On December 14, 2007 Material Insight presented Guy Kawasaki, bestselling author of Art of the Start, for a panel discussion on what would it take to grow tech innovators beyond start-up in our own Wired West.

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Breakfast with Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki
Claudia Moore
Geoff Lyon
Ravi Sood
Bruce Livingstone

Calgary-based tech companies including VoodooPC, iStockphoto, StumbleUpon, Veer and NovAtel have all been acquired by international technology mega-players. We asked Calgary's tech elite if our city is becoming a hotbed of sought-after technology?

MODERATOR:
Guy Kawasaki, Bestselling Author and Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist

PANEL:
Nairn Nerland, COO, Veer
Geoff Lyon, CEO, CoolIt Systems
Kerri Lee Knull, CTI, Manager, Calgary Innovation Centre
Allan MacKenzie, tech investor and entrepreneur
Bruce Livingstone, Senior Vice President, Consumer, Senior Vice President Technology and CEO iStockphoto
Ravi Sood, Director of Brand Experience for Worldwide Gaming, HP (VoodooPC)
Learn more about the panel >

About 300 guests came to join in the discussion. Here are some highlights of the event.

Q. What are advantages/disadvantages of starting tech company in Calgary?

• Bruce - "Advantages...We were able to get a little bit of seed money under youth initiative programs; not a lot but was vital to starting things on a roll. It's a tight-knit group here, everyone knows each other. Angel investors everywhere..."
  "Disadvantages...didn't know [VCs] really existed in Calgary, so post-exit have had a lot of invitations; but implication is that there isn't a lot of visibility into that group"


• Allan - "big differences between Calgary and Silicon Valley. Calgary advantage is that ideas can have time to grow; loyal employees and slow growth... not the intensity of the valley. Disadvantage ... shortage of strong marketing/financial people in the tech side. Aren't enough successes, capable teams."


• Kerri - "Lack of formal capital structure for raising capital, makes it difficult - where do you start, etc. Angel structure fills that gap, so people bootstrap at a slower pace ...Things are changing though - funds are starting to form, taking us towards being a "lukewarm" bed of technology."


• Geoff - "my experience not remotely close to what I just heard! I've had pleasure and pain of trying to raise money in Toronto where there are old money/traditions and assumptions made. Significant innocence here is good; savvy investors trust themselves and people trying to make the idea work. Less about probable indicators... stats. Who knows what will work? In Calgary it's let's roll up our sleeves and get it done, check your gut. At least on the angel side there is a willingness to participate/contribute."


• Nairn - "...advantage is... lots of money kicking around; disadvantage is that it all goes to O&G. In the 90s really hard; only good for a couple years and never came back. Never found it "easy" but reaped the advantage of the gut instinct of investors. People who have success in town re-invest their money back in town, so the technology community feeds itself. Disadvantage...very, very hard to find the best people; secret to success is people and good management. It's competitive with O&G ... and they pay more. "


• Ravi - "Challenge here is on marketing side; daunting to get Americans to notice us, and being Canadian means the media writes you off. Mindshare with key publications was difficult. You have to keep pounding away, niche mags first, momentum for domino effect. The advantage... a lot of money in Calgary, tons in angels... all the press meant we got a lot of interest. But VC's here are very conservative, whereas American, even European, had more interest."

Q. What's your single piece of advice to entrepreneurs?

• Allan - "Don't guard your secrets; talk about your idea. Your idea is brilliant but other people have it too, so you hone it with the best people/team. It's widely held ritual with American VC's to go from firm to firm to firm to hone your pitch; experience open feedback. Get as much information for free that you can."


• Kerri - "don't underestimate the amount of effort that should go into marketing your product. Don't get buried in the technology and forget the facing ... Who's going to care? How do I get it in their hands?"


• Geoff - "Don't be intimidated. Breaking into USA you might hear... What state's Calgary in, again? As a company feel entitled- be justified in telling your story and being taken seriously. There's no "smarter people" out there, they're all just people..."


• Nairn - "Surround yourself with very, very good people because investors won't invest if they don't see a team with passion and a clear path to market with a clear marketing approach. What makes a good person? it's about passion as much as experience - taking a cut in salary and workin' for nothing..."


• Ravi - "Never put borders around your ideas, and try and be objective. Think big, but apply checks and balances; be self-critical."


• Bruce - "Know where you suck. I have purposely hired people that had skillsets that I didn't and who looked the part... and who worked for free for a year! You know good people when they do things that you don't want to do."

Q. What is with Canadian companies growing up and selling to USA, what's next?

• Nairn - "that's our role; the nature of the beast is that we're an incubator here. Maybe someone will take it to a new level and they'll reside here rather than selling out but it's a ways off."


• Geoff - "Population distribution - truth to the fact that there are large consumers and base (10x more people in USA)."

Q. What will entice VCs to come together in Calgary and invest in a higher level? What are we missing to create that environment?

• Kerri - "Playing field is uneven; investors get a tax credit from investing in oil and gas. Lack the incentives of other provinces."


• Allan - "There has to be a well-articulated idea with a good team. The story rarely coalesces at the right time for VC. Tech companies underdo their PR ...need to come back with a story. Telling the story in the right way sells and it helps brings it in."

Q. Voodoo wanted to do everything under the sun. How did you achieve the focus of going back to gaming?

• Ravi - "Culturally it was very difficult, because we were small and profitable serving local business...no different from any mom and pop, but bottom lining it... But realized, we can't fuel 6 businesses to be world class; had to consolidate and pick one."

Q. How important is location for talent? Does it matter - local or remote?

• Nairn - "Ultimately it takes the best talent. But startups need to hire by location, at the start being local matters. Eventually it doesn't. Be aware though that people farther a field and operating virtually takes a different management style."


• Ravi - "We had people in Bangalore, Romania and NY when we were only 30 people total. Had to focus dollars."


• Geoff - "Location is an afterthought because you're always recruiting the brightest."

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