April 28, 2025 • 43 mins
Join us for a conversation with Lindsay Smylie, Director at Plug and Play Alberta, one of the world’s most active seed-stage investors and startup accelerators. With a background that ranges from corporate energy to craft distilling, Lindsay brings a unique lens to entrepreneurship, innovation, and building thriving business ecosystems.
We explore her transition from jumping headfirst into startups to leading efforts that help Alberta's tech scale-ups connect with global enterprise partners. Lindsay shares her perspective on what it really takes to grow a business, the value of strategic alignment, and how to build trust across very different types of organizations.
This episode also dives into Calgary’s emergence as a leading innovation hub, why failing fast is a vital leadership trait, and how corporations and startups can drive real progress by working together. Whether you're building a company or helping others scale, this conversation is full of insight, strategy, and stories that resonate.
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If you believe you deserve more from your technology partnerships, connect with the team at:
https://www.deliverdigital.ca/?utm_source=videodescription&utm_id=youtube
Sell Me This Podcast is brought to you by the team at Deliver Digital, a Calgary-based consulting organization that guides progressive companies through the selection, implementation, and governance of key technology partnerships. Their work is transforming the technology solution and software provider landscape by helping organizations reduce costs and duplication, enhance vendor alignment, and establish sustainable operating models that empower digital progress.
This episode of the Sell Me This Podcast was expertly edited, filmed, and produced by Laila Hobbs and Bretten Roissl of Social Launch Labs, who deliver top-tier storytelling and technical excellence. A special thanks to the entire team for their dedication to crafting compelling content that engages, connects, and inspires.
Find the team at Social Launch Labs at:
www.sociallaunchlabs.com
Sell Me This Podcast is brought to you by the team at Deliver Digital, a Calgary-based consulting organization that guides progressive companies through the selection, implementation, and governance of key technology partnerships. Their work is transforming the technology solution and software provider landscape by helping organizations reduce costs and duplication, enhance vendor alignment, and establish sustainable operating models that empower digital progress.
If you believe you deserve more from your technology partnerships – connect with the team at:
www.deliverdigital.ca
This episode of Sell Me This Podcast was expertly edited, filmed, and produced by Laila Hobbs and Bretten Roissl of Social Launch Labs, who deliver top-tier storytelling and technical excellence. A special thanks to the entire team for their dedication to crafting compelling content that engages, connects, and inspires.
Find the team at Social Launch Labs at:
www.sociallaunchlabs.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And I always said if you're not failing, if you're
not falling, you're not tryinghard enough because you're not,
you're comfortable.
And I think the same thing'strue in life.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to Sell Me this Podcast, the show where we
explore the bold moves, smartstrategies and big ideas that
shape the business world.
Today's guest is Lindsay Smiley, director at Plug and Play
Alberta, one of the world's mostactive seed stage investors and
innovation platforms.
With a background that spansfrom corporate strategy to craft
(00:34):
distilling, lindsay brings aunique lens to entrepreneurship,
innovation and ecosystembuilding.
From jumping into startupsheadfirst to helping tech
scale-ups connect withenterprise giants, lindsay
shares what it takes to grow abusiness and an entire ecosystem
.
We'll dive into how Calgarybecame a top innovation hub, why
failing fast is a leadershiptrait and how corporations and
(00:57):
startups can truly innovatetogether.
If you're an entrepreneur,corporate leader or just curious
about the future of business,you do not want to miss this one
.
Let's dive in, lindsay.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
It is a pleasure to have you onthe show.
We're going to dive right intothings.
Why don't you introduceyourself to our audience and
tell us a little bit about whoyou are?
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Thanks for having me today.
I'm Lindsay Smiley, thedirector with Plug Play in
Alberta, and yeah, I think I'malways happy to join you, have a
conversation and share a littlebit more about what we're doing
.
My background's really diverseso I won't dive too deep into it
, but I think, coming from areally cushy, corporate,
(01:38):
sustainable job working onstrategies, performance, a lot
of governance stuff all acrossthe province, I decided to jump
out on my own and do somethingreally bold and start a company
with my husband.
So we went into making boozefor a bit and becoming an
entrepreneur and figuring outwhat that world was all about.
(01:59):
That kind of opened up my eyesto the startup world and I was
part of the ecosystem in Calgaryright when it was getting going
.
I think startup Calgary wasjust under Calgary Economic
Development and I was pitchingon stages for the ATB booster
alongside like local laundry andthe Skip the Dishes founders,
(02:19):
and so it was a small littleecosystem at that time and I
fell in love with being anentrepreneur, had a lot of great
time with it Fast forward.
