Ottawa Business Journal December 2019

YEAR

DEAL OF THE TECH Mobile robots give Shopify a lift

BUYING IN

OBJ looks back at 2019’s top deals P17-22

TOURISM Hotel chain Group Germain finds room for growth at airport

December 2019 Vol. 22, NO. 10

REAL ESTATE New Kinaxis project builds confidence in Kanata

FINANCE Eli Fathi’s MindBridge Ai lands $29.6M

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PROSPECTUS

DECEMBER 2019

Let’s celebrate our successes

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I try to be a glass-half-full-type person.

That approach extends to OBJ and my perspective on the local economy.

That doesn’t mean I ignore the very real barriers to growth in Ottawa or the setbacks that happen on a regular basis.

November, for example, was a bad month on the face of it.

Ottawa’s largest advertising agency, McMillan, which had built an enviable client list outside of Canada, laid off most of its talented roster of employees in a bid to survive insolvency.

An even bigger defeat came from local cannabis powerhouse Canopy Growth, which posted an eye-popping $300-million loss in its latest quarter.

And certainly the biggest story of November was the ongoing reliability issues with Ottawa’s Confederation LRT line, the largest infrastructure project in the city’s history.

You could reasonably conclude the sky is falling.

But isn’t it often true that nothing is really as bad (or good) as the headlines suggest? Isn’t there always another side to the story?

Let’s revisit those stories.

McMillan employees were unceremoniously shown the door, but competitors are rushing to scoop up hardto-find talent.

Canopy’s bombshell surprised casual industry observers, but experts suggest the losses, made worse by one-time writedowns, will subside as “cannabis 2.0” takes hold and consumer demand climbs. (Don’t forget these tough times are honing the management skills at Canopy Growth as it competes in bigger emerging markets.)

On the LRT front, not to ignore the frustrations of daily users, but do you ever wonder if months from now these glitches of the early days will give way to a train

system that, by and large, operates to the same standards of other cities?

BEST OF THE BEST

On a more upbeat note, OBJ ended November with its annual fall celebration of business success, the Best Ottawa Business Awards (a.k.a. the BOBs), produced with our partners at the Board of Trade.

Sit in the room at this awards gala and you walk away with a decidedly more optimistic view of the city and its economy.

The very long list of deserving recipients, whether they are established players (Assent Compliance, You.i TV and Regional Group) or newcomers (GoFor, RVezy and SnapClarity), paint a different picture.

It isn’t picture perfect by any means, but innovation and disruption are creating value and employing a new generation of entrepreneurs.

In this case, it’s not only a glass half full.

It might be a champagne flute poured to the brim.

Cheers to all the recipients at the 2019 BOBs.

INSIDE

What defined Ottawa’s technology sector in 2019? Techopia sat down with executives from several of the city’s leading startups, established companies and service providers to hear their insights on the state of the city’s tech industry. Read their observations on sourcing talent, access to capital and what the “Shopify effect” really means for the local economy, starting on page 41.

ON DECK

The Networker is the official publication of the Kanata North Business Association and features news from inside Canada’s largest technology park. The next issue, which will hit the streets on Dec. 30, will explore wireless charging technology being developed by a local semiconductor company as well as strategies for building – and maintaining – a distinct corporate culture amid rapid growth.

ORDERING FOR OBJ DELIVERY

@objpublisher Michael Curran

Want this great publication conveniently handdelivered to your office each month? Well, now that’s a lot easier. Thanks to a partnership with local tech company Fusebill, you can now guarantee your regular monthly delivery of OBJ through an easy online system. Simply visit www.obj.ca/delivery to place your order. It’s a nominal fee of $8 per month to get 1-25 copies of OBJ hand-delivered. Pick the number of copies that you need. It’s a flat delivery fee. Use the promo code PROSPECTUS for 50 per cent off the delivery fee for three months.

NOV. 26-27 SAAS NORTH

If you’re part of Ottawa’s burgeoning software-as-aservice cluster, the big day is almost here. A two-day conference, co-founded by L-SPARK, will bring together hundreds of established executives and startup entrepreneurs at the Shaw Centre for SAAS NORTH. “Whether a startup or a global brand, an investor or a service provider specializing in SaaS, this is your opportunity to cross-pollinate with SaaS professionals from coast-tocoast,” say organizers. Local luminaries such as Allan Wille, Aydin Mirzaee, Bruce Linton, John Sicard, Paul Loucks and Vicki Iverson will take the stage, along with keynotes from speakers such as Mike McDerment of Freshbooks and Dragons’ Den star Michele Romanow. (What would a national conference be without a Dragon, eh?) Check out www.saasnorth.com for info.

DEC. 5

LOCAL BREAKFAST SERIES What is that old Chinese proverb?

May you live in interesting times?

Well, the times are interesting, especially when it comes to a global economy that faces big challenges, ranging from

U.S.-China trade disputes to Brexit. Back at home, all of this puts the spotlight on the Bank of Canada and its interest rate decisions. For that reason, Timothy Lane, the deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, will step to the podium to share the bank’s economic outlook and its monthly interest rate decision in December. Lane, who took on the position in 2009, shares responsibility

for decisions with respect to monetary policy and financial stability and oversees the bank’s funds management and currency functions, including the bank’s ongoing research and analysis of developments in financial technology, crypto-assets and digital currencies.

Lane was previously on the staff of the International Monetary Fund. He is a native of Ottawa and graduate of Carleton University. More info on his breakfast presentation is available at www.ottawabot.ca.

DEC. 12

MAYOR’S BREAKFAST It’s not your typical climb to the executive suite, especially at a Crown corporation such as the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. International investment banker and CFO Evan Siddall was visiting the Canadian battlefields in northern France a few years back with former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney. The patriotic tour inspired him to join the public service, and he eventually took the helm of CMHC, where he is leading the organization on an ambitious $55-billion, 10-year plan to reduce housing need in Canada. Drawing from his privatesector experience, he implemented numerous changes at CMHC, creating a “high-performing, innovative and ambitious organization.” Siddall will be speaking about building an agile culture in the future of work at the Mayor’s Breakfast in December. Full details at www.ottawabot.ca.

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Learn more at WestboroVillage.com

DECEMBER 2019

Light Up the Village in Westboro kicks off the season of giving on November 30. Our business community is raising food and funds for Parkdale Food Centre and Westboro Region Food Bank.

EXECUTIVE BRIEFS

VENTURE CAPITAL

Now, people don’t view AI as this scary, Skynet Terminator thing.

MARKETING

DECEMBER 2019

Local ad agency McMillan lays off majority of staff

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Rocked by what its founder called a “perfect storm of circumstances,” Ottawa’s largest advertising agency has laid off more than half its workforce –​ including virtually its entire senior executive team.

Gord McMillan, who launched the ad firm that bears his name in 1996, confirmed that the company issued pink slips to 38 of its nearly 60 employees on Nov. 14.

While McMillan is staying on with the firm, the list of high-profile departures includes CEO Pierre Paul Sampson, chief creative officer Rob Hyams and president Theresa Forman.

“For McMillan, 2019 has been the perfect storm,” the firm’s founder said in an email to OBJ. “While we have had several years of consistent growth and an impressive roster of global clients, significant changes in the marketplace have left us with the difficult decision to reduce our size and restructure our business.”

McMillan’s blue-chip client roster included the likes of Canadian Tire, cannabis producer Canopy Growth, French software and smart grid firm Schneider Electric and California-based electric carmaker Tesla. McMillan doubled in size between 2013 and 2018, and last year more than 90 per cent of its revenues came from customers in the United States and Europe. The firm recently was shortlisted for Strategy magazine’s Design Agency of the Year award.

The shakeup at McMillan’s Sussex Drive headquarters comes a year after a busy 2018 that saw it acquire a pair of local firms, marketing and design outfit Fancy Boys and video production company Crafted Stories.

–​ BLUWAVE-AI’S BRANDON PAUL, ON HOW GROWING ACCEPTANCE OF AI IS FUELLING THE KANATA STARTUP’S GLOBAL EXPANSION (SEE PAGES 8-9)

M&A

Ottawa-based Ruckify wheels and deals for RVsharing company As it continues to ramp up its operations in cities across Canada and the United States, Ottawa-based online rental marketplace Ruckify is joining forces with a Calgary company that touts itself as “the Airbnb of RV rentals.”

Ruckify co-founder Steve Cody said Tuesday his company has acquired Wheel Estate, an online marketplace that connects RV owners with people looking for camping vehicles on a short-term basis. Financial terms of the cash-and-share deal were not released, but Cody said Wheel Estate founders Chad and Cherie Ball will continue to oversee its operations from their Alberta office.

Cody said adding an RV marketplace will help his

rapidly growing platform, which is adding between 15,000 and 25,000 new items every week, diversify its inventory even further. He said merging with Ruckify will expose the RV platform to potential new customers while also broadening his company’s reach to people who are already renting camping vehicles.

The latest deal marks another step forward for Ruckify, which is now live in Austin, Calgary, Nashville and Ottawa and is building up inventory in 30 cities in Canada and the United States.

It expects to launch in more communities before the end of this year, and its long-term goal is to operate in 50 cities across North America.

Threekit raises US$20M series-A round The startup born of an Ottawa entrepreneur’s vision to bring e-commerce into three dimensions has landed a major funding round.

Threekit, which helps major brands such as Crate and Barrel render their online product listings in 3D, announced in November it has raised US$20 million in a series-A round.

Though Threekit is based in Chicago, a significant portion of the company’s staff work out of Ottawa.

The company’s founder, former Hollywood visual effects engineer Ben Houston, is also based in the National Capital Region.

Threekit’s series-A round was led by Shasta Ventures, with participation from notable names such as Salesforce Ventures and NFL hall of famer Steve Young, a former Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. Also contributing to the round was Godard Abel, a wealthy Silicon Valley venture capitalist who invested US$10 million into Threekit earlier this year.

Threekit was founded in Ottawa in 2014 when Houston opted to leave the glamour of Hollywood behind and put his 3D-imaging skills to work in retail. The startup’s software can quickly render customized furniture and other products online, giving shoppers a clear picture of what they’re ordering before adding it to their carts.

In September, Threekit announced it was opening up offices in Paris and London to bring its 3D-commerce solution to overseas markets.

LOBBYING

Ex-BoT boss Faris lands job at Canadian chamber Less than a month after departing the Ottawa Board of Trade, the group’s former leader is taking on a new advocacy role with an organization that lobbies on behalf of more than a quarter of a million businesses across Canada.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce said this week that Ian Faris took on the newly created position of senior vicepresident of chamber network relations and advocacy effective Nov. 25. Faris most recently spent more than six years as president and CEO of the Ottawa Board of Trade, where he oversaw the merger of the city’s three former chambers of commerce into one organization.

With more than 450 member organizations representing in excess of 250,000 businesses in all regions of

REAL ESTATE

KRP, Regional Group eye new Kanata projects

Ottawa needs to do better at telling the world about unique attractions such as the ByWard Market and Parliament Hill if it wants to be a contender in the escalating “war between cities” for the best and brightest workers, a well-known marketing expert says.

Frank Cuypers, a consultant with international marketing agency Destination Think!, said this week the nation’s capital suffers from a reputation for being dull because people elsewhere don’t know the range of activities and attractions it has to offer.

“The world doesn’t see you as a city,” he told the audience of several hundred gathered for lunch Nov. 5 at the Shaw Centre during the annual Ottawa’s Economic Outlook event.

“You’re not vibrant,” Cuypers added, referring to the stereotypical perception of Canada’s capital.

“There is no city life.”

Cuypers has worked with communities around the world, including Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver, to help them better promote themselves. He cited numerous cities that have become magnets for skilled talent as well as tourists because the entire community has gotten behind efforts to promote their most attractive attributes, including Austin, Tex., and Portland, Ore. Cuypers suggested Ottawa could capitalize on its connection with nature to stand out from the crowd, noting it’s the only G7 capital where you can go whitewater rafting just a few hundred metres from the centre of government.

“It’s not enough to have a good product,” he said. “You (have to) make it experiential. You need to be known as being a very vibrant community.”

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design for a seven-storey, 143,000-squarefoot, class-A building at 2700 Solandt Rd. “The market is finally at a point that we can absorb new buildings.”

Regional has yet to file any official plans for the site. Gordon, the firm’s director of investment and commercial leasing, says Regional is looking for the “right partner” to pre-lease space before moving ahead with its plans.

Meanwhile, KRP has filed a development application with the city for an eight-storey, 200,000-square-foot class-A office building at 2707 Solandt Rd. on a plot of vacant land just south of the Marshes Golf Club.

While the property management firm has yet to sign any tenants, KRP president Martin Vandewouw says it wants to be “shovel ready” once it’s pre-leased about 50 per cent of the space ​– something he predicts could happen as soon as next spring.

KRP’s current portfolio includes 34 buildings in Kanata covering a total of about 3.2 million square feet, mostly on Legget Drive, March Road and Terry Fox Drive. Those buildings are now 95 per cent occupied, Vandewouw says.

Ottawa needs better marketing to win talent war: Expert

DECEMBER 2019

Two of the city’s biggest property owners are laying the groundwork for major new builds in the west end.

KRP Properties and the Regional Group are both devising plans for new office towers on a stretch of Solandt Road just northeast of March Road near the Brookstreet Hotel. The properties are located in the epicentre of the Kanata North tech park, which boasts more than 500 companies ​– many of them fastgrowing firms with a thirst for more space in which to expand their footprints.

As a result, the commercial vacancy rate in the area has plummeted to around six to seven per cent, levels not seen since the halcyon days of Ottawa’s original dot-com boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“We’re seeing a tightening in the market,” says Sender Gordon of the Regional Group, which has drafted a

the country, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce provides a voice for enterprises both large and small, from Facebook Canada to Ottawa-based software firm Westboro Photonics.

As part of his role, Faris will criss-cross the country getting input from local chambers of commerce and business members on how they work together more effectively to promote the organization’s agenda, chief operating officer Jackie King said.

“When we were looking into the market on the right leader for that, obviously Ian rose to the top,” she said, calling Faris “a bit of a unicorn” because of his wide-ranging experience as a policy adviser in the federal government as well as a lobbyist with organizations such as the Canadian Brewers Association.

HUMAN RESOURCES

When you come to work, you have to be able to park your personal life at the door. Luxury shopping is not about us; it’s about the client.

– Stephanie Appotive, on the importance of customer service in luxury retail

UP CLOSE

Pearls of wisdom from a bling biz star

DECEMBER 2019

A second-generation member of Ottawa’s first family of jewelry retail, Stephanie Appotive shines in her role as co-owner of Howard Fine Jewellers

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BY CAROLINE PHILLIPS caroline@obj.ca

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iamonds are forever and, if Stephanie Appotive has anything to say about it, Howard Fine Jewellers and Custom Designers will be around forever, too.

Appotive is co-owner and director of operations of the Ottawa jewelry store,

which was started 52 years ago by her father, Howard, with the support of his wife Sharron and his brother David. The business has moved a couple of times before settling into its current landmark location at the downtown corner of Sparks and Bank streets.

Appotive grew up in the bling biz.

Some little girls play with plastic beads; she played with precious pearls. She helped to sort them for her parents, starting when she was about five.

“My father always made me feel welcomed in the store, and I loved being around the activity of a busy retail environment,” says Appotive. “It allowed me to learn through osmosis from a young age.”

While it seemed Appotive’s future in the family business was carved in

sparkly stone, she initially set her sights on becoming a labour lawyer. It wasn’t until her last year in undergrad at McGill University that she decided she missed the beauty, collaboration and relationships that the fine jewelry world offered.

“Sometimes, the very thing in front of you is so obvious to others but not necessarily to you. It’s all about timing, and I am grateful that my parents did not push me into the business. They let me choose it for myself.”

Appotive earned her graduate gemologist credentials from the New York City-based Gemological Institute of America. She apprenticed with two trade wholesale dealers in New York to learn that part of the business before working her way up at Howard

Jewellers. Today, she owns the business with her sister Lindsay, who runs their other store, True Bijoux Fabulous Jewellery Finds.

Appotive was recognized this year for her entrepreneurial accomplishments when she received a Forty Under 40 award from OBJ and the Ottawa Board of Trade.

Even in these rocky retail times, Howard Jewellers has enjoyed recordbreaking sales for the past eight years.

Now at 26 employees, the store operates a full-service, on-site custom design factory, a watch and jewelry repair and restoration centre and a gemological lab.

It remains the go-to destination in Ottawa for engagement rings, gifts for special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries, and Rolex watches.

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT STEPHANIE APPOTIVE:

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Appotive is married to Gowling WLG partner James Miller, with whom she has three kids. She had a crush on Miller when she was eight at the OAC tennis camp.

2

Her favourite stone is a gemquality rhodochrosite. A rhodo-what? She simplifies her answer by adding that she also really likes emeralds.

3

She can be found buying a three-shot Americano each workday morning at the nearby Bridgehead and seen grabbing lunch from gourmet food truck Bap

by Raon Kitchen.

4

Appotive is a regular fixture at charity galas and donates thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry each year for prizes and auction items.

