B.C. Tech Sector Should Play Catch up

While B.C.'s tech industry saw some solid successes last year, the sector should set the bar even higher for 2012. After writing “online columns” for years before they were shortened to web logs and shortened again to blogs and then again to tweets, I have a unique perspective on writing for the web. Since 1998, I have put my opinions out there. Now, my friends at BCBusiness have allowed me to add to my monthly Tech Talk column with a more frequent blog.

By Brent Holliday / January 10, 2012

While B.C.’s tech industry saw some solid successes last year, the sector should set the bar even higher for 2012.

After writing “online columns” for years before they were shortened to web logs and shortened again to blogs and then again to tweets, I have a unique perspective on writing for the web.

Since 1998, I have put my opinions out there. Now, my friends at BCBusiness have allowed me to add to my monthly Tech Talk column with a more frequent blog.

It is so 2004 to write a blog, I know. But, while Twitter feeds my latent ADD, it gets me down that I can’t be more verbose. So, welcome to those of you who haven’t left already to read some shiny new tweet.

A Pretty Good Tech Year

Technology in Canada has had a pretty good year despite a large albatross named Research In Motion. Let me be more specific: New Brunswick had a pretty good year in technology. Yes, that hotbed of tech, where the locals pronounce it “ahnt,” not “aunt,” and where there are more covered bridges than known technology companies. Yes, this is the province that beat all others when it came to successful and valuable exits.

Q1 Labs, which the Americans will say is theirs because it’s headquartered in Waltham, Mass., is a Fredericton company started in 2001 that sold to IBM in October for a whopping $650 million. Earlier in the year, Radian6 Technologies, with reported trailing sales of $30 million, was bought by salesforce.com for $331 million. That’s almost a billion dollars in exits in one very good year from the province that gave us Donald Sutherland … and not much else.

We British Columbians can lay claim to Radian6 in a small way. The co-founder is Chris Ramsey, who I first met in 1998 at NCompass Labs in Vancouver. He was part of that company’s successful sale to Microsoft and then worked at a less successful start-up in town called Axonwave. Alas, he is originally from New Brunswick, but he must have learned everything here in Vancouver, right?

In B.C., 2011 was pretty good, but not New Brunswick good. We saw some successful companies bought up and their founders and early investors did well, which we hope will encourage them to do it again. MetroLeap Media (MetroLyrics) sold to CBS, Zite sold to Turner Broadcasting Inc., Veridae Systems to Tektronix, Subserveo to DST Systems and Flock to Zynga. More importantly, B.C. tech companies seem to be growing, hiring and landing new customers, which bodes well for 2012.

Hats off to New Brunswick and their very, very good year. In B.C., we would like to steal New Brunswick’s mantle in 2012. It takes more capital, more talent and some luck to build a big company and get a big exit, but it mostly takes commitment. Commitment is embodied in statements such as those from Ryan Holmes of Hootsuite in January’s BCBusiness. He wants to build a billion-dollar company right here. That’s the attitude!