When I left there, all of asudden I realized that
distilling grain made mesomething to do with agriculture
and this world called agri-food.
An opportunity came up withCalgary Economic Development to
help others come into Calgaryand launch here in the agri-food
(02:40):
space in particular, and sowith my CPG kind of background
it was a really nice fit andthat opened the door to economic
development, which was crazy,and through that I actually
helped attract Plug and Playinto Alberta.
Ideally it was going to be inthe egg space.
It didn't happen that way, butlater on we did get a food and
beverage program up and running.
So when we launched they stoleme, they scooped me up, along
(03:04):
actually with Niall Kerriganfrom our life sciences side.
So the two of us have been handin hand over the last three
years building up Plug Play.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Amazing.
So I feel like there's a ton tounpack in there and I have
infinity questions, but one ofthe things that stands out right
off the bat is that jump frombig corporation you talked about
to the startup lifecycle, andso that is a jump that I think a
lot of people are contemplatingright now.
There's a lot of people thatare, I would say, changing their
mind about the way that theywant the next X amount of time
(03:33):
of their career to look.
How did you find thattransition?
Was it exciting, terrifying,exhilarating, all of the above?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
All of the above.
Yeah, I owed all to actuallyJen Lofgren from Enzito and
Brene Brown.
So I went to a leadershipretreat and it was all about
jumping into the arena and doingsomething that scares you.
And if you're not doingsomething that scares you, then
what are you doing?
And you can't judge otherpeople if you're not in there
doing it yourself.
And I really looked like we hadbeen mapping out this business
(04:02):
plan for what a brewery wouldlook like.
There was only 30 at the time.
There's only three distilleriesin the whole province and now I
don't even know what thenumbers are.
It's like hundreds.
And we just kind of went homeand was like, why don't we just
do it, rip the bandaid off andget this done?
And we had a solid businessplan and that was the difference
is we really could make it work.
(04:23):
But through that planningprocess we actually flipped it
up on its head.
So we were originally startingwith a brewery and then
expanding in the distillery.
Because there was only threedistilleries.
It was really smart to do itthe other way around.
So we flipped it, started witha distillery and our business
model was such that my husband'sa firefighter, so in his four
days off we could make, optimizethe operations for a four-day
(04:45):
production cycle and thatallowed him to almost do both
jobs, which, hindsight's 20-20.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Eight days in a row, he was like a poor guy.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
He was sleeping in the bays and stuff, so not smart
.
But, yeah, it's a terrifyingjump.
It's a terrifying like I hadthe stable career, a really
solid salary.
I had the luxury.
My husband has a stable career.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
But that's.
I love what you said, too,about the idea of chasing the
uncomfortability.
And if you're in, if you're ina spot where you're feeling safe
, I feel like that you're notgrowing, you're not doing the
right things.
Do you still have thatmentality?
Is there, chasing yourdifferent challenges and
everything like that?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, it's actually something I've instilled in my
kids.
So they've been competitivegymnasts all their lives and I
always said if you're notfailing, if you're not falling,
you're not trying hard enoughbecause you're not, you're
comfortable.
And I think the same thing'strue in life.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I love that, and so you take this entrepreneur
journey.
The brands, the names you'retalking about I feel like those
are some of the core of theCalgary ecosystem today,
including yourself.
What was the Calgary ecosystemlike then versus now?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I thought it was amazing.
I was like this is great, We'vegot peers.
Craig Elias was around doinglots of these startup things.
I was part of a little cohortwith Brett Wilson, darlene
Dickinson had one going at thesame time and we were like
competing.
A Dragon's Den style competitionit was like a Dragon's Den
style coaching for startups.
(06:09):
So we thought we were allpretty cool and ATB was very
active at that time, so therewas lots going on, but nothing
like it is today.
Yeah, like it's just incrediblewhat's happening in Calgary
today.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And for people that aren't in Calgary and I know
this is going to be achallenging question to describe
, but how would you describe theCalgary ecosystem right now?
Because it is something reallyspecial.
It is electric and it is a lotof fun, but, like from your
perspective, you get to live inthat world every day.
How would you describe itversus?
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, I think everybody talks about it like
something what's this magic?
And if I put it into VC terms,Alberta as a whole is in the
fourth position across Canadafor ecosystems and dollars and
numbers of deals.
But 90% of that happens inCalgary.
