When I moved to Vancouver almost three years ago the city was described
to me as a 'branch' town. What this meant then and still does today is
that there are not too many big Corporate Head Offices based in
Vancouver. Numbers from 2005 suggest that BC is home to a tenth of the
Top 500 Canadian Companies [source]. Although I can't lay my hands on the source I was reading that
office space vacancy rates are low in the City with the amount of new
office space being planned in the next few years minimal. Not exactly
easy for a big corporate to relocate to Vancouver, even if it wanted
to. So who is here?
In 2006 a staggering 98% of all businesses in the Province of BC were classified as small businesses [source ], i.e. up to 50 employees. Of these 83% were 'micro' businesses with no more than 5 employees! BC and especially Vancouver is the land of the entrepreneur. If we turn to the technology sector, 95% of technology based businesses are small businesses. Which for me instantly raises the question of funding. Much as the big corporates are not here, neither are the big heavy weights in terms of venture funding. So how does a business grow beyond the early stage?
From my perspective I see lots of bits and pieces. Various small business support groups, government schemes, University sponsored programmes, competitions and events, but what is the small business community doing itself to help itself? (see Resources for Founders below!) I've long thought that Vancouver has some of brightest people, especially in technology but the experience or access to resources needed to help them make it big is limited. This is a generalisation of course (there have been successes), but I think the community has been crying out for some kind of leadership. Enter Bootup Labs.
This is a new venture led by Boris Mann and Danny Robinson which aims to take "founders from zero to fundable." I had the pleasure of lunch with Danny last week and shared his excitement about what Bootup is trying to do. Reading the Bootup labs blog is already a wealth of information, for instance this post of Resources for Founders in Vancouver. What caught my eye though was the post called "Venture Capital is Broken, lets Fix It!" where Danny was responding to a post by Jevon Macdonald on the StartupNorth blog. I won't repeat here but encourage you to click through.
When you do, check out the comments to Danny's post. The post itself is well worth reading, but almost as a demonstration of both the power of blogs to create two way conversations AND a demonstration of how key people in the City are supporting what Bootup are trying to do, it's not only well worth reading, it should be MANDATORY.
As a Vancouverite I am proud of what has fast become my city. What Bootup is doing is an important part of making Vancouver into a world renowned Technology Centre, stay tuned! I'm sure there's much more to come.
In 2006 a staggering 98% of all businesses in the Province of BC were classified as small businesses [source ], i.e. up to 50 employees. Of these 83% were 'micro' businesses with no more than 5 employees! BC and especially Vancouver is the land of the entrepreneur. If we turn to the technology sector, 95% of technology based businesses are small businesses. Which for me instantly raises the question of funding. Much as the big corporates are not here, neither are the big heavy weights in terms of venture funding. So how does a business grow beyond the early stage?
From my perspective I see lots of bits and pieces. Various small business support groups, government schemes, University sponsored programmes, competitions and events, but what is the small business community doing itself to help itself? (see Resources for Founders below!) I've long thought that Vancouver has some of brightest people, especially in technology but the experience or access to resources needed to help them make it big is limited. This is a generalisation of course (there have been successes), but I think the community has been crying out for some kind of leadership. Enter Bootup Labs.
This is a new venture led by Boris Mann and Danny Robinson which aims to take "founders from zero to fundable." I had the pleasure of lunch with Danny last week and shared his excitement about what Bootup is trying to do. Reading the Bootup labs blog is already a wealth of information, for instance this post of Resources for Founders in Vancouver. What caught my eye though was the post called "Venture Capital is Broken, lets Fix It!" where Danny was responding to a post by Jevon Macdonald on the StartupNorth blog. I won't repeat here but encourage you to click through.
When you do, check out the comments to Danny's post. The post itself is well worth reading, but almost as a demonstration of both the power of blogs to create two way conversations AND a demonstration of how key people in the City are supporting what Bootup are trying to do, it's not only well worth reading, it should be MANDATORY.
As a Vancouverite I am proud of what has fast become my city. What Bootup is doing is an important part of making Vancouver into a world renowned Technology Centre, stay tuned! I'm sure there's much more to come.
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