Ep 9. / Alex Kolodkin - Founder, Operator & Builder ~ CEO, Set Scouter

Alex Kolodkin is the founder and CEO of Set Scouter, a film locations marketplace that simplifies commercial and film production scouting across North America. 

Founded in Toronto, the company is backed by investors from Silicon Valley and Canada - and continues to set the industry standard for sourcing sets of all kinds, from small indie films, TV series, and cinematic blockbusters.

Set Scouter serves thousands of major brands and agencies, including Google, Walmart, Disney, and McDonald’s. 

During the pandemic, he started Safe Sets International, which grew into the largest film-focused COVID-19 advocacy group in the world. 

Before founding Set Scouter, Alex produced corporate videos and worked as a broadcaster. He holds a BA and MA from Toronto Metropolitan University and completed additional studies at UCLA. 

Outside of work, Alex serves as a National Director for the Kidney Foundation of Canada, invests in great founders, and races triathlons (including two Ironman 70.3s).

It was really energising re-connecting with Alex, and I am motivated by his driving force in leadership in the global media, film and production landscape. 

We also connected on the theme of movement. He and I hold a passion for endurance sport, and his passion comes out in today’s interview.

Highlights:

1. Early Career and DMZ Experience: Alex Kolodkin reflects on his early career, highlighting his time at the DMZ, a technology business incubator at Toronto Metropolitan University, which played a crucial role in shaping his entrepreneurial journey.
2. Building Set Scouter: Alex shares insights into founding Set Scouter, a film locations marketplace, discussing the challenges of overbuilding and the importance of iterating based on customer feedback.
3. Impact of COVID-19: The conversation delves into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the film industry and Set Scouter, highlighting the creation of Safe Sets International, a COVID education platform for the film industry.
4. Leadership and Empathy: Alex emphasizes the importance of leading with empathy, structuring one-on-ones to focus on team members' feelings and insights, and fostering a supportive team culture.
5. Personal Growth and Athletic Pursuits: Alex discusses his personal growth through endurance sports, drawing parallels between athletic training and business resilience, and sharing his journey from a non-athlete to a triathlete.

Transcript

Kirstyn DeVries (00:00.738)
Hi, welcome Alex. It's so great to have you on the podcast.

Alex Kolodkin (00:04.477)
Thank you so much for having me.

Kirstyn DeVries (00:06.606)
Now for people that don't know you, I want to sort of talk about how we met, because it was back in the day and I've been having people on this podcast that I've known relatively recently. And I've also had people who have been joining me from kind of my early career. And, and that's actually when you and I met. We met probably, I would say, gotta be 2010 or 2011, perhaps around that time. And I was helping with.

incredible initiative that I still hold dear which is opening up Canada's largest technology business incubator within what's now called TMU, Toronto Metropolitan University. And I remember meeting you there in that technology business incubator and wow how far you've come.

Alex Kolodkin (00:56.691)
I love that place. The DMZ is truly, when I think back to the cohort of founders that we had in like circa 2013, 2014, that era, they've just done incredible things. So I'm so grateful to be part of that group. And the team that built DMZ at that time was just absolutely incredible. The things that they've done since has just been astronomical.

Kirstyn DeVries (01:05.708)
my gosh.

Kirstyn DeVries (01:21.568)
I know. And like what I'm so excited about in this conversation is to really, highlight, know, what it actually takes from sort of that, that time that you spoke about when you were coming out of the undergraduate degree that you did coming out of studying. And I was meeting a ton of entrepreneurs at that time. And I think that the drive that everybody had was just almost, contagious. We all wanted to move forward. We all wanted to see you guys succeed. and.

I really connected to your story. You're creative. mean, at the time I was studying a bachelor of fine arts in the theater school there at Toronto Metropolitan University. I think you were in the school of RTA. Were you in radio and television arts? Yeah. And so we were both, I mean, that was really a creative space to be. And today I really wanted to just tell your story from idea to entrepreneur and what you're doing now. So to kick us off, Alex.

Alex Kolodkin (02:03.507)
Radio Intelligent, yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (02:18.701)
Can you take us through your personal journey in your career and how that led to where you are today?

Alex Kolodkin (02:24.657)
Absolutely. So I think we share so much in common where I felt like I was too businessy for art school and too artsy for business school. Did you feel the same way?

Kirstyn DeVries (02:33.063)
say it. Yes, that is so well articulated. Agreed.

Alex Kolodkin (02:37.191)
Yeah, so I was always made fun, I don't want to say made fun of an actual reality. It was poked fun at that I was a suit in business, in my television school. And I always just wanted to build things that were being used by numerous people. realistically, what I wanted to do is fundamentally find a way to change the industry. I had this vision that I could change things.

It wasn't until I worked at Rogers where I was responsible for for seeing budgets of shows and really understanding how shows were being built that I saw, you know, the line items. I saw how people did things and went, OK, there's opportunity for innovation here and let's see what we can do.

Kirstyn DeVries (03:21.802)
And just for international audiences, if you can share a little bit how big Rogers is in Canada.

Alex Kolodkin (03:27.269)
Absolutely. So Rogers is, is one of our largest broadcasters in Canada. And I was on, the Canadian development team. So responsible for four properties, which means that, you know, Canadians all over the country were watching TV shows primarily on one of these four channels. and what's so cool is, is like, that was a great opportunity for me. And I got to sit what I call a VC of TV, which is people would pitch all the time.

hey I want this show made, I want this show made. And the cool thing is I was responsible for the inbox. So I would get to read every single pitch that comes in. Now granted the majority of them were my friends and I are so funny can you please follow us around with a camera. But there were some really great creatives that came through that got to pitch and I got to just listen in. So that was my exposure.

Kirstyn DeVries (04:03.979)
so cool.

Kirstyn DeVries (04:21.399)
Wow, and that was your first job?

