Roadworthy project
EMPLOYEES’
CH ARICDSE
AW 16 2015-
Local startups build travelling exhibit that showcases best of Ottawa 2017 > PAGE 10
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January 18, 2016 Vol. 19, NO. 6
For daily business news visit obj.ca
Boot fits strategy Many local firms, including Klipfolio, have bootstrapped their way to success, writes Jeffrey Dale. > PAGE 6
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Spenser Williams and the team at Cumulus Dental believe their digital charting software will soon be generating millions in annual revenue. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON
Where does the Westin rank among the largest hotels in Ottawa? Find out in our latest list.
Drilling into an untapped market
> PAGE 12
Ex-dentist sees big future for software that eliminates need for paper dental charts
Canada Post Publications Mail: Agreement No. 41639025
Firm that makes voice-activated, 3D charting system will be ‘the next billion-dollar company out of Ottawa,’ co-founder says > PAGE 4
Mini-MBA in Ottawa beginning March 16th, 2016 The Advanced Management Course (AMC) captures the key themes of an MBA program in a concise 8-day format while allowing you to gain a comprehensive understanding of core management functions. Join the hundreds of participants from around the globe by joining the second program of McGill’s Mini-MBA Series offered in Toronto. Visit executive.mcgill.ca/mini-MBA to see our yearly offerings or contact us toll free at 1 888 419 0707.
1,700
THE OTTAWA HOSPITAL HAS MORE THAN 1,700 SCIENTISTS, CLINICAL INVESTIGATORS, GRADUATE STUDENTS, POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS AND STAFF CONDUCTING RESEARCH TO IMPROVE THE UNDERSTANDING, PREVENTION, DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF HUMAN DISEASE.
30,000
CANADIANS ARE DIAGNOSED WITH AN UNEXPLAINED BLOOD CLOT IN THE LEGS OR LUNGS EVERY YEAR.
600
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
ABOUT 600 PATIENTS COME TO THE OTTAWA HOSPITAL WITH BLOOD CLOTS IN THEIR LUNGS EVERY YEAR.
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$9M
IT’S ESTIMATED RECENT BREAKTHROUGH RESEARCH INTO BLOOD CLOTS AND CANCER WILL RESULT IN AN ANNUAL SAVINGS OF $9M IN CANADA ALONE.
Imagine that you are one of the thousands of people in Canada who are diagnosed with a potentially fatal blood clot this year. You take the day off work to see a specialist. You sit down in the doctor’s office, in shock. You’ve never heard of venous thromboembolism before, and although you are prepared to find out about treatment, you didn’t predict that your doctor is about to tell you that your blood clot might be a symptom of something else: cancer. Fortunately, that’s a scenario that is quickly disappearing, thanks to the results of some practicechanging research at The Ottawa Hospital. Despite a longstanding belief that unexplained blood clots are linked with cancer, patients with venous thrombosis are no longer being subjected to cancer screening because it’s been proven they don’t need to be –unless it is routine and age-appropriate screening such as pap smears and prostate checks. This journey of discovery began when an Ottawa-area patient with an unexplained blood clot raised questions about the actual risk of cancer. “We had to say, well, we don’t really know,” says Dr. Carrier, a hematologist and senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital. “And that led to the clinical trial.” The clinical trial took place at nine sites across Canada and almost 900 patients with new diagnoses of venous blood clots participated. Half of the randomized group received standard cancer screening and the other received more extensive diagnostic screening using a CT scan. There were a couple of surprising results, which have since been published in The New England Journal of Medicine. “We found the link that everybody thought was so big
DR. MARC CARRIER, HEMATOLOGIST AND SENIOR SCIENTIST AT THE OTTAWA HOSPITAL. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON
between venous thrombosis and cancer is not even as high as – or even close to – where we thought it was,” says Dr. Carrier, the lead author of the study and also an associate professor at the University of Ottawa. Only 3% of people with a venous blood clot had underlying cancer diagnosed over the following year, which is not far from rate of cancer in the general population. The results also proved that extensive screening also did not lead to the discovery of more cancers being diagnosed, or more cancers being missed. So unless patients have clear symptoms, there’s no point screening them for cancer anymore. No more screening means less anxiety for the patients, decreased radiation exposure, and a significant savings to the health care system. Clinicians are also freed up for other tasks. The trial results offered a made-in-Ottawa answer to a common question, not only for thrombosis experts but also for general care doctors, internists, and medical professionals of all different levels, but it’s only one example of the practice-changing research that is happening at The Ottawa Hospital every single day. “We are certainly uniquely positioned at The Ottawa Hospital; we have the research infrastructure,” says Dr. Carrier, who adds that the support for researchers is “phenomenal” at TOH in all sorts of different ways. “We see a lot of volume, so we have a good place to do research.” Practice-changing research at The Ottawa Hospital is about more than just some lab results. “It’s really about the patient being an equal partner in the research process,” says Dr. Carrier. “So not only participating in clinical trials or clinical studies, but being part of the steering committee so to speak.” Fundraising is currently underway for an expanded practice-changing research team and facilities at The Ottawa Hospital. As for venous thromboembolism: “We are struggling to create awareness,” says Dr. Carrier. “Creating awareness for venous disease is something that is close to my heart.” Dr. Carrier would also like patients to consider participating in research trials if the opportunity arises. After all, the advances in medical care have largely come about as a result of past clinical trials. “It’s an altruistic thing to do,” says Dr. Carrier. “And this is how we make patient care, better.” This is the fourth part of an ongoing series about The Ottawa Hospital. Look for the evolving archive on obj.ca.
THE OTTAWA HOSPITAL
RESEARCH THAT HELPS REAL PEOPLE, EVERY DAY
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WHEN PEOPLE THINK ABOUT RESEARCH THEY THINK ABOUT A LAB. BUT WE DO REALLY RIGOROUS RESEARCH WITH PATIENTS ALL THE TIME. — DR. MARC CARRIER, HEMATOLOGIST AND SENIOR SCIENTIST AT THE OTTAWA HOSPITAL.
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
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LAUNCH PAD
“I hated paper charts. You could spend hours looking for one chart. But if it’s all electronic, you have no excuse but to find the chart fast, effectively and with more accurate records – the whole thing.” – MARC LAMARRE, CO-FOUNDER OF CUMULUS DENTAL
Charting a new path to success Ottawa dentist-turned-entrepreneur says digital filing system will mean fewer headaches, more revenue for dental practitioners BY ADAM FEIBEL adam@obj.ca
M
arc Lamarre wants to change the way dentists attend to their patients. Following his 2008 retirement from a 28-year career in dentistry, Mr. Lamarre found himself thinking about a new project: obtaining an executive MBA from the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management as a springboard to starting his own business. He wanted to solve a problem that had bothered him for many years in his own dental practice: the inefficient use of paper charts containing patients’ dental records. Those paper charts, still in use in most dentists’ offices today, can too easily be lost or even destroyed, Mr. Lamarre says. Filing eats away hours of the day, and because the charts need to be kept for a minimum of seven years, they take up lots of space. “I hated paper charts,” he recalls. “We were often losing them or misfiling them. You could spend hours looking for one chart. But if it’s all electronic, you have no excuse but to find the chart fast, effectively and with more accurate records – the whole thing.” Cumulus Dental, co-founded in 2013 by Mr. Lamarre along with Victor Varona and Paul Bisson, looks to bring digital charting to the more than 190,000 businesses in the North American dental industry, a steadily growing market worth about $14 billion in Canada and $119 billion in the United States, according to IBISWorld.
The subscription-based software offers a 3D dental charting system that’s voiceactivated and fully interactive, providing greater detail in visualized displays of a patient’s teeth and eliminating the need for a second operator to dictate or transcribe. “I had to look at my own career as a dentist and ask what would make me adopt new technology,” Mr. Lamarre says. “Does it save time? Will it generate more revenue? And the third, the most important one, are there better patient outcomes?” The company says its software will allow dentists and hygienists to perform an examination in less than a third of the time of a conventional exam. More efficiency means more appointments and that means more revenue, says Mr. Lamarre. As for better patient outcomes, Cumulus has also been developing a digital periodontal probe that the company claims will be the only device to measure the pocket depths of gingival tissues and the temperature within them, an early indicator of inflammation that can be caused by gum disease and other systemic diseases. That’s due to be launched in 2017 and will only be compatible with the company’s 3D charting system. In the digital age, why exactly are dentists still using paper charts? “It’s because (making) the current digital charts are actually slower than doing it on paper,” says Mr. Lamarre. “With our system, I’ll just go, ‘Tooth 1, 5, MOD amalgam,’ and boom, that’s it, done. It’s registered, it’s in the tooth, it’s in 3D, so
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
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From left, Muran Yang, Victor Varona, Spenser Williams and Miguel Planas are part of the team at Cumulus Dental, a local startup that makes 3D dental charting software. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON
we’re really increasing that speed.” Cumulus’s go-to-market strategy includes promotion at dental conventions, advertising in dental publications and “introducing the software to every dental and hygiene school in North America for free,” so that new professionals will demand the product when they enter the workforce, he says. The company has gained preliminary funding from public sources such as the Ontario Centres of Excellence, the National Research Council of Canada and BioTalent Canada, along with several dentists who have privately invested. Cumulus plans to launch its softwareas-a-service product after the second quarter of 2016 and will soon seek an investment of $1.1 million, along with
another $1.9 million in the second half of the year to finance its development, based on a pre-money valuation of $4 million. The company projects between $600,000 and $700,000 in revenues for the final two quarters of 2016, based on an anticipated end-of-Q2 launch. Once that ramps up and Cumulus adds its hardware product to the mix, Mr. Lamarre expects 2017 revenues to be in the millions. “Dentistry’s a very lucrative market,” he says. “Down the road, if we get to 10 per cent of the market share between our software and our probes, we could be looking at $80 million in revenues very easily, if not higher … I let people know that we’re the next billion-dollar company out of Ottawa.”
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CHANGE LOG ‘SOCIAL SHIPPING’ STARTUP LOOKS TO DISRUPT INTERNATIONAL DELIVERY Flyta, a new Ottawa app company, promises to lower the cost of international shipping by connecting users with spare cargo space. The company counts DHL, TNT Express and Allegro Freight among its partners. The bootstrapped courier company placed third at Startup Weekend Ottawa in 2014 and was named a topfive startup by FounderFuel at the International Startup Festival in Montreal in 2015. Flyta will be competing against major couriers such as Canada Post, the United States Postal Service and Shyp, but CEO Farhad Khan says that based on market traction, it’s expecting revenues of $500,000 this year and $1.5 million in 2017.
FIRM AIMS TO BE LINKEDIN FOR ‘BLUE-COLLAR’ WORKERS Ottawa business owner Josh Molot believes LinkedIn makes a lot of sense for business professional types but doesn’t necessarily meet the needs of “blue-collar” workers like himself. The owner of Garden Heroes Landscape Design and Construction for 12 years, Mr. Molot has taken on a new venture, BlueCaller.com. It combines a social network with a marketplace and recruitment centre similar to LinkedIn but with a heavier emphasis on video and images to better illustrate a tradesperson’s resumé. The site will be free to join, but will take an 8.55 per cent commission on work contracts secured through its marketplace. The site plans to launch in early 2016, with iOS and Android apps to come. STARTUP CANADA PARTNERS WITH HUB OTTAWA FOR CO-WORKING SPACE Startup Canada has partnered with eight Ontario co-working spaces, among them HUB Ottawa, as part of its Startup Space Fund created to better connect local and travelling entrepreneurs with places to work. Partner spaces in Ontario will be made available to those who join the Startup Canada Membership program, set to launch this year.
