SMALL GROUPS GROW NEW MINDSETS<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThis is a generalization \u2013 it\u2019s not always true \u2013 but there\u2019s a mindset when you speak to the average person in San Francisco,\u201d Greenhill says. \u201cThey start with a question \u2013 how can I help you, what is it you need. That mindset is missing here. More often, you\u2019ll hear the comment, \u2018you can\u2019t be the next Twitter.\u2019”<\/p>\n Greenhill’s response: “Why not?\u201d<\/p>\n That perspective \u2013 that every startup might look like a moonshot on some days, but we can help each other make it \u2013 is the missing link, according to Greenhill. The Vancouver chapter they\u2019re building is based on that premise.<\/p>\n Greenhill \u2013 named one of Canada\u2019s 100 most powerful women in 2005 \u2013 turned from her past as a doctor and health system technologist to entrepreneurship in 2011.<\/p>\n \u201cHealthcare doesn\u2019t move fast enough for what I want to do,\u201d as Greenhill put it. \u201cWe have amazing tools that optimize our every social and work lives \u2013 but they simply don\u2019t exist for families. That\u2019s the next big trend that people are missing.\u201d<\/p>\n Her startup myBestHelper.com<\/a> connects caregivers with families coordinating just-in-time help for child and elder care, often through a combination of friends, family and paid providers. Greenhill raised $275k in a pre-seed angel funding from friends and advisors, and is about to close a seed round.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to use tech so people can help each other, and do so by bringing together the online and offline,\u201d Greenhill says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found a solution that works really well in Vancouver and people said \u2018Perfect, just do that.\u2019 We said no \u2013 our objective is not to become the best known company in Vancouver or Canada or the U.S., but to solve this global problem,\u201d Greenhill says. \u201cFive years ago this would have been a crazy intent, but now with Stripe and PayPal and tools that automate the problem of getting into different countries, all of that difficult adaptation is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n “I think a lot more people need to wake up to the idea that you can go faster,\u201d Greenhill says. \u201cA startup iterates until it finds a fast enough path.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA startup iterates until it finds a fast enough path.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n IN THE LAND OF TIMBER, TECH TAKES ON EVERY SECTOR<\/strong><\/p>\n People once thought of digital media when they talked tech in Vancouver \u2013 gaming companies like Electronic Arts, Radical Games and Blast Media were among the first in town. But diversification is becoming more and more evident.<\/p>\n Accelerators have multiplied, starting to expand across a startup’s early life cycle \u2013 Launch Academy polishes ideas, Invoke Labs supports a team to minimum viable product, and coworking spaces like the HiVE and resources like the Vancouver Hack Space provide ongoing community.<\/p>\n The city also includes outposts from the heavyweights: Facebook has effectively off-shored employees who can\u2019t secure U.S. visas \u2013 a \u201ctemporary labor camp,\u201d one might say \u2013 and Amazon, Salesforce, Microsoft and Samsung opened Vancouver offices.<\/p>\n Schools ranging from University of British Columbia to the design institute Emily Carr are producing a new generation of talent, but often experience must still be imported. Labor is surprisingly cheap \u2013 tech salaries are 15 percent or more below equivalents in the U.S. \u2013 but the cost of living isn\u2019t necessarily a steal for the workers making those salaries.<\/p>\n After he founded Awesense<\/a>, Mischa Steiner-Jovic<\/a> (April \u201815) was one of many FN entrepreneurs who identified the lack of senior talent as a pain point in Vancouver. They\u2019re tackling energy loss in electrical grids \u2013 a problem that costs more than $200 billion a year world-wide. His enterprise cloud analytic software and sensors help utility companies identify, quantify and mitigate losses in their grid.<\/p>\n A DIVERSE TALENT POOL, BUT SHORT ON SENIORITY<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re way above our weight class, in terms of technical talent,\u201d Steiner-Jovic says of the engineers coming out of local universities and moving to the area under progressive visa policies \u2013 but that pool has limits: \u201cWe have a fairly small population, so on the senior level it\u2019s challenging. We simply haven\u2019t had that level of operation yet \u2013 the experienced people who have scaled.