Alex Kolodkin (04:23.602)
That was my first job post university. And that was like an incredible opportunity because coming into VC or pitching to VC, I felt like I already had this, you know, this a year or so learning how people did it in television and granted exactly. And granted like in RTA in our television program.

Kirstyn DeVries (04:40.395)
Right, you've like been the other side of the table.

Alex Kolodkin (04:46.928)
That was the focus. was pitching, pitching your shows. So I really am grateful that I had that opportunity to sit on the other side of the table.

Kirstyn DeVries (04:55.117)
Wow. And so how did that experience then lead to the business that you're running today and the entrepreneur that you've now become? Say more about that.

Alex Kolodkin (05:06.172)
I think every entrepreneur has an evolution as they go and realistically, you get kicked in the teeth a lot. And so how do you get up and how do you continue and how do you build that resilience? So I started Set Scatter, which is a film locations marketplace across North America. I started this about right out of my undergrad, sorry, right out of my grad school. So I remember,

Kirstyn DeVries (05:10.327)
Hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (05:14.253)
Mm.

Kirstyn DeVries (05:18.679)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (05:32.381)
Right, so it was right after grad school that you had launched that business. Okay.

Alex Kolodkin (05:35.973)
And I remember writing my thesis and like thinking about this idea and thinking, hmm, I wonder how I can do it. And I think I did everything wrong in the beginning, which I'm very open about. I built way too quickly. I built way too much. And I built with the idea that all these people would be using it without talking to customers.

I think the biggest lessons that I've learned out of that and that I carry forward are just how to iterate. How do you iterate? How do you talk to your customers and how do you actually build things that matter?

Kirstyn DeVries (06:06.858)
Yeah. And I mean, when I met you, the, the, one of the things is you're an operator, but you love to build. I can imagine, especially in that excitement of the newness of the, of the business, why you were building so fast. Cause you actually enjoy that.

Alex Kolodkin (06:12.923)
love to go.

Alex Kolodkin (06:20.686)
Absolutely. think building, I mean, it's the most fun part about building anything or about creating anything. It's the build out. It's where you get the most validation as a, I would say experienced founder. Now, now I know that distribution is the crux. People can build and build and build, but really it takes the effort to distribute out your, your, your product. That really makes a difference.

Kirstyn DeVries (06:25.75)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (06:46.944)
Yeah, absolutely. And so when you started Set Scutter and you finished grad school and you're there and you're realizing that you're hitting these roadblocks because you're trying to build too fast, what did it look like back then? I remember the team being small. I remember it being, you know, something that you could see the product market fit for, but that you almost didn't see what was coming that would make it the perfect thing. Can you tell me a little bit more about that story?

Alex Kolodkin (07:09.777)
Yeah.

Alex Kolodkin (07:13.062)
Well, I think the most important lesson that I would share and what I tell all early stage founders is people always think you need to build more than you actually do. The reality is I overbuilt. I made a mistake. And when I came back at it and I just said, okay, let's just focus on what our customers want and really build out that way.

We ended up stripping down the product so drastically that it became an actual manual operation. Now I want to bring everybody back. This was like 2014 era. So we didn't have the AI tools that we have now. We didn't have the workflows. Things were things had to be done and they could be done affordably, but there was still, you know, there's still work to be done. so

Kirstyn DeVries (07:48.085)
Right.

Alex Kolodkin (08:00.303)
When I talk about when we raised our first round and gone into 500 startups and moved down to Silicon Valley and had that incredible experience, our customers couldn't pay on the website. Like we literally would call them and get their credit card details and put it into our Striper account manually. And then it wasn't until two weeks into moving to SF that we were inundated by so many bookings that we had to say like, okay, we actually need to build this out.

Kirstyn DeVries (08:12.044)
Wow.

Kirstyn DeVries (08:26.924)
So at that time, what was the sort of old school way that people in the film industry were booking their spaces? Like pre-set scatter, what did they do?

Alex Kolodkin (08:37.637)
people would.

It's a great question. So the way that it's been so long since I even thought about this question, but reality is you would either know somebody like your family, friends, neighbor has a place that they want to shoot in. You would go and you would shoot there. You would then pay by check or it would be IOUs. Whole cumbersome process where you don't really actually know who these people are, what they're doing. They bring in a huge crew, maybe 20 to 40 people.

would come into your into your home they'd wrap up and they'd go.

Kirstyn DeVries (09:14.24)
Wow.

Alex Kolodkin (09:14.511)
I think what's special about what we built at Setscouter is we really standardized and simplified that process. So you go into a location, we collect payment, we look at the insurance, we deal with over times, if there's damages in the rare cases, we help you deal with that. And we really provide this like end-to-end solution that builds confidence behind those that are renting on our platform.

Kirstyn DeVries (09:39.148)
Right. And can you share a little bit about what you learned in moving to the Valley at that time when it was scaling and growing and how did you find that community there and what did it do for your business?

Alex Kolodkin (09:54.886)
biggest thing that I gained from moving to the Valley was just this mentality that kind of broke out of the silo of Canadian thinking. Canadians at the time, Canadian VCs, Canadian ecosystems were built around a few things. One was med tech, enterprise, SaaS, and real estate.

Kirstyn DeVries (10:02.806)
Hmm. Hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (10:19.087)
really anything that broke the mold, especially a marketplace business that had a consumer component and especially something that was in the creative industries was not something that was heavily looked at within Canada. And it actually took the Valley leading that investment to then catalyze a whole bunch of investment that came in from our Canadian partners.

Kirstyn DeVries (10:32.108)
Right?

Kirstyn DeVries (10:41.768)
Interesting. So you had to have this American investment in order for the VCs in the Canadian market to take the risk.

Alex Kolodkin (10:48.945)
Yeah. And I don't think that that's a rare situation. I think even now you're seeing that where a lot of founders are just going right, right to the Valley or to the, to the U S to raise funds as opposed to raising them within Canada.

