Iain Klugman, the CEO of Communitech, was blogged by the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation making a great comparison between entrepreneurship and hockey. In this video blog, he talked about the notion of risk and how we evaluate it.
As if to reinforce Iain’s point, since Entrepreneur Week, Waterloo Region has found itself a-flutter with great news about our rockstar Tech Entrepreneur scene. The notion of risk is there and yet, look at this:
Entrepreneur Week
Let’s start back at that particular week where we saw packed audiences gather around to hear great talks.
Eric Ries talked about The Lean Startup (Video link to his talk. Go here for the book)
Garry Tan came from Y Combinator to tell us about his life as an entrepreneur.
Garry Tan says Communitech is doing all the right things to build great tech companies. (Photo: Terre Chartrand)
And then the big news starts…
A bit of time passed, and news slowed over the holidays as it tends to do, and then Waterloo Region tech took off in the new year with a bang!
As a first amazing hit, OpenText chairman Tom Jenkins receives the Order of Canada:
Tom Jenkins receives the Order of Canada from Governor General David Johnson
As it was uttered by the previous president of the University of Waterloo , who is now the Governor General of Canada (above with Tom Jenkins), we are proceeding “In the Spirit of Why Not” as a community that continues to push the boundaries and seek new heights, never accepting limitations of the status quo. We celebrate the good news of this event, and get ready for a good year of work…
And then things go off the hook for our startups
Financial Post covers Batavia House’s Vidyard, Allerta, and TwitSprout in House of the Rising Sons. And in an interesting connection, Allerta and Vidyard are two Waterloo Region startups with some pretty close ties to Garry Tan. They have both been through the Y Combinator program.
Waterloo-based startup Sweet Tooth hires Walter Huber as its CFO.
- Walter Huber, Sweet Tooth’s new CFO
JADsoftware hits the Globe and Mail Technology section with Former cop now busts bad guys digitally with the software being used around the world to solve digital crimes. Digital forensics. How completely cool.
Sortable gets some major coverage when The Toronto Star headlined it as a “threat” to Google. Sortable is having a launch contest with some seriously neat prizes. Check out their site.
And then we hear about how an Aeryon drone is playing a critical role in a fuel delivery to Nome, Alaska. Talk about a story.
MappedIn gets shown a bit of from The Record as they help us to decode malls: Making sense of the mall maze
Enflick enters the Record with an outrageous headline: Despite 21 million users, Enflick flies under the radar
startupify.me with the very social Brydon Gillis looks to Startupify Guelph by embedding tech entrepreneurs in your business.
VeloCity, a student incubator at the University of Waterloo, unveils a new leadership team including Communitech Executive in Residence, Brett Shellhamer and Mike Kirkup
Mike Kirkup joins VeloCity
And in addition to the amazing waves our Waterloo Region startups are making, we find out that VC investing soars 22% in 2011 reaching its highest levels in a decade.
To add to the brilliance of this, a company built by University of Waterloo grads called A Thinking Ape comes back to the university to present students with Y Combinator’s Garry Tan (see that again?), and a group of other Y Combinator U Waterloo grads, all talking about the startup life. The room packed to capacity and several were turned away at the door. Ask anyone in attendance about the emphatic fire marshal talk before the event began.
Following this was a recruiting event organised by Vidyard that saw hundreds of people packed into the Chainsaw to interact with the rockstar startups from the Startup Life event, as well as a healthy group of exciting innovative startups from Waterloo Region. Did I mention they had free beer? Check out the photo set.
[flickr-gallery mode="tag" tags="Startup" tag_mode="all"]
On that same night, The Globe and Mail pays us a visit and we get double coverage.
Check out the photoblog: Young entrepreneurs night with Globe Small Business. And then the excellent profiles in this feature: Meet Waterloo’s emerging young entrepreneurs
Startups aren’t the only ones hitting the news.
We continue to push forward to become world-renowned for our entrepreneurs in all company sizes as we make the news several times per week as a community of innovation.
Dennis Kavelman, previously RIM’s CFO, joins D2L as COO
Former RIM executive Dennis Kavelman says Desire2Learn 'is going to be the next big thing' to come out of the Waterloo region’s crowded tech space. Rainer Leipscher/The Canadian Press
EA Interactive’s Mark Vange gives a talk at the Communitech TechWorking Breakfast about how the world of gaming is serious business. Those in attendance loved it. So did the media.
Waterloo Region is an entrepreneur and tech innovation powerhouse
We knew it, but now we have the numbers.
Region of Waterloo takes third for strongest economy in Canada.
ICT has lowest jobless rate in 3 years
We find out that our tech sector in Waterloo Region is exploding just as we are about to open a new section of the Communitech Hub. Watch us as we continue to explore the spirit of why not.