2015 – A Banner Year for Ottawa’s Business Community Ottawa Day at Queens Park
by Bruce Lazenby, President and CEO, Invest Ottawa
I
t was a tremendous year for the Nation’s Capital. There was magnetic energy in the air as our knowledge-based industries saw a level of growth that had been absent in recent years. As December came to a close, nearly 70,000 people were working in more than 1750 technology companies. Here are some of the key achievements we saw in 2015:
The Most Business Friendly City in the Americas
and
present:
Mayor’s Breakfast Series A unique opportunity to enjoy breakfast with His Worship Mayor Jim Watson and hear from business and community leaders about issues critical to Ottawa. Guest Speaker: Mayor Naheed Nenshi, City of Calgary Thursday, February 4, 2016 Location: Ottawa City Hall Registration: 7:00 am Buffet breakfast: 7:30 am Presentation: 8:00 am
In October, representatives from the City of Ottawa and our organization attended the International Economic Development Council annual conference to accept a very important award. Last year, Ottawa was crowned the most business friendly, mid-sized city, in the Western Hemisphere by the Financial Times. It’s the largest regional rankings published by the magazine and is an intensively competitive field. Congratulations to all Ottawa businesses. Your hard work is the reason for this tremendous achievement!
Shopify Leads the Charge INDIVIDUAL TICKETS: $35.00 + HST (Members) $50.00 + HST (Non-Members)
Register online at www.ottawachamber.ca Event Partners
November brought a whirlwind of meetings for Ottawa’s Mayor, Jim Watson, Invest Ottawa and fifteen (15) local businesses during our largest ever trade mission to China. Out of the gate, five major agreements were signed with Beijing’s Mayor, Wang Anshun. The delegation also met with over 100 Chinese investors and entrepreneurs with specific interests in the wireless, communications and medical devices sectors. In two years, we have organized ten outgoing missions to China, while receiving nearly three dozen incoming delegations. From this, around 120 Ottawa companies have benefited from bilateral trade, investment and partnership activities.
Becoming Canada’s Innovation Leader
This summer we studied the state of business innovation in Ottawa. Why? Because by 2018, we want Ottawa to be the most innovative city in Canada, where the most talented people in the world choose to work, play and grow. Now the results are in and the road map to achieving this has been drawn. Technology is transforming the world, the jobs and the skill sets that companies are looking for. It is the major cornerstone of economic growth for our city. More will be announced in the coming months but let’s simply say, our excitement level is immense. Happy New Year to you all! As always, we would love to hear your thoughts or comments.
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If there was a banner carrier for the strength of Ottawa’s private sector in 2015, Shopify would be it. The eyes of the world turned to Ottawa when the ecommerce company filed its IPO. Although this had been anticipated for months, it did not quell the excitement of seeing the company’s founding team ring the morning bell at the NYSE. With Shopify’s success, Ottawa technology companies have now raised more public money than every city in Canada over the last five years, combined.
In the late spring, twenty senior stakeholders from Ottawa’s ecosystem, led by Mayor Jim Watson, travelled to Queen’s Park for face-to-face meetings with six key Cabinet ministers. The purpose was to show senior provincial decisionmakers that Ottawa is a region with world-class opportunity for economic development, and how to better partner with the Ontario government. Our message was clear: Ottawa’s tech sector is strong, experienced and ready to spark innovation.
COMMENTARY
Klipfolio’s Allan Wille built the company with financial help from friends and family, then landed venture capital after the firm had a strong user base. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON
Bootstrapping the best fit for many startups New firms need cash, but Jeffrey Dale explains why seeking venture capital right off the bat often isn’t the smartest play for young companies
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
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ver the past couple of years, I have commented extensively about the challenges startups must overcome to be successful. Recently, I wrote about how new federally funded accelerators and incubators are graduating large cohorts of welltrained entrepreneurs who are facing the question: “Now what?” Successful startups need great ideas, smart people, money and a little luck. Entrepreneurs have control over their ideas and the people they hire, but money and luck are a different story. And since we can’t do anything about luck, let’s focus on the other key, but often uncontrollable, factor in their success or failure: money. Startups have a couple of choices when it comes to funding – they can finance themselves or find someone else to do it. Most tech companies need to secure at least some outside capital to survive the critical early startup stage. The question is whether to turn to friends, family and angels for funding or look for venture capital. The biggest difference between self-financed companies or those with
limited investor support – known as “bootstrapped” startups – and wellfunded companies that are backed by early-stage venture capital investors is how fast they can grow. VC-backed startups are generally able to expand their teams more quickly than companies that are bootstrapped. While access to venture capital does not guarantee long-term success, it does increase a company’s ability to scale quickly and take advantage of market opportunities. On the other hand, bootstrapped companies tend to struggle to expand their workforces and therefore often require more time to achieve key milestones. A typical bootstrapped company relies on its founders to work for little or no pay while employing teams that are paid below-market rates, adding staff only when absolutely necessary. That way, the company can stretch out its working capital until it is either investmentready or cash flow positive. In addition, bootstrapped companies often require government programs to provide them with grants and credits to support their development activities.
Early-stage VC-backed startups are few and far between, mainly because they face a classic catch-22 scenario: they need great talent to get financing, but they need financing to attract top talent. That, combined with the fact that Canada has very few early-stage venture capital companies and the definition of “early-stage” is getting later all the time, means the probability of a young startup securing venture financing is low. As a result, most of Canada’s successful tech companies rely on a combination of bootstrapping and venture capital, using their own funds or money borrowed from founders’ friends and family to support their initial product development, then turning to venture capital when they are prepared to grow. Cognos is one of the best examples of a local company that used this strategy. The software maker, which was eventually acquired by IBM, started off as a consulting firm called Quasar that used its own revenue to build its initial PowerHouse product. When it made the switch from a consulting company to a product company in the mid-1980s, it sought external financing to fuel its growth and evolve into the successful firm that became known as Cognos. Klipfolio is a more recent example. The software firm began life as Serence in 2001, bootstrapping itself with help from its founders’ friends and family to build and mature its product through a high level of customized services. By 2008, the company had a strong user base to finance the product and changed its name to Klipfolio. Since then, it has used two venture capital rounds to fund its growth and success. Fluidware, an Ottawa software company that was acquired in 2014 by California-based SurveyMonkey, is another great example of a firm that bootstrapped its way to major growth. The company had two original founders: a highly experienced technology executive, Eli Fathi, and a talented developer, Aydin Mirzaee, who was a recent university graduate with a unique idea for a product.
GREAT RETURN ON INVESTMENT As Fluidware grew over the next six years, it reached sales of more than $5 million per year and built a team of more than 75 people. Its founders prided themselves on the fact that the company was selffinanced, with few outside investors other than friends and family. They worked 15 hours a day, six or seven days a week, to manage and grow the business. When the company was sold, the founders and original investors received a great return on their investment. Fluidware’s story demonstrates how an experienced serial entrepreneur such as Mr. Fathi can self-finance a company and act in many executive capacities at the same time. Continued on page 14
Great River Media 250 City Centre Ave., Suite 500 Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6K7 obj.ca TELEPHONE Phone: 613-238-1818 Sales Fax: 613-248-4564 News Fax: No faxes, email editor@obj.ca PUBLISHER Michael Curran, 238-1818 ext. 228 publisher@obj.ca CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Terry Tyo, 238-1818 ext. 268 terry@greatriver.ca EDITOR, PRINT CONTENT David Sali, 238-1818 ext. 269 david@greatriver.ca EDITOR, ONLINE CONTENT Tom Pechloff, 238-1818 ext. 291 editor@obj.ca COPY EDITOR Krystle Kung ADVERTISING SALES General Inquiries, 238-1818 ext. 286 sales@obj.ca Wendy Baily, 238-1818 ext. 244 wbaily@obj.ca Carlo Lombard, 238-1818 ext. 230 carlo@obj.ca Alison Stewart, 238-1818 ext. 226 alison@obj.ca SPECIAL PROJECTS Nikki DesLauriers, 238-1818 ext. 240 nikki@obj.ca MARKETING & SALES CO-ORDINATOR Cristha Sinden, 238-1818 ext. 222 cristha@greatriver.ca CREATIVE DIRECTOR Tanya Connolly-Holmes, 238-1818 ext. 253 creative@obj.ca ART DEPARTMENT Regan VanDusen, 238-1818 ext. 254 regan@greatriver.ca Celine Paquette, 238-1818 ext. 252 celine@greatriver.ca FINANCE Jackie Whalen, 238-1818 ext. 250 jackie@greatriver.ca SUBSCRIPTIONS/DISTRIBUTION Patti Moran, 238-1818 ext. 248 subscribe@obj.ca PRINTED BY Transcontinental Qualimax 130 Adrien-Robert, Parc Industriel Richelieu Gatineau, QC J8Y 3S2 NEWS RELEASES News releases for the Ottawa Business Journal’s print or Internet news teams can be e-mailed to editor@obj.ca. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR We welcome opinions about any material published in the Ottawa Business Journal or issues of interest to local businesspeople. Only letters with the writer’s full name, address and telephone number will be considered for publication. Addresses and phone numbers will not be published, but they might be used to verify authenticity. Letters can be e-mailed to editor@obj.ca.
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FOR SALE - COMMERCIAL
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WHAT MAKES A GREAT TEAM? TELFER MBA CONFERENCES SERIES EXPLORES HOW TALENT IS NOT ENOUGH
W
hen recording industry icon Quincy Jones brought 40 of the world’s top artists together to record “We Are the World” for Ethiopian famine relief, he famously put this sign at the studio entrance: “Check your ego at the door.”
• Shared values that foster an openness to accepting a common purpose (without political or personal agenda conflict)
SESSIONAL PROFESSOR, LEADERSHIP AND TEAM DEVELOPMENT
• Mutual respect, made all that much easier to attain with shared values and a commitment to a common goal • Honest, open and selfless communication that can improve the team dynamic and fuel healthy and constructive debate • Lastly, the growth of trust, reinforced by personal accountability and dependability, derived from each team member consistently
performing and delivering as they’ve committed to do Telfer will explore these themes and others, with a panel of respected academic and industry experts. “What Makes Great Teams Great? takes place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 30. All MBA Conferences are open to students, alumni and the community at large. Best of all, they are free of charge. To learn more or to register, call 613-5625800 ext. 7019 or visit www.telfer. uOttawa.ca/mbaconferences.
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What makes a great team great? That’s what the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management will explore in January through its MBA Conferences series.
The ingredients of a great team For an individual’s talents to flourish and fully benefit the team, Clayman said there must first be:
RICHARD CLAYMAN
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
Jones knew that to pull this off, he needed people who were accustomed to being in the spotlight to look past themselves and focus on the broader vision of what they were there to achieve. They had to appreciate that this was a team effort.
“We will explore why some teams function really well, while others don’t, even if they have talented people on them,” said Richard Clayman, Sessional Professor, Leadership and Team Development, at Telfer. “This conference will focus on those critical ingredients that make teams perform at a high level, and why pure talent and the money to acquire it is not enough.”
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7 questions to ask a cloud service provider
Ottawa’s BriteSky highlights the industry’s fine print
T
he world of enterprise IT services is changing fast. Organizations of all sizes across industry verticals are looking to the cloud for services, cost efficiencies and stability. If your organization is like most that are having “cloud conversations,” you must do your homework to ensure you’re getting what you need and what you’re paying for.