Kirstyn DeVries (10:53.163)
Hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (11:02.666)
Yeah. And so in that moment, you you guys go there, you eventually came back to Toronto and can you kind of tell the second part of that story almost leading up into 2020 and recent times and what that business became?

Alex Kolodkin (11:15.855)
So we moved back to Toronto because our biggest market was Toronto. It made sense for us at the time we were doing our.

Kirstyn DeVries (11:22.889)
I don't think people realize how much is filmed in Toronto by the way. Like can you list a few things that people might not know might be filmed in Toronto?

Alex Kolodkin (11:26.467)
I think Toronto's the...

Well, I think Toronto is the third largest city in North America that's filmed. And I think it's LA, New York, and then Toronto. it's incredible just to see how much production actually happens. And, and for us at that moment, our three major markets at the time were Toronto, New York, and Miami, and a little bit in Chicago as well. So it made sense for us to move back to the East coast to be on the same time zone. and so what we did when we came back.

Kirstyn DeVries (11:36.352)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (11:49.046)
Okay.

Kirstyn DeVries (11:55.35)
course.

Alex Kolodkin (12:01.315)
It was incredible. Like I almost look back at that time where the Zerp era or well, Zerp era came later so we can edit that out.

Kirstyn DeVries (12:12.395)
You

Alex Kolodkin (12:14.199)
What we built at that time was so much fun. We ended up trying to scale as quickly as possible, get to our next round of financing, really grow the number of producers using us and just build incredible experiences for our customers. I think where that really shone or where that really played a part in coming out to light is when the pandemic happened. And then

Kirstyn DeVries (12:31.125)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (12:43.689)
Right?

Alex Kolodkin (12:44.001)
how the whole industry changed at that point.

Kirstyn DeVries (12:46.855)
Yeah, take us through that story and what impact that created and your entire industry and your business.

Alex Kolodkin (12:52.849)
So think it was March 13th where the NBA decided that they were going to cancel the season. I think the day after, a day or two after, the entire industry shut down, the entire world shut down. mean, people were afraid to leave their house and rightfully so. There was a virus that was out there and we immediately went to zero productions.

Kirstyn DeVries (13:08.254)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (13:11.753)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (13:20.549)
where you start doing all these productions every single day and then all of a sudden everything is canceled. Not only is everything canceled, nobody knows what's going on and nobody knows if we're gonna live. It was a wild time. It was absolutely terrifying.

Kirstyn DeVries (13:32.235)
Yeah, it was such a strange moment of uncertainty, wasn't it? And it was, I mean, there were some industries, right, that held on that kind of went and they said, you know, we're going to stay open, stay open, stay open, but gosh, your industry must have just had such a line in the sand at that time.

Alex Kolodkin (13:49.029)
I mean, if you think about a production set, have 10 to 30 people in close contact on a location, trying to build content. You have to have people that are unmasked because they're the talent. how do you protect the most vulnerable people on set? And is it a priority? Right? Like that's the other question is how many people need content? Turns out when the whole world is stuffed in their homes, everybody needs content.

Kirstyn DeVries (13:51.177)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (13:56.511)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (14:06.058)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (14:17.695)
Yes, they do.

Alex Kolodkin (14:19.024)
And that was an incredible, it was an incredible sight to see is how quickly the film industry and the production industry and creative industries evolved and just grew together. It was one of those amazing moments.

Kirstyn DeVries (14:34.635)
Wow. And what did your business do during that time and what did your team do at that moment?

Alex Kolodkin (14:42.212)
So remember when I said that my customers couldn't even pay unless they called us? Well, we fixed that during that at that time. So when your business goes to zero, you obviously have a lot of time to go through your backlog of what all your customers were asking for and finally do it. And so the product team was focused on that. More importantly,

Kirstyn DeVries (14:49.899)
you

Alex Kolodkin (15:06.168)
when we think about how we're going to help this industry and really when I think about what I want to do, it's make an impact as much of an impact as possible. And I started seeing productions, you know, slowly start to light up, know, productions in Toronto, productions in Miami. But I don't know if you remember what it was like during that time. know, Southern Florida had very different restrictions than Canada.

Kirstyn DeVries (15:31.711)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (15:34.264)
And it became this question of what is actually the right information and what is the right decision that needs to be made on set? Nobody had the answers. This was too early.

Kirstyn DeVries (15:45.045)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (15:48.363)
How did you navigate that?

Alex Kolodkin (15:50.361)
my team and I ended up building one. We put together a team of incredible infectious disease doctors across Canada and the US, emergency room physicians, people that have navigated the SARS epidemics, and we wrote the guidelines based off of all the knowledge that we had at that time in order to keep production safe. And the logic was, if we can keep production safe now,

Hopefully our customers will remember us and they'll come back to us afterwards. And we built out Safe Sets International, which grew to become the largest COVID education platform in the film industry globally. And it was incredible because I got back to my builder roots. I got back to seeing what I could do.

Kirstyn DeVries (16:29.461)
Hmm. Hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (16:36.395)
What kind of people did you impact and who were you able to reach through Safe Sets International that you ordinarily maybe wouldn't have engaged with?

Alex Kolodkin (16:50.0)
Well, I think it was just incredible to see the vast variety of the people that were going through our education program. I'm not over exaggerating when I say that people were not allowed on their production sets unless they showed their safe sets certificate. That in itself was such a view into what this industry was looking for. They were looking for guidance. And again, unions came out, I would say about a month after.

with the robust guidelines for the larger productions. But this was for every production. This was for everybody out there who was shooting, whether you were one person in a camera up to a 50 person crew.

Kirstyn DeVries (17:19.432)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (17:33.279)
Right. So you were able to navigate and impact the smaller teams and the ones that sort of were outside of these heavily unionized environments and the larger productions and, have, because you were quicker to market and you had this safe sets guidance out almost a month before the unions did people began to build further trust with set Scouter in that moment of uncertainty.

Alex Kolodkin (17:56.11)
I would say the biggest.

