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Join Lead to Win: Drive Massive Innovation in Canada’s Capital Region

April 15, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

Join Lead to Win:

Drive Massive Innovation in Canada’s Capital Region

If you are serious about starting a profitable technology based business in the National Capital Region during the current economic situation, we invite you to apply to Lead to Win (LTW).

LTW is a proven program for talented technology individuals who wish to establish and grow successful businesses in Canada’s Capital Region. Past program participants have come from a wide range of backgrounds, including – sales, business development, product managers, design engineers, systems analysts, and management. LTW previously ran during the 2002 economic downturn. Out of the 29 participants in 2002 – over half launched a new business. Collectively those businesses created over 300 new jobs and attracted over $90M in investment.

The first 2009 LTW training session starts May 19, 2009. If you have what it takes, we encourage you to apply immediately. Applications are now being accepted online at www.leadtowin.ca.

The LTW program is free to qualified applicants – no strings attached, no small print, no surprises. Our region is investing to make LTW participants successful for the benefit of the individual and the community.

LTW has three phases. In the first phase, you apply online. Qualified applicants will then be invited to meet with LTW leadership. Participants will be selected based on their experience, commitment, and opportunity profile. In the second phase, you participate in an intense six day training program where you will learn how to lever business ecosystems, profitably serve attractive vertical markets, and the key factors that contribute to the ultimate success of a fledgling technology company. Upon completion of this second phase, you will be well equipped, and encouraged, to launch your new technology businesses in the National Capital Region. In the third phase, LTW connects you to strategic customers, revenue opportunities, and individuals, companies and organizations that can provide requisite resources, including capital.

LTW is supported by The City of Ottawa, The Talent First Network, alumni from the 2002 Lead to Win program, community expertise, and faculty members and graduate students of Carleton University’s Technology Innovation Management program (www.carleton.ca/tim).

To apply to LTW, please contact:		Press and program, please contact:
Ottawa		Tony Bailetti: Bailetti@sce.carleton.ca 613 829 8885
Tony Bailetti	Bailetti@sce.carleton.ca 613-829-8885
Rowland Few	rfew@sce.carleton.ca 613-222-4394
Ian Graham	Ian@thecodefactory.com 613-321.3831
Gatineau
Serge Lafontaine	slafontaine@arrow.com 613-884-8965

carleton university, City of Ottawa, Economic Downturn, Entrepreneur, laid-off, Talent First Network

Lead-to-Win Turns Economic Downturn into Opportunity for Laid-Off Technology Workers in Canada’s Capital Region

April 15, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

April 16, 2009 – Press Release

Ottawa, Ontario

Lead-to-Win Turns Economic Downturn into Opportunity for Laid-Off Technology Workers in Canada’s Capital Region

In the tech meltdown of 2002, four out of five laid-off tech workers did not find work in high tech, and in Ottawa-Gatineau two out of five laid-off tech workers left the region. In 2009, Canada’s Capital Region high tech sector faces a significantly greater challenge.

Today, Ontario’s Talent First Network is pleased to announce the launch of the Lead To Win program for laid-off tech workers. The program is based upon a program of the same name that was delivered during the last economic downturn in 2002. Over half of the participants in the 2002 Lead to Win program created a new business in Canada’s Capital Region. These new businesses collectively created over 300 jobs and attracted over $90M in investment.

“Lead to Win is a great initiative for our region and we are pleased to support the program,” stated Larry O’Brien, Mayor of the City of Ottawa. There is a proven recipe here. This is precisely the sort of innovative action that takes the current economic situation and turns it into a compelling opportunity for growth.”

Professor Tony Bailetti of Carleton University stated “We have a real opportunity to drive massive innovation in Canada’s Capital Region. Lead to Win will equip the next wave of technology entrepreneurs to launch new businesses that target the right market spaces. We did this in 2002 and we are going to do it again.”

David Vicary, founder of Weyeseyes and previously President and founder of Nakina Systems was also a 2002 Lead to Win participant. Vicary stated “The Lead to Win program was developed to help entrepreneurs in tough times. The lessons learned in Lead to Win were critical to my success in founding and growing Nakina Systems.”

The program is intended for talented individuals who want to launch a new technology business. The program is free to qualified applicants. Applications are currently being solicited for the program. Space is limited and interested individuals are encouraged to apply online at www.leadtowin.ca.

