Thinkific is a technology-based company that offers a platform to customers, which enables entrepreneurs to create online products such as courses and communities.
The online courses are built from the existing knowledge of the creators and are focused on niches where they have an expert level of knowledge that they can pass on to others through Thinkific.
If you are interested in Thinkific either as a creator or as someone who is looking to purchase a course, it can be helpful to know about the company on a deeper level.
That includes knowledge of where the company is based as this can tell you a lot about how the company is likely to be run. In this article, we will answer “where is Thinkific based?” and how that may influence the way the company works.
Where Is Thinkific HQ Based?
The Thinkific HQ building is based in Vancouver, Canada. Thinkific, founded in Canada, has retained physical operations in the country ever since. Since its inception in 2012, the company has grown and expanded exponentially.
Because of the incredible growth of Thinkific, the physical location of the company has branched out from Vancouver to other cities within Canada.
Thinkific has a slew of offices across the country that all help to keep the company growing and thriving in an increasingly competitive market. Despite the fact that Thinkific has had to spread itself out over the country, all of the main offices remain in the HQ building.
This is where all of the important, award-winning decisions are made.
Where Are Thinkific Offices Located?
While Thinkific’s Headquarters building is located in Toronto, there are plenty of other Thinkific offices that are spread out across the rest of the country. Some of the main cities in Canada that are home to Thinkific offices include Halifax, Toronto, and Victoria.
All of the offices that are separate from the main HQ building are filled with Thinkific thinkers. Thinkific thinkers are the everyday staff members that make up the business and keep it running smoothly and constantly improving on the industry standard.
For the most part, it is quite surprising that Thinkific has so many physical locations spread out across the country. As a modern and leading employer, Thinkific offers various working options to all of its employees where possible.
This means that if you work for Thinkific in almost any capacity, you will be given the choice as to where and how you work.
Thinkers can choose between working from home, working physically in the office, or working with a hybrid system of both options. This provides great flexibility to all employees and allows the staff to optimize their work by fitting around their lifestyle well.
What Are The Perks Of Thinkific’s Location?
There are a few reasons why the North American location of Thinkific is beneficial to the staff, the customers, and the creators that work with the company.
Below, we have outlined some of the main reasons why being based in Canada makes Thinkific a great choice of platform to host your online course.
Time Zone
One of the main perks of Thinkific being based in North America is the lack of severe time zone changes. When all of your physical offices and staff are based in the same country, even one as big as Canada, the risk of awkward time differences is significantly reduced.
The largest possible time zone difference between offices is around 4 hours and 30 minutes. In a world where many large companies have spread their labor across different continents, this is an almost insignificant difference.
Because of this small time difference, communication between different departments and different offices is much more streamlined and efficient than it may be at other online learning platform companies.
Although outsourcing work to different countries can often be a significantly cheaper option, there are compromises that need to be made in the level of customer service that a company’s platform can offer.
In the case of Thinkific, the decision has been made to prioritize efficient working practices and high levels of customer service over cheaper labor.
While the cost of this is then passed onto the creators that use the Thinkific platform, it pays off in the long run with the increase in user satisfaction and customer satisfaction.
Another positive aspect of the business being solely based in Canada is that the time zones are similar to that of the majority of Thinkific customers. Many of the creators who make and sell courses with the Thinkific platform are based in the USA.
This is also true of the people who sign up for courses hosted by Thinkific. The similar time zones at play here help ensure that any queries or issues are resolved in a timely manner without having to employ a slew of nighttime customer service representatives.
Familiar Rules And Laws
As we mentioned above, the majority of Thinkific creators and users are based in North America and other Western countries. This makes the Canadian location of the business even better.
The rules, laws, and regulations that govern the type of content Thinkific can allow on its site, the way that Thinkific uses creator and student data, and other important aspects of the business are going to be similar to those that creators and users are used to.
This means that Thinkific is governed by the same or similar data protection laws as the creators and users are. This makes it a much more reliable company to work with. Especially considering that the input of payment details is required.
