The Rockies' Report

A

Note From Heather Marshall

Welcome to The Rockies' Report, a newsletter that showcases the CDL-Rockies community, its work and its impact.

We've reached the halfway mark of our seventh cohort year; a point in time where we find ourselves looking forward and planning for the future, while also looking back and reflecting on what we’ve learned.

A key aspect of the program that’s remained consistent throughout all seven cohorts is the quality of our mentorship CDL mentors bring diverse perspectives and knowledge, meeting founders where they are at in their entrepreneurial journey and providing the advice and support they need, when they need it. This curated and highly impactful mentorship sets CDL apart.

Whether they are refining an idea and forming their company (like founders in our Nurture program), focused on scaling their technology and building a goto-market strategy (like the ventures moving through CDL), or an executive team scaling its organization and business operations (like companies in the Haskayne ScaleUp program), CDL-Rockies provides curated mentorship that is unique to each participant. Every founder has different needs and faces different challenges unique to their journey. Our mentors understand this and respond accordingly. They look at where the founder wants to be and the hurdles preventing them from getting there and use their experiences and insights to coach founders over those hurdles.

Heather Marshall

The proof that our approach to mentorship works is in the numbers. In the past seven years, CDL-Rockies alumni have created over $5 billion in equity value and raised more than $1.6 billion in capital. Our alumni companies have told us that the focused mentorship they received from CDL mentors played a pivotal role in helping them reach these and other significant milestonesatanaccelerated pace.

We are committed to building on our greatest strength – CDL mentorship. We know that bringing together business leaders with varied experience and expertise to mentor entrepreneurs leads to successful outcomes. Our unique approach to mentorship has a substantial impact on innovation ecosystems, economiesand industriesaround theworld.

As always, thank you to our mentors, and to the entire CDL-Rockies community, foryour continuedsupport.

Sincerely,

MARCH 2024 ISSUE 7

A Note From

Highlighting our community

RecognizingfiveyearsofcommitmenttoCDL-Rockies

We are in our seventh year of CDL-Rockies programming, and we have successfully evolved our program into what it is today in large part thanks to theongoingcommitmentofourmentors.

We would like to celebrate the mentors who have reached a CDL-Rockies milestone: five years of volunteering their time with our program! Thank you forbuildingsomethingmassivealongsideus!

A list of the mentors who reached this milestone this year, sharing their time, knowledge,andexperience,canbefound here.

CDL-Rockies’ influence on entrepreneurs

Jennifer Jensen, Executive Director, Calgary Innovation Coalition, was planning on going to law school when she put that goal on hold to open a business. She continued down the path of entrepreneurship for a decade, before enrolling in the Haskayne School of Business MBA program. She says the CDL course was a major factor in her decision to join Haskayne.

“[CDL-Rockies] was a huge draw for me and I was accepted to Haskayne in the fall of 2020 and it literally changed the course of my life it was the best decision I made and I loved it so much,” says Jensen.

Jensen’s current position with the CIC allows her to support startup founders and build a strategy to have impact on the tech and innovation industry.

Read the full story here.

Storiesfrom thecommunity

Learn more

The CDL Course is offered to MBA and EMBA students at the Haskayne School of Business (University of Calgary) and the Alberta School of Business (University of Alberta). Applications for thecoursearenowopen.

Formoreinformation, visitourwebsite.

RoyalCollegeselects Dr.Marcia ClarkasnextPresident-Elect

Alison Sunstrum joins Sylvain Charlebois and Michael LeBlanc to discuss her impactonCDL-Rockies

Bettina Pierre-Gilles has written a book called Bootstrapping Your Way to Success: Starting andGrowingaBusinesson a TightBudget

Venkataraman Thangadurai is "ready to change the world" with his team at theWesternCanadaBatteryConsortium andInnovation Hub

ContemporaryAccounting ResearchaddsAnup Srivastavatoitsteam

Sunterra Group of Companies named 2023 Prairie Region Family Enterprise of theYearbyFamilyEnterpriseCanada

KeeJiminducted into the Cattle Feeders HallofFame

Solving big problems and building something massive

Unlocking success through CDL-Rockies

Convrg Innovations Inc. Chief Revenue Officer Ben Klepacki was looking for a program that would provide him and his executive team with advice and mentorship from the experts – those who had walked in their shoes before, made mistakes and learned from them and could help point him and his team in the best direction for their business.