\u201d<\/p>\n Mischa Steiner-Jovic’s team at Awesense celebrating “Blue Day,” a mysterious office tradition<\/p><\/div>\n How did Steiner-Jovic attract an executive team? \u201cIt took a lot of convincing,\u201d he says. \u201cPart of your job as an entrepreneur is to convince people of your mission and vision \u2013 and that\u2019s no different with these guys. We\u2019ve calculated our market opportunity and it\u2019s above $10 billion a year, in terms of what we could generate in revenue. The opportunity is there – now it\u2019s just a team to execute on that.”<\/p>\n There aren\u2019t many utility companies in Western Canada, but Awesense started in the Okanagon and worked outwards, showcasing what they could do as engineers. They benefited from the British Columbia Innovation Council\u2019s Entrepreneurship@Wavefront program, an accelerator that included office space, and raised an angel round in 2012 and a seed round in 2014.<\/p>\n \u201cThe drive that people have in Silicon Valley to change the world is not prevalent everywhere else, in other startup cities,\u201d Steiner-Jovic says. \u201cI hate to use that term, startup cities, because you can really build a business anywhere, it\u2019s just a question of where can you attract the talent to become a massive business.\u201d<\/p>\n VANCOUVER FUNDING IS LIMITED \u2013 BUT GOVERNMENT BUY-IN HELPS<\/strong><\/p>\n Electronic Arts operates a major hub in the metro area, Hootsuite reigns as something of an elder statesman among fast-growing startups and recent exits by entrepreneurs like Marcus Frind (sold PlentyOfFish to Match for $575 million in July) are bringing capital and experience into the ecosystem.<\/p>\n As a magnetic employer and supporter of new startups, Hootsuite is helping change Vancouver startup culture \u2013 the sunken lounge from their HQ is pictured here.<\/p><\/div>\n But average seed and Series A funding deals come in at 30 percent below comparable rounds in Northern California, and half a dozen VCs have set up shop in B.C. \u2013 compared to 25+ in Menlo Park alone.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout question, when we do decide to raise more, I\u2019ll be hopping on a plane,\u201d Steiner-Jovic says of future steps for Awesense. \u201cThe majority of the inbound interest comes from New York and Silicon Valley. I think people have realized that you can build a billion-dollar company anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Federal, provincial and city tax breaks make Vancouver tech-business-friendly, and it\u2019s recent history as a film and game industry mecca add a little holiday to its history as a timber center.<\/p>\n Janice Cheam<\/a> (April \u201815) co-founded a Vancouver-based company \u2013 dubbed \u201cmost promising start-up company of the year\u201d by the B.C. Technology Industry Association \u2013 that provides consumer home intelligence technology. She made waves when Neurio<\/a>, a product designed to help householders save on electrical bills, took off on Kickstarter, tripled its initial goal of raising $95k in manufacturing costs and, more importantly, validated their market fit.<\/p>\n Although their market is worldwide, they\u2019ve grown to a team of 30 in Vancouver as they’ve ramped up production and prepared a second product (launching next month!).<\/p>\n \u201cIt crossed everyone\u2019s mind that we could move down to the Bay Area, but the financial incentives from the Canadian government are really attractive to bootstrapping companies,\u201d Cheam says. \u201cFor us \u2013 not having a lot of financial resources to start and already having found the talent we needed \u2013 it was easy to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n The same equation that boosted Cheam served Christine Pilkington<\/a> (April \u201815) last year, when paid 33 cent cents on the dollar for one project, courtesy of credits from the Canadian government. Her latest venture, JellyBeen<\/a>, connects parents with local places to eat, shop and play and attracted government funding for mobile-first initiatives. She says grant opportunities like that \u2013 particular in Vancouver \u2013 have had a snowball effect, nurturing local ideas and growing support networks \u2013 formal and informal \u2013 for the entrepreneurs themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cMore people are braving this world as they see others who have gone before them. Founders beget founders.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMore people are braving this world as they see others who have gone before them. Founders beget founders.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Pilkington has known some Founders Network Vancouverites for years \u2013 Mark Fromson<\/a> (Aug \u201815), LocalSolo<\/a>\u2019s founder, since 2001. She says that particularly outside Silicon Valley, you need to build a founders peer group \u2013 if only for the reminder from others that what you\u2019re doing isn\u2019t crazy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still capital-intensive thing just to get started, build an MVP and prove out your business model. You put in this money and effort and ask, am I crazy?