The University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria and other BC based post-secondary institutions are hotbeds for entrepreneurship.

Dating back more than fifty years, some of BC’s local entrepreneur success stories originated from the university environment.

Jimmy Pattison started curbing cars while at UBC.  Brian Scudamore started hauling junk while at UBC.  Peter Armstrong started giving sightseeing tours while at UBC.  Anthony and Andrew Sukow started Advanced Economic Research Systems while at UVic.  There are many more examples.

Useful capital is one thing companies need, but there are two key things entrepreneurs must seek out.

(1) Mentorship – someone with domain expertise and a verifiable track record.  I was 23 when I started my first company and grew it to 40 employees and y second company grew to 12 employees.  I was surrounded by staff, but I struggled to make big decisions and made myriad mistakes.  Had I had effective mentoring I would have made good decisions great and bad decisions better.

(2) Effective relationships – entrepreneurs can’t do it alone and you never know when a relationship is going to pay dividends.  Had I not made a great effort to establish connections while building my second company, I wouldn’t have made two very key hires and, undoubtedly, would have had trouble selling it.

The free market thinker in me thinks that if a student entrepreneur is going to be successful they will figure these things out on their own.  They’ll find a commercially viable opportunity, build the right relationships, find effective mentors and raise appropriate capital.

But the entrepreneur in me who has been beat up (particularly in my second company) likes the idea of giving a helping hand, particularly in the early days.  So, I’ve been helping out a team which is establishing a program in entrepreneurship for my alma mater – UBC.  It will include mentorship, opportunities for relationship building and very early stage pre/pre seed capital.

I will write more on this another time.

In the interim check out this Financial Post article (http://www.financialpost.com/small-business/business-solutions/story.html?id=2403106) on Canada’s current venture capital market.  It features a take on this climate by Danny Robinson, co-founder of Bootup Labs and a successful entrepreneur in his own right.

Bootup is doing some very interesting things in Vancouver and it’s worth checking them out.

Lucky To Be On This Side of The Pond

I recently visited the UK and attended a few entrepreneurial and networking style events. They had somewhat of a similar feel to the events on the west coast of Canada, with one exception – the impression I left with was that I am lucky to live where I do.

Small business support for tech and innovative initiatives is far more limited back across the pond. In 2 short weeks back in Canada, I have met with some great Seattle connections, had lunch and talked with the NRC about IRAP and youth funding, visited with Monica Moore at Telefilm about the Canada New Media Fund and another team member had a successful meeting to discuss MITACS. Coming up in Vancouver we have Pop Vox, the Vancouver International Partnering Forum (VIPF), not to mention Launch Party and a number of other entrepreneurial networking events.

I have only been in Vancouver for 5 years so I am not sure how long this has been happening, but right now there seems to be a hive of startup initiatives, events and tech players. With great companies like Bootup Labs reaching across the border and into US VC land, the barriers come down even further. For a growing tech company like arcalife its key that we don’t hit dead ends when we are just starting to get some major traction. What’s great to see is that people like Brad Feld are prepared to embrace the concept that open borders on tech and investment is the way forward. Despite the differing risks levels in Vancouver versus the Valley mentioned at Beers With Brad last week, we do have a few things on our side : Geographical and time proximity, similar perspectives on the market, a shared history of successes and failures and openness of communication.

For the UK, US contact I suspect requires more work to acquire and are therefore more closely guarded – exactly what is not required for a rapid flow of new and exciting ideas. I am happy to be home again.

Well, it was an industrious day yesterday. Everyone working hard, getting stuff done. Youth Canada is looking great. We estimate that it’s going to be ready for a debut on Thursday. MC is also going well, have about 35 teams signed up, and almost all from the Metro Vancouver area too! This makes us really excited because that means that there are a lot more untapped students out there. Now the trick is just getting to them. Perhaps you, dear reader, might help us out? Speaking of which, Jordan, Boris and the boys (and girl) at Bootup Labs/Strutta are being real awesome to us. If you guys see this, thanks for helping us publicize!

But, wouldn’t you know it, our internet dies, effectively killing the hard-work buzz that we were riding. So, we get to experience what online-based organizations do when the net chokes. These shocking secrets we shall keep to ourselves, but suffice to say it was pretty surprising. We, on the other hand, completely useless without access to our net-based initiatives, went home early. Aw shucks.

Thanks for reading,

Matt, on behalf of the intrepid in-office Impact interns (the four-i’s)

Type in the words Vancouver Blogger on Google and local tech writer and photographer, Duane Storey is one of the top search results listed along with my friend, fellow chef and shark catcher, Boris Mann.

But another Vancouver Blogger wants to change that and recently wrote a post asking his readers for some link love to help him secure the #1 spot on Google before the Northern Voice Conference on February 23. Duane learned about this blog war post through some friends. And while he says he doesn’t give a stink about his rank most days, he will not be outdone this time around. I checked in this am and Boris is currently in 1st place, followed by Duane. The other guy isn’t even in the top 5 right now.

Duane is also offering a one-of-a-kind, 12×18 photograph(which just so happens to be the header on the Launch Party Vancouver website right now) to one lucky blogger, who supports his cause.

I want Duane, who recently helped me out by taking some photographs at LPV3, to beat this other guy down online. Strutta and Bootup Labs just moved into new office space in Gastown and the walls are pretty bare right now. This pic would look very nice on our wall.

Good luck, Duanelander.