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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - DECEMBER 2011
Igloo—Pioneering in Canada
I
ndustry Media spoke with
Igloo Software, pioneers in
social business software, to
find out why Canada is the place to
be for start-ups.
IM: What do you think are the key
ingredients for innovation in Canada?
Dan Letendre: The key for communities to
be innovative is to have knowledge-worker
type positions. Then, you need academic,
research and innovation, and government
pillars to drive new innovations.
IM: Do you believe that governments on
all levels have a responsibility to fund new
ideas?
DL: Most definitely. If you’re going to
innovate, you need to be able to get your idea
funded. How do you keep your great
Canadian technology companies in Canada?
Give them the ability to get funded. Right
now, the reality is that most people will go to
the U.S.
Andrew Dixon: The government recog-
nizes as they compare productivity levels
between Canada and the U.S., we don’t stack
up relative to our U.S. counterparts and
they’ve traced it back to investment in
technology. The federal government recog-
nizes that they want to feed innovation in
centres like this [Waterloo] as a way of
growing innovation.
DL: Take for instance the Ontario Emerg-
ing Technologies Fund. That Fund should
streamline its process to get funding out to
places like the Accelerator Centre, which is
trying to develop ideas through seed
funding to entrepreneurs.
But in terms of a responsibility, it’s not
just the government. Let’s be honest, the VC
community in Canada has dried up. That
makes it difficult to fund the next great idea.
And if you look at the history of innovation,
it is usually driven from the academic
institutions. But innovation doesn’t happen
like that anymore.
IM: We know that Canada is behind
other countries on the productivity scale.
Do you think that presents an opportunity?
AD: Absolutely. It’s important that we can
compete: not just relative to our U.S.
counterparts but it’s about competing on a
global stage. It is critical that we keep in step
with productivity. Canadians traditionally
have been known as laggards in technology,
but part of that is we don’t feed that
entrepreneurial spirit in people like they do
in other part of the world.
DL: Where is Silicon Valley? That’s where
innovation comes from, the east and west
coasts of the U.S. But where is that hub in
Canada?
AD: The other negatively contributing
factor is that risk is rewarded in other places.
Even failure is rewarded in Silicon Valley.
IM: What do you think are the key
ingredients for innovation? What is
important for entrepreneurs?
DL: One of the key things is mentorship.
David Johnston, Jim Balsillie, and Tom
Jenkins, those mentors are in the Canadian
community and will mentor people.
Entrepreneurship and innovation are built
on a foundation of higher learning.
IM: What are the most important
elements of being a successful
entrepreneur?
DL: As an entrepreneur you have to
have a certain skill set you want to
grow. It’s not a sprint; it’s more of a
marathon. It takes a lot to be successful
to be innovative to move forward.
AD: You have to be able to think big
picture and execute your strategy. First
before you try to build a company, to
build a brand, you need to know what
your skill set is. Surround yourself with
people that are better than you are at
other skills. You want to figure out what
your core value proposition is.
DL: And very importantly, if you can find
a company, as an entrepreneur, that solves a
must-have, your probability for success goes
up dramatically.
AD: You need to understand what pain
point you’re solving.
DL: addressing a very specific business
user.
IM: Igloo is in a market that is very ‘right
here, right now’, so what are you doing to
stay innovative?
DL: We listen to our customers.
Customers get excited when they have a
comment and it gets put into a product.
Every release we have needs to be 50 per cent
customer driven. Our other competitors can’t
do that. We do four per year. Listening to
customers drives innovation. We also
consider ourselves a service company, not a
IGLOO SOFTWARE - CANADA’S INNOVATION FUTURE