How we grew SafeSets so quickly was really, I think everybody in their industry knows who their friends and foes are in a sense, where you know the companies you can collaborate with, you know the companies that you're competitive with. And in this case, whether you were friendly or a foe, didn't matter because we're all in the same boat. The entire industry shut down.

Kirstyn DeVries (18:16.212)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (18:22.559)
Yeah.

Alex Kolodkin (18:24.176)
So it became this catalyst that everybody came together. And I was the one that put my hand up. said, OK, guys, I'll write the guidelines. I'll take care of all the distribution. Can you share this with your communities? And I think together we all grew that. we would have share grid would say, check out.

Kirstyn DeVries (18:32.042)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (18:46.71)
Safe Sets International, right? Mandy would say, check out Safe Sets International. And all these groups kind of collectively came together and we were all behind it. And at the end of the day, it was just awesome to feel like a builder again.

Kirstyn DeVries (18:48.468)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (18:56.394)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (19:01.672)
I know when we met for coffee in the prep for this, you said this incredible thing about how we grew so quickly, where there was so much feedback and so much communication through the community that it really just led to gratitude. And like, what an amazing outcome, just feeling this immense gratitude to the community of the film industry.

Alex Kolodkin (19:14.798)
It was.

Alex Kolodkin (19:21.826)
It was amazing. And I still look back on that moment and say that that was one of the most magical things that we've ever built. And it just makes me feel amazing every time I think about it. And just the success that we had. Again, we're not talking about a monetary success here. We're talking about true impact. How do you make an impact on the entire industry? You you'd go to parties and people would say, hey, are you the guy from Safe Sets? Yeah, like, that's me. And they'd say, thanks. I appreciate it.

Kirstyn DeVries (19:28.98)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (19:38.836)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (19:48.795)
Mm-hmm. Wow. And so fast forwarding, obviously, to when the industry picked back up and to where we are today, what have you seen either from the community that you built there that still stays with you today? And what does sort of your industry look like now that we're in 2025?

Alex Kolodkin (20:09.103)
Well, industry in 2025 is definitely changing one more time. And I think, you know, we're going to see what that ends up looking like, but the rise of AI and just how much content is changing. I'm excited for it. I think there's going to be a huge opportunity there. And again, if we're going to be changing production.

Production's always been at the cutting edge of everything. It's almost that first industry that sees technology. And so it'll be very cool to see what the next year, six months, six years, a decade look like and how that changes production overall.

Kirstyn DeVries (20:47.07)
Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing that journey. I really want to come on to sort of what that journey looks like today as a founder and to what you're doing in your day to day. Can you share with the audience? does your calendar look like? What is a typical day in Alex's life?

Alex Kolodkin (21:05.359)
That's a great question. I work from home, I work remotely, which is just a huge blessing in that sense. But the majority of my day is checking with my team, helping with product as much as I can, doing the finances. That's really part of it.

Kirstyn DeVries (21:15.658)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (21:26.167)
And then relationships. think like the biggest, biggest part of running a business is one, talking to your customers or at least having that proxy to talk to your customers. But two, building relationships with other founders, with other people within the industry, within your community and making sure that when opportunity arises, you're there and they think of you.

Kirstyn DeVries (21:36.842)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (21:44.35)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (21:49.054)
Yeah. How does one, and this goes back to when you and I were meeting earlier on and you said, you know, sometimes you have these days where it doesn't feel like you're doing enough. Can you speak to that? Because there's so many entrepreneurs listening to this podcast and we all can feel in that rut sometimes of what actually is enough. How do you navigate that?

Alex Kolodkin (22:08.559)
I think it's a work in progress. think every founder, I mean, when you think about founders in general, and this relates to athletes as well, how do, I don't know which one, we'll definitely come to that. How do you tame ambition? These are individuals that are so highly ambitious, so highly motivated. You know, there is no end goal. And as Nike says, there's no finish line. So,

Kirstyn DeVries (22:16.797)
Which we're going to come on to, by the way, because I know that you're an ambitious athlete.

Kirstyn DeVries (22:26.749)
Hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (22:40.079)
How do you empower and how do grow within this realm of just intense ambition? And when you think back to it, it's, am I doing enough is always the question. I work on self-compassion. I'm not very good at it. I'm a work in progress. But at the end of the day, like, are you doing enough? You probably are. Could you be doing more? You probably can.

Kirstyn DeVries (22:54.406)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (23:01.298)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (23:09.001)
Can you say more about that self-compassion side? How can one approach that?

Alex Kolodkin (23:22.421)
When I look at self-compassion, I really look at it in the face of my self-critic. If I'm exhausted and I don't want to do a workout, let's just say that.

Kirstyn DeVries (23:34.825)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (23:37.913)
Can I channel my inner self-compassion to say, why don't I? Instead of trying to push through it, maybe it's just taking a step back and understanding why. Did I not sleep the night before? Am I getting sick? Is there a big project that I've been working on? Is there something on my mind?

Kirstyn DeVries (23:48.606)
you

Kirstyn DeVries (23:55.293)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (23:57.079)
almost what is the opposite of critiquing yourself? You know, I'm I feel like we're always too hard on ourselves and it's hard because we have to be. But if someone else came to me with the same set of problems and I looked at their life, would I think that they're doing enough? Right, like if I read your bio at to you without your name on it, would you go? Yeah, they seem to be OK.

Kirstyn DeVries (24:15.219)
Mm.

Kirstyn DeVries (24:25.161)
They might think, wow, that girl must be quite exhausted, but I'm trying to kind of slow the pace a little bit. There you go. But how did that come out, especially being the leader of your business? I mean, there must've been times where it was tough to be able to almost take that breath and have that self-compassion. How did you get to that as a mindset, as a mental model?

Alex Kolodkin (24:26.37)
That's something I always struggle with.

Alex Kolodkin (24:32.494)
Well, there you go. There's your own self-compassion.

