Troy Klaus, Doortender co-founder. (Supplied)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19) and Sheldon Spackman

launched 2.5 years ago

Doortender continues solid run as local tech startup

Jan 7, 2023 | 12:33 PM

A Red Deer tech startup continues to make waves.

Doortender launched in summer 2020, persisting through the worst of the pandemic, and making it work to become successful enough that it was able to expand into Edmonton in summer 2022.

The business, which was started by four friends laid off during COVID-19’s early days, employs about 20 people between the two cities.

Co-founder Brian Abelseth shares the company was recently accepted into the Alberta Accelerator by 500, an initiative of Alberta Innovates. Doortender was selected from over 200 applicants.

“It’s 12 weeks, quite intensive, and every week they fly in experts from around the world who come to teach, learn and collaborate with you,” Abelseth explains. “It all culminates in a demo day where you pitch to investors in Calgary.”

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According to Alberta Innovates, the accelerator nurtures seed-stage tech-companies in Alberta to hopefully unlock long-term value and drive economic growth.

Doortender’s pitch time went well, Abelseth says, as they were one of just a couple dozen actually afforded the opportunity.

“What makes us unique is that we don’t use third parties, whom would usually take a big cut from the local business and then that’s passed onto the consumer. But we are the local business and the delivery service,” he continues.

“Our team is the biggest part of our success. We don’t think you need a big tech company from the U.S. to run these delivery services. We’re excited to have the technical ability to continue building this up. It makes us a lot more sustainable, and we’re quite proud to have started in Red Deer, because it’s a great place to live and start a business.”

In 2022, Doortender made between 15,000 and 16,000 deliveries.

Abelseth says the future is bright for the business.

“We have pig plans and are super excited to take over Alberta,” he says. “We’re working very hard; it’s exciting to a privilege to have a job like this.”

More about the accelerator program is here.