It also shouldn’t be overlooked that Thinkific is responsible for hosting the intellectual property of over 36,000 entrepreneurs and corporations. It is important that the laws that need to be abided by are understood by both parties.
Familiar Working Practices
In a similar vein to that of the familiar laws and rules are the working practices of Thinkific. While using Thinkific as a platform to host your online course is straightforward and very user-friendly, there are always going to be hiccups and issues along the way.
When you understand how the company that you are working with functions, you are more likely to resolve any bumps in the road quickly.
If you are a creator based in North America and you are dealing with a company that is also based in North America, you are going to be familiar with the public holidays and other standard practices that they are likely to follow.
This fundamental understanding of the way businesses in this part of the world usually operate can ensure that the partnership between the creator, student, and platform host is as smooth as possible.
This is something that is only possible due to the location of Thinkific.
How Does Thinkific Work As A Business?
How a business works is heavily influenced by where it was founded and where it is currently located. The great thing about Thinkific is that it was founded in Vancouver and is still based in Vancouver.
This makes it an entirely Western company that will be heavily influenced by Western culture when it comes to how it works as a business.
As with many Western businesses, Thinkific is very focused on the values that are held at its core.
This means that there is a set of values that underpin the way that the company is run and what the company is trying to achieve. (Check out ‘What Is Thinkific Used For? (Service Explained)‘)
Ease Of Use
One of the most important values that Thinkific is built upon is just how easy the platform is to use. Making a product that is streamlined, efficient, and user-friendly is a very common thing to find in businesses that were founded in North America.
The ultimate goal of the business is to utilize good customer satisfaction to be able to grow and develop as a business.
Where Thinkific is concerned, attention has been paid to both the creator experience and the user experience. Thinkific has deliberately ensured that the platform is easy for creators to set up and create their own online courses and improve their own sites by using the tools on the website.
Having all of the tools and equipment that you need available in one place makes the experience of using Thinkific much easier. It also makes the company appealing to new or first-time creators.
Designed For Both Creator And User
Thinkific isn’t a platform that has been designed to make a quick buck from creators, nor has it been designed as a means for creators to make a quick buck. Instead, the focus is on sustainable, lasting, and effective courses that provide value to the users who are purchasing them. (See ‘Best Thinkific Plans.‘)
The platform is also designed to allow the course creators to create a course that is truly reflective of the knowledge they possess and their personalities.
Ultimately, at the core of Thinkific, there is a huge amount of emphasis placed on people actually learning things of value through the platform. Whether a user is looking to improve their guitar skills, their baking skills, or even their knowledge of coding.
The Thinkific platform has been designed and optimized to facilitate meaningful learning in a self-paced, convenient, online environment.
Because of the huge emphasis that is placed on providing genuine online education, Thinkific has even created a community system that allows course creators to provide an interactive and social community for the students that have signed up for their courses.
This feature helps to provide a sense of community between students and creators which is typical of western society.
Providing Ultimate Support
Another way in which Thinkific has been influenced by the country in which it is based is the value placed on the support that is offered. Thinkific has one of the most extensive customer support systems in the tech world.
Going far beyond a simple IT service, Thinkific has covered practically every base that you could think of in terms of the support that a creator or user might need.
There is a basic support package that is offered which covers the things that you would expect from any large, international company. Things such as in-house articles to answer commonly asked questions and online technical support are included in this package.
In addition to this package, Thinkific also offers a special support package for first-time creators which includes a course that covers the basics of how to build a course. This can help to make the whole process smoother and ensure a better experience with the platform.
Finally, Thinkific also offers a community that is specifically for its course creators. This allows creators from all over the world to connect with each other through the platform that they use. This can be a really great collaborative tool as well as a brilliant peer support system.
How Many Countries Does Thinkific Represent?
Since its inception in 2012, Thinkific has expanded exponentially. In fact, the company now represents creators and students from over 35 countries. This is helped a lot by the fact that the company has been endorsed by so many other trusted companies.