Alex Kolodkin (24:51.278)
I think it's just work. It's working on it. It's building it. I mean, you suck at it at first and you suck at everything. And working on your self-compassion is a skill. You just have to get better at it. And again, I'm not amazing at it. I would rank myself in the median, medium percentile. But it's just something, unfortunately, you have to deal with because you will burn out.

Kirstyn DeVries (24:54.675)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (25:09.318)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (25:19.338)
If you don't, I mean your self-critic is rough.

Kirstyn DeVries (25:22.609)
Yeah. So speaking of burnout, can you tell us about a moment, Alex, where you perhaps got thrown off pace? And I know you talked a little bit about the COVID moment earlier, but if you have something that you encountered where either personally or professionally, you were knocked to the side and what happened in that moment and how did you find your rhythm again?

Alex Kolodkin (25:43.032)
Yeah, I would say.

Alex Kolodkin (25:48.469)
One moment that really, I just want to re-illustrate, the moment that really knocked me off my pace was definitely COVID. It was such a challenging time to navigate this industry, especially when you look at it from a high growth startup perspective. Your goal is to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow and get to the next round. And suddenly there was no chance of us getting there. All of our growth just catapulted off a cliff.

Kirstyn DeVries (25:55.881)
Mmm. Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (26:05.342)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (26:17.416)
Yeah.

Alex Kolodkin (26:17.43)
or I wouldn't say catapulted, literally careened off a cliff. And it became this exercise of how do you reframe and rebuild again after you've spent the last seven years building something.

Kirstyn DeVries (26:27.081)
Mm.

Kirstyn DeVries (26:30.909)
Mm-hmm.

What did that feel like to have to stop and reassess like that as the leader of that business?

Alex Kolodkin (26:46.414)
Part of it was incredibly terrifying.

and a little part of it was absolutely freeing. And the reason is because the entire world stopped. The whole industry was down. I don't think anybody would have blamed me if I just packed up and said I'm done. I think that actually would have been such an easy way out to say, industry is good. I'm out. See you later. And worked on something else. But I think this comes back to this idea of

Kirstyn DeVries (27:02.729)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (27:13.981)
Yeah.

Alex Kolodkin (27:21.592)
Who are founders? Founders are highly ambitious. Part of highly ambitious people is often there's a stubbornness. There's a vision that they wanna see through. There's a goal that they wanna achieve. And I just wasn't ready to let go then.

Kirstyn DeVries (27:25.843)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (27:32.243)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (27:38.409)
So how did you guys find your rhythm again in that time?

Alex Kolodkin (27:47.759)
we found our rhythm back at it was we focused on what mattered at that time. Which is we didn't, so we didn't have customers. We went to zero again. So if we were going to rebuild everything from the ground up, what would that look like? And again, we kind of did the opposite now. We're in the beginning of my startup journey. I overbuilt.

Kirstyn DeVries (27:53.391)
Mm. Say more about that.

Alex Kolodkin (28:11.106)
We had gotten to a point where we underbuilt. So now it was looking back at everything that we had pushed to the side to help with our customers to then go and build that again. So we redid all of our screens. We ended up redoing the entire product. And the outcome of it was we were supposed to hire six salespeople.

And we ended up doing more revenue with two than we did with the six that we were anticipating. And that's all thanks to just taking a step back, reassessing what's there, and just getting out of this idea of like grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, just do what's best for your customers, and then do what's best for you. Because ultimately what's best for them will be best for you too.

Kirstyn DeVries (28:39.868)
you

Kirstyn DeVries (28:51.336)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (29:00.016)
Yeah, so really almost helped you take a breath, put yourself in the customer's shoes. And then almost the outcome of that was recognizing that you sunk costs in the business that were actually unnecessary and that you could be more effective with a smaller team. And you went with that smaller team and pushed forward and utilized the time to actually make a platform that was

functioning in the way that had the ability to work for an industry that was then going to launch back into motion.

incredible. Now, I always love to ask, especially business leaders like yourself, there's got to be something that's driving that, resiliency to be able to do that, to actually come into those moments and go, we got to change direction. So Alex, let me ask you, what's one non-negotiable system or habit in your routine that pulls you back when everything feels off course?

Alex Kolodkin (30:01.025)
That's such a good question, and I feel like I don't have the right answer for it.

Kirstyn DeVries (30:07.751)
what comes to mind.

Alex Kolodkin (30:19.626)
one of the.

I'm going give you a good answer. I just have to...

Alex Kolodkin (30:34.089)
One of the non-negotiables that I have when it comes to business is we lead with empathy. And I think that a lot of people get caught up in the idea that you have to be this super strong, know, stubborn leader that gets their way because their vision is correct. And while there is a time and place for that, I think the majority of the time and place is being an empathetic leader.

Kirstyn DeVries (30:53.96)
Mm.

Kirstyn DeVries (31:01.66)
Hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (31:02.445)
Because the majority of your days are one-on-ones with your team, checking in on them. At the end of the day, people are the most complicated things out there. You can build systems, people are just so, so challenging. And if you come to it in a sense...

of openness and understanding and being empathetic and really trying to grow forward together and work towards those goals together. I think that is a non-negotiable trait for a leader. And in fact, when I look at founders, whether they come to me for investment or they come to me for advice, that's one of the traits that I was looking for. I always kind of try to see how they interact with their team and what their team thinks of them.

Kirstyn DeVries (31:47.464)
Hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (31:51.846)
Yeah, how did the people in their team perceive their leader?

Alex Kolodkin (31:55.758)
Exactly. I think like realistically everyone perceives their boss a little bit dumb. Like let's be honest. But I think it's super important to see what type of culture you're building for your team. And with your team, I should say building with your team. And again, it doesn't mean that you're going to be a rollover or a pushover. It just means that you can understand and empathize with people where they are and still move your vision forward.

