Transitioning From Being An Entrepreneur Founder To Running A Business
Mario Toneguzzi
Victoria Sopik is a recognized expert nationally in the field of child care.
As a mother of eight children and grandmother of many, it was a natural fit for her to pursue her passion and experience and disrupt corporate child care in Canada and the U.S.
In this interview, Sopik talks about:
- Transitioning the business she founded;
- Keys to success;
- Why the Business Transition Forums are important.
Enjoy,
Mark
Victoria Sopik is a recognized expert nationally in the field of child care.
As a mother of eight children and grandmother of many, it was a natural fit for her to pursue her passion and experience and disrupt corporate child care in Canada and the U.S.
Kids & Company was founded in 2002 by Sopik, a lifelong entrepreneur, and Jennifer Nashmi, a Chartered Accountant. They founded Kids & Company when the two working mothers of a combined 11 young children could not find truly flexible child care options without a trade-off in quality of care. Their mission was to offer high quality flexible child care, and to continue to innovate in the child care space, to meet the ever-evolving needs of families.
Today, Sopik is CEO of Kids & Play with about 120 locations across North America.
“I was a co-founder of the business in 2002,” she said.
“I went from being an entrepreneur founder to running a business that I really didn’t own anymore. That transition was a change."
“The reason we took on additional investors, partners, shareholders, was that we needed capital to grow to become a much larger company. So entrepreneurs always have a choice between being a smaller company that they own fully, and there’s lots of pros to that obviously, and a larger company where they have shareholders and all the different combinations that come with that.”
Earlier this year, Sopik took part in the Business Transition Forum in Toronto as a panelist for the discussion “Transition Stories: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.”
“It’s a great group of people and really targeted to people that are obviously founders of Canadian businesses and they’re looking at options for growth and for exit,” said Sopik.
The Business Transition Forums for the rest of this year are October 12 in Winnipeg and November 23 in Vancouver.
When it came time to transition the business, Sopik said child care was an attractive sector for investors and the company had a number of strong offers.
She said negotiations were the hardest part of the process. And when asked what she would do differently if she could do it over again, she said she would have kept more of the shares of the company that she founded.
Over the years, Kids & Company has consistently been named by Deloitte on its list of Canada’s Best Managed Companies. In fact, in 2021 it was named to the list for the eighth year in a row, making it a Platinum winner of the award.
“To become a Best Managed Platinum Club winner is nothing short of remarkable. Their continued adaptability in an era of uncertainty sets the standard for how to overcome new barriers and demonstrate resilience at the highest levels,” said Kari Lockhart, Partner, Deloitte Private and Co-Leader, Canada’s Best Managed Companies program.
Sopik said the company is proud to have grown with the families it serves.
“Our deep understanding of parents’ needs made us unique in 2002, and it has been both our competitive advantage and our North Star ever since, as we’ve built a trusted brand, a highly-engaged workplace and a world-class management team,” she said.
“To this day, I have never said ‘no’ to a parent in need. Families can trust Kids & Company to be there when, and how, they need us. That hasn’t changed in 20 years. And it won’t change as we continue to grow.”
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