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Backgrounder: Venture Connection
Overview
Simon Fraser University has created a hub where ideas take off: Venture Connection is
where innovations fly from university labs and business incubators and emerge as
companies prepared to mature at a faster rate.
We specialize in spinning-off companies through a series of guided mentorship
programs. The Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program, business incubators, mentor
panels, entrepreneurship workshops, business consulting group, undergraduate
entrepreneurship stream, and numerous networking events guide and assist
entrepreneurs to launch their dreams.
“Together we can enrich the academic experience. I expect we will grow the existing
entrepreneurial culture at SFU - and in the community - by sharing a common goal of creating
new business opportunities,” says Colleen Collins, Council of Partners, SFU.
At Venture Connection we are prepared to launch and spin-off more companies quicker
and better than SFU has ever done before.
Entrepreneurs-in-Residence
KPMG LLG recently released a 2008 report titled, “Taking on the World – Positioning
Canadian private companies for global success.”
http://www.kpmg.ca/en/services/enterprise/takingontheworld.html
This report concludes that, “Opportunities are available to small and large businesses
alike, to private as well as public companies. But achieving success outside Canada is
a tough task. It’s not easy for a private company with limited or no offshore experience
to identify products and services that have appeal in the United States or abroad,
determine the best markets for these products, and decide how to market and support
them in unfamiliar environments.”
Responding to the growing need for seasoned expertise and mentorship in company
creation and expansion, Venture Connection is opening its doors on November 20th
with three seasoned angel investors taking the lead. These experienced entrepreneurs
will act as Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) at Simon Fraser University – sharing their
expertise with young companies to help them expand their markets and mature as
companies at a faster rate.
The SFU EIRs are: Doug Blakeway, Basil Peters and Phil Holland.
SFU
Venture
Connection
|
250‐13450
102nd
Avenue
|
Surrey
BC
V3T
0A3
venture@sfu.ca
|
www.ventureconnection.sfu.ca
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The EIRs services include: ongoing mentorship, making connections with key people
and markets, financial investment. EIRs are unpaid. The time they invest is rewarded
through the deals they help to negotiate.
Phil Holland:
Basil Peters:
Doug Blakeway:
“SFU is a gold mine of
entrepreneurial talent.
Ideas and expertise reside
here which require fuel
beyond academics – in
the form of experience and
networks – to make them
fly. That’s where I can
help.”
“Entrepreneurs play a vital
role in stimulating
innovation and job
creation. By their very
nature, entrepreneurs take
risks. We can help them
learn to minimize those
risks and increase their
chances of success.”
”In every economy there are
business success stories companies accelerating
beyond what others had
thought possible.
Businesses with solid
advisors and financial
backing who are linked to
key markets have a head
start. That is what the EIRs
at SFU are doing. We are
here to make headway."
Venture Connection is about business acceleration,
investment, mentorship, incubation and education.
Media contact:
Janice OBriain
Venture Connection, SFU
Direct: 778.782.8728
Email: jobriain@sfu.ca
SFU
Venture
Connection
|
250‐13450
102nd
Avenue
|
Surrey
BC
V3T
0A3
venture@sfu.ca
|
www.ventureconnection.sfu.ca