Boosting Fledgling B.C. Startups

Mario Andretti | BCBusiness
As an entrepreneur, you need to allow yourself to make mistakes. As Mario Andretti said, “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not driving fast enough.”

A new program launched by BC Innovation Council will provide mentoring to entrepreneurs trying to get new startups off the ground.

A couple of Christmases ago, I was judging business plans submitted to a competition at UBC. Usually, with these student competitions, the plans are half-formed and need some work to differentiate them from a dozen other similar businesses out there.

But I remember one did catch my interest because it was so well prepared. The team involved were planning to operate in a tough market, but had a medical  device that would greatly increase the effectiveness of surgery. It was simple but innovative at the same time.

Then, yesterday I was at an event featuring new entrepreneurs and their business startups and there was the device presented by recent UBC grad Colin O’Neill. It looks like he’d crossed the chasm from idea to business startup.

Colin has developed the Target Tape, a grid-based tape that eliminates the guesswork in surgical practices. The device is currently undergoing clinical testing.

Stories like O’Neill’s were the order of the day as the BC Innovation Council unveiled its BCIC Acceleration Network program in the Metro Vancouver region during a Startup Canada tour stop in Vancouver. The provincially funded executive mentoring program will connect fledgling entrepreneurs with promising startups with experienced executives who will provide advice on growing the business.

A highlight of the event was a presentation by Burnaby-born-and-bred Rahim Fazal, who launched two businesses before he was 23, and went on to launch Involver, a Facebook marketing platform, in San Francisco. Involver was recently sold to Oracle Corp. and Fazal, only 30, is now an executive with Oracle.

Fazal told his own colourful startup stories, and had some advice for incipient entrepreneurs. They included:

• Join the world on your own terms. Fazal used guerilla-like strategies to launch his startups and didn’t let others pressure him to go to school for a traditional “job.”
• Be vulnerable. When things go wrong, you feel bad. There’s no getting around that. Be vulnerable enough to do so. Then start over again with another idea. Entrepreneurship is a continual learning process.
• Accept that you’re not perfect. Fazal quoted race driver Mario Andretti, saying that “if you’re not making mistakes, you’re not driving fast enough” to get across the concept that mistakes come with the territory. He described how he was running his company during a period of rapid growth and often didn’t have a clue as to what to do. His solution: concentrate on the next step instead of looking at the entire process.