SureSwift Capital’s James DeGreef: Navigating Tech Leadership in Victoria

SureSwift CEO James DeGreef started his entrepreneurial journey in the same way as many technology leaders – by not completing his computer science degree.

Since then, he’s founded multiple companies, acted as an advisor for many more, and become an angel investor and an LP in a number of VC funds. James is now driving success at SureSwift as CEO. James spoke with us about his journey from first-time startup entrepreneur to respected industry leader, and shared some advice and insights on SaaS leadership, investing, and the future of the tech industry.

Table of Contents

• The Early Days - GenoLogics
• Life After GenoLogics
• Lessons in Investing
• Looking Ahead

The Early Days - GenoLogics

In 2001, James put his final semester of Computer Science studies on hold to devote himself fully to GenoLogics, the life sciences company he was getting off the ground with partner Mario Laszczak. The pair met on the first day of a discrete math class, and quickly became friends. With a business degree already under his belt, James was eager to put the computer science he was learning to work with a software business. When Mario found out about James’ goal, he talked him into starting a Life Sciences software company – Mario already had a degree in biochemistry, and would be able to bring necessary science know-how to their budding partnership.

Their first step was talking to anyone and everyone they could. They networked in Vancouver BC, and visited Biotech labs around Victoria. Almost everyone they talked to had software and IT work for them to do, so they began thinking about providing consulting services. For their first “consulting” job, they took advantage of an opportunity close to home. The University of Victoria was setting up a brand new proteomics lab on campus, and needed a way to manage it. 

At the time, proteomics was the next big thing in the broad realm of life sciences. In short, laboratories were moving from what we might picture when we imagine “scientific research” (one person in a lab coat, dutifully dropping compounds into individual petri dishes) into modern “mini-factories”, where new robotic and computerized instrumentation advancements were making industrial scale testing possible. With this explosion in efficiency, labs were running into massive bottlenecks of recording, reporting, and interpreting data – a problem that James and Mario knew computer science could provide the perfect solution to.

That perfect solution definitely didn’t come in their day-one product, however. “People bought our software,” says James, “which was quite crappy software, but there was nothing else on the market. Luckily, our first clients worked with us over those first few years to adjust the software into something that really worked for them, and pretty soon, we had a solid product that we were selling to biotech and large pharma companies, research universities and hospitals, and then we got into genomics centers as well.”

Moving From Startup to Established Player

With GenoLogics taking off, a lot of the early-stage worries were settled. However, there were plenty of new challenges to face. “We did a really poor job of managing scope at first,” recalls James. “In one piece of software, we tried to do everything. It worked, but it was probably the most Frankenstein user interface you ever saw.” 

In order to improve and grow the product, James and Mario knew they needed more than the two of them could accomplish by themselves. They raised angel investment, and ultimately venture capital. They brought on a team, and quickly learned about interviewing, reference checking (no Vitay in those days!), and performance management, all skills that James has used in virtually every venture since.

Eventually, James recognized that he was no longer meeting the company’s needs as CEO. “At a certain point, I realized that I didn’t have the right experience to carry us forward. That’s why I stepped away from the CEO role, and we brought in Michael Ball as the new CEO.” Michael was a smart, highly experienced tech leader who brought much-needed gravitas to GenoLogics. “I had been doing all these speaking engagements, events where I was the only one in the room without a PhD. I was always underdressed. I mean, I still usually am, so I guess I haven’t learned from that one. But I was able to step away from those situations and focus instead on the product strategy and the customers, where I was much more of a value-add.”

Over the next several years, GenoLogics grew to a team of around 85, and flourished under the new leadership structure. Importantly, James was also able to grow immensely as a leader himself, simply by working with and learning from Michael Ball and the other leaders who came on to the team.

"In my earlier years, I had a mindset of 'this is what we need to do, let's go.' However, with time, I've come to appreciate the value of collaborative decision-making, incorporating multiple perspectives. Opting for a more deliberate and collaborative approach, even if it means moving at a slower pace, results in decisions that are not only well-considered but also garner more support. I matured a lot as a human and a leader through GenoLogics.”

Other Learnings From GenoLogics

The scope-control problems James encountered at GenoLogics also informed his approach to later ventures, including his work as SureSwift’s CEO. “I’m always starting from the question of ‘what’s the critical value’. You need to make sure that the few things that really, really matter work really, really well. Are you providing the critical value? Is it performing bug-free? Is the user interface clear?” James says that in many ways, less is more, and that’s what we’re currently focused on at SureSwift – making sure our products provide a best-in-class experience on their ‘critical value’ components, before chasing down any fun extras.

Life After GenoLogics

In 2015, GenoLogics was sold to Illumina (ILMN), a NASDAQ-traded company and the world leader in Human Genome Sequencing. From there, James stayed in the tech space, getting involved in a couple more startups and then pivoting from entrepreneur to the Investor side.

“You normally just hear about the successes, but they definitely were not all successes. One was SeafoodX. It’s like SpaceX, but for Seafood.” Contrary to the name, they didn’t shoot lobsters into space – it was an online marketplace for commercial fishing, selling and trading quotas, licenses, and other products. While it was a functional idea that got some traction, it was very limited to customers within a particular geographic area, with limited capacity to scale. 

