urnal 12/27/12 - Technology :: Tech sector enjoys solid year - Business

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TECH SECTOR ENJOYS SOLID YEAR

JENNIFER CAMPBELL FOR THE TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL
27 DEC 2012 09:39AM

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It was a banner year for high-tech in New Brunswick as evidenced by the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Associations awarding, for the second year in a row, the deal of the year to a New Brunswick company. Thats someone else recognizing us, said technology investor and mentor Gerry Pond about the acquisition that saw IBM buy Q1 labs. Thats a pretty good indicator somethings

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Gerry Pond. Photo: Topher Seguin/Telegraph-Journal

happening. The Q1 deal took place in 2011 but the award was given in 2012. A year earlier, the deal-of-the-year award went to Radian6, the industry darling that was acquired by Salesforce. The two best deals in the last two years were in (New Brunswick) so thats one way of benchmarking what a good year it was, Pond said. Pond also lauded the Propel ICT program soon to be known as Launch 36 which he said creates a broader base of opportunity for entrepreneurs in the province. At least 10 companies came through Propel in its first year and some, Pond said, have gone on to become very successful companies. He named Zaptap as one to watch. He also said good things are happening at the Pond Deshpande Centre, which was set up by Pond and Gururaj (Desh) Deshpande, both successful entrepreneurs and alumni of UNB. We founded it in 2011 but 2012 would have been our first full year and (first) year under a new executive director. Its hada very successful year with a number of on-campus events and a student ambassador program. The students went to Boston to see some of the accelerators there and also participated in a startup weekend in Halifax. It was a little bit of a challenge to get the concept of entrepreneurship going on campus but I think theres some good
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urnal 12/27/12 - Technology :: Tech sector enjoys solid year - Business

things happening, Pond said. We tended to be quite narrow in engineering but now weve expanded to other faculties and weve generated an inter-university approach with Mount Alison, University of Moncton, UNBSJ and the community college system theyre all involved in the Pond Deshpande approach. Pond said that in addition to producing interesting student entrepreneurs, the provinces venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have been concentrating on starting global companies and its working. In Propel, they had 10 companies in 2011, seven in 2012 and he guesses there will be another 10 to 15 global startups next year. Theres some good things to come, no question, said Trevor MacAusland, executive director of Propel ICT. For a have-not region, weve had some pretty good results. Then theres more expansion from the money thats flowed into the region from previous acquisitions. Theres the recycling and re-investing of Radian6 money, MacAusland said, and named former Radian6 staffer Brian Dunphys company, One Lobby, an event management platform. It is staying in the region, I can definitely vouch for that. Pond agreed: Radian6 has 500 people in the Maritimes. They continue to hire even though they had some adjustments in Fredericton and Halifax. The idea is to get continued growth from these earlier startups that are more mature and global. Employees are learning how to sell and market globally and service global customers. He said the companies hes founded and invested in since becoming a full-time entrepreneur about 10 years ago continue to grow and some have even spawned others. We have the ones that were incubated and grown a few years ago, he said. Theyll continue to expand. Quite a few of the Radian6 and Q1 employees are investing in startups, he said and added that one gentlemen who left Radian6 is now launching his third startup. This is emotional to some extent (for N.B. entrepreneurs), as it is with me, he said. Weve decided were going to do it from here. Some days, its harder and some days its easier. MacAusland said the provincial government has done a good job of encouraging New Brunswicks technology entrepreneurs. I hear a lot of positive things from my colleagues outside the province saying that New Brunswick is leading the way, MacAusland said. Access to capital is always a problem but even that is getting better these days, he said. If youve got a valid concept or idea, there seems to be a lot more people willing to invest in startups, he said, and added that hell be looking to government to extend the small business investor credit to corporations in the new year. I think its an opportunity to see more startups spin out of existing businesses. Asked to name some up-and-comers hes excited about,
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MacAusland named UserEvent, Zaptap, SmartSkin and Enovex. Pond was generally bullish about the future: Theres a lot of momentum and that should continue into 2013.
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