5

Appotive doesn’t wear a ton of jewelry at work because she doesn’t want to impose her tastes on others. The rock in her engagement ring is quite something, though. Her father quietly bought it when she was very young. When Miller asked him for his daughter’s hand in marriage, Howard consented and told the young man: “Have I got the diamond for you.”

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“Connecting with clients on social media platforms is an example of how quickly our business has had to adapt,” she says.

“My dad has always said: ‘You never want to be like a big cruise ship. A big cruise ship takes a very long time to be able to turn around or switch directions. No matter how big your business gets, you really want to be a speed boat.’

“When you are a speed boat, you can change quickly with the times, because things really do happen so fast,” says Appotive, who most enjoys collaborating with her clients and master jewellers to create unique new pieces, whether from scratch or using clients’ existing jewelry that holds sentimental value.

One of the biggest challenges to working in luxury retail, says Appotive, is to motivate and take care of one’s team so that they can consistently deliver their best.

“It’s like we are inviting our clients into our home,” she explains. “We want them to feel special. It’s all about putting the customer first.

“When you come to work, you have to be able to park your personal life at the door. Luxury shopping is not about us; it’s about the client.”

Remember the snooty sales clerk scene from Pretty Woman? That would never happen at Howard Jewellers, Appotive says so emphatically that she repeats the word “never” three times.

“You treat everyone equally,” she says, adding that she knows better than to judge by appearances.

DECEMBER 2019

Howard employees get a Rolex of their choice after 25 years.

“We work really hard,” Appotive says of their success. “I know everyone probably says that, but we really do work very hard. We do not take anything for granted. We have an amazing team, and we’re very client focused.”

Appotive says she’s learned from the best: her father. He’s a self-made man with an unrelenting drive and an attitude that nothing is ever too small

or too big to help a client. He’s taught Appotive that the jewelry business is about establishing trust and being true to one’s word with clients and suppliers.

Diamond deals all over the world are clinched with nothing but a handshake and the phrase “mazal u’ bracha,” a traditional Hebrew saying that means “with fortune and blessings.”

The business’s ability to adapt to changing markets and consumer tastes has helped it thrive. Some of the competition has not fared as well, adds Appotive, who uses a combination of old-school values, grassroots marketing and technology.

GO GLOBAL

DECEMBER 2019

Utility firms around the world warming up to BluWave’s smart-grid solution

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Kanata-based startup takes AI platform across Pacific with challenging trial run in megacity of Mumbai

BY DAVID SALI

david@obj.ca

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o one can accuse Devashish Paul and his team at Ottawa’s BluWave-ai of trying to pad the results from the first major round of international beta-

testing for their smart-grid technology.

Based in Kanata, the two-year-old startup makes artificial intelligence software designed to predict how much energy a utility’s power grid will need to meet market demand.

The company’s AI solution taps

into various sensors across a city’s power sources to monitor and forecast up-to-the-minute energy needs to help utilities use their resources more efficiently and avoid costly penalties.

In many jurisdictions, for example, utilities have to place orders to upperlevel grids based on their expected usage and can be dinged costly fees if their predictions are wrong.

BluWave has already conducted test runs of its technology with partners such as Hydro Ottawa, the University

of Ottawa and the city of Summerside, P.E.I. But when it decided to venture beyond this country’s borders and find its first international test site, BluWave didn’t simply look south of the border.

Instead, it took its software across the Pacific to the megacity of Mumbai, with its population of nearly 25 million.

Launching your export bid in India’s second-most populous urban area is hardly dipping your toe in the water.

But Paul is nothing if not ambitious.

“Our goal is to be the premier renewable energy AI company worldwide,” he says. “We always had a goal of developing this technology in Canada and taking it to the export market.”

The 20-person company is already making plenty of waves, so to speak, inside Canada’s borders.

BluWave raised a $1.3-million preseed round late last year, and Paul says it expects to close a $4-million funding round before the end of this year. In August, the company announced it received $2.43 million from the feds’ Sustainable Development Technology Canada fund, part of a $6-million project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy grids.

One of the partners in that project is Mumbai-based Tata Power, one of India’s largest utilities and a leader in generating solar energy.

BluWave executives first met Tata execs through the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service about a year and a half ago, and the Ottawa firm quickly realized it could play a key role in helping deliver power more efficiently in Tata’s home base.

It’s a monumental challenge.

Tata orders energy from a major transmission grid in 15-minute blocks, which equates to 36,000 orders a year.

Beginning in 2020, the company will be expected to accurately predict its power requirements within a range of one per cent or it will face a financial penalty for every miss.

“If we get that right, we’ll save them millions of dollars a year,” Paul says.

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Our goal is to be the premier renewable energy AI company worldwide. We always had a goal of developing this technology in Canada and taking it to the export market.​ – BluWave-ai founder Devashish Paul

Further complicating matters, Tata must place those energy orders an hour and a half in advance.

“In those 90 minutes, a lot of things can change,” Paul explains. “That’s the big challenge. Things can swing dramatically.”

A sudden rise in the outdoor temperature, for example, could cause a spike in air conditioner usage that puts an unexpected strain on the energy grid.

BluWave’s AI platform taps into sources of all kinds, including weather services, to try to get as accurate a read as possible on anything that might cause power consumption to fluctuate.

PRIZE-WINNING TECH

Competition & diverse choices benefit passengers

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spots, they have significantly different business models – something that provides passengers with stability and choice to suit various travelling styles.

Sunwing, for example, is a vertically integrated company operating both aircraft as well as hotels and other onthe-ground services that allows it to be directly involved in multiple parts of their customer’s holidays.

Air Transat – which was rated the World’s Best Leisure Airline in 2018

by U.K. consultancy Skytrax – is also part of an integrated tourism company specializing in holiday travel.

Elsewhere, the combined fleet size of the country’s largest carrier, Air Canada – which operates a vacations division as well as Rouge, its lower-cost subsidiary – gives consumers a multitude of travelling possibilities.

And while WestJet is growing its long-haul fleet, the carrier hasn’t neglected its vacations arm as that is part of the company’s well-earned reputation for helpful and friendly service.

“We’re pleased with the range of options available to Ottawa-Gatineau residents looking for a winter break to a warm destination,” Laroche says.

“It all adds up to a motivating case for local travellers to explore these exciting destinations.”

As airlines see Ottawa passengers supporting these existing flights, he adds, the business case for additional non-stop flights to more destinations becomes more compelling for the country’s air carriers.

OBJ360 CONTENT STUDIO

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s cold weather takes hold across the National Capital Region, Canada’s largest charter and vacation airlines are ramping up their winter operations, directly connecting Ottawa with a growing number of sun destinations.

Air Canada, Air Transat, Sunwing, and WestJet collectively operate more than 50 non-stop flights – representing in excess of 7,000 seats – each week between Ottawa and more than a dozen destinations in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico and the U.S. The newest addition is Sunwing’s weekly service to Mazatlán on Mexico’s Pacific coast, which launches Dec. 17.

“An aircraft is a portable asset that can be deployed to almost any city,” says Mark Laroche, the president and CEO of the Ottawa International Airport Authority. “The fact that Ottawa has so many carriers, serving so many destinations, is a testament to the confidence that airlines have in our market.”

In addition to the sheer number of getaway possibilities, local residents benefit in several other ways from the extensive charter and seasonal airline service at the Ottawa International Airport.

On a regional level, these airlines generate significant economic activity, creating and supporting aviation-related jobs.

Meanwhile, the competition between carriers benefits individual travellers through affordable fares and a diverse range of vacation destinations from which to choose.

Indeed, while all of Ottawa’s charter and leisure-service airlines specialize in comfortably bringing travellers to sun

DECEMBER 2019

Energy providers around the world are beginning to take notice of the software’s potential.

BluWave took home the prize for top smart-grid startup at the World Energy Congress event in Abu Dhabi in September, and Paul and his team recently met with the Dubai energy and water authority’s director of AI to discuss the potential of plugging its tech into the Middle Eastern city’s power grid.

Since the firm’s launch two years ago, attitudes toward AI solutions have shifted dramatically in the utility industry, BluWave officials say.

“In the mainstream business world, there’s a greater understanding of AI as a method of yielding greater profits,” explains Brandon Paul, a marketing executive at the firm. “Now, people don’t view AI as this scary, Skynet Terminator thing. They see it as just

another component of business.”

Devashish Paul agrees.

“Customers, to some degree they were scared of applying AI techniques,” he says of the attitudes he commonly faced when he started the company.

“Now, they’re basically saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got all this data. How we can organize our utilities more efficiently using it?’

“You don’t hire a guy to be director of AI unless you plan to do this stuff. It’s completely flipped over. A lot of utilities have become very forward-looking.”

Meanwhile, the company is setting the stage for even more rapid growth in the months to come.

In December, BluWave will further upgrade its AI platform by adding a meter that will show customers how much they’re reducing their carbon output through more efficient use of energy. The firm expects to land a series-A financing round in the range of $5 million to $8 million by the end of next year.

Paul has spent time in Silicon Valley in the past, but he says he wouldn’t want to build his growing venture anywhere but Ottawa. The National Capital Region has an abundance of software development talent, he notes, and Canada offers government support in the form of cleantech grants and R&D tax credits that you don’t get in the Valley.

“If you look at it as an expansion franchise and you want to win the Stanley Cup, there’s enough talent here locally to do it,” he says. “We can build the right company here for the export market.”

Carriers expand sun destination services to Ottawa Airport

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WHERE OTTAWA’S COMMERCIAL REALTORS GO FOR MARKET INSIGHTS CoStar to headline Ottawa Real Estate Board’s year-end networking and learning luncheon

A What is a commercial Realtor?

“Realtor” is not a job description. It is a trademark of the Canadian Real Estate Association and stands for service, competence and high ethical practice.

OREB’s commercial members who have met high standards of education and experience are eligible to become members of OREB’s Commercial Services Network.

Commercial Realtors provide professional services including: • Exclusive access to listings of thousands of other Realtor members of OREB and other Boards through OREB’s MLS System.

DECEMBER 2019

• Far-reaching marketing services, and access to local, national, and international buyers through their commercial affiliation within the marketing website Realtor.ca, which boasts 264 million visitors in 2018 and 5.3 billion views.

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• Professional advice based on knowledge, experience, and education.

s 2019 winds down, the Ottawa Real Estate Board is arming its Commercial Services Network members with insights into the trends and issues that will shape their industry in the year ahead.

OREB’s annual year-end luncheon brings together OREB’s network of commercial Realtors for an afternoon of networking and educational programming. The event is just one of the many benefits associated with the CSN, says Mitch Gauzas, a sales representative at Keller Williams Integrity Realty and commercial director on the Board.

“The CSN really helps with the public perception of professionalism and it gives consumers confidence in our services,” he says.

“It’s also a hub for our industry and a great opportunity for people from different companies to meet each other.”

CoStar, a global leader in commercial real estate information, will be headlining the Dec. 11 luncheon with an in-depth presentation on the health of the commercial real estate sector.

Attendees will learn about emerging trends in the market and receive both a national and local overview of the industry.

“It’s a great opportunity for everyone to talk to each other about the market, what’s going on, and what new buildings may be coming up in the future,” says Geoff Godding, vice-president at Decathlon Commercial Realty and outgoing chair of OREB’s Commercial Services Committee.

“There is a nice exchange of information (at) events like the luncheon.”

• Tenant and landlord representation • Advice on real estate investment purchases.

• Competent service based on extensive market knowledge.

‘MAKING MEMBERS SUCCESSFUL’ The year-end networking event is one of many OREB seminars and training programs regularly offered to members that help them stay on top of

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the latest advancements in commercial property sales.

Earlier this year, the Commercial Services Network hosted seminars with SVN Rock Advisors CEO Derek Lobo, C. Fleming Developments CEO Darren Fleming as well as HazloLaw litigation lawyer Dean Blanchard, who led a sold-out seminar about dealing with tax problems and the CRA.

“It’s also a hub for our industry and a great opportunity for people from different companies to meet each other.”

—Mitch Gauzas, sales representative, Keller Williams Integrity Realty

The knowledge members gain at these events helps them provide better, more informed service to clients, says Gauzas.

“Professional development is important, and these summits and luncheons are great for acquiring new information about what is going on in the industry and staying up-to-date on trends in the market,” he adds.

As Godding wraps up his year as chair, he says his time with the board reminded him of how important a network like the CSN is for the community.

“It made me realize how much they do for the members and to me that was a real education in terms of what’s available and how much they help us,” he says. “They truly help make members successful.”

DECEMBER 2019

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CFO OF THE YEAR

A figure of influence

In nearly two decades at Calian, Jacqueline Gauthier has become synonymous with Ottawa firm’s dramatic ascent into a publicly traded powerhouse

BY DAVID SALI

david@obj.ca

DECEMBER 2019

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hen asked to describe her role at Calian, Jacqueline Gauthier replies with a chuckle: “Jack of all trades.”

And as Gauthier’s peers will tell you, she’s mastered many of them as well.

In a career at Calian that’s spanned nearly two decades, the Gatineau native has served with distinction in a variety of capacities –​ most notably as chief financial officer.

Gauthier spent 17 years as the Kanatabased services firm’s CFO, stepping aside last March to move into a new role as senior vice-president of corporate development. In her long and eventful tenure as chief number-cruncher, Gauthier was one of the principal architects of Calian’s aggressive M&A strategy that has seen the firm acquire nine companies in the past nine years.

Analysts grew accustomed to hearing good news on a lot of fronts during their quarterly conference calls with the former CFO. With Gauthier in charge of the books, Calian posted an impressive run of 69 consecutive profitable quarters ​– a streak that’s since stretched to 71. The company cracked the $300-million mark in annual revenues in her final full year on the job and has secured a place as one of Ottawa’s premier publicly traded companies.

In recognition of her myriad of contributions to Calian’s success, Gauthier is OBJ and the Ottawa Board of Trade’s 2019 CFO of the Year.

Pretty heady stuff for someone who concedes she “kind of fell into accounting” after switching from her original course of study at CEGEP, computer science.

“For me, it’s been a lot of fun,” the 54-year-old says. “I grew up at Calian.

The first part of my career was about learning the job, learning what a CFO does, learning the business. Through the years, I’ve become more of an expert. It’s like, ‘OK, now I can really help. I can really be strategic and be part of that vision to move things forward.’ It’s been a very nice evolution for me.”

Gauthier’s road to the C-suite began after she graduated from the Université du Québec in Hull with a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1987. She followed up a five-year stint at KPMG with an eight-year run as a corporate comptroller at pulp and paper giant E.B. Eddy, where her work caught the attention of CFO Brian Aitken. When Aitken moved into the same role at Calian in 2000, Gauthier was among his first hires.

It didn’t take long for her to make an impression at Calian, which was then primarily known as an IT staffing firm.

Within a year, Gauthier was promoted

to vice-president of finance, and when Aitken departed for a job at NAV Canada in early 2002, his former prot​ég​ é was named his successor.

As Gauthier grew into her role, Calian matured as a company.

Kevin Ford’s arrival in 2010 signalled a new era for the firm. Ford, a former executive at IBM, quickly launched an aggressive plan to grow Calian’s product and service lines through acquisitions.

He also embarked on a tireless effort to spread the gospel of Calian, hitting the road with Gauthier to speak with “every investor who wanted to take with us,” as he put it in 2017.

DYNAMIC DUO The role of corporate evangelist did not come naturally to the CFO, but she embraced it with characteristic enthusiasm.

“I like challenges,” says Gauthier.

“I’ve always put myself forward to do new things. I don’t shy away from looking at something I’ve never done before or that is totally foreign to me.”

For the past decade, she and Ford have been a dynamic duo, mapping out the firm’s M&A playbook and charting a course that’s seen the company add more than a thousand employees to its payroll.

“I really love working with Kevin,”

I like challenges. I’ve always put myself forward to do new things.

I don’t shy away from looking at something I’ve never done before or that is totally foreign to me.

– Jacqueline Gauthier of Calian, Ottawa’s 2019 CFO of the Year

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“We make sure that everyone is on the same page in terms of where we’re at, where we’re going and what we want to accomplish out of the acquisition.

“We are picky. We take a lot of time to know the owner and the management team before we get too serious. We make sure that what we’re seeing is actually what’s there.”

Her old office is in very good hands with Houston, she says happily, while her new job gives her more time to devote to community causes.

For the past four years, Gauthier has chaired the local board of Dress for Success, a charity aimed at assisting women business professionals, and she recently joined the University of Ottawa Heart Institute’s board of directors.

A former figure skater, Gauthier also heads up Skate Canada’s finance committee and last year became a certified skating judge.

But Gauthier won’t hesitate to tell you her most important role is being a proud mom of three to Hugo, 25, Chlo​é, 22, and Jacob, 19.

“You’re always torn between your kids and working,” says Gauthier, who lives in Gatineau with her husband, local businessman Alain Louis Seize.

“But for me, my family’s been the priority. Every time I make decisions about my time and where I spend it, it’s always been about them first.”