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
Knowing what to ask and what to expect from your cloud service provider is key to a successful experience for your organization. Here are seven questions to consider:
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WHAT SERVICES AND OPTIONS DOES THE PROVIDER OFFER? It’s important that your provider can give you a solution that meets the needs of your business. Ask about a cloud readiness assessment for your applications. Find a provider that has experience and technical expertise across a wide range of technologies. HOW DO I KNOW THE PROVIDER FOLLOWS INDUSTRY STANDARDS AND PROCEDURES? Ask questions: Does the provider have
certifications like SOC2? Are the staff security cleared? What policies does the provider follow and do they use robust enterprise-grade architectures? Look for companies that have been validated by a third party to give you added assurance. HOW EASILY CAN I MOVE MY DATA IN AND OUT? Moving to the cloud is the easy part, generally speaking. Exiting or moving to another cloud can be a different matter. In this case, we’re not talking about the provider’s technical capabilities, but the devilish details buried in the fine print of a service contract. If you decide to sever a relationship, how easy does the provider make it to get your data off of their servers? Look for hidden costs in the contract. WHO OWNS THE DATA? Many organizations have contract terms that give them ownership over your data and the right to keep a copy. That’s because your data is often a source of revenue, sold as marketing analytics feedstock to third parties. WHAT IS THE PROVIDER’S ONPREMISE EXPERTISE BEYOND THE CLOUD? Depending on your business, it may not make sense to put all your data in the
cloud, due to data sovereignty privacy concerns, and other business continuity issues. Maybe what you really need is a hybrid solution that keeps some of your data onpremise. But this can only be determined through a comprehensive cloud readiness assessment. If a hybrid solution is the best fit for you, what expertise does the provider have to deliver on and support the on-premise side of the equation? IS PRICE THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR? When comparing one service package with another, you need to make an honest apples-to-apples comparison, which can be difficult to do. People often get stuck on the cost of storage, but many providers inflate the bill with other added costs. Some providers take their cue from traditional cellular voice and data plans. They “estimate” how much data storage you are going to need for a year, bill you for that amount whether or not you use it all, and then apply overage charges if your needs surpass expectations. Look for providers that only charge you for what you use.
And remember, it’s not just about storage. You may also need a comprehensive and affordable backup and disaster recovery plan that will ensure your business has as little downtime as possible. DOES THIS FIT MY REQUIREMENTS? As with any trusted vendor relationship, a provider should be doing more listening than talking, to understand your business and recommend only what you really need. How adaptable is the cloud service to your business? Does the service meet your unique business objectives? Can you grow and take advantage of additional services offered by the cloud provider? And think about RTO – recovery time objective. This is how long you can afford to be down before harm is done to your business. How quickly can a service provider restore your data in a disaster recovery scenario? Depending on how a cloud service is architected, the answer can vary from a few hours to several days. Have a chat with BriteSky about what your business needs. To learn more, please visit www.britesky. ca or call 613-836-3700.
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Employers walk a fine line to accommodate mental illness It’s a juggling act between human rights, health & safety, business interests
J
ust like a physical illness or disability, employers have an obligation to accommodate mental illness. But managing and accommodating a mental illness is often a much more complex and sensitive affair. Accommodation must walk a fine line between the rights of the individual who may be suffering from a mental illness, and the overall safety of the work environment for themselves and others. The best approach is to appreciate what you don’t know and defer to the judgment of qualified medical and legal experts. An employer must balance its obligations under the following pieces of legislation: •
•
The obligation to protect all employees from workplace violence and harassment under the amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act introduced in 2010 through Bill 168 The obligation to accommodate mental health disabilities under the Human Rights Code
The Agropur & Teamsters case: Ensuring workplace safety Take, for example, the 2012 case in which an employee at a dairy plant with the Natrel Division of Agropur was diagnosed with severe mental health conditions. After nine years of service, the employee began having serious difficulties due to a past traumatic event. His problems included post-traumatic stress disorder, impulse control disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Despite months of treatment, the employee’s behaviour became erratic. He made statements that were considered threatening to both his manager and an HR representative.
The arbirator hearing the case ruled that, while the employee’s condition did to some extent mitigate his culpability, his actions had not been shown to be directly linked to his illnesses. Bell was justified in its decision to terminate employment on the grounds that it had a right to protect its business interests. It all came down to the trustworthiness of the employee.
The union challenged this under the Human Rights Code, on the grounds that the employee was making improvement with appropriate medical care. At arbitration, Agropur successfully defended its decision under Bill 168 and the OHSA.
Again, determinations about the employee’s mental illness and how it did, or did not, prompt his actions, was based on the testimony of qualified medical professionals.
Agropur was, however, ordered to return the employee to employment status for the sole purpose of allowing him to qualify for long-term disability benefits. The Bell Canada & Unifor case: Failure to justify criminal acts In this case, an employee was stealing from pay phone coin boxes and made a premeditated effort over a 24-month period to cover up his actions and to lay the blame on a co-worker. This employee had been with Bell for 30 years and had a clean disciplinary record. In his defence, it was argued that his behaviour was a result of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. He had seen a stranger commit suicide by jumping off a bridge.
The arbitrator followed the example set in the Agropur case and ordered Bell Canada to reinstate the employee for the sole purpose of allowing him to qualify for disability benefits. Act with compassion, an open mind Regardless of the circumstances, an employer’s best approach in dealing with employees with mental illness is to act with kindness, openness and understanding. Care must be taken to avoid snap judgments, or accommodations that end up leaving an employee isolated or singled out in a discriminatory manner. An employer’s obligations related to mental illness in the workplace, and even stressrelated health issues, have changed a lot in the past 10 or 20 years. Recognize what you don’t know, act with caution, and consult with qualified medical and legal experts before taking action. For more information, visit Emond Harnden at www.ehlaw.ca
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
•
The obligation to take all reasonable precautions to protect employees’ health and safety under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA)
It’s as tempting as it is risky to act on the basis of perceptions. Remember, you’re not a doctor. Even if you are, you’re likely not your employee’s doctor.
Following a year long absence and based on assessments by the employee’s healthcare team, Agropur decided it was too much of a safety risk for the employee to return to work in the fast-paced and stressful environment of a mechanized production plant; his employment was terminated
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TOURISM
“It was about putting the flag in the sand to start a collaboration. Ottawa 2017 was looking for innovation, and we brought a product to bear together. Let’s see where we can go next.”– AXIA STRATEGISTS’ JASON DALEY, WHO OVERSAW OTTAWA 2017 KIOSK DESIGN
A travelling kiosk that promotes Ottawa 2017 activities is housed in a PODS shipping container that was outfitted by a group of local startups. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON
Tech firms team up on Ottawa 2017 promotional vehicle Travelling video display set up by local startups shows city’s spirit of innovation, entrepreneur says BY DAVID SALI david@obj.ca
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he new Ottawa 2017 travelling information kiosk is more than just a promotional tool for next year’s momentous Canada 150 events, local entrepreneurs say – it’s also a great vehicle to show off what tech startups can do for the city’s economy. Jason Daley, whose firm AXIA Strategists oversaw the project, says the portable theatre featuring a 270-degree video show housed in a storage pod on wheels is an example of the kind of innovative thinking that thrives in Ottawa’s tech sector. “Our local startups have some phenomenal technology and need opportunities to showcase their technology,” he says. “(Ottawa 2017) is going to allow Ottawa’s technology startup community to shine and bring some of their technology to a public audience. My
vision for this is to use this as a starting point and that with our burgeoning relationship with Ottawa 2017, we could be tasked with other opportunities, or
collaborations could be spearheaded by the startups themselves and then invited to partner with Ottawa 2017.” A number of local companies worked together to produce the kiosk, which was unveiled in November and will spend the next two years travelling the region in an eight- by 16-foot PODS shipping container to promote Canada 150 events. Among its most recent stops was at the Canadian Tire Centre, where it was stationed outside Gate 1 before the Ottawa Senators hosted the Boston Bruins on Jan. 9. Gatineau-based NovoMedia provided the high-tech video screens, which require five separate video projectors to display their images, while Ottawa’s Stratdgi provided the software to make the touch screens interactive. Local marketing agency Mediaplus developed the video content. A couple of other Ottawa firms, ChannelK Media and Linkmundo, pitched in with additional support. Their group effort beat out five other contenders to win the five-figure contract. While the deal won’t make anybody rich,
Mr. Daley says the project wasn’t about profit as much as perception. Now that the Ottawa 2017 Bureau has a better idea of what the city’s homegrown tech innovators can produce, he hopes that paves the way for future, and perhaps more lucrative, endeavours. “This is the catalyst to do more,” says Mr. Daley, who is also the entrepreneurin-residence at Carleton University’s 1125@Carleton innovation lab. “It was about putting the flag in the sand to start a collaboration. Ottawa 2017 was looking for innovation, and we brought a product to bear together. Let’s see where we can go next.” Ottawa 2017 Bureau’s executive director Guy Laflamme, who got the idea for the travelling kiosk after seeing the storage pods at Ottawa Race Weekend festivities, says one of the agency’s goals for the Canada 150 celebration is to “showcase the best of Ottawa’s technology sector.” The kiosk is a great start, he adds. “We want to show the degree of innovation and creativity that exists in our city,” he explains. “Part of the tactic to achieve that will be to engage and showcase as many local technology companies as possible through the program. The main objective of Ottawa 2017 is about growing our economy through tourism, but also by showing that Ottawa is a vibrant community for companies to establish and for companies to grow and to show the calibre of talent that we have to offer.”
— SPONSORED CONTENT —
Ottawa Tourism welcomes the next generation of traveler
‘Every Canadian’s second home town’ woos millennials ahead of 2017
T
hey stay longer than other travelers, come back more often and provide priceless advertising for Canada’s Capital Region with their social media savvy. We’re talking, of course, about millennials – that increasingly powerful and influential group of consumers born in the ’80s and ’90s.
It’s a point not lost at any level of Canada’s tourism industry. Destination Canada, the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation and Ottawa Tourism are all working hard to ensure the millennial traveler is well courted ahead of the nation’s 150th birthday in 2017. For the team at Ottawa Tourism, that means catering to how millennials want
“The days of the mail order travel guide and paper street map are long gone for them,” said Jantine Van Kregten, Director of Communications at Ottawa Tourism. “Today, it’s all about the digital experience, with location-based services that travelers can access the second they step off the plane.” Ottawa Tourism has invested heavily in a mobile-friendly website and various social media channels so millennial visitors can quickly access and share information, develop their travel itineraries and start a conversation with its team. “With so many places where people can find information now, our best role is that of curator, to help travelers organize their visit around specific themes, like what to do for New Year’s, or where to find great places for a first kiss on Valentine’s Day,” Van Kregten said.
from the U.K. His five videos about his first trip to Ottawa have each had more than 68,000 views since he published them in early August.
• Seek social and experiential travel activities and experiences that will lead to personal growth
German actress and vlogger Nilam Farooq (aka Daaruum) has bagged more than 80,000 views on her Ottawa video in only two months.
• Are pioneer travelers who discover and promote via social media destinations not yet visited by traditional tourists
During Winterlude last year, Australian Instagram influencer Lauren Bath shared Ottawa images with her 450,000+ followers.
• Are more likely to use technology to make recommendations
Such millennial social media punch is expected to pay big dividends for Ottawa with the One Young World 2016 Summit in September.