Kirstyn DeVries (32:01.074)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (32:11.453)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (32:21.116)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (32:25.296)
I love that. What do you think is one thing for founders listening that they can do in their day to day if they feel like they want to begin to instill empathy in their leadership?

Alex Kolodkin (32:37.197)
That's a great question.

Alex Kolodkin (32:41.889)
So I like to structure my one-on-ones in a way that I think really maximizes the people first approach where in my one-on-ones, we realistically don't talk about the tasks at hand. That's not what it's for. I want to know quite a few things, but generally it's like four or five real questions. How are you feeling? Sure. Let me actually get the list up.

Kirstyn DeVries (33:06.325)
Hit me with one of them, yeah.

Alex Kolodkin (33:13.227)
And we'll start here. I'll give you a good sound bite.

Kirstyn DeVries (33:17.606)
is.

Alex Kolodkin (33:25.483)
When I do one-on-ones with my team, I'm really just asking a handful of questions. And I just leave it open-ended because one-on-ones are not for you. One-on-ones are for them. It's for them. It's an opportunity for them to share with you. So I always say, I start with, how are you feeling? You know, this isn't about a project and people start saying like, I'm feeling nervous about this project. I go, whoa, how are you feeling?

Kirstyn DeVries (33:37.105)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (33:50.824)
Yeah.

Alex Kolodkin (33:53.229)
Then I go, what are you currently working on? Again, not asking for a task list of I'm doing this, this, this. What overall are you currently working on? What can I do to make your work better?

Kirstyn DeVries (33:55.345)
Hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (34:01.937)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (34:08.033)
What are we doing well? And if you were CEO, what's one thing that you would change?

Kirstyn DeVries (34:16.623)
And how often are you having this conversation with your team?

Alex Kolodkin (34:19.853)
every three to four weeks.

Kirstyn DeVries (34:21.543)
Wow, I love that because some of the questions not only help them self-reflect, introspect, I mean, incredible that you're asking the first question of how it is that they're feeling.

But what I find unique about sort of the second half of those questions is it's sort of this moment where they can put themselves in more of like a leadership role, even if they wouldn't consider themselves in a role that makes change in the organization. And it almost, in my opinion, feels like it can tilt their perception and go, yeah, like, how would I focus on this business? What should I be looking at if I'm the CEO? And that's a really vulnerable leadership move to take and a very unique question. And I love that.

Yeah, thanks for sharing those.

Alex Kolodkin (35:07.617)
That's one of.

of your new clip. That's one of the biggest insights that you get from one-on-ones is you've distributed yourself or you've proxied yourself to so many people within your organization that they all see different things. And it's such a unique opportunity to actually get them to share that with you. You know, I think about when I'm in the pool, it's a joke that the thing I'm thinking about right before I get into the pool is the thing I think about for the next hour.

Kirstyn DeVries (35:11.687)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (35:16.719)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (35:23.152)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (35:29.958)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (35:37.607)
Yeah, yeah, unless you have those headphones where you can swim with those, which I need to get when I'm training.

Alex Kolodkin (35:43.155)
Yeah, I'm not that cool. so, but so my team is probably thinking about like the one thing that matters to them that they're like, my God, if we could change this one thing, this would make my entire workload better, or this would help our customers here, or this would improve that. And unless you give them that opportunity to actually share that with you, you're missing out on all those insights.

Kirstyn DeVries (35:46.289)
but true.

Kirstyn DeVries (36:05.317)
Yeah. Another question. How do you know when it's time to push harder and when it's time to pull back?

Alex Kolodkin (36:22.87)
That's such a challenging question. The reality is you don't until you look back. You don't unless you're close to an injury. You don't unless it's working. You just genuinely don't know.

Kirstyn DeVries (36:31.111)
Great answer.

Kirstyn DeVries (36:43.847)
I know that not only in leading your business and answer the question in which way you see fit, but something that you've been doing also very passionately is, I know that you're a runner, you're a triathlete. Are there any analogies that you've gained from that world that you've been able to apply into the business world?

Alex Kolodkin (37:03.924)
I think triathlon is the perfect idea of what it takes to be a founder and an operator, which is you have to be comfortable doing multiple things and maybe not being the best at all of them. But collectively, if you're good at them, you'll go far and you'll succeed.

Kirstyn DeVries (37:22.651)
Well said.

Kirstyn DeVries (37:29.873)
Great. Now, as an entrepreneur and having moved across the world, I've often reached back into my network during times of uncertainty. And part of it is actually because of what you said, I can be a jack of all trades and a master of none, but I've always found that I've benefited from reaching out to people that have obviously been strong in the areas where I might be weak. And I can attribute some of my biggest growth moments to incredible mentors and leaders in my life. So Alex, is there a person that has deeply impacted your journey?

and what have you learned from them that you still carry with you?

Alex Kolodkin (38:05.556)
So I think about a few things when I, I collectively my entire network has just been such a, such a huge support. When I look at it, know, going back to the DMZ cohort that put together, those founders there were incredible and I still rely on them. You know, if you look at Tyler and Brayden of Inkbox, just the things that they've been able to do.

Kirstyn DeVries (38:13.99)
Mm.

Kirstyn DeVries (38:18.565)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (38:29.637)
my gosh. Yeah.

Alex Kolodkin (38:34.056)
know, Latif of Road Monk. All these guys that are just done incredible things. And then all these guys that were in the DMZ who were building other companies and ended up, you know, pivoting or opening up new ones. So look at Mike from ADA, like just a billion dollar business right there. And he started in the DMZ on a different product altogether, which is incredible.

Kirstyn DeVries (38:36.112)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (38:48.624)
completely.

Kirstyn DeVries (38:56.41)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (39:02.822)
Yeah. It was like a collective force that feels like one big mentor, but it was hundreds of entrepreneurs in one space. Yeah.

Alex Kolodkin (39:11.368)
Absolutely. I think collectively we all learned from each other, which is just, I remember Latif used to throw on...