Lead to Win is sponsored by the City of Ottawa, Talent First Network and Carleton University. Lead to Win associates include alumni from the 2002 Lead To Win program, local businesses, and faculty members and graduate students of Carleton University’s Technology Innovation Management program (http://www.carleton.ca/tim).

About the Talent First Network

The Talent First Network is a successful Ontario-wide initiative funded by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and Carleton University. The Talent First Network enables the commercialization of market offers that rely on open source projects and global ecosystems for their revenue.

Contact: Tony Bailetti, Bailetti@sce.carleton.ca, 613 829 8885

carleton university, City of Ottawa, Economic Downturn, entrepreneurs, lead to win, Opportunities, press release, Talent First Network

Wireless M2M – Machine to Machine Networking …a Cool Idea with Loads of Microbusiness Potential

April 12, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

Wireless M2M networking enables the monitoring and control of devices that have historically been difficult to access and were previously un-managed. Standards are becoming more common and stable. Further, the implementation and production cost of wirelessly enabling and managing devices continues to drop. This opens up a broad range of potential new applications and business opportunies.

Some examples of companies that provide development platforms and system building blocks for Wireless M2M include:

Business, Commercialization, Computing, Creative Class, Economy, Ecosystems, Entreprenuerism, General Interest, Information Technology, Innovation, Jobs, Microbusiness, Networking, Open Source, Opportunities, Regional Economic Development, Technology, Trends

control, idigi, M2M, meshnetics, Microbusiness, monitoring, Technology, Trends, wireless, zigbee

MagCloud – Do It Yourself Magazine Publishing …a Cool Idea with Loads of Microbusiness Potential

March 31, 2009 by Brian Hurley 1 Comment

HP is currently running a beta of a new online service called “MagCloud“. The service allows anyone to produce a magazine and print it – on demand – for $0.20 a page. The service also offers an online store to allow publishers to sell their magazines. The service will take care of printing, mailing, subscription management, and more.

HP’s longer-term plan is to sell their specialized printers and inks to businesses who will offer regional on-demand printing services.

This ability to do on-demand printing of magazines can allow smaller operations and professional service organizations to offer new services to businesses which need to quickly and cheaply produce magazines. One of the benefits offered by the service is the ability to do tweaks to the magazine master document much more quickly and with less cost then traditional methods of producing magazines.

Creative Class, HP, magazine, Microbusiness, on-demand, online, printer, printing, publishing

Technology Rates Adoption from 1900 to Present

March 29, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

This interesting chart is from the New York Times, it highlights the speed of adoption of new technologies over the years. The general conclusion is that adoption/consumption of new technology occurs much faster today then in the past.

Best practices, Business, Commercialization, Computing, Creative Class, Economy, Ecosystems, Entreprenuerism, General Interest, Information Technology, Innovation, Jobs, Technology, Trends, United States, US

adoption, computers, internet, Technology, telephone, Trends

Carleton University Poster Session – Innovation, Talent, Commercialization

March 24, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

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:

An application which linked exercise equipment (in this case a treadmill) into a virtual reality world where the treadmill user could “run” through the virtual reality world and potentially interact with other users around the world
An inexpensive and compact wireless sensors technology that automatically create a wireless mesh communication network to allow easy deployment of sensors (e.g., smoke detector) without the cost of dedicated wires (or even electrical outlet)
An iPhone-based geo-tagged photo blogging application
A Nintendo Wii technology-based interactive projection “whiteboard’

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.

carleton, Commercialization, students, university

McGuinty Government Announces $250M Fund

March 18, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

McGuinty’s government announced a new fund today oriented towards helping keep Ontario start-ups moving forward in the face of a non-existant venture capital market. The fund will match private investments dollar for dollar. It is said to be based upon a similar model implemented in Scotland.

This is a great step towards supporting innovation and start-ups.

fund, Government, great idea, McGuinty, Ontario, scottish venture, start-ups, Venture Capital

Where Are The US Tech Jobs?

March 16, 2009 by Brian Hurley 1 Comment

The Dice Report tracks US technology jobs, their March report highlights that the biggest demand is in Washington DC and the east coast of the US.