90% of the whole province'simpact is out of Calgary.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That's incredible.
Yeah, I didn't know it was thatsignificant it is.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Take it in perspective.
It's usually a couple dealsthat are big that make that, but
those big deals are what everyVC are looking for.
You don't get 90% of yourportfolio being unicorns making
massive rounds and stuff likethat.
Like it's usually a one to twopercent if you're lucky and so
that those numbers coming out ofCalgary are really impactful
(07:19):
and so I read a reallyinteresting article that kind of
talked about that VC arithmetic.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
That said you're chasing the unicorn and then
hoping that enough of the otherstuff supports it in the interim
.
Is there something special inCalgary that's creating some of
those unicorns?
Because there's some reallystrong brands here that are
really taking the world by stormright now.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
What's the model of doubling down on your winners
and it's a love-hate thing forme, because I want everybody to
succeed but in the VC world inparticular, you identify those
that have the strongestpotential to scale and then you
put everything you have behindthem.
Calgary is really good at doingthat.
So those ones that they'rerecognizing as being really
strong.
You've got organizations likeAlberta, innovates, osef, ced
(07:59):
they're phenomenal.
You've got the Tech Thursdays.
You're getting a lot of airtime.
We've got trade missions.
We've got all sorts of stuff,and we're really good at putting
our best out on display andconnecting them.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And that's one thing I have noticed is it does seem
the province does do anincredible job of showcasing
those stars, lifting them up andputting them on a little bigger
stage than just the municipalone.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
You have to.
And here's the thing it's likeI always hear you don't want to
pick winners and losers, andit's not about picking winners
and letting everybody else lose.
You have to double down onthose ones.
Make those stars really good,scale them, do everything you
can.
Those are the ones that aregoing to trickle down and help
(08:42):
the other ecosystem.
The ecosystem is going tobenefit.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Everything follows after that 100% and it attracts
the talent, it attracts thestories, the investment, and so,
all of a sudden, you start tocreate this more, better round
and it becomes really exciting.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And we want to keep them here.
I do like to say plug and playreally plays that global
connective role.
We have massive network butgrow locally, scale globally.
That's the thing.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So I haven't really given you an opportunity yet to
even mention what Plug and Playdoes, and obviously you're
fairly familiar with it.
But if you were to describe tosomeone the work that Plug and
Play embarks on, how would youdo that?
Speaker 1 (09:20):
We do three things really well, and I like it
because it's simple.
So, yes, we're a VC familyoffice, one of the most active
seed stage investors in theworld, deploying 30 to 60
million dollars every year in250 companies.
So very active small stage orsmall checks, early stage.
That's all run out of ourfounder's family office and
(09:42):
separate from what we do ascorporate partners.
So very early on we realizedthat it's not just capital, it's
not just connection, it'sactually growing a network that
helps these companies scale, andso we've spent the last I'd say
, 18 to 20 years now buildingthe largest open innovation
platform in the world.
So we're in 65 locations aroundthe world.
(10:04):
We started in Silicon Valley, inthe heart of it.
In Silicon Valley, in the heartof it, saeed was named this
year as the top 100 founders inthat ecosystem, alongside Peter
Thiel and some of the big names,which is phenomenal.
But essentially, the largecorporate partners pay us to
help filter through the noise oftechnologies and solutions that
are out there to either get ina competitive advantage, stay
(10:26):
ahead of the trends and thedisruption coming, or to solve
problems, save costs, findefficiencies.
That's what we do.
We put entrepreneurs andtechnology startups in front of
those corporate partners.
We don't charge the startups,we don't take equity, we don't
take finder's fees or successfees.
So it's pretty founder-friendly.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So you're trying to find those winners, build them
up to a stage and then not evenjust give them money, which is
also important, but also connectthem with their potential
customers, which solve a veryreal challenge for them as well.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, we invest in very few, like they have to
really match our thesis andthings If we're not investing.
Sometimes we're helping themfind investment.
We co-invest with a lot of VCs.
So, yes, a lot of founders thatare looking to raise come to us
and we help with that process.
(11:16):
But more importantly I think wehelp make sure they're good
companies and we help open doorsto help them scale.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
That makes sense, and so you have a really
interesting lens then, workingwith both the agile startups
along with some of these largerestablished enterprises which I
think are struggling forinnovation, and this is a very
situational question.
But if you were to look at someof the themes that you see
across the enterprise versusstartup landscape, what are some
of the key differences of justwhat that's creating the
(11:41):
challenges from an innovationstandpoint at the large
enterprise scale?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
That's like such a big question because there's not
one challenge, there's a lotand there's different
differences that I'm starting toreally see.
