"I would absolutely attribute some of our successes to like building this company in Canada and not anywhere else."

On this episode in the Pender Ventures series on great Canadian technology companies, Maria Pacella, Managing Partner, hosts Co-Founder and Operating Partner of Two Small Fish Ventures, Allen Lau. In 2006, Allen co-founded Wattpad, a technology company for storytellers and their stories, which went on to be acquired by South Korean internet giant, Naver in 2021.  

Wattpad provided a platform where creators could access and receive real time feedback from millions of users and build large follower bases.  

Maria and Allen have a fantastic conversation about the evolution of digital storytelling, from launching during the "wild wild west of the early years of user generated content", to fighting off the competition and capitalizing on technological shifts to build a global entertainment platform that people not only wanted to pay to use but loved to use.