Business, Economy, General Interest, Information Technology, Jobs, Obama, Opportunities, Silicon Valley, Technology, Trends, Unemployment, United States, US

east coast, full-time positions, march, technology jobs, United States, US, Washington DC

Trigence Becomes AppZero

March 15, 2009 by Brian Hurley 1 Comment

Local start-up Trigence has quietly changed it’s name to AppZero as well as quietly ejecting the last founder from the team. Trigence had a great product but has not appeared to make any significant sales or progress since CEO Chuck Colford departed. Unfortunately Trigence/AppZero’s new direction does not appear very compelling in an already crowded virtualization market that is dominated by VMWare, XEN and soon Microsoft.

The main industry news on Trigence appears to be on the ongoing churn in senior leadership.

Trigence’s new logo and name are both very close to NetZero (I did a double-take myself since NetZero is a well-known brand), so it won’t be surprising if they end up having to change their name -

Business, Canada, Computing, Entreprenuerism, Information Technology, Innovation, Local Start-ups, Ottawa Start-ups

appzero, citrix, hyper-v, microsoft, netzero, trigence, virtual iron, virtualization, vmware

Canada is Potential Leader in Global Technology Revolution

March 15, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

A recent Rand report , “The Global Technology Revolution 2020″, looks at 16 upcoming key technologies and the ability of 29 countries to acquire and to implement. The following chart identified the key technology applications -

Only three of the 29 countries examined by Rand were identified as being able to acquire and implement all 16 key technology applications – the United States and Canada in North America and Germany in Western Europe.

Canada, economic, economic development, germany, key technologies, rand, solar energy, Technology, United States

Foreign VC Investment in Canada Down More Than 50% in 2008

March 12, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

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 -

bdc, Canada, economic growth, Economic Trends, ICT, Life Sciences, start-ups, Venture Capital

The Death of Canadian R&D Spending

March 3, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

The 2008 report on Canadian R&D spending from Research Infosource identifies the following top 10 R&D spenders -

Nortel	$1.851B
BCE	$1.26B
Magna	$.725B
Pratt and Whitney	$.444B
IBM	$.377B
Atomic Energy of Canada	$.228B
RIM	$.253B
Alcatel-Lucent	$.236B
Sanofi-Aventis Group	$.207B
Apotex Inc	$.181B

Nortel currently accounts for 32% of the R&D spend in the top 10 spenders in Canada, and Magna (automotive parts) currently accounts for 13%. Over 45% of the R&D spend of the top 10 spenders in Canada is in decline and at risk of evaporating to nothing.

Unfortunately – RIM which is always held up as the shining tech light for Canada – isn’t even in the same league as Nortel and never will be. It could be argued that RIM is likely to rapidly diminish in size/scope over the coming years as technologies such as the iPhone and Android continue to see rapid adoption.

bce, Canada, decline, magna, Nortel, research and development, rim, top 10

Pink Slips 2.0 – Dismantling the Workforce One Layoff at a Time

March 1, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

There are an increasing number of articles cronicling the human toll that the job losses are having the United States.

The New York Times and Mercury News have both published articles recently that reflects the significant impacts the the downturn continues to have on families and individuals.

The Silicon Beat has a regular feature Pink Slip 2.o which chronicles layoffs in Silicon Valley.

There are also a number of sites that have started to tally the layoffs and associated carnage, including: Layoff Blog, Fucked Startups, Techcrunch Layoffs, Pinks Slips on Wallstreet and Screwdd.

In Canada, Stats Canada has published data on the impact of past tech layoffs that are good predictors for the present.

Business, Creative Class, Economy, Entreprenuerism, General Interest, Information Technology, Innovation, Jobs, Silicon Valley, Trends, Unemployment, United States, US, Venture Capital, Web 2.0

depression 2.0, high tech, Jobs, layoffs, mercury news, new york times, pink slips 2.0, Silicon Valley, Unemployment

Linux irrelevant on desktops

February 28, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

While Linux does well as an OS for server applications, it continues to be irrelevant on desktops. Latest numbers posted by Net Applications are below:

Computing, General Interest, Information Technology, Open Source, Trends, Web 2.0

desktop, linux, Mac OS X, market share, server, vista, windows xp

ex-High Techies in the Federal Government

February 27, 2009 by Brian Hurley 2 Comments

After this blog entry I was immediately asked about the challenges those ex-techies who joined the Federal government have found. Here is a quick summary of what I’ve been told:

