Growing BC’s Next Anchor Tech Companies

On April 28, 2015, we opened applications for a brand new program, HyperGrowth, BC’s first second-stage revenue accelerator. Unlike other programs in the market, HyperGrowth is focused on sales and marketing, and building the tools that companies need in order to take their companies to the next level.

Over the next few weeks we sought to find the best growth-stage companies in the province; high-potential tech companies that were poised to become anchors in BC’s tech industry. We were looking for exceptional tech startups, ones with the potential to employ thousands of employees and see $100MM+ valuations in their future.

After painstakingly selecting seven finalists, a live pitch event determined the three companies that would participate in HyperGrowth’s inaugural cohort: EDP Software, Thinkific and RentMoola. The 6-month immersive program began shortly thereafter, and included bi-weekly workshops with senior marketing and sales executives from elite sales organizations, weekly meetings with Executives-in-Residence (EIRs), and invaluable mentorship from the BCTIA Network.

Now that six months have passed, the formal program components have wrapped up, and the companies have seen significant advances in their business. All of them considered the program to be game-changing, and benefited not only from the intense mentoring and workshops, but also from the community they built during their time in the BCTIA Innovation Hub:

“Since joining BCTIA’s HyperGrowth program 5 months ago, we have tripled our revenues and doubled our team. The connections and advice provided by BCTIA were instrumental in bringing about this growth for us and will continue to fuel us for the future.”
— Greg Smith, Co-Founder & CEO, Thinkific

“BCTIA has been instrumental in setting our company up for growth. With the guidance of the HyperGrowth program, we’ve transformed our commercialization strategy. The result is that we are on track to close as much business in Q1 2016 as we did in all of 2015. Without the support of the BCTIA, we would be generating a fraction of the revenues we will see next year.”
— Sachin Agrawal, CEO, EDP Software

Where are these three companies off to now? Thinkific, having grown in size, has moved into their own space in Vancouver, EDP will be staying at The Hub but are “graduating” to the second floor, and RentMoola has retained their offices in Downtown Vancouver, but still visit The Hub from time to time.

We’ll be keeping our eye on this incredible first cohort, and will share additional updates as time goes on. Please join us in congratulating them once again, and stay tuned for exciting HyperGrowth announcements in 2016!