Cultivating Startups

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Ep 26: Startup Ecosystem Success Factors and Startup Genome

May 4, 2018 By Gary Will

Lots of ideas for startup ecosystem builders to discuss, debate, adapt and adopt in the 2018 Startup Genome report. It's one of the few examinations of what world-class ecosystems look like and how to get there—and something that every ecosystem organization should read and consider. Some of the topics discussed on this episode: Local Connectedness: New in this year's … [Read more...]

Ep 25: Do tech incubators make sense in small urban areas?

March 2, 2018 By Gary Will

The Canadian federal budget was delivered on Tuesday and we start the show with a quick look at two items that may not get a lot of attention but may have a big impact on the startup ecosystem. It wasn't said directly, but it looks like the CAIP program will not be renewed next year. It has provided millions of dollars in funding to organizations like Communitech, MaRS, … [Read more...]

Ep 24: Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs: The Expert Review Panel Report

January 30, 2018 By Gary Will

An expert review panel recently completed a report on the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE)—the main program of the Ontario government for providing funding to organizations supporting tech or innovation companies and startup ecosystem. The ONE's Regional Innovation Centres are located in 18 cities across Ontario. And the review panel has recommended big changes: they … [Read more...]

Ep 23: The Biggest, Fastest Growing, Most Concentrated Tech Hubs in Canada – From the 2016 Census

December 13, 2017 By Gary Will

We're back this week and it's the show we can only do once every five years. What are the fastest growing tech/ICT/software centres in Canada? You'll see rankings like this all the time, but we really only have good data on this every five years when the Census numbers come out. And they just came out and we go through them on this week's show—while also looking at why it's not … [Read more...]

Ep 22: Hot DesQ: Helping Startups Grow in Queensland, Australia with Murray Love and Paul Martyn

October 26, 2017 By Gary Will

Hot DesQ is a program run by the government of Queensland in Australia through its Advance Queensland initiative to bring startups from around the world to Queensland and get them engaged with the local startup community. Through the program, startups receive $50,000-$100,000 in funding plus space at a coworking site in Queensland of their choice for six months. In return, … [Read more...]

Ep 21: The Montreal Startup Ecosystem with Isaac Souweine of Real Ventures

October 19, 2017 By Gary Will

Montreal is home to one of Canada's largest and most dynamic startup ecosystems, and in just a few years, Isaac Souweine has gone from being a newcomer to the city (and to Canada) to being at the centre of the startup community as EIR with Real Ventures. We talk to Isaac about how he came to Montreal, how he initially got plugged into the ecosystem, working in Montreal … [Read more...]

Ep 20: The Founding of the Velocity Incubator with Sean Van Koughnett

October 12, 2017 By Gary Will

Velocity is one of Canada's most successful university-based startup incubators and an integral part of the Waterloo startup ecosystem. Its success helped the Ontario government see university incubators and accelerators in a whole new way, leading to the creation of a multimillion-dollar program across the province to fund "campus-linked accelerators." It had an unlikely … [Read more...]

Ep 19: Surveying Australia’s Startup Ecosystem with Monica Wulff of Startup Muster

September 28, 2017 By Gary Will

Since 2014, Australia has received a detailed, annual profile of its startup ecosystem thanks to Startup Muster. And the startup community has been eager to participate, with thousands of responses last year from founders, potential founders and startup supporters. This week, Startup Muster cofounder and CEO Monica Wulff talks about what motivated her to create the survey, … [Read more...]

Ep 18: The Challenge of Startup Ecosystem Metrics with Jesse Rodgers of Volta Labs

September 21, 2017 By Gary Will

One of the challenges facing startup support organizations of all kinds is how do we know that we're doing a good job? Which programs are most effective? Which initiatives are worth continuing and which need to be changed or dropped? Even if we feel confident in our own activities, how would we convince someone else (including funders)? Jesse Rodgers, CEO of Volta Labs in … [Read more...]

Ep 17: The Evolution of Ottawa’s Startup Community with Ian Graham of TheCodeFactory

September 5, 2017 By Gary Will

Ottawa has been one of Canada's largest tech centres for decades and has the highest concentration of tech talent in the country. It hasn't always been a smooth ride—the city was riding high on the telecom boom of the late 1990s and took a big hit when the glory days came to an end, but it evolved and rebuilt and now has an impressive collection of startups and young companies, … [Read more...]