The viral nature of social media has redefined word-of-mouth advertising. According to research by Destination Canada, millennials: Seek social and experiential travel activities and experiences that will lead to personal growth Are pioneer travelers who discover and promote via social media destinations not yet visited by traditional tourists Are more likely to use technology to make recommendations For example … Take Ben Brown, a daily YouTube vlogger
“Over 1,500 very connected and smart young adults from 196 countries, active as entrepreneurs or philanthropists, will descend on Ottawa just before 2017,” Van Kregten said. “They are great ambassadors to go back and share their great experience with friends and family and promote Ottawa as a travel destination.” Be part of the conversation with Ottawa Tourism For more information, please visit www.ottawatourism.ca or follow on Twitter, @Ottawa_Tourism and #MyOttawa.
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
According to the World Travel Organization, millennials accounted for more than 20 per cent of all global travel in 2010. That number is expected to double by 2020.
to be engaged and given access to the information they need for an enjoyable trip.
Going viral The viral nature of social media has redefined word-of-mouth advertising. According to research by Destination Canada, millennials:
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THE LIST 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
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Company/Address Phone/Fax/Web The Westin Ottawa* 11 Colonel By Dr. Ottawa, ON K1N 9H4 613-560-7000 / 613-560-7359 thewestinottawa.com Ottawa Marriott 100 Kent St. Ottawa, ON K1P 5R7 613-238-1122 / 613-783-4228 ottawamarriott.com Fairmont Château Laurier 1 Rideau St. Ottawa, ON K1N 8S7 613-241-1414 / 613-562-7030 fairmont.com Delta Ottawa City Centre 101 Lyon St. Ottawa, ON K1R 5T9 613-237-3600 / 613-237-9114 marriott.com/YOWDM Courtyard by Marriott Ottawa East 200 Coventry Rd. Ottawa, ON K1K 4S3 613-741-9862 / 613-741-4913 marriott.com/yowoe Lord Elgin Hotel 100 Elgin St. Ottawa, ON K1P 5K8 613-235-3333 / 613-235-3223 lordelgin.ca Hilton Lac-Leamy 3 Casino Blvd. Gatineau, QC J8Y 6X4 819-790-6444 / 819-790-6408 hiltonlacleamy.com Hilton Garden Inn Ottawa Airport 2400 Alert Rd. Ottawa, ON K1V 1S1 613-288-9001 / 613-249-8729 ottawaairport.hgi.com Novotel Ottawa* 33 Nicholas St. Ottawa, ON K1N 9M7 613-230-3033 / 613-760-4767 novotelottawa.com Brookstreet 525 Legget Dr. Ottawa, ON K2K 2W2 613-271-1800 / 613-271-3541 brookstreet.com Holiday Inn Ottawa East* 1199 Joseph Cyr St. Ottawa, ON K1J 7T4 613-744-1060 / 613-744-7845 chimohotel.com Cartier Place Suite Hotel 180 Cooper St. Ottawa, ON K2P 2L5 613-236-5000 / 613-238-3842 suitedreams.com Les Suites Hotel, Ottawa 130 Besserer St. Ottawa, ON K1N 9M9 613-232-2000 / 613-232-1242 les-suites.com Sheraton Ottawa Hotel 150 Albert St. Ottawa, ON K1P 5G2 613-238-1500 / 613-238-8497 sheratonottawa.com Crowne Plaza Gatineau-Ottawa* 2 Montcalm St. Gatineau, QC J8X 4B4 819-778-3880 / 819-778-3309 crowneplaza.com/gatineauottawa Extended Stay Canada, Ottawa Downtown 141 Cooper St. Ottawa, ON K2P 0E8 613-236-7500 / 613-563-2836 extendedstayamerica.com Four Points by Sheraton Hotel & Conference Centre Gatineau-Ottawa 35 Laurier St. Gatineau, QC J8X 4E9 819-778-6111 / 819-778-3647 fourpointsgatineau.com Albert at Bay Suite Hotel 435 Albert St. Ottawa, ON K1R 7X4 613-238-8858 / 613-238-1433 albertatbay.com Travelodge Ottawa Hotel & Conference Centre* 1376 Carling Ave. Ottawa, ON K1Z 7L5 613-722-7600 / 613-722-2226 travelodgeottawa.com Courtyard by Marriott Ottawa Downtown 350 Dalhousie St. Ottawa, ON K1N 7E9 613-241-1000 / 613-241-4804 marriottcourtyardottawa.com
No. of guest rooms
Price range (high season/ low season)
LARGEST HOTELS (RANKED BY NO. OF GUEST ROOMS)
No. of employees
Room service?/ Restaurant?/ Pool?/ Fitness centre?
Free Internet?/ Parking/ Owner/ CAA rating General manager SCG Aquarius Ottawa as Y general partner of SWA $35 (valet) Ottawa 4 Ross Meredith
496
$259 to $599 $189 to $450
380
Y Y Y Y
492
$199 to $349 $129 to $199
325
Y Y Y Y
Y 22 4
426
$239 to $499 $239 to $499
400
Y Y Y Y
N 35 4
410
$199 to $309 $159 to $199
220
Y Y Y Y
Y 21 4
397
$159 to $289 $129 to $249
120
N Y Y Y
355
$179 to $429 $149 to $369
100
Y Y Y Y
315
Y Y Y Y
100
Y Y Y Y
Y $23 4 Y $12.95 4
Y 30 3
Spin Kitchen & Bar restaurant; Starbucks; meeting room including Summit revolving room and executive meeting floor; concierge levels and lounge; Marriott Rewards Program; 24-hour fitness club; Lobby Business desk; 37” HD TV; refrigerator
Capital Hotel LP Claude J. Sauvé
Business centre; work desk; iron/ironing board; bathrobe; hair dryer; 24-hour room service. Members of Fairmont President’s Club receive complimentary high-speed Internet access.
Delta Hotels & Resorts Zubair Siddiqi
Two-line phones; voicemail; in-room coffee maker; free newspaper; 42-inch HD TV; express checkout; business centre; Delta Privilege Program; Meeting Maestros Program and amenities; fitness centre; indoor pool; iPod/MP3 clock radio; SmartDesk
Gillin Engineering and Construction Ltd. David O. Smythe
Casiloc Inc. (Resto-Casino) Y Alain Miroux Complimentary 4
WND
326
$119 to $209 $119 to $209
282
$149 to $199 $149 to $199
80
Y Y Y Y
276
$199 to $499 $119 to $399
230
Y Y Y Y
256
$145 to $240 $99 to $169
80
N Y Y Y
250
$169 to $399 $129 to $399
65
Y Y Y Y
Y $25 2
239
$171 to $331 $121 to $281
75
Y Y Y Y
Y $20 3
236
$169 to $425 $139 to $325
135
Y Y Y Y
Y $26 3
225
$159 to $999 $119 to $799
99
Y Y Y Y
Y $14.79 3
218
$149 to $189 $109 to $149
32
N N N Y
Y $14 3
201
$149 to $189 $115 to $149
105
Y Y Y Y
Y $15 4
197
$119 to $299 $109 to $199
60
N N N Y
Y $21.95 3
196
$105 to $159 $105 to $159
123
N Y Y Y
Y Complimentary 3
75
N Y Y Y
Y $22 3
$179 to $229 $139 to $229
Larco Hospitality Daniel Laliberte
Bona Building and Manage- Mini-fridge, microwave and wetbar in all guest rooms; access to Y ment Co. Ltd. 43,000 sq. ft. of meeting and event space; 24-hour fitness centre; Complimentary Franco Falcucci full-service restaurant, The Bistro, serving Starbucks coffee 3
349
182
Amenities WestinWorkout; RunWestin; Heavenly Bed; Heavenly Bath; Service Express; Starwood Preferred Guest; express checkout; business centre; concierge; 37” LCD TV; refrigerator
Complimentary in-room coffee/tea and local calls; business centre access for all guests; restaurant; Starbucks; 24-hour fitness centre; sauna and lap pool; 13,000 sq. ft. of meeting space Five minutes from Ottawa; renovated guest rooms; 24-hour room service; mini-bar; 47-inch HDTV; three two-line phones; in-room safe; free newspaper; business centre; fitness and spa; heated indoor and outdoor pools open all year; 51,000 sq. ft. of conference space
Bona Building and Manage- Soundproof rooms; HDTV with cable and premium channels; secure Y ment Co. Ltd. remote printing; two-line telephones with data port and voicemail; Complimentary Franco Falcucci restaurant; 7,200 sq. ft. banquet facilities; 24-hour business centre 3 ACCOR Rafael Ballester
Dual-data port phones; voicemail; pay-per-view movies; on-site catering and audiovisual specialists at your service; complimentary in-room coffee
Brookstreet Hotel Corp. Patrice S. Basille
Perspectives Restaurant; The Marshes 18-hole championship golf course; Options Jazz Lounge featuring sushi and live jazz seven days a week; Au Naturel Spa with 13 treatment rooms; fitness studio; pools; games room; business centre
Royal Host Hotels and Y Resorts Complimentary Jean-Pierre Benjamin 3 Heidi Webster Heidi C. Webster
Westmont Hospitality Group Chris Pierce
7,100 sq. ft. of meeting space (up to 200 persons); three boardrooms; executive floor with workout area and private lounge; Internet kiosk; indoor pool; Quincy’s Restaurant; Clancy’s Pub and Eatery; gift shop Fully equipped kitchen; separate living and dining area; private balcony; banquet facilities featuring floor to ceiling windows; indoor pool/sauna/whirlpool; restaurant; playroom; playground; shuffleboard court; courier services; 24-hour business centre; indoor parking; 1,500+ sq. ft. penthouse; weddings; pet friendly Condo-sized suites; full kitchen; separate living/dining area; private balcony; ensuite washer/dryer; complimentary 24-hour business centre and fitness centre; indoor pool/hot tub/sauna; meeting rooms
Chateau Ottawa Hotel Inc. Yolaine Charette
Carleton Grill and Sasha’s Bar; restyled traditional and Sheraton Club level rooms with Sweet Sleeper bed; HD TV; Sheraton Fitness programmed by EXOS; Sheraton Club Lounge, lobby link@sheraton experienced by Microsoft
Michael Rosenberg Michael Lucas
12 extended-stay suites; complimentary Wi-Fi; 15,040 sq. ft. of meeting space without pillars from five to 500 guests; pool; 24-hour fitness centre; therapeutic bath and sauna; business centre with computers; La Jardiniere restaurant
HVM Canada Hotel Management LLC Amie Hussick
Suites with kitchens; voicemail; free local calls; catering and A/V support
35 Laurier LP Jason Trottier
Breakfast, coffee and local beer; free bottled water; smoke-free; close to Canadian Museum of History; bright meeting rooms; A/V support
WND John Cosentino
One- and two-bedroom suites with full kitchens; separate living and work space; free newspaper; free local calls; free laptop-size in-room safes; business centre; meeting space
Holloway Property Jean-Pierre Benjamin
More than 20,000 sq. ft. of conference space; executive floor; waterpark; restaurant with hot breakfast buffet and also open for dinner from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. with monthly dinner specials; complimentary hot breakfast every day
Ocean Properties Inc. Nancy Champagne
In the heart of the ByWard Market; fully renovated; Bistro featuring Starbucks coffee; in-room coffee maker; large working desk and chair; indoor pool; fitness centre; meeting rooms; Marriott Rewards
WND = Would not disclose. *Did not respond to survey – using data from previous years. Should your company be on this list? If so, please send details to research@obj.ca This list is current as of January 18, 2016. © 2015 by Ottawa Business Journal. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced by any method in whole or in part without written permission by Ottawa Business Journal. While every attempt is made to ensure the thoroughness and accuracy of the list, omissions and errors sometimes occur. Please send any corrections or additions by e-mail to research@obj.ca. OBJ lists are primarily compiled using information provided voluntarily by the organizations named. Some firms that may qualify for the list are not included because the company either failed to respond to requests for information by press time, because the company declined to take part in the survey or because of space constraints. Categories are drawn up in attempt to gather information of relevance to the Ottawa market. Research by Patti Moran. Please send questions and comments to research@obj.ca.