Being under-employed/under-challenged (compared to their personal perceived capability)
Being discouraged from working excessive hours (one individual told me about a situation where a co-worker took them aside and asked them to stop working long hours because it was making the rest of them look bad – however all other individuals I know said they had never experienced this type of behavior and in fact noted that people in their departments tended to work more then the regular work hours as a matter of course)
Really, really bad employees who are passed from department to department like a hot potato (these employees typically know how to exploit the various government union and HR policies to effectively do nothing and avoid being fired and consume vast amounts of their managers time and reputation in the process)
Political wars and games where each department was working to position themselves for projects they expect to see funded

In Nortel, I personally experienced:

Being under-employed/under-challenged (only when working on a product transitioning to legacy support – when this happened I usually changed jobs)
Being given really, really bad employees as part of a new project team (who I first mentored/worked with to help them develop missing skills or cultural awareness, and if that failed (only on one occasion) I put them into the HR process leading to termination/transfer to a job with a better fit)
Political wars and games where each department was working to position themselves for projects they expect to see funded

Anyone else from High Tech who ended up in the Federal government have observations to contribute?

Business, Canada, Canadian Politics, General Interest, Government, Government Policy, Information Technology, Innovation, Nortel, Ottawa

behaviours, Canada, employees, ex-high tech, federal, Government, Nortel, Politics, under-employed

Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation – “Next Generation of Jobs Fund” a McGuinty Debacle?

February 25, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

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 …

Big Hat No Cattle, carleton university, Coral CEA, Dancing Monkeys, Debacle, IBM, McGuinty, Ministry of Research and Innovation, MRI, Next Generation of Jobs Fund, Nortel, Ontario Government, Organ Grinder, strategic opportunity fund

Project Sun Spot… a Cool Idea with Loads of Microbusiness Potential

February 25, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

Sun has developed Sun Small Programable Object Technology (SPOT). It’s an experimental platform to inspire developers to build the next great toy, sensor, communication device — who knows — using Sun technology. The Sun SPOT devices make include a flexible hardware platform as well as the software and tools to make it easy to innovate, experiment, and prototype whatever a developer can imagine.

The Sun SPOT Device is a small, wireless, battery powered experimental platform. It is programmed almost entirely in Java to allow regular programmers to create projects that used to require specialized embedded system development skills. The hardware platform includes a range of built-in sensors as well as the ability to easily interface to external devices.

This little platform is full of potential for “Creative Class” people to base a microbusiness on.

high tech, Microbusiness, product platform, spot, sun, sunspot, tech trends

SheevaPlug… a “Plug Computer”…a Cool Idea with Loads of Microbusiness Potential

February 25, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

A small computer in a wall-plug, running Linux.

Marvell is selling this “development platform”, targeted at the following applications:

Network Control Plane Applications
High-performance Storage
Single Board Computers
Enterprise Printers
DVRs, NVRs, Video Surveillance
High-volume SMB Gateways

For those of the “Creative Class” looking for new microbusiness ideas, it might be something worth looking at.

Business, Computing, Convergence, Ecosystems, Entreprenuerism, General Interest, Information Technology, Innovation, Jobs, Microbusiness, Networking, Open Source, Opportunities, Trends, Unemployment, Web 2.0

development platform, Innovation, marvell, Microbusiness, Opportunity, platform, sheevaplug, Technology

Yet More on Trends…

February 24, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

There is more data and complexity everyday. There are a number of very interesting sites on the web that present visualization of data on a wide variety to topics, including:

I particularly like the site “Visual Literacy” which provides online training on methods to represent information visually. They have an interactive diagram which summarizes, with examples, all the various various visualization techniques. Not to be missed!

Best practices, Business, Creative Class, Economy, Entreprenuerism, General Interest, Information Technology, Innovation, Trends, Web 2.0

communicating, complexity, data, flowing data, presenting, simplification, visual literacy, visualization, visualizing economics

Is the End Near for Newspapers?

February 24, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

The Pew Research Center published a report in Dec 2008 which identified a significant trend that may represent the beginning of the end for traditional Newspapers.

For the first time, more people (40%) said they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%).