\u201d<\/p>\n HELPING EACH OTHER IS THE ONLY WAY TO TACKLE COMPLICATED PROBLEMS<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s also a steady education to be had in this peer group, on a daily, granular level. Last week, Pilkington was talking through her experience launching a sales team with Greenhill\u2019s cofounder. And, she notes, she now knows people through Founders Network so that next time she\u2019s in San Francisco, there\u2019s a standing opportunity to meet, work out of an office, and connect further.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are an awesome number of tools available to people within Vancouver, but the opportunity to connect to the global community is key, because otherwise you become too insular,\u201d Greenhill says. \u201cThe opposite is also true \u2013 there is strength in face-to-face conversation that is different to anything you can post online anonymously in writing. The two work really well together.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll the people we\u2019ve nominated share that mindset \u2013 and there\u2019s a safety in knowing that everybody here understands the \u2018founders code,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cThe fact that it is selective in nature \u2013 being only founders \u2013 but includes people at different stages within the network \u2013 is actually very interesting. No matter how fast you\u2019re growing, somebody just starting a new company can still help you with their lessons learned.\u201d<\/p>\n HOME-GROWN RESOURCES ARE GROWING THE FOUNDERS POOL IN VANCOUVER<\/strong><\/p>\n Since Daniel Dubois<\/a> (Aug \u201815) launched Shareshed<\/a> earlier this year he has already gotten a crash course in local tech culture as one of BC Business\u2019s \u201c30 under 30.\u201d Program\u2019s like Hootsuite\u2019s Next Big Thing \u2013 where Dubois set up as an entrepreneur in residence \u2013 spread experience vertically from Vancouver\u2019s first successes. Roger Hardy, who started Clearly Contacts and co-founded shoes.com, started in a VC fund that invested in ShareShed among other startups.<\/p>\n Woods, peaks and sea make Vancouver a desirable place to live \u2013 and built an instant market for ShareShed.<\/p><\/div>\n ShareShed connects people who have outdoor equipment, like skis, kayaks or snowshoes, to those who want to rent or borrow it for the day. Dubois is just wrapping up a soon-to-be-announced seed round with Hardy and Holmes among other investors.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like the PayPal Mafia,\u201d Dubois says \u2013 only half-kidding as he referenced the increasingly iconic \u201cmaple syrup mafia.\u201d \u201cRyan Holmes (Hootesuite\u2019s founder) is extremely passionate about not just building a successful business, but playing a role in building an ecosystem in Vancouver as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI feel extremely fortunate to be on the inside of it – I can\u2019t even take credit, I feel like it\u2019s being in the right place at the right time,\u201d Dubois says.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone like Alexandra (Greenhill) is also a pillar for the startup community – she\u2019s just one of those people where every conversation she asks, how can I help.\u201d<\/p>\n Dubois turns to his Vancouver founders connection and FN as a whole to find situational advice you can\u2019t dig up in an article on, including subjects it\u2019s tough to have a conversation around, such as specific investor situations or the dynamics of a founder\u2019s equity split.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the Bay Area, you\u2019re exposed to two assumptions: there is a bigger world out there, and we\u2019re here to win,\u201d Cheam \u2013 Neurio\u2019s founder \u2013 notes approvingly. \u201cCanadians are more modest \u2013 I\u2019m more likely to second-guess myself if I say something like that to an investor or mentor here.\u201d<\/p>\n Vancouver founders who share that semi-secret ambition find each other, in places like the Founders Network Vancouver Advisory Panel, and they find peers who magnify it.<\/p>\n \u201cI needed a forum where I could shamelessly talk about the business and ask questions about it – and have it not all be about a fun time,\u201d Cheam says of adding a peer group beyond her personal friendships with other founders.<\/p>\n\n
![\"Awesense](\"http:\/\/foundersnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Blue-Day-e1440994320314-1024x409.jpg\")
![\"Hootsuite\"](\"http:\/\/foundersnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/14525651367_9e8a7274b8_z-e1440994704683.jpg\")
\n
![\"Courtesy](\"http:\/\/foundersnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/North_Vancouver_Hisakazu_Watanabe-e1440994837518.jpg\")