Technology, Business, Organizations, People, Government
The Lead to Win program is accepting applications for the November session.
If you are interested in creating your own company – check out the program at http://www.leadtowin.ca.
Spaces are limited and the program has been over subscribed for every session held so if you are interested do not delay getting your application submitted.
Check out some of the companies that have successfully made it to Phase III of Lead to Win.
If you are currently working in Nortel, Mitel or any of the other local tech companies that are under stress and under the threat of downsizing, then you are probably thinking about your “Plan B”. If your “Plan B” involves launching your own business, then you should take a close look at the Lead to Win program.
Past successful Nortel alumnus who have participanted in Lead to Win have included: Chuck Colford (Trigence (aka AppZero), Congruance IT), David Vicary (Nakina, Weyes Eyes), Jerry Everett (onconference), Brian Hurley (Liquid Computing, Purple Forge), and many others.
Lead to Win is now accepting applications for it’s 4th session which will occur later this year (Lead to Win is currently nailing down the exact date and will announce it soon).
The program is focused on helping enterpreneurs develop and grow their businesses.
The program is free to qualified participants.
Program details, application process, testimonials, FAQ’s, training materials, etc are available online at www.leadtowin.ca.
If you know others who might be interested in the program, please send them to www.leadtowin.ca!
Lead to Win held a reception on Monday evening for participants and supporters. Special guests included the Mayor of Gatineau and the acting Mayor of Ottawa. Both expressed their support for the Lead to Win program and new businesses the participants are hoping to launch.
Mayor of Gatineau, Marc Bureau
Acting Mayor of Ottawa, Michel Bellemare
Participants at the reception commented on the strong and growing support from the community for the Lead to Win program.
Past Lead to Win Alumnus David Vicary, CEO of Weyes Eyes and past CEO and founder of Nakina Systems announced that he had secured seed funding for Weyes Eyes, his second start-up venture. For more on this, please read the related Ottawa Business Journal article.
David Vicary, CEO Weyes Eyes
Photos from the event are available online.
The reception was hosted by Développement économique – CLD Gatineau (DE – CLDG).
Here is a recent call for participants from Dr Tony Bailetti for the 3rd session of the Lead to Win program which starts on July 28th – please spread the word!
INTERESTED IN LAUNCHING A NEW TECH BUSINESS? LEAD TO WIN WANTS TO HELP YOU!
If you are serious about starting a profitable technology business in Canada’s Capital region, we invite you to apply to the next session of the Lead to Win program.
The Lead to Win program is free to qualified applicants – no strings attached, no small print, no surprises. Individuals from 37 organizations are investing to make Lead to Win participants successful for the benefit of the individual and our community.
Details on the program, including past success and testimonials from participants are available at www.leadtowin.ca. If you need additional information over what is at www.leadtowin.ca, please contact:
- David Hudson, dhudson1014@rogers.com
- Ian Graham, ian@thecodefactory.ca
- Ray Barton, ray.barton@vitesse.ca
- Rowland Few, rfew@sce.carleton.ca
- Serge Lafontaine, slafontaine@arrow.com
- Tony Bailetti, Bailetti@sce.carleton.ca
- Yannick Bouchard, bouchard.yannick@gatineau.ca
Spaces in the Lead to Win program are limited – so prospective participants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.
Application instructions are available online at www.leadtowin.ca.
If you know of others who may benefit from Lead to Win, please forward this email to them – help get the word out!
Regards.
Tony Bailetti
Lead to Win Program
The 2009 Lead to Win program kicked-off this week. The program was originally planned to support 30 participants per session. Due to overwhelming demand from highly qualified candidates the program capacity was doubled and 61 participants were accepted into the May-June program.
The first three days of workshops went exceptionally well. All participants were highly qualified, highly motivated and highly committed. The workshop was intense and there was a lot of interaction between the participants and the program leaders. A breakdown of the participants company types, target markets, etc. is available: Lead to Win May 2009 Portfolio Snapshot
Photos from the first day of the program are available online -
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| Lead to Win (May 19, 2009) |
I attended the Carleton University engineering poster session on Mar 20th. 89 engineering students displayed the results of 36 4th year projects (http://www.sce.carleton.ca/courses/sysc-4907/webforms/posterLocations.php).
The projects ranged from the abstract to the commercially viable, and from simple to complex. The one thing that stood out in general was the high quality of the students. The projects I found most interesting were the ones which struck me as being commercially viable with further development – examples from the poster session included:
Poster sessions like this can be a great way to help advance commercialization of university work and link local investors/entrepreneurs to ideas and talent.
Jeffrey Dale stepped down as OCRI CEO last week.
Over the years, I used the OCRI services for the launch and ramp of both Liquid Computing and Purple Forge. Liquid Computing and myself were both honored to receive OCRI Awards and recognition. Moreover, I have benefited from Jeffrey’s personal help and support.
