11. Ingredients to build a strong startup ecosystem
Talent
Culture
Capital
Business Climate
Space, networks & programs
mix well
12. What we’ve learned in Waterloo Region
now!
It takes a
community
to build a
tech
company –
pull together
It must be
founder-led
Back the
science AND
back the
entrepreneur
Support tech
companies at
every stage:
startup,
scale-up,
grown-up
You’ve got
to do it all …
13. Barn raisers to tech innovators
Not afraid to roll-up
our sleeves
A long heritage of people that
come together for the well-being
of the community.
14. Street cred counts.
Val O’Donovan
COM DEV
Satellite
Communications
Wes Graham
Watcom
C++ Compilers
Fortran
Frank Tompa
Open Text
Search
Mike Lazaridis
RIM
Smartphones
Arokia Nathan
IGNIS
LED Flat Panels
Eric Migicovsky
Pebble
Wearables
Stephen Lake
Thalmic
Biosensor
Gesture Control
Waterloo Region: home to visionaries
15. Half a score, and seven years ago
The mission:
• More talent
• Higher profile for tech
• Better support for companies
• Government investment
16. The transformation
in total revenues
tech firms
employed
in invested venture
capital, private
equity and angel
financing
then (1997)
now!
$100M
50
1,800
$7M
2013 total
revenues
tech firms
active startups
new tech jobs
(since `97)
total investment
capital in 2013
>$22B
>1,000
641
30,000
>$99M
24. Company creation & startup growth
now!
1,585 new startups
114
177
316
478
502
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013E
25. Proven track record of growing big tech
enterprise
wireless
software
digital display
high performance
digital imaging
satellite
communications
EdTech & learning
logistics
technology
network policy
8 of Canada’s largest tech companies
started, grew and are headquartered
in Waterloo Region
$15,384,688,000
Disclosed combined revenues 2013
175
Operating in Countries
27. Running with the big dogs
1. Silicon Valley
2. Tel Aviv
3. Los Angeles
4. Seattle
5. New York City
6. Boston
7. London
8. Toronto
9. Vancouver
10. Chicago
11. Paris
12. Sydney
13. Sao Paulo
14. Moscow
15. Berlin
16. Waterloo Region
17. Singapore
18. Melbourne
19. Bangalore
20. Santiago
The World’s Top 20
Startup Ecosystems
Startup Ecosystem
Report 2012
28. What influencers & investors are saying…
“Money is like gasoline during a
road trip. You don’t want to run
out of gas on your trip, but
you’re not doing a tour of gas
stations.”
—Tim O’Reilly,
Founder O’Reilly Media
“There’s incredible technical
talent. The University of
Waterloo is mind-blowing. Talent
appears to want to stay here,
and I think they need more
support in this community.”
— David Cohen, TechStars
“Something is going on in
Waterloo, because
the applications we get from
Waterloo students are better
than those we get from students
of any other university.”
— Paul Graham, Y Combinator
29. What influencers & investors are saying…
“There are a lot of winners in this
room. We’ve already invested in
some of the startups we met with
this morning.”
--Roger Penske, CEO Penske Corporation
with Tom LaSorda, Former CEO Chrysler
and Wayne Sales, Former CEO SuperValu
and Canadian Tire – IncWell
“The energy level is off the
charts. You’ve got a very nice
blend of different things in a very
dense area that’s well done.”
- Brad Feld, Foundry Group
“To actually see what’s going on
here, it’s impressive, and it’s
certainly not something I’m
going to forget anytime soon.”
- Alexis Ohanian, Reddit
If you are from this region, you have likely heard reference to barn building or barn-raising. It’s the idea of collaboration rooted deeply within our roots. Just as back when a whole community would come together to build a barn, that sense of teamwork still exists here today when it comes to the wellbeing of our community.
If you are from this region, you have likely heard reference to barn building or barn-raising. It’s the idea of collaboration rooted deeply within our roots. Just as back when a whole community would come together to build a barn, that sense of teamwork still exists here today when it comes to the wellbeing of our community.
