Codo Origin Story: City of Colour
Brittany Anderson: Rob and I met when I was at the University of Alberta running an event called JBC West and I was running the events and Rob was my supplier.
Rob Davy: Yeah, I was supplying AV services, speakers, projectors, things like that to Brittany, at the event Brittany was doing.
Brittany Anderson: After I finished university, I started a job in the event’s world and Rob called me up and we went on a date. We started dating. And then about six or eight months later, we ended up signing a lease for Edmonton Paintball Center.
Rob Davy: Yeah, we jumped in straight at the deep end together. Edmonton Paintball was a really fun business to run. It’s really awesome when your customers are coming together to try and make memories and have fun experiences.
Brittany Anderson: After we had been running Edmonton Paintball for about a year and a half, we decided to move into laser tag. It was a natural extension of our business. We now have a location in Edmonton and two in Calgary.
Rob Davy: We didn’t know a whole lot about laser tag. Other than that, we both really enjoyed it as kids. That seemed like a good enough reason to us.
Brittany Anderson: Our customers are fantastic. They come and visit us to have a good time, which is the best thing. And my favorite part is when they share their birthday cake with me, which is the real reason that I’m in this industry.
Rob Davy: Yeah, the cake and the pizza is what it’s all about.
Brittany Anderson: So when the pandemic hit, it shut down our laser tag businesses. So we quickly pivoted because we wanted to keep our full time team employed.
Rob Davy: We sat down with all of our staff and talked about what our customers need at that point. And that’s where our online business, Codo came from.
Brittany Anderson: And we are so lucky that our customers in Edmonton jumped on board and supported us with Codo.
Rob Davy: Codo provides online afterschool clubs and day-camps for kids who are stuck at home. They’re mostly built around video games, things like Minecraft, Roblox, among us and they’re run by our laser tag staff who are working from home looking after small groups of kids.
Brittany Anderson: Edmonton is my hometown, so I’m so lucky to run a business here and the community has been so supportive to us over the years that we’ve ran our business. Anybody is willing to pick up the phone and have a chat with me or have a coffee meeting to help me with anything as we go along our business journey,
Rob Davy: We found that Edmonton is kind of the perfect size, to be honest. It’s a real city, with the things that real cities have, lots of opportunity, lots of support. But it’s also small enough that you can really get to know a lot of people and there’s not a ton of strangers in a city the size of Edmonton.
Brittany Anderson: Here on Whyte Ave is where we started our business. For the first eight years we ran everything out of our little condo, but it was really great to just jump down to the avenue and get energized and do a ton of fun things in our limited off time.
Rob Davy: Yeah, it’s great living so close to somewhere like this where it’s so vibrant and there’s always stuff going on. It’s so bright and colorful. So it’s a really fun place to live, ah live near. One of the really cool things about Edmonton is the climate here. Like we actually have seasons, you’ve got winter, you’ve got fall, spring and summer, and they’re all very different. So it makes it such a changing place with the different colors, the different experiences and different activities that you can do, just depending on what time of year it is. That’s that’s not something you get everywhere.
Brittany Anderson: And it definitely helps that we’re a winter city with an indoor laser tag business. It allows people to have something fun to do during the cold winter months. The entrepreneurial community in Edmonton has grown so much over the past year and it’s so supportive and we wouldn’t be where we are today without it.
Rob Davy: No, no question about it.
WAYFINDING: Worried about climate change and food insecurity? Never fear, our next entrepreneurs are on the case! Just head north along the alley to 83rd Ave and turn right. Cross Calgary trail at the lights and continue until you reach the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market on the corner of 83rd Ave and Gateway.
About Codo
Codo provides Online Camps and Clubs for kids ages 6 to 12 to participate in from home.
Supervised and run by one of our experienced and vetted staff, your child will learn new skills in their favourite games (like Minecraft, Among Us and Roblox), interact with other kids from across the country, as well as participate in a ton of fun and interesting activities.
We have Weekly After-School Clubs, giving kids something to look forward to (that can be done from home) and giving parents a predictable couple of hours to get work done, complete chores, or just take some time for themselves.
Missing a Birthday Party this year? We host Online Birthday Parties too!