As a result of my belief in the good work that OCRI was doing for our community and my positive personal experiences with the OCRI team and Jeffrey, I joined the OCRI board of directors two years ago.
With Jeffrey’s departure, I spent some time this weekend reflecting on what I will remember the most about OCRI under Jeffrey’s leadership. There are a long list of things I will remember, but the three things that will stand out the most in my memory about Jeffrey are that -
Thanks Jeffrey!
The Ontario Commercialization Network Steering Committee Report was delivered to the Minister late February. PWC produced a report on OCN prior to the Steering Committee Report but it was not made public.
The report makes some blunt assessments of serious problems with Ontario’s current approach to economic development and commercialization. Some key findings include:
Key recommendations include specifics related to:
The report was one of the best i’ve seen so far – it cuts directly to the issues and provides some very rational recommendations.
Industry Canada reports that foreign VC investment in Canada is down 53% in 3Q08 compared to 3Q07.
The bulk of investment is going towards ICT and Life Sciences deals.
Ontario, Quebec and BC account for the majority of deals, with only Quebec showing growth in number of deals. 
The good news is that BDC investments of tax payer money continue to get good leverage -
I have the first and second edition of this book on my bookshelf. It is concise, practical advice for starting and running a technology/knowledge-based company… and it is written by a local tech leader – Denzil Doyle! For those trying to figure out where to start and what to do I recommend this book as a good place to start reading.
Making Technology Happen describes in detail the techniques used to identify and exploit technology and how to build and manage a technology-intensive company around that technology. It covers such activities as ‘go-to market’ strategy development, general management, investment analysis, organizational development, and competitive market analysis – all from the perspective of a technology-intensive enterprise. It is used by governments and technology transfer professionals across North America, as well as by entrepreneurs and business executives
With all the talk of government stimulus and spending it is disappointing to see the government not using programs that have already been approved and rolled-out.
Last year, the Ontario Government’s Next Generation of Jobs Fund was rolled out by McGuinty with much fanfare and promises of how his government would be fast tracking the program to “Git’r Done”. The Next Generation of Jobs Fund is a five-year, $1.15 billion fund intended to create new highly skilled jobs.
“We’re stepping up because Ontario is not going to let others steal our future out from under us - we will produce the next wave of clean technologies that create jobs and clean up the environment,” said Premier McGuinty.
“We’re sending the message to companies around the world that if you’ve got a project that will grow your business and create jobs, we’ll make it happen in Ontario,” said Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sandra Pupatello.
“This fund is about building on our strengths to ensure Ontario can compete and win in the global economy - and create a better standard of living for Ontario families,” said Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson.
There was also much noise made about how:
Companies are guaranteed a decision within 45 days of submitting a complete proposal.
So, since being announced a year ago…. nothing has happened.
Furthermore, last summer – Nortel, IBM and Carleton University submitted a proposal to establish and collaborate on a project called “Coral CEA”. The group’s proposal was to setup an organization to focus on development of communications enabled applications with the objective of spinning-off companies and jobs. In-spite of being under bankruptcy protection Nortel remained committed to the proposal because of it’s strategic value.
This was a proposal from two of Canada’s top innovators and Ottawa’s leading University… and nothing has happened.
In fact, worse then nothing has happened – good ideas have been submitted and no action has been taken.
It appears that the only jobs that the NGoJF is creating are jobs for government organ grinders whose purpose is to turn our “Creative Class” into dancing monkeys for the bureaucracy -
If McGuinty is serious about his commitment to innovation and the NGoJF – he needs to roll up his sleeves and take direct personal action in his government. Right now McGuinty and his government fall into the category of “Big Hat, No Cattle”.
UPDATE: The Strategic Opportunity Program (part of NGoJF) has been very quietly shut-down …
Business incubation has been identified as a means of meeting a variety of economic and socioeconomic policy needs, which may include:
Business incubators typically provide a range of services to clients that may include:
Stats Canada released a report in late 2008 “The Business of Nurturing Businesses” which takes a look at business incubators in Canada based on survey data taken in 2005. Some key findings from the report include:
There are various lists of incubators in Canada, unfortunately none up-to-date, including:
In Ottawa, we have the following business incubators:
Unfortunately, with the exception of Carleton University’s Tony Bailetti, there is little/no information available on the public incubators relative to return on investment of the tax money in the operation of the incubators – which would lead me to believe that compelling results do not exist.
From the perspective of efficiency, it appears that our tax money is being spent a bit recklessly relative to overlapping mandates and services. The Ontario government and Ottawa Municipal government have both being doing a review of how they are funding and delivering their economic development programs. I hope that as part of this review, they look towards stronger collaboration and reduced overlap of services between Provincial and Municipal programs.
A future blog entry will examine how business incubators role will evolve/change in the context of Business Ecosystems.
References:
