3. 3 The story of Delvinia
Where do you start when you want to reflect
on 15 years of running and building a busi-
ness? Taking a moment to look back, I realize
that it is important to reflect, learn, celebrate
and look ahead – but never second guess. I
feel blessed that I have had the opportunity
to pursue my own path for 15 years, following
a dream, adapting to change, building
a team, creating jobs, servicing clients,
achieving goals, meeting lots of new people
and building relationships that will go well
beyond my working days.
I have spent my entire career following a
path driven by passion and a vision that
interactive technologies would change
the way we communicate, work and play.
Looking at the world from a user-centric
point of view, you know that it’s not simply
about creative, technology or content.
Rather, it’s about how you apply all of these
to create better digital experiences that are
relevant to the user.
I always knew that the power of interac-
tive technologies gave the user choice and
control. But until there was a critical mass of
users to make the innovation associated with
technology secondary to their behaviours,
the realization of its potential would be just
that – a concept. We knew that we would be
evangelists – preaching the gospel of what
this could be, and living on the bleeding edge
of innovation.
When I knew that we would be reaching
our 15th anniversary this year, I realized
timing was everything. We had just come
out of the second brutal economic downturn
since I started Delvinia, and we were seeing
the business growth that made the pain of
managing through the last recession feel
worthwhile.
A vision is not static – it is constantly evolving
and changing. When I started my business,
I equated my vision with simply knowing in
your gut what the opportunity was. You could
see the silhouette but you couldn’t exactly
make out how that opportunity would be
realized. You knew you had to take this path,
because you felt it deep in your soul, but you
were also frustrated that you couldn’t clearly
articulate what “it” was in one sentence.
Since then, I have discovered that main-
taining my values and integrity are key to
longevity in business – for me anyhow. In
business you have to make many tough deci-
sions. Some of those are not popular ones,
people get disappointed or even hurt. They
challenge you even when it is the necessary
choice. Other decisions are easy and give
you hope that all the pieces are falling into
place. For better or for worse, you have to be
willing to make decisions and be accountable
for them. At the end of the day, any choices
I have made have been based upon being
able to look at myself in the mirror afterwards.
While it hasn’t been easy, I can honestly say
that I can live with all my business decisions.
Over these past 15 years I have learned
how to run a business. I have learned how
to manage cash flow. I have learned that
you can’t control economic downturns – you
can only foresee them and try to manage
through them. I have learned what it means
to be an entrepreneur. I have learned to
Introduction
We knew that we
would be evangelists –
preaching the gospel of
what this could be, and
living on the bleeding
edge of innovation.
4. 4The story of Delvinia
face scenarios where I thought there was
no way out, but somehow find a way to pull
ourselves through when we thought we
would surely collapse. I have learned that
our approach to creating customer experi-
ences works. I have learned to promote our
business. I have learned to hire people, to
fire people, to build a team. I have learned
to trust my instincts. I have learned to push
myself out of my comfort zone, because it
is here that you really grow. I have learned
that when I push others out of their comfort
zones – some can handle it and others can’t
– they all learn. I have learned to trust people,
even though they may disappoint you. I have
learned to build a culture based upon my
personal values of transparency, authenticity
and loyalty. I have learned that with a strong
support system around, you can work through
any challenge. I have learned humility. I have
learned to listen – okay – well I’m still learning
that one. I continue to learn from everyone
that I work for or with. I have learned to give
back. I have learned to never stop learning.
I have learned that being passionate about
what I want to achieve, that never giving up,
that accepting that the path I am on is not
straight, has allowed me to look back at what
I’ve accomplished so far and to clearly see
where I want to go.
After 15 years, my passion has not dimin-
ished. I am as excited about the digital
customer experience now as I was 15 years
ago. Probably even more so. I am exactly
where I should be, with the right people, in
the right business, on the right path. The
fog has lifted and my vision has never been
clearer and the path to get there seems much
straighter.
