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BIV 2010 FORTY UNDER 40
December 28, 2010–January 3, 2011 Business in Vancouver
Colby Harder
Birthplace: North Vancouver Where do you live now: Vancouver Highest level of education: College diploma in business administration Car or chosen mode of transport: My bike (when the sun is shining) Currently reading: Business Stripped Bare by Richard Branson Last CD bought or music downloaded: Pearl Jam’s Ten Favourite local restaurant: Kitto Japanese House Profession you would most like to try: Musician Mentor: My dad, and my fellow members of TEC Canada’s Group 233 Toughest business or professional decision: Repositioning our business for enhanced success in a recessionary market Advice you would give the younger you: Never burn a bridge, develop a clear vision for your business and find a mentor What’s left to do: Rapidly grow Conti’s contract support services business
President, Conti Electronics Ltd. Age: 35
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olby Harder saw bigger potential for Conti Electronics Ltd.’s audiovisual design and technical expertise when he joined and became a minority shareholder in the familyowned business in 2001. At that time, the clients of the Vancouver-based AV equipment reseller were businesses that required audio and video systems for basic, small-scale operations such as boardroom meetings and hallway displays. A salesman at heart, Harder refined the company’s account and customer-relationship management systems and targeted larger contracts. Contracts to design and install audio and video systems for large public entities including Vancouver International Airport and the Abbotsford Regional Hospital have been key
to the company’s four-fold revenue growth since 2001. A multimillion-dollar contract to design and install a network of digital advertising signage on the Lower Mainland’s SkyTrain and Canada Line has been the firm’s largest project. “I saw a real opportunity for us to push into some larger projects that we traditionally had thought were beyond our scope,” said Harder, who became Conti’s majority shareholder in 2008 – as part of a succession plan arranged with his father in 2001. His involvement in community-focused groups included a 2001 to 2009 stint as an elected board member of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club.
He led the club’s efforts to cultivate more interest in yachting among 20- to 30-year-olds. A natural interest in the symbiotic relationship between public safety and crime lead him to serve two years on the Vancouver Board of Trade’s Public Safety Task Force. Early in his career,
Harder cut his teeth with a small firm developing creative retail software products for computeroriented brands such as Seventeen and Kodak. He also learned a thing or two working for a dotcom-era firm that, like most dot-coms, went bust.
Shaun Walker CTO, DotNetNuke Corp. Age: 39
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haun Walker acknowledges open-source software developers can be a passionate bunch who follow the credo that software should be free and available to all. But DotNetNuke Corp., an open-source web content management portal Walker founded in 2002, has evolved into a hugely popular and successful revenue-generating enterprise while still abiding by the open-source community’s principles. Roughly 600,000 websites and intranets are managed using software developed on DotNetNuke.
There have been more than six million software downloads from the site. While software on the site is still free and available to all, DotNetNuke generates revenue by selling its programming expertise and an enterprise edition for developing more complex and robust websites. As well, the company collects commission on sales of upgrades in an online marketplace it acquired a few years ago.
“I didn’t quite know what would happen or how accepting the Microsoft developer community would be of such a project. But it turns out it was a good move”
When Walker started DotNetNuke, there were few open-source platforms available to the Microsoft Corp. developer community. Microsoft, after all, came late to the opensource ball. “I didn’t quite know what would happen or how accepting the Microsoft developer community would be of such a project,” said Walker who, with
DotNetNuke CEO Navin Nagiah, has raised $12 million in venture capital in the last two years in order to grow DotNetNuke. “But it turns out it was good move.” With it’s first mover status, DotNetNuke grew rapidly and caught the attention of Microsoft, which sponsored Walker full time for two years as he cultivated the portal and its community. In 2009, Walker became one of the original board members on Microsoft’s non-profit CodePlex
Unlike now, there was apparently no business in selling online coupons back then. “I’m kind of proud to
say I was part of the dotcom deal,” said Harder. “I learned a lot about how and how not to manage a business.” Ą
“I saw a real opportunity for us to push into some larger projects that we traditionally had thought were beyond our scope”
Birthplace: Kelowna Where do you live now: Abbotsford Highest level of education: Computer information systems diploma, Okanagan College Car or chosen mode of transport: Toyota Highlander Currently reading: Do more faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup by Brad Feld Last CD bought or music downloaded: Kid Rock’s Born Free Favourite local restaurant: The Keg Profession you would most like to try: Any industry where there is an opportunity to convert manual procedures to automated processes through the use of IT Mentor: Earlier in my career, Kent Alstad and Lee Purvis. More recently, Navin Nagiah, CEO, DotNetNuke Toughest business or professional decision: To leave my fulltime job at the Vancouver Port Authority to pursue my entrepreneurial interests with DotNetNuke Advice you would give the younger you: Spend an equal amount of time managing the business as you do on technical tasks such as software development or operations What’s left to do: Finish what I started: fulfil the mission of making DotNetNuke the most deployed and most valuable web content management platform in the world Foundation, whose aim is to bridge gaps between software companies and open-source communities. Its people like Walker who have helped Microsoft realize the value in open source.
“If you can get code in the hands of developers, they’re more likely to adopt it,” said Walker. “You can build large, loyal communities around products using that model.” Ą