Tectorian of the Week

Smart Dolphins IT Solutions

May 7, 2015 by Tessa Bousfield

Smart Dolphins IT Solutions’ vital signs are in tip-top shape and they definitely won’t have a problem surpassing the average lifespan of a Bottlenose Dolphin.

Smart Dolphins just turned 15 years old. They are a provider of award-winning computer support and networking for businesses in the Greater Victoria area and elsewhere on Vancouver Island. In addition to their excellent services, they have earned two VIATEC Technology Awards: VIATEC Member of the Year (2008) and Employer of the Year (2012).

“15 years ago I was sitting in the backroom of our townhouse preparing to take my new found skills to market,” reflected Dave Monahan, founder. “I was brainstorming business names. I was considering my hourly rate. I was carving Smart Dolphins into a shingle. I wondered who I could approach first. Smart Dolphins was preparing for launch. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was young and figured now would be a great time to give my own business a go.”

Some of their clients include Access Records, Kidsport Victoria and Megson FitzPatrick. Smart Dolphins can sell and install a new computer network from the ground up, tweak an existing network or they can simply serve to keep computers behaving nicely. They install, configure and troubleshoot both hardware and software. They take on big IT projects or answer the smallest of help desk type questions.

A few of our favourite features of their website are the “Dolphin Ditties” and “Pod Pointers”. The Ditties are helpful video tutorials that help make your days a little easier. The videos cover anything from a cool, new software, using software to its fullest potential or precautions you should take online. The Pointers are a similar concept, but in a blog format instead of video.

The team at Smart Dolphins works hard, plays hard and treats their clients like they’re a part of the pod.

The “Dol-Fan wall”

They have a “Dol-Fan” wall where guests sign in by writing their name on a dolphin and adding it to the wall. A staff member is blindfolded monthly and picks a name off the wall so they can give them a $100 cash prize.

Paul Holmes just joined their team and they gave him a Nerf Gun initiation (See the torture happen here), and he was actually seen at Smart Dolphins’ Charity Poker Tournament shortly before he was hired. Maybe he impressed everyone with his card skills…

Charity Poker Tournament

“I don’t have a crystal ball, but I am confident and passionate about our future,” commented Monahan. “Smart Dolphins is improving lives through business excellence and the leveraged use of technology. We’re denting the universe. I can’t wait to see what we can do with another 3900 weekdays.”

Noah Gislason

April 30, 2015 by Tessa Bousfield

Well this is a first on the Tectoria blog… A Tectorian who hasn’t graduated high school yet?!

Noah Gislason is 13 years old, attends Maria Montessori Academy and he just wrapped up a week-long internship with the team at VIATEC, so we thought we’d give him the spotlight!

Noah enjoys swimming, reading, writing and his favourite subject is Literature and English.

“You get to read interesting books and write about whatever you want, as long as it’s the correct format; like an essay on the best invention or a second person debate speech,” commented Noah.

Noah’s school is unique in that every grade eight student needs to complete an internship around communities or a business hub in Greater Victoria. The school motto is “Education for Life” so they encourage their students to experience essential life skills to prepare them for life beyond school.

Noah hard at work on the 4th floor of Fort Tectoria.

“I selected VIATEC as my ideal internship option because it was an interesting, progressive non-profit tech association,” explained Noah. “I thought they would be perfect for my interests and getting to see all the new and growing tech companies.”

Noah impressed the team with his knowledge of Excel by organizing files for the Fiscal Year and he bounced around Fort Tectoria pitching in wherever he could. He assisted the Facilities Manager, worked at the Ground Control Café, helped with event summarization, and completed inventory on the room full of VIATEC swag. During his experience at Ground Control Cafe, customers and staff quickly noticed his large vocabulary and knew he was a bright kid.

“What I really like about Victoria is that it is a strong, robust economy with varied job options in tech, business, and researching all in one city,” commented Noah. “When the older generations start leaving the workplace right around the time my generation will be entering the workplace, there will be even more job options… Minus a bit of the competition found among the millennial’s.”

When asked what Noah wants to be when he grows up…

“I have some more grounded ideas like being a doctor, lawyer, researcher or somewhere like VIATEC, but then I also have crazy ideas like solving crimes from a desk over at INTERPOL.”