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COMMENTARY the potential to scale to a large company – what I define as having annual sales of $1 billion or more – will need to find cash somewhere. However, there is currently not enough funding available in Canada to support the number of startups that are being created and supported through accelerator and incubator programs. Young companies need more access to capital in their early stages, as well as Meriton and Zynastra. These companies better tax incentives for early investors, had almost unlimited capital, but in the more access to debt and more early-stage game of “go big or go home,” most of investment funds that will be supported them ended up going home. and not crushed by later-stage investors. The next generation of entrepreneurs I have invested personally in seven and investors learned from those startups over the past 15 years. One sold mistakes. Startup growth is now for a small gain, one broke even, two sold better managed and “moon shots” are at a loss, another pair went bankrupt discouraged. and one went public at below my initial Experienced founders know that investment. As an angel investor, my getting a VC investment is both a benefit ownership was crushed when the startups and a challenge. Many founders lose secured VC financing and any hope of control of their companies once a VC recovering my investment was lost. invests. They also know they will lose at The lesson is clear: fledgling firms least 25 per cent of their ownership stake need a strong plan to support their at each financing round. initial investors and protect them against Entrepreneurs tend to want to delay catastrophic dilution from follow-on the need for venture capital until they financing. Many startups end up selling have some success and can better manage to a larger firm rather than securing the terms of an external financing. VC financing, since being acquired is The bottom line is any startup with often the best financial solution for the
During the 2000s, Ottawa had dozens of venturebacked startup failures, including Ceyba, Liquid Computing, Meriton and Zynastra. In the game of “go big or go home,” most of them went home. Continued from page 6 Many serial entrepreneurs start a company, build it through sweat and perseverance, sell when it needs a new partner to grow, then repeat the process with their next company. In contrast, success stories among startups that turned to venture capital very early in their development are few and far between, which is why we see very few companies following this path. Founding entrepreneurs know the challenges they face, and VCs know these firms’ probability of success is low. With the large number of startups competing for VC cash and the high level of due diligence required, hitting it big is a long shot. During the 2000s, Ottawa had dozens of venture-backed startup failures, including Ceyba, Liquid Computing,
Creating value
founders and the initial investors. Startup entrepreneurs typically look at bootstrapping as the brief stage before they try to secure venture capital financing. Yet a look at Ottawa’s successful tech companies shows that bootstrapping and angel funding has been essential to their early-stage development and initial product or service launches. There is no clear-cut answer for what type of financing is best for a startup. Founders know that a wellfinanced startup can scale quickly. But bootstrapped companies tend to grow more slowly and are prone to stagnate when they run short of capital. However, founders and initial investors of bootstrapped companies also have more control over their own destiny as they experiment and refine their business models. Most of Ottawa’s successful tech companies have focused on achieving some growth and cash flow before turning to venture capital. After all, it is always better to ask for money when you don’t need it. Jeffrey Dale is the president of Snowy Cloud and the former president of the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation.
2016
in any language
POST-BUDGET BREAKFAST
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
Collins Barrow Ottawa is fluent in value creation. Now proudly serving the National Capital Region in both official languages, our two locations are helping businesses achieve prosperity with expert audit, tax and advisory solutions.
Collins Barrow Ottawa LLP Chartered Professional Accountants 301 Moodie Drive, Suite 400 Ottawa, Ontario K2H 9C4 Phone: 613-820-8010 Fax: 613-820-0465
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Stay tuned for more information on this must-attend breakfast. Gain insights on business, tax and economic measures and determine what it means for you.
Contact us for advice from the experts Collins Barrow Gatineau Inc. Comptables professionnels agréés 290 blvd St. Joseph, Unité 105 Gatineau, Quebec J8Y 3Y3 Phone: 819-770-0009 Fax: 819-965-0152
The highly-anticipated federal budget will be released in a matter of weeks. What will it mean for business? What will it mean for Canada? What will it mean for Ottawa?
2015-02-05 11:26 AM
Watch ottawachamber.ca for event details.
FOR THE RECORD People on the move
LANGUAGE COURSE EFFICIENT FRENCH WITH ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE New Sessions Start: February 1, 2016
Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton has appointed Justin George as senior director of real estate and asset management. Mr. George, who was most recently with Pivotal Projects, has spent the last decade specializing in complex projects around the world and holds a seat on the Canada board of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Argyle Public Relationships has named David Gourlay its new vice-president of public affairs in Ottawa. Mr. Gourlay brings a decade of experience as a political adviser and public servant, followed by a distinguished private-sector career representing Citibank and Oracle in the nation’s capital. He will head up Argyle’s full-service office in Ottawa and serve as the lead adviser to clients with public-sector interests. Chad Holliday has been appointed to Ackroo’s board of directors. Mr. Holliday brings more than 20 years of experience growing small and large telecom software businesses to the role and was formerly the vice-president and general manager of the mobile policy and charging software business at Alcatel-Lucent. Tom Hunt has been appointed principal at Collins Barrow Ottawa
Contracts The following contains information about recent contracts, standing offers and supply arrangements awarded to local firms.
CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants Inc. 1410 Blair Pl. Description: Informatics professional services Buyer: PWGSC $9,769,905
Randstad Interim Inc. 1600 Carling Ave. Description: Informatics professional services Buyer: PWGSC $6,513,270
REGISTER NOW: www.af.ca/ottawa | 613-234-9470
LLP. Mr. Hunt joined the company in 2011, using his understanding of corporate reorganization and succession planning to create holistic financial plans for clients. Kinaxis has announced the appointment of Angel Mendez to its board of directors. Mr. Mendez brings more than 30 years of management expertise and most recently served as senior vicepresident of transformation at Cisco. Gowlings announced 17 new partners have been admitted to its firm-wide partnership, including three in Ottawa. The new Ottawa partners are D.E. Gordon Cudney in corporate finance, Martin Lapner in medical defence and Jaclyn Marmara in real estate/financial services.
Donna Cona Inc. and IBM Canada Ltd., in joint venture 106 Colonnade Rd. Description: Informatics professional services Buyer: PWGSC $5,427,725 IBM Canada Ltd. 3755 Riverside Dr. Description: Informatics professional services Buyer: Canada Border Services Agency $2,984,733 Emerion 368 Dalhousie St. Description: Informatics professional services Buyer: Canada Border Services Agency $2,738,668 Advanced Business Interiors 2355 St. Laurent Blvd. Description: Commercial and household goods Buyer: PWGSC $2,312,193 Ibiska Telecom Inc. 130 Albert St. Description: Cyber protection services
Buyer: Treasury Board of Canada $1,695,000 Motorola Solutions Canada Inc. 360 Albert St. Description: Radio and television communications equipment, except airborne Buyer: RCMP $1,436,782 Tyco Integrated Fire & Security Canada Inc. 1257 Algoma Rd. Description: Fire alarm system maintenance Buyer: PWGSC $1,299,548 Dynamex Canada Ltd. 60 Colonnade Rd. Description: Mail and messenger services Buyer: Treasury Board of Canada $960,500 Excel Human Resources Inc. 102 Bank St. Description: Task-based informatics professional services Buyer: DND $737,212
Public Consultation The National Capital Commission (NCC) invites you to participate in a public consultation on the redevelopment of LeBreton Flats, one of the most significant urban development sites in the core of Canada’s Capital. Tell us what you think of the two proposals for this signature site.
PARTICIPATE IN PERSON: Canadian War Museum 1 Vimy Place, Ottawa Tuesday, January 26, 2016 Open House: 4 pm to 9:30 pm Presentations: 6 pm Questions and Answers: 7:20 pm Wednesday, January 27, 2016 Open House: 8 am to 9:30 pm Presentations: 6 pm Questions and Answers: 7:20 pm
PARTICIPATE ONLINE: Visit our website on January 26 and 27 to watch the live webcasts of the presentations. Complete the online questionnaire (which includes supplementary proposal information) available from January 26 (4 pm) to February 8 (midnight), 2016.
Simultaneous interpretation available. Universally accessible.
ncc-ccn.gc.ca/lebreton info@ncc-ccn.ca • 613-239-5000 • 613-239-5090 (tty) @NCC_CCN
NationalCapitalCommission
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Cummins Eastern Canada LP 3189 Swansea Cr. Description: Diesel generator sets Buyer: PWGSC $6,000,000
Non-profit organisation and official language test centre since 1905.
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
S.i. Systems Ltd. 170 Laurier Ave. W. Description: Informatics professional services Buyer: Health Canada $7,147,516
GROUP CLASSES PRIVATE COURSES AT YOUR CONVENIENCE ONLINE COURSES
START-UP BUSINESS ADVISORY SERVICES
CONTROLLERSHIP SUPPORT
FINANCIAL STATEMENT AUDITING
PERSONAL FINANCIAL PLANNING
CORPORATE REORGANIZATION PLANNING ADVICE
ESTATE AND TAXATION PLANNING
REVIEW ENGAGEMENT AND COMPILATION SERVICES
PERSONAL AND CORPORATE INCOME TAX PREPARATION
SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE WITH CANADA REVENUE AGENCY AUDITS AND ASSESSMENTS
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
ASSISTANCE WITH PURCHASE AND SALE OF A BUSINESS
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BOOKKEEPING SERVICES
CASHFLOW FORECASTING AND PROJECTIONS
Partners Ian Hendry, Dan Warren, Marie Fraser and Nancy Nicks are pleased to welcome two new partners to our firm. Both are passionate about helping entrepreneurial business owners with accounting, taxation, succession planning, restructuring and managing growth.
Jacob Milosek, CPA, CA Jacob joined HW in 2008 and has gained extensive experience in taxation for small and medium sized owner managed businesses and not-for-profit organizations. Jacob is responsible for a variety of tax related matters including personal and corporate tax planning and compliance based filings, corporate reorganizations, estate planning, GST/HST matters and assisting clients with audits and appeals.
Blair Duffy, CPA, CA Blair joined HW in 2007 and specializes in audit and assurance. Blair has experience with a variety of industries including technology, commercial real estate, and professional services. Blair understands what it takes to assist clients in managing and growing their businesses and provides personal attention to their unique accounting and taxation needs.
Whether your needs are for accounting, audit, taxation, business advisory, controllership support, management consulting or financial planning Hendry Warren LLP provides exceptional service for both individual and corporate clients. Hendry Warren LLP values and supports the entrepreneurial spirit. We believe in building effective relationships based on trust, mutual respect and commitment to excellence. With a staff of 35 professionals and over 20 years of service excellence in the Ottawa business community, we ensure the right individual is working with you to meet your needs efficiently and cost effectively. Our unique team of CPAs and professional accounting and bookkeeping staff will work alongside the partners to provide personalized solutions for your business. We are growing and always looking for new people for our dynamic team. We respect and encourage a balance between work and personal activities. Our team enjoy the work environment at our office and participate together in various community service activities. Talented individuals are encouraged to apply.
