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 More than 450 startups opened for business in the twin cities of
Waterloo and Kitchener last year, more than four times the number
begun in 2009, according to Communitech, a local company that
advises them. Often, the new companies are being founded by former
BlackBerry employees chasing their entrepreneurial ambitions in a
community that's Canada's answer to technology hubs in California
and elsewhere.
"For those who are trying to get a new tech business off the ground,
get it funded, and not get lost in the shadow of Silicon Valley,
Waterloo can be the best place to get your company on the map," said
Sean McCabe, vice-president of engineering at drone manufacturer
Aeryon Labs Inc in Waterloo.
Take Adam Belsher, 39, who left BlackBerry in 2011 after 13 years at
the company because he wanted to run his own business and felt the
impact he was having at BlackBerry, which was formerly known as
Research in Motion (RIM), was eroding as the company got bigger.
Today, Belsher is chief executive of Waterloo-based Magnet
Forensics, a company that makes software used by police to recover
deleted information from computers such as emails, financial
records and photographs.
"I saw RIM go through so many stages of growth and I take lessons
from every one of those experiences," said Belsher, who managed
BlackBerry's business with the biggest U.S. wireless carrier,
Verizon. "There are very few companies that disrupt a mature market
like wireless and create an entirely new multi-billion dollar
category, so I believe I have more than a few good nuggets that I
can apply to Magnet."
Belsher is one of many former BlackBerry employees who chose to stay
in Kitchener-Waterloo, rather than move to the Canadian financial
hub of Toronto, or to California's Silicon Valley.
BlackBerry became Canada's most valuable company in 2007, just
before Apple Inc released the first version of its iPhone. At its
peak in 2008, the company was valued at more than $80 billion,
compared with about $4 billion now.
"BlackBerry actually made many, many millionaires who still live
locally, who started investing in tech companies," said Michael Litt,
CEO of video analytics startup Vidyard, based in Kitchener.
This, in turn, has attracted venture capitalists.
"I have seen ... investors in town, private jets landing at Waterloo
regional airport straight from Menlo Park and Silicon Valley," said
Litt, whose company has said it could float its shares within two
years. "It has changed so fast."
The region's turnaround story is similar to that of Oulu in Finland,
where Nokia Oyj more than halved its workforce of 5,000. The city is
slowly finding its feet again.
Oulu is now a leading candidate to host a data center for Microsoft,
which is taking over Nokia's phone business. Former employees have
also become entrepreneurs, doing especially well in the mobile
gaming market.
RISING INVESTMENT
In the year ended April 30, 2013, more than C$214 million ($235
million) was invested in startups in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.
Three years earlier, the figure was just $500,000, according to Communitech.
These investments include an $80 million infusion into Desire2Learn,
which is developing online learning systems, and $14.5 million for
Thalmic Labs, the maker of the Myo arm band that allows people to
control electronic devices through arm motions and gestures.
"When BlackBerry was letting off thousands of people, there was a
big concern in Waterloo that it would create an exodus of people,"
said John Ruffolo, chief executive of OMERS Ventures.
OMERS Ventures, the venture capital arm of Canadian pension fund
Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, along with U.S.
venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates, made the $80 million
investment in Desire2Learn in 2012 (http://r.reuters.com/vaw96v).
OMERS Ventures has also invested in other businesses including
HootSuite, Shopify, Visioncritical and BuildDirect, all of which are
targets for IPOS in the next two years, Ruffolo said.
It became more confident about investing in Desire2Learn after the
startup hired Dennis Kavelman, a former chief operating officer of
RIM, Ruffolo added. "Many great talented people left to join a
variety of other start ups and brought a nice stimulus of experience
to some of these fledgling startups that has caused them to mature
at a much faster rate," he said.
Spark Capital, an early investor in Twitter Inc, and Bridgescale
Partners, which invested in Shutterfly Inc, are also putting money
into the region.
Spark Capital bought into Thalmic Labs and mobile messaging company
KIK, while Bridgescale has invested in Rypple, a company later
acquired by Salesforce.com that makes software to allow workers and
managers to register feedback about each other's performances. (http://r.reuters.com/xaw96v)
[to top of second column] |
The Canadian government has also backed a C$200 million ($183
million)-plus fund to indirectly invest in and support early and
mid-stage startups.
Relatively cheaper housing has helped persuade ex-BlackBerry
employees to stay. In February, the average price of a house in the
Kitchener-Waterloo region was C$335,000 ($305,700), compared with a
median price of $669,000 for a home in San Jose, California.
High-rise condominiums have sprung up, along with new hangouts, bars
and boutique stores, revitalizing the downtown areas and adding
excitement to the street scene, said Communitech CEO Iain Klugman.
"We are seeing more Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Porsches on the
roads," he said.
Unemployment in the Waterloo region fell to 6.5 percent in 2013 from
8.3 percent in 2010, and is also lower than the Canadian average of
7.0 percent.
Demand for commercial real estate, some of which has been sold off
by BlackBerry, has also risen.
The average rent in Waterloo rose 10 percent to $12.42 per square
foot in 2012, according to real estate services company CBRE. As
more commercial space has been built to meet growing demand, the
rate of increase slowed to 4 percent in 2013 and is expected to
flatten out soon.
Vidyard's Litt knows first-hand how tough the real-estate market has
gotten for startups. His company leased about 10,000 square feet of
the approximately 1 million square feet available for startups in
downtown Kitchener at the beginning of 2013.
"We took that with the assumption that, when we need more space, it
would be easy to find," he said. "When we spoke to our landlord
later, there was nothing available anymore."
Kitchener, historically the blue-collar twin to the university city
of Waterloo, is today home to chic offices such as the Communitech
building — a converted brick structure in the historic Tannery
District, adorned with modern art, which acts as an unofficial
clubhouse for many small tech companies.
"These downtown properties were able to provide an urban lifestyle
that many of these technology companies' employees are looking for,"
said CBRE executive Peter Whatmore.
ENGINEERING TALENT
Startups can also draw on engineering talent from the University of
Waterloo, which has the world's largest internship program of its
type, requiring students to complete four to six internships as part
of a four-year degree course.
The university has long been the feeder school for many technology
companies, including Google, Cisco and Microsoft. It was once
BlackBerry's stomping ground come recruitment season, and has
spawned companies such as OpenText that have tasted success in the
U.S. and overseas.
Larry Smith, an adjunct associate professor of economics at the
university, said BlackBerry's success had overshadowed other
companies and its reversal is now making them stand out.
While BlackBerry's decline released a lot of talent into the local
labor market, the region also has the infrastructure that makes it
easy for companies to set up shop, he said.
The BlackBerry connection is also a form of assurance when backing
the area's startups. Executives who were part of BlackBerry's
success have experience of "scaling up" a business — a valuable
asset for a startup aiming to break into the big league.
BlackBerry's decline has also made it easier for startups to hire
and retain talent.
"It used to be hard for startups to get good talent because RIM was
hiring," said David Yach, former chief technology officer for
BlackBerry's software business.
Like Belsher, Yach spent 13 years with the company. He left in March
2012 and co-founded Auvik Networks, an enterprise-networking
startup.
"(BlackBerry) was effectively taking up all the oxygen in terms of
talent," he said. "Now a lot of new people are finding a home in the
startup community."
 ($1 = 1.0976 Canadian dollars)
(Writing by Sayantani Ghosh; editing by Robin Paxton and John
Pickering)
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