That was his main reason for applying to the CDL-Rockies’ Energy stream in 2020

“The advice you get from CDL-Rockies is from real people that have actually done this before, so they get where you’re coming from,” says Klepacki. “When the opportunity to join CDL came up, it was a dream opportunity to learn from the best ofthebest.”

Since graduating from the program, Convrg has grown its team to more than 100 employees,expandedintotheUnitedStates,andwonnumerousawards.

ReadthefullstoryofConvrg’sCDL-Rockiesexperience onLinkedIn

ALUMNI COMPANY DEAL FLOW

If you are interested in connecting with any of the companies below, please email us with the company name(s) of interest. Are you raising? Share the details with us here

Pre-seed

Hyperlume (Prime 2022/23)

Seed

DigiFarm (Ag 2021/22)

Liven Proteins (Ag 2021/22)

ANNOUNCED THIS QUARTER

Seed extension

Enamel Pure (Prime 2022/23)

Grain Discovery (Ag 2020/21)

Index Biosystems (Ag 2020/21)

PowerDev (Energy 2022/23)

Re-Nuble (Ag 2021/22)

ROYBI (Prime 2020/21)

Series A

EnSolutión (Ag 2021/22)

Bill Gates-backed Calgary startup preparing for major scale-up, large workforce expansion Antora Energy raises $150 million to slash industrial emissions and spur U.S. manufacturing Syzygy Plasmonics announces the world's first light-powered reactor cell for industrial chemical reactions is now available for order

Ontopical launches AI Copilot: Oliver, to advance government market intelligence

VENTURE

VIEW

O P E N F U N D R A I S I N G

Ben Klepacki Photo by Adrian Shellard

INITIATIVES

Nurture

The third year of Nurture is in full swing! Nurture supports very early-stage science and tech founders in making meaningful progress in commercializing their innovations. CDL-Rockies provides resources and programming – including coaching, workshops and mentorship – to address gaps in the areas of product, market and team with the goal of preparing founders to be able to submit a competitive application to the CDL program. Participating ventures have the opportunity to connect withmembersoftheCDLcommunityaswellasengageinpeer-to-peerlearning.

We’vehostedtwovirtualworkshopssofarthisyear:

IP and Why it Matters, led by Jason Howg, National Business Leader, Intellectual Property, Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG)LLP

CustomerDiscoveryledbyAndrewBrowne,Partner,HeadofBusinessDevelopment,ThinAirLabs

In theupcomingmonths,wehaveprogrammingplannedforthefollowingtopics:

ProductPositioningStatementDevelopment

LearnabouttheFundingLandscapeforearly-stagestartups

EngagewiththeVentureTeam

EarlyBirdApplicationReviewandFeedback

TolearnmoreaboutNurtureortoprovideventurereferrals,please contactDoraTamas

TheHotchkissBrainInstituteisnowacceptingExpressionofInterestformsforanyoneinterestedintheHopewellM.I.N.D Prize.

The winner(s) of the award will receive up to $1 million to launch innovative, bold, high-impact research projects in brain and mentalhealthattheUniversityofCalgary. Learnmore.

AlbertaCleantechAwardsNominations2024

ForesightCanadaisnowacceptingnominationsfortheAlbertaCleantechAwards!

The second annual awards ceremony will recognize inspiring change-makers from across Alberta who are helping lead the chargetoanetzeroeconomy.

ThedeadlinefornominationsisApril19,2024. Learnmore.

MARCH 2024 THE ROCKIES' REPORT Community events, initiatives & resources AROUND THE

CORNER

NURTURE STATS As of January 2024

HopewellM.I.N.DPrize

HaskayneScaleUpProgram

In December, the Haskayne ScaleUp Program officially welcomed 8 companies to Cohort #2. Since then, the company and mentor teams have participated in two intensives. The first intensive focused on leadership and culture. Led by Judy Reige, executive teams developed a clear plan to define a leadership mindset and the systems needed to grow and expand. In the second, Dr. Mara Lederman guided executive teams through a detailed strategy process to create a comprehensive and clearplanforanystakeholder.

In April, Dr. Michael Robinson will advise executive teams on the value of good governance and the importance of a seasonedboardofdirectors.

The ScaleUp team is now recruiting for the 2024/25 cohort year. If you want to learn more about the program or know a companythatcouldbenefitfromit,please visitourwebsite.