Congratulations to BeanEvo, Dragonfly Instruments, Emberlight Technologies, MedVoxel, Optigo Networks Inc., PHEMI Health Systems Inc., Precision Nanosystems Inc., and Spokal.

We are looking forward to a hard-working, collaborative and successful year.

For more details regarding these companies and the Generator Challenge, please click here.

Submissions due by December 14, 2012.

12.17.2010– Vancouver, BC – Discovery Parks and the City of Vancouver announced the inaugural winners of the Generator Challenge – a competition created to recognize Vancouver’s most promising early-stage technology companies. Eight winners have been awarded space in the 5,000 square foot premium, turn-key Generator workspace at Discovery Parks, designed to give technology start-ups a boost into the market place.

The winners are:
• Clinical Media Ltd
• Metafor Software
• BlueION
• Superna Life Sciences
• Secodix
• Del Mar Pharmaceuticals
• V7 Entertainment Inc.
• ConQuer Mobile

“Generator was created by Discovery Parks to facilitate success for the next big, made-in-BC tech companies,” says Mark Betteridge, Executive Director and CEO of Discovery Parks. “We selected the winners from a pool of very strong applicants, and believe that these companies could be BC’s next Hootsuite, Cardiome or Electronic Arts, in terms of technological innovation and impact on our economy.”

The Generator Challenge is presented in association with the City of Vancouver, whose new high-tech rezoning policy helped facilitate the new tech space.

“Discovery Parks is an integral piece of Vancouver’s mission to attract and grow cutting-edge technology companies,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Our city has the highest number of entrepreneurs per capita in North America, and with the fastest growing economy of any Canadian city in 2010, we’re proving to be the Green Capital – a compelling destination for venture capital and start-ups in the Pacific Rim. The Generator Challenge is creating enormous interest and these eight winners represent a promising future for Vancouver’s tech sector.”

In 2009, Vancouver City Council adopted the Rezoning Policy for General Office in Area with High-Tech Zoning. Discovery Parks, as part of a rezoning last year, offered to lease approximately 5,000 sq. ft of improved floor space for technology start-ups, at no costs for nine months, over a 20-year term. Today’s three winners will move in to this new tech-space.

The winners were announced today at a 30th anniversary celebration for Discovery Parks Vancouver. The winners will be eligible to relocate to the Discovery Parks campus in January 2011.

After four years in the R&D phase, SOLEGEAR Bioplastics is ready to market its clean tech plastic.

The product, named POLYSOLE®, is a 100% natural bioplastic made for use in the automotive, electronics, pharmaceutical and consumer goods industries. The clean twist: this corn-based, plastic innovation is non-toxic and is biodegradable once disposed.

The company, located in the Gerald McGavin Building, owned and operated by Discovery Parks at UBC, plans to raise $3 million to fund its sales and marketing efforts.

Find out more about SOLEGEAR Bioplastics at http://www.solegear.ca/.

Pros:

• Graduated rent payments
• Fully-equipped workstations (telephones, internet and furniture)
• Wet labs
• Dry labs
• Shared meeting rooms
• Cold rooms
• Darkrooms
• Autoclaves
• No equity surrendering
• No strings attached

Cons:

• No accounting services
• No access to legal counselling
• No special access to industry mentors
• No access to a line-of-credit

Again the itemized drawbacks pale in comparison to the benefits – or do they? If your organization is housed in a research park, how have you gained access to services provided by the accelerators?

The answer is complex and very personal. However, both options offer welcoming environments that want to see technology innovators succeed in the knowledge-based economy.

What solutions has your start-up found to this housing question? Where did you decide to grow your business: an accelerator, a traditional research park or neither?