VIATeC Community
Tectorian of the Week: Nicole Smith
Flytographer’s Nicole Smith is our Tectorian of the Week.
Nicole Smith founded her Tectoria-based startup to help match travellers with experienced local photographers all over the world. The goal? To help anyone and everyone capture amazing and memorable vacation photos.
Since founding Flytographer in 2013, Nicole has gone from success to success.
Flytographer has received rave reviews by newswire the Associated Press in a story that is appearing on news sites all over the web, including most recently the Chicago Herald.
Why the sudden interest in a Victoria startup from America’s Second City this Christmas season?
Flytographer is the perfect way to put summer vacation photos on holiday cards.
A successful graduate of VIATeC’s Accelerator program for start-ups, Nicole had access to seasoned, qualified mentors who provided help in navigating areas like accounting, legal documents and expert advice in varying matters that helped her launch her successful company more quickly.
But Nicole herself provides the vision, passion, and hard work that has led to the success of her company.
Nicole, already a veteran of Victoria’s booming tech scene, came up with the idea while reuniting with her best friend over a weekend in Paris in 2011. After trying to take numerous “selfies” and asking strangers to capture a moment while passing by, the two met with a local friend who agreed to document their day as they explored iconic Paris streets.
That weekend in Paris sparked the idea for Flytographer.
Flytographer officially launched in 2013. At last count, there were over 200 photographers in 120 cities around the world available for booking.
Nicole Smith and her Victoria company have been covered everywhere from the Globe and Mail to the Huffington Post, with a lot of much-need local recognition thrown in.
Update
Nicole tells us that so far December 2014 continues on with more successes and accolades for Flytographer:
Some other updates, on Friday, December 12, 2014 Flytographer was named to the top 10 short list for the Small Business BC Awards, for Best Concept.Also, Flytographer has just signed a global partnership with Fairmont Hotels (woohoo!). Starting to roll out our packages on their hotel sites. Example: http://m.fairmont.com/hotel-vancouver/special-offers/hotel-offers/discovery/flytographer-package/
Tectorian of the Week: Desert Bus for Hope
The team at Desert Bus for Hope is our Tectorian of the Week.
Once again this November, Victoria’s Desert Bus team smashed a record, and they did it all with a bit of song and dance, a lot of social media savvy, and a preternatural ability to withstand punishing amounts of tedium.
As you may recall, the Victoria Desert Bus team took over Fort Tectoria for a week as part of an annual week-long event that raises donations for charity by playing Desert Bus, the most boring and pointless video game ever created 24/7 with no breaks.
The cause?
Raising money for Child’s Play, a charity that donates toys, games and money to Children’s hospitals all over the world.
The Earningest Desert Bus of All Time
In November, the team holed in Fort Tectoria for 160 hours-straight of playing Desert Bus. The whole thing was live-cast, and viewers could pledge donations in exchange for silly songs, funky dances, homemade crafts, and giveaways.
The result?
We surpassed the Desert Bus 7 total (it was about $523k) and thereby became the earningest Desert Bus for Hope of all time!
Desert Bus 8 at Fort Tectoria raised a staggering $635,415.04 for Child’s Play, $100,000 more than Desert Bus 7 in 2013.
That’s right. The 2014 Desert Bus team raised
$635,415.04
They broke a bunch of records in 2014. Read about them here.
Community Coming Together to Make a Difference
What makes this group true Tectorians is that it wasn’t just one person or one company that was responsible for Desert Bus for Hope’s success in 2014.
Instead, a whole community of Tectorians, many of whom have day jobs at Victoria technology companies, to pull off this magnificent feat.
Megan Olesky is our Tectorian of the Week
Megan Olesky is our Tectorian of the Week.
The UVic Computer Science graduate has developed a reputation around Victoria’s blossoming software startup scene as a contract developer with serious technical chops.
Olesky is also known for never shying away from challenging projects.
“Megan is very well-respected for technical expertise,” says Erin Athene, an Executive in Residence at Accelerate Tectoria and well-known champion of Ladies Learning Code in Victoria. “Megan is very willing to jump in there and actively partner with a growing startup.”
Mike Williams, VP of Marketing at RingPartner agrees.
“Megan is great to work with, and always goes beyond the project spec to build tools and systems that are effective, efficient and useful,” says Williams, who has worked with Megan at Tap for Tap and RingPartner. “Megan is really easy to work with, and she quickly understood many of the business needs for each project she worked on.”
