Building headless commerce infrastructure for service businesses at MarketBox after scaling North America's largest swim instructor and lifeguard marketplace
Worth knowing
She spent 15 years running a workforce that travels to customers across Canada, the U.S., and Australia, and she built the software to run it. She knows what breaks service businesses as they grow: - scheduling people with no fixed location - routing - payments across currencies - finding enough good staff in every market MarketBox gives companies the booking, scheduling, payments, and routing engine behind whatever front end they choose. It is used in a variety of service industries, including health and wellness, utilities, and field services. Founders of service marketplaces, operators scaling field teams, and anyone taking a Canadian service business into international markets should get in touch.
Story
As a kid, Diana refused to get into the cold water at the public pool, so her parents tried private lessons at home. It worked, and swimming shaped the rest of her life. At 19, she started her first swim school with a $3,000 government grant while studying commerce at Rotman. She spent 3 years at Bain & Company keeping the business going on the side, then left for an MBA at Kellogg and relaunched in 2011 as AquaMobile. It grew into North America's largest swim instructor and lifeguard marketplace and expanded into Australia. No software could handle scheduling instructors who travel between customers' homes, so she built her own. Other software service businesses started asking to use it, and in 2019 she spun it out as MarketBox. From Vancouver, she now leads MarketBox and its 2.0 platform, which she describes as Shopify Plus for service businesses. Her other company, AquaMobile, is a MarketBox customer and credits its continued success and growth to MarketBox's technology.
In Diana's words
Toronto native, now based on the West Coast in Vancouver, loves both the mountains and the ocean. Spends her free time traveling the world and in the mountains with her husband.
Highlights
- Founder & CEO, MarketBox (2019-present); Founder, AquaMobile (2011)
- Finalist, RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award
- First place and $100,000, TELUS/Globe and Mail Small Business Challenge, 2015
- Consultant, Bain & Company
- Board of Directors, Peerscale (formerly AceTech Ontario), 2018-2024
- BCom, Rotman, University of Toronto; MBA, Kellogg School of Management
Know someone who belongs here?
Constellation is the directory of Canadians and friends of Canada around the world, written by the people in it. Send them this page, or add your own.
Add Yourself