Another interesting trend is the Amazon Kindle. I have had one of the Kindle’s since it came out. For travelling, there is nothing better. On the Kindle you can get books and newspapers delivered wirelessly to the device.

The price for the Kindle is around $349, but is likely to continue to drop in price.

Newspapers and magazines have repeatedly tried to sell their content in various online formats targeted at PC users but generally met with limited results. I have tried several of these “digital editions” and have found them to be cumbersome to navigate and inconvenient to access. Portable devices such as the Kindle and Sony eReader present a much more portable, and straight-forward user experience. I imagine an Apple eReader can’t be far off…

For years I religiously subscribed to home delivery of local and national newspapers (more then one). I stopped subscribing more then 10 years ago after I subscribed to broadband internet service. Looking back on the last year I have purchased a newspaper less then 10 times when I have been out of the house with some time to kill.

Google is helping the demise of newspaper with it’s recently announced plans to start offering advertising on it’s Google News service.

A related personal trend I have noticed is that I no longer simply rely upon traditional news producers for my insights and opinions, but tend to draw upon a much wider set of sources – including blogs, ezines, etc.

Allan Mutter has a great blog that talks to the mistakes, challenges and general state of the news publishers.

Times are changing.

Canada, Computing, General Interest, Information Technology, New Media, Trends, United States, US, Web 2.0

blogs, end of newspapers, information, internet, New Media, News, newspapers, Trends

What IT/Tech Certifications Have Value Relative to Salary and Job Opportunities?

February 24, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

There are a vast, and increasing, number of technical certifications available. A big question many people have is what is the value – if any – of an individual spending the time and money to obtain a certification. Will the certification increase prospects for employment? Will the certification increase the salary of the holder?

A study published by TechRepublic “2008 IT skills and salary report“, gives some insight into the salaries of various certification holders:

TechRepublic also published another report identifying the following IT-specific certifications as being the “Top 10″ relative to increasing employment opportunities:

Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist (MCTS) or Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) (formerly MCSE)
Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA)
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP)
GIAC Security Expert (GSE)
Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE)
Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP)
Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) and Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA)
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
Certifications for Special Situations (including VoIP)

CompTIA has a comprehensive list of IT/Technical certifications.

CCIE, CCSP, CISSP, education, GSE, IT certifications, ITIL, job opportunities, MCA, MCITP, RHCA, RHCE, salary, SSCP, top 10, training, VoIP

Ottawa Job Seekers “Directory of Potential Employers” Available

February 24, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

For local tech job seekers – be sure to pickup your copy of the Ottawa Business Journal’s Ottawa Technology Magazine which hit the newstands this week. The magazine features more than 1,300 technology company listings in clean tech, life sciences, high technology and other sectors.

Best practices, Business, Canada, Creative Class, Economy, Entreprenuerism, General Interest, Information Technology, Innovation, Jobs, Ontario, Opportunities, Ottawa, Unemployment

high tech, human resources, job seekers, Jobs, Ontario, Ottawa, potential employers, recruiters, Unemployment

The Current State of Canadian and Ottawa Business Incubators

February 22, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

Business incubation has been identified as a means of meeting a variety of economic and socioeconomic policy needs, which may include:

Creating jobs and wealth
Fostering a community’s entrepreneurial climate
Technology commercialization
Diversifying local economies
Building or accelerating growth of local industry clusters
Business creation and retention
Encouraging women or minority entrepreneurship
Identifying potential spin-in or spin-out business opportunities
Community revitalization

Business incubators typically provide a range of services to clients that may include:

Help with business basics
Networking activities
Marketing assistance
High-speed Internet access
Help with accounting/financial management
Access to bank loans, loan funds and guarantee programs
Help with presentation skills
Links to higher education resources
Links to strategic partners
Access to angel investors or venture capital
Comprehensive business training programs
Advisory boards and mentors
Management team identification
Help with business etiquette
Technology commercialization assistance
Help with regulatory compliance
Intellectual property management
Facilities (e.g. office space, specialized lab space) and associated business services (e.g. security, receptionist, meeting rooms, phone service, photocopiers, printers, internet service)

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:

Almost all business incubators are sponsored by economic development organizations, governments, academic institutions, i.e. tax money
1 in 6 incubators offer facilities and on-site support services
Almost half of all incubators were focused on professional, scientific and technical services businesses
The top three most used services of incubators were: legal consultation, management guidance and assistence in obtaining financing