Kirstyn DeVries (39:15.728)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (39:23.884)
He used to throw these things called...

pragmatic CEO where he get all the CEOs together and just be like, this is one thing that I know how to do really well. I'm going to teach you guys. And then next week, another CEO would come to the same group and say, this is one thing I know how to do really well. I'm going to teach you guys. just remember those were like really cool moments back when the ecosystem wasn't as, I don't want to say robust cause it was, it was so

Kirstyn DeVries (39:31.557)
yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (39:45.562)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (39:50.288)
Yeah.

Alex Kolodkin (39:57.49)
was flourishing. was an incredible time and place. But we didn't have access to all the information that we have now.

Kirstyn DeVries (40:00.976)
Thank

Kirstyn DeVries (40:05.669)
No.

Alex Kolodkin (40:06.867)
It's a cool moment to be part of.

Kirstyn DeVries (40:09.744)
So cool. Alex, can you share what is a goal or vision that you're working toward right now that scares you just a little? And what does that stretch demand of you?

Alex Kolodkin (40:22.517)
I'm gonna move personally here and I'm gonna talk about being an athlete. And I think the next thing that I'm really working towards is competing in my first high rocks. That'll be a lot of fun. So.

Kirstyn DeVries (40:32.954)
Amazing. Yeah, that's like taking over the sports world right now.

Alex Kolodkin (40:36.879)
It's so much fun. And it's from a business perspective, it just, it's incredible because you can replicate the race in any city under the same conditions. think the cool thing about triathlon is the fact that, like the, the actual course itself is a huge impact on, on what it's like, right? Like if you're in that exactly, if you're doing it,

Kirstyn DeVries (40:57.732)
Yeah, changing terrain or a totally different body of water or terrible road running conditions. Yeah.

Alex Kolodkin (41:03.727)
Exactly. If you're doing a triathlon in Marbella, that's going to be vastly different than one in Niagara Falls. weather is also another part of it. Weather is such a big factor in doing triathlon. But hyrax sounds really cool. You just show up and it's all inside and the weights are all the same. And hopefully the turf is the same.

Kirstyn DeVries (41:12.197)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (41:16.23)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (41:29.664)
and the distance all around the track. It'll be very cool to kind of try a sport like that. Like that sounds like a lot of fun.

Kirstyn DeVries (41:37.476)
Yeah, I'll admit I've only ever done one high rocks class at my gym in London and it was real hard. having heard that that's one of your goals, I am really excited for you. But what do think that stretch in training is going to demand of you, Alex?

Alex Kolodkin (41:52.468)
Well, I have been an endurance athlete for a little while. And then when I say I want to make sure that the audience understands what they're dealing with here, which is athlete is a stretch. When I say it, I think somebody looking at me now would say yes, but I was never an athlete. In fact, when you met me, I probably didn't know you know. I probably couldn't even run up the stairs. I could run down the stairs.

Kirstyn DeVries (42:19.995)
Yeah.

Alex Kolodkin (42:20.875)
And I only started running truly during the pandemic, but before that in 2019, my friend signed up for a 10K race. They were all runners and they were really encouraging me to do it and be part of it. I couldn't even run across the street. I would literally be out of breath. So I went from couch to 10K in about a month and a bit.

Kirstyn DeVries (42:38.991)
Wow.

Kirstyn DeVries (42:46.118)
Wow. Did you first do that couch to 5K that everyone was doing?

Alex Kolodkin (42:49.799)
I tried, but I just started running on a treadmill and I literally couldn't run for more than 30 seconds at a time. and then I just kind of learned that, and I think every runner learns this unless you've been running as as a, as a kid. like I started when I was an adult and, running is a skill. It's, it's something you just develop and something you get comfortable with. And, know, when, when people ask me like, how do you run?

Kirstyn DeVries (43:01.659)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (43:07.408)
Yeah.

Alex Kolodkin (43:17.693)
such long distances, which to me is hilarious because they don't feel long at all. I just say like you just have to get used to it. You just get used to running and you start slow and you'll get there. And I.

Kirstyn DeVries (43:21.766)
Mm.

Kirstyn DeVries (43:27.182)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. You have a race coming up, don't you? What's the race you have on the feature cards?

Alex Kolodkin (43:33.938)
Yeah, future cards is I have a few this season. I've had to scale back from last year, but this year I am doing the Toronto Triathlon Festival Olympic distance, which I'm really excited for. And then I'll be doing the high rocks in Toronto, followed by the half marathon.

The half marathon is a special race for me because it got me in the most amount of trouble with my friend group, actually. So my friends are all runners like I mentioned. I never got into running. I think I really started to love running in the past two years. But my friends are incredible athletes. I I look back at them and they're...

Kirstyn DeVries (44:03.567)
Say more about that.

Alex Kolodkin (44:18.539)
You know, with minimal training, they're so athletic, they're able to do so much that when they do train, they can just push themselves so drastically. And I never...

Kirstyn DeVries (44:26.181)
But do you kind of agree with that statement though of like you're the sum total of like the top three people you hang around with so it's kind of makes sense you got where you are.

Alex Kolodkin (44:32.125)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. And so when I think about why I started trap on is because I just didn't, I didn't love running. I really didn't love running. I actually hated running. Running was probably my least favorite of the three disciplines until recently, I would say. And I just couldn't imagine myself doing long distance races. So.

When I did my first half marathon, I didn't tell any of my friends because I didn't want the disappointment of like if I couldn't, I didn't want the disappointment if I couldn't, if I couldn't finish. Like it was actually a big, a big concern of mine. I had never run that distance. I signed up, I told no one in my core group and I told my friend Carlos and I actually ended up running it together, but I didn't tell anybody in my core friend group and how they found out.

Kirstyn DeVries (45:03.494)
wow.

Kirstyn DeVries (45:08.492)
Mm-hmm.

So you signed up but told no one.

