4 Aug 2012
Have Lean Startups Helped Us Scale Larger Technology Companies?
Building larger technology companies is critical for our future economic well being, yet somehow we seem to pay more attention to the seed and startup phase. This post and a subsequent missive, Wisdom from Recent Waterloo Technology Acquisitions, aim to analyze some recipes for building technology businesses to scale first from the perspective of recent companies and then specifically through the lens of local acquisitions. This pair of posts will be based on extensive data, but the findings are intended to start discussion rather than be the last word. The importance of building new, innovative, and large, companies can’t be underestimated regionally, provincially and nationally. Here in Waterloo, with perhaps 10 000 jobs at a single behemoth, Research in Motion, the notion of job creation is particularly topical simply to lessen our dependency on such a large company. My sense is that, of late, most of the focus centres around making startups: small, energetic and entrepreneurial software, web and mobile companies, some simply building a mobile application. And, even with the current notion of Lean Startups or our Venture 2.0 approach, there is no question that building such early stage companies is probably an order of […]
3 Aug 2012
[Book Review]: The Idea Factory
The idea factory by Jon Gernter Published by Penguin PressWorldCat • LibraryThing • Google Books • BookFinder A marvellous exploration of a research and innovation powerhouse that, even viewed from this age of innovation, surprisingly anticipated many approaches we think of as modern breakthroughs.I’ve long admired Bell Labs and feel that many of its researchers and innovations interacted with an impacting my own career. While in University, the notion of working with or at Bell Labs was the highest aspiration for top thinkers in many fields. The Idea Factory is an engaging read and showed me how limited my understanding of that institution really was. First of all, from the 1920s to the 1980s, it was way ahead of its time as an agent of innovation. The approaches were brilliant and could be applied today, including the notion of building architecture and organization structures to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration. Breaking down “knowledge silos” was definitely countercultural in a century known for specialization. Secondly, the sheer number of transformational inventions, including the laser, transistor, fibre optics, satellite communications, the cellular mobile network, integrated circuits and the notion of information as digital that came from a single institution is both surprising and […]
16 Jul 2012
The ‘Bun Reunion – Celebrating the 1970’s Roots of the Digital Age
If you are in any way connected to this story, see link to event invitation at end of this post. In August 1972, just before the start of fall classes, a new arrival was causing a stir in the Math & Computer building at University of Waterloo – a brand new Honeywell 6050 mainframe size computer running GCOS (General Comprehensive Operating Supervisor) and TSS (TimeSharing System). The arrival of this computer (which quickly got nicknamed, “HoneyBun” and eventually “The ‘Bun”) set the stage for a whole new generation of computer innovators at University of Waterloo and was the foundation for many a computer and internet innovator. In retrospect, it was a fortuitous time to be young and engaged in computing. A fluid group of enthusiast programmers, “The Hacks” (a variant of the term “Hackers” popularized by MIT, yet not to be confused with the later “Crackers” who were all about malicious security breaches), revelled in getting these expensive machines (yet by today’s standards underpowered) to do super-human feats. The early 1970’s was the decade when software was coming into its own as a free-standing discipline, for the first time unbundled […]
1 Jul 2012
[Book Review]: How Will You Measure Your Life?
How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth Published by HarperCollinsWorldCat • LibraryThing • Google Books • BookFinder I’ve always had the luxury to work in jobs in which I’ve had great passion for the core mission. I’ve come to realize how rare that is. And, with the twenty-first century making career and personal choices an ever more complex labyrinth, that fact is indeed a shame. With this in mind, I was so pleased to be pointed to a book by Clay Christensen, one of the leading gurus of innovation with fresh insights on the topic of individual choices. As befits the author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, Christensen brings a fresh and personal perspective to the assist people in shaping their life to match personal motivation with life, relationship and career choices. I was pleased to see the issue of personal integrity covered in this book. What distinguishes this book from typical self help tomes is that, instead of providing generic answers, it defines a strategic framework for navigating the increasingly complex and personalized world. The book is well informed by his existing recipes for strategic innovation, […]
14 Jun 2012
Who Will Revive Canadian Venture Capital (Part I)
Today was a banner day for announcements involving a reset of the technology funding ecosystem in Canada. For a long time, the slow demise of Canadian Venture Capital has concerned me deeply, putting us at an international disadvantage in regards to funding and building our next generation of innovative businesses. You may recall my 2009 post Who Killed Canadian Venture Capital? A Peculiarly Canadian Implosion? which recounts the extinction of almost all of the A round investors working in Ontario. Since then, many of us have worked to bridge the gap by building Angel Networks, including Golden Triangle AngelNet (GTAN), where I chair the Selection process and using extreme syndication and leverage to replace a portion of the missing A rounds. Today, the launch of Round 13 Capital revealed a new model for venture finance centred around a strong Founder Board whose members are also LPs, each with a “meaningful” investment in the fund. My decision to get involved was based both on this strongly aligned wealth of operating wisdom coupled with the clear strength of the core team. The launch was widely covered by a range of tech savvy media, […]
3 Apr 2012
Social Innovation – Can Social Sector Learn from Tech Startups?
