From capstone project to international success

When Michael Litt looks back at Vidyard’s 12-year timeline, he is amazed.

Then: Michael Litt (BASc ’11) and his partner Devon Galloway (BASc ’10) were finishing up their Systems Design Engineering studies in 2010 when they saw an opportunity for a startup in the video sharing space.

Now: Vidyard has about 300 employees, international hubs in the United States and UK, more than 12 million users and is selling its products and services to about 160,000 companies.

What started as a video production company that embedded videos on company websites has become a dynamic video creation, sharing and analytics platform that incorporates sophisticated chat and artificial intelligence into its products.

Throughout it all, there has been a constant: The talented graduates and co-op students from the University of Waterloo.

“We’ve been able to amplify our efforts in the innovation arena because of access to the incredible talent that the University generates,” said Litt, who is the chief executive officer at Vidyard. His partner Devon Galloway is the chief technology officer.

Vidyard co-founders Devon Galloway (left) and Michael Litt stand on the roof of 1 Queen St. North in the heart of downtown Kitchener (Communitech photo: Anthony Reinhart)

Litt attributes the successful launch of the company to the skill set taught in the Systems Design Engineering program at Waterloo.

“It helps you think at a level that is truly solution oriented. You're equipped with this mindset of breaking down a problem into its solvable components. That, I think, is an often-overlooked aspect of what an engineering degree is at the University of Waterloo.”

The co-op program that alternates work terms with university studies helps form the entrepreneurial and innovative mindset, he adds. It also allowed Litt and Galloway to be self-employed for a term, which led to them launching Redwoods Media, which evolved into Vidyard.

Also, in the final year of their degree, Litt and Galloway worked on a Capstone design project that formed the basis of their video startup.

They won a highly coveted spot in the Y Combinator accelerator program, one of the most successful startup accelerators in the United States. It provided seed money, advice and connections.

Then they landed back in the Region of Waterloo, where they initially set up shop in the Velocity Incubator before outgrowing the space and establishing offices in Kitchener.

The University’s policy of allowing innovators to fully own their inventions was also key to their success, Litt added. “The University of Waterloo steps out of the way completely and allows innovation to naturally happen.”

Litt was named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 list in 2019 due to the company’s success. But there has been no time to rest on laurels.

Today, in the era of Zoom, TikTok and rapidly changing video technology, Vidyard has innovated and remade itself several times over.

While other companies focused on live video, Vidyard developed a business in “asynchronous” video communication.

It serves businesses that want to record and create a video presentation for an online meeting, or to send to their customers by email. The video presentation can be enhanced with an animation or chat tool. There are analytics to determine, for example, how long a customer was engaged with a video presentation. In all of this, artificial intelligence tools are being deployed.

To do that, Vidyard wants to be connected to the fountain of talent at the University and the region. “It is really important to be in a culture where innovation is embraced,” Litt said.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the pace of change. Suddenly, with travel suspended, staff and salespeople were working from home. Vidyard’s solutions became even more attractive. “Overnight, the volume of new users we were acquiring on a weekly basis quadrupled, and it hasn't stopped since,” Litt said. “The pandemic truly validated what we were working on.”

Today, Vidyard is not just continuing to innovate and draw from the University’s talent pool. Its co-founders are giving back as well.

Along with another Waterloo alum, Mike McCauley (BASc ’11), who was the co-founder of BufferBox that sold to Google, they have started a venture capital firm called Garage Capital that has invested in about 140 local startups.

“We are part of the early-stage financing ecosystem, not only for Waterloo but for Canada,” Litt said. “We want to prove Canada has a strong place in the future of innovation, not only for this country but for the world.”

On a personal level, mentoring the next generation of founders is a “phenomenal journey,” Litt said. “I love learning from them as much as I teach them.”