There are various lists of incubators in Canada, unfortunately none up-to-date, including:

In Ottawa, we have the following business incubators:

Communications Research Innovation Centre – on-site facilities
NRC Industry Partnership Facility (NRC-IPF)
Ontario Centres of Excellence Centre for Commercialization of Research - announced in Nov 2008
NRCan Innovation Acceleration Centre - being phased out
The Code Factory – private incubator, which works closely with Carleton University’s Talent First Network
OCRI Innovation Accellerator - regional economic development agency, with on-site facilities and a wide range of services
Carleton University’s Tony Bailetti

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:

Business Ecosystems, business incubators, canadian association of business incubation, economic development, federal government, job creation, municipal government, nrc, OCE, OCRI, ontario centres of excellence, provincial government, Stats Canada, tax payers, virtual incubators

Emerging New Channels to Market for “Creative Class” Microbusinesses

February 18, 2009 by Brian Hurley 2 Comments

For a start-up, one of the biggest challenge is gaining access to customers and being able to transact business with them as easily and quickly as possible. In the last 5 years, new business models have been emerging that help reduce that challenge, referred to as Ecosystem business models.

These new business models are providing knowledge workers (aka the “Creative Class“) access to ready-made delivery platforms and selling channels to a well-defined market.

These emerging channels to market typically provide a means to connect suppliers with consumers, usually handling the transaction between the two as a trusted mediator (taking a percentage in return for the channel services, e.g. selling platform, marketing, customer management, fulfillment, transaction handling):

Apple Apps Store – sells applications to Apple iPhone phone users, handles delivery and payment, payment is via iTunes account
Google Android Market - sells applications to Android mobile phone users, handles delivery and payment using Paypal
Amazon Webstore - sell your wares online, access Amazon shoppers and Amazon store tools, handles payment using Amazon account
99Designs - companies/individuals post requests for graphics designs and designated “prize money”, companies/individuals post responses, the winning design selected gets the “prize money”
oDesk - teams or individuals post skills/availability, companies/individuals post jobs with desired fee for completion (fixed rate or hourly)
Shutterstock – royalty-free photographs, individuals/companies provide photos and get paid based on sales
Innovation Exchange – companies/individuals post challenges and cash, suppliers post responses
Mechanical Turk – people post questions/tasks, suppliers post answers/accept task
Cafepress – individuals/companies generate graphic content, Cafepress puts it on mugs, shirts, etc and handles all fulfillment for the supplier
Amazon Kindle – sell eBooks via Amazon and their new eBook reader
uTest – on-demand software testing
Crowd Spring – similar to 99Designs
Lulu - sells self-published books
Beta Test – links beta-testers with software publishers (e.g. iPhone)
Eclipse Foundation - links Eclipse IDE consumers with suppliers who build on top of the Eclipse open source IDE platform
Just Parts - links consumers of auto parts with suppliers
Top Coder – links software designers with companies who respond to contest proposals
Article One Partners - offers rewards for finding prior art against posted patents
Spot Us - allows journalists to post story ideas and solicit funding from public

One channel which can be very significant for Microbusinesses is Paypal -

Paypal – “one-click” purchasing between suppliers and consumers. Many niche sellers, e.g. 3rd party add-on suppliers for Joomla! use Paypal as their transaction vehicle. Most eCommerce solutions provide a gateway to Paypal as the payment means. Paypal itself also can accept credit cards on behalf of a seller. Paypal by itself provides access to a group of consumers who are comfortable transacting business online. Paypal provides a trusted supplier relationship between the buyer and the supplier. I have to confess I never thought Paypal would amount to anything when I first heard about the business many years ago…

amazon, android, apple, apps store, cafepress, Creative Class, Entreprenuerism, google, Innovation, joomla, kindle, mechanical turk, Microbusiness, odesk, on-demand, software testing, stock photography, webstore

Looking at More Trends…

February 17, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

The “power of the crowd” is pretty cool relative to using data mining on large volumes of data to discern trends and to infer/derive new related data.

Google has the ability to present information on trends related to Google search terms. An interesting application of this capability is Google Flu Trends, which correlates search terms related to the flu and accurately predicts the incidence of flu in US states -

Click to go to Google Flu Trends site

Does anyone know of other “power of the crowd” types of trend analysis tools/sites on the web?

