THIS WEEK IN TECTORIA

A community blog celebrating Victoria's booming tech sector

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Archives for September 2014

Tectorian of the Week – Elizabeth Dutton

September 24, 2014 by Tectoria

elizabeth dutton

New superstar VIATeC BoD member and Victoria returnee Elizabeth Dutton is our Tectorian of the Week.

Elizabeth Dutton may be most well-known for leading local ecommerce company UsedEverywhere.com, the popular network of free classified sites known (and loved) locally as UsedVictoria.com.

Since 2011, under Dutton’s leadership, UsedEverywhere has grown from 65 sites to over 90 sites in 3 countries. The online shopping has become the go-to place for finding whatever it is you need in your life, quickly and efficiently.

Dutton is also a talented Tectoria returnee: she grew up in Victoria and went to Ontario to attend Queen’s University.

She then spent eight years as a strategy and implementation consultant in Toronto and the UK helping her clients increase revenues by focusing on their customers, often through the use of online strategies.

When Dutton returned to North America, she was recruited to work at Amazon in their books division where she negotiated with many of the top publishers during the growth of Kindle and ebooks.

And now Elizabeth Dutton sits on the VIATeC Board. We’re pleased to welcome her, and forward to working with her for the next two years!

Filed Under: Tectorian of the Week

VIATeC 25 Companies Announced

September 17, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

VIATeC 25 2014

VIATeC has revealed the latest “VIATeC 25.” The VIATeC 25 is an annual list of the largest technology companies headquartered or founded in Greater Victoria, based on reported calendar revenues.

The Latest VIATeC 25 Companies…

This is the latest list of the largest technology companies headquartered or founded in Greater Victoria based on reported 2013 calendar revenues.

(in alphabetical order)

AbeBooks.com
Access Point Information Canada Ltd.
Archipelago Marine Research
AXYS Technologies Inc
Beanstream
Boardwalk Communications
CAMACC Systems
Carmanah Technologies
Contech Enterprises, Inc
FTS Forest Technology Systems
HP Advanced Solutions
JEA
Latitude Geographics
ParetoLogic
Procura
Quester Tangent
Reliable Controls
RevenueWire
Schneider Electric
Scott Plastics
Seastar Chemicals
TC-Helicon Vocal Technologies Inc.
UNIT4 Business Software
Vecima Networks
Viking Air Limited

Use the VIATeC Business Directory to quickly learn more about these companies.

2014 VIATeC 25: $1.16 Billion Combined Revenues

  • The combined revenues of the VIATeC 25 (the Victoria tech sector’s 25 biggest firms, according to revenues, that are founded or headquartered in Victoria) has reached $1.16 billion.
  • This is 20% growth in combined revenues based on 2013 reported revenues.
  • VIATeC 25 companies collectively employee 3,630 employees.
  • On average, a VIATeC 25 company generates $46.3 million annual revenues.
  • The median revenue generated by a VIATeC 25 company is $17.5 million.
Learn more about the economic impact of Victoria’s tech sector here.

Filed Under: Tectoria, Victoria Tech Sector Statistics

Aidin Tavakkol

September 17, 2014 by Tectoria

aidin-tavakkol

Our Tectorian of the Week is Aidin Tavakkol, co-founder of Victoria ecommerce startup LimeSpot.

Tavakkol represents all of Victoria’s latent potential as a place to launch and grow a technology company.

What has Tavakkol built here in Victoria?

Tavakkol and his team have launched LimeSpot, a personalized web experience that is intended to “bring the social back to social media.” For starters, LimeSpot’s technology creates a more efficient shopping experience by instantaneously displaying products that customers are most likely to buy.

A software engineer by trade, Tavakkol had already spent a decade helping build Iran’s second-largest software company before deciding to head to Victoria to do something new.

Tavakkol says achieving success back home, he felt his calling was to explore the world in order to accomplish something even bigger.

So, Tavakkol took a chance and joined his sister here in Victoria.

