Redbrick has been named one of Canada’s Top Small and Medium Employers for the seventh consecutive year. But an award is only part of the story.

Canada’s Top Small and Medium Employers gives special recognition to Canadian employers who are exploring forward-thinking human resources policies and investing in their teams. We’re honoured that Redbrick has been recognized as a Top SME for seven years running.

We’ve been building and acquiring companies for much longer than seven years, but that period has been one of massive growth for us as a business and as an employer. Over that time, how we think about growth, leadership, culture, and sustainability has evolved in ways we didn’t expect.

Marco Pimentel, Redbrick’s CMO, had a front-row seat to that evolution. Looking back, he notes that the biggest change was how we think about building businesses.

When growth stops being the only metric

When we were first named a Top Small and Medium Employer in 2020, we were entering a pivotal moment. That same year, we acquired Leadpages in our first major acquisition. The Redbrick team had already spent years building companies and experimenting with ideas, but taking on an acquisition of that size prompted a new question.

“We’d been really hyper-focused on growth,” Marco explains. “But the real question became: can we build a durable company that lasts over time?”

That shift changed how we approached sustainability and profitability. Profitability became part of the foundation, allowing us to operate more intentionally. It gave us the resources to invest in people and ideas, maintain our culture, and pursue opportunities without sacrificing our long-term direction. Durability became a more meaningful measure of success than speed alone. It gave us the freedom to try new things and push for more, without losing sight of what we were building.

The hidden work behind scaling

“Scale” is a big buzzword in the tech industry. Most people think of “scale” as more users, more revenue, and more expansion. The reality of scaling requires much more discipline.

“People think scale is just growth,” Marco says. “But it’s really systems.”

Without strong systems behind it, growth becomes difficult to sustain. Teams end up solving the same problems repeatedly, and momentum becomes hard to maintain. Scaling requires building structures that enable consistent success. Supporting multiple companies within a portfolio requires an organizational design that simply did not exist in our early days.

"When growth becomes the only goal, efficiency is usually the first thing to crack. Teams stop focusing on the healthiest path to growth and start chasing the fastest one. Durable growth comes from doing the opposite: building growth systems that are sustainable, profitable, and measurable over time."

Rory Capern, COO

Leadership evolves as companies grow

As Redbrick grew, our approach to leadership had to evolve. In the early years, leaders were directly involved in everything from strategy to daily execution. Once we began acquiring other companies, that hands-on approach wasn't sustainable.

“We had to give up a lot of the things we were used to doing and empower new leaders across the organization,” Marco notes.

The transition from doing the work to enabling others to do it is one of the most significant shifts a growing company experiences. The work that builds a company of twenty people differs vastly from the work required at one hundred. Giving your staff the tools they need looks different. Leadership becomes less about control and more about creating the optimal conditions for others to succeed.

Navigating an expanding culture

Growth forces companies to think differently about internal culture. As Redbrick’s portfolio of businesses expanded, we noticed each company naturally develops its own identity. Rather than trying to standardize everything, we focused on building shared principles that could connect those teams. A few years into that process, we pursued B Corp certification. The certification didn’t create our values, but it did clarify them.

“We always felt like we were doing things a bit differently,” Marco explains. “Becoming a B Corp helped align the culture and the ethics we wanted to build around.”

That alignment helped ensure that our underlying principles remained clear even as our headcount multiplied.

"As the company grew and new teams joined through acquisitions, the goal was never to make every culture identical. It was about staying anchored in shared principles like how we treat people, how we make decisions, and the kind of company we want to build together."

Emily Hann, Director of People & Culture

The lesson that took the longest to learn

If there was one lesson Marco didn’t expect to learn, it was patience. Technology moves rapidly. Disruption happens constantly, and new advancements change how companies operate almost overnight. The instinct is always to move faster. But building a company that lasts requires a different mindset.

“You need people thinking about what this looks like in three years or five years,” Marco says. “Not just the next quarter.”

Maintaining a long-term perspective feels counterintuitive in an industry defined by speed. Over time, it becomes essential. The companies that endure are not always the ones that grow the fastest. They are the ones who learn how to keep building, year after year.

Carrying our lessons forward

Seven years of recognition as a Top SME is a massive milestone, but the lessons behind it are what we carry forward. We learned that durability outpaces speed, leadership must evolve as teams expand, culture requires intentional care, and sustainability allows companies to keep building over the long term.

Congratulations to all our fellow honourees! Read about each employer in the complete list of Top Small and Medium Employers.