Data mining, How To's, Information Technology, OHIP, Opportunities, Public Health, Trends

analysis, crowd sourcing, Data mining, flu, google, Trends

Networks vs. Servers: The truce has ended, war is coming

February 16, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

It is interesting to note that the computing and the networking industry is now starting to compete openly in each other’s backyard.

HP started going after networking aggressively in 2005, and it’s Procurve business unit has been growing faster then the overall networking market and has been slowly taking away Cisco market share. Further, on Feb 18, 2009, HP announced the formation of a business unit to consolidate it’s telecommunications and media products. The new unit will be called HP Communications and Media Solutions (CMS).

Cisco has stated its intention to aggressively go after virtualizing the entire datacenter (including computing and networking) and is expected to announce a virtualization-enabled blade system this spring. According to the trade press – the new blade system is code-named “California”. There is also rumors of friction between IBM and Cisco as Cisco’s actions put serious strain Cisco-IBM channel partnerships.

This will change the landscape for many virtualization and utility computing oriented startups. This war is expected to result in a price war for networking equipment and blade systems. This will also result in significant industry consolidation.

Business, Cisco, Computing, Convergence, Economy, General Interest, HP, Information Technology, Innovation, Networking, Silicon Valley, Trends, United States, Venture Capital

Blade Server, Cisco, code name california, communications and media solutions, Computing, Convergence, Economic Trends, game changing, high tech, HP, Industry Consolidation, Networking, price war, virtualization

Innovation in Canada Archived?

February 14, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

Canada, Canadian Politics, Economy, Entreprenuerism, General Interest, Government Policy, Information Technology, Innovation, Ottawa

Canada, federal government, Innovation

Lead to Win Ecosystem Announced

February 13, 2009 by Brian Hurley 3 Comments

On Feb 12th, during a presentation at MaRS in Toronto, Tony Bailetti announced the launch of the Lead to Win Ecosystem.

The Lead to Win ecosystem will be headquartered in Ottawa, it is focused on:

Facilitating the formation of multi-location, international teams
Equipping teams to exploit the new creativity economy
Supporting teams’ rapid start-up, operations and execution
Linking teams to opportunities and channels

The Lead to Win ecosystem is based on the 2002 Lead to Win program which was extraordinarily successful in delivering meaningful and measurable economic development results to the Ottawa region.

If you are interested in more information on the Lead to Win ecosystem or want to be a part of it – drop a note to Tony Bailetti, and read the material on Business Ecosystems on this site.

carleton university, Creative Class, creative economy, ecosystem, entrepre, Entrepreneurism, lead to win, tony bailetti

Is The Recession The Best Thing to Happen To Canada?

February 10, 2009 by Brian Hurley 2 Comments

There are two interesting new ideas that I find very promising, and if the City of Ottawa is able to capitalize on them, it may create a major new source of growth for our local economy.

Richard Florida is a professor at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto. His primary area of research is that of the “Creative Class”. Dr Florida argues that the economy is shifting away from routine-oriented jobs to creativity-based occupations. He also argues that the ability of an economy to adapt and weather disruptions are greater for a creativity-based economy compared to routine-jobs based economy. Dr Florida recently delivered a report to the Ontario government on this topic - it is interesting reading.

In Ottawa, we have Tony Bailetti, a professor at Carleton University. His primary area of research is that of “Ecosystems”. He argues that the business models of the world are changing. During the Industrial Age – companies were vertically integrated. During the Technology Age – companies were horizontally integrated with outsourced partners. In the emerging Ecosystem Age – Dr Bailetti argues that it is all about creative knowledge workers and collaboration. An ecosystem is not a single company, but rather is a collaborative community formed around a central keystone organization that facilitates collaborative relationships and access to wide established markets. And this is more then just a theory – Ecosystems exist today and their numbers are growing. A leader in this emerging Ecosystem business model is headquartered in our city! The Eclipse Foundation is a very successful keystone organization — they are at the heart of the worlds most successful Integrated Development Environment platform.

Ecosystems are a means of organizing and enabling knowledge workers, leveling the playing field against established Technology Age and Industrial Age competition, and flattening the world relative to allowing world-wide virtual teams to come together to create innovation, wealth and economic growth. Ecosystems effectively give a practical framework around how we can capitalize on the power of the “Creative Class”.