If you are from this region, you have likely heard reference to barn building or barn-raising. It’s the idea of collaboration rooted deeply within our roots. Just as back when a whole community would come together to build a barn, that sense of teamwork still exists here today when it comes to the wellbeing of our community.
If you are from this region, you have likely heard reference to barn building or barn-raising. It’s the idea of collaboration rooted deeply within our roots. Just as back when a whole community would come together to build a barn, that sense of teamwork still exists here today when it comes to the wellbeing of our community.
If you are from this region, you have likely heard reference to barn building or barn-raising. It’s the idea of collaboration rooted deeply within our roots. Just as back when a whole community would come together to build a barn, that sense of teamwork still exists here today when it comes to the wellbeing of our community.
If you are from this region, you have likely heard reference to barn building or barn-raising. It’s the idea of collaboration rooted deeply within our roots. Just as back when a whole community would come together to build a barn, that sense of teamwork still exists here today when it comes to the wellbeing of our community.
If you are from this region, you have likely heard reference to barn building or barn-raising. It’s the idea of collaboration rooted deeply within our roots. Just as back when a whole community would come together to build a barn, that sense of teamwork still exists here today when it comes to the wellbeing of our community.
If you are from this region, you have likely heard reference to barn building or barn-raising. It’s the idea of collaboration rooted deeply within our roots. Just as back when a whole community would come together to build a barn, that sense of teamwork still exists here today when it comes to the wellbeing of our community.
If you are from this region, you have likely heard reference to barn building or barn-raising. It’s the idea of collaboration rooted deeply within our roots. Just as back when a whole community would come together to build a barn, that sense of teamwork still exists here today when it comes to the wellbeing of our community.
We were a very different regional economy 15 years ago
Faced similar challenges to other communities in the Province and across the Country and in the world
If you are from this region, you have likely heard reference to barn building or barn-raising. It’s the idea of collaboration rooted deeply within our roots. Just as back when a whole community would come together to build a barn, that sense of teamwork still exists here today when it comes to the wellbeing of our community.
We were a very different regional economy 15 years ago
Faced similar challenges to other communities in the Province and across the Country
A community where entrepreneurship is valued and encouraged
We were a very different regional economy 15 years ago
Faced similar challenges to other communities in the Province and across the Country and in the world
28 hubs and accelerators from the entire nation – startups pilgrimage to success goes through Waterloo Region
Canada’s tech mecca - connecting the nation
We were a very different regional economy 15 years ago
Faced similar challenges to other communities in the Province and across the Country and in the world
A community where entrepreneurship is valued and encouraged
We were a very different regional economy 15 years ago
Faced similar challenges to other communities in the Province and across the Country and in the world
We were a very different regional economy 15 years ago
Faced similar challenges to other communities in the Province and across the Country and in the world
Also home to Manulife Financial and Sun Life Finanacial
Also home to Manulife Financial and Sun Life Finanacial
We were a very different regional economy 15 years ago
Faced similar challenges to other communities in the Province and across the Country and in the world
The ecosystem can grow companies into multinationals
from Branham report 2013
In thousands (000)
$11,777,243 BlackBerry Canada’s largest tech company
$1,363,336 OpenText Canada’s largest software company
$541,596 Christie Canada’s largest digital display company
$251,049 Teledyne DALSA Market leader in high performance digital imaging
$203,195 ComDev Canada’s largest satellite company
$134,953 Descartes Canada’s largest logistics technology company
$113,316 Sandvine Canada’s largest network policy company
?? D2L Canada’s largest EdTech company
Also home to Manulife Financial and Sun Life Finanacial
Waterloo + Toronto = supercluster easily #2 behind SV (see hidden slide for details on similarities and comparisons between SV
Density is incredible – small nimble with a chip on our shoulder
toronto #8, vancouver #9, waterloo region #16
On Waterloo
On support, funding
On how funding should be available
On waterloo
On culture and density
On startups and innovations
If you are from this region, you have likely heard reference to barn building or barn-raising. It’s the idea of collaboration rooted deeply within our roots. Just as back when a whole community would come together to build a barn, that sense of teamwork still exists here today when it comes to the wellbeing of our community.