Later, James co-founded ChatterBlock, a “hyper local social networking and content site” for families. That’s actually where James met Don Wharton, the co-founder and Executive Director of SureSwift, and Kit Dean, who is now the General Manager of SureSwift portfolio business Vitay.

James also got involved in Freshworks Studio, a custom software development company. There, he helped manage a massive pivot to a services-focused model that has proved to be a major success. The company had been developing a variety of apps in-house, but none had panned out to be the major success they hoped for. Looking at the skill set of the team, it was clear that the development capabilities were there, but blindly trying to create the next big app wasn’t a sustainable model. 

Taking advantage of the team’s existing strengths, they shifted to a services focus, helping other companies develop, design, deploy, and maintain digital solutions. The pivot paid off big time, with the company reporting 3,677% growth in 2020, making it Canada’s 15th fastest growing company that year. While James is no longer as directly involved in the company, he remains an avid supporter as an Investor and board director. 

From Founder to Investor

It was around this time that James was making the transition from Founder to Investor. He says “I don’t think I’ll ever start another company, but I’m happy to be involved in, invest, and support a lot of other Founders’ companies.” Over the years, James has learned some valuable lessons about being an Investor.

Lessons in Investing

With his personal history as a Founder, James had unique insights into early-stage companies as an Investor, and the difficulties that come with startups. He says, “In the early stages, there are so many unknowns, and many factors that are out of your control – you can’t be certain of too much early on.” As a Founder, James learned to manage that uncertainty by being adaptable and helping businesses pivot as needed.

James became more adept at identifying the makings of a successful business. Once a company is starting to gain a little traction and develop a customer base, he says you can start to see what the business is evolving into, and have more conviction as an Investor. However, he says not every project he’s invested in has been a home run.

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Learning from Mistakes

“Even with my experience as a Founder, I made mistakes when I started investing. One, I recognized pretty early on, that everyone involved was of a very particular demographic. There was definitely a ‘bro culture’, and while there weren’t any bad actors, it turned into a bad situation. I think the business model was sound, but it was inexperienced people spending too much money too fast, driven by the culture and not the business.”

James said this experience shifted his perspective quite a bit. “When you’re a Founder, there’s this feeling of ‘oh, Investors are a necessary evil,’ and then interacting more with Investors, he realized this isn’t the case at all. The reality is that there are good and bad actors on both sides of the table, and you just need to do your due diligence and get to know people.”

Lessons for SureSwift

But even with the best due diligence, the unexpected can always happen and ideas fail to pan out. That’s why James says that it’s important to be diversified. For diversified investing, the traditional rule of thumb has been to own 30 stocks across a range of sectors. Today, investing means a lot more than a strong stock portfolio (and that’s a good thing). For the startup or small business Investor, there are a lot more factors to consider, and while being involved in a handful of ventures is manageable, achieving that 30 number could be a challenge. That’s one of the reasons James believes the SureSwift model is ideal.

“With our set up, we give diversification in one fund. I will say that if someone was just investing in SureSwift, they’d probably want to invest over multiple funds to really get the right level of diversification for the asset class that we're in. However, for Investors with existing diversified portfolios, investing in SureSwift is an efficient way to incorporate a new collection of robust businesses all at once.”

Looking Ahead

For James, he thinks a big theme of the coming years for both Investors and business operators will be AI. “I think anyone who’s talked to me for more than five minutes in the last year knows I’m excited about AI.” He says the big takeaway for him from the SaaStr 2023 conference he attended is that generative AI is now at a stage where it can get you pretty far, but still needs human input and guidance to be successful. He likens it to self-driving cars – “they’re now at a stage where the car can pretty much drive on its own, but five years ago, it was very human-assisted. I was one of the original Tesla owners in BC, and it definitely isn’t self driving. I have to make sure I don’t fly off the road or smash into trees. That’s where a lot of generative AI is today, it needs a human at the wheel to reach the finish line.”

AI At SureSwift

At SureSwift, and especially for future acquisitions, AI will be a major consideration in each investment, but not an investment thesis the Fund particularly focuses on. James notes that with all the interest in AI currently, valuations are enormous, saying “there’s a lot of promise, and a ton of money being thrown at it right now. We’re going to continue to focus on software companies that are smaller in size, and in less-competitive spaces, where we can buy them at smart valuations that make sense for our Investors and Founders.”

For SureSwift, our portfolio businesses will be investing in AI as a capability, using it wherever it can improve experiences for users and teams. Many teams across the portfolio are already using AI internally for ideation, marketing, customer success, software engineering, testing, and more, but in 2024 and 2025, the focus is increasing on opportunities for AI to improve our core products and our user experience.

What’s Next for James

Professionally, James is looking forward to continuing the journey with SureSwift, utilizing his deep experience and continuing to learn from the network of exceptional operators running the SureSwift portfolio.

James DeGreef’s extensive experience has shaped him into a strong leader, and we’re fortunate to have him guiding SureSwift. We’re excited about the future and look forward to where we’ll go together next.

If you’re interested in getting involved with SureSwift, be sure to explore our Founder, Investor, or Careers pages!