Alex Kolodkin (45:27.047)
was one of my best friends, Jeff, was on the side of the road cheering for all of the runners. And I go, Jeff. And he is jaw dropped. He was so mad at me. But then he ended up at the finish line and he cheered me on and it was very, very great.

Kirstyn DeVries (45:39.322)
Wow.

Kirstyn DeVries (45:46.401)
Yeah. And what did that feel like at that finish line of the half marathon?

Alex Kolodkin (45:50.587)
It was incredible. think coming from small races or I would say sprint distance triathlons at the time, I never experienced a race with like 40,000 people. It's absolutely insane. I think every single sign made me cry.

Kirstyn DeVries (46:00.47)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (46:04.869)
It's an incredible feeling, isn't it? From the pain or from the...

Alex Kolodkin (46:14.814)
No, from just like the sheer like, listen, athletes that go out there and race, for any reason that you do it, you are doing it for a medal. Like that's your accomplishment. And that is like the greatest sense of pride. The spectators that go out with science are the greatest human beings on earth because they...

push the people who are about to quit. And every race has a moment where you look around and you go, why am I doing this? What the hell is wrong with me? And then you see a funny sign and you go, okay, that's actually great. And you just keep going.

Kirstyn DeVries (46:43.429)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (46:48.291)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (46:53.355)
It's great. Yeah. My favorite one was at the Paris Marathon in April. The for those of you that are bilingual, bread is spelled P-A-I-N in French. so, yeah, pain pain was just bread is the sign that I love most, which is that people become super creative. And when you need those fans, they are there for us.

Alex Kolodkin (47:16.232)
Yeah, amazing.

Kirstyn DeVries (47:17.647)
Great. Well, just shifting gears to the last couple of questions. I know that we just spoke about the sport of long distance running and obviously in that sport, we train for weeks, even months preparing for these races. for athletes, we know that often the work that's done in the background isn't seen by anyone. And it is the stuff that's driving our personal best is often unseen. So for our listeners, what's something that you're doing consistently and intentionally, but perhaps unseen that is driving either your success in business or sports?

Alex Kolodkin (47:48.395)
think the one thing that drives success is just showing up. I think people undervalue how important that is. Whether it's logging in and being there for your team for any questions, or whether it's getting on the bike even when you don't want to, or getting out for a run, that's what matters. And...

Kirstyn DeVries (47:59.863)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (48:05.103)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (48:12.122)
You have to build your engine. And I think like founders, you build your engine too. You build your operating power. You build your thinking power. You think through the challenges. And I think what I really value most recently in training, especially last year when I trained for my half Ironmans, was that time alone. I actually got to spend the time alone with myself.

Kirstyn DeVries (48:12.74)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (48:17.375)
Mmm. Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (48:31.811)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Kolodkin (48:39.718)
And I probably thought of new ideas every run I went on or solved an issue every single time because I could put my phone away and I can just focus.

Kirstyn DeVries (48:47.715)
Yeah. Yeah. I've gotten on this new thing recently where I've stopped listening to music on most of my runs and it's been absolutely transformational in terms of ideas that come out of it. I completely agree.

Alex Kolodkin (48:59.218)
Yeah, well, that's what I valued most about swimming was that you couldn't listen to music. And what I value as well in triathlon is you don't listen to headphones. Like you cannot wear them for safety. So you have to learn how to what I call raw dog in your runs. And and it is it is a skill like it is hard to do. But when you're doing, I mean, for for the half Ironman distances.

Kirstyn DeVries (49:03.109)
Hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (49:09.593)
Mm-hmm. No.

Kirstyn DeVries (49:15.609)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (49:21.017)
the app.

Alex Kolodkin (49:25.902)
I was doing 15 kilometers, no headphones. And the race that I was training for was a loop to race. So you have to practice loops because you can't have the mental stimulus of seeing something new every single time you run around. And so there's a lot that kind of goes into it. And my coach was incredible at like breaking that down and building it out.

Kirstyn DeVries (49:39.053)
Hmm. Wow.

Kirstyn DeVries (49:46.969)
Yeah, getting us prepared for the challenges ahead. Now, last question for you, Alex. What does purpose mean to you right now?

Alex Kolodkin (49:59.124)
Purpose means making an impact, driving an impact, and designing. I'll give you a better answer. Hold on, we'll scratch that and start again.

Kirstyn DeVries (50:06.82)
Sure. Go for it. Yeah. What does purpose mean to you right now?

Alex Kolodkin (50:12.628)
Purpose to me right now means building myself and those around me in a way to drive maximum impact for our community, for our industries.

Kirstyn DeVries (50:29.284)
I love how you said building yourself first. That's spoken by a true leader. Okay. All right. So Alex, for our listeners, what does purpose mean to you right now?

Alex Kolodkin (50:34.28)
Let me give you a better one. Let me do it again. I think I didn't. Yeah, okay, right. Take a second. Okay.

Alex Kolodkin (50:46.57)
I think purpose for me right now means building myself as a leader, building myself as an athlete, building myself as a partner, but also empowering those around me to truly make an impact on ourselves and our communities.

Kirstyn DeVries (51:07.64)
This has been transformational talking to you. It is incredible to get the update. One of my takeaways is that, you know, just showing up, leading with empathy, and as you said, you know, working on yourself so that you can empower others to make a meaningful impact through their work as well.

I'm going to take away so much in terms of the resilience that you've built up facing challenges coming back from the business challenges that you faced during COVID and really continuing to drive forward in your industry, also drive forward as an athlete and as a friend and partner to those around you. So if people want to follow your journey, where can they go find you?

Alex Kolodkin (51:51.59)
Add me on Alex Glodkin or alexglodkin.com will redirect you to my LinkedIn. Send me a message there.

Kirstyn DeVries (51:58.917)
Perfect. Thanks so much for joining on today. Have an incredible day. Thanks.

Alex Kolodkin (52:02.236)
Absolute pleasure. Wait, don't hit.