THIS WEEK IN TECTORIA

A community blog celebrating Victoria's booming tech sector

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Got a cool story about technology and creativity in Victoria? Email stories, tips, pictures, links and anything of interest to Tessa Bousfield at: tectoria@viatec.ca

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Tectorian of the Week – Rasool Rayani

October 2, 2014 by Tectoria

Rasool Rayani

Local technology entrepreneur Rasool Rayani is our Tectorian of the Week.

While Rasool recently gained provincial recognition in September by appearing in BIV’s 2014 Forty under 40 list, us locals have long known Rasool to be the quintessential Tectorian.

In 2001, Rasool co-founded Metalogix Software, which won North America’s largest new venture competition in 2002, went on to experience triple digit organic and profitable growth and took on private equity financing in 2008.

Tectoria’s own Metalogix is now the leading provider of enterprise collaboration and infrastructure solutions to some of the world’s largest companies.

But Metalogix was just the beginning.

In 2009, Rasool began investing in early stage technology firms as an active angel investor.

Rasool works with any number of notable Victoria-based tech companies, including Tapstream and Victoria’s own Accelerate Tectoria graduates SendWithUs.

SendWithUs received a lot of attention recently when they became the first BC company to be accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator startup incubator program in Silicon Valley.

Of course, Rasool has pitched in and lent a hand with other tech companies that have caught the imagination of the global tech scene.

This who’s who of notable BC tech startups include include Backstage Software, Mediacore, Bet Smart Media, Versly, Unbouce and Solegear.

Rasool is a volunteer coordinator for the Victoria ALS Walk and he also volunteers his time as a mentor and advisor to young start-ups, and serves on the VIATeC board or directors.

Filed Under: Tectorian of the Week

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

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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

Tectorian of the Week: Nikki Lineham

August 28, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

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Nikki Lineham is our Tectorian of the Week.

If you want a job in Tectoria (or any other city where technology powers the economy), science and math education (aka STEM education) is critical to your future success.

The problem? STEM enrolment in universities and college is declining (on top of that fewer women are taking STEM coursework in university), which is contributing to a looming skills shortage in Canada.

Accelerate Tectoria participant Nikki Lineham has a plan to change that.

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Nikki’s startup Educating Now aims to transform math education (Nikki will be presenting at the upcoming Demo Camp):

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

“Educational and brain-based research have both consistently reported that teaching mathematics concretely and conceptually is the best way to ensure students really understand the math concepts,” says Nikki. “However, this way of teaching math is completely foreign to many teachers, as they have never been educated in how to understand mathematics conceptually.”

Her goal is to help middle school and intermediate teachers learn how to teach math more effectively – if middle school students do poorly at math, they will likely never be able to progress to STEM programs in college and university, and our brain drain will never be addressed.

“She’s super passionate about children really understanding math,” says Accelerate Tectoria’s Erin Athene. “Her passion and ability to communicate is really inspiring. Nikki’s gift is to empower intermediate and middle school teachers through professional development to teach mandated new curriculum.”

Nikki will be presenting at Demo Camp at Experience Tectoria – we hope you have a chance to learn more about her startup!

democamp

Filed Under: Tectoria, Tectorian of the Week

Get the latest news on Canada’s hottest tech region

August 26, 2014 by Tectoria

Are you receiving This Week in Tectoria in your inbox???

tectoria

Every Friday we send out a sizzling update about what’s going on in Tectoria: Canada’s hottest technology region.

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Learn about people making a difference in our tech scene, as well as events and activities that can help you connect with your fellow Tectorians and your community.

Sign up now and get a newsletter in your email inbox once a week!

Filed Under: Tectoria

Bud’s Weekly Geek-out: Facebook Messenger App

August 21, 2014 by Tectoria

Is the dreaded mobile Facebook Messenger app going to secretly document your life and report back to the mother ship? Bud investigates.

bud the spud

Innovation Elsewhere has been taken over by Bud’s Weekly Geek-out, a weekly radio spot on the The Zone @ 91-3 sponsored by the folks at Tectoria (that’s us).

Filed Under: Innovation Elsewhere

Tectorian of the Week: Greg Gunn

August 20, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

gregg gunn

Hootsuite’s VP of Beards & Business Development Greg Gunn is our Tectorian of the Week.

Why Greg Gunn, and why now?

For one thing, Tectoria veteran Gregg Gunn will be returning home to speak at our brand-new space on Fort Street at the upcoming Experience Tectoria extravaganza on September 11th, 12th and 13th:

The topic of Greg’s speech? “Finding The Next Whale.” Greg will be discussing how Hootsuite is searching for “the next Hootsuite” from within the very walls of their Mount Pleasant offices over in Vancouver.

And what a whale it is: Hootsuite has been speculated to have a value of anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion following its record-breaking $165 millon Series B funding round last year. The company is also looking to fill 100 positions by the end of this year at its new 27,000 sq ft HQ2, an awe-inspiring building located in Mount Pleasant in East Van.

While just a ferry ride away, Hootsuite is a long way from Greg’s beginnings working with early stage, high-growth companies at Vancouver Island Tech Park in Saanich.

A passion for people, technology and data

Now “Chief Harpoonist” and VP of Business Development, Greg Gunn launched the sales team that has made Hootsuite the key tool that major enterprise-level companies such as Coca-Cola, H&M, Tifffany & Co., IBM and more use to manage and measure social media engagement.

It’s all part of what Greg calls his passion: people, technology and data.

“Greg is an energetic and talented leader,” says Anthony Sukow. “He has a great business mind and a pragmatic approach to making money.”

Sukow is well-known in Victoria as one of the founders of Terapeak, like Hootsuite, itself another indispensable software tool used by millions of people all over the world. And Greg Gunn was one of the first employees

“Greg worked with us on developing our business relationships with eBay, growing key enterprise customers, and working on high value projects, services and initiatives,” says Sukow. “We hired Greg right out of UVic and he stuck with us in the early days.”

Today Terapeak has moved to the foot of Fort Street (with offices in the Bay area and Toronto) is the leader in ecommerce market analytics, helping online merchants grow their business and become more profitable.

There’s a bit of Greg Gunn in TeamPages, another technology story that got its start in Tectoria.

And along they way Greg has travelled far himself. He worked for Idea Builders, a Nigerian based NGO focused on poverty alleviation through entrepreneurship and agriculture.

During his time in Nigeria, the UVic Commerce grad forged local and international partnerships to expand programs including micro-credit programs, primary agriculture education, and an award winning “Women Mentoring Women” program.

Coming back to Tectoria

And now Greg Gunn returns to his roots in Tectoria. We’re happy Greg will join us to celebrate the launch of our beautiful new HQ at 777 Fort Street in mid-September.

We hope you come out to welcome Greg back, too!

Filed Under: Tectorian of the Week

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