While Olesky is sought after by local startups to bring technical know-how to a business concept, she is also a veteran of the startup trenches herself. Olesky has launched at least a couple of technology startups of her own.
Olesky was technical co-founder at Songspin.FM, a free, legal streaming radio curated from the best music sites on the web.
“Megan just gets in there and tackles challenging technical projects,” says Athene.
Olesky’s expertise with software startups should be in demand for quite some time.
So far the 123 applicants to VIATeC’s Accelerator program have created:
- More than 170 applicants
- More than $10 million raised in investment
- More than $3 million increase in revenues by the participating companies
- More than 150 jobs created or maintained
With startup success like this, we need more people like Megan Olesky in Tectoria!
Tectorian of the Week: Codename Entertainment
Our Tectorian of the Week for November 7 is Victoria game developer Codename Entertainment.
Why?
At the beginning of November the Victoria video game maker raised a total of $6,762 for BC Children’s Hospital in just 24 hours.
The Codename team participated in a campaign organized by Extra Life, an organization that helps gamers raise money for hospitals.
Each year Extra Life organizes 24-hour video game marathon and competition that has so far raised $5.6M for Children’s Miracle Network hospitals, which includes BC Children’s Hospital.
Over 24 hours ton of video game developers around the world compete to see who can raise the most donations.
According to BC Children’s Hospital, Codename was one of their top 5 fundraising teams this past weekend. Victoria’s own Codename was also in the top 100 extra life teams, ranking 81 out of over 6,000 teams.
Since 2008, the annual Extra Life event in November has grown to become the largest charitable effort in the video game world with thousands of people playing to help local kids.
Teams can participate in living rooms, churches, schools, game stores and hospitals all over the world.
Funds raised go to the local hospitals, which use the dontated funds however they’re needed most–typically for life-saving equipment, research and charitable care.
It’s also a way for employees to give back to the community while doing what they do best: playing any and all kinds of games while giving back to the community.
We are split streaming Diablo III and a game of Anomia! Come join us: http://t.co/mBFV4phlzo – For The Kids!! http://t.co/jzkx21YtIZ
— CodenameEntertainmet (@CodenameEnt) November 2, 2014
Well-known Tectorian and Codename Entertainment CEO Eric Jordan writes:
We started prepping for the event at 9 am on Saturday and kicked off at 10 am. We ran through the our schedule of games/events over the next 25 hours and wrapped up on Sunday at 10 am (extra thanks to the time change adding one more hour to our event). The event brought together many different communities: our families and friends, supporters from the local video game industry and local community, and our community of dedicated players. We streamed everything live on our Twitch channel.
We had people participate through donations, encouragement on our various game chats, comments on our twitch stream and dropping by our office. The most surprising support came in the form of 4 six packs of Alexander Keith’s IPA which was delivered by a local beer delivery service, courtesy of one of our amazing players.
There was so much going on at the office, that I ended up spending 21 hours here during the event (out of a total of 25 possible hours). Now I must admit that I was not awake for the entire event. I did end up taking a nap for about an hour in the very early hours of the morning.
Our Community Manager, Chloe was also covering the grave yard shift, so she continued playing while I napped under one of the tables in our office (it was the darkest place I could find). In my defense, not only did I end up spending a lot more time here than I had originally planned, but I think it is fair to say that the hour I slept was the “bonus” hour that occurred as a result of the time change.
Some personal highlights:
Having both of my sons in attendance for much of the event – My youngest even managed to stay up most of the night! Not only was this a bonding experience for us, but it was great way to introduce them to helping charities (especially a children’s hospital).
Dancing to “Mickey” on the live stream – Our newest game has a funny bit of dialogue which references the 80s song “Mickey”. Our players wanted to watch us dance and so we said that we would if our team donations went over $6K. The players got together and quickly we exceeded $6K.
Significantly exceeding our company fundraising target – We originally targeted $3K. After we beat that target, we raised it to $5K. In the end, we came in at almost $7K.
Games, games and more games – Playing so many games was great, even if my abilities dropped dramatically as I got more and more tired. As a side note, I found it very cruel to play a game called The Long Dark and to see my character get to sleep in the game, but I needed to stay awake in real life. At least when I played our new game, Shards of Titan, I didn’t have to watch my character sleep. Evidently, characters in our game never get sleepy.
Breakfast in the morning! Alexis and Matt showed up in the morning full of energy with all of the fixings to make us Bacon Pancakes. Very tasty and wonderful. For those of you who do not know why bacon pancakes are important to us, check out our About page.