Like many Tectoria tech entrepreneurs, Tavakkol was attracted by Victoria’s great weather and a variety of high-powered, world-class university programs.

Tavakkol received his MBA this past spring from the Gustavson School of Business. At the same time he was completing his studies, he was busy building LimeSpot.

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While studying at UVic, Tavakkol encouraged his friend and future LimeSpot co-founder Majid Ghaffari to join him.

At UVic networking event, the pair’s startup idea caught the eye of Paul Summerville, a business professor and mentor at the the Gustavson School of Business.

“I was giving a presentation, and I noticed Aidin standing off to one side,” says Summerville. “We talked, he explained his idea, and I was hooked.”

Like Tavakkol, Summerville, who has enjoyed a stellar career working in investment banking and has served as chief economist with two major multi-national financial institutions, is also a talented transplant who has chosen to call Tectoria home.

Soon after connecting with Tavakkol an Ghaffari, Summerville was on board as the third co-founder and LimeSpot was incorporated in April 2013.

Fast forward just over a year: LimeSpot today has 15 employees around the world and has successfully raised a healthy dose of seed financing from private investors locally, in the United States and the UK.

Tavakkol and his teammates at LimeSpot have used this time to apply their software engineering expertise to patent a powerful “personalization and recommendation engine” that is powered by an individual’s social network profile.

The end result is to provide a personalized web experience that provides highly relevant results and recommendations. Improving ecommerce and online shopping is an obvious match for LimeSpot’s technology.

And people are starting to take notice.

So far, Victoria-based LimeSpot has inked agreements with major ecommerce players including Shopify, PayPal, and Bigcommerce.

A lot has changed in the 18 months or so since  and his co-founders launched LimeSpot.

Tavakkol and his team have raised enough equity to develop and launch their first commercial product offering. They have beefed up their in-house technology, have created a US subsidiary, and have established a global sales engine. LimeSpot has also hired a CEO, tech veteran Bob Bell.

In this whirlwind of activity, it’s easy to forget that when Aidin Tavakkol decided to do something big, he decided to do travel to Tectoria to do it.

We’re excited to see what LimeSpot does next.

Filed Under: Tectorian of the Week

Tectorian of the Week: Greater Victoria’s Tech Sector

September 11, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

banner

Our Tectorian of the Week is Greater Victoria’s tech sector.

Why?

To mark the launch of Fort Tectoria this week, we decided to crunch some numbers (actually, we went out and spent time surveying local companies and then commissioned an independent professional researcher to collect and analyze the data using a rigorous methodology) about the size and scope of Greater Victoria’s tech sector.

Well, the numbers are in, and we’re astounded by the results:

$3.15 billion in annual revenues

That’s right: according to our latest economic impact study, the 884 local companies that make up Greater Victoria’s advanced technology sector now generate an estimated $3.15 billion in annual revenues.

Another astounding number:

$4 billion total economic impact

The total economic impact Greater Victoria’s tech sector has on our local economy now tops a whopping $4 billion ($4.03 billion to be precise; see below for an explanation of “total economic impact”).

Another astounding number:

$1.16 billion VIATeC 25 combined revenues

The combined revenues of the VIATeC 25 (the Victoria tech sector’s 25 biggest firms, according to revenues, that are founded or headquartered in Victoria) has reached $1.16 billion over the past year.

That’s 20 per cent growth in combined reported revenues to since this time last year!

The latest VIATeC 25 companies are listed here.

What a way to launch Fort Tectoria! And it’s all thanks to the Tectorians like you who power our ever-expanding tech sector.

Ten years of explosive growth for Victoria’s tech sector

VIATeC has been commissioning economic impact studies for the past 10 years, and since 2004 it is apparent growth in the tech sector is continuing to accelerate.

annual revenues greater victoria tech sector viatec

In 2004, VIATeC, with the help of an independent researcher and analyst, estimated tech sector revenues to be about $1 billion.

