Podium CEO Eric Rea helped improve the online presence of his dad Tom Rea's tire shop. That led him to launch the cloud startup.Podium CEO Eric Rea launched the startup after his dad asked for his help in improving his tire shop's online presence.
This week, it launched Teamchat, a new feature, making it easier for customer service agents to work with each other and answer questions as they come in.Eric Rea was working as a software engineer at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Austria when his dad called to ask for help. He wanted to give his tire shop in Calgary could use a jazzier online presence, including more reviews, he said.
The idea for Podium emerged from his Rea's efforts to help his dad. Fountain Tire, Tom Rea's tire shop, was a solid business, he said."But they weren't getting discovered online," Eric Rea told Business Insider."He didn't have anything online."That led Rea and co-founder Dennis Steele to a bigger realization."Nobody was building software for these businesses," Rea said.