Dr Florida and Dr Bailetti’s work have evolved independently but are very complimentary and timely.

I would love to see Tony and Richard get together as their ground-breaking ideas represent a strong opportunity for Ottawa, Ontario and Canada to re-invent itself.

If you are one of those people who is planning to create their own microbusiness and you are looking for ideas to pursue – you would be wise to learn more about what Ecosystems are and how you can capitalize on them. The good news is that Tony is planning to make an important announcement on Thursday about a new initiative related to Ecosystems that you will want to know about – because it can help you - I’ll post an update to this post on Friday.

carleton university, Creative Class, econo, Economic Trends, Ecosystems, Opportunity, recession, richard florida, rotman school of management, tony bailetti

Ottawa Already Has an Innovation Hub – It’s Name is Tony Bailetti

February 9, 2009 by Brian Hurley 2 Comments

It was great to see the article from Peter Kovessy of the Ottawa Business Journal today entitled “Innovation Hub in Stagnation”. We need more public oversight, debate and analysis on how our local political leaders have and are proposing to spend our tax dollars to spur innovation and economic growth for our region.

Relative to the Innovation Hub idea – there have been very negative public comments made about the plan from Ottawa tech leaders and entrepreneurs right from the beginning. The father of local high tech, Denzil Doyle, was straight to the point:

It is discouraging to see the idea of an Innovation Hub being run up the flagpole. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate it at minus five as something that is going to solve the region’s high tech problems. About 20 years ago, we were told that if we invested in a life sciences technology park, we would grow a life sciences industry that would rival the telecom industry. We all know how that turned out. We seem to forget that Mitel started in the basement of an office building in Kanata and that a combination of its working capital and outside investment financed its real estate requirements thereafter. DY-4 started in a very ordinary building on Laperriere Ave – and so on.

Entrepreneur John Oligvie called it out:

I have spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley and in Boston and these two global high-tech centers have managed so far without building “innovation hubs”. This is discredited, “big government” thinking. Technical and business innovation can only be done by entrepreneurs, not by government. If you asked local VCs and tech entrepreneurs what they needed most in order to succeed, I doubt that anyone’s first answer would be “a big shiny new building”.

From my perspective, I have yet to talk to a local entrepreneur who is supportive of the Innovation Hub. When it comes to high tech and innovation driven economic development – most do not feel the City of Ottawa is coupled into reality.

I personally believe we need to have less of our tax money being spent on “overheads” such as buildings and associated staff and instead direct the tax money to programs that directly support the needs of regional entrepreneurs and the important local economic development they produce.

People like Tony Bailetti and the Talent First Network are on the right track -

“To innovate effectively, small and cheap is big; big and expensive simply doesn’t work” says Bailetti. He adds: “What we need to drive massive innovation in Ottawa is many small innovation hubs like TheCodefactory, all linked to early buyers worldwide. Mechanisms that enable our innovators working anywhere in Ottawa to collaborate with early buyers at the start of the innovation cycle can produce significant benefits for our community.”

Tony Bailetti is one of the few people around that truly understands what it takes to foster innovation and deliver regional economic development. His actions and results as one man have exceeded the results of any local organization or initiative when it comes to developing entrepreneurial activity and results for our region. He is motivated by the desire to “Do the right thing” and “To make a difference” for his community and his students. Tony is one of Ottawa’s (if not Canada’s) most valuable resources when it comes to economic development and technology innovation.

As an example – in 2002, Tony Bailetti ran an entrepreneurial training course called “Lead to Win”. The course was free to the participants. Of the 29 participants – over 50% launched a company in the Ottawa region. The resulting entrepreneurial activity, innovation and companies – launched by that one initiative, by that one man – resulted in the creation of over 300 local jobs and the influx of over $90M into our local economy.

That is exactly the type of community-based leadership and grass-roots economic development activity our governments should be encouraging, learning from and backing.

Ottawa already has an Innovation Hub and its name is Tony Bailetti.

Canada, carleton university, City of Ottawa, Denzil Doyle, economic development, Entrepreneurism, Innovation Hub, minister of research and innovation, OCRI, Ontario, Ottawa, Ottawa Business Journal, Technology, tony bailetti, TOP

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