Fifteen is a good number. It exudes longevity,
but not being passé. Taking this time to reflect
on the past 15 years gives me the opportunity
to remember why I started down this path in
the first place. Sharing my story is only just
the beginning. My hope is to have others
who have been part of my journey share their
thoughts as well. Together our stories will put
further context to the business, the entity,
the brand that I have spent the past 15 years
struggling to build.
6. 6The story of Delvinia
My company was founded in August of
1998. July had been largely spent in meet-
ings sitting in a booth at Bar Italia on College
Street with my fellow founding partners,
Sam Punnett, Bill Sweetman, and Warren
Coughlin. If you have ever sat in a booth at
Bar Italia, you may have noticed that there
are electrical outlets on the ledge above the
booths. You can plug in your computer and sit
there all day, which is just what we did. We all
had visions of running our own business in
the digital space, and that summer was all
about strategizing.
Six months earlier, I had made the decision
to leave Braxton Associates, the strategy
consulting arm of Deloitte where I had
the opportunity to work on some exciting
convergence engagements. I wanted to
pursue building my own business in the
digital space. I was still part of the Interactive
Multimedia Arts & Technologies Association
(IMAT), at the time the largest digital media
association. My involvement in running IMAT
during the ‘90s, and providing input into digital
policy in Canada, was a great way to take on
some consulting projects as I figured out the
business I wanted to build.
Sheridan Scott, who, at the time was the
Chief Regulatory Officer for Bell Canada,
was representing the Stentor Alliance, which
was mandated by the CRTC to create a fund
to support the “next generation” of content
– being digital. Sheridan wanted to consult
with digital producers from across the country
about their needs for funding digital content.
Given my involvement running IMAT, she
knew I could pull together the right people
and she hired me to hold a series of round-
table discussions in various cities across the
country. This was my first engagement after I
left Deloitte.
Sam, who I had gotten to know through IMAT,
was available to help out and we worked on
the project together.
Around the same time, the CRTC was holding
hearings on whether it should try to regulate
the Internet. Sheldon Levy, now the dynamic
and forward-thinking President of Ryerson
University, was the President of Sheridan
College at the time. Sheldon asked Sam and
I to help prepare a position to the CRTC on
behalf of the college. That project, along with
a number of others involving clients who were
also making submissions, meant I was busy
from the start.
At the same time, the dot-com boom was in
full swing and there wasn’t a week without
another IPO coming out of Silicon Valley,
Seattle or Boston for not only pure-play
technology companies, but for new online
businesses that were going to displace the
traditional brick and mortar ones.
I wanted to tap into this with more than just a
policy and research firm. And so did Warren,
Bill and Sam. Warren, who had worked with
Sam and I on a small engagement, had left
his career as a lawyer and was looking for
something new. Bill, who I had also gotten
to know well through IMAT, and who built the
MultiMediator website—the first resource for
those in the digital industry in Canada—was
just leaving a partnership in a digital PR firm
and was also interested in doing something
more exciting in the digital space.
So, Sam, Warren, Bill and I went through a
series of five strategy sessions, each building
on the other. We first discussed what we did
NOT want to be, which led into a discussion
of what we DID want to be and do.
We all knew we had services that the market
wanted and a combination of skill sets of
We first discussed what
we did NOT want to be,
which led into a discussion
of what we DID want to be
and do.
7. 7 The story of Delvinia
which the sum was greater than the individual
parts. There was so much opportunity.
We decided that if we were going to be a
strategic digital firm that we needed to work
directly with clients, since working through
another company would relegate us to simply
being a production shop. We listed our core
attributes as a group. It’s interesting to look
back at it today, because it really hasn’t
changed. These core attributes were:
We defined our service focus, which was
based upon two areas. One was our fee for
service consulting and the other area was
our venture side of the business.
Our fee for service business was split into
two service lines. The first was the policy
and research side where we tracked what
was going on in the digital industry in
Canada, informed policy makers as to the
potential of digital media and advised clients
who were trying to understand their role in
this new digital media landscape. The second
was to provide consulting services that would
help companies that were trying to determine
whether they even needed a website, to build
one in a way that was both relevant to their
businesses and relevant to the customers
that they wanted to interact with.
