05 Oct 2015 I-5! Visit from Seattle Investors a Huge Success!

Posted at 01:55h in BC Tech Blog, Tech News by
Author: BC Tech Association
Lunch n' Learn - Seattle

On September 22nd, the BCTIA was lucky to have some great venture capital and angel investor groups join us at The Hub to discuss the status of technology investment in Seattle. The moral of the story? Seattle invests in technology. “But why don’t they invest in Vancouver?” asked local entrepreneurs fervently. To which our panelists could not come up with any answer better than “Because we don’t know about you.”

Could it really be as simple as that? If these firms in Seattle are built around investing in the best technology companies possible to maximize returns, could they really not know about the gold that lays in the north. With such a short commute and a weak Canadian dollar which should be extra incentive to invest, why the disconnect? Canadian companies simply aren’t branding themselves well enough to cut through the abundance of technology companies in Seattle.

You might be asking yourself, “How do I get started with building my presence in Seattle.” Lucky for you, our friend Troy DeFrank, the trade commissioner handling cross-border connections in Seattle, has provided the following extremely valuable resources for you to get started:

  • DFATD recently partnered with SURF Incubator in downtown Seattle to offer Canadian entrepreneurs free temporary work and meeting space along with other perks while they are in town pitching investors or meeting with potential customers. You can learn more about this resource here.
  • If you are an early stage company considering raising funds or just want to work on your pitch, you could also consider applying for WTIA’s First Look Forum which is now open to BC startups that have not pitched investors publicly.
  • Just looking to get a “lay of the land” of the Seattle startup ecosystem? Click here for a great list of accelerators, angel groups, VCs, and meetups. 
  • The Consulate has supported a number of activities over the past few years to try to help bridge these communities and connect US investors to promising tech companies across Canada but primarily in BC. These include “Cascadia Showcases”, “Geeks on a Train” (to GROW Conference), and the recent BCTIA Lunch and Learn panel.

Again, we’d like to thank our speakers Troy Hartzell (Evolution Capital Advisors), Diane Najm (Founder of PhotoPad), and Lee Reeves (ZINO Society), as well as Troy DeFrank (Consulate General of Canada) for helping set up such a successful event.

For upcoming BCTIA Events, check out our Events Calendar at www.bctia.org/events