Ep 16: Launch Academy and the Vancouver Startup Ecosystem with Hussein Hallak

August 29, 2017 By Gary Will

Vancouver is one of Canada's biggest tech hubs and Launch Academy has played a key role in the startup ecosystem over the last five years, providing incubation services and training to over 100 startups a year—and hosting events for the community at its 12,000 square-foot space in the Gastown area of the city. This week, we talk to general manager Hussein Hallak about the … [Read more...]

Ep 15: Accelerating Insurance and Agritech in Des Moines with Mike Colwell of Square One DSM

August 16, 2017 By Gary Will

Mike Colwell has been mentoring startup founders for over a decade in his role with Square One DSM in Des Moines, Iowa. He's also on the board of directors of two accelerators focused on sectors where the region is building on established strengths: one for startups in the insurance sector and the other focused on agritech. On this week's show, Mike talks about how the … [Read more...]

Ep 14: Incubating Startups in Prince Edward Island with Doug Keefe of Startup Zone

August 8, 2017 By Gary Will

It's Canada's smallest province, but that hasn't stopped Prince Edward Island from launching several initiatives to support startups. One of the newest is Startup Zone, an incubator in downtown Charlottetown, which launched last year. It's already worked with over 30 startups and has started to see companies graduating and moving out and into larger spaces. Doug Keefe became … [Read more...]

Ep 13: Launching Saskatchewan’s First Tech Incubator with Jordan Dutchak of Co.Labs

August 1, 2017 By Gary Will

It wasn't that long ago that you couldn't run a hackathon in Saskatoon without raising eyebrows about what you were planning to hack into. Now a startup community is emerging in the city and the province has provided $250,000 to the first tech incubator in Saskatchewan—Co.Labs—which will officially launch in September. We talk to Jordan Dutchak, the executive director, who … [Read more...]

Ep 12: Updates, Surveys and What’s So Bad About Being Acquired?

July 20, 2017 By Gary Will

No guest this week, so a roundup of recent news and updates from startup ecosystems. [1:50] It's deadline week for applications to Canada's Innovation Superclusters program. $950 million up for grabs. [2:50] The new Grand Innovations hub in Cambridge is coming along and looking at a January opening. [3:56] Volta Labs is tripling its space in downtown Halifax. [4:30] … [Read more...]

Ep 11: Building the Edmonton Startup Community with Tiffany Linke-Boyko of Startup Edmonton

July 11, 2017 By Gary Will

Edmonton's startup community has come a long way in just a few years, and Startup Edmonton recently celebrated its fifth anniversary as a startup hub in the city's downtown. We talk to CEO Tiffany Linke-Boyko about the evolution of Startup Edmonton, starting as a grassroots initiative with two founders in 2009, to its place today as a core piece of the city's economic … [Read more...]

Ep 10: Supporting Startups in Small Urban Areas with John Hayden of the Northumberland CFDC

July 4, 2017 By Gary Will

Northumberland County—east of Toronto in Southern Ontario—isn't a place where you'd expect to find a $100,000 startup competition that attracts some of the top new tech companies in the province. It's a largely rural area with no university campus and its largest population centre has fewer than 20,000 residents. But the N100 competition is now in its fifth year and … [Read more...]

Ep 09: Incubating Startups at the Arctic Circle with Jens Lundström of the Arctic Business Incubator

June 27, 2017 By Gary Will

Arctic Business Incubator isn't an exaggeration—they're incubating new technology businesses at the Arctic Circle in Sweden, and have been for the last 12 years. It's affiliated with the Luleå University of Technology and runs accelerator and incubator programs in four locations, with startups covering a broad range of sectors from gaming to space to cleantech and many more. We … [Read more...]

Ep 08: Wellington, New Zealand Startup Ecosystem with Stefan Korn of Creative HQ

June 20, 2017 By Gary Will

It's not the biggest country, but New Zealand has developed thriving startup ecosystems while facing heightened versions of many of the same challenges we see in Canada, including a small domestic market, and an underdeveloped venture capital sector. Creative HQ in Wellington is one of the leading lights of the New Zealand startup ecosystem, and we talk to CEO Stefan Korn about … [Read more...]

