Good morning everyone! Today’s issue of the Sunday Briefing is brought to you by Social Next Virtual Summit, a two-day virtual summit taking place March 3-4 featuring 25+ live presentations. And speaking of events, you’re invited to join me at the next TechVancouver on March 8th. The in-person, full capacity (!) event will feature executives from Mintlist, Innovate BC, Switchboard and more. » Get your tickets here.

Now, let’s get into today’s newsletter. This week I’ve got 1,170 words for you, a 4-minute read. Enjoy!

Meet the man changing the face of startup funding

Future Capital founder Marlon Thompson is bringing a new kind of equity to the venture capital space. » Start reading.

The tech winners (and one loser) of the 2022 BC Budget

We check in with how the province’s latest announcement will affect the tech sector. » Start reading.

• Plus, what B.C.'s major business groups had to say about Budget 2022. They’re mostly unhappy, but not completely unhappy. » Twitter thread.

“There’s no stigma around having a life.” — How (and why) to get a job at MacroHealth

Executive Sahar Kahani dishes on the benefits, literal and figurative, of working at the Vancouver-based company. » Start reading.

Vancouver restaurant Alimentaria Mexicana brings the old world online

The eatery’s e-commerce marketplace is connecting customers to products they often don’t get to experience. » Start reading.

Frontier Collective launches to advance Vancouver’s bleeding-edge industries

New group aims to represent the interests of the region’s fastest-growing technologies, including Web3, the metaverse and VR/AR, among others. » Start reading.

Slurpees in February only scratch the surface of 7-Eleven’s presence in Vancouver

We tested out the retail juggernaut’s new mobile checkout feature and learned more about its reasoning for a Vancouver home base along the way. » Start reading.

Bulletin: Compare tech salaries instantly

Introducing the VanHack Tech Salary Calculator. » Continue.

Virtual Conference for Canadian marketers

The SocialNext Virtual Summit on Mar. 3 and 4 is designed specifically for Canadian marketers that work in social media, advertising, and digital marketing. 

With over 25 presenters, SocialNext features experts from TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, and a special keynote presentation from Terry O’Reilly. Connect with the country’s top minds in digital marketing and virtually network with more than 300 attendees from coast to coast to coast (literally!). 

Don’t put your professional development on hold any longer.

Grab your tickets to SocialNext and use special promo code VAN50 to save $50 per ticket.

* Partner Message

🤝 Funding and deals

Trending: Traction on Demand signs agreement to be acquired by Salesforce. The Burnaby-based company has spent 14 years building solutions on the Salesforce platform. » Get the full story.

• Operto raises $15M in funding to help property owners ride wave of tech automation. CEO Steve Davis talks about the “perfect storm” that’s led to 400 percent year-over-year growth for his company. » Get the full story.

• Snappi, a no-code tool that empowers creators to make scalable, interactable online experiences for their audience, raised capital from First Fund. » Continue.

• Genome BC secured $78 million in Budget 2022 to enable it to lead scientific breakthroughs to improve human health, increase food security and adapt to the changing climate. » Continue.

• Chrysalix Venture Capital announced a strategic partnership with EIT Manufacturing, a large consortium of manufacturing innovation in Europe. » Continue.

• Nexii and Siemens announced a partnership for electric vehicle charging prototype to enable faster EV infrastructure deployment. » Continue.

Celebrating 30 Years of Excellence at the Acetech Leadership Summit

Join Acetech April 6-8 at Fairmont Chateau Whistler for the Acetech Leadership Summit.

“The Whistler Summit is the only conference I ensure is a part of my annual schedule—it’s everything a CEO could want in an event.” - Peter Oxley, CEO, Starling Minds

Register here.

* Partner Message

🗞️ In other news…

• The local ModGolf Podcast showcased nine innovators from the black community from past episodes. » Continue.

• Vancouver’s commercial real estate sector is noted in an article focused on Big Tech’s bet on offices and heightened office leasing activity. » New York Times.

• Vancouver startup Blossom leverages cloud doc software Coda to allow “companies to automatically pull in videos and metadata from Zoom, combine it with data from other platforms, and create charts that other team members can edit or comment on.” » Fast Company.

• Thinkific announced its earnings for the full 2021 fiscal year— GMV reached $414.8M, a 50% increase from the year before. » Continue.

• Meet Black Girl Collective, “an organization that advocates for the visibility of Black cisgender and transgender women, femmes, non-binary and intersex individuals by creating inclusive spaces and community-centred events and programs.” » Daily Hive.

• A feature on Jill Schnarr, chief social innovation and communications officer at Telus. » Strategy Mag.

• Abbotsford will soon be home to the first supercapacitor (battery alternative) manufacturing facility in the country. » BCBusiness.

• Agritech company CubicFarm is celebrating a new regulation released as part of the StrongerBC Economic Plan announced on Feb. 17 that allows vertical farming in the Agricultural Land Reserve for the first time. » Langley Advance Times.

• AbCellera said it generated USD $139.3-million in revenue in its Q4, compared with USD $34-million in the previous six months. » Globe and Mail.

• B.C. companies featured prominently on the TSX’s Venture 50 list of the top-performing public stocks. » Continue.

💡 Ideas and insights

• Nathan Caddell, our senior editor, shares insights on editing for Repreoff.app: Vancouver Tech Journal's Nathan Caddell on Proofreading

• Shagin Tejani, CEO of Victory Square Technologies, writing in Newsweek: 3 (Unexpected) Ways The Metaverse May Change Your Life This Year

• Michael Gilbert, founder and CEO of Semios, writing in AgFunder News: Farmers have trust issues with their chemical advisors. Data can help

• Jacquie Griffiths, executive vice-president of Invest Vancouver, writing in BCBusiness: Opening the gate to skills training will lead to a path of prosperity for B.C.

• Ryan Holmes, founder of Hootsuite and League of Innovators, writing on Twitter: 5 phrases to kill if you're trying to innovate

• Raghwa Gopal, CEO of Innovate BC, writing on LinkedIn: February 2022: Local Tech Stories That Caught My Eye

• Michael Stephenson, CEO of addy, writing in Forbes: Why Gen-Z Is Embracing The Financialization Of Real Estate

👋🏾 Before you go…

1. Forward this newsletter to your colleagues, clients or anyone else you think would find it valuable.

2. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

3. Send me story ideas and tips at william@vantechjournal.com

P.S.

Here’s a look at our last networking event this past Friday. Interested in attending, hosting or sponsoring? Drop me a line william@vantechjournal.com

William Johnson 👨🏾‍💻 @notionport

IRL @vantechjournal meetups for the win

February 26th 2022

5 Retweets70 Likes