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OPENING UP S OUT F***UPupside of failure AB Entrepreneurs explore the
CONNECTING TECH
IN OTTAWA
VOL. 1, ISSUE 4
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
OPENING UP ABOUT F***UPS Entrepreneurs explore the upside of failure
OPENING UP S ABOUT F***UP Entrepreneurs explore the
upside of failure
T DOPE WORDS STRAIGHWDF THEIR OWN IN UNDING the word out ON CRO CEOs embrace blogs to get shares its dos and don’ts
REALITY? AWhat’sNEW happening with VR in Ottawa
Wipebook
CONNECTING TECH IN OTTAWA
VOL. 1, ISSUE 4
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
OPENING UP ABOUT F***UPS
Entrepreneurs explore the upside of failure
IN THEIR OWN WORDS STRAIGHT DOPE CEOs embrace blogs to get the word out ON CROWDFUNDING Wipebook shares its dos and don’ts
AWhat’sNEW REALITY? happening with VR in Ottawa
“If you’re changing the world, you’re working on important things. You’re excited to get up in the morning.” – LARRY PAGE, CEO OF GOOGLE
Left to Right: MNP – Mike Dimitriou, Regional Managing Partner, A Hundred Answers – Chuck Emond, Principal; Paul Witherow, Managing Principal; Sean Murphy, Managing Principal; Hassan Qureshi, Principal; Sarah Lyons, Principal
Partners in Growth, Allies in Innovation
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
As a cutting-edge business, you need growth strategies that are as innovative as you are. MNP has the expertise, knowledge and people to help you plan ahead while taking advantage of grants, tax credits and market know-how, right now. As the fastest-growing national accounting and business consulting firm in Canada, MNP has the same entrepreneurial spirit and mindset as you do. And when it comes to opportunities for technology, we help you create the future.
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Contact Mike Dimitriou, CPA, CA, at 613.691.4242 or michael.dimitriou@mnp.ca
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EMBRACING F---UPS Global movement comes to Ottawa, changes attitudes about failure BY STEPHEN KARMAZYN
In Ontario, we are relying too much on government money. We’re not paying enough attention to what the core of entrepreneurship is about. Mistake No. 1 is to confuse government money with customer money. That is a terrible thing to do. TONY BAILETTI, DIRECTOR, CARLETON TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
itself pivot to become a more welcoming environment in which to discuss failure – in other words, more like Silicon Valley. Still, he thinks the local scene is changing. His main takeaway from failure? Never give up. “It takes a decade to build an overnight success,” he says. As for the high failure rate, Tony Bailetti, director of Carleton’s Technology Innovation Management program and the Lead to Win program, thinks it’s more of a problem for startups that haven’t passed what he calls the “first wall.” He defines this as companies that are still pre-revenue. Bailetti believes the success rate for businesses beyond that “first wall” will be
much higher. Whatever statistic you believe, everyone agrees that starting a business is hard. “In Ontario, we are relying too much on government money,” says Bailetti. “We’re not paying enough attention to what the core of entrepreneurship is about. Mistake No. 1 is to confuse government money with customer money. That is a terrible thing to do.” Bailetti says that not all dollars are created equal, and that a quick customer dollar is not the same as a government dollar, which often takes a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy to attain. “I love government programs,” he says, “but they take time, it’s a distraction (and not a) substitute for customer dollars.” Bailetti also bemoans the myth of “supermen entrepreneurs.” “You can’t do it alone. You need people who are smarter than you are, and different than you are.” Bailetti calls for diversity of skills in a startup, what he calls a “complete brain team.” But at F---Up Nights, talking about failure isn’t necessarily about learning. “You can learn from the mistakes of the presenters,” Connell says, “but I don’t think that’s the point of the event. It’s more about being comfortable, addressing failure and talking about failure.” Connell wants people to share their stories to show a more realistic business community. “All these overnight success stories, very often there are five to 10 things that didn’t work out before. For us, it kind of acts as therapy for the speakers, but for the attendees it says, ‘OK, here are some very smart, talented people and they f---ed up.’ “It’s cool, it happens.”
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was given the highest possible rating by the Carleton University Lead to Win incubator/ accelerator program. His venture was growing fast and seemed poised for success before it suddenly closed shop. “We did not calculate effectively how much runway we needed until we hit critical mass,” Moukarzel says. “We had enough funding to start the business, we had enough funding to grow it, but we didn’t have enough funding to … go to all the cities in Canada, which is what we needed to do to be at scale.” Moukarzel says his company needed bridge money from angel investors to sustain it until it could scale. When that didn’t materialize, the service was no longer financially viable. “During my experience with eCelery, I’ve learned more than I’ve learned in my entire 23 other years of my life,” he says with a laugh, adding he was pulling 80-hour work weeks when business was really cooking. “You grow on a whole new level. You start to see things in a different way. Starting a new business, which I will be doing quite soon, is going to be a lot easier now that I know some of the kinks and little details.” During that time, Moukarzel says he was wearing a lot of “different hats,” forcing him to do marketing, HR, pitching and otherwise running the business side of the company. Aydin Mirzaee also knows a thing or two about failure. While creating his biggest success to date, survey software company Fluidware, he pivoted several times before discovering a winning strategy. Fluidware was eventually purchased in 2014 by global software-as-a-service company SurveyMonkey. That storybook ending isn’t typical. Many experts predict that 90 per cent of entrepreneurs fail. That’s not exactly comforting for new entrepreneurs, but Mirzaee says you’ve just got to go for it. “It’s about jumping before you look to a certain extent,” he says, “because no matter how perfect the idea is, you’re going to fail. You’re going to have to pivot and pivot and pivot until you get it right. Sometimes people are waiting for the perfect business model or the perfect business that will be a $50-billion entity. As a result, they never end up actually acting. Or they’re afraid that because this idea’s not perfect, there’s a large chance of failure.” Mirzaee wishes that Ottawa would
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
In business as in life, failure can be a dirty word. But if there is truth that you must fail before you succeed in business, why do so many entrepreneurs shy away from the subject? In an effort to truly embrace failure, there is now a global movement called F---Up Nights, where professionals gather and presenters openly commiserate by telling their stories of failure. “We were drinking mescal and we realized that we had all screwed-up businesses, but we had never shared those stories,” says Leticia Gasca, co-founder and director of F---Up Nights. “That was weird. We were talking about (our failures) for three hours. We ended up concluding that had been our most meaningful business conversation ever.” Two weeks later, F---Up Nights was born. Eight months later, the movement had spread to 15 cities. In 2015, three years after the company started, they were it was in 71 cities across the world. And now the event has officially gone viral with events in 144 cities and 53 countries. Ottawa is one of three Canadian cities hosting the event, along with Toronto and Calgary. Apparently, talking about failure is now in vogue. “Some of the best stories are about how something totally crashed and burned,” says Jason Connell, organizer of F---Up Nights Ottawa. “You can find any number of events where someone is willing to get up and say they hacked, they hustled, they did xyz and now they’re a huge success, but I don’t think it’s very often where you find an event where someone will stand up and say, ‘This really went to hell.’” F---Up Nights also fuelled the creation of the Failure Institute, which enlisted universities for the sole purpose of studying business failures. “We realized that there is almost no … quantitative research of business failure,” Garcas says. If you’re wondering about the results, the No. 1 identified reason for business failure is insufficient income – something that Ottawa-based Cyril Moukarzel knows all too well. The co-founder of eCelery, an online food service that delivered homemade quality foods to local doorsteps, Moukarzel
“I think as a company, if you can get those two things right — having a clear direction on what you are trying to do and bringing in great people who can execute on the stuff — then you can do pretty well.” – MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO OF FACEBOOK
ALLAN WILLE KLIPFOLIO
BLOG ON Tech CEOs extol the virtues of regular blog writing BY CRAIG LORD
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
Blogging is no longer just the realm of conspiracy theorists and teenagers with a celebrity crush. Tech companies and their CEOs have embraced the medium as an avenue to share some insight – and a bit of personality – with their networks. Allan Wille, CEO of Klipfolio, started penning a weekly blog last year. Return on investment might have been the
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original impetus for Wille to start blogging, but that was never the focus of his writing, he says. “Outside of the fact that yeah, content marketing is good for business, we needed to find something that was going to resonate and help our customers. So for us, what better thing to write about than our experiences?”
“Why it’s important to have guiding principles – and follow through on them” AUG. 28, 2015
“Improving the user experience was a conscious decision on our part. We knew – and our customers told us – that we needed a journey that was self-serve. And if I can count my recent experience as scientific proof, I’d say that in the last two and a half years there has been a 10-fold improvement in the time it takes to build a Klip. By defining your must-haves, by setting targets, and by motivating people to reach them, we’ve dramatically improved our product. We’re not done - not even close. It’s an ongoing process.”
As the CEO of a smaller business that primarily caters to small and mediumsized enterprises, Wille says he has been in the shoes of his clients – his prospective readers – and has a unique opportunity to share that perspective. “I didn’t know what the benchmarks were for growth. I didn’t know how to go about hiring senior staff. I didn’t know how to go about bringing in venture capital money. A lot of these experiences, I think, are really valuable for our own audience,” he says. He will often write about his management style, something notable that he encountered in his week, or about some of Klipfolio’s growing pains. The ideas aren’t hard to come by. Wille says that most CEOs are already thinking about the business 24-7. It’s just a matter of putting the words on the screen. “The difficulty comes in editing and actually getting it done. This is where I have some help,” he says, reflecting on the role his team plays in bringing his ideas to fruition. Beyond connecting with readers, there have been unexpected benefits to writing a regular blog for Wille. As the CEO of a rapidly growing company, he says the majority of his employees actually read his posts and that serves as a great internal communication mechanism. Additionally, Wille has found his blog acts as a chronicle of Klipfolio’s advances. The high times, the lows and how they got to where they are today – it’s all bundled
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CRAIG FITZPATRICK PAGECLOUD
“Just the Beginning …” NOV. 27, 2015:
“I always have mixed feelings when I see this little startup’s Version 1 getting compared to the giants ... WordPress, Wix, Squarespace. It’s both flattering and frustrating at the same time. We are 15 months old. This is just the earliest of expressions of our vision for the web. They are each almost 10 years old, with hundreds of developers. We have seven. But we are growing fast, thanks to the wonderful response and support from our paying customers. And we are in this for the long haul. We too see this as an ecosystem. With third-party developers, widgets, plugins and places where others can create and share their wares. It won’t take long before we catch up on that front.”
in various blog posts. “It’s the same reason people keep diaries. It’s a nice way of capturing that blip in time and your thought process when it happened.” There are a few things that have helped Wille achieve success with his blog. Keeping posts short and simple makes it readable – leave the jargon in the boardroom. Having a regular cadence to his posts and thinking about when his audience is going to be reading is also crucial. “Every Saturday morning we publish this blog … and we’re finding that’s when people are in a receptive mood. They’re sitting down with their coffee and they actually read the post. It’s an uncluttered time,” he says. That’s also what surprises Wille about his blogs: people actually read them. He didn’t expect the gratifying and positive responses that have come since he started sharing his posts. He recalls a comment just a few weeks ago: “Allan, Happy New Year! Do me a favour: keep posting blogs.” That people actually care about what he writes, Wille says, is pretty awesome. TECHOPIA has gathered a few excerpts from our favourite Ottawa CEO bloggers. Read them here and then check them out online. Let us know on Twitter at @TechopiaOTT who your favourite local bloggers are!
