Boris Mann's Blog - Future of web, mobile, and retail

Build more startups in Vancouver

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:07:00 -0800

Last Thursday, Jesse Heaslip wrote 'Two Problems with [Vancouver's tech community] and Three Ways to Fix it'. If you don't know Jesse, know this: he's crazy-irrational-passionate about the Vancouver tech community. For proof, I offer the fact that he organized 40 tech events that were attended by 1600 people in 2011. Talk about impact!

Jesse lists the two problems as:

1. How do we get companies to the stage where there is interest from acquirers?

and

2. How do we get those companies to stay?

First of all, for a really great backgrounder on startups in Vancouver and the various funnels that are in place, read Greg Aasen and Danny Robinson's post on the BCIC blog. Money quote:

The only way to get more anchor companies is to start more companies. Some fail, some exit and some anchor. There is no shortcut.

For 1, I first want to re-state the problem as "How do we get more companies to the Series A and/or acquire stage?".

I added "more" to the statement, since I think that's what we want. Secondly, focusing on only acquirers is probably the wrong goal. Series A (before everything turned into super seed rounds etc.) used to be the first step of going big. Large VC funds¹ earmark millions not only for Series A, but to support companies in their Series B, and so on. We definitely do want anchor companies that grow big right here in Vancouver.

Jesse's answer is "build a better community", phrased as weaving the threads we have together very tightly. Allen Pike's response focusing on homes for startups goes one step further and suggests shared spaces as the tactic to get us there.

I think the answer is simpler, and more like web traffic or a funnel as Greg and Danny wrote about: build more startups. Will a tighter community help us get there? I'm sure that is part of the puzzle.

Problem #2 is "How do we get them to stay?". Jesse's answers here are really three problem areas with suggestions on how to work on them. Academic-industry ties, #WeAreYVR community pride, and Hack Hut (a new coworking space).

I'm not convinced on school / industry issues, other than promoting startups as a place to work for new grads. As far as I am aware, new grads are not the main creator of new startups. As a counter-example, instead of accepting offers with Google / MSFT / Facebook etc. Cristian & Mircea turned down offers with those companies to do their own thing.

However, A Thinking Ape took those offers after graduating in Canada, moved away, then did their own thing, and then ended up in Vancouver. Time will tell if they stay.

I left after graduation in 1999 because the local opportunities that I could find in Vancouver were small and sleepy. I came back in 2004 because it was my home, and it just so happened that things were looking up.

Do we need to raise the profile of startups as a career option to keep some of this great talent in the local pool? You bet!

#WeAreYVR. This seems to have the same goals as #MadeInVan. As I said in my blog post in response to that effort - great idea, how about we not re-invent the wheel - AGAIN.

This has been done badly again and again and again. A non profit entity like Vancouver Is Awesome (VIA) could be the long running entity that might make a good home for this effort. But focus on the brand, on telling the story of local companies, not on the directory-done-badly.

On Hack Hut. Allen's comments on this are excellent. Allen mentions The Hive. They look like an interesting organization, and I think working with them might accelerate this initiative. Also as Allen said, WorkSpace was the first hub, and it worked. I wish it was still here. Let's vote with our dollars and support the spaces we already HAVE before deciding we need to create a new one.

Lastly (still on problem #2), I also don't think "getting them to stay" is an issue. We need them to COME BACK. Stewart Butterfield and Avi Bryant are coming back. A Thinking Ape came back. We need experiences (and money and connections) from elsewhere to come back. So we can close the loop and do it all over again.

OK, now that I've made lots of commentary on Jesse's post, let me say … I agree with him!

I think working together to raise awareness of the community and having shared spaces are the two strongest areas where the community itself can make an impact.

Other than that, the only thing I can suggest is to build more startups in Vancouver.

¹I had a brief chat with someone from a large VC fund the other day. Accelerators and the collection of angels and super-angels around them are often focused on acquisition as an outcome: turning a couple of hundred thousand dollars into a couple of million dollars is a big win. For large VC funds, they NEED companies that want to go it alone, so they can put in millions that turn into 10s or 100s of millions.

I give larger VC funds a bad rap most of the time, but in this case the goals are aligned: they want companies to go big.

Name / Pricing Plan Link	Starting Price	Users	Domain Aliasing	Notes
Get Satisfaction	$19	1	No (starts at Connect $99 w/5 agents)	Focused on public community.
Zendesk	$9	1	No (starts at Regular $29/agent)	Has extensive email support ticketing, decent Twitter integration. My pick for larger companies.
Tender Support	$24	3	Yes!	My recommendation for small companies.
UserVoice	$5	1	No (starts at Plus $25/agent)	Only recently added support. My recommendation if you want to focus on voting / feature suggestions.
Assistly	$0	1	Yes!	Bonus points for $0 plan, great Twitter feedback integration.

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