What ever his path, we’re confident Noah Gislason has a bright future ahead of him and he may just end up being your boss one day.

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AML Oceanographic Ltd.

April 23, 2015 by Tessa Bousfield

Announced earlier this month, AML Oceanographic Ltd. (AML) has been selected to supply CTDs (Instruments used to determine the conductivity, temperature, and depth of the ocean), for Ocean Networks Canada’s Smart Oceans™ program. We thought this would be the perfect time to name AML as our Tectorian of the Week!

AML impressed everyone at last year’s VIATEC Technology Awards when they won the Innovative Excellence Award for their UV•Xchange product. It’s an environmentally friendly device that keeps things from growing on sensors in the ocean with the use of ultraviolet (UV) light. Well, we don’t think there’s a UV light around that can stop THEM from continuing to grow.

AML is a vendor of choice for sound velocity measurement for a wide range of marine survey organizations and manufacturers of multi-beam, single-beam, ntrusion detection, and USBL/LBL positioning systems. They are a Canadian manufacturer that does 95% of their business globally and overseas, and they’re right here in Victoria.

Ocean Networks Canada’s Smart Ocean Systems™ are Advanced Ocean Sensor and Instrument Technologies that capture data such as temperature, current, CO2 levels, seismometer readings, and acoustic and video recordings.

AML will assist the Smart Oceans™ program by deploying Metrec•X instruments on cabled observatory platforms off Canadian coasts to provide data imperative to improving environmental monitoring and marine safety. AML’s award-winning UV•Xchange and Cabled UV will prevent biofouling of Xchange™ and other environmental sensors on each CTD, in addition to other critical surfaces of the platform. The prevention of fouling-induced drift will allow the sensors to provide accurate data for the duration of the in-situ deployments.

This is great news and we’re excited to see where AML Oceanographic goes from here.

Ocean Networks Canada also happens to be on the shortlist for the Ocean Innovation Award for their Community Fishers mobile app! (You can vote for them right here, #11).

Red Brick Media

April 16, 2015 by Tectoria

They’re zany and creative, they jump into the cold waters of the Gorge and organize arm wrestling competitions to raise money for the VIATEC Food Bank Challenge, and they just happen to be one of Victoria’s fastest growing tech start-ups.

Red Brick Media focuses on innovative software development and advertising in the heart of downtown Victoria, and they have a blast doing it.

They are your one-stop-shop to simplify and scale. Their technology (web-based apps and downloadable programs), are built and managed in house with a mandate to eliminate clutter with cutting edge solutions. They bring intuitive products to users for a seamless browsing experience.

Red Brick Media worked with a Ph.D to create an advanced algorithm that determines the best advertising offers to show their users – processing millions of permutations in just a few seconds. They also built a geo-redirect, so their users can decide where they want specific offers to be sent. All of this means less wasted impressions and more time to relax.

Starting as a company of two in 2011, Red Brick Media now has over 36 employees in four different offices and is owned and operated by Victoria locals and UVic Alumni. They are constantly hiring and make an effort to adopt co-op students into their happy work-fam.

Red Brick Media’s arm wrestling competition fundraiser

They recently earned 2nd place in the VIATEC Food Bank Challenge for Greatest per Employee Contributor and they took home the “Freddy” robot trophy at last year’s VIATEC Technology Awards for Emerging Tech Company of the Year.

Red Brick Media has deep roots in Victoria. This was proved once again with the recent news of Co-Founder Tobyn Sowden investing in local tech company, Checkfront, along with 17 other investors, leaving Checkfront with a nice $1 Million in funding.

Red Brick Media has taken off and there are no signs of them slowing down. One thing’s for sure, they seem to always carve out time to give back to the community and work on building strong employee relationships that keep their business so solid.

If you come across this team at a future event, you’ve been warned NOT to challenge them at a Smirnoff Ice chugging contest… you’ll lose…

Jake West

April 9, 2015 by Tessa Bousfield

Jake West is the epitome of a triple threat: He’s an innovative educator, an entrepreneur and a performer… with a specialty in circus acts (you’ve probably seen him down at the Inner Harbour). He’s someone you’d want at your cocktail party, someone you’d want to shape the minds of future generations AND someone you’d want to do business with.