The international status of Thinkific is partly the result of growing a business that has received a significant amount of local recognition.
In recent times, Thinkific has received multiple awards for being a top, growing business in Canada, for being one of the best places to work in Canada, and for being the top employer in Canada for small and medium businesses.
Thinkific has also won awards for its sales and customer service as well as for being a standout company in the tech industry.
All of this might sound like a lot of industry pats on the back, but what these various awards turn into is the legitimization of the business. This means that despite the fact that Thinkific is based solely in Canada, the company appeals to creators and users all over the world.
Being recognized in a large and competitive industry in a competitive part of the world makes you stand out from Thinkific’s competitors in other parts of the world.
How Large Is Thinkific?
We have already briefly touched on just how large Thinkific has grown over the past decade or so. We have already mentioned that there are over 36,000 course and community creators using the platform.
Although exact numbers are difficult to find, logic dictates that there is at least double the number of students using the platform as there are creators.
This means that Thinkific is stacking up to be a very large and dominant company in the world of online course platforms. Of these tens of thousands of creators and even more users, over 35 countries are linked to the use of the Thinkific platform.
This places Thinkific firmly in the international category of businesses.
Despite the tens or hundreds of thousands of people who are using the Thinkific platform in one way or another, the company still only has around 400 staff on the books. This might seem like a mismatch in terms of raw numbers.
However, the 400 staff members that the company does have appear to have optimized their work to keep the company running smoothly and to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.
One of the most impressive things about Thinkific and the workforce that it employs is the diversity of the staff. Despite being a tech company, an industry that is historically male-dominated, 45% of the leadership team at Thinkific are women.
An even better stat for the women in tech is that over 51% of the entire workforce at Thinkific is female. Thinkific actually puts a significant emphasis on creating a diverse workforce.
How Does Thinkific Support Work?
One of the most important aspects of a business, particularly an online business, is the support that they offer to its customers. This is something that is often significantly impacted by the location of the business.
Thinkific is a company that began with a couple of brothers who saw an issue with the way online courses worked and decided to fix things. Because of the extremely modest roots that this business has, Thinkific offers incredible support to users and creators on the platform.
As with many North American-based companies, Thinkific offers a comprehensive base support system. The basic level of support that you can find as a user or creator on the Thinkific platform includes access to live customer support online or over the phone.
They also offer access to a variety of base articles that are bursting with detailed answers to almost any question, query, or issue that you may be having.
In addition to this basic level of support, Thinkific also offers specific support for first-time creators. This is a great touch that is very appealing to prospective customers.
The first-time creator’s support features free Thinkific academy courses that have been designed to help newbies to get the most out of the platform.
This aspect of the Thinkific support system is something that likely exists because of the way in which the company was founded and the first-hand experiences of the founder Greg Smith and Thinkific co-founder.
Finally, Thinkific offers a creator’s community which is essentially a forum for any and all Thinkific creators to communicate and come together to offer support, advice, and help to answer questions. This is an addition to the company’s support system which is very Canadian.
Allowing your customers to converse online and create communities and relationships in a business that is conducted entirely online is a great selling point that is likely to draw more creators to the business.
Frequently Asked Question
Does Currency Have To Be Set To CAD?
Despite the fact that Thinkific is firmly based in Canada, the currency that is used on the site to price courses does not have to be set to CAD.
In fact, because Thinkific is such an established international company that collaborates with other international companies such as Stripe, you can set the currency to almost any currency that works for you.
Thinkific has the ability to set pricing in over 135 currencies from all over the world. This can help creators to market their products to users in their own country. It can also help avoid sneaky conversion fees when processing transactions through the software platform.
Final Thoughts
Thinkific is one of the learning online course provider platforms in the world. Canada, Vancouver-based, Thinkific is heavily influenced by many typical North American business practices.
Despite the fact that the company was founded in Canada and remains solely located in Canada, Thinkific is a highly successful international company that has expanded to over 35 countries around the world.