ELI FATHI
KIRK MUNROE
EFEI
“My Business Rules Blog” OCT. 29, 2015
Name: Andrea Girones Personal Injury Lawyer wa tta O er, rtn Pa m Fir Title: ers Company: Girones Lawy WHAT IS GIRONES LAWYERS? Girones Lawyers is Eastern Ontario’s leading law firm for personal injury and medical malpractice. Its award-winning team works with individuals and families who often cannot afford to hire a lawyer on an hourly basis. They are hurt, unable to work and are suffering physically and financially. Girones instead works on a contingency and deferred fee basis – clients don’t pay a dime until a financial resolution is achieved in their case. The Ottawa office works throughout Eastern Ontario, from Pembroke, to Belleville and the Quebec border. The firm also has offices in Timmins, Sudbury and Toronto. WHAT IS AN INTERESTING FACT ABOUT GIRONES LAWYERS? The firm is a family business, launched by Andrea’s father, Lorenzo. He has practiced law for 45 years and has been recognized as one of Canada’s top personal injury lawyers. In 2007, Lorenzo was awarded the H. Bruce T. Hillyer Award from the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association for “advancing the rights of individuals through the use of trial advocacy.”
“Mind Blown in China – Week 1 Recap”
While Andrea runs the Ottawa office, Lorenzo heads up the Timmins office. But father and daughter often work together on malpractice cases.
NOV. 14, 2015
“You need someone who you can trust and work well with to run these complex cases,” Andrea said.
“Travelabulous was recently selected into the Chinese Angels Mentorship Program (CAMP) … Masha and I were thrilled and excited to be selected to the firstever cohort for the chance to work with other great entrepreneurs, access to and learnings from the world’s largest market, and mentorship and business partners from China’s best entrepreneurs and technology leaders. So, one week ago, we jumped on a plane for Beijing and the start of this unknown adventure.”
HOW IS GIRONES LAWYERS INVOLVED WITH THE SENS? The firm has long been a Season-seat Member, to treat staff and clients alike to a fun night out, and to support the local team. Tickets are also donated to various local charities for fundraising raffles. Each year, Girones rents a suite during a game to host its Christmas party for the families of its team. As a Season-seat Member, Girones takes advantage of perks like family skates on Canadian Tire Centre ice, and opportunities for the kids and grown-up hockey fans alike to meet and mingle with their favourite players. “It’s a great family friendly experience,” Andrea said.
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
“The concept of eating the elephant one bite at a time centres around the idea that when facing a big activity, that may even seem insurmountable, it is important to break it down to manageable smaller tasks and address them on a priority basis, one task at a time. Breaking the large task into smaller chunks provides a number of added benefits as the subtasks can be distributed among members of the team. This in turn could facilitate adding an external resource with the required talent, and it may lead to increased productivity as the team witnesses progress and success.”
TRAVELABULOUS
… w a l f o e l u The r and hockey
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“If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger.” — FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
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LEFT TO RIGHT: MITCH ROBINSON, PRESIDENT AND COO; STEPHANE CHARBONNEAU, FOUNDER AND CTO; TIM UPTON, FOUNDER AND CEO; CHARLIE PULFER, FOUNDER AND VP. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON
TITUS celebrates 10 years keeping your data safe Ottawa firm charts its future in mobile and cloud security
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
T
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en years ago, TITUS was a threeman security consulting firm in a small office near Kettleman’s bagel shop on Carling Avenue. Today, it’s an international data security and governance company, serving enterprise customers such as Dell, Intel and NATO. TITUS is coming off a record year for sales, revenue and profit. The team has grown to more than 130 employees in Ottawa and at regional offices in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Another 65 positions will be filled this year. TITUS has definitely made its mark on the international security software industry, while keeping its roots firmly in Ottawa. “Sometimes entrepreneurs feel they have to sell their soul and move to Silicon Valley to play on the global stage,” said Founder and CEO Tim Upton. “But we’ve been successful in becoming a top-of-the-line technology company from Ottawa because we’ve been able to find top talent right here with the dedication and loyalty that’s
important to our business.” TITUS now occupies the eighth floor of the Adobe Tower on Preston Street. As a nostalgic throwback, you can still find in this office “Kettleman’s Corner.” This bright lounge area is meant to encourage impromptu brainstorm sessions, celebrate birthdays, host charity events and even feature international cuisine from the talented individuals who work for the company.
TAPPING INTO A GROWTH MARKET
After a decade of being privately held and profitable, TITUS is now considering venture capital (VC) financing to help accelerate its growth. “We are still a bit of a hidden gem in Ottawa,” said Charlie Pulfer, Founder and VP. “We’re not a household name because we never had a VC round. We always funded ourselves through our growth and our sales. It’s only now that we’re considering VC
investment to really expand and accelerate our growth.” TITUS’s information classification technology has become an essential tool for many organizations to identify and protect every piece of critical business information. The company has built a base of three million users worldwide. “From Ashley Madison to Target, data breaches have become an unfortunate reality of modern business,” said Stephane Charbonneau, Founder and CTO. “Information can now be monetized quickly, increasing its value. Companies need to protect their brand and reputation, and effectively secure their customer information. TITUS helps organizations identify what information they have, where it is, and who has access to it so it can be protected.”
NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN MOBILE, CLOUD
TITUS sees some big market opportunities
before it, including the shift in data storage and collaboration to outside the traditional firewall. This has left high-value data to spread everywhere, Charbonneau added. “Files with personal employee information, customers addresses and payment details, legal contracts, design schematics and intellectual property and trade secrets are now all over the place, from the biggest servers to an individual smartphone,” he said. “We want to help our customers effectively manage their risks around data security and privacy on premise, in the cloud or over a mobile device.” To expand its capabilities in mobile and the cloud, TITUS is making greater investment in talent with the right technical expertise, as well as senior experience in all departments. It expects to grow its headcount by 50 per cent by year end.
BUILDING COMMUNITY SPIRIT
The founders all agree that the key to building a great team is to ensure the workplace culture is fun and inclusive. It begins with a strong focus on community involvement and team-building events. “We’ve always been a pretty flat organization that takes the emphasis off hierarchical divisions and encourages innovative thinking,” said Mitch Robinson, President and COO. “People can get to know each other through social activities outside of the usual work day.” This includes supporting local charities
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such as Trips for Kids Ottawa, Toy Mountain, Cornerstone Housing for Women and Daffodil Month for the Canadian Cancer Society, as well as fundraising through the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. Even the founders get out of their comfort zones with dance and airband performances at staff events (think Meatloaf’s Paradise by the Dashboard Light). The annual holiday party sees TITUS fly in its sales staff from around the world. “We’ve worked hard to preserve that entrepreneurial spirit that brought us here,” said Robinson. “We encourage our employees to generate ideas that management will then support.” For example, staff can take part in TITUS FORUM, an in-house business competition that gives everyone the chance to contribute and develop new ideas to help drive innovation and impact the company’s bottom line. Software Development Manager Matthew McCormick has been along for most of the ride, having joined the company nine years ago. Even then, the passion of the team was a big draw. “I had never met a group of people who cared so much about what they were building, and I wanted to be a part of it – they made me want to be a part of it,” he said. “Naturally a lot has changed over the years, but that overriding passion is still here. In engineering, we hire based on cultural fit as much as technical skill. The culture here is what makes TITUS great, and makes it easy to recruit great people.”
AVID CYCLISTS FROM TITUS ENJOYING AN EARLY MORNING RIDE THROUGH GATINEAU PARK
LEARN MORE
In June, TITUS will host FOUNDATIONS 2016 in Ottawa. This exclusive thoughtleadership conference brings the world’s top IT, security and compliance professionals to the nation’s capital. To learn more about TITUS and new career opportunities, please visit www.titus.com
CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS “Classification is and will continue to be a cornerstone of our information security policies, and TITUS solutions help us to reinforce security policy with all of our employees on an ongoing basis.” - Canadian Department of National Defence
TITUS EMPLOYEES BUILDING BIKES TO BE DONATED TO TRIPS FOR KIDS OTTAWA
07 TITUS TEAM READY FOR THE OTTAWA DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL
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“TITUS allows NATO to extend our information protection program to mobile information, helping us to ensure that sensitive information is being effectively protected across the organization on any device.” - NATO
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
“It is a fine balance between our need to protect information, and sharing information with those who require it to do their jobs. TITUS was the first solution we found that would engage end users in the protection of information and help educate them so they make better decisions on how information is handled.” - Dell Inc.
EACH YEAR, TITUS EMPLOYEES DONATE GIFTS TO CORNERSTONE HOUSING FOR WOMEN
“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.” — RICHARD P. FEYNMAN
VR TREND GETS REAL Virtual reality is making its mark on industries
from health to entertainment, and Ottawa firms are ready to cash in
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
BY STEPHEN KARMAZYN
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The virtual reality revolution is coming. Predicted to be worth around $5 billion this year, the industry is set to balloon to as high as $70 billion in four years, according to a TrendForce study. That’s a lot of headsets. Whenever new technology comes along, many will dismiss it as a gimmick, and VR certainly faces its fair share of naysayers. But they dismiss it at their own peril. From health to entertainment to porn and everything in between, VR is set to be the next big thing in tech, many industry observers say. Prof. WongSook Lee of the University of Ottawa, an expert on VR, believes it, calling virtual reality “one of the industries of the future.” She believes that unlike the original VR of the ’90s like Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, the technology has finally caught up with the developers’ imaginations. “Now the head-mounted display has become a lot more practical than before,” she says. Issues such as dizziness and the weight of the headset have been fixed. This generation is more ready for VR because it spends much more time in front of video screens than previous generations, Lee says. Ottawa is not far behind on jumping on the VR bandwagon. SimWave, an offshoot of the military simulation developer SimFront, is a Kanata-based company developing 4D exhibits for museums across Canada. 4D is the term for interactive media that employs other senses, whether it’s generating smells as you watch a cooking show, creating the feeling of the ground shaking beneath your feet when a tyrannosaurus appears on screen or being hit with virtual gusts of air to simulate a windy day. Think the D-Box at movie theatres. “We had these Oculus Rifts (virtual reality headsets) and we started exploring the idea of developing a similar environment that would recreate the soldiers’ PTSD issue for treatment,” says SimWave CFO Adam Caithness. “From the PTSD world we started talking about history … and museums. Kids don’t want to just come in and read plaques anymore. That’s not cool. Looking at the artifact in the display case lasts all of five seconds. So the virtual reality stuff came in.” With the 150th anniversary of Canada’s confederation coming up in 2017, SimWave saw an opportunity to get
into the 4D exhibit market and land the lucrative government contracts that come with it. Along with a VR scenario involving a train that is set to debut at the Canada Science and Technology Museum when it reopens in 2017, SimWave has also developed a Vimy Ridge simulation. The Vimy scenario demo takes place inside a six-foot square box while the user wears an Oculus Rift headset. Once in the program, users are assailed by cold as they march across the desolate battlefield of Vimy, the ground shaking beneath them as artillery is fired off. The entire scenario, when complete, will run five minutes and feature simulations that include climbing a ladder out of a ditch and putting on a gas mask. SimWave hopes to have its booth installed in museums across Canada in 2017, the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Caithness doesn’t believe VR stops at historical re-enactments. Whether it’s exploring the moon, watching a sports game or being treated by a doctor, she says the industry is set to explode. And speaking of the health sector, the Ottawa Hospital has been taking advantage of VR for years in its Rehabilitation Virtual Reality Lab. Known as CAREN, short for ComputerAssisted Rehabilitation Environment, the lab is not a headset but rather a mobile platform topped by a treadmill set in front of a wrap-around wide screen with 12 surrounding infrared cameras to track movements as small as two millimetres. This is definitely not your grandpa’s rehab facility. “How we think of VR is that we’re changing the sensory inputs,” says Courtney Bridgewater, the VR lab’s operator, “so that we will go from the bottom up and rebuild their brains so they can go in the real world and function.” This includes helping patients with everything from concussions to spinal injuries. The patient is fastened to a harness and then experiences one of the simulations either provided with the rig or created in house by engineers like Bridgewater. The simulations vary, with some examples including a rickety bridge and a busy bus, the platform speeding up and tilting as necessary to match what’s happening on the screen. “The idea of any sort of rehab is you are trying to create a change in the brain so that people can relearn whatever function
TOP TO BOTTOM: KANATA-BASED SIMWAVE IS DEVELOPING VIRTUAL REALITY EXHIBITS FOR MUSEUMS, INCLUDING A VIMY RIDGE SIMULATION THAT IS SET TO BE INSTALLED IN MUSEUMS ACROSS CANADA IN TIME FOR THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FAMOUS WORLD WAR I BATTLE IN 2017. THE FIVE-MINUTE SCENARIO WILL INCLUDE SITUATIONS SUCH AS CLIMBING OUT OF A DITCH AND PUTTING ON A GAS MASK. PHOTOS SUPPLIED
they’ve lost,” says Bridgewater. That allows for simulated environments the patient otherwise couldn’t experience in a safe and monitored space, she says, adding this leads to faster recovery times. But that’s not to say that CAREN is perfect. “It’s not really plug-and-play,” says Bridgewater. “That’s why they hired an engineer. Because sometimes stuff just doesn’t work. In some ways it’s very intuitive, and in some ways it’s not. There are bugs,” she adds with a laugh and a nod, so as to say those bugs aren’t uncommon. She is also doubtful of how effective VR will be in the rehabilitation sector of health, since each patient’s case is unique, requiring modifications in the software for each person. “The cookie cutter, user-friendly stuff,
is not the (right stuff) to really get the benefit. There’s a human component that really needs to be in there … for VR to treat patients,” she says. While she does allow that as more developers get their hands on the tech more apps will be developed, she says it will be difficult to produce mass-market, user-friendly VR for rehab use. CAREN itself isn’t exactly cheap. It carries a price tag of about $1.5 million to $2 million, depending on the services, parts, labour and other add-ons that are purchased with the machine. Another potential obstacle for VR is the focus on hardware. “One of the big issues facing VR right now is the hardware side of the industry is exploding,” Caithness says, “but the content for that hardware, that’s where we need to go. We need more people making content … that people can use.” Still, virtual reality technology had a strong presence at the most recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where some even dubbed it the year of VR. As with any new technology, there’s always the chance it won’t catch on as expected (the augmented reality Google Glass, for example), but with VR, the opportunities seem endless. Whether you’re training for combat or surgery, watching a live concert or travelling back in time, VR seems like it might be one of the next groundbreaking techs of our generation.