Ep 07: Lessons Learned Running the Velocity Incubator with Mike Kirkup

June 13, 2017 By Gary Will

For over four years, Mike Kirkup was the director of Velocity—the startup incubator at the University of Waterloo. It's been a huge addition to the Waterloo startup community since opening in 2008. He stepped down just over a year ago to become CTO at Encircle—a Velocity graduate—and on this week's show looks back at lessons learned from Velocity's growth (and how a huge space … [Read more...]

Ep 06: Growing role of angel investors with Yuri Navarro of NACO

June 6, 2017 By Gary Will

The Canadian federal government has released a discussion paper asking for feedback on parts of its in-development Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative, we take a look at what's in the paper and also discuss a new academic paper from Stanford that claims that all U.S. unicorns are overvalued. And we talk to Yuri Navarro, the CEO of the National Angel Capital Organization. … [Read more...]

Ep 05: Superclusters and Scale-ups with Steve Bailey of the Lazaridis Institute

May 30, 2017 By Gary Will

On this week’s podcast: The Canadian government has come out with some of the details of its $950 million Innovation Superclusters program. Five superclusters are going to be selected and provided with well over $100 million apiece in federal funding, and startups are required to be included. We look at some of the details of the program that are particularly relevant to … [Read more...]

Ep 04: Assessing the World’s Top Startup Ecosystems with JF Gauthier of Startup Genome

May 23, 2017 By Gary Will

On this week’s podcast: For the last five years, Startup Genome has been assessing and ranking startup ecosystems around the world for its Global Startup Ecosystem reports. They recently published their third report, and this week we talk to their CEO, JF Gauthier, about the factors they assess and the metrics they use in determining the rankings. JF also talks about the … [Read more...]

Ep 03: Bringing Waterloo Expertise to Cambridge and the World with Tim Ellis of Grand Innovations

May 16, 2017 By Gary Will

On this week's podcast: Can the expertise and lessons learned in one startup ecosystem be used to benefit ecosystems in different cities and countries? That's what Tim Ellis has spent much of the last few years doing. Tim is the former CEO of the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo and a long-time member of the Waterloo startup community. He has been taking expertise developed in … [Read more...]

Ep 02: Startup Research with Charles Plant of the Impact Centre

May 9, 2017 By Gary Will

Do Canadian startups replace founder CEOs too quickly? Are startups still focusing significant resources on product development with minimal market feedback? Do Canadian businesses really underinvest in R&D? What do Canadian startups need to do to improve their chances of scaling to prominent size? These are some of the topics related to Canadian startups that Charles … [Read more...]

Ep 01: Halifax Startup Ecosystem with Jesse Rodgers of Volta Labs

April 28, 2017 By Gary Will

Will Halifax become Canada's next great startup centre? Jesse Rodgers says it has all the right ingredients and a lot of momentum. Jesse is the CEO of Volta Labs in Halifax—"Halifax's tech superhub." Jesse was a long-time member and builder of the Waterloo startup community and the former director of the Creative Destruction Lab in Toronto and Velocity in Waterloo. He talks … [Read more...]

Ep 00: An Introduction to Cultivating Startups

April 28, 2017 By Gary Will

In this introductory episode of Cultivating Startups, it's just me, Gary Will, talking about what the podcast is about and what I hope you'll get from it, and then finishing off with a bit of background on me. Short version is that, while there are plenty of sites and podcasts (and books and YouTube channels, and so on) about startups themselves, there's much less on startup … [Read more...]

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Recent Episodes

  • Ep 26: Startup Ecosystem Success Factors and Startup Genome
  • Ep 25: Do tech incubators make sense in small urban areas?
  • Ep 24: Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs: The Expert Review Panel Report
  • Ep 23: The Biggest, Fastest Growing, Most Concentrated Tech Hubs in Canada – From the 2016 Census
  • Ep 22: Hot DesQ: Helping Startups Grow in Queensland, Australia with Murray Love and Paul Martyn
  • Ep 21: The Montreal Startup Ecosystem with Isaac Souweine of Real Ventures
  • Ep 20: The Founding of the Velocity Incubator with Sean Van Koughnett
  • Ep 19: Surveying Australia’s Startup Ecosystem with Monica Wulff of Startup Muster
  • Ep 18: The Challenge of Startup Ecosystem Metrics with Jesse Rodgers of Volta Labs
  • Ep 17: The Evolution of Ottawa’s Startup Community with Ian Graham of TheCodeFactory

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