15-Year-Old Halifax Founder Says His Growing Business All Started With YouTube
HALIFAX — A lot of founders get their first taste of entrepreneurship from a family member. Others are inspired by a class or program. For Zach Laberge, it was YouTube.
The 15-year-old founder of Frenter says his startup journey began early, when he became captivated by YouTube videos of successful young entrepreneurs.
He remembers marveling at the Stripe brothers, who became millionaires in their teens after selling an online startup.
But it was a video about Ben Pasternak that really stuck with him.
Pasternak designed a popular app while bored in a science class. By the time he was 15 he had moved from Australia to New York, turned down opportunities from both Facebook and Google, and raised a round of venture capital.
“He was a boss, by himself, and he lived in an apartment…I remember that really stuck with me,” Laberge says. “I remember watching that video and I was like, wow, that’s where I want to be.”
That drive would eventually lead Lebarge to start Frenter, an online platform that helps users rent their under-used items to each other: think bicycles, drones, or musical instruments.
Since launching in May, Laberge has attracted thousands of users to his platform, raised tens of thousands of dollars in seed money, and even acquired a competitor.
But before he was the founder of Frenter, Lebarge was a 10-year-old Halifax kid dreaming of living like Ben Pasternak.
His first foray into business came that year.
With the help of some YouTube tutorials, he created a drop-shipping company, selling cheap products from Alibaba at a markup on his own simple website.
That initial endeavor was a foot in the entrepreneurial door, but Laberge says he quickly realized he wanted to do something more, “something different, something completely brand new.”
“A lot of people [start a company] to be your own boss, but that’s not really what I related with. I related with the idea of starting something that meant something. I could make a difference in the world and be remembered,” he says.
Fast forward a few years, to January 28, 2020. Laberge, now 14, was sitting at home “just thinking about business.”
He grabbed a whiteboard and started brainstorming about the sharing economy. He says the idea for Frenter came to him when he noticed a gap in the market: there was no good platform connecting people who wanted to rent something that wasn’t a room.
“I’ve always been really obsessed with sharing and the sharing economy and those kinds of startups. So I just kind of saw a need and I wanted to fill it,” he says.
He sat on the idea all summer, writing out “business plan after business plan.”
Then, in the fall, he decided to go for it. He raised about $80,000 through a friends-and-family angel round. Over the winter he had the platform built, and in May of this year, he launched.
Since launch, Laberge and his CTO have grown Frenter to 2,500 users in almost a dozen North American cities. Last month, Frenter also acquired another peer-to-peer rental service, Rentbridge, for an undisclosed amount.
“It’s been pretty remarkable, I guess. It’s grown pretty fast,” Laberge says.
Laberge says his goal is to double the number of cities Frenter operates in and grow to 20,000 users listing 10,000 items.
He also says he’s in the middle of a pre-seed funding round. He hopes to raise another $450,000 and says he already has commitments for about $250,000.
Laberge says he will attend school virtually this fall while working “basically full time” at Frenter. On September 1, he began a residency at Volta and says he already has his eyes on other accelerators.
If Frenter grows enough, Laberge hopes he can become an inspiration to other young entrepreneurs, just like Ben Pasternak was to him.
He already knows what he would tell them, too.
“Entrepreneurship is going to suck a lot of the time; it’s really not going to be fun,” he says. “It’s a lot of ups and downs, you have these really low moments because you’re failing or not doing well. And then you keep persevering, keep doing what you’re doing… and eventually you’re going to get these highs that make it even better.”
Laberge doesn’t even remember most of his low moments — it’s the successes, he says, that really stand out.
Trevor Nichols is a staff writer with Huddle in Halifax. Send him feedback or story suggestions at: [email protected]. To read more stories like this, sign up to receive Huddle’s free daily newsletter.