The venture side of the business was more
long term – and our real passion. We wanted
to be set up to conduct our own R&D and
develop our own products. Consulting would
bring in the profits and retained earnings,
and then it was our goal to leverage our
consulting services to finance our innovation.
Helping clients solve their digital challenges
and develop interactive products would lead
to identifying and spinning off some
interesting ideas that could be incubated as
future business opportunities.
We initially launched our business as the
MultiMediator Strategy Group (MMSG)
since we had not yet developed the name
we wanted, but we liked the MultiMediator
name and what it represented in the market-
place – a guide for those interested in digital.
In 1999, through a visioning exercise to
decide what name would best fit our busi-
ness, we came up with Delvinia. Delvinia was
the perfect name. It presented an image of
“delve in and dig deep” which was how we
approached developing digital experiences.
More importantly, we had not seen the name
Delvinia anywhere, and www.delvinia.com
was available. Our brand vision was focused
on “a fascination and drive to solve business
problems using the power and potential of
interactive digital technologies.”
Our brand identity was about creating interac-
tive solutions driven by knowledge to help our
clients make better, more strategic decisions
about their digital activities. We also wanted
to demonstrate that we were driven strate-
gists and passionate about the digital space.
This hasn’t changed.
There were many organizations that were
emerging as strong digital firms. While the
tendency in most digital firms was to build a
production capability in house, we wanted to
focus more on the strategy behind what we
• Analysis
• Vision
• Expertise
• Relationships
• Strategy
• Experience
• Independence
• Profile
• Integrity
Our brand identity was
about creating interactive
solutions driven by
knowledge to help our
clients make better, more
strategic decisions about
their digital activities.
8. 8The story of Delvinia
would eventually build. In my mind, building a
large production studio would handcuff us to
sell production work to keep the engine alive.
I wanted to be able to focus on the strategy
as our core competency, and then build
and launch website and digital marketing
campaigns after we had worked through the
strategy process. We kept only the design
capability in house, and we scaled our tech-
nical production capability using various
freelancers. This business model made sense
to me.
We had landed some major clients and
worked on some very interesting and high
profile projects. Some of those projects
included helping to promote the launch
of cbc.ca, CBC’s first foray into the digital
space and developing their e-merchan-
dising strategy. 1999 was when we began
our 14-year working relationship with RBC
Royal Bank, to launch their online banking
pilot by working on their digital marketing
campaign. It’s hard to believe that online
banking was only launched in 1999. We also
helped Harlequin Enterprises build its North
American website – eharlequin.com – and
increase their online audience of romance
novel readers.
The digital media industry was still in its
infancy, and after spending most of the 1990’s
promoting this industry, we founded and
launched the Canadian New Media Awards
(CNMA), in order to build recognition for
the companies, individuals and products in
the Canadian digital industry. In the digital
industry we were always the poor cousin to
the television, film, advertising, and consulting
sectors. The CNMAs became the pre-eminent
awards program in Canada for the digital
industry, building profile for digital on its own.
In 2009 we merged the CNMAs with Next-
Media and Achilles Media took it over from
us. During its 10th anniversary in 2010, the
CNMAs were rebranded as the Digital Media
Awards (Digis) which are still running strong
today.
Our digital strategy and marketing side of the
business grew very quickly and it wasn’t long
before we had 40 people under our roof.
In November 2000, I was asked to be the
keynote speaker at the Canadian Associa-
tion of Broadcasters national convention,
providing a glimpse into what the future
of broadcasting would look like. We really
thought this was going to be the turning point
for the growth and presence of our business
and the Canadian digital media industry. Little
did we know that a week after the convention,
the dot-com bubble would burst.
This was the first time where we had to face
what I called, “looking down the shotgun
between my eyes.” Like most of our industry
colleagues, because the earnings of the new
IPOs had failed to realize the promise of what
a dot-com IPO would deliver, investors were
pulling their money from these companies,
companies were shutting their doors all over
the place, and the traditional industry players
were praising themselves that this “Internet-
thing” was just a fad. I didn’t know we would
go from feeling like we were on top of the
world, to seeing our dreams evaporate before
our eyes.