Like the word startup, first ofall, I have to go back and
define that because it scaresany large enterprise.
Startup means risk.
Startup means unproven Startupmeans two guys in a garage.
Startup means it's a lot ofwork for me to connect with.
(12:06):
They don't understand bigindustry.
That's not always the case.
When we say startup, it can beany scale.
So, yes, the early ones are theones we invest in, so they're
on our radar early, whetherthat's through universities and
so on.
We like to make sure we'refollowing them.
But the companies that we'reusually putting in front of our
enterprise partners are like 100million revenue they're bigger,
they can scale.
(12:27):
Million revenue they're bigger,they can scale, they're ready
to make things grow.
But one big challenge ordifference between large
enterprise and startups is justthe ability for them to adapt to
change.
We've seen lots of companies.
Did you know Slack started outas a gaming company?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
It was called a game called Glitch, and the
developers, while they weredeveloping this game, actually
had created an internal platformso they could communicate.
And then the game actuallyflopped and it was completely
useless.
But they're like, hey, this wasreally helpful, maybe others
could use this communicationtool.
And now Slack is what it is.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
That is insane.
Okay, I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, and there's like tons of examples like that
where startups can pivot quickly.
I think YouTube started out as avideo dating game or a dating
platform and people weren'tusing the video platform for
dating so much as they were tostore videos and share them, and
so that's where YouTube cameout of today, which kind of is a
little bit more in line withwhat they were doing.
But just the concept ofstartups being able to pivot and
(13:29):
change and adapt is somethingthat can be a huge value add to
the enterprises that are likebig, massive ships, I think you
like this analogy.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I've used it before.
I love this analogy.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
But enterprise and corporations are like those big
Titanic ships they steady, theyhold the way, they have the
resources to go the distance.
And the startups are like theselittle speed boats that go
alongside and they check outlittle directions and they go
and get little resources, bringit back to the ship.
But together is how you getfarther ahead, because the ship,
big ships, are needed to getthose small little speedboats
(14:00):
the distance.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
So what do you think right now of that state of the?
We'll call it enterprise,startup or enterprise scale up
collaboration.
Do you feel like there's it'sflour collaboration?
Do you feel like it'sflourishing?
Do you feel like there's roomto grow still?
What do you think of thecurrent state?
We're so far behind in Canada.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, one example we work with companies all around
the world over the last 20 yearsand from all innovation
maturity levels, right from thebeginning, where they're
thinking what should we do tohaving active corporate venture
capital arms spinning out, orhaving an internal venture
builder capacity, where they'rebuilding startups inside of them
(14:36):
.
Those are the really maturecompanies.
Everything in between.
And in Canada, I think we have6% of corporations that have a
CVC in Canada, compared to 40%in the US, or like almost half.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And just for our listeners.
So what's a CVC?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
It's a corporate venture capital arm, so they're
investing in startups, they'reputting equity behind and
usually where they see they canadd value or they can, if they
purchase that product or throughtheir network or their
applications they can take itand go farther.
So therefore they can raise alot of money.
So we have a lot of work to doon that.
We have Canada's built a lot ontraditional industries, so
(15:13):
you've got like the oil and gasmining agriculture.
Those industries are still verytraditional.
There's so much technologygoing on in there.
You have this gap between ITand the technologies and the
applications, and even wherethat's going is so rapid
advancement but operations areso far behind and the two of
(15:34):
them are.
That's a huge challenge rightnow to get the technologies and
the operations functioning, toget all those old traditional
processes and equipmentconnected in and having the
sensors that are giving you dataand analytics to drive
decision-making real time.
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I know that we were at an and analytics to drive
decision making real time.
It's crazy.
I know that we were at an eventyesterday that talked about
this exact thing, and one of thethings that I find so alarming
is that disparate nature betweenwhat the business needs
technology for to grow, todeliver value to their customers
, to deliver value to theirshareholders and, on the flip
side, what corporate technologyteams are really focused on
right now, and I think that therole of IT has changed so
(16:14):
rapidly that some of thesetechnology teams are just being
left behind.
And I'm probably not going tobe very popular for saying this,
but I think there are a lot ofthe bottlenecks sometimes in
these organizations.
Because something has an IPaddress, all of a sudden it
becomes domain of the IT groupversus some of the more nimble
parts of the organization.