Jake is an educator at the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, the leading school for change and innovation in the entire province. It’s a one-room school house exploding with 3D printers, LEDs and eager youth.

“We are doing amazing things. I am trying to provide kids with the same level of freedom and opportunity to pursue their own personal learning, as the most innovative companies in the world currently do like Pixar and Google,” commented Jake. “Everyday for me is about creation with the kids and the ‘whoa, we are making some awesome stuff.’”

For $10 you can see what Jake and his students have been up to on April 18th at their Theatre Show at Berwick House.

As an entrepreneur, Jake fuses everything he does and everything he teaches. He’s a Monetary Historian, Salesman and Analyst with a particular focus on the technology sector and commodities.

“One thing that I would like to highlight is that Dan Gunn has given us tremendous support to develop cutting edge products for VIATEC,” commented Jake. “We are working furiously to get them done for Dan by the VIATEC Awards, so everyone can see an example of what happens when you enable super talented teenagers to shoot for the moon. We have been getting mentored by engineers from Limbic Media and the kids are actually getting a real experience of what it means to develop a startup and how to work as a team to get things done. I can’t think of a more relevant learning experience for the times we live in.”

Jake has only lived in Victoria for two years and last year he earned himself the VIATEC Technology Award for Education Champion. Now that’s impressive.
(Nominations are still open for this year’s champions).

“I am never leaving this town. I love the fact that I can hang out with incredibly creative people downtown, go to delicious restaurants and then it is only a 10 minute drive to swim in the lake. Not many cities have that.”

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Go2mobi

April 1, 2015 by Tessa Bousfield

Our Tectorian of the Week is Go2mobi, a Mobile Audience Targeting Platform right here in Victoria that delivers traffic to advertisers, driving over 25,000 mobile marketing actions each day.

Go2mobi was founded in 2011 by Gavin Aitken and Tom Desaulniers and it’s been delivering proprietary technologies media buyers love, ever since. Go2mobi specializes in Mobile Advertising, Ad Network, Media Buying, Mobile Strategy, App Advertising and Demand Side Platforms.

A few weeks ago, Go2mobi announced the introduction of Mobile Native Ads and Mobile Remarketing Lists, proving this Victoria-based company is continuing to pick up momentum.

Native ads are ads that fit more seamlessly within a user’s native app experience. An example of this can be seen on your favourite social media or news app. Go2mobi has given its users a way to test the look of a Native ad and implement it to produce even better results.

The new Mobile Remarketing List tool allows performance marketers (those who buy media), to take possession of their data in order to use it again to make other mobile marketing campaigns successful in the future.

These are both major milestones for Go2mobi and they are very proud at what they have accomplished. They even celebrated with pancakes and mimosas this past Monday!

Their first platform, the industry renowned Go2mobi Tracker™, was such a hit the Go2mobi team took the best parts (like ultra-granular reporting and industry-leading optimization) and developed the Go2mobi Mobile Audience Targeting Platform™, the most targeted mobile ad network in the world. Yes, WORLD.

And, it even earned them a VIATEC Technology Award for Product of the Year in 2014 and Startup of the Year in 2013!

Go2mobi’s platform includes:

Self-serve or managed CPM ad network
Over 300 billion available impressions per month from all countries
Exclusive traffic from top tier apps and mobile websites
Integration with all major mobile real-time bidding exchanges for additional scale
Industry leading campaign analytics and optimization features
Brand-safe quality control with total transparency.

Campaign Types on Go2mobi:

BRANDING – Go2mobi provides proprietary tools to track various branding actions to ensure your ads are targeting engaged consumers. Banners, Native Ads, Rich Media, Video, Geo-Fencing, 3rd Party and Proprietary Audience Data. They provide full service campaign management.

GAMES – Go2mobi traffic drives 10,000’s of iOS and Android game installs each day.

MOBILE WEB ADVERTISERS – Go2mobi’s self-serve platform delivers high quality users to mobile websites for just about any product on the mobile web, but especially mobile content (ringtones, wallpapers), dating, click-to-call, lead generation, and much more.

