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• About : Chairman of Tiny and co-founder with Andrew Wilkinson. Former CFO at MetaLab. Based in Victoria, British Columbia.
• Now: What I’m Working On : A current update from Chris Sparling in Victoria, BC: chairing Tiny, guiding its 30+ companies, and evaluating new software acquisitions.

Best Posts

Chris Sparling built Tiny into a holding company of 30+ software businesses. These are the pieces that show how he thinks, what he has learned, and why any of it matters to him personally.

• HoldCo Builders Podcast: Capital, Deals, and Lessons Learned : Chris Sparling joins the HoldCo Builders podcast on building Tiny, the AeroPress deal, capital allocation, and lessons from Charlie Munger.
• My Talk at VALUExBRK 2024 with Guy Spier : Chris Sparling on his VALUExBRK 2024 talk with Guy Spier: meeting Charlie Munger and the Daily Journal succession story behind it.
• The Power of Being Seen : Chris Sparling on a crowded bar, the feeling of being invisible, and how one nod from a busy bartender changed how he sees connection.

General

I write about business, life, and the messy overlap between the two. These posts come from real experiences, not theory. Bad advice from well-meaning mentors, abandoned gardens that mirror neglected businesses, and the quiet power of being noticed. "The Problem with Perfect Advice" is about how some of my worst decisions came after asking smart people what to do. Turns out stories teach better than suggestions, and I break down why.

• The Obvious Prediction Is Often Wildly Wrong : Chris Sparling on why technology rarely kills whole industries. It wipes out the average players and sends their customers to the best.
• The Problem with Perfect Advice: Why Stories Beat Suggestions : Chris Sparling on why perfect advice often fails in your reality, and why stories transfer experience without the strings attached.
• Why Businesses Get Messy Over Time : Chris Sparling on entropy in business: like an untended garden, companies slide into disorder unless someone actively keeps them in order.
• Peter Cundill's Tips for a Good Life : Chris Sparling shares investor Peter Cundill's rules for living well: health, lifestyle, curiosity, and balance through contradictions.
• The Power of Being Seen : Chris Sparling on a crowded bar, the feeling of being invisible, and how one nod from a busy bartender changed how he sees connection.

Media

Podcasts, talks, and media appearances where I get to tell the story behind what I'm building. I like these conversations because they force me to articulate things I usually just do on instinct. The HoldCo Builders Podcast was a good one. We got into the details of capital, deals, and the lessons that only come from actually doing the work.

• HoldCo Builders Podcast: Capital, Deals, and Lessons Learned : Chris Sparling joins the HoldCo Builders podcast on building Tiny, the AeroPress deal, capital allocation, and lessons from Charlie Munger.
• My Talk at VALUExBRK 2024 with Guy Spier : Chris Sparling on his VALUExBRK 2024 talk with Guy Spier: meeting Charlie Munger and the Daily Journal succession story behind it.
• My Feature on the My First Million Podcast : Chris Sparling was mentioned on the My First Million podcast after meeting host Shaan Puri at a dinner event in Vancouver.

Tiny

Andrew Wilkinson and I built Tiny together. This section is about that journey, the company we created, and the recognition that came with it. The main Tiny post tells the origin story. How Andrew and I started working together and what we set out to build.

• Tiny : Chris Sparling on Tiny, the publicly traded holding company he built with Andrew Wilkinson to buy 30+ profitable businesses and leave them alone.
• Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award : Chris Sparling and Andrew Wilkinson received the Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award from UVic's Gustavson School of Business.
• Building Tiny: Our Journey to DEYA Recognition : Chris Sparling and Andrew Wilkinson named UVic Gustavson's 2025 Distinguished Entrepreneurs of the Year for their work building Tiny.