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TechTO: Together | A Conversation with Emiel Bril
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The Founders Journey ft. Emiel Bril of VendorPM
Listen to the episode ↗First seen on the TechTO stage in 2022. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Emiel ↗
In their words
So what that means is that I had 91 rejections — probably from some of you in this room — and one yes.
There's thousands of investors, but there's only one of you in your business. So they should be fighting for your business.
Look, you're an incredible fund, you're a great partner, you can spend time with any founder. Why did you choose to spend 45 minutes with me? Why do you believe that VendorPM is going to win? And what happens is, it's kind of fun — they start to pitch you.
if you really believe in what you're doing, you're genuine and authentic in the way that you communicate, people can tell that you're just a human that believes in what they're doing and wants to provide value to them.
for an investor to genuinely care about the person, the human more than the business and the numbers is something really special.
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Quick answers
What is Emiel Bril known for?
Co-founding VendorPM in January 2020 and running it as CEO. It sells vendor management, procurement and compliance software to the real estate industry, and supports 10,000+ buildings across North America.
What did Emiel Bril do before VendorPM?
He started a door-to-door window cleaning business in his Toronto neighbourhood at 14, after his father fell ill. It grew through high school and university to almost 10,000 homes a summer, then moved into commercial property management — which is where he found the problem VendorPM solves.
What does Emiel Bril say about fundraising?
That founders should run the process, not audition for it. VendorPM's pre-seed took 4.5 months and 92 investor meetings — 91 rejections and one yes. After a Toronto founder told him he was pitching as if interviewing for a job with the VC as employer, he flipped the script and closed the $1M round within a few meetings. The seed was seven days and seven term sheets.