On the TechVancouver stage ×1
First seen on the TechVancouver stage in 2018. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Kenny ↗
In their words
the mistake was that I put the product and the technology that we had ahead of truly trying to understand who our customers were and what they wanted
90% of startups fail and the vast majority of them fail because they don't find product market fit before they run out of cash
if instead you focus on the doors or like the customers and the problems that they have problems worth solving then suddenly key building becomes a lot easier
Quick answers
What was Vandrico?
A North Vancouver company MacKenzie founded in 2011 that built situational-awareness and wearable-technology software for mining, oil and gas. He started it as a software developer and served as president alongside co-founder and CEO Gonzalo Tudela.
How big did Vandrico get?
Almost $2 million raised, a little over $1 million in revenue, and 13 employees at its peak — his own numbers on the TechVancouver stage, 2018-02-16.
What is "the first skill every entrepreneur should learn"?
Customer discovery. His argument: most startups fail because they never find product-market fit, and they never find it because their own product idea blinds them during customer conversations. He compares a product to a key you built before you looked at any doors.
How did he say to run a customer conversation?
Talk about the problem before you mention a solution, let alone show anything; frame it as a job to be done — "verb, object, context" — and open with whether they are struggling with that, so the conversation starts as listening rather than pitching (TechVancouver stage 2018-02-16).
What is Kenny MacKenzie doing now?
Not established. On stage in February 2018 he said he was starting a new company to build "the world's best customer discovery assistant"; no public source confirms what came of it or where he works today, and this page does not publish from LinkedIn or contact-data aggregators.