Are you seeing that assomething that's true, or am I
(16:35):
being the grumpy old person ontheir porch?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
There's a lot of validity behind the hesitation
of operations.
I think yesterday what we heardwas the language gap.
So if you have somebody that'sa technology expert not
necessarily understanding theoperations and one of the things
that caught my attention inparticular was the fact that if
IT suggests something in a wayto secure technology and
(17:01):
operation says that's going tokill it, and IT goes well, I
don't actually know if that willor not, so I have to take their
word for it.
Then it becomes a learnedpattern where, in order to get
IT to go away, I just tell themit's going to kill it.
And so I think there needs tobe a level of operational people
that are trained and have skillsets in the IT space that
better understand the true worldand the implications in
(17:25):
operations.
And until that happens, wherewe have more of our more talent
and more workforce trained inthese digital technologies and
securities required in thesolutions, I think there's going
to continue to be that learningprocess and that language
barrier between the two.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, and I think the theme that I love as well as
curiosity, because, to yourpoint, sometimes things are just
taken at face value and one ofthe skills that I see becoming
more and more relevant and moreand more important is just even
the desire to ask the nextquestion and the follow-up
question and the third and justto try to unpack the puzzle a
little bit, because I think alot of people take things at
face value and it doesn't serveanyone well.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, and I think you hit it on the nail on the head
with the fact that you have toask questions.
I think anything in life,anything we do, we have to
better understand and we have toseek to understand.
That's the same with innovation, like when we go to find a
technology or a solution for abig enterprise corporation.
There's a lot of back and forthand it's an iterative process
on really defining what it iswe're looking for, and that's
(18:28):
true to pilots and validations.
That's why there's a wholeprocess.
It's iterative.
Hopefully you fail fast, butyou have to have the processes
to fail in a safe, secureenvironment, in a way that will
get you to the quick no, orthese are the things I have to
change in order to make itsuccessful.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
So you talked about going to find some of these
technologies for these largeenterprise organizations.
Are you usually starting withkind of the use case in mind,
like large corporation says Ihave this challenge, can you
help me solve it?
Or are you starting morerepresenting the technologies
and then finding the fitafterwards?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
100%.
We go with a challenge andwe're actively sourcing for that
specific challenge.
That's what makes us special.
So when we make an introductionto a founder and a corporation,
there's already an interestthere and a solution that's a
possible fit.
So it starts the conversationreally well.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
So you're finding real challenges for enterprise
and saying, okay, what is thenew emerging startup that can
actually solve these specificchallenges?
And then how do we put our bitebehind it to help solve that
specific challenge?
But then add a whole bunch ofhorse power to keep going.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, and we don't necessarily put our money behind
each of those.
So we do it both publicly andprivately.
So we'll source for either oneor multiple different industries
that have a challenge and webring a list of solutions that
could be a fit and those areglobal solutions.
From there, that's when thatpartner gets to decide what's
(19:55):
relevant or not, what they wantto explore more, and they can
either go into a cohort programwhere we then wrap our arms
around that startup, make surethey're ready to raise, they
have the avenue to scale, makesure their business is sound and
all those kinds of things.
And that means that if anenterprise partner actually does
continue to work with thestartup, that they're going to
be a successful company andthey're going to still be there
(20:15):
tomorrow.
That's how we work with thatside of it.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
And so how much if you were to coach a startup on
the best way to be appealing tosome of these larger enterprises
to kind of reduce the risk andI'm sure this is a lot of the
conversation you have are therethings that you can share to
some of these larger enterprisesto kind of reduce the risk and
I'm sure this is a lot of theconversation you have Are there
things that you can share tosome of these founders or these
early stage companies that willhelp them position themselves
differently or better to largeenterprise?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
It's a different audience than raising capital.
So a lot of what we do is getthem ready to talk to venture
capital or to raise money.
To get ready for industry meansyou have to listen, you have to
look for how you can adapt andyou have to talk about the ROI
and its lead.
(21:03):
With the ROI we're going tosave this much.
We're going to demonstrate howthis can adjust your operations
for whatever way.
They're either looking toreduce costs or redundancies or
whatever.
So the impact of the solutionneeds to be the driver in that
conversation With VCs.
It's very differentconversation.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
So what if we flip that around?
So if we think about gettingready for the industry, what
would you say to thoseorganizations?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
if we think about getting ready for the industry.
What would you say to thoseorganizations?
It depends on what, how theindustry is for sure, because
there's actually a framework forinnovation that we start with,
and it involves strategy,capabilities and culture, and so
working with companies to getthem better prepared, a if they
don't have a strategy, there's alot of work we can do to help
them actually understand whattheir innovation strategy is.
