Vancouver’s Thinkific virtually rang the opening bell at the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) today to celebrate the company’s first day of public trading. Listed under the ticker symbol “THNC”, Thinkific shares opened at $13.50 and have risen as high as $15.37 today giving Thinkific a market capitalization of $1.18 billion and making it the second […]
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Unicorn Clio Valued At $2 Billion After New Funding Round
Eighteen months after raising USD $250 Million in the largest growth-stage transaction in Canadian history, Burnaby’s Clio is at it again. This morning Clio announced a new valuation of $2 billion after raising USD $110 million in its Series E. The funding round was led by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, […]
Want To Build Better Products? Begin With Working Backwards
It’s difficult to develop products that truly deliver for the customer. Too often development teams huddle together to come up with ideas in a vacuum, and build what they believe are amazing products with incredible features that will tackle customer challenges or unmet needs—and then once their product or service is built, it misses the […]
Employers Now Need To Accommodate Employee Availability, Not The Other Way Around
The days of managers dictating where and when employees must show up for work are gone. The problem however, is that most people haven’t seen much of an improvement in how schedules are built and communicated beyond more complex spreadsheets or more cumbersome on premise solutions. When I came on board as the CEO of […]
Amazon Launches IP Accelerator to Help Small Businesses Protect Their Brands
To mark World Intellectual Property Day, Amazon has launched an IP Accelerator in Canada and a Vancouver law firm, Palmer IP, is among the 8 firms participating in the project. The IP Accelerator connects small and medium-sized businesses that sell in Amazon’s store with a network of trusted Canadian Intellectual Property (IP) law firms charging […]
Tips For SaaS SMB Companies Considering Permanently Moving Remote
Wishpond began experimenting with remote work arrangements a few years before the pandemic. This enabled a smooth transition once COVID-19 started to permanently close our downtown Vancouver office and give our employees the freedom to work remotely once the pandemic is over. Most businesses that were not experimenting or planning on a flexible work arrangement […]
SFU Entrepreneurs Crowned With Coast Capital Savings Venture Prizes
The Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize celebrates innovative ideas and entrepreneurial pursuits from the Simon Fraser University community. Open to early-stage business ventures founded by SFU students from undergraduate, graduate and professional programs, as well as by staff, faculty, and recent alumni, competitors are judged by a panel of industry experts on the quality of […]
SOTW 007: Snack
Welcome to Startup of the Week. A column highlighting BC’s most innovative and exciting tech startups. Today, we’re featuring Vancouver’s Snack. If anyone knows the online dating world, it’s Kimberly Kaplan, CEO of Snack. Before starting Snack, she was the Vice President of Product Management, Revenue Optimization & Marketing at Plenty of Fish, a Vancouver-based […]
UBC Spin-Off Acquired By Bill Gates-backed Bioremediation Company
Vancouver’s Metabolik Technologies has been acquired by the Boston-based, Bill Gates-backed waste remediation firm Allonnia. The acquisition of the UBC spin-off is part of a $20 million strategic investment in Allonnia by Evok Innovations, a leading cleantech fund of which Metabolik is a portfolio company. Metabolik was co-founded by Vikramaditya Yadav, a professor of chemical and biological engineering […]
FARM-TRACE Selected For First Cohort of Google Climate Change Accelerator
Vancouver’s FARM-TRACE has been chosen to participate in the first cohort of Google’s climate change accelerator, which is aimed at supporting companies developing technologies that support the global fight against the climate crisis. FARM-TRACE automates impact reporting across farms, aiming to help users receive transparency into monitoring metrics including deforestation or carbon stored. The agtech […]