Entrepreneurial spirit emerged early for Kosi Stobbs

December 7, 2020

Years after Kosi Stobbs’ parents bought their first home in Edmonton, he recalled them saying that was the best investment they ever made.

“I remember thinking to myself if that was the case, then why didn’t they do it more than once,” he said.

Stobbs set a goal.

By age 30, he aspired to own 10 properties.

Shortly after graduating with a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Alberta (U of A) in 2004, Stobbs – then 22 – purchased his first investment asset in Greater/Metro Vancouver for about $120,000.

Sixteen years after buying that rental unit, the transformative entrepreneur owns almost 50 properties in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario and is on the verge of closing a multi-million dollar deal to buy 100 units in Saskatchewan.

Stobbs business portfolio exceeds $50 million.

The Director of Property Owl Group of Companies founded in 2016 is among the this year’s Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 honour list that celebrates emerging leaders.

At age 10, Stobbs caught the business bug.

To buy candy, he and friends sold pop cans and bottles.

“We went around our street and told the residents that we are collecting cans and this is our business,” said Stobbs who represents the interests of manufacturing in British Columbia and at a local and national level as a member of the BC Advisory Council. “We spent a few hours in the afternoons collecting cans and bottles and one of the boy’s mom took them in for us so we could get our money. We did give her a small percentage for using her vehicle to take them.

“When you think about it, that was a great business because there is no start-up cost and people at that age are impressed you are trying to do something. I truly believe there are certain people that have that entrepreneurship in them and it shows up at an early age if it’s in you.  As a child, it showed up for me and I was always trying to find different ways to be an entrepreneur.”

Raised in public housing in Edmonton where he was born, Stobbs was bullied physically and verbally in elementary school.

In Grade Four, a classmate told him to ‘go back where you came from you f…… n…..’ before delivering a punch to his gut.

Stobbs also struggled with reading mainly because of dyslexia that was undiagnosed.

He found a way to overcome that learning challenge.

“The teacher would go around and have everyone read a sentence and that was the most uncomfortable experience for me as a child as I stumbled through my words,” he said. “It was a really painful experience for me to the point where if I knew we were going to read out loud, I almost didn’t want to go to school that day. Having said that, the fact that I was so petrified of reading out loud meant that when we had to do speeches, I knew I wasn’t going to read the speech out loud. I spent nearly 40 hours preparing for a five-minute speech because I didn’t want to ever have to look down and read notes.

“What happens when you spend so much time preparing for that short speech is that it’s really good. That was the first time in Grade school where I got recognized for being exceptional just a year after it was assumed I was stupid. I was told I am such an incredible public speaker and I got a lot of accolades. I have always been a good public communicator. Now, I can do a speech on any topic at a drop of a hat without reading notes because I have trained so much.”

With a strong work ethic and the determination to be an important contributor to community and society, Stobbs worked at Burger King and Walmart to save money to go to university.

While installing shelves at Walmart one summer, he met a lady who was in her 30th year with the company.

“I am proud of anyone that works hard, but I went away from there saying I didn’t want that for my life,” he said. “I told my dad that experience taught me I had to be really good in school. I learnt later on it’s not much about being good in school but working hard there and allowing yourself to see how good you can become.”

Excelling in Math and Physics in high school, Stobbs aspired to pursue Business studies.

The family patriarch, however, advised his son to study Engineering.

“My dad convinced me to do that degree because he said that at the end of the day, there are a lot of engineers that end up in business,” he said.  “While I was doing Engineering, I took a minor in Business which helped me to fulfill that need to take on Business classes. Also, I did Mechanical Engineering because that allowed me to take many Business electives. Having an engineering background has helped in terms of understanding how to break down problems.”

Stobbs fell in love with British Columbia after landing his first job out of university with Lehigh Hanson 16 years ago.

After the first year, he was posted to the company’s Glens Falls facility in upstate New York.

“When I landed there, I was like, ‘Nope, this is not for me’ and I got back on the plane,” he said. “I knew that was part of the program when I signed on, but I decided I wasn’t going to follow through. They tried to find a new role for me, but I wanted to stay in British Columbia.”

Kosi Stobbs (Photo contributed)

Stobbs quit the job in 2006 and spent five years Chevron. He was also with Solaris Management Consultants Inc. for five years, serving as Project Manager in the last one. In that role, he was the youngest of six senior managers in a 350-member consulting firm specializing in the gas sector.

Solaris is a fully integrated multi-discipline engineering firm, serving the Natural Gas and LNG Industries since 1993.

“That company was formed by a single individual who built it up from scratch,” said Stobbs whose business mentor is Warren Buffet who is one of the world’s most successful investors. “Being able to learn from someone like him in terms of how he grew, branded and marketed his company was a phenomenal learning experience and that, probably morseo than anything else, really helped me as I started to acquire companies. What are things that help to support a company’s growth, building a culture and understanding those key nuances in a business like how customers view you and how you want to be portrayed are things I picked up during my time at Solaris where I got real business training.”

Last year, he bought Specific Mechanical Systems that, for the past 36 years, has been providing handcrafted brewing and distilling systems for the craft beer and spirits industries in addition to supplying various industries with complex processing equipment.

“A really enjoyable group of people work there and the company really fits with what I look for,” the Chief Executive Officer said. “There were the original owners who really cared about the business and they sold it to me because I fundamentally believe in the business, the people that work there and I just want to continue to see it do well. I don’t look at company and say ‘let’s buy it and then sell it in a year or two’.  When I look at a company, I am looking at something I would be happy with owning and supporting over a lengthy period, like 40 years.”

An avid reader, Stobbs’ first book – F$CK Broke; Let’s Get Rich Together – was launched last summer.

“I list some of the key principles that I believe you need to accomplish to do well financially,” the Big Brother of Greater Vancouver volunteer said. “It’s not necessarily that you have to have an incredible job.  It’s about how much money you are keeping and properly investing it. When I worked as an engineer, I progressed really quickly in terms of the positions I took on.  A lot of that progression in the workplace has to do with the principles I have written in the book.”

Amy Leong worked with Stobbs on multiple real estates transactions on the sales end.

“I would say he’s a visionary and is meticulous in how he handles his real estate portfolio,” she said. “He is king of cash flow and analyzing numbers. I have invested with Kosi personally and will continue to do so as we build wealth and encourage others to do the same through smart investing.”

Stobbs’ parents -- Winston and Rose Stobbs -- migrated from Jamaica in the late 1970s with $100 and the desire to provide opportunities for their children to succeed.

“Our parents did everything they could to give us what they could and, in the process, sacrificed a lot to be in Canada and have an opportunity to be educated in the school system here,” he said. “Because of that, I knew I had to try my best because of what my parents did for us. I wasn’t a great student at a young age, but I studied incredibly hard.”

A member of the Forbes Business Council and The Executive Committee (TEC), Stobbs has an older brother -- Major Christopher Stobbs – who joined the Canadian military in 2004.

He was deployed to Afghanistan five years later and is the recipient of the General Campaign Star –Southwest Asia Service Medal. The U of A Electrical Engineering degree holder is the Commanding Officer of 3 Canadian Division Support Signal Squadron in Edmonton.

Another brother, Varnado Stobbs, was fatally gunned down outside an Edmonton westend nightclub 14 years ago. He was 28.

To honour his memory, Stobbs will launch ‘The Varnado Stobbs Education Foundation’ next year to provide educational opportunities for children in Jamaica whose parents don’t have the financial resources.