I still remember June of 2001. I don’t think I
slept a night that month. We were faced with
agonizing business decisions, potentially
devastating our dreams and all that we had
invested, and constantly feeling like we would
get crushed under the weight of everything
that was going on. The terrorist attack of
September 11th threw the world into a deep
state of fear and depression and everyone
wondered how it could possibly get worse.
We all believed the
Internet was not going
away, and that it would
become more ubiquitous
in everyone’s lives.
9. 9 The story of Delvinia
During this period, we had to look hard at
whether there was a future for this business.
We all believed the Internet was not going
away, and that it would become more ubiq-
uitous in everyone’s lives. Consumer choice
and control through the use of digital tech-
nologies would be the future. We all held to
the vision that once the dust settled the last
companies standing would not only survive
but thrive.
Somehow we made it through this period.
We could finally exhale and decide where we
wanted to go next. We had survived the most
devastating correction in the digital space
to date, and the first economic correction
since we had launched the business. It is still
hard to believe that we made it through this
economic downturn. Looking back, I couldn’t
have made it through this period if I had not
had the partners I had at the time. We really
pulled together to manage through the most
difficult period of all of our careers to that
point.
By the end of 2002, we were battle worn,
and at a crossroads for the company. Bill,
Sam and Warren decided that they wanted
to pursue other ventures and leave Delvinia.
I believed that there was still value in our
brand. We entered into a negotiation for
me to buy them out of Delvinia. While the
dot-com crash had taken its toll on all of us, I
was still passionate about where the business
could go. While I was disappointed that our
dream was not going to be realized together,
I appreciated that my partners were willing to
negotiate with me to retain the Delvinia brand
and allow me to continue on with my dream.
At this time, I had a three year old and a one
year old at home, and my wife Sharin was
deciding whether she would go back to work
or stay home with the kids. I remember sitting
down with Sharin to tell her about the deci-
sion my partners and I had made. She looked
at me and said, “You have been through a lot
over the past couple of years, we have our
two kids, our mortgage, maybe you should
just get a job.” I definitely had some tough
decisions to make, and I had to ask myself
whether I could carry this vision forward on
my own.
The best thing about starting the entrepre-
neurial part of my career with partners was
that I didn’t have to make any decisions by
myself; it gave me a sense of confidence to
manage through difficult situations. We made
almost every decision by consensus, and this
worked for us through our good times and
particularly during our challenging period.
While negotiating the buyout of a business
from partners is not always pleasant, I appre-
ciated that though the partnership had taken
its course, I had met three very honourable
people that I still have respect for today. They
all left the business in a manner that allowed
me to continue the path we had embarked on
five years earlier, without compromising the
integrity of the brand we had built.
However, the real question was whether I
had the self-confidence to make decisions
by myself going forward. It was one thing to
possess the intestinal fortitude to pursue an
entrepreneurial career path, but having to
trust my own instincts, that was different.
Ultimately I had to and it was then that I
realized I was cut out to be an entrepreneur.
Looking back now, although I was nervous, I
had a sense of calm and I knew I could do it.
Throughout 2002, while we were managing
through our recovery, I had started to spend
more time with Steve Mast. Steve joined
Delvinia in 1999 as the Director of Client
Service for our Digital Marketing business.
He had become an important person in our
organization. I realized that we shared a great
By the end of 2002, we
were battle worn, and
at a crossroads for the
company.
10. 10The story of Delvinia
deal of the same vision of where we could go
with the business. He had the same drive and
passion as I did, and he was also intrigued
with the idea of developing our own innova-
tive products and services.
Steve and I spent a lot of time talking about
where the industry was going and where the
business could go. I told Steve that I wanted
to keep the Delvinia brand.
As the next chapter of our journey began, I
rung in 2003 with only Steve and Craig Tothill,
our technical specialist, and the determination
that I had no choice but to succeed.