WHAT’S HAPPENING Stay up to date with TECHOPIA’s calendar of events at techopia.ca
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Early actions for startups to protect your interests
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Understand what others, including your competitors, have established rights to or are trying to establish rights to
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Establish agreements from the very beginning for employees, founders, subcontractors and, most importantly, for any person working on product development to clearly define the company’s ownership of any IP generated; confidentiality agreements are critical and always avoid verbal agreements
Simple Google searches can avoid selecting company and product names that will clash with existing businesses; your lawyer can also search trademark databases and corporate registration systems to confirm availability of proposed names
Patents can protect processes, products, systems as well as physical appearance / function and can cover hardware, software, apps to (ideally) block competitors completely or force them to more expensive, less elegant solutions, but obtaining them takes time so starting early helps
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While you can file patent applications yourself, there are pitfalls that can destroy or limit your rights; so it is critical to engage early with professional support
Not all IP requires immediate expenditure, but some events can be absolute and catastrophic in patents so engage professional assistance early to be clear about potential issues and understand what may or may not be protected about your invention or concept; for example, outside of North America, disclosing an invention before filing an initial patent application destroys the ability to secure an enforceable patent
Social media is now more important than a killer domain because there are so many domain extensions; secure these yourself: company name and product name in all social media; for a couple of hours of time spent registering, you can save a lot of pain
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If you’re a startup or tech company with IP related questions, contact Adrian C. O’Donnell, a patent specialist in the Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall Business Law Group. He can be reached at 613.566.2858 or aodonnell@perlaw.ca.
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
Be conscious of the fact that information will become accessible immediately to clients and competitors about your actions in most instances, for example, when you incorporate, apply for trademarks, establish domains, secure government contracts, establish yourself on social media
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THE STRAIGHT DOPE Kickstarter success story Wipebook shares its list of dos and don’ts
BY CRAIG LORD
his successes – and even a few failures – when it comes to crowdfunding.
TECHOPIA: Why was crowdfunding an
FRANK BOUCHARD WIPEBOOK
Frank Bouchard, one of the founders of Wipebook, knows a thing or two about crowdfunding. His first run at Kickstarter had a modest goal of $4,000, but he ended up raising more than $400,000. A subsequent campaign raised more than $100,000. In about a month’s time, Wipebook will be launching another campaign for its latest iteration of an erasable notebook. TECHOPIA asked Bouchard to give us the straight dope on
attractive option for Wipebook? BOUCHARD: I think the No. 1 factor was it was really a last-ditch effort for us to validate our product in a very lean and inexpensive way. We thought the platform has a lot of visibility because of the community that constantly checks the new products that are happening. For absolutely no money, we could make our own little video, post it up online, and get some feedback from that community. It ended up working really well for us.
TECHOPIA: How did you promote it? BOUCHARD: The biggest one that we had, we actually didn’t promote it whatsoever. It really just grew organically, virally. We posted it on a Friday morning and we saw
Investing in tomorrow’s talent Hydro Ottawa harnesses the energy of youth
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H
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ydro Ottawa has made the list of Canada’s Top Employers for Young People three years running. Why? Because it recognizes the need to invest in a new generation of talent. This investment spans the entire educational journey, beginning with in-school programming for elementary students about electrical safety, conservation and careers. Hydro Ottawa also offers programs and internship opportunities for students at the secondary and post-secondary level. Most notable is the company’s partnership with Algonquin College in the delivery of a two-year Powerline Technician diploma program. The learning continues when these students go on to become a Hydro Ottawa employee. Whether they’re working in one of five trades apprentice programs or contributing to the company as a summer or co-op student, all young workers at Hydro Ottawa know that their professional development matters and that they can make a difference early in their careers. Youth involvement matters so much that the President and Chief Executive Officer personally chairs a Youth Council.
Investing in people It’s this kind of engagement that brought Budget Officer Ahsan Rai to Hydro Ottawa. He first worked for the company as a summer student, where he was given the opportunity to make the most of his education in the internal audit and risk management function. Rai then took a full-time position after graduation in 2010. “The organization takes great interest in its employees,” he said. “Regardless of your educational background – whether it’s engineering, trades, IT, accounting and finance, marketing or human resources – Hydro Ottawa is a place where you can truly build a career.” Sasha McCulloch has been working for Hydro Ottawa for a year and had previously completed a 16-month co-op with the utility as part of her university studies. She is now completing Hydro Ottawa’s Engineering Intern Training and Development Program, which will help her obtain a Professional Engineer designation. “I decided to work for Hydro Ottawa because of the support you receive during your transition from university to the working world,” she said. “From day one, Hydro Ottawa has been committed to
Hydro Ottawa Budget Officer, Ahsan Rai, says the organization takes great interest in its employees. helping me grow professionally.” “Hydro Ottawa also stands out as an employer because giving back to the community is such a vital part of its culture,” McCulloch added. How can your organization tap into the next gen? To date, 16 per cent of Hydro Ottawa’s total workforce is under 30. During a
recent survey, eighty-five per cent of students who had worked for the utility said they would return if given the opportunity. The labour market is undergoing its greatest demographic shift since the Second World War. What steps is your organization taking to ensure it has the talent it needs to prosper in this new reality?
Like my new telephone, my computer works just fine, my calculator is perfect, but Lord, I miss my mind! — AUTHOR UNKNOWN
We made a lot of really stupid mistakes on the first one that ended up being very, very good for customers. We really didn’t expect to have like 8,000 customers. We thought we would have maybe 20 customers. So we were saying five dollars, international shipping, anywhere in the world. Our product was in a range where it was $20 to $25, so it was pretty affordable for someone to try something new out … That created a snowball effect. It was tough for us because we had not calculated what anything would actually cost, and I’m actually surprised we made it out alive.
right away the traction it was getting … We raised our goal in the first 24 hours. The subsequent campaigns after the fact were very different in nature because it wasn’t just a brand new, novel idea. We really had to mechanically try to push the product. We really relied heavily on e-mail campaigns. We pinged the database of people that we already had. Talking to other people that have had successful crowdfunding campaigns, e-mail seemed to be the No. 1 way to actually get people to back your campaign.
TECHOPIA: Where does crowdfunding fall short?
BOUCHARD: It has a lot to do with what your product is and who are the community of people who are going to be looking at it. It really is a sales channel per se and you have to look at what your typical customer is going to look like on each platform and see if your product is conducive for those people. For example, we had someone ask us for crowdfunding advice and they had a product that was a giant constructiontype drill for manufacturers. And it’s kind
of obvious that the people on Kickstarter are more of the trendy, techy people who are looking for cool, innovative things and that type of product may not be conducive to that channel. It may not be that somebody’s idea is bad, but it may not the right channel for that product.
TECHOPIA: They were both incredibly successful, but why was the first campaign more lucrative? BOUCHARD: We made a lot of really stupid mistakes on the first one that ended up being very, very good for customers. We really didn’t expect to have like 8,000 customers. We thought we would have maybe 20 customers. So we were saying five dollars, international shipping, anywhere in the world. Our product was in a range where it was $20 to $25, so it was pretty affordable for someone to try something new out …That created a snowball effect. It was tough for us because we had not calculated what anything would actually cost, and I’m actually surprised we made it out alive. But the second campaign, we really wanted to put some buffer in there. So we increased the shipping, we increased the cost of the product, and that deterred some people. Just make something that seems like a really great deal to the people you’re trying to attract. Whether or not you can make that happen is a different story!
TECHOPIA: Any other key things to keep in mind when deciding to crowdfund? BOUCHARD: Customer support is something we totally underestimated. Especially if your campaign is doing really well, you have something like 8,000 customers that are constantly personally messaging you, asking for updates, changing their orders, and that’s a resource that we totally underestimated. So just keep that in mind to have resources for that if ever the campaign does really well.
So what are the takeaways? •
• • •
Make sure your product is conducive to the crowdfunding market – a trendy bunch! E-mail should be your primary marketing channel. Keep customer support in mind in case you end up with a hit. Don’t make the deal too good, because the crowd will take advantage!
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OPENING UP S OUT F***UPupside of failure AB Entrepreneurs explore the
CONNECTING TECH
IN OTTAWA
VOL. 1, ISSUE 4
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
OPENING UP ABOUT F***UPS Entrepreneurs explore the upside of failure
OPENING UP S ABOUT F***UP Entrepreneurs explore the
upside of failure
T DOPE WORDS STRAIGHWDF THEIR OWN IN UNDING the word out ON CRO CEOs embrace blogs to get shares its dos and don’ts
REALITY? AWhat’sNEW happening with VR in Ottawa
Wipebook
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