It’s not easy to predict the future. I do it to moderate success in my weekly fantasy football pick ‘em pool. Yet today, I’ll try to predict which tech community event you’re most interested in. If it happens to be all of them, I may be an even bigger fan of you than my Super Bowl favourite, the Buffalo Bills.
One week out: The Secret Sauce of Software Sales and Customer Success | Sept 21
#vtjtalks brings together entrepreneurs, executives, talent, investors, and tech community members like you every month to network and learn.
Join us next week to connect with sales and customer engagement leaders, and get insights into the art and science of marketing and selling SaaS and custom solutions. But we’re not stopping there. We’ll also be digging into the tricks to customer retention with Vancouver leaders who actually know what they’re talking about including:
Chris Hobbs, co-founder and president at TTT Studios
Angela Bucher, senior director of customer enablement at Unbounce
Alka Tandan, principal at Turbine Agency
You’re invited: Trillion-dollar-tech stories, with The New York Times’ Tripp Mickle | Sept 29
Tripp Mickle is the author of After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul, which tells the inside story of the unspoken power struggle between Tim Cook and head designer Jony Ive after the death of Steve Jobs.
As part of our #vtjtalks event series, Tripp will join us at entrepreneurship@UBC Robson Square to discuss what entrepreneurs can learn from Apple's rise to becoming the most valuable company in the world, and how founders can harness the power of storytelling to grow their business.
Tickets are now available for the entire Vancouver Tech Journal community, but our members will receive 30 percent off.
👨💻 Sept 20-22: Source and hire senior developers
Powered by Traction, VanHack’s 3-day Virtual Hiring Event for Senior Developers connects companies with qualified senior developers with over 7 years of experience in JavaScript, Java, Mobile, Python, Ruby, PHP, and .NET
🔗 Connect with over 150 pre-vetted senior tech talent
🤝 Speed interview over 10 candidates with 7 or more years of experience
🗣️ Pitch your company, and why candidates should join your team
*Sponsored
TiE CXO - How to thrive a downturn: Lessons from founders who've been there | Sept 29
One of the best-performing sectors during the pandemic, the tech industry is now facing a challenging environment. However, a difficult market also presents opportunities to gain new ground, overtake competitors, and build fundamentally stronger companies.
TiE is hosting a panel of founders with successful track records to talk about ways to thrive a downturn, and come out in a stronger, more competitive position, including:
Farid Dordar, founder of PerfectMind (successful exit)
Catherine Dahl, founder of Beanworks (successful exit $100 million+), Charter Member of TiE Vancouver
Mark Cunningham, founder of Crystal Decisions, amongst others (several successful exits), and Charter Member of TiE Vancouver
SAAS NORTH | Nov 16-17, Ottawa
Our friends at SAAS NORTH are reconnecting the SaaS ecosystem this November 16-17 in Ottawa. Since 2016, SAAS NORTH has been recognized as the hub for rapidly-scaling SaaS companies. This year’s iteration of Canada’s largest in-person convergence of SaaS execs, investors, founders, and entrepreneurs is on the horizon.
Use the code VTJ20 to get 20 percent off the already-discounted Early Bird Pricing (ends on October 5th).
Financing at your pace of growth
As a fast-growing tech company, you want to grow without giving up equity. It’s critical to find a financial partner who can be there, with a flexible solution, right when you need them, and stick with you for the long term.
Find out how First West Capital’s expert team has helped other tech entrepreneurs expand, transition, and reach new markets.*Sponsored
entrepreneurship@UBC Female Founder Meetup | Sept 15
Join the entrepreneurship@UBC community for its monthly Female Founder Meetup. The meetup is designed for female and non-binary founders, executives, leaders, and mentors that are part of entrepreneurship@UBC and our wider ecosystem.
Come down to UBC Robson Square in the heart of Vancouver to build one-to-one relationships and help our community engage, connect, and grow — while having fun!
entrepreneurship@UBC Immersion Week | Sept 27-29
entrepreneurship@UBC Immersion Week (EIW) will bring together storytellers and movement-builders from across our ecosystem in person and online, to share their insights on the strategies and tactics that helped them transform their ideas into impact.
Hear from innovators about bringing radical ideas to scale; learn from founders, funders, industry, and academic leaders on reframing the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and innovation; and meet the next generation of trailblazers at UBC through thought-provoking panels and an Impact Showcase.
VEF x e@UBC: Impact Frameworks for Early Stage Financing | Sept 28
VEF is partnering with entrepreneurship@UBC Immersion Week for its September event: a great opportunity to reconnect with peers, make new connections, and derive inspiration and tactical insights from some amazing entrepreneurs, innovators, and change-makers.
Explore what you need to know if you are raising early-stage capital in today’s world. In this session, panelists will discuss the frameworks they use to evaluate young, impact-led startups:
Kendal McCardle, principal, Pender Ventures
Go deeper: From Vancouver to Västerås and back again
Hilary Kilgour, co-founder and managing partner, TheVenture.Fund
Ha-Kay Law, investment director, TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good
Other upcoming events include the Vancouver Tech Morning Coffee (September 20), Weekly Ethereum Vancouver Meetup (September 22), and many more.
See you there?