion dollar companies here at FUSE!

Steve:

For sure, me too.

Brendan:

That's the goal every time. Well, I really appreciate you making the time for us after a long board meeting, really appreciate it. This is going to be a fun ride, and this is just getting started with FUSE! So thank you again, Steve.

Steve:

Thanks for having me. And can't wait to be involved with you guys and hopefully meet some of your investors as well. It sounds like there's an incredible cache of folks that can help us on this journey. Thanks so much!

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Sara:

Be sure to check out Operto job openings directly on their website or LinkedIn page. Also, feel free to check out the job postings right here on the FUSE website.

Thanks for joining us and see you next time!