Comments on: What’s Broken About the Vancouver Startup Scene?

By: Lyndit

Lyndit — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 01:01:19 +0000

Hoping to lite a fire under new businesses by providing opportunities is essential. Places like Bootup Labs and the Launch HQ are great sources of fuel for interested entrepreneurs. Also to do a little promoting Vancouver is going to have it’s first startup weekend in October from the 8th to 2010.

By: Jay Dee

Jay Dee — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:35:23 +0000

..you had me up to the point where you started talking about “luring” money and VCs to the city. If you have a good product, and hence a good/viable business, you can find money for it. When the attitude is, “I want a lot of money around (smart or not) so it’ll be easier to get it,” a red flag in me is raised and it makes me think of greed and schemes. The cornerstone is a set of great ideas and *then* the money will follow–locally sourced or not.

By: Euwyn Poon

Euwyn Poon — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:05:56 +0000

Ian, you’re right on about the need to have a culture of mentorship. I’m in Silicon Valley now, and the willingness of more experiences entrepreneurs and even fellow company founders to help out is tremendous. There’s a lot of resources out there today, but much of startup success can’t be learned from a book.

By: Jon Chui

Jon Chui — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:02:46 +0000

As a UBC Alumni & passionate entrepreneur who has finally come out of the bubble known as university, I have to say that the Vancouver Startup Scene is a really niche, cool place! A big part has been due to Bootup labs, and what the kind of innovation they are helping to foster down in Gastown, but others like the Network Hub are also really helping young, budding entrepreneurs.

However, I think one key ingredient that’s missing from what has been said, and what you find evident in the Valley and Waterloo, are the direct involvement with passionate, energetic, raw-talented students. (I actually just wrote about it here) Students in those bustling startup regions either a) have their fingers on the pulse of the startups, or b) are creating those startups themselves!!

In my limited experience, students in Vancouver (and specifically UBC) are quite disconnected from the current startup scene! (maybe 1 of 5 “entrepreneurial” students I talk to are familiar with the recent Bootup Labs, for example)

I think students need to start playing a bigger role, and this can only be done if
a) they stop trying to do their own silos or overlapping efforts and collaborate
b) startup companies begin to look to these students, and leverage the raw talent & passion they have

We’re actually in the middle of bringing the clubs together and have both UBC’s VSEA and SFU’s SIFE on board and excited. Now, we just need to hear from the startups in Vancouver!

This is all just my 2 cents of course.

By: Kristoffer Lawson

Kristoffer Lawson — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:16:50 +0000

Hah, just bumped into this article when we were trying to figure out where we would move as a startup if we had to cross the ocean. Everyone agreed Canada always seemed cool from our Finnish perspective and Vancouver was suggested. So maybe not such a good idea after all? 😉

By: kk

kk — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:56:46 +0000

you forgot the part about Vancouver investment scene being full of pump-and-dump stock promoter snakes with a long legacy of mining, gambling, and porn scam deals. is it any surprise that the credibility of the local markets is still healing?

much love and big ups to all my friends and colleagues working hard to make it a better place…

By: JR

JR — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:11:29 +0000

Ian… you put the BELL in embellish.

By: Lloyd Budd

Lloyd Budd — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:17:01 +0000

This article provides some food to nourish much more interesting, healthy and useful conversation than the one that sparked your writing. Thank you!

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:54:55 +0000

JR… you haven’t put a puck past me since 1999. Compared to you I’m Ovechkin. Or, at least, Walt Pdubney.

By: Danny Robison

Danny Robison — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:15:59 +0000

Hey Rob, I too believe that Kevin is a real person, but not sure it’s his real name! As Jordan just pointed out, if He’s such an expert on the Internet, why does he not exist anywhere when we try to google him.