Each month Go2mobi provides a roundup of some of the most informative and interesting mobile marketing links from around the web, called Mobile Marketing Madness. Have a read, it’s a great habit to get into and you can impress your friends with all the new stuff you know.

Keep a watchful eye on this local success story, Tectoria!

Checkfront

March 26, 2015 by Nevin Thompson

Our Tectorian of the week is Checkfront, a local software startup that has just secured $1 million in investment funding.

RevenueWire alumnus Jason Morehouse serves as CEO of this SaaS startup that is aimed at taking the hassle out of managing bookings and reservations online.

Morehouse co-founded Checkfront with Grant Jurgeneit in 2010 and the pair has never looked back.

Thanks to the vision and hard work of Jason, Grant and their team, Checkfront has grown to become a powerful cloud-based booking management application and e-commerce platform. The online service is designed specifically for schedule-based businesses that need to manage activity, tours, accommodation, events and rentals.

Checkfront has processed over US$350 million in online bookings in just the past twelve months.

The Victoria startup has also seen a blistering 100% revenue growth year-over-year since launching in 2010.

Victoria’s tech ecosystem reaches critical mass

While securing $1 million in financing is truly something that should be celebrated, Checkfront’s success is just another example of the critical mass that is developing in Victoria’s tech sector.

Just as local adtech company Pretio was able to compete with competitors from outside Victoria to purchase Tap-for-Tap, Checkfront caught the eye of local investors and successful veterans of the startup trenches.

Financing was lead by well-known Tectorian Rasool Rayani and includes a local group of angel investors and successful entrepreneurs who are dedicated to helping grow Victoria’s tech community.

Checkfront, which was named VIATeC’s Emerging Technology Company of the Year in 2011 says it plans to use the funds to accelerate its rapid growth, pursue strategic partnerships and grow the team.

Victoria’s tech industry is blooming with new jobs. The ongoing success of Checkfront, combined with the trust of its newest investors is one reason why.

Tectorian of the Week: Dave Wallace

March 19, 2015 by Tectoria

Our Tectorian of the Week is local video producer and filmmaker Dave Wallace. Together with Justus Lowry and the team at Innovate Image Works, Dave creates videos that really resonate, capturing the essence of whatever his subject happens to be.

Most recently, Dave and Justus, together with spoken-word poet and Victoria city councilor Jeremy Loveday, have created a fantastic, moving video about Victoria.

Something About Victoria racked up 5,000 views overnight as soon as it was posted on Vimeo:

The VIATeC team used the video as part of a mission to show off Victoria this past week at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

Dave and Justus’ job was to represent everything we all love about Victoria – the lifestyle, the weather, the live music, the beer, the coffee culture and much more. This video did all that and then some.

It’s inspiring to see how they took a few bullet points and crafted this emotional story with Jeremy Loveday while marrying his words with the ideal imagery.

– Dan Gunn

As proud West Coasters, Dave and Justus just get Victoria, and seem to be able to effortlessly translate everything that make our island home so special into a compelling video that captures the heart.

“I have worked with Dave on a number of projects that highlight Victoria, VIATeC and the tech scene,” says VIATeC CEO Dan Gunn. “For over a year, Dave, Justus and I have been meeting sporadically to develop the notion of a video love-letter to the city and I am blown away by their execution.They absorbed everything I, and many others have said, over a few coffees and produced the perfect outcome. It’s inspiring to see how they took a few bullet points and crafted this emotional story with Jeremy Loveday while marrying his words with the ideal imagery.

Just one of the many treasures on SomethingaboutVictoria.ca

Dave and Justus’ video is just one of the many treasures that can can be found on SomethingaboutVictoria.ca.

The new website provides a unique and striking update on Victoria’s image, promoting everything from the all of the jobs available here to everything Tectorians love to do in their downtime.

Whether it be attending music festivals to enjoying a beer (after grabbing a bite to eat) or exploring the outdoors, everything that makes Victoria so special to so many people is on this website, all with the aim of promoting our city to future Tectorians.