It is notable that much of the recent trend towards Social Innovation has come from people who began their careers in technology startups, in Silicon Valley or other technology clusters. Some notable examples include: Bill Gates, partly at the instigation of Warren Buffet who added his personal fortune to that of Gates, left Microsoft, the company he built, to dedicate his life to innovative solutions to large world issues such as global health and world literacy through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Started by Paul Brainerd, Seattle-based Social Venture Partners International is innovating at the intersection of technology and venture capital, with Venture Philanthropy. Paul sold Aldus Corporation (an innovator in desktop publishing applications, including Pagemaker) to Adobe in the mid 1990s. In his mid-40’s at the time of the Adobe acquisition, he was young enough to seek a significant and active social purpose in his life. Jeffrey Skoll, a Canadian-born billionaire living in Los Angeles and an early employee of eBay, has numerous activities aimed at Social Innovation including Skoll Foundation, Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship and Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. Most of his initiatives are aimed at empowering the individual Social […]
5 Jan 2012
Post-acquisition Reflections on MKS
First of all, I would like to congratulate Phil Deck, Michael Harris and the entire team for finding both a fabulous new home for MKS, but also one which represents a significant strategic financial transaction, valuing MKS at just over 4 times estimated FY2011 sales. Many people have asked for my perspective. In short, I continue to view the acquisition as favourable to customers, employees, Waterloo and its shareholders. To delve further, this article, written from my own perspective, gives both background and some lasting observations and universal lessons from MKS. Over the last decade, MKS largely sat out the wave of consolidations in Applications Lifecycle Management (ALM, that builds on the earlier category of Software Configuration Management), for example: IBM acquiring Rational Software for $2.1 billion on 6 December, 2002, Mercury Interactive acquiring Kintana for $225 million on 10 December, 2003, Serena Software acquiring Merant on 3 March, 2004 for $380 million, followed by Silver Lake Partners, a private equity firm, acquiring Serena Software for $1.2 billion on 11 November, 2005, IBM acquiring Telelogic (which had earlier bought MKS competitor Continuus Software) for $745 million during April 2008 The aforementioned almost $5 billion […]
17 Aug 2012
The Bun Reunion “AfterMath”
After welcoming people to the 050th Reunion of the ‘Bun and other 1970’s computing at University of Waterloo in mid-August 2012, I’ve gathered together a photo album, the brief presentation from the Gala and the many comments received outside of the earlier blog post.Before the Gala, almost 100 photos were gathered which have grown to almost 250 contributed by various attendees. Enjoy browsing the memories. Dave conroy Sytem controller Card ReaderLine Printer Removable Disc Driver Randall HowardDave Buckingham Charles Forsyth @ Math/UnixEric ManningDave Martindale Robert Biddle Mark NiemiecJim Gardner Vic DiCiccio Dave MartindalePeter & Sylvia RaynhamWendy Nabert WilliamsRohan JayasekeraHide Tokuda & San-Qui Li Dave + Randall @ Mark WilliamsAlex WhiteRandall @ MKSThe Hacks @ Randall&Judy WeddingMath BuildingMorven GentlemanMorven GentlemanEric ManningEric ManningCiaran O’DonnellMichael DillonPeter & Flaurie StevensRick BeachRick BeachBrad TempletonBrad TempletonBrad TempletonIan ChaprinRon & Amy HansenJon Livesey Johan GeorgeKelly BoothMike MalcolmIan! AllenLinda CarsonLinda Carson Dan DodgeDave HuronR Anne SmithTrevor J Tho,mpsonMath Building I’ve also included the brief presentation from the Gala on Saturday 18 August, 2012 in case anyone wants to see that:Finally, there was a lively discussion via email, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter both from attendees and those who were unable to join us. The following is a […]