The Technology business in Canada and even more so on PEI is infected with the worst case of “whatever” disease. The entrepreneurs, the government – no one gets it, other than the money people on Bay Street (and they just want to make a quick buck).
It’s a friggin race to the finish boys, feeding time and the sharks are in the pool. There is only one winner, unless you are trying to create mom-and-pop businesses: good luck in technology.
In Technology, someone will eat your lunch before you even think it’s lunch time. There is only one winner in each category. There aren’t two Microsofts, just one. There is only one Apple iPod. The other people don’t know they lost yet.
When I started Island Computer in 1980, the banks all said- who needs a computer? Everyone said it. We went on to dominate the market.
When I started Aquilium Software in 1991, the same crew including the government said – who starts a software company on PEI? Some people even opposed it as though we were revolutionaries. Well we were.
The software we created was sold by Aquilium (then Avotus) to Cogsdale They are doing well with it and their own products – 10 years later.
Steven Hodson comments on this in his blog Not In Canada Eh and quotes from Will Pate in his blog startupnorth on the topic. Will says,
When you meet technology people from Canada, we’re not in a race. We’re watching the race from the sideline. We act like technology entrepreneurship is closer to farming than shark hunting, as if risky business isn’t necessary to make the next Google or Microsoft. We putter around as if slow and steady actually wins races to innovate and grow technology businesses. We fail to light a fire under young entrepreneurs, like the ones that started every major tech company you can think of, and our best venture capitalists are putting their ships on “coast”. In a world of accelerating change, those are very dangerous habits. We need to lose our current attitude quickly.
I’m out of it now. Let Will carry the torch.