So please check out SomethingaboutVictoria.ca, and watch the video. And if you see Dave, Justus and Jeremy, let them know you saw it and how it affected you.

Tectorian of the Week: the Tectoria Community

March 12, 2015 by Tectoria

Our Tectorian of the Week is the entire Tectoria community. Why?

Because, as the 2015 VIATeC Food Bank Challenge results demonstrate, we can all work together to as a true community to make a difference.

2015 VIATeC Food Bank Challenge Results

The results of this year’s Food Bank Challenge are pretty awesome:

In just the month of February, 2015 Food Bank Challenge participants successfully raised $47,135.76 in cash.
The kicker: with the Mustard Seed’s purchasing power this cash amount essentially doubles!
On top of the cash, 2015 VIATeC Food Bank participants also brought in 1790 pounds of food worth an estimated $4,500!

More numbers:

During the 13 years the VIATEC Food Bank Challenge has now been running, total food and cash valued at $1,734,964.98 has been donated from Greater Victoria companies!

Everything goes towards helping hungry families who have to rely on the Mustard Seed and other food banks to put food on the table.

The Mustard Seed has said that spring is a challenging time of year to receive donations, so these donations are especially helpful.

Who Were the 2015 Food Bank Challenge Winners?

There were some insanely close races in both of the two categories.

In fact, participants were able to triple donations in the final week, which just shows how hard our community battled for supremacy.

There were two categories in the Food Bank Challenge:

Greatest Overall Contributor (ie, points amassed to the whole company)
Greatest Per Employee Contributor

And here are the top 3 for each category:

Greatest Overall Contributor

Greatest per Employee Contributor

Congratulations to the winners! It’s all about making a difference to families in need in Victoria, and helping build, maintain, and strengthen community bonds.

A true community effort

And the 2015 VIATeC Food Bank Challenge was a true community effort. This year’s success would not have been possible without the contributions of all 2015 VIATEC Food Bank Challenge Participants:

Drilling down, we’d like to give one last shoutout to our leaders in the cash and food donation categories:

Greatest Cash Contributors in 2015

RevenueWire
Carmanah
Schneider Electric

Greatest Food Weight Contributors in 2015

HP Advanced Solutions
Schneider Electric
Unit 4

Getting ready for next year…

We’re looking to use this year’s success as a springboard for even greater achievement next year. If you and your company are interested in taking the challenge next time – express your early interest now by contacting Devan McCannel: dmccannel@viatec.ca!

Hilary Brunsdon

March 5, 2015 by Tectoria

RevenueWire’s Hilary Brunsdon is our Tectorian of the Week.

Why Hilary, and why now?

For one thing the RevenueWire team rose to the occasion in February when they raised food and donations for the VIATeC Food Bank Challenge.

We’ll be announcing the results – and the winning teams – next week.

But this massive community initiative can already be counted as a success.

The Mustard Seed struggles to meet demands after the holiday season, so this year we moved the challenge to the time of year when it is needed most, and the participants stepped up and meet the challenge!

It’s people like Hilary and her fellow Tectorians at RevenueWire that have helped transform Victoria’s tech sector a true tech community.

Her colleagues at RevenueWire also tell us that Hilary is passionate about what she does, that she loves people and her role as an HR coordinator.

On top of that, Hilary is sincere and easy to approach, and this makes her a great – and fun – colleague to work with. We have noticed all of these qualities in Hilary too, as she is a regular visitor here at Fort Tectoria.

Hilary also is the living proof that you can stay in Victoria and create an awesome career. The Camosun Business & Leadership grad has worked in a number of positions at a bunch of interesting employers before finding her current home at RevenueWire.

On top of that, Hilary volunteers with TEDx Victoria as human resources coordinator. It’s a big job because TEDx Victoria is run entirely by volunteers, and the Victoria organization has grown to become absolutely massive. It’s another way the Tectoria community is continuing to evolve.

In 2014 TEDxVictoria also expanded outside the McPherson theatre and into multiple venues in the surrounding area to expand the experience.

Once again, like with RevenueWire it was a team effort that involved a lot of people, and Hilary was part of that team.

That’s why Hilary represents Tectoria to us. She’s alway happy to pitch and and make our community a better place.

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