"You don’t really recognize your successes until you have more conversations with other people.
How did you become an entrepreneur?
It wasn’t a planned endeavor. Initially, Boris and I just thought it would be a fun summer project, and neither of us had experience in the tourism field. It was just our joint passion for the outdoors for many years. At that stage we certainly did not envision this would ever become a large scale project the way that is has. It was just a passion and I wanted to share that with others.
So where did your passion for the outdoors come about?
I grew up in Israel. Every weekend as a child, we would spend time outdoors. I was playing outside all the time. There was never anything such as staying home on a Saturday. We would always go explore new places and we’d go hiking. It fostered the thought that I always wanted to see and explore more, breathe in the fresh air and stay active.
Was there a place that gave you a memorable impression?
I would say Killarney is my favorite route.
When I first came to Canada at 16 years old, I wanted to explore, but I didn’t have a car. So I had to rely on my parents, and friends. I started to see the potential of the parks, and there was no real way to access the vast landscape and beautiful parks. Boris and I thought there was a lot of great potentials there. That’s when things started to gradually come together.
How did you meet Boris?
I met Boris in high school. But we weren’t in close contact at the time. One day I wanted to do a back-country hike in Killarney, and approached Boris with some questions since he had completed it before. After that there were a few more camping trips we went on and started talking about the idea behind Parkbus.
How did you start with this first excursion?
We went to Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC), and we set up a table there to survey customers. We felt that people who go to MEC would fit the demographic we’re trying to reach. We surveyed people in the store. We asked them how often they would go to Algonquin park and how they get there. If there was a service like Parkbus, how much would they be willing to pay for the service? We wanted to test the initial idea with this method. So, we collected the data, and ran 2-3 pilots in the summer of 2010. We didn’t have a large amount of people, but we had enough to hear positive feedback and get the ball rolling.
You mentioned you did this when you were still in university. I think there are surely specific traits that people have when they are entrepreneurs. What do you think those are?
The truth is most of what we did felt like a continuous ongoing experiment. We stayed focused on it and the passion was there but we didn’t think it would develop to anything large scale. It was just a fun project that we wanted to try. Initially we were met with a lot of skepticism from the larger organizations we were in touch with, so it took some time and determination to get us through those initial phases.
When did you find out you hit the big lucky break?
I am more of a realist. You don’t really recognize your successes until you have more conversations with other people. After Transportation Options adopted Parkbus as an initiative under their organisation, and we submitted a couple of grants, that’s what gave us the initial boost to allow us to grow. We successfully received the tourism development fund from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports. We were also very luck to receive grants from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The Ontario Trillium Foundation was the catalyst that really gave us the big push to grow. We started to add destinations and increase our frequency of service, and that’s how things really started to ramp up.
National Geographic added us to the 2014 Travellers 50: World’s Smartest Cities list, and we also won the Canadian Tourism Awards in 2014 which increased our credibility and awareness of the service.
I still remember we were sitting among older and more experienced people in the industry, who had wonderful businesses all doing amazing things. Yet we got called onto the podium and received the entrepreneur award. It felt like quite a big achievement for us at the time.
Very impressive. I am surprised that you tell me you are a realist, because I think most entrepreneurs are optimists and rely more on the positive side of things.
I think that a project becomes successful when a number of factors come together perfectly. In the case of Parkbus, much of it is attributed to our collaborations with the right partners and the team effort to make this a reality. I am very grateful to be working alongside with Boris Issaev, without whom Parkbus would not have come to life. Boris continues to lead us in the right direction and together we make this initiative work.