Connecting so many different communities together for a great cause – It was a tremendously rewarding experience that I honestly have some trouble putting into words.
Tectorians of the Week: Pretio and Tap for Tap
We feature two Tectorians this week: Pretio and Tap for Tap.
Pretio, a Victoria-based advertising technology firm recently closed a deal to purchase another local software startup, Tap for Tap.
Tap for Tap is a mobile ad network for iOS and Android apps which includes a free tap exchange as well as paid promotion and app monetization network.
Founded in Victoria by Todd Dunlop and Eric Dyck in April 2012, Tap for Tap offers an ad network that allows app developers to cross-promote their app by exchanging ad placements within apps in the network. More than 15,000 app developers around the world use Tap for Tap’s network.
Tap for Tap is far from Todd Dunlop’s first successful startup. The Royal Roads grad and serial entrepreneur founded Neverblue Media, a Victoria-headquartered company that is internationally famous for offering a high-quality ad network, and is one of the local tech scene’s biggest employers.
Pretio was founded by 26 year-old entrepreneur Tyrone Sinclair in 2012 with an initial focus on helping games, apps and websites engage users by giving rewards from brands for certain activities (for instance, a $10 coupon from Target for visiting frequently or 50% off from Tommy Bahama for hitting a new game level).
In 2013, after having raised an angel round from local investors and bringing well-known Tectorian Jim Hayhurst on board, the company raised additional funding from Sir Terry Matthews’ Wesley Clover International and Vancouver-based VC Yaletown Venture Partners.
Since then, the company has allowed other advertising networks to use Pretio’s technology and offers to fill the millions of daily ‘moments’ where users expect to be rewarded – not bombarded with banner ads
The acquisition of Tap for Tap by Pretio is especially exciting for the VIATeC community.
Pretio, the first graduate of VIATeC’s Accelerator Program, acquired the 2012 VIATeC Award Recipient for Online Strategy of the Year, Tap for Tap.
Pretio is also located at Owen Matthew’s mini-tech park at 1124 Vancouver Street, famous for using a VW bus and a Boler camping trailer as meeting rooms.
Image Courtesy of Photographer Sama Jim Canzian
Community Chest – VIATeC Peer Round Tables
Did you know there are some fantastic peer round tables that take place monthly at Fort Tectoria?
Whether you’re a marketer wanting to expand your knowledge, a CEO looking for insightful discussion or a sales leader looking for professional development, there’s a monthly round table for you!
Marketing and Product Management Round Table
This year’s series of round table meetings has a focus on how to solve problems in marketing and project management, with a focus on case studies. Marketers and product managers of different disciplines and experience levels are all welcome.
The group meets the third Wednesday of every month.
CEO Breakfast Club
As the name implies, this round table is made up of CEOs, COOs or General Managers working in Victoria tech companies with sales in excess of $500,000 per year.
This is a very relaxed group, with energetic presenters and a great opportunity for exchange of ideas with like minded peers.
The CEO Breakfast Club meets the first Friday of every month.
The Business Development Round Table
This round table is for sales leaders who manage teams, channels or strategy for their organizations.
Presentations on technology, techniques and problem solving are a focus, as well as great conversation and support in a friendly environment.
This group meets the fourth Wednesday of every month.
To join any of these groups you must meet the criteria mentioned above for membership and be a VIATeC member. Please forward 3 or 4 sentences sharing your current role and your background, or your LinkedIn profile to rbennett@viatec.ca so he can forward your membership request to the group leader.
Stand Desk: Automatic and Affordable
If sitting is the new smoking, we all have one foot in the grave. While many of us toiling away in the knowledge economy have to sit to get any work done, sitting for any length of time during the day may reduce our life expectancy.
So why not stand and work at your computer?
Stand Desk, a San Francisco-based startup, has an answer to that.
Billed as the “most affordable automatic standing desk so far,” Stand Desk launched a Kickstarter campaign and reached its goal of $50,000 in 38 minutes. Indeed, still with over a month to go, 886 backers have already pledged a whopping $339,435, blowing the original goal out of the water.
What makes Stand Desk so popular?
First of all, the benefits of standing desks in general are pretty clear: increased productivity, energy, and reduced lower back pain.
Standing desks can also prevent or reverse carpal tunnel syndrome, and standing for part of the work day can also prevent metabolic syndrome.
However, standing desks typically sell for thousands of dollars. They’re expensive.
Stand Desk’s price? $399, just a fraction of what other standing desks cost.
