In this exclusive CanadianSME Small Business Magazine interview, Gil Katz, Co-Founder of Giant Step and MentorEase, shares lessons from building one of Canada’s most adaptable digital agencies and a scalable mentoring platform for organizations nationwide. With over two decades of experience launching innovative web projects and supporting startups, Gil blends entrepreneurial resourcefulness with a practical, technology-first mindset—helping small businesses and associations navigate digital transformation, stand out in crowded markets, and scale their vision without sacrificing creativity or authenticity.
Gil co-founded digital agency Giant Step and since 2003 launched over 150 web projects including: websites, mobile apps, custom applications, marketing campaigns and more. In 2019 launched MentorEase mentoring software, a platform that helps manage mentoring programs at universities, industry associations and corporations.
What inspired the founding of Giant Step Inc., and how has your approach to digital marketing evolved over the years to meet the needs of Canadian small businesses?
My last year at university was left with one course and instead of getting a job I used that year to learn how to start a small business:
- Participated in a government program for SMBs
- Audited MBA / business courses – just sat in class for free and read the books for no credit
- Read 200 books about starting a business, sales, marketing, etc. (“10-Day MBA” is great and “The Sales Bible” by Jeffrey Gitomer covers every sales scenario and overcoming objections) + also covered topics I didn’t learn in school – from accounting to taxes and business law
- Joined student clubs (never had time before) – UofT Entrepreneur Club, Consulting Club, etc. student business competitions, ACE / Enactus
- Learned that students can get free student membership at industry associations and joined the Management Consulting Association, Interactive Ontario, many others and attended events
- Learned about networking and the sales process, how to make presentations, built a resume website with a portfolio of past projects and jobs
- Later turned the resume site into a company site with consulting portfolio and brochures
- Registered the business, created a catalog of possible web tools and started selling them
- Eventually replaced sample tool concepts in the catalog with actual implementations we did
- Did any type of project: design, database, sites, apps, eCommerce, campaigns, PR, SAAS
- Moved from small projects to larger project requirements to becoming the agency of record for clients
Giant Step has delivered innovative projects for a range of clients, from Fortune 1000 companies to startups. Can you share a standout success story that demonstrates your agency’s impact on a client’s growth and digital transformation?
When photo and video contests were popular, we realized that there are tools for running such contests, but no tools for running branded comics, drawing, and karaoke contests. We built a prototype of a comics contest platform, where you can select backgrounds, characters and props to create your own branded-personalized comics with talking bubbles. The idea was that fans of a brand could create fan-art as contest entries and the most-voted win prizes.
Then we did a project for a collectible toy brand called Gogo’s Crazy Bones that included creating custom games and activities. The activities included a comics contest and character-making contest using the brand elements. Along with limitations and content moderation these features still eventually got over a million contest entries. Some character contest winners actually got their character ideas made by the company, which was very nice. That project won interactive media awards and presented in conferences, which led to the development of our initial concept – a tool for making comics contests and beyond.
We called it ComicReply and launched various campaigns. For example, a Pet Comics Contest, where people took photos of their pets, added clip art, talking bubbles and the most-voted won poop bags from a local brand called Scoopy Bags.
What are the most significant challenges small businesses face in digital marketing today, and how does Giant Step help clients overcome them through technology and strategies?
The biggest challenges we come across are:
1. Getting attention – standing out in their category
The more niche a category you focus on the easier it will be. Then you have less competition and can do more than them to stand out. Create original, educational and authentic content. Ultimately start a podcast about your topic. Create your own industry surveys and connect on Linkedin. Prepare a webinar about a sub-topic your audience cares about. Make it fun – run interesting contests, possibly with user-generated content submissions.
2. Declining organic search, SEO – as social platforms favour paid content
Your website should include as much information as possible. Most of the competition does not do that and so this helps improve Google ranking. Include info about the problem, solution, product benefits and features, a page for every type of customer, case studies, testimonials, downloadable brochures, and clear pricing details. Then more advanced content – powerpoint presentations, animations, video testimonials, educational info about the topic in general. Have the content also on Google My Business, ensure Search Console is connected properly. Name your image files with meaningful branded titles.
3. Automation to save time and budget – integrating AI tools and processes
See https://dmn.ca/how-to-automate-your-marketing-with-ai-tools
Being an entrepreneur and advisor, you have experience mentoring startups and SMEs. What advice do you have for business owners looking to scale their marketing efforts without losing authenticity or creative vision?
First take inventory of the topic you are involved in – the market, problem, solutions, where your product or service fits, why it’s better, etc. – the key is to write down everything you know about it. Then organize the information for marketing:
1. Improve Website
- Company info – as mentioned earlier – as much info as possible
- Marketing info – Blog posts, Images, Slideshows, , Videos, Infographics, eBooks
- Engagement – Surveys, Polls, Contests, Webinars, Events
- Optimization – Pages, Images, Speed, A/B Testing
- Search visibility – Search Console, Sitemaps, Structure Data, Tag Manager, Directory listings
- Mobile friendly, Security, Backups
2. Open Communication Tools
- Contact forms – Polls, Surveys, Live chat, Click to call
- Lead generation – Landing pages, Calls to action (CTA), Direct response forms
- Multimedia feedback – Text, Photo, Audio, Video
3. Improve Prospecting
- Define your sectors, sub-niches, companies and decision-makers
- Linkedin connections – done manually (not automated), unique short messages, include link
- Email directly – ask who is the best contact for this
- Invite for demos – show working solutions and powerpoint presentations
- It’s impressive to show many working solutions – beyond brochures.
As a final thought, what words of wisdom or encouragement would you offer to fellow Canadian small and medium business leaders navigating today’s ever-changing business environment?
As the general marketplace becomes ever more complicated, the way a small business can thrive is by looking for a very niche sub-category that has good product-market fit. Once you find such a niche your odds are much higher because then you have:
1. A market that wants to buy your product (product-market fit)
2. Less competition in that smaller sub-niche
3. Easier to identify potential customers
Then you can follow the process detailed earlier to stand out in the market for that very specific type of customer for that niche product or service – create content, automate with AI, etc.
Over time you will know more about this topic and could innovate within this small marketplace.
In order to find a product-market fit you should speak with many potential customers to learn from them exactly what they need. Create a mini site, presentation and connect with potential customers to show them your solution. Do that 20 times and you’ll learn a lot. Their feedback may help you refine your solution or scrap it and try another one. Do that until you find something they want to pay for. Then expand the marketing, improve the product and delivery systems.