Five years later, a 2009 economic study that VIATeC commissioned estimated the sector’s revenues had grown to $1.95 billion.

And now in 2014, we estimate the tech sector annual revenues have grown to $3.15 billion.

Estimated economic impact has grown explosively as well.

In 2009, the estimated economic impact of the tech sector was $2.6 billion. And now in 2014, the estimated economic impact has grown to a staggering $4.03 billion.

We want to point out that these are conservative estimates: we’re always wary of statisticians using multipliers to determine economic impact.

Depending on which methodology one uses, the economic impact numbers could be higher.

Greater Victoria tech sector continues to produce jobs

According to VIATeC’s just-finished economic impact study, Greater Victoria’s tech sector that now directly employs 15,000 people as well as more than 3,000 consultants and advisers, and another 5,000 individuals working in technology for companies outside the high-tech sphere.

23,000 local tech professionals

That’s 23,000 people working in the tech sector, making Victoria one of Canada’s more fun and vibrant places to launch a career or a new business.

And that’s why you all are our Tectorian of the Week!

Greater Victoria’s growing tech sector: the latest statistics (as of 2014)

$4.03 billion: Total economic impact of Greater Victoria’s tech sector

$3.15 billion: Estimated annual revenues of Greater Victoria’s tech sector

$1.16 billion: Combined revenues of the top 25 companies based in Victoria (VIATeC 25)

884: Number of tech companies in Greater Victoria’s tech sector

15,000: Number of people directly employed by technology companies

Explainer: Direct Economic Impact Vs. Indirect Economic Impact

  • The direct impact – representing the total output (revenues) directly generated by companies in the sector – is estimated at $3.15 billion.
  • The indirect impact – representing the impact of those businesses who supply inputs to the technology sector – is estimated at $876 million.
  • Combined, the total economic impact of the high technology sector within the Greater Victoria region is estimated to be $4.03 billion.

Filed Under: Tectoria

Tectorian of the Week: Marc Stoiber

September 3, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

What makes Insight, Design, Sustainability, Innovation, and Sociability so critical, and why should your brand harness these key guiding principles?

According to Tectoria’s own Marc Stoiber, these questions form the five pillars esssential for “future proofing” brands keen on seizing the future.

Marc’s book on future-proofing brands is due to launch this fall. To start things off, Marc is going to help us launch Fort Tectoria by speaking at Experience Tectoria next week:

exp-tectoria-logo-main.preview-500x84

A familiar face at Royal Roads University, Marc writes on brand innovation for Huffington Post, Fast Company, GreenBiz and Sustainable Life Media. He also speaks on the subject from coast to coast, and has been featured at TED.

His work on Mr. Clean earned his team the Procter & Gamble Worldwide Turnaround of the Year Award in 2005.

A Royal Roads instructor, Marc consults for clients including British Columbia Government health care and BC Hydro. Before embarking on consulting, he was vice-president of green innovation at Maddock Douglas, founder of Change Advertising, National creative director of Grey Canada and creative director of DDB Canada.

These days, Marc Stoiber works with our friend Jude Brown as a creative strategist, entrepreneur, green brand specialist and writer, building resilient, future-proof brands.

“I don’t deal with accomplished creative directors of national agencies on a daily basis,” says Jude Brown. “The best thing about Marc is he likes to share. He has a wealth of experience in marketing and business, connections all over the place and sound advice – he hands them all over freely.”

This is important, because Marc advocates building a “global expert network.”

According to Marc, a global expert network is, as the name implies, a network of smart, specialized idea people you can call upon to guide your thinking. In Marc’s case, his global expert network is at the C-suite level, generally entrepreneurial, with strong brand experience.

In short, Marc helps people all over the world forge a more enlightened path forward and helps them guarantee the continued viability of their business.

And he does it all from right here in Tectoria.

We’re so excited to hear him speak next week!

 

 

 

Filed Under: Tectorian of the Week

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