DECEMBER 2019

Gauthier says of Ford, who was promoted to chief executive in 2015 and was named Ottawa’s CEO of the Year two years later.

“I think that’s a great thing that Kevin has done in terms of raising our profile, especially in Ottawa, but also in our investor community. We’re known by so many more investors now, and that’s reflected in our share price as well.”

Ford says his low-key colleague’s time in the spotlight is “long overdue,” and he credits Gauthier with much of Calian’s rise during his tenure as CEO. “I have had the privilege of working with Jacqueline for more than eight years and, since day one, she has been an invaluable resource and partner who has helped grow Calian and educate the investor community about the great strides made by this company,” he says.

“She has been an example of a CFO who can handle the complexities of a diverse, publicly traded company while serving as a key contributor to our transformation and growth agenda.”

Since handing over the CFO’s duties to Patrick Houston last spring, Gauthier has taken on the challenge of orchestrating Calian’s next wave of acquisitions. It’s a complex job that requires a mix of financial savvy, strategic vision and good old-fashioned intuition, and Gauthier is loving it.

“It’s a team effort,” she explains.

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FUNDING GROWTH:

How financial projections can help I

DECEMBER 2019

ron Horse Security and Investigations president Robin St. Martin first sought advice from Ottawa accounting firm GGFL at the suggestion of his bank.

Iron Horse was growing and looking for cash to finance new contracts. The bank’s loan officer figured St. Martin would benefit from some holistic accounting advice.

That was five years ago and when he first met with GGFL partner Anne Van Delst.

“Anne and her team went over our books and quickly showed me potential tax savings that were available to me,” recalls St. Martin. “It was gobsmacking to learn that I had potentially overpaid CRA and would never get that money back.

“So I figured I was losing money by not being with GGFL,” he adds. “That was the start of our relationship.”

More recently, Iron Horse experienced unprecedented growth and with it the need for increased funds to finance new contracts. Like most business owners in that position St. Martin needed an increased line of credit, or loan.

“We reached a revenue point where the bank was asking for more documents and for information that

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I couldn’t begin to understand,” he says. “They were asking questions that are beyond the average business person unless they have an MBA or commerce degree.”

Van Delst and her team prepared cash flow projections and financial statements and, says St. Martin, “gave the bank a better picture of the company than I could have given myself.”

The clincher, he says, was a meeting with the bank’s loans officer.

“Anne came along and when it got into the nuts and bolts of higher finances, she answered the questions.

She spoke the bank’s language and the financing was closed right there.”

Changes in a company’s fortunes raise red flags, says Van Delst.

“When a company approaches the bank for funding to help with anticipated growth, the bank generally wants to see more detailed information including financial projections to help it assess risk,” she adds. “It’s a large part of getting a loan, or line of credit.”

In other words, Iron Horse had to convince the bank of its ability to repay.

Owners of growing businesses also have to ask themselves tough questions, says Van Delst. Most important: It’s great I’ve got the contract but how am I going to finance it and is it worth the money I’m investing?

“When a business grows, you’re investing in a lot of costs up front before you’re seeing money coming back,” she says. “It’s usual to see a lot of cash tied up for a long time.

“You never want to be at risk that DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE you can’t pay your employees, the Visit OBJ.CA/ OBJ-DIGITAL-EDITION to view the digital edition for exclusive features bank or the government (taxes) – and, of course, yourself.”

For any business in an Iron Horse-

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“At GGFL, this isn’t a once-a-year thing.

We look at the future.

What’s happening in your company, and your family.”

– Anne Van Delst, partner, GGFL like situation, finding a trusted financial advisor is crucial.

“It isn’t enough just to get your annual financials done,” says Van Delst.

“At GGFL, this isn’t a once-a-year thing. We look at the future. What’s happening in your company, and your family. It’s all about getting to know your clients.

When you have that knowledge, you can help them grow.

“So don’t wait until something goes wrong,” she adds. “It’s too risky and isn’t worth the stress.”

St. Martin, who has been there and experienced the stress, agrees.

“It’s great to have the support of people who want you to grow and succeed,” he says. “GGFL has never been further than a phone call away, even if it’s just to answer a dumb question.”

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DECEMBER 2019

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Ottawa could go a step further: the city could be bold and propose an aggressive approach to making sure our communities are not left to decay:

Architect Toon Dreessen says the former West Coast Video building in Old Ottawa South, which was damaged by a 2009 fire, has great redevelopment potential, but has been boarded up for a decade.

ELIMINATING EYESORES:

How Ottawa can address its empty and abandoned buildings Apathy is costing our communities

DECEMBER 2019

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acant and derelict buildings tear holes in our communities. They harm our economy, reduce our safety and set us back in making our city a great place to live.

And here in Ottawa, lax bylaws fail to offer much incentive to property owners to redevelop or restore their empty and boarded-up buildings.

Take, for example, 1123 Bank St. in Old Ottawa South.

Fire ripped through West Coast Video in February 2009, leaving the shell of a building behind. Boarded up for more than a decade, this prime piece of real estate has been vacant ever since.

The 9,000-square-foot property is well-served by transit and set in a walkable, vibrant community. It should be a prime redevelopment site.

Had it been rebuilt after the fire, it could today be a wellloved part of the community and might have spurred other development of underbuilt, underused or vacant land nearby.

At a rough guess, within the permitted 15-metre height limit, 27,000 square feet of apartments could likely have provided at least 40 homes, plus a handful of small businesses.

Consider also the former Our Lady’s School at the corner of Murray and Cumberland streets. Located in a heritage district, this site has been derelict for decades. Amid court battles in 2014, most of the building – as well as a neighbouring structure – was demolished. Two of the walls were stabilized, taking over the sidewalk and creating an ongoing maintenance and safety problem for the community.

Properly developed, this site could be part of the community, reflecting more than a century of the heritage of our city.

Both cases, and numerous others, show that our bylaws are too lax when it comes to derelict or abandoned properties.

LESSONS FROM WINNIPEG, VANCOUVER Ottawa’s property standards bylaw addresses vacant buildings only by saying that if they are demolished, the land has to be graded level. It also requires that the building not deteriorate further and be structurally sound so that it does not fall down, and that the exterior walls be capable of withstanding winter weather and vermin.

This means that as long as the former West Coast Video building doesn’t get worse, and that the boarded over windows don’t let in rain or rats, it can stay there as long as the owner keeps paying their property taxes.

By contrast, Winnipeg has a strong approach to vacant buildings. To discourage long-term boarded windows, a municipal application fee of $2,360 is required. This fee can be partially refunded if the windows are closed in with glazed windows within the year. A complete exemption can be obtained if the boarding is for construction.

As well, vacant buildings must be registered, with costs increasing in the second and subsequent years that the structure remains vacant. This encourages owners to not leave their buildings as derelict eyesores.

Consider Vancouver city council’s recent decision to expropriate two heritage properties on the Lower East Side for $1, citing the high cost of stabilizing or demolishing the properties.

OBJ360 CONTENT STUDIO

• Require permits for buildings that have boarded up windows for more than three months, with escalating fees for annual renewal of permission. This approach allows property owners to board up windows during renovations and repairs as well as part of ongoing construction without penalty but disincentivizes long-term boarded-up openings.

• Require permits and registration for derelict properties with increasing fees for renewal; fees should escalate significantly year over year, incentivizing owners to file planning applications to renew, restore and bring buildings back to life.

• Place a cap on the number of renewals permitted. After a given amount of time, the city could expropriate the property for the stated value listed on MPAC statements.

The final purchase price could be adjusted based on the cost of demolition, restoration or other factors unique to the site, determined by an independent panel of experts.

Civic leaders could then make decisions on the site that benefit the public. The West Coast Video site could be auctioned off to a developer willing to develop the site and create strong community benefits.

The city could also develop properties themselves, creating much-needed transitional housing and public outreach centre, for example.

The properties could also be offered as sites for design competitions, following the model offered in Edmonton last year which saw 30 submissions compete for city owned sites, offering missing middle housing solutions with strong public benefits.

The City of Ottawa would see infill development replace eyesores and help stimulate a design culture. Property taxes and development charges would provide a long-lasting return on investment as new residences and businesses contribute to established communities.

Our built environment not only affects and shapes our day-to-day lives. It speaks to how we live and who we are.

Incentivizing the redevelopment of buildings owned by individuals who would be otherwise content to let their properties decay is an opportunity to show our civic pride and build the vibrant, walkable and diverse communities that befit a world-class city.

Toon Dreessen is president of Ottawabased Architects DCA and pastpresident of the Ontario Association of Architects. For a sample of Architects DCA’s projects, check out the firm’s portfolio at bit.ly/DCA-portfolio.

Follow @ArchitectsDCA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

DEALS OF THE YEAR: RETAIL

Farm Boy finds recipe for success with Rideau Bakery buy With beloved business’s signature rye bread and other goods flying off the shelves, grocery chain scrambles to meet demand

BY DAVID SALI

david@obj.ca

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anywhere, so they’re really in demand by our customers,” he explains. “We’re just trying to figure out how to get going on those. It’s a process.”

STATE-OF-THE-ART FACILITY The products’ instant popularity forced the company to scramble to build a brand-new bakery at its facilities on Walkley Road after determining it just wasn’t feasible to try to bring the Rideau Bakery’s old Bank Street kitchen up to modern standards.

York said Farm Boy had crews working around the clock to get the new bakery outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment as quickly as possible.

“It was a huge challenge,” he says.

“Most companies would take a year to do a process that we did in six to eight weeks. It was a herculean task.”

Farm Boy retained several of the Rideau Bakery’s former staff, “but we gave them today’s tools to make it a more efficient process,” York explains.

For example, as opposed to someone having to lift 50-pound globs of dough out of a vat, that task is now done by a machine.

“Instead of having to reach in and be a weightlifter, you can go in and use today’s technology to be a lot more efficient,” he says with a chuckle.

Now owned by Sobey’s, Farm Boy operates nearly 30 stores across the province. Rideau Bakery goods are available in all of them, and while it might seem like the grocery chain is rolling in dough thanks to its recent acquisition, York says it wasn’t all about money.

“A lot of companies, what they do over time, they look at saving a nickel here, a dime there,” he says. “Whereas Rideau Bakery, what they wanted to do was have a great product for the customer every day. They’re very proud of the brand and they kept the quality. Farm Boy’s a family business too. It’s not a corporate deal. It’s kind of a family deal.”

– Farm Boy co-CEO Jeff York, on Rideau Bakery acquisition

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It’s not a corporate deal. It’s kind of a family deal.

DECEMBER 2019

n the six months since Farm Boy saved Ottawa’s iconic Rideau Bakery from closure, the public’s appetite for its signature rye bread and other goods only seems to have grown.

“The reaction’s been outstanding, and we’re getting lots of requests for more products,” says Farm Boy co-CEO Jeff York. “It’s really going well.”

A local institution that was founded nearly 90 years ago by brothers David and Abie Kardish, the Rideau Bakery abruptly shut down its two locations over the Canada Day weekend, with former co-owner Louis Kardish telling various media outlets the closure was due to a combination of business and health concerns.

The news hit close to home for members of Ottawa’s Jewish community.

A letter from the Jewish Federation of Ottawa bemoaned the loss of a reliable source for kosher baked goods and

thanked the Kardish family for their generations of service, while shocked customers took to social media to express their dismay.

Days later, Ottawa-based Farm Boy came to the rescue. The grocery chain purchased the historic family enterprise’s assets, ensuring the Rideau Bakery name would live on.

But as much as York was a fan of its products –​ “Once you have that rye bread, you’re not having other rye bread,” he says emphatically –​ even he could never have anticipated how quickly they would become a staple with Farm Boy shoppers.

The chain is currently stocking half a dozen Rideau Bakery creations, including its beloved rye bread. But customers are inundating the company with requests for specialty goods such as poppy seed rolls, York says, adding he’s not sure when more new items will be added to the inventory.

“You can’t find these products

The Rideau Bakery’s bread has been a hot seller at local Farm Boy stores. PHOTO BY DAVID SALI

DEALS OF THE YEAR: FINANCE from a group of venture capital firms.

New York-based PeakSpan Capital led the round with participation from Real Ventures, Reciprocal Ventures, The Group Ventures and the National Bank of Canada.

“It’s helping us accelerate and scale that up and grow the team across all disciplines,” says Fagan, noting the company’s headcount has nearly doubled to just shy of 120 since the beginning of 2019, with more than half of those staffers devoted to R&D. The series-B round brings MindBridge’s total financing to date up to more than $40 million, and potential investors are keeping the phones at its rapidly expanding headquarters on St. Laurent Boulevard ringing off the hook.

Fagan says the office gets at least three or four unsolicited calls a week from VCs itching to get a piece of a firm making a name for itself with a list of 330 customers that includes the Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Payments Canada and one of the country’s Big Six banks.

Eli Fathi is the CEO of MindBridge Ai, which landed a $29.6-million series-B financing round in June. FILE PHOTO

Smart money’s on MindBridge $29.6M funding haul helping Ottawabased startup make its mark in AI space

BY DAVID SALI

DECEMBER 2019

david@obj.ca

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n Jim Fagan’s ideal world, Ottawa would be mentioned in the same breath as AI hotbeds such as Boston, London, Montreal and Silicon Valley.

The vice-president of corporate development at local artificial intelligence startup MindBridge Ai knows the city isn’t quite there yet. But from his vantage point at MindBridge, one of Ottawa’s fastest-growing tech ventures, he sees no reason why it can’t be.

Fagan and his colleagues are doing their part to promote the National Capital Region as a “centre of excellence for AI in Canada and North America for that matter,” he says, pointing to the popularity of Impact Ai, a conference his firm launched in 2018 that drew a crowd of more than 800 in its second go-round at Bayview Yards in May. If Ottawa is to reach that lofty status, MindBridge will likely be leading the ascent.

The company, which uses AI to detect fraudulent accounting activity in its customers’ books, has had a breakout

year in 2019 and looks poised for even bigger things to come. And the firm now has plenty of rocket fuel in the tank to help drive that growth, thanks to a series-B round of financing worth $29.6 million it secured in June.

OBJ and the Ottawa Board of Trade’s 2019 finance deal of the year is a mix of federal government funding and private venture capital.

MindBridge will receive $14.5 million over the next seven years through the feds’ Strategic Innovation Fund. The cash will help finance a $140.8-million project aimed at broadening the company’s AI auditor tool to harvest data insights for companies beyond the accounting field.

The rest of the new financing comes

“They see what we’re up to, and we’re creating a lot of interest,” he explains.

Still early in its scaleup journey, MindBridge has taken a patient approach to attracting capital. CEO Eli Fathi, a seasoned entrepreneur who co-founded and sold Ottawa-based Fluidware to SurveyMonkey in 2014, stresses the importance of “putting business fundamentals first,” in the words of founder Solon Angel.

“You really want to have a partner that supports what you’re doing and the team and lets you run the organization to scale and grow it,” explains Fagan.

“We’ve been very strategic in how we’ve been raising funds. They may not have been the largest rounds that you see, but you take a look at the timing of

them. We’re bringing in the funds that we need to accelerate as we see fit and as we see the market mature.”

‘SELECT INVESTMENTS’ When the folks at PeakSpan Capital contacted MindBridge last year as the startup was in the final stages of securing an $8.4-million series-A round, Fathi and Co. were only too happy to listen. Founded in 2015, PeakSpan now has a portfolio of 40 high-growth enterprises in the business software space, and the MindBridge team was impressed with its strategy.

“They make just a few select investments each year,” Fagan says.

“They truly believed (in) what we were doing.”

The Ottawa firm was already committed to its partners in the series-A round but kept in touch with PeakSpan’s top fund managers. In a series of visits and meetings throughout 2018 and early 2019, the seeds of the series-B were sown.

“Over the course of that year, it just

It helps narrow that gap to give us a more competitive advantage with any potential entrants that would be coming up from south of the border.

–​ MindBridge VP of corporate development Jim Fagan, on company’s $29.6-million series-B funding round

While most of its clients are now based in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, MindBridge plans to push hard into the lucrative European market in the year ahead.

It’s also aiming to continue diversifying its client base, which is heavily geared toward accounting firms.

Fagan sees plenty of room for growth in the financial sector, for example, and he sees nothing but smooth runway ahead.

“Everywhere we go, people seem to know MindBridge,” he says. “It’s humbling.”

MINDBRIDGE ON THE MONEY

seemed like a great fit,” says Fagan.

“They have a great understanding and grasp of the market that we’re going after. They have the conviction that we’re looking for in the partnership as well as their leadership and strength that they can provide to the corporation.”

Though Canadian AI startups still lag far behind their U.S. counterparts when it comes to landing VC funding, Fagan

says he thinks investments like the ones the feds made in MindBridge this summer will help level the playing field.

“It just shows the amount of money that can come in, both from the private side and the public side,” he says.

“It helps narrow that gap to give us a more competitive advantage with any potential entrants that would be coming up from south of the border.”

Previous financing rounds for MindBridge Ai:

JUNE 2017: $4.3M seed round Capital Angel Network, Fresh Founders, MaRS Investments and Real Ventures Spring 2018: $8.4M series-A round Real Ventures, 8VC, National Bank of Canada, The Group Investment, Reciprocal Ventures

THE TRADITION CONTINUES

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Visit FARMBOY.CA to find a location near you!

DECEMBER 2019

Made with the same traditional starter, baking methods and Old World recipes, Rideau Bakery Bread is available at all Farm Boy locations.

DEALS OF THE YEAR: REAL ESTATE

Kinaxis, Taggart building momentum in Kanata west Construction of software firm’s new HQ expected to be ‘catalyst’ for wave of future builds in burgeoning tech hub

BY DAVID SALI

david@obj.ca

DECEMBER 2019

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ack in 2007, the Taggart Group of Companies made a prescient decision to buy a swath of land near a major highway off-ramp in the west end of Kanata.

“We knew that Kanata North was building out rapidly at the time, and we felt that there was an opportunity for a business park to be created (farther to the southwest),” explains Jeff Parkes, the vicepresident of planning and development for Taggart Realty Management, the Taggart Group’s real estate arm.

Clearly, they were on to something.

More than a decade later, commercial vacancy rates are hovering near an alltime low in the burgeoning tech hub, and

that land just north of the Queensway is now ripe for development. Taggart’s transaction of a dozen years ago looked like a stroke of genius this summer when one of the region’s fastest-rising tech firms, Kinaxis, chose the Ottawa-based company to build its brand-new headquarters.

The building will be located kittycorner to the Tanger outlet mall on the northwest corner of Huntmar and Palladium drives, just a stone’s-throw from the Canadian Tire Centre and a couple of kilometres south of the tech epicentre of Kanata North. Taggart is expected to break ground on the project next spring.

Kinaxis will be the sole tenant at the 153,000-square-foot space. In addition, the firm has the option to add a second building of 100,000 square feet to provide space for future growth.

“It’s not very often that an RFP for a new office building for a very wellestablished Canadian business such as Kinaxis … comes out,” adds Parkes. “We’re very excited about what (the Kinaxis project) may attract in the future as far as other high-tech tenants or for that matter any other office tenant.”

It was a rare opportunity indeed. New builds of the scope Kinaxis was looking for have been almost as uncommon a sighting in Kanata in recent years as a deep Senators playoff run. When the RFP came out in the summer of 2017, virtually every major contractor in the city jumped in on the bidding.

“There were several excellent candidates, and it was very competitive,” says Alan Doak, a principal at Proveras Commercial Realty, the brokerage that represented Kinaxis. “It was a difficult decision. There was not a clear frontrunner right up until the very end.”

TRAFFIC ISSUES Kinaxis left no stone unturned as it

weighed the merits of each bid, gathering input from many of its 400 local employees as to what types of amenities they’d like to see in their new home and ​ – just as important ​– where they wanted their new office to be.

Traffic congestion was cited as a major concern for many workers who had to navigate their way through Kanata North’s increasingly clogged arteries. In the end, the lure of Taggart’s location in Kanata west – just a few hundred metres from an off-ramp to the Queensway – tipped the scales heavily in its favour.

“We just don’t know how that (traffic issue) would ultimately get solved in Kanata North,” Kinaxis CEO John Sicard told OBJ back in July, adding that when the winning bid was announced, there were “cheers all over the office. That tells us we definitely made the right decision, which is great.”

The $35-million project is a feather in Taggart’s cap to be sure, but experts say the ripple effect it’s expected to create could ultimately generate hundreds of millions of dollars in additional economic spinoffs in Kanata.

“I do think that this will be a catalyst for at least the idea for other companies to consider building brand-new buildings for themselves,” says Taggart Group vice-president Derek Howe, noting his company alone has nearly 40 acres of prime development land waiting to be occupied near the Kinaxis site. “There really is nothing available for large, large users out in Kanata west.”

Doak agrees, noting that tenants in Kanata typically pay a third less in overall leasing costs than their downtown counterparts, due largely to a combination of lower taxes and cheaper land prices.

“You have many sites to choose from, and you’ll be building a building that’s surrounded with other office buildings which are full of similar, professional private-sector tenants,” he says. “So I do expect that that’s an area where we’re going to see development happening more often.

“This is one building, and if the economy stays strong, we’ll probably see others coming up in the near future as well.”

DEALS OF THE YEAR: TECH

Shopify aims to deliver on warehouse plan with $450M acquisition Deal for Massachusettsbased 6 River Systems will help e-commerce giant become ‘disruptive force’ in shipping merchandise, experts say

BY DAVID SALI

david@obj.ca

A

ny doubts that e-commerce giant Shopify was going all in on its commitment to building its U.S. fulfilment network were silenced on a Monday morning in early September.

On Sept. 9, the Ottawa-based company said it had agreed to buy 6 River Systems, a Massachusetts-

based fulfilment solutions company, in a cash-and-share deal worth US$450 million. The agreement, finalized in October, gives Shopify ownership of fulfilment software and technology such as mobile robots that allow goods to be shipped more quickly and efficiently from warehouses.

Shopify, which makes software

that helps merchants set up online stores and process payments, said in June it planned to spend up to $1 billion over the next several years to set up a network of third-party warehouses across the United States in an effort to help its partners lower their shipping costs and speed up delivery times to customers.

Continued on next page

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DEALS OF THE YEAR: TOURISM

Alt Hotel’s next Ottawa location spot-on for travellers 180-room property’s direct connection to airport terminal expected to be major selling point for Quebec-based Group Germain’s latest local hotel

BY DAVID SALI

david@obj.ca

DECEMBER 2019

I

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t’s a mid-winter vacationer’s dream scenario: ditching the parka and strolling into the airport in shorts and flip-flops without ever having to face the elements.

Soon enough, it will be a reality, thanks to Canadian hotel chain Group Germain’s $40-million plan to construct a 180-room hotel under its Alt banner that will offer entry to Ottawa’s airport terminal via a covered walkway.

It gives a whole new meaning to “direct connection,” and it was one of the airport’s key requirements when it put bids for a new hotel out to tender in the summer of 2017.

“We know, based on our research and even probably many of your readers have personal experience of staying at a quote-unquote ‘airport’ hotel, that is really nowhere near the airport,” says Joel Tkach, vicepresident of business development and marketing at the Ottawa International Airport Authority.

“When you can say that you’re

directly connected, it certainly is appealing to those customers looking for that.”

Group Germain is expected to break ground on the project in January, with completion targeted for late spring 2021. It will be the chain’s third hotel in the capital, following the Alt Hotel on Slater Street and the Le Germain Hotel on Daly Avenue.

For Group Germain director of development Hugo Germain, the chance to add to the rapidly growing Quebec-based company’s stable of airport properties was too good to pass up.

“They’re pretty rare, and that’s one of the reasons why we’re so excited about this one,” he says of airport proposals.

“When those opportunities come by, they don’t come twice.”

SECOND RFP In this case, that’s not quite accurate.

The Ottawa airport authority initially started looking for potential partners to construct a new airport hotel back in 2015.

Three sites were considered, and

plenty of developers were keen on the proposal, Tkach says. But bidders clearly favoured a site that would allow them to link a hotel directly to the airport terminal, and the option best suited for that, located just south of the terminal, posed a number of construction challenges, he concedes.

The airport authority went back to the drawing board and did another land study to find a more suitable space for a hotel, eventually rebooting the RFP process in 2017.

The new location next to the parking garage “was a lot less speculative and it was a lot more exact in terms of what the land could bear,” Tkach says.

Group Germain’s previous experience in building airport hotels ​ – it already operates Alt-branded properties at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport and Halifax Stanfield International Airport ​– gave the Canadian chain a clear edge, he says.

A number of complications can arise when building a hotel so close to an airport, Tkach says, including the need to make sure the structure doesn’t interfere with a pilot’s sight lines.

“It’s good to have an operator that knows most of those,” he adds.

The new property will feature a restaurant and meeting rooms on the top floor offering 360-degree views of the terminal and runways. Guests will also be allowed to check out whenever they wish, meaning they can relax in their rooms until just before they need to head over to catch their flights. There will also be informal meeting space on the ground floor just steps away from the terminal, Germain adds.

“We become an extension of the airport,” he says.

Continued from previous page The 6 River deal will help “accelerate the growth” of that network, Shopify chief technology officer Jean-Michel Lemieux told OBJ in an email. Shopify will also continue to sell 6 River’s technology to other providers, “which opens up a new market of customers for us,” he added.

Lemieux said the two firms initially met through a “mutual contact” and quickly hit it off, adding 6 River will be a “strong fit” with Shopify’s vision.

“With consumer expectations rising for fast and free shipping, we know that direct-toconsumer brands, especially growing businesses, need to offer experiences that are competitive with larger retailers and marketplaces,” he said.

“That’s exactly what our Shopify fulfillment network will provide.”

AMAZON RIVALRY? Analysts were generally bullish on the deal as well. Wedbush Capital Partners analyst Ygal Arounian wrote that it “proves Shopify’s full-fledged intention to be a disruptive force in fulfilment services.”

Though many observers saw the acquisition as a bid to compete with U.S. e-commerce behemoth Amazon, Shopify officials have downplayed talk of a rivalry. The two companies are partners in some areas, with Shopify offering Amazon Pay and some Amazon transactions being processed through Shopify storefronts.

Still, Lemieux said 6 River’s technology will help “level the playing field” for independent merchants.

“By allowing business owners to have a clear view of their inventory, shipping and operations in the Shopify platform, while maintaining their brand identity through custom packaging and quality unboxing experiences, they will be able to compete with larger, more established brands,” he said. ​– With files from Leo Valiquette

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SPONSORED CONTENT

Today’s healthcare challenges demand a new kind of leadership The uOttawa Telfer School of Management MHA is the answer

P

DECEMBER 2019

rovincial spending on healthcare is escalating rapidly as a percentage of program expenditures – this is a trend that is not sustainable. An aging population is only adding to the pressure. Cutting-edge leadership and management are essential to improve the quality of our healthcare system while keeping costs under control.

But what kind of qualifications should this leadership have?

The University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management knows that the skills required are unique to the needs of this sector. The answer is to go beyond a general MBA and offer instead a program that is tailored to the Canadian healthcare system.

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Telfer’s Master of Health Administration was the first MHA in Canada and remains the only one in the country to be housed in a School of Management. Through a 24-month curriculum, candidates focus on the critical areas that will equip them to make a difference – health systems, innovation, analytics, decision-making, change management and optimization of resources.

A POWERFUL ALUMNI NETWORK Sarah Downey is President and CEO of the Michael Garron Hospital, part of the Toronto East Health Network. She completed her Telfer MHA in 1992.

Armed with a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of New Brunswick, she came to Telfer because the MHA gave her the opportunity to blend health sciences with her interest in business.

“With healthcare, it’s business with a heart and an important purpose, and that really appeals to me,” she said.

Downey’s MHA has opened doors to a wealth of opportunities and the chance to tackle critical issues during an “exciting period of change” in healthcare. In fact, her predecessor at the Michael Garron Hospital (Rob Devitt), also a Telfer MHA alumnus, created The Michael Garron Award.

This recognizes a Telfer MHA student who has demonstrated innovative health solutions to practical problems encountered during their residency placement.

“It is a badge of honour to have a Telfer MHA,” said Downey. “As I have travelled across the country and worked in different hospitals in Toronto and Ottawa, I have always found proud Telfer MHA alumni to work with and I have been mentored by other Telfer grads throughout my career.”

MARRYING HIGH-TECH WITH HEALTHCARE INNOVATION

Mari Teitelbaum, CHEO’s chief innovation officer and a graduate of the Master of Health Administration program at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management, received a Trudeau Medal from Dr. Wojtek Michalowski, vice-dean of research at Telfer, in October.

Mari Teitelbaum, Chief Innovation Officer at CHEO, came to Telfer in the late 2000s after a 15-year career in Ottawa’s high-tech sector as an electrical engineer and product manager.

Healthcare ran in the family – her mother worked as a radiologist and her father as a GP. She saw the challenges that new technology adoption OBJ360 CONTENT STUDIO

Sarah Downey is president and CEO of the Michael Garron Hospital. posed for many healthcare professionals. When the time came for a career change, Teitelbaum saw the Telfer MHA as the perfect way to enter the healthcare field while also taking full advantage of her engineering and software experience.

Thanks to the Telfer MHA’s comprehensive curriculum, the residency component and the mentorship of her peers, Teitelbaum graduated fully confident that she was ready to rise to the challenge.

“I am where I want to be, doing what I love,” Teitelbaum said. “I have found my place in the world. The healthcare field is filled with people with a whole other level of passion, compassion and smarts – having the opportunity to work with these people and support them in their work is incredible.”

ARE YOU READY FOR A TELFER MHA? Telfer is the only School of Management in Ontario with triple-crown international accreditation.

MHA candidates can take full advantage of Telfer’s location in downtown Ottawa – where national, provincial and association healthcare leaders and managers from all sectors converge.

Are you ready to step up and lead the transformation in a sector ripe for change?

Learn more at https://telfer.uottawa.ca/mha

WATCH NOW

Practical Solutions for Employees and Employers to Common Workplace Issues

Employment Law Minute hosts John Scholes, left, and Alex Lucifero, partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP

‘Death Penalty’ of Employment Law

DECEMBER 2019

When The Workplace Turns Toxic

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WATCH HERE

Congratulations Dr. Jack Kitts

on being named Ottawa Business Journal’s 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient!

DECEMBER 2019

On behalf of the volunteers, support staff, nurses, physicians, researchers, board of governors, and everyone at The Ottawa Hospital, congratulations and thank you for your leadership.

During your almost two decades as our President and CEO, you have inspired the hospital’s vision to provide each patient with the world-class care, exceptional service, and compassion we would want for our loved ones.

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26 www.ottawahospital.on.ca

A feel-good business deal, some up-and-coming tech firms and one very newsworthy former cannabis executive are among the 2019 crop of recipients for the Best Ottawa Business Awards.

The BOBs, as the annual honours have come to be known, are an annual celebration of the most accomplished businesses and executives in the National Capital Region. The awards are a joint initiative of the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Board of Trade.

In addition to the companies and individuals named on the pages below, the 2019 BOBs will also celebrate CEO of the Year Dan Goldberg of Telesat; lifetime achievement award winner Dr. Jack Kitts of the Ottawa Hospital; and CFO of the year Jacqueline Gauthier of Calian.

This year’s best in Ottawa business were honoured at a gala Nov. 22 at the Westin Ottawa hotel. To find out more about their remarkable stories, read on.

NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR: BRUCE LINTON

with animal health and CBD company Better Choice and an executive chairman role with recreational dispensary Gage Cannabis Co. Linton also remains a major shareholder in Canopy. He will also be

an activist investor in OG DNA Genetics Inc. and with cannabis consumer packaged goods company Slang Worldwide.

Not bad for a guy who lost his job over disputed performance.

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bank and was trading at about 82 per cent of the 52-week high, and I got fired.”

In an interview with OBJ in the wake of his firing, Linton spoke of how he would now have more time to devote to two other tech ventures with which he is involved – online rental marketplace Ruckify and cloud and enterprise network services company Martello.

That offhand comment was enough to send Martello’s stock price up by more than 40 per cent the following day.

It didn’t take long for suitors to line up, seeking to fill the vacant spots on Linton’s dance card.

In September came the announcement that he would become a director at Mind Medicine – a Torontobased entity that is seeking to establish safe psychedelic-assisted treatments for mental illness, such as medicinal psilocybin and medicinal MDMA. At the time, Linton said he sees the opportunity for psychedelics as medicine as similar to the outlook for medicinal cannabis years ago, when regulations were starting to ease in some jurisdictions and opening the door for research.

While a non-compete clause as part of Linton’s abrupt termination from Canopy Growth bars him from working at another Canadian cannabis company, he is able to take on advisory roles. Two are already in hand – a special adviser role

DECEMBER 2019

You can’t keep a good man down.

In January, Bruce Linton held an enviable position: co-CEO of Canopy Growth of Smiths Falls, which he had grown into the world’s largest cannabis producer.

In quarterly results released in February, Canopy surpassed analysts’ expectations with record revenues, thanks to cannabis legalization.

Operating losses, however, continued to widen. According to Linton, this was all according to plan, as Canopy put the focus on long-term strategic growth rather than on short-term profit.

It turned out, however, that Constellation Brands, which had invested $5 billion in Canopy last year, didn’t care for that growth strategy.

Disgruntled by the impact of those operating losses on its own bottom line, Constellation had Linton ousted in July.

Months after his dismissal, Linton remained unapologetic about his management decisions with Canopy.

“The whole idea of learning how to like corporate keywords like ‘fetch’ and ‘roll over’ –​ that stuff that you’re supposed to do as a really good CEO –​ I just didn’t understand it,” he said during the CEO Talk event at the Brookstreet Hotel in October.

“July 2, I had a company which was worth around $20 billion and was about six years old, had about $5 billion in the

BEST BUSINESS

BEST NEW BUSINESS

REGIONAL GROUP

ASSURANCE HOME CARE (AHC)

DECEMBER 2019

It says something about the longevity and the stability of a company when 2019 will be its most profitable year yet – after 61 years in business.

Regional Group is a vertically integrated real estate investment, development and management firm focused on the Ottawa-Gatineau region.

It has continued to evolve and adapt through sound planning and strategic execution.

Regional grew its assets under management in the last year by almost 800,000 square feet and its overall headcount to more than 200.

This is the company behind the award-winning EQ Homes, which has grown by more than 500 per cent in the last four years and counts among its many local communities Greystone Village. Greystone, a 26-acre masterplanned community, is only the third project of its kind in Canada to receive a LEED ND v4 SILVER designation for environmental sustainability and human health performance.

Regional Group has also launched a new commercial development division, which focuses on apartment, commercial and retail projects.

And through it all, Regional Group remains a family-owned business that is heavily involved with worthy causes in the community. The second generation is already preparing to pass the torch to the third. Also on deck are plans to create investment funds for development and value-add investors and to expand beyond the Ottawa area.

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ASSENT COMPLIANCE About a year ago, Assent Compliance scored an overtime win to take the BoBs’ Deal of the Year award for finance with a $130-million investment from private equity firm Warburg Pincus.

Bolstered by that cash infusion, the team has been busy growing the business in key areas, leading to higher revenues, headcount and customer count and

more feet on the ground in overseas markets. This has included the addition of a new Amsterdam office, which managed to draw Mayor Jim Watson for its ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Revenues jumped by almost 58 per cent in the last fiscal year, for a three-year gain of 326 per cent. On the year to date (as of the time of writing) Assent has secured 98 new customers and grown its team by 20 per cent.

Assent Compliance’s SaaS software and data management solutions “automate the arduous” so that its clients can escape labour-intensive and error-prone reliance on spreadsheets. Customers hail from market verticals such as the aerospace and defence, electronics and medical fields.

Scores of large product companies around the world rely on Assent Compliance to help them simplify and meet their regulatory requirements and reduce risk across their supply chains.

The company is focused on corporate giving at three levels – through its people, its products and its profits – and makes a dedicated effort to hire and support new Canadians.

YOU.I TV Last year was a good one for Kanata’s You.i TV – it booked more new business than in all its eight previous years

combined.

With more TV viewers cutting the cord by the day and media brands scrambling for market share with new on-demand streaming services, it’s only to be expected that You.i TV is reaping the rewards of having moved into this market space when it did.

Its app development platform, You.i Engine (now in its fifth generation), makes it easy for media brands to create stunning video experiences on any device screen as a means of turning viewers into users, buyers and fans.

You.i TV’s long-term growth strategy is to help premium content owners build a do-it-yourself TV and video application development ecosystem.

This is to cut the complexity of being able to engage viewers across multiple screen formats, reduce total cost of ownership and enable them to take advantage of new revenue streams, including ad-supported models.

Target customers include broadcast TV providers, sports franchises and digital service providers. You.i TV is also expanding into film studios and directto-consumer services.

Like all of our Best Business candidates, You.i TV is involved in the community, particularly with initiatives that support women and girls in STEM.

Local serial entrepreneur Stephen Bleeker founded Assurance Home Care (AHC) when his desire to launch a new business with a social “give-back” component coincided with his father suffering a stroke.

Having to navigate the system for home-care and health advocacy, Bleeker and his siblings soon realized that existing support mechanisms were far from ideal. He decided to create his own service company that would address the shortcomings of the public health-care system and multinational private providers.

AHC – a “boutique-style home-care company” that supports seniors who want to remain in their own houses – was born. It helps them to “age in place” with service programs that are tailored to their needs and wants.

Bleeker’s efforts soon attracted the attention of his co-founder, Kristine McGinn – a community care nurse of 30 years and an entrepreneur with business experience in health care.

In its first three fiscal years, AHC’s annual revenue as climbed into the seven figures – in the Ottawa market alone. Its total headcount has jumped from 45 to 120 so far this year.

AHC’s early success and profitability attracted the attention and financial support of a national health-care company. AHC continues to reinvest its profits into growth while exploring other avenues for outside investment as it prepares to expand to the Toronto market.

SUPERETTE Mimi Lam decided in 2018 that cannabis retail, as it was shaping up with legalization, needed to be shaken up.

So she, along with co-founder Drummond Munro, decided to launch their own dispensary. They drew on their business and management backgrounds with industry names such as Hiku Brands

organic connections with customers for a one-of-a-kind retail vibe.

Customers can choose between a full-serve lineup and an express option for quick purchases – depending on how much they want to hang out, chat and maybe play a game of Pong.

In seven short months, Superette racked up more than $7 million in sales. It has also made an impression in the community by operating a robust recycling program, mustering donations for the Ottawa Food Bank and partnering with Ottawa Public Health on an education program about safe and enjoyable cannabis use.

THE CHANGEROOM (Tokyo Smoke) and Canopy Growth.

The mandate of Superette, located on Wellington Street West, is to “make buying cannabis comfortable, simple and fun.”

Lam and Munro saw “a sea of sameness” with other cannabis

retailers: tech-forward elements, premium materials and a focus on luxury. In response, they decided to take a more nostalgic approach that’s eclectic and playful. Part of this is the aesthetic of the shop. The other part is the kind of people they hire to create

Sure, it’s convenient to shop online from the kitchen table or just about anywhere with your smartphone for some items, but when it comes to apparel, you can’t actually try it on before you buy it.

A team supported through Invest Ottawa’s Summer Company program is working to address the problem, which

isn’t just a headache for consumers.

Apparel brands deal with return rates of up to 40 per cent.

The ChangeRoom’s algorithm predicts a person’s perfect size after a simple onetime registration process that also lessens the pain and confusion of measuring yourself.

Just enter a shirt, pants or shoes that you have worn in the past from a list of the most popular brands. Then, when you search through the catalogues of retailers that are participating on the app, only those clothing options and sizes that are right for you will be displayed.

The goal is to create a web app that serves as “a digital mall” and showcases upcoming clothing brands. The ChangeRoom’s beta launch will feature five local clothing companies as part of a field test to perfect the sizing algorithm.

The ChangeRoom is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Ayush Bhargava and Greg Fouzie. The team soon grew to five and managed to develop its first beta prototype within just two months.

DECEMBER 2019

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DECEMBER 2019

PERFORMANCE CATEGORIES

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE:

PHREESIA

Phreesia’s mission is to create a better and more engaging health-care experience.

Its point-of-service platform, which includes patient self-service and mobile applications, is used by hospitals, clinics and other health-care providers across North America to reduce wait times, increase efficiencies and improve the patient experience with individualized care.

The company, which is based in New York City and runs its Canadian operations from Ottawa, has built up its client success team over the past two years. This is to ensure that Phreesia’s rapid growth doesn’t come at the expense of customer service and satisfaction.

This effort has included the hiring of more employees, improved staff organization, the use of greater automation and the launch of Totango – a new enterprise-grade customer success

platform. Totango is used alone and in conjunction with SalesForce to proactively manage risk and identify ways to enhance the client experience.

Phreesia also relies on voice-ofcustomer feedback loops integrated into its health scoring, product development and advocacy programs to ensure that customer feedback continues to drive product and service delivery. Furthermore, it relies on third-party validation to keep it honest and on track.

The result? In an industry where most vendors see only 20 to 30 per cent usage rates for their products among patients, Phreesia regularly achieves levels of 80 per cent or more. This translates into a strong return on investment for its health-care customers.

EXPORT:

EVIDENCE PARTNERS In business, numbers seldom tell the whole story, but the story they do tell can be quite compelling.

Take Ottawa’s Evidence Partners – in fiscal year 2018, its export sales jumped by 54 per cent from the previous year to

account for 88 per cent of all sales.

Founded in 2008, Evidence Partners is the creator of DistillerSR, the world’s most widely used literature review software.

DistillerSR helps leading research organizations conduct better, faster systematic reviews to deliver transparent, reproducible and audit-ready results.

While Canada is a strong market for Evidence Partners, the majority of its sales have always come from abroad – primarily from the United States and the European Union. This is a direct reflection of the proportionately larger research communities in those markets.

But why then the big jump in export sales in the latest fiscal year?

It comes down to Evidence Partners’ investment in a global trade show program to take advantage of a digital shift in its market.

Software is becoming the de facto standard for conducting systematic reviews, replacing cumbersome spreadsheets and manual processes. New regulations in the EU are also playing in Evidence Partners’ favour by requiring that systematic literature reviews be included with regulatory submissions. With the

Université d’Ottawa

|

increased workload, device manufacturers are looking for digital tools such as DistillerSR that will save time and ensure their research is compliant.

HR:

YOU.I TV At You.i TV, mental health is a serious issue that warrants serious attention. From an HR perspective, the company’s main focus of the past year has been mental health – the health of employees, their families and people in the community.

Lunch-and-learns meant to foster comfortable and non-judgmental conversations about mental health burgeoned into a formal employee wellness plan that focuses on the whole person.

The You.i TV team founded this program in the spirit of the World Health Organization’s definition of mental wellness as a “state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”

The employee wellness plan includes

everything from physical fitness and relaxation opportunities on site (all of which are free), to subsidized teletherapy sessions with SnapClarity, an Ottawabased firm that helps connect patients to mental health services. Staff also have the freedom to pick other wellness activities of their choice that the company will either pay for or subsidize.

Lastly, a program called Humans of You.i TV – where individuals share their own stories about mental illness to inspire and uplift one another – puts the emphasis squarely on mental health.

All of this has helped to make You.i TV a destination employer for job-seekers.

MARKETING:

PRONTOFORMS “Hockey-stick” growth – everyone wants it, few achieve it.

The team at ProntoForms committed to the challenge and cranked up the company’s marketing efforts to make it happen for fiscal 2019.

ProntoForms develops mobile forms and field data collection apps intended to give head offices better visibility into field operations, track productivity and

drive quality and compliance. Customers range from oil and gas companies such as Haliburton and BP to transportation companies, including Amtrak and multinational consumer goods company Unilever.

To achieve its target, ProntoForms engaged in a four-pronged approach to drive growth in its enterprise accounts: accounts-based marketing, corporate repositioning and targeting, customer advocacy and community development and corporate marketing investments.

People were central to all of this – ProntoForms appointed a new community manager and invested in professional development for its customer advocates who serve as the face of the company.

By the third quarter of 2019, the results were already speaking for themselves.

ProntoForms scored a place in Gartner’s Low Code Application Magic Quadrant (one of just 18 out of 200 vendors considered) and on Gartner’s Peer Insights Platform. Its stock price had also gained by as much as 57 per cent on the year to date, while revenues were up by 26 per cent year over year.

University of Ottawa

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE AT THE INTERSECTION OF GOVERNMENT, INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIA

Excellence gets recognized.

Congratulations, Kinaxis, on your well-earned Best Ottawa Business “Deal of the Year: Real Estate” award!

Over 150 professional development workshop topics at PDInstitute.uOttawa.ca

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31 OBJ.CA

*Acritas Global Elite Law Firm Brand Index 2013-2018.

DECEMBER 2019

Dentons. The world’s largest global elite law firm.*

SALES:

MARCH NETWORKS

DECEMBER 2019

March Networks has built a global business with its IP video software and systems. It works with certified partners and customers worldwide to transform video into business intelligence that can be used to enhance security, mitigate risk and reduce losses from theft and fraud.

All of this made the company a natural fit for a brand-new market – cannabis retail. March Networks set a goal last year to establish itself as a recognized leader for cannabis security in North America.

Led by a dedicated cannabis market manager, the sales and marketing effort targeted both large cannabis companies as well a growing crowd of startups that continues to emerge as more U.S. states legalize cannabis.

To do this, March set out to illustrate the differences between do-it-yourself security products and commercial video surveillance equipment, combining appearances at trade shows with educational efforts. March Networks also consulted with startups to help them get a handle on the legislative requirements for cannabis security. In addition, the company developed a channel partner network, took to the pages of cannabis industry publications and engaged in digital advertising and content marketing.

The marketing message focused on reliability and compliance – two pillars of March Networks’ solution that resonate with cannabis businesses since they are required by law to keep video surveillance records for a set period of time.

The result? Growth in the cannabis market has yielded record revenues and profits. More than 100 cannabis locations now deploy March Networks products.

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SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

ECOEQUITABLE

French Catholic nun Lucile Champagne founded EcoEquitable as a co-op sewing program in 2002 on one principle – work creates dignity.

This principle has continued to guide EcoEquitable through its evolution into a full-fledged non-profit charitable organization. It has become

a “hub for sewing and social justice” where the communal activity of sewing is used to teach a marketable skill as well as create a safe and nurturing environment in which to find peer support and mentorship.

“Our vision was to build a world in which dignity and the unique gifts of each person are valued and promoted – a community whose members stand with one another in justice and hope,” said Champagne.

EcoEquitable achieves this by working to address three issues (in line with the UN’s sustainable development goals): gender equality; good jobs and economic growth; and responsible consumption.

The goal is to empower women to achieve economic independence and become leaders of thriving communities in the hope this leads to a more sustainable and harmonious future. This includes a big focus on supporting women who are newcomers to Canada.

How does EcoEquitable define economic independence?

It “means the freedom to live your life and be yourself. It means you can provide for you and your family. You can more fully apply yourself to the things that matter most. It means you aren’t just surviving – you’re thriving.”

SUSTAINABILITY:

GIATEC SCIENTIFIC With all the focus these days on greenhouse gas emissions (the big one being carbon dioxide) and their role in climate change, it might come as a surprise to learn that concrete is one of the primary global sources.

That’s right – this ubiquitous building material that has been around since Roman times is a big contributor to climate change. The estimate is that concrete production and use accounts for five to eight per cent of the carbondioxide emissions from human activity.

The team at Ottawa’s Giatec Scientific is out to change that.

Giatec’s smart Internet of Thingsbased technologies use wireless sensors and mobile apps for real-time monitoring of concrete. The goals are to ensure an optimal mix for longlasting durability and deliver more accurate measuring to limit over-

production and waste and reduce the overall consumption of concrete by the construction industry.

Giatec Scientific says its technology can cut cement usage by as much as 12 per cent. The team has set the ambitious target of reducing overall usage by 10 per cent in the next 10 years.

This, of course, hinges on Giatec’s technology becoming widely used in the global construction and civil engineering industries. The team is working hard to spread the message and has achieved annual growth of 50 per cent in each of the last four years.

CO-OP:

ROSS VIDEO Since the 1970s, Ross Video has built a global business for its video production switching equipment. Each day, billions of viewers worldwide view programming made possible by its technology.

Shifting manufacturing offshore has never made strategic sense for Ross Video. Instead, keeping production and R&D within an hour’s drive of each other in Iroquois and Ottawa has been key to the company’s competitive edge.

But the true heart of any company is its people, not its technology. In today’s competitive labour market, finding qualified people is an ongoing challenge. That’s why Ross Video takes full advantage of the co-op programs offered through Ottawa’s four postsecondary institutions.

Each year, Ross Video takes on

multiple co-op workers every work term.

The company has a history of hiring co-op students into full-time roles in a variety of disciplines. Ross Video stands out for also providing a high-quality learning environment and hiring from multiple co-op programs.

“Our co-op program is vital to building a robust pipeline of talent that

has the experience and confidence we require,” said Cathy McCallion, Ross Video’s recruitment strategy and community relations manager.

“Under the guidance of experienced leaders, it’s our goal to see our young talent take chances, grow, learn new skills and help set the path to a successful career at Ross.”

Congratulations!

Jacqueline Gauthier

on being named Ottawa’s 2019 CFO of the Year from your friends at Calian DECEMBER 2019

33 OBJ.CA

They have set a great example for how to constructively review mistakes, learn from them and improve for the next time.”

The Ottawa team keeps the office vibe fun and energetic with things such as escape room outings and even the occasional hot sauce-eating challenge.

NOT-FOR-PROFIT:

LIVEWORKPLAY/ VIVRETRAVAILLERJOUER

KANATA NORTH COMPANY OF THE YEAR:

DECEMBER 2019

CRANK SOFTWARE

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34

Sometimes, when people at work just aren’t getting along, you need to start a new company.

Brian Edmond, Thomas Fletcher and Jason Clarke saw firsthand the friction and inefficiencies that arose among graphical user interface designers and embedded systems engineers when trying to get a touchscreen product to market. The result? Too often, poorquality touchscreens were rushed into production.

So they launched their own company, Crank Software, and developed their own solution to the frustrations of the design and development process to make it faster and more efficient and end up with a quality product at the end.

A decade later, their Crank Storyboard has become the top UI design and development tool referred by leading semiconductor hardware partners such as NXP Semiconductors,

Texas Instruments and ST Microelectronics. It is used by Fortune 500 companies and brand names across the spectrum – including consumer appliances, industrial, medical and automotive companies, NASA and the U.S. Army.

The biggest testament to Crank’s success comes when its customers win international design and innovation awards – and there have been many. The company has been self-financed from the start and achieved 58 per cent sales growth in 2018. Double-digit growth is expected again this year and next.

Crank culture stands upon five core values: integrity, empathy, creativity, confidence and humility. The company and its team regularly support a variety of worthy causes and charities in Ottawa and beyond.

TEAM OF THE YEAR:

MAGNET FORENSICS “We stand alongside our customers and

empower them to build stronger cases using advanced technology to uncover the most digital evidence.”

When you make a claim like that on your company website, you had better have the team with the experience and expertise to back it up.

Founded by former Ontario police officer and digital forensics examiner Jad Saliba, Magnet Forensics has grown over the past eight years into an international organization committed to seeking justice and protecting the innocent.

Magnet Forensics established itself in Ottawa by hiring en masse a core team of people who had worked together previously. Their focus on teamwork, diversity by every measure and open and honest communication has proven to be a source of inspiration that has influenced the growth, development and cohesion of the rest of the company.

That original team has since grown from seven to 27.

To quote Magnet Forensics’ BoBs submission: “The Ottawa team brought a fresh perspective to the work being done at Magnet and have been able to positively influence our ways of working.

Since its founding in 1995, LiveWorkPlay has evolved into a provider of individualized support services, working with about 200 clients each year.

Its mission is “Helping the community welcome and include people with intellectual disabilities, autistic persons, and individuals with a dual diagnosis to live, work, and play as valued citizens.” A team of 25 is supplemented by more than 175 dedicated volunteers.

LiveWorkPlay works to achieve social change, not only by helping clients and their families, but also by working with landlords, employers, and virtually every type of social venue (sports, arts, recreation) to ensure they are more welcoming and inclusive.

This is vitally important, considering that LiveWorkPlay’s clientele experiences poverty, unemployment, and rates of abuse and victimization that are among the highest of all citizens.

There is an emphasis on achieving authentic paid employment and supporting people to have homes of their own (rented or owned) instead of outdated models of group living, through a model called “Just Enough Support.”

LiveWorkPlay’s employment support model is also a radical departure from traditional assessment and placement processes, with its focus on building relationships with employers in both the public and private sectors (150 to date).

All these efforts are subject to an annual review process that scrutinizes how effectively the LiveWorkPlay team has delivered on its promise to clients.

On that basis, LiveWorkPlay enjoys an “extremely satisfied” rating from more than 95 per cent of its clients but it’s always working to achieve 100 per cent.

Ottawa business news

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2020

MARKETING TRENDS SURVEY

How effective is your digital marketing?

Benchmark your performance and you could win a $2,000 marketing campaign

The Ottawa Business Journal and Great River Media are conducting a short survey to help business owners and managers understand marketing trends in Ottawa.

Take the 2020 survey bit.ly/2020-Ottawa-Marketing-Trends

DECEMBER 2019

All participating businesses will receive the full survey results to help them optimize their marketing planning.

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2020

MARKETING TRENDS REPORT

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OBJ.Social is supported by the generous patronage of Mark Motors, Marilyn Wilson Dream Properties, Bruyère Foundation and Sparks Dental.

STORIES AND PHOTOS BY CAROLINE PHILLIPS

FUNDRAISER

Royal Ottawa Foundation honours 40 champions of mental health research

generations to come.”

Recipients also included Amy Caruso, John Connolly, Ivy Dunn, Heather Hennigar, Ben James, Knights of Columbus, Albert Lefebvre, Claude Lurette, Mach-Gaensslen Foundation,

Anita Manley, Joan McRae, Ellen and Ken Parent, Royal Canadian Legion, Rachel Scott-Mignon, Shawville 3-Pitch Tournament, George Schoenhofer, Lauren Vandenberg and Clive Woolley.

37 OBJ.CA

Gordon Cudney, who has battled depression on and off for the past 16 years, is the board chair for the Royal Ottawa Foundation. He’s also a law partner with Gowling WLG. Cudney, who received an award that night, spoke compellingly from the heart and without notes about how far the mental health movement has come, using his own situation as an example.

Prominent businessman John Ruddy, honorary chair of The Royal’s $25-million campaign for mental health, was among the Top 40. Other recognized business leaders included KOTT co-owner Melissa Kruyne and Bruce Hillary, who was an integral part of creating the foundation’s charity golf tournament. Also key to the foundation’s success are tireless volunteer fundraiser Richard Getz from Colonnade BridgePort, the Malcomson Family from the Canadian Tire in Kanata and Liza Mrak, co-owner of Mark Motors Group and co-chair of the 2019 Run for Women.

Groups honoured that night included Women for Mental Health, the Ottawa Construction Association, Bell, Shoppers Drug Mart and Associates in Psychiatry.

“We wanted to find people who had made exceptional contributions,” Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health president and CEO Mitchell Bellman said at the podium.

“We looked for people who helped The Royal move from the shadows to the spotlight. We looked for leaders who took initiative before it was popular, and we looked for people who sustained their support over many years.

“Tonight, we thank you. We’re able to deliver world-class care and research because you believed in the importance of building a foundation that would serve vulnerable populations for

DECEMBER 2019

Having to choose is always hard, but The Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health managed to narrow its long list of dedicated volunteers down to 40 names in honour of the foundation’s past 40 years.

They were all invited to a gathering emceed by Michael O’Byrne from CTV Ottawa at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre on Carling Avenue on Nov. 6. There, the crowd learned how each mental health leader has helped to shape the success of the Royal Ottawa Foundation over the past four decades.

Sharon Johnston, wife of former governor general David Johnston, used her platform of Rideau Hall to raise awareness for the cause of mental health. Former Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson was singled out for inspiring countless others to feel comfortable in speaking about mental health after he began publicly sharing his personal family connection to mental illness in 2008 as part of The Royal’s You Know Who I Am awareness campaign.

Honorary patron Margaret Trudeau couldn’t be there. Nor could Montreal Canadiens assistant coach Luke Richardson and his wife, Stephanie Richardson, who transformed their very private pain into a call to action after losing their 14-year-old daughter Daron to suicide in 2011. The subsequent Do It For Daron (DIFD) initiative has raised more than $3.7 million.

Former Ottawa mayor and MPP Bob Chiarelli was recognized for creating the vision of a Leaders for Mental Health Breakfast. It raised more than $600,000 this year and was emceed by well-known broadcaster and former foundation board member Mark Sutcliffe. He received an award, as did philanthropist Shirley Greenberg and her daughter-in-law Barbara Crook.

OBJ.social

OBJ.Social is supported by the generous patronage of Mark Motors, Marilyn Wilson Dream Properties, Bruyère Foundation and Sparks Dental.

STORIES AND PHOTOS BY CAROLINE PHILLIPS

EVENT

Gala on a mission to aid men’s shelter It was Mission accomplished as this year’s Blue Door Gala drew its largest crowd ever and raised by far its highest amount yet in support of an organization founded more than 100 years ago by a group of Christian businessmen wanting to help other men who were facing tough times.

Your next adventure awaits.

Today, The Ottawa Mission not only provides food and clothing, along with shelter for men, but it also offers free life-changing programs to struggling individuals hoping to turn their lives around.

The sold-out crowd of 570 gathered

DECEMBER 2019

The Porsche Cayenne.

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Mark Motors Porsche 611 Montreal Rd. 613-749-4275 markmotorsporsche.com

at the Infinity Convention Centre on Nov. 14, raising a gross total of $238,000 ​ – more than double last year’s amount of $107,000. Thyme & Again catering and gourmet food shop owner Sheila Whyte and her business partner, Michael Moffatt, were back to co-chair the gala with prominent lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, who also served as the live auctioneer. Key to the fundraiser’s tremendous success was Jennifer Graves, events officer for The Ottawa Mission Foundation.

The returning presenting sponsor

was real estate developer Caivan Communities, represented by its director of sales and marketing, Jonathan Wiseman.

One of the highlights was listening to keynote speaker Dylan Critchley. The graduate of The Mission’s Food Service Training Program shared his personal story of redemption and transformation, bringing the crowd to its feet for a welldeserved standing ovation.

The Blue Door Gala is named for the blue front doors that one opens on one’s way into The Ottawa Mission.

FUNDRAISER

Annual Negev Dinner warms hearts on snowy evening Not even the first big early-season snowfall that blanketed our city on Nov. 11 could keep 800 people away from the Jewish National Fund of Ottawa’s Negev Dinner, not when this year’s honourees were well-known and respected community leaders David and Sharon Appotive.

The annual benefit dinner was said to be one of the largest, if not the largest, to date for JNF Ottawa. The evening brought together leaders, both Jewish and non-Jewish, from the business and non-profit sectors.

The sold-out dinner was chaired by the honourees’ good friend Jeff Miller, a partner at GGFL Chartered Professional Accountants. The benefit has been held at the Infinity Convention Centre for the past three years.

“Tonight’s attendance represents an outpouring of respect and affection for

our honourees, both for what they’ve accomplished and for what they mean to our community,” Miller said during brief opening remarks at the podium with Lynda Taller-Wakter, executive director of JNF Ottawa and Atlantic Canada.

Well-known physician Dr. Hartley Stern, CEO and executive director of the Canadian Medical Protective Association, served as the honorary chair of this year’s Ottawa Negev Dinner.

The evening’s keynote speaker was former U.S. senator and Democratic nominee for vice-president Joe Lieberman (his fan base included Borden Ladner Gervais LLP partner Duncan Ault, seen with a Gore-Lieberman 2000 button pinned to his lapel).

The evening was held in support of an admirable cause involving Israelibased international humanitarian charity Save a Child’s Heart. It provides cardiac

treatment to children from developing countries – regardless of nationality, religion, race or gender – and trains health-care professionals from these countries to deliver quality care in their home communities.

The organization has saved the lives of more than 5,000 children from 62

countries.

“Children are our everything,” Sharon Appotive said in her speech that night.

“They’re our heart and soul. They’re our hope. We shower our children with endless love and opportunities, just as JNF has provided endless love and opportunities to Israel.”

1.6 Acre Waterfront Building Lot - $2,295,000 613.842.5000 | dreamproperties.com

DECEMBER 2019

39 OBJ.CA

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OBJ.Social is supported by the generous patronage of Mark Motors, Marilyn Wilson Dream Properties, Bruyère Foundation and Sparks Dental.

STORIES AND PHOTOS BY CAROLINE PHILLIPS

FUNDRAISER

No question about it –​ trivia fundraiser was the place to be

Celebrating 125 years of serving the evolving needs of member dentists, dedicated to ongoing professional excellence in oral health for our community.

Whether you come off as a bit of a brainiac or a total know-it-all, you’d have been in your element at the 25th anniversary of World Trivia Night held at the EY Centre on Nov. 15.

The evening, presented by Pat Whalen’s firm, Extension Marketing, saw some 1,350 trivia buffs take a stab at answering a total of 100 questions in a 10-question-per-round format.

The event raised a net total of $55,157 for the Children’s Aid Foundation of Ottawa, which is the fundraising arm of the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa. The funds will go toward the non-profit’s Dare to Dream Bursary Program that helps youth currently or formerly in care of the CAS attend college or university. It will also help send kids to summer camp and participate in sports activities.

First place team La Triviata won $5,000, as well as the coveted Trong Nguyen Memorial Trophy. Falling to second place after winning the previous two years was The Sticky Buns team. It walked away with the prize of a free tour of Ottawa’s craft beer scene via Brew Donkey. Last year, the team generously

DECEMBER 2019

631-523-3876 info@ottawadentalsociety.org DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE Visit

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www.ottawadentalsociety.org

donated its cash winnings back to the cause. In third place was We Lost on Jeopardy. It scored a Diefenbunker Escape Room experience, plus a winetasting tour at KIN Vineyards in Carp.

The trivia event, which is billed as the largest of its kind in the world, included a corporate challenge element that saw 14 teams compete for the title of smartest company in Ottawa.

Walter Noble, executive director of the Children’s Aid Foundation of Ottawa, was there, along with some of his board members, including past board chair Marion Bailey-Canham, who’s a partner and trademark agent at Gowling WLG, and such fellow board members as intellectual property lawyer Paula Clancy and Laura-Lee Brenneman, a director with BDC Capital. Lynn Harnden, co-founding partner at sponsor Emond Harnden, competed with a team from his law firm, as did Tari Duguay, senior consultant with sponsor Coughlin & Associates.

Also sighted was Barbara MacKinnon, who retired last year after 15 years as executive director of the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa.

CONNECTING TECH IN OTTAWA

THE 2019 TECHOPIA EDITORIAL ROUNDTABLE: THUSHA AGAMPODI Engineering manager, Magnet Forensics

MICHAEL ARMBRUSTER Relationship manager, TD Commercial Bank

ELIZABETH AUDETTEBOURDEAU CEO, Welbi

MELIKE EROL-KANTARCI

Associate professor, University of Ottawa Faculty of Engineering

PATRICK HOUSTON CFO, Calian Group

VICKI IVERSON CTO, Iversoft

ROBERT KINGHAN

Partner, Perley-Roberston, Hill & McDougall LLP

SUSAN RICHARDS

Managing partner, virtual CFO, numbercrunch inc

JIM ROCHE*

President and CEO, Stratford Managers

KEIRA TORKKO

MARTIN VANDEWOUW President, KRP Properties

ALLAN WILLE

Co-founder, Klipfolio

W

hat are the biggest challenges facing Ottawa tech companies as we head into a new decade?

How has the rise of Shopify affected local firms? What did the capital’s technology sector have 20 years ago that we don’t have today? And what has been the impact of light-rail transit on Ottawa’s tech ecosystem?

These are just a few of the topics Techopia dug into with a roundtable group of Ottawa tech executives on a mid-November afternoon at the offices of PerleyRobertson, Hill & McDougall LLP. With participants from a diverse swath of local tech firms and related businesses, as well as with representatives from our Techopia champions, the OBJ editorial team discussed a series of issues affecting startups and established tech companies alike.

What follows is a condensed, edited transcript of our two-hour discussion reflecting on the year – and decade – that was in Ottawa tech. To read the roundtable’s full thoughts that didn’t fit here, check out obj.ca/techopia in the coming weeks.

The 2019 Techopia roundtable, held at the offices of Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall LLP. Photo by Nicole Bell

TALENT Are you able to find the talent you need to grow?

KEIRA: I joined (Assent Compliance)

in April 2018. And as of today, between April 2018 and today, we’ve hired 400 new people. So that’s one new team member every day.

I think our our relatively large financing in late 2018 helped give us some profile.

Most of our customers are U.S.-based or European-based, so we’re not a household name (in Ottawa). So people don’t think about Assent Compliance.

But our financing last year I think really put us on the map. And so we did see an increase in applicants this year.

Continued on next page

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* A last-minute change in plans prevented Jim Roche from attending the roundtable. Techopia followed up with him a few days later to solicit his thoughts on the questions we discussed in person.

Ottawa tech 2019 year in review

DECEMBER 2019

Vice-president, employee experience, Assent Compliance

TECHOPIA EDITORIAL ROUNDTABLE:

SPONSORED CONTENT

A checklist for your financial literacy in SaaS Numbercrunch’s Susan Richards details the critical nuances that can make or break a business Since 2012, November in Canada has been recognized as Financial Literacy Month. This year’s theme is “Take charge of your finances!”

While the intended audience is individuals, numbercrunch co-founder Susan Richards believes this sound advice is just as relevant and timely for companies that have a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model.

“Because the concept of SaaS has only increased in popularity within the last two decades, even if you were university educated in finance and accounting, you are unlikely to have been formally educated on its financial nuances,” she says.

This knowledge gap, she adds, should not leave you embarrassed. You are not alone. And admitting what you don’t know is the first step toward learning what you need to know.

Here are Richards’ tips to help you increase your SaaS-Q and take charge of your SaaS finances as you head into 2020:

1

MRR

Monthly Recurring Revenue should be considered the lifeblood of any SaaS firm. If you are selling an annual license subscription, it is 1/12 of the subscription cost.

“MRR is the base unit of many SaaS KPIs and therefore is always what I recommend as the common unit of measurement over Annual Recurring Revenue, or ARR,” says Richards.

2

DECEMBER 2019

MRR GROWTH RATE

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This, Richard says, answers the question of “How fast is the company growing?” Which makes it one of the top metrics SaaS companies should track. This is why she argues in favour of moving from being ARR-centric to MRR-centric.

MRR Growth Rate is calculated by measuring the percentage increase over the previous month. So if MRR last month was $10,000 and it’s $12,000 this month, the MRR Growth Rate is 20 per cent.

3

RUNWAY

“Cash is to a SaaS business as oxygen is to humans,” says Richards. “It’s imperative to know how many months your cash balance will be able to cover your losses.”

The quickest way to nail down a forecast is to calculate how much cash the business is currently burning per month and divide that by the cash remaining in the corporate bank account.

4

CHURN

Just like in the telecom industry, churn occurs when customers (subscribers) stop doing business with you.

“Churn is a reality in any business, but for a SaaS business the negative impact of churn is harder to absorb because the model itself relies on longterm customer relationships,” Richards says.

For an enterprise-level product, she advises that churn should be under one per cent per month.

Churn rate can be calculated by dividing the lost MRR by the starting MRR.

5

LTV:CAC

This is the ratio of revenue and spend per customer.

“It is something you really need to master or you won’t know if you can sustain a profitable business,” Richards says.

Lifetime Value (LTV) is the net revenue value of the customer over the lifespan of the relationship.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) refers to the expenses that are necessary for bringing in a new customer.

“The thing about LTV and CAC is that they are fairly meaningless on their own and it is really only the ratio of the two compared that gives you financial intelligence,” Richards says. “The ratio of LTV:CAC should be at least 3:1 for your business to become profitable.”

OBJ360 CONTENT STUDIO

GETTING YOUR SAAS HOUSE IN ORDER Richards believes now is the time to commit to tracking these metrics monthly in 2020, for optimal viability. Until this is achieved, she offers the following tips on how to cover costs: • Charge annual license fees in advance.

Entrepreneurs often think all clients want to pay monthly, but for enterprise-level clients, a onetime bill in advance for an annual license may actually be easier to get through their procurement process.

• Ensure your annual license fees cover your CAC. Entrepreneurs have a tendency to underprice their subscriptions. Divide your sales and marketing expenses by your deal flow volume (aka CAC) and ensure your total annual license fees are equal to or greater than this number. If you have charged your license fees in advance, you will now be funding your business growth through customer acquisition – this will be of great interest to potential investors.

• Access loans before you run out of cash and credit. Do you have an 18-month runway today? If not, talk to a BDC rep as soon as possible. BDC is great to work with and if your personal credit score is still in good shape, the likelihood of an approval is good.

• Less is more. Most businesses run out of resources when they try to grow too quickly.

Maintain a narrow focus until you’ve achieved favourable metrics and only consider expansion into new markets, verticals, etc., once you have verified financial success in one.

“The SaaS business model has great potential for prosperity but it requires ruthless utilization of cash resources to take off into a profitable company,” Richards says.

For more information, contact www.numbercrunch.ca

Are you finding that students are graduating with the skills they need to enter the workforce?

THUSHA: What I tell most of our

students that come in is that we’re not expecting them to know everything; really we’re looking for the potential to learn. We can teach them a lot of the skills they need to know, but as long as they have the fundamentals and the ability to learn quickly...

Tech is changing so quickly all the time anyway.

TO MELIKE: Are your students

TO ELIZABETH: What’s the

ELIZABETH: What helps us the most

MICHAEL: To your point, on the pay

MELIKE: It’s very hard to give all the

ELIZABETH: For now, we’re a very

cut, is the culture of the business what trumps the compensation? small team. So everybody feels like they’ve got hands in decisions, so it’s easier for them to feel like, OK, “I’m potentially taking a pay cut, but I’m taking a risk because I know that if Welbi succeeds, I’m going to succeed.” you’re paying too low, saving lives won’t matter. (Laughter from the room.)

But I do think mission, vision, core values, the employer brand, are so incredibly vital. Because if your employees buy into that, they’re going to spread that to other employees. The word of mouth and the trust that comes with that will then attract other people.

TO VICKI: You just moved to

to use public transit. Unfortunately, (the recent breakdowns and service interruptions) are frustrating them a lot. I feel like it’s causing them a lot of extra stress. I think people have been reverting back to how they used to get to work.

a new office close to an LRT station. What impact did that have on your decisionmaking process for your relocation?

VICKI: Yeah, that’s a good question. I

And how close will it get to KRP? MARTIN: It won’t. I know they’re trying

KLIPFOLIO CO-FOUNDER ALLAN WILLE

“I’m a big believer of this. So let’s keep pouring money into it for a little bit and make sure that it does get working.”

ALLAN: I think we all really, really want it to work. We’re practically on top of one of the LRT stations at the World Exchange Plaza, but I don’t think it’s actually benefited (us) yet.

When we asked around about parking spots in the building, there’s only five employees that wanted a spot … so clearly the employees downtown

their best and it’s a huge investment. But there’s certainly a level of frustration in the west end.

MAGNET FORENSICS ENGINEERING MANAGER THUSHA AGAMPODI THUSHA: Working in Kanata North,

the traffic just keeps getting worse and worse as the companies grow.

So, definitely, with LRT not going that way, I do think the city will have to do something to solve that.

Continued on next page

43 OBJ.CA

think when we moved, the LRT was still this dream. It hadn’t launched, it hadn’t had the issues it’s having. It wasn’t our only deciding factor; it was kind of a nice-to-have.

A lot of our employees, who maybe bussed in or even who drove, wanted

should be a priority). But I think to anybody that lives anywhere in the city – whether it’s east, north, south, west – infrastructure in the city has been neglected as a result of the investment in LRT over the last five years. And the city is budgeting a little bit more for it, but ... I’m not sure if they’re ever going to catch up.

There are 500 companies right now in Kanata that are frustrated that it’s going to be 10 years before there’s LRT to the largest employment node outside the Greenbelt. And the frustration there is, why did the city not prioritize that to begin with?

DECEMBER 2019

“The generation that is coming in, the new trend is, ‘I don’t really care about the money.’”

MARTIN: I would say – of course – yes (it

ALLAN: I think there’s a curve, right? If

LIGHT-RAIL TRANSIT

WELBI CEO ELIZABETH AUDETTE-BOURDEAU

I’m interested in what Martin from KRP Properties has to say about a potential Phase 3 out to Kanata North.

to recruit talent that are ready to take a huge pay cut to join our team is the value that we have at our company.

I think, more and more, the generation that is coming in, the new trend is, “I don’t really care about the money.” Or, “I care about the money, but what I care the most about is having an impact.”

finding jobs after university?

How are you preparing them for the workforce? experience that they need to get a job within four years of education. There are things that they learn on the job. And that’s mostly through the co-op program.

Universities are mostly seen as pipelines for providing talent, but at the same time, we are also trying to attract talent to our graduate programs. For us, too, it’s a big problem when our bachelor students apply for a job in Toronto, because they want to do a master’s with us and they find a job there and they can’t do it. So what happens is, when you guys hire from other places like Toronto and Montreal and Kingston, they come and do their degrees with us, which is good for us. We get more diverse students.

actually don’t want their car, which is fantastic. But we need to get over these hurdles. And I’m a big believer of this.

So let’s keep pouring money into it for a little bit and make sure that it does get working.

recruitment strategy for a new startup, when you don’t have an established brand to lean on?

SPONSORED CONTENT

The key ingredients to launch and scale a world-class tech company What entrepreneurs say about MakerLaunch at the uOttawa Faculty of Engineering

I

t takes a village to raise a startup.

Or at least a community, with coaches and mentors who have proven experience, with incubation space in which to work and grow, with services to design and prototype a product, with business support, and with access to investors and industry partners.

And talent, let’s not forget that. Global dominance, after all, doesn’t come without a strong team behind you.

This is the vision behind the MakerLaunch program, at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Engineering.

MakerLaunch provides uOttawa students and recent alumni entrepreneurs with the support necessary to fasttrack technology commercialization and launch new tech startups.

MakerLaunch commenced with its first nine-month structured program in May 2019, which also included up to $50,000 in seed financing for each participating startup. The second cohort is set to start in January.

DECEMBER 2019

COULD THIS BE THE RIGHT PROGRAM FOR YOU? Consider the experiences of MakerLaunch’s first three participants:

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GameStrat GameStrat gives coaches and players the ability to review video immediately on the sidelines during a game or practice using a mobile device, and to share this across multiple devices. Its platform is currently targeting football, basketball and volleyball.

Through MakerLaunch, GameStrat has increased revenues by 115 per cent since May and aggressively

Back row, from left: Robert Boukine and Filip Slatinac of Noibu with Wandure’s Ali Kazal, GameStrat’s Tunch Akkaya and Wandure’s Ismail Benmbarek, Luis Anacona and Ramon Tabilin. In front, Chelsea Sauvé of Wandure and Kailin Noivo of Noibu. grown its team from 90 to 145.

“MakerLaunch and the University of Ottawa have huge business networks in the community and to be able to tap into that for high-quality mentorship is amazing,” said Tunch Akkaya, GameStrat’s co-founder and CEO. “The MakerLaunch program has also been a game-changer for us because of the funding it provided. As an early stage startup, you’re always stuck looking for efficient ways of funding your business and MakerLaunch is one of the best options we’ve found.”

Wandure Wandure is a social travel app – a “personalized hostel on your smartphone” for travellers to mingle, chat, travel and explore with a conscious and local lens. For tourist venues and attractions, it provides a booking platform through which to promote their most exclusive and special travel activities.

During its time with MakerLaunch, Wandure increased its user base by 53 per cent (to 26,000), monthly activity bookings by 38 per cent, and its monthly revenue rate (MRR) by 26 per cent.

“The MakerLaunch program and its mentors and founders provided us with some much-needed support, direction, experience and knowledge,” said co-founder and CEO Ismail Benmbarek. “This definitely made things much more pleasant for us, as well as helped expedite some of our decision-making. The interaction with the program founders and other startups in the program was a great motivating force for our team.”

OBJ360 CONTENT STUDIO

Noibu Noibu helps e-commerce retailers retain customers and increase sales by detecting and addressing critical errors that can disrupt the shopping experience.

Noibu entered MakerLaunch having just made a pivot in its business/market focus. Through the program, Noibu has acquired 10+ B2B recurring customers, thousands of dollars in MRR, and achieved month-over-month growth of as much as 208 per cent.

“MakerLaunch has been a great stepping-stone for growing our company,” said Co-Founder Robert Boukine.

“The funders and mentors act as great advisors and ask the right questions to help your business move forward.

The funding is very helpful and allowed us to hire another team member. We’re very grateful for what MakerLaunch has done for our company and hope to see many other startups go through the program.”

IS IT YOUR TIME FOR MAKERLAUNCH? MakerLaunch is for startups that have passed the ideation stage and created some sort of market traction.

To learn more, please visit makerlaunch-uOttawa.ca

MARTIN: Politically, I think there are

going to be a number of people working to revisit the current route to pick up Kanata North. The federal government now has a huge node at Carling, and they’re about to have a secondary node along Carling at Shirley’s Bay. They fund a third of (the construction costs of) LRT. I think they’re going to come to the table and say, “This current route up the Queensway doesn’t cut it for us. You’re going to have to run it up Carling, maybe into Kanata.” We’ll see.

REAL ESTATE Have you found the space you need to accommodate your growing headcount?

KEIRA: We’ve actually expanded across the street. And you know, it’s interesting how even 450 steps seems like 10,000 when people have to walk outside in the middle of the winter.

We are looking at what the next step is for us, because we will soon grow out of these two spaces. So we have gone out to take a look at what’s available.

We’ve seen from Kanata all the way along the 417 corridor, from existing space to new developments to creative use of retail space – landlords are being pretty creative.

TO MARTIN: With the rise of

co-working, are you looking at doing more short-term leases?

MARTIN: We’re already doing short-

term leases because we know the nature of business. And I don’t mean to badmouth the brokerage community, but I really get frustrated when you have a broker come to us with a tech tenant saying they want to sign a 10-year lease.

Ten years is forever in the tech world.

Like, how can you even crystal ball out more than three years?

CAPITAL What’s your impression of the access to capital in Ottawa right now?

ROB: I’ve seen two bought deals in the

last two years, which are uncommon.

That’s where the underwriter will say, “Yep, I’m going to buy 10 million of your shares, I’ll take all the risk.”

There are lots of debt and equity options out there as well. So there’s money. It’s just whether you’re situated properly for it.

SUSAN: I don’t think there’s enough. I

“It’s oxygen tank to oxygen tank, and people are heavily distracted on fundraising as opposed to productmarket fit.”

ALLAN: Yeah, I’ve got wicked strong

opinions on that, but it’s so complicated.

On the one hand, I’m a huge fan of, get product-market fit or raise as little as you can, don’t dilute. On the other hand, if you’re raising, raise twice as much money as you need to. It’s very complicated, and I think it’s all contextual.

There’s certainly a lot of money still out there. And I think it’s still flowing.

(Private equity) firms are starting to be more kind of “growth” PE firms. The banks are starting to get into the game.

There are a lot of different (funding) vehicles out there all of a sudden.

There’s many cases where too much money can completely put you down the wrong path. And there’s just as many cases where running out of money can really make you find that next big thing.

NEW GENERATION OF OTTAWA TECH Twenty years ago, there were a litany of publicly traded tech companies in Ottawa.

Today, there are not nearly as many. Does that matter?

PATRICK: I think it does. I think it

JIM: I think we’re in a different place.

If you look at a large public company, the people that are attracted to that company are not the VCs. They’re not the companies that will be investing in startups. They’re typically large portfolio managers who invest in public stocks and analysts that serve those companies.

The existence of an anchor tenant, like Nortel, or any of the other large public companies, adds a tremendous amount of credibility to the region.

Partly just because of the brand name, but also partly because those companies are developing a talent base that’s available to the startup community.

But on the other hand, we’ve seen the emergence of a pretty vibrant SaaS business in the tech startup community.

And that’s sort of played a positive counter-balancing role in comparison to the loss of the larger public companies.

And we see the growth of some pretty amazing public companies like Shopify and Kinaxis and Calian and others.

Continued on next page

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develops a different kind of leader. If you’re a CEO, CFO, VP, CTO of a public company, it’s just a different game. It’s not better or worse, it’s just different.

CALIAN GROUP CFO PATRICK HOUSTON

DECEMBER 2019

think that there’s enough rope to hang, not enough rope to sustain.

I think in Canada in general, we’re just not giving enough money to give a 12-to-24-month runway. I think most companies are used to having less than 12 months of runway and that’s what they live with on a regular basis.

I have a portfolio of 100 clients that I get to look at to collect data points. So I’m gathering the data now, but I’m just generally seeing that it’s oxygen tank to oxygen tank, and people are heavily distracted on fundraising as opposed to product-market fit, scalable customer acquisition, because they just don’t have enough money.

We have a few examples where companies are doing big raises, and then they have that leeway to execute.

But there’s way more companies out there trying.

Around the city, I’m hearing a renewed focus on bootstrapping as an alternative or precursor to raising capital. Has anyone else seen this?

SUSAN RICHARDS, MANAGING PARTNER OF NUMBERCRUNCH AND INVEST OTTAWA CO-CHAIR

When there were lots, people would grow it, then they’d leave, they’d create their own business. Maybe another public company. I think it just helps everybody in the region.

I used to have bankers here every week. Now, it’s like, “Oh, I have to come to Ottawa.” They’d come here and they’d see 30 companies that they could go to and try to generate different ideas, bringing different kinds of financing tools. Now, it’s like they’ll stop by if their plane got misdirected. (Laughter from the room.)

For me personally, I’d rather have that situation where we have a healthy group of public companies and a healthy group of private companies that bring different things to the region.

to Toronto. I think if you asked a lot of people outside of Ottawa, “Where is Shopify from?,” they’d say, “Toronto.” from Shopify is more community engagement. Like, I see Vicki at events and she speaks about supporting students and other things. Like Klipfolio, I’ve seen reps from some of these companies who go and participate in more Ottawa events. And recently I’ve seen it’s hard to get Shopify to come to the table to talk about things that matter in Ottawa.

front end of the funnel is keeping up with all of that, but all of the stuff and systems and the practices behind, are those keeping up? Or are those lagging behind in the interest of growth? So, (moving ahead, we’re) being proactive about making sure that we’re scaling in an efficient way.

I think there will be very few people in Ottawa who may have scaled a company at that speed, at that size. So being able to figure out how to do that is going to be really fun. We don’t say challenges, we say puzzles. This would be a big puzzle.

CHALLENGES

MICHAEL: The challenges we face are

THUSHA: What I haven’t seen

What are the challenges facing your company in the coming year?

VICKI: I’d say probably talent

Shopify has been on the marquee of Ottawa tech over the past decade. What has been the company’s impact on the local ecosystem?

PATRICK: If you think of a similar-sized company, like a Nortel, that turned into, just in Kanata North, like 15-20 other companies that started from it. I haven’t really seen that yet from Shopify, and maybe it’s going to take longer or there’s just a different attitude now than there was 15 years ago about leaving and starting your own thing.

of service providers – whether it be caterers, whether it be painters – will tell us they started their business supporting Shopify. So now we have greater access to people who have done this before.

It creates that ecosystem around it, not just from a legal and financial standpoint, but much broader in the community.

ALLAN: I think the only downside is

the number of recruiters Shopify has.

(Laughter from the room.)

DECEMBER 2019

ELIZABETH: We’ve been having great

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impact from Shopify. I’ve met a few times with Harley (Finkelstein) and he’s helped us introduce ourselves to some of their VCs, but we also got financing from Ramen Ventures, which are former employees from Shopify.

I think the Ottawa community is there to help; they want to see you succeed and they will help and open the doors.

It’s just something that I don’t think you can find anywhere else.

KEIRA: It’s interesting. A number

VICKI IVERSON, CTO OF IVERSOFT VICKI: I think it’s upping the profile of

Ottawa to have companies like Shopify that we point to as “Ottawa.” But I think Shopify has kind of decamped

acquisition. In addition to obviously developers, actually our biggest pain point has been project managers.

We can’t find project managers who have software experience. Project management is such a broad term that you know, you talk to someone who says they are project manager, they’re certified, all that kind of stuff: “Well, can you do this technical work?” “No.” So it’s like, how do we find that magical person?

MELIKE: For us, one of the biggest

challenges is growth, actually. We’re having lots of new students in a short amount of time, so the University of Ottawa is expanding a lot.

I actually moved away for two years, and when I came back, almost all the buildings on Rideau Street had the brand of uOttawa. So they keep buying the buildings, but it’s obvious that our growth dimension, of both graduate and undergraduate programs, and our campus being limited and downtown is something hard for us to cope with.

We’re expanding to Kanata North for that reason and to be closer to tech companies.

KEIRA: Growth at scale creates

inefficiencies. Because you’re used to doing something one way and you’re growing at 60 and 70 per cent. And the

around finding strong employees that have a mixture of soft skills and hard analytic skills. It’s very hard to come by that mixture in any space.

What’s holding back Ottawa’s tech sector, if anything?

SUSAN: For me, it’s gender diversity.

And moving the dial dramatically on diversity as a whole. I’m completely jazzed about the potential for what the products will look like when we have equal numbers of men and women at the table designing, coding, testing, leading the organizations, the boardrooms.

But I’m also acutely aware of the systemic barriers that exist today and why it hasn’t changed in 30-40 years.

So I think the biggest challenge is working together to move that dial.

But I think the answer to most of our challenges will come to us from the great minds synergizing when we have diversity in the discussions.

ALLAN: I don’t think entrepreneurs,

managers, leaders are taking risks.

I think everybody’s doing little incremental improvements on things and risks are often shunned or killed early on. And I think that really impacts our world moving forward. I think there’s so much that we can do if we can really push ourselves and you have the space to actually incubate some of these wild ideas. That’s one thing that I want to see more of in Ottawa, more of in Canada and more of all over the world.

ELIZABETH: I think as a community,

especially out of Invest Ottawa, I’ve seen a lot of – I never know what to use as a word – but it’s kind of a big wave of distraction. People will be like, “Yeah, if you raise money, you definitely have a good business, if you’ve got 20 employees, you definitely have a very good business.”

And I think that we’re forgetting very quickly what the fundamentals are: Get a client, generate revenue out of that client and then start building. I think we’ve got to get out of that big wave and just focus on the business. Once you’ve figured it out, then jump back, but I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done as a community.

For us initially, we were in the big wave: “Yeah, we’re in the news. Yeah, we’re raising money,” but we didn’t even have a client. That’s when we got out and really focused. I think as a community we need to communicate that it’s not easy. There’s a good time to put fuel on the fire, but you’ve got to make sure that it’s the right time.

STRATFORD MANAGERS PRESIDENT AND CEO JIM ROCHE

“There’s nothing that I feel is standing in our way of taking advantage of the opportunities we have before us.”

JIM: There’s nothing that I feel is

standing in our way of taking advantage of the opportunities we have before us, and you’re seeing that with the growth and with the excitement in the tech sector that we see today.

I had the pleasure of living through the dot-com bubble in the late ’90s, and at that time, it felt like Ottawa was almost the centre of the universe in the tech industry. But at that time, it was, even to me, and I think to everybody, it was really “frothy.” Meaning, the growth was there, the opportunities were there, but the sheer rate of growth just didn’t

seem sustainable – and ultimately wasn’t.

In contrast, what we’re experiencing today seems very grounded and very sustainable, which is really encouraging. That’s not to say that there won’t be market corrections ever again. It’s possible. It’s just this period today feels less “frothy.”

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DECEMBER 2019

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DECEMBER 2019

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

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Alex Benay’s eclectic résum​é already includes stints as Canada’s chief information officer, a senior executive at a leading software firm and the head of the Crown corporation that oversees the country’s science and tech museums.

Those diverse roles have a common thread: they helped feed Benay’s passion for helping prepare Canadians for a digital future. Most recently, the 39-year-old Ottawa native served as chief client officer at MindBridge Ai, one of the city’s leading developers of artificial intelligence software.

Once again, Benay’s career path is taking a new turn.

In early November, the 2016 Forty Under 40 recipient announced he was leaving MindBridge after just three months on the job for a newly created role as the head of global consulting giant KPMG’s Canadian digital and government services practice.

Benay was a big-time get for MindBridge, itself a rising star in the Ottawa tech scene. But he says his quick departure was anything but a matter of fleeing from a bad situation.

While at MindBridge, Benay explains, he was continually confronted with a wide range of “digital issues” that affected more than just his employer.

The company’s growing list of customers includes KPMG, and after a few weeks of discussions with Big Four accounting firm, he was presented with what he calls the perfect opportunity to help address those issues on a countrywide basis.

“Digital identity is actually a national issue that requires

Alex Benay/KPMG attention on a lot of different levels,” he says, adding he remains on good terms with his former employer and will continue to act as an adviser to the company.

“There’s a lot of other issues that need tackling in the digital space, and everybody just felt like, ‘Yeah, let’s do this.’”

As a partner in KPMG’s Ottawa office, Benay will work with clients in all three levels of government and the private sector on their digital strategies.

He says he plans to “wear a few hats” in the new role, one that will see him advise governments on areas such as how to deliver services in the cloud and

implement technology such as AI and blockchain.

“Obviously, digital government is a place that is near and dear to my heart,” Benay says, referring to his two-and-a-half-year tenure as Canada’s CIO. “A lot of the various levels of government are starting to play with these technologies increasingly rapidly. So being able to help them on their journey and … being able to help all levels of government across the country is something I’m looking forward to.”

He also expects to spend a fair bit of time guiding executives in the private sector ​– including those in his own office –​ as they adjust to the new digital reality. Benay says corporations such as banks need to ensure that sensitive customer data isn’t compromised as work that used to be done by humans is transferred entirely to machines.

“Having a black box artificial intelligence algorithm to deliver a service to a citizen or a customer and you don’t know how it works is a problem,” he explains, adding AI programmers and developers often don’t know the ins and outs of privacy and public accountability.

“These things are all clashing.

It’s an amazing time, it’s a stressful time in the digital transition of any institution. It’s an area that’s ripe for collaboration. There’s a lot in common, let’s say, between banks, hospitals and government.”

The father of two teenaged children concedes the digital revolution poses an immense challenge for industries in all sectors, but it’s one he’s looking forward to tackling.

“There is no one company that has all the digital answers in the world. It’ll be a really fun journey.”

– David Sali

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE Mark Savenkoff has been appointed vice-president of advancement at Algonquin College. Savenkoff spent the past 14 years at Carleton University, serving for the past decade as the school’s director of alumni and donor relations, where he helped spearhead a $308-million fundraising campaign. In his new role, he will oversee Algonquin’s fundraising efforts.

Demand Spring has hired Matt Roberts as vice-president of strategy consulting and Julie Zadow as senior vice-president and chief marketing officer in residence.

Roberts was previously vice-president of marketing at Forrester and has held senior marketing roles at Staples and Schneider Electric. Zadow has held leadership roles with such organizations as Globoforce (WorkHuman), Alyce, iCoachFirst, Aberdeen and Harte Hanks.

She is also the founder of PinchHitCMO. Soshal has promoted Lisa Kupfer to director of brand and product strategy and Sébastien Chiappa-Ménard to

director of experience design. Kupfer joined Soshal more than two years ago and last spring was promoted to senior brand and marketing strategist. ChiappaMénard has worked at Soshal for the past seven years, most recently serving as senior user experience designer.

HATS OFF Calian Group CEO Kevin Ford has received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Ontario award in the professional services category. Ford, who was named OBJ’s CEO of the Year in 2017, joined Calian in 2010 and was promoted to chief executive in 2015. He previously worked as a senior sales executive at IBM in Ottawa and is the past chair of the Kanata North Business Association’s board of directors.

Kinaxis has been named a leader in the Nucleus Research 2019 Control Tower Technology Value Matrix for the third consecutive year. The matrix is an assessment of the state of the control tower market and ranked 12 vendors based on the functionality and usability

of their solutions and the value that customers realize from these capabilities.

InitLive has received the Event Technology Live award for Best Workforce Management Technology.

Event Technology Live hosts an annual event where it awards companies that have made the most contributions to event technology.

Baker Tilly Ottawa managing partner Kenneth Tammadge will be inducted into the Order of Ottawa in recognition of his significant professional and

community contributions to the city throughout his illustrious career. With more than 40 years of experience providing taxation and business advisory solutions, Tammadge has achieved many professional and community accomplishments. In 2013, the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario elected him to Fellow, its highest designation. Tammadge is also a longtime supporter and contributor to many local organizations, including serving as co-chair of the Boys and Girls Club and past chair and honorary director of St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa.

Get your OBJ at Hillary’s Cleaners OBJ’s monthly newsmagazine can be conveniently picked up at select Hillary’s locations, including World Exchange Plaza, Constitution Square, Place Bell, Minto Place and 1235 Bank St. in Old Ottawa South.

Visit www.Hillarys.ca for complete list of locations

ATON E GR ATI C LO Guest Speaker:

Evan Siddal President & CEO Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Thursday, December 12, 2019

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CITY CENTRE

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CONTACT

space@obj.ca

49 OBJ.CA

m Furnished. Room for two people. m Phones and wifi. m Access to boardroom, kitchen. m All included at $1100 per month. m 12-month minimum term.

DECEMBER 2019

Located at 250

LAST WORD

Affordable housing trumps talent, survey says OBJ columnist Bruce Firestone asked local residents what matters most to them – and received some surprising answers

of the city, representing a multitude of industries and occupations, from urban planners to entrepreneurs.

Here’s a look at the highlights.

1

Answers to the “Team Ottawa” versus “On my own” question were fascinating.

I feel like I am:

BRUCE FIRESTONE

DECEMBER 2019

bruce.firestone@ century21.ca

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Municipal government decisions often have even more of an impact on residents of those communities than policies instituted at higher levels of government. Noted urbanist Jane Jacobs called this the “subsidiarity” principle ​– the closer government is to the people, the more likely it is to be both responsive to local needs and effective in terms of its delivery of solutions.

Here in Ottawa, the city is in the process of developing a new official plan. The goal is to develop a municipal planning blueprint that suits 21stcentury conditions. It’s a lofty ambition and maybe the first of its kind, at least in North America.

To assist in that process, the City of Ottawa worked with me to find out what is important to residents of this community when it comes to key issues such as economic development, public transit and affordable housing. In an online survey, we solicited opinions from hundreds of residents in all areas

Part of “Team Ottawa”

On my own

39.5%

60.5%

The most valuable resource any city or town has is its people. To keep the best and brightest young talent from moving to larger centres with more perceived opportunities, it’s vital that we build a municipal brand and communicate it effectively. We also need to institute a more flexible regulatory structure that allows our residents and the companies they build to develop their economic and social futures. And we need to articulate a vision that makes residents feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves to ensure we all buy in to the goal of a more prosperous future.

It is one of the most important decisions any individual can make in a lifetime. In a way, you are what your city is.

Ottawa is doing a better job of

making people feel like they are part of something special than I might have thought: in my view, 60.5 per cent is not bad for a “government town.” It’s likely that, say, Calgary would rank higher in this category, but it’s still not too shabby for Ottawa. Even so, there is room to improve.

2

We expected economic development, neighbourhood safety and talent retention would rank among residents’ biggest concerns, but instead they were middle of the pack.

Instead, the top four issues were: access to affordable housing; climate change/green technologies; zoning rules that promote experimentation, densification and intensification in increasingly mixed-use, walkable communities; and the promotion of homegrown entrepreneurs.

Access to affordable housing could be a proxy for talent retention. Many tech industry veterans have said they have more difficulty retaining talent because of a housing rental shortage than attracting talent in the first place.

Second, politicians who might be inclined to ignore the public’s concern

over climate change and other environmental issues do so at their peril. The issue ranked a very close second on our list.

It’s also interesting to note that respondents appear to understand the link between zoning rules that promote intensification in mixeduse, walkable communities and the promotion of homegrown entrepreneurs. There seems to be support for a more flexible official plan and policies that encourage more residents to start businesses of their own.

Major issues of concern, ranked on a scale of 1-5:

Access to affordable housing: 4.1 Addressing climate change: 4.09 Zoning rules to promote densification: 3.97 Promotion of homegrown entrepreneurs: 3.84 Continued on next page

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The lowest-ranked issues include: attracting entrepreneurs from other cities or countries; zoning laws that protect existing neighbourhoods from change; nightlife and festivals; new roads and highways; and sharing economy platforms such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, etc.

This group of respondents appears to embrace change and places an emphasis on local action.

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CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Terry Tyo, 238-1818 ext. 268 terry@greatriver.ca EDITOR, PRINT CONTENT David Sali, 238-1818 ext. 269 david@greatriver.ca WEB EDITOR Craig Lord, 238-1818 ext. 230 craig@obj.ca HEAD OF CONTENT Peter Kovessy, 238-1818 ext. 251 pkovessy@obj.ca CONTENT CREATOR & CAMPAIGN MANAGER 238-1818 ext. 251 pkovessy@obj.ca NEWS RELEASES Please e-mail to editor@obj.ca.

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Respondents overwhelmingly supported giving developers of office and institutional buildings a density bonus if they agree to add a residential use to their property and dispersing social, co-operative and affordable housing – including halfway houses and group homes – throughout the community.

This is markedly different from attitudes in the United States.

According to the American Housing Survey, the number of U.S. households living in gated communities was slightly more than seven million in 2001, rising by more than 50 per cent to almost 11 million households by 2009.

A decade later, the process continues to separate U.S. cities into have and havenot zones.

More egalitarian Ottawans appear to support (at least indirectly) the Ontario Planning Act, which prohibits gated communities, unless they are condominiums.

FINANCE Jackie Whalen, 238-1818 ext. 250 jackie@greatriver.ca

PRESIDENT Michael Curran

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Nearly 80 per cent of respondents answered yes to one of these two questions: housing is unaffordable and out of reach for me or housing is unaffordable and out of reach for too many.

This is not just an Ottawa issue or even a Canadian issue. It is happening everywhere. Homeowners in desirable cities are happily watching their house prices soar while young people and those less fortunate struggle to obtain any type of affordable accommodation, let alone home ownership.

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I doubt anyone would classify themselves as a NIMBY (someone who nearly always opposes any changes in his or her neighbourhood, short for “not in my backyard”), and this survey suggests Ottawans are no different: nearly two-thirds of respondents classified themselves as YIMBYs (“yes in my backyard”). Yet roughly four in 10 said they “have appealed or have been part of an appeal against developments in my neighbourhood or city.”

Ottawa, of course, is well-known provincially for being a source of abundant planning appeals, so this result should really come as no surprise to those in our own backyard.

Bruce M. Firestone is a co-founder of the Ottawa Senators, a broker with Century 21 Explorer Realty and a business coach.

51 OBJ.CA

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Nearly as important as the above two issues was the urge to design neighbourhoods for people rather than cars. Nearly 85 per cent of respondents supported this idea, which

More than 85 per cent of respondents supported the notion that the city should be more proactive in building an inventory of ready-touse sites so the region can react quickly to changes of direction in the local, national and global economies.

In other words, the next time a mega-corporation like Amazon comes looking for enough land to house a one-million-square-foot building that employs hundreds of people, the city would be well-served to have a list of available, ready-zoned sites sitting on the shelf, so to speak.

DECEMBER 2019

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It was interesting to see the juxtaposition of these two answers: support housing affordability by expanding the urban boundary was ranked at just 2.46 (on a scale of 1-5), while supporting housing affordability by rezoning existing neighbourhoods to support the addition of more housing garnered an average score of 4.02.

The city seems to have read its electorate accurately with a continuing “freeze” on (most) urban boundary expansions.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR We welcome opinions about any material published in the Ottawa Business Journal or issues of interest to local businesspeople. Only letters with the writer’s full name, address and telephone number will be considered for publication. Addresses and phone numbers will not be published, but they might be used to verify authenticity.

Letters can be e-mailed to editor@obj.ca.

All content of Ottawa Business Journal is copyright 2019.

Great River Media Inc. and may not be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher. Publisher’s Liability for error: The Publisher shall not be liable for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The publisher’s liability for other errors or omissions in connection with any advertisement is strictly limited to publication of the advertisement in any subsequent issue or the refund of monies paid for the advertisement.

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Every city has its own “magic wand” – the legal authority to create or change zoning bylaws and ordinances. In many jurisdictions, this has become a vastly complex, expensive and time-consuming democratic process. Ottawa is no exception.

More than three-quarters of respondents agree the city should use its “magic wand” (that is, its own staff and resources) to help with planning approvals and costs for projects deemed to be of regional significance and a net benefit to the city.

Nearly half of respondents were not aware that coach houses are now permitted in Ottawa (where they’ve been allowed since November 2016), suggesting the city needs to do a better job of communicating such changes to residents. In addition, almost three-quarters of respondents want the city to do more of this type of urban experimentation.

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means there is probably a widespread hunger to see more use of “Woonerf” (a Dutch word meaning “living”) streets where cars are guests and pedestrians and cyclists have priority.

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