Bootup To BCIC: Robinson’s Big Step

Will Danny Robinson be able to handle the shift from freewheeling tech start-up funder to government employee?

The BC tech community is still reverberating from yesterday’s news that Danny Robinson, founder of the private tech start-up accelerator Bootup Labs, left to become the new CEO of the government-funded BC Innovation Council (BCIC).

Meanwhile, it appears that Bootup Labs is closing up shop – supposedly only for a while, but who knows?

In its two-year life, Bootup was an interesting experiment in accelerating the development of start-up Internet-based companies. Modeled on a couple of other North American accelerators like California’s Y Combinator, it tried to ride the new (low-cost) method of business start-up – quickly develop a concept, throw it on the Web, and see where it takes you.

But Bootup had trouble attracting additional funding earlier this year. Most of its investment money came from angels, and my intelligence is that many local angels found the model too risky. They made their money from old-school technology and are confused and suspicious of this Web-based start-up trend. Underneath, it is essentially a new media business, which is a very difficult model for them to wrap their heads around. Also, it has about it the whiff of the early Internet frenzy and subsequent implosion.

Robinson may find he has a different problem with his new job at BCIC.

Yes, it’s now clear that BCIC has come a long way from its science-council roots and wants to carve out a place as a creator of a more robust ICT start-up ecosystem. And, yes, it does have government funding for programs, albeit dwindling in this era of government austerity.

But if Robinson had some problems with old-school angel investors, wait until he runs into the the old school bureaucratic structure that comes with government technology  funding. Whatever ministry now oversees BCIC following the recent cabinet shuffle – I think it’s the ministry of finance, but it’s hard to tell from the order in council – is likely to see it as a simple line item, unworthy of much attention.  

Robinson will no doubt bring some fresh energy and outlook to the council. Whether the council’s political masters appreciate it – or even care – is another story altogether.