(21:51):
Capabilities are really yourprocesses, your resources, the
ability to quickly identifythose areas of interest, and
then the culture is the big one,and it's not just an innovation
team running on its own in on asilo.
It really needs to start at theC-suite, it needs to be in
operations with IT and becomepart of that whole organization.
(22:14):
Then there's a whole side ofexecution, and that execution
side for innovation teams caninclude those corporate venture
capital investment arms caninclude the venture building or
what we call venture clienting,which is doing pilots, proof of
concepts, validations, and so toprepare our industry partners
(22:34):
to talk with startups, they haveto have the internal system and
framework in place to betterwork with them, and that's not
an easy thing, and so this iswhere it's not an easy
conversation.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And I feel like this is where some of the roadblocks
come, because you have theseorganizations that say hey, we
want to innovate, we know weneed to innovate, we know we
need to change and startsomething today.
So, even if that is windowshopping, in what?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
it could look like and involving a few other people
, maybe doing an innovation day,getting people excited about
what could happen.
That's fine.
Get started.
Get used to meeting startups,looking at the potential.
(23:23):
It could be a simple step likethat, and that's many of our
partners do that right now, likethey're curious, they're
getting curious.
And that's many of our partnersdo that right now, like they're
curious, they're gettingcurious.
So that curiosity is step one.
You're already there.
Get started, look for more.
Take those initial baby stepsand it'll all start rolling into
place.
And try to find the quicklittle wins when you can.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, and so you mentioned innovation teams as
well, so I feel like that's areally interesting concept,
because I think there's someorganizations that have done it
well.
There's some that have thisinnovation team that essentially
becomes this sequestered arm oftheir business that never sees
the light of day.
What are some of the thingsthat you've seen work really
well for enterprises whenbuilding out some of these
(24:04):
innovation teams, and what aresome of the roadblocks or traps
that you've seen organizationsfall into when building these
out?
Speaker 1 (24:12):
I think one trap is they will create an innovation
team and leave them out to dryand they get treated like the IT
team.
Don't come talk to me.
You're just going to createmore work on the side of my desk
.
That you're going to bring mesolutions I have no desire for
and that doesn't work.
I think you need both.
You need a centralizedinnovation team as well as
innovation people in the fieldin operations, and they do
(24:36):
different things.
So the innovation people in thefield in operations are
constantly looking for processefficiencies or gaps or
opportunities to challenges thatthey're seeing, and those guys
are looking at what we call.
We call it like horizon one,two and three.
When it comes to innovation.
Horizon one is really core toyour business.
(24:57):
It's the things that you'redoing.
So how do I improve myefficiencies?
How do I improve what I'mcurrently doing?
Those really sit with thoselocal innovation people, teams
close to operations.
Horizon two is like theadjacent stuff that you would do
that might start you in adirection of changing your path
or offering a new service or soon.
(25:17):
Those one can sit in eithercentralized innovation teams or
in the localized size.
But then there's these thingscalled Horizon 3.
These are like, if you thinkabout they'll be the highest
risk type initiatives.
Think about what causedBlockbuster to go obsolete.
They completely missed lookingat anything Horizon 3, like what
(25:40):
is going to disrupt us?
How are we going to actuallypivot completely?
Where can our business go in acompletely different direction?
They completely missed the boatand did not look at these
Horizon 3 opportunities.
They take the most time,resources, money and they have
the most risk, but they'll havethe biggest rewards when they
pay off and I thinkorganizations need to understand
(26:02):
that 10% of their innovationefforts need to be focused on
horizon three and those need tosit in a centralized innovation
team.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Right, and the horizon three is all the
exciting stuff, right.
These are the big moonshots.
These are the things thatreally require thinking outside
the box.
Are these technical discussions, or who are the right people to
be having these kinds ofinnovation discussions?
Speaker 1 (26:22):
So they're less technical actually.
So it's like where it's morelooking at like economic drivers
and trends, and right now it's,I think, it's more important
than ever with the pace ofinnovation and technology
rapidly scaling, with AI andquantum around the corner.
So if they're not thinking abouthorizon threes.
I think industry is really setto be disrupted and that's not
(26:45):
always a technical conversation.
I think it's more higher levelC-suite, really close to the top
executives.
Like where are we going Ifthere's a complete change in
energy or let's say, uranium isnot politically acceptable and
that gets shut off?