Stand Desk is pretty cool. Simple motors automatically adjust the height of Stand Desk, meaning the desk can be used at sitting or standing height and adjusts at the press of a button.
Stand Desk is also smaller than other standing desks, which means it is easier to introduce into established office layouts.
Stand Desk made its product affordable by simplifying the mechanics that go into raising and lowering the height, with a range of 28 to 45 inches, which should accommodate people as tall as 6’3″. The desk top is made of bamboo or particle board.
Stand Desk founder Steven Yu and his Kickstarter campaign even made Hacker News, where there is a great thread with helpful hints about how to ease into using a standing desk full time.
Skirmos – Open Source Laser Tag
Have you ever dreamt of building your own laser tag course? Imagine your favorite first-person shooter video game in real life. Welcome to Skirmos: Skirmish Open Source Laser Tag.
Skirmos is an open source laser tag system that can be used for any and every game possible. It has the flexibility to be played indoors or out; in small or large games. Its unique open source nature allows anyone to make their own creative gametypes. Whether it’s free-for-all or capture the flag, a realistic simulation, or a replica from your favorite video game, Skirmos can be played in any manner you can think of.
The Skirmos Kickstarter campaign has 13 days remaining. Make your contribution today and bring this awesomeness to reality!
Tectorian of the Week
2014 VIATeC Technology Awards – Nominations open Monday, March 17th
“The VIATeC Awards have become known as a unique event focused on entertaining the crowd with humor and irreverence while shining the spotlight on some of our awesome technology companies,” says Dan Gunn, Executive Director of VIATeC, the Victoria Advanced Technology Council. “It’s a great way for local tech firms to get increased profile with local media, policy makers and their peers which always helps when looking to hire new staff, find new customers or raise investment.”
Nominations will open at 9:00am on Monday, March 17th. Click here to access the nomination form (will not open until March 17th).
In total, twelve awards are presented at the evening gala
- Technology Company of the Year
- Emerging Technology Company of the Year
- Startup of the Year
- Product of the Year
- Innovative Excellence
- Executive of the Year
- Employee/Team of the Year
- Employer of the Year
- Education Champion
- Colin Lennox Award for Technology Champion
- VIATeC Member of the Year
- * Strategy of the Year
*New award category for 2014
More about the award categories:
Technology Company of the Year
Recognizes a Greater Victoria company that has demonstrated excellence in innovation and a commitment to the technology community while embracing sound business fundamentals.
Emerging Technology Company of the Year
Recognizes a Greater Victoria company that has the greatest potential to demonstrate excellence in innovation and a commitment to the technology community while embracing sound business fundamentals. This category is reserved for operations that have been established for less than 3 years.
Start-up of the Year
Recognizes a Greater Victoria company less than 2 years old that demonstrate significant potential to generate revenue, raise investment, or to have significant social benefit.
Product of the Year
Recognizes a Greater Victoria company that has achieved success in the commercialization of an innovative technology product (eg. market acceptance and sales).
Innovative Excellence
Recognizes a Greater Victoria company that has researched and designed an innovative service, process or product that is expected to revolutionize a sector, method of business or way of life.
Executive of the Year
Recognizes an individual who has had a significant impact on the success of an organization as a direct result of their leadership. For this award, executives are considered to be those that typically hold senior titles, eg. CEO, CFO, COO, President, Vice- President.
Employee /Team of the Year
Recognizes an individual or team in the technology sector who demonstrates outstanding initiative and service delivery, and has had a significant impact on the company for which they work.
Employer of the Year
Recognizes a company that has demonstrated its commitment to their staff and provides a pleasant workplace.
VIATeC Member of the Year
Recognizes a member of VIATeC who has demonstrated outstanding commitment to the technology sector through involvement, volunteering and support of VIATeC. The recipient of this award is selected by VIATeC.
Strategy of the Year
Recognizes the best strategy implemented by or for a Greater Victoria organization. Nominated companies are required to provide a letter of support clearly explaining their strategy and milestones. The judges will consider impact and results from the underlying strategy.
The Colin Lennox Award for Technology Champion
Recognizes an individual who has demonstrated passion and commitment to the Greater Victoria technology sector for at least ten years. Their long-standing support has been instrumental in Greater Victoria ‘s continued success on the world technology stage.
Education Champion
This award recognizes a teacher who inspires their students using innovative tools and technology. We are looking for teachers that use 21st Century Learning techniques to help prepare student to thrive in a knowledge-based society.
This Week in Tectoria 