FEBRUARY 2022 ISSUE 3
THE ROCKIES' REPORT
A Note From Dean Jim Dewald Welcome to The Rockies' Report, a quarterly newsletter providing updates to the community that fuels our work at CDL-Rockies.
Just over 20 years ago, I co-founded a real estate tech start-up called 411 HomeNet. We started with a bold idea to revolutionize real estate by providing online viewing of homes for sale, and by providing expert buyer agents trained to maximize search options for homebuyers. It was time-consuming, expensive and required incredible drive to take an idea ahead. Eventually, the business took off and we grew in one year to offices in 10 major cities from Vancouver to Orlando. Ultimately, we ran out of money, good advice and we failed, only to make way for others to take our ideas and build massively scalable businesses – headquartered somewhere else. That’s what the startup experience looked like then, and that still largely applies to this day. Many try, few succeed. However, someone in my shoes would have had a very different experience had they brought their technology and disruptive business model to the CDLRockies at the Haskayne School of Business, where I now serve as its dean. I’m happy to see that much has improved since those days and indeed our CDL-Rockies, which started less than five years ago at Haskayne, has become an integral part of the UCalgary ecosystem. In January, we celebrated an incredible milestone: its ventures have created $1.3 billion in equity value.
While the program’s list of alumni companies keeps growing, as does the value they bring back into the local economy and beyond, I wanted to take this space to highlight the importance of community. I am particularly proud of the collaboration between CDL and the university’s innovation ecosystem, working alongside organizations like IMPACT Clinical Trial Accelerator Program, UCeed Haskayne Student Fund, Innovate Calgary, the many faculty members participating as CDL mentors, and the list of collaborators goes on. CDL-Rockies’ continued success is rooted in its community: mentors, ventures, students, faculty, staff, corporate and individual partners - we all have a part to play and this most recent milestone demonstrates what happens when we, as a community, play our parts. From one community member to another, thank you for your ongoing support of CDL.
Sincerely,
Jim Dewald
Jim Dewald is dean of the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary and a member of Creative Destruction Lab's Strategic Advisory Board. Adapted from a January 26 Calgary Herald op-ed, which can be found in full here.
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