Jim Murphy
sep 17 2007 09:05
8 Reputation Points

Biggest challenge is in NOT thinking in terms of being Canadian! Startups are challenging for fundamental reasons – having not much to do with your Canadian-ness. Get out there and be the best in the world – period. Is the Blackberry the most compelling handheld device in Canada? Its a ridiculously limiting way to think about it. I find Canadians often user “Best in Canada” as a yardstick for something. Get out from behind John A. MacDonald’s skirts and get onto the world stage. We belong there, just like everyone else, whether they are from The Bay Area, London, Singapore, NYC, Boston, Austin, Bangalore, Sydney or…ahem… Waterloo!

Use a global yardstick not a “provincal” one!

Tim T
jan 15 2008 21:36
7 Reputation Points

A start-up’s greatest challenge is not striking deals that make enough money for their customer to cover opportunity cost and compensation. Many start-ups are incapable of securing big accounts because they do not offer proposals that make enough money for the prospect. Closing deals that make the client immediately rich should be a priority for any start-ups.

Scott Valentine
jan 16 2008 08:36
10 Reputation Points

Got to disagree with you there, Tim.

A start-up’s number one priority is not making clients rich, it’s making their own organization healthy.

I was a Top 100 employee with 724 Solutions back in the day. We had it all . . . huge IPO, global financial institution clientele . . . to get the company running live product, management allowed a wonky platform to be deployed and bent over on customizations and product paths -incurring huge expenses along the way – and hung their hopes on a fantastical ”$1 per month per subscriber” revenue model.

We all know how 724 turned out: the clients got half-assed wireless financial services. 724 got downsized by 85 per cent, lost almost all its shareholder value and was relegated to the scrap heap of ‘coulda beens” on the Canadian technical landscape.

Creating riches for clients is great, but only if it comes as a result of creating stability and growth within your organization.

Tim T
jan 25 2008 22:47
7 Reputation Points

Hi Scott, I presume you are referring to 724 Solutions (TSX: SVN; Nasdaq: SVNX).

To be honest, I have never followed 724 before, but from their news archive, I would consider the company well managed and successful as a startup: IPO in 2000 as “the most successful IPO in Canadian history” according to CBC; product of the year in 2001 according to KPMG; a major contract with HP in 2002. As a startup, 724 understood what it took to close big deals. They got people’s attention and offered services that made money for their customer. As a publicly listed company, they faced new challenges: declining shareholder value, unsustainable growth, and a destabilising cost structure.

GM is experiencing this right now. In time, so will Google, as Yahoo will demonstrate in the coming weeks.

Adoption, awareness, referrals, etc, all boils down to closing a deal that generate cash flow for the startup to see another day. Too many startups are full-time hobbies which only holds value for the founder. In my view, making the client rich so they continue doing business with the entrepreneur remains the greatest challenge for startups.

Scott Valentine
jan 27 2008 09:00
10 Reputation Points

724 made the promise of riches for all, but the company delivered on nothing. Most of the deals that got made were near giveaways to shareholder clients (BMO, BofA, Citi).

Nobody – clients, staff, consumers or shareholders – made money off that thing. Just the founders who cashed their options early and jettisoned as soon as humanly possible.

So whether the challenge is producing riches for clients, or growing a healthy organization, 724 was a failure on all counts. That much is clear.
Most of the deals

Atif Rashid
mar 03 2008 12:40
1 Reputation Point

The greatest challenge that we as technology “experts” face is the globalization of service based computing to developing countries.

Today, some of my largest customers have downsized and outsourced a majority of their IT operations to facilitators that can provide hybrid services with a leadership team based here in Canada and lower level positions based elsewhere. This provides a dynamic workforce which can be reconfigured based on current business requirements and a changing market, revolutionizing the traditional style of service based IT consulting.

These 2nd world countries that are nowhere near Canada on the United Nations Human Development Index have an enormous separation between the impoverished many and the middle to upper class few. Crossing this gap is the biggest challenge facing the 3 Billion people in Asia this style of business has created an incredible opportunity for the unlimited supply of labour to compete for.

As we move past an age of manufacturing and labour based economy our service industry is what is currently sustaining our lifestyles. As these countries develop and this style of business matures entering the technology field will become more difficult in the years to come.
There is hope. Our economy is what drives their development and without our creativity in business and knowledge of the North American technology industry they do not know what to do without strict management and control.

In the end, the scope of consulting companies will change and global competition will dissolve international borders for small to medium sized IT shops. Thus, creating an opportunity here in Canada every executive should explore.

Colin Toal
mar 03 2008 17:07
5 Reputation Points

This is an easy one.

Hiring.

The raw material of technology products (whether services, software or hardware) is time.

The product can only be as good as the raw material – the time and creativity of the people building it.

Its best to start with great raw materials – which means hiring the right people.

This isn’t uniquely Canadian – but no one said it had to be uniquely Canadian.

Trevor Stafford
mar 04 2008 14:57
10 Reputation Points

I’ll try to come up with something more challenging for you Colin : )

Ideas are welcome.