Partnership is the secret to scaling tech startups fast

Canvas, a SaaS company offering HR text messaging tools, was acquired by Jobvite in February of 2019. Prior to that acquisition, the small Indianapolis-based startup relied on partnerships across many areas of the business in order to scale fast. One of those was with another Indianapolis-based company, Oldspeake.

“When we first started Canvas, we were looking for a team that could help us build out our marketing website and we found Oldspeake. It was a good match because we shared core values both being small, nimble teams that could grow together,” said Zach Linder, VP of Analytics and Machine Learning at Jobvite.

After finishing the marketing website, Linder and the Canvas team realized that Oldspeake had other capabilities that could help them add new features - allowing for increased product utilization and revenue growth. According to Linder, “Oldspeake built a high level of trust with our team by consistently providing well-executed features, like a Chrome extension for the core web app, with consistent turnaround times and unusually smooth team collaboration. Even though we’re separate companies we operate like one team.”

The Chrome extension is a lightweight version of the full web app and enhances the user experience by allowing customers to stay in their web browser to do their work seamlessly - increasing product engagement and customer satisfaction. Oldspeake’s work on features like the Chrome extension drove growth across the company, in-turn attracting attention from Jobvite.

Getting acquired after only two years in existence is a very fast turnaround - even by tech startup standards - but the foundation of Canvas was strong in part due to these strong partnerships. And, that hasn’t changed since Jobvite acquired the company. The Oldspeake team continues to support Jobvite’s product roadmap with its innovative brand of design-based engineering allowing them to get more new features, faster.

“We prioritize the user experience in our work and always look to partner with clients that do, too. Jobvite continues to challenge us to find elegant solutions to customer needs and we love delivering them,” said Jameal Ghaznawi, Oldspeake co-founder. “The impact is felt immediately and there’s nothing more satisfying than that.”

For media inquiries:
Despi Ross
317-260-7850
despi@oldspeake.io