Where is the mining industry?
Where are we going to go?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Do you think so?
This is going to be a littlebit of a loaded question, but do
you think executives areprepared to have these Horizon 3
discussions right now, or doyou think that it's intimidating
just because of the hugetechnology component to it at
the moment?
Speaker 1 (27:19):
It's a really big challenge because there's
shareholder expectations andit's not my business today and,
if you think about it, almostlike politicians have four-year
terms, like big executives havea responsibility to the current
shareholders and the price todayand commodity priced industries
(27:40):
really are challenged withhorizon three and thinking
completely different in thefuture.
I think they're in a hard spotbut I think if they're not
thinking that way, they're doinga disservice to that company.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
That makes sense and I feel and I don't know if these
things are connected, but weknow we've seen a drop of IPOs.
We've seen, actually, a bunchof large companies that have
started that process to becomeprivate again, and there seems
to be huge advantages from anR&D, from an innovation
perspective to being privatecompanies, because you can make
some of those long-term eventsdifferently.
Is that a trend that you'reseeing or is that something that
(28:15):
is still to be determined inthe market?
Speaker 1 (28:20):
I don't have a crystal ball.
I think things are changingdrastically and even the amount
of capital that's required forstartups to build massive
companies is so much less.
I think it's changing the needfor venture capital.
I think we're going to see IPOsnot necessarily be the thing
that people are going to, or theopposite.
(28:43):
They can go there a lot fasterwith a lot less people and a lot
less capital going in.
So the landscape's reallydifferent and I don't think
anybody has the answer and Ithink everybody is really
watching closely.
This could go in differentdirections, but we all agree
that there is massive change.
It's rapidly going like we'venever seen before and I think
(29:04):
it's really important forcompanies of all sizes, even the
small mom and pop shops, likeI'm seeing record numbers of
businesses not there and it'ssad like you drive by or you go
to your favorite place and it'sno longer there, and it's sad
like you drive by and you go toyour favorite place and it's no
longer there, and so thesecompanies are getting disrupted
by technologies, by peoplegetting access to things online
(29:25):
faster, or it's just incrediblewhat's happening and I can't
understate the amount thatpeople need to be taking or like
dedicating the amount of timethat's required to dedicate to
innovation and technologiesshould be something at the
forefront of everybody'sstrategy planning and thinking
right now.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I couldn't agree more , and I know you and I have had
this conversation before, but Ithink there's a tremendous
opportunity too, even especiallyfor the small organizations.
They don't have some of the redtape, they don't have some of
the way they've always donethings, and they can make
decisions right here and theydon't have to go offer approval
for four other layers, wait forthe next budget cycle.
They can do them now and Ithink that, with the speed of
(30:06):
everything that's innovatingright now, that has to be the
way things are done.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, exactly, and I think those organizations or
companies have a competitiveadvantage from that standpoint
because they can really look andadapt and do something really
differently that otherorganizations can't.
And those big industry playerscan use smaller organizations
and startups to test out markets, solutions, business models and
(30:32):
things like that in a fairlyrisk adverse way.
And that's that model of havinga ship and a speedboat.
Use those entrepreneurs in thatstartup structure to test out
where that can go and that willset you up for success in the
future.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Definitely so.
You mentioned technologies, andwe've gone this far without
mentioning AI.
Bingo, I think.
But from your perspective, youprobably get to looking glass
into some really innovative andcool things that are coming out.
What are some of thetechnologies that you're seeing
that are really shapingeverything right now?
Obviously, ai is one of them,but is there anything else
that's on the horizon thatpeople should be considering and
thinking about?
Speaker 1 (31:10):
I think, just the level of personalization and
customization of everything.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
From healthcare.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
we're seeing hyper-individualized modalities
and treatments, food items,diets.
Ai is incredibly applicable andthere's this one technology.
It still sticks in my mind.
But we understand facialrecognition and that's been
around for a while, but I sawfacial recognition for a steak.
(31:38):
It's like literally yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Like a piece of meat.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yeah, it can identify which cow or which animal that
came from, based on the ligamentstructure within that cut of
meat.
And so if you can imagine theworld of traceability in our
food from right at the time ofprocessing, if they have the
technology in place to identifyand trace that animal to the
(32:05):
store and the grocery when aconsumer picks up a steak from
the store, you literally cantrace that right back to an
animal.
And in the world of today wherewe've had massive recalls and
things like that kind oftechnology can really change a
lot.
It's just one example.
There's tons, there's newmaterials that are exciting.
The stuff that we're exposed tois incredible, even in the
(32:28):
carbon capture space.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
I'm not sure if I want a picture of my cow looking
back at me as I pick up thesteak at the grocery store, but
it is incredible and I thinkyou're right.
It is changing everything.
So how does a sorry, I'm beingthrown off by this image of the
steak cow.
Yeah, don't think about it inthe purpose of you knowing.
(32:52):
No, I totally understand.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Or in the purpose of recall.
So if you need to recall, ifthere's a problem or an issue,
it's one animal or one herd asopposed to all from a country.
And we've had that before inCanada, so it's a very important
thing.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
No, and I think you're correct and even from a
traceability.
We had Kalaya on the show acouple of weeks ago who was just
talking about some of the powerof some of the different
blockchain technologies andquantum and everything, and the
world is definitely speeding upat a very rapid pace on that
front.
If someone is, I think there'snever been a better time to
start an organization as well.
So if someone's in Calgary,they have an idea, what are some
(33:32):
of the things that you wouldrecommend to them?
To kind of start to surroundthemselves with the community to
test out that idea, to kind ofsee what's out there and start
to prove out if that actuallymakes sense for them to build a
business out of it.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Network 100%.
Get out there, start meetingpeople, find out the areas that
you feel less confident in andthat are weaker, and seek out
mentors that have been there.
Done that.
Find other founders and othermentors that have been there.
Done that.
Find other founders and otherpeople that have done it before
as your mentors not necessarilypeople who have a lot of advice
(34:05):
to give that haven't lived thatpath.
I think that's one key thing.
There's a lot of advice outthere and it's not always good
advice.
And I would also say get out ofour ecosystem as well and try
to spend some time in theseecosystems that are ahead of us
and then bring that knowledgeback and bring that drive back
(34:26):
here and test out and validateyour idea.
Ask questions, get to know whatreal people think about what
you're doing, and that can't beunderrated.
People think about what you'redoing and that can't be
underrated, and I think we oftenhear of founders that ask their
friends and family or thosethat they know for advice on
what their product is or theirsolution, and they get really
good feedback because they'reclose friends and family.
(34:48):
So you need to find people whowill give you harsh feedback and
authentic feedback, and so Iguess just network, get out and
really seek to understand whatthat customer is looking for.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
And I like that idea a lot of, kind of almost like
trying to find a way to chaseout the negative.
It's really easy to ask yourpartner, to ask your parents is
my art project cool?
But I think that if you findsomeone that can really find the
holes because it's only goingto make that idea better prove
it out or save you from somehardship down the line as well.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Yeah, how fast can you get to 10 iterations?
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yeah, and even when I know we've talked about this,
as we've grown our business, Ifeel like what we, the idea we
started with, is miles differentthan what we're, the work we're
doing today, and I feel like inanother year it'll probably be
another 10 iterations away andit'll continue to evolve and
change and it becomes a reallyfun journey of experimentation
and seeing what works and whatfails and getting there as fast
as possible there.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
I often wonder what that next chapter is really
going to look like.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
It's exciting, that's the fun part right, and I feel
like that's the part that keepsit on the entrepreneurial side
of things.
It keeps you on your toes andkeeps you excited and curious
and I think a lot of peopleprobably get a little bit
addicted to it's true.
Yeah, on the flip side.
So enterprise leaders listeningtoday.
What's some things that theyshould be doing?
If they're looking across theirorg they're saying, hey, we're
(36:02):
a little bit stale.
What are a couple actions thatthey can take tomorrow that will
practically start to makechange in their organization?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
I think don't think about innovation as a make work
project or a standalone, soembedded in everything you do.
And innovation isn't robots andtechnology and AI for your
stake.
It's process improvement, it'sefficiencies, it's thinking
about saving costs and so reallylooking for those areas where
you have a lot of time,redundancies, repetitive work
(36:36):
what are those tasks?
And then look to technology totry to reduce those and start
there.
And that's for the smaller,obviously, the enterprises.
The big level it's start makingthat plan.
Get curious about innovation.
And how can your organizationbuild the culture internally of
failure of bringing their ideasup?
(36:57):
Your people on the groundalready have the top hundred
ideas and priorities to getgoing on.
If you don't know what they are, then you don't have the
internal culture to get it toyou.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah, and that's one thing that we haven't really
touched on but the power ofpeople's teams and being on the
front line, and a lot of thoseideas exist, and a lot of those
people that are doing the workevery day have a laundry list of