Episode 19 - Matt McQuillen of Xello

On this episode of the Business Decisions podcast, we're joined by Matt McQuillen, CEO & Co-Founder of Xello. Xello is an online program that helps students prepare and build a plan for life after school. It's been helping school boards and families for over 20 years and as Matt shares with us on the podcast, some of their current employees once used the platform as students.

Matt takes us through some of their history, including the process of re-naming the company and the origin of the name, Xello. We explore some of the challenges of connecting Xello directly to results, when the company's mission relates to helping students and exposing them to potential careers that they might not have considered before. You'll hear how passionate Matt and his team are about making a difference in the lives of these students and how that drives all of their decision-making as a company.

We recorded this episode in the middle of the Covid-19 situation, shortly after Xello announced that the Canadian Business Growth Fund had made a minority equity investment in the company, which was the first outside investment in the company's history. Matt spoke at a TechTO event in 2019 about the importance of bootstrapping to his company's success. We talk about how they made the decision to work with CBGF as well as what it was like to close a deal like this in the middle of a period of social isolation.

Xello is a great Canadian success story and they have even bigger plans for the future.

Links:

Xello - https://xello.world/en/

Matt McQuillen at TechTO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8twzSc0R2o

Caravel Law - https://www.caravellaw.com/

Host: Stuart Wood, Caravel Law

Theme Music: The Box Jellys