The future is bright in North America’s top large city of the future. B.C.’s tech scene, much of it based out of Vancouver, just keeps winning with companies like Dapper Labs and Clio announcing huge funding rounds. However, many of those “overnight success” stories were actually years in the making.
Who’s the next big winner? The New Ventures BC (NVBC) competition might give us a clue. Many NVBC winners, like Adolus Technologies or Castofly have gone on to big things.
An important part of the competition is to clearly explain to the judges what’s unique about your company, team and product.
I reached out to local tech startups who were part of the competition, in the running for $250,000 in cash and prizes. What have they learned through multiple rounds in a very tough competition? Here’s what they had to say.
Clark Van Oyen, Co-Founder & CEO at Cortico Health, which helps doctors to focus on what they do best, typically reducing a medical clinic overhead by 25 percent through automation.
What has gotten you this far in the competition?
Our team and early adopter customers. The team’s talent, agility, hard work, and most importantly their collaboration deserves the credit for allowing us to build Cortico from helping 200 up to 40,000 medical patients a month, within just one year.
What do you wish you’d known at the start of the competition that could be helpful for others?
We should have shown a bit more concrete detail regarding our financials. We didn’t include a detailed breakdown of operating costs (COGS), because they are very low for SaaS products such as ours.
What have you improved in your business along this journey?
I think the combination of our focus on patient experience and measuring everything obsessively lets us prove a large ROI for our customers. We save clinics a lot of money for every dollar of fees we charge, and are able to demonstrate that.
Ania Wysocka, Founder of Rootd, an app that puts panic attack relief and anxiety relief right in your pocket. The app blends therapist-approved content with beautiful modern design in an accessible format, to help overcome the stigma, embarrassment, and accessibility issues that cause over half of those currently struggling with anxiety to never seek treatment.
What has gotten you this far?
We’ve demonstrated traction as a leading solution to a global problem. Anxiety has become the most prevalent mental health issue in the world, affecting over 40 million people within Canada and the U.S. alone, with pandemic only exacerbating this trend. Rootd has grown to over 750,000 users in over 150 countries, the app was recently scientifically validated, and we’ve been featured in The New York Times, Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan, Time Magazine, Healthline, and more.
What do you wish you’d known at the start of the competition that might be helpful to a future competitor?
It’s a lot of work! This is important to be aware of and keep in mind before starting the competition, because you can’t exactly put your business on hold. On the other hand, a lot of the work you’ll complete during the competition will apply directly to the real-world strategic planning for your business.
What have you learned along this journey?
Learning to own, celebrate, and effectively communicate Rootd’s achievements. It’s typical of Canadian startups to be a little reserved, but if you as the founder don’t seem confident in your business, then it’s going to be really difficult for your customers or the NVBC judges to believe in it either.
Evan Knight, COO and Co-Founder of RightMetric, which produces data-backed research that helps B2C marketers to plan, build, and deliver more effective marketing. They bridge the disconnect between technical analytics tools and the actionable answers that marketers need to make decisions and move on with their day.
What has gotten you this far in the competition?
RightMetric’s differentiated product offering and traction to date—We’re a marketing intelligence company, which is a pretty new idea, so I think when the judges saw that we’ve already generated a few million in revenue and worked with some great clients like Red Bull, lululemon, Toyota, and Interac; they knew that we were more than a few people with a nascent idea.
What do you wish you’d known at the start of the competition?
Devote a lot of effort to explaining exactly what your solution is and what it does for the user. Space is very limited in the round 2 submission and there are a lot of questions to answer for the judges, but you want them to have a crystal clear understanding of what your company offers.
What have you improved at RightMetric along this journey?
Right now, we’re really focused on building a demand generation and sales team. Our research and product teams have done an incredible job of building a resource for marketers to gain data-backed insights that inform their strategy, now we need to share it with the world by amplifying our own message. In the coming months the public can expect to see a ton of new educational content from RightMetric.
Andrew Just, CEO of Train Fitness, which aims to power better workouts through AI.
If you had to name one or two things, what has gotten you this far?
Nothing would have been possible without the team, our willingness to work hard, and overcome obstacles together has been paramount to our success. Also, I’d say, our obsession to solve the problems that weightlifters face when trying to track their progress has given us the strength to overcome any challenge that we have.
What do you wish you’d known at the start of the competition that might be helpful to a future competitor?
Put together a first draft as fast as possible. It doesn’t have to be perfect. The reality is that your application will be completely different by the time you submit it, but the hardest part is the first draft. So, just get something down, and then start working with that.
What have you improved in your business along this journey?
The BC Ventures application accelerated our alignment, and forced us to deal with a lot of questions that we were pushing down the road.
Tell me about the most important thing about your company.
Helping people is at the core of everything we are building at Train Fitness. We were tired of seeing people get frustrated, and giving up on their goals, which is why we have built a platform that will help users reach their goals faster.
Kyle Hamilton, Co-Founder of Sucre Interactive Technologies Inc., which provides a training and assessment platform for workplaces where “learning by mistake” has tragic or life-altering implications.
What has gotten you this far?
Firstly, the benefit to employers and employees that our solution offers. Without even considering the financial ramifications, the life-safety risks we help mitigate have a value that just can’t be counted in dollars and cents. The second is the support and guidance of a strong network of advisors. We have received so much support and advice through KAST (Kootenay Association of Science and Technology) and NVBC and its partners, that I know we wouldn’t be here without it.
What do you wish you’d known at the start of the competition that might be helpful to a future competitor?
Truly understand your value proposition, and be able to communicate it clearly and concisely.
What have you learned in your business along this journey?
How to concisely and clearly articulate our value proposition, not just to the investment community, but also to our potential customers.
Taylor McCarten, Co-Founder and CEO at BinBreeze, which eliminates fruit flies, neutralizes odours and reduces methane emissions from your kitchen compost bin.
What has gotten you this far in the competition?
When Covid hit, it felt like our business no longer made personal or financial sense. Rather than stop, I went insane, and decided to do it anyway. It turns out, this was exactly what I needed because Canadian Tire, Safeway, and Sobeys ordered the following month.
What do you wish you’d known at the start of the competition?
Be succinct! We spent loads of time cutting down our business plan and realized just how many extra words we had in there!
What have you learned along this journey?
Getting into the competition with our submission was validation that we are worthy of attention, and should spend it on opportunities like NVBC rather than just focusing on the day to day. Sometimes you have to work on your business, not in your business.
I appreciate the companies that took the time to answer my questions. For a startup, much less a startup in the middle of a tough competition, time is short. I would encourage the readers to check out these companies and see what they have going for them.
Vaclav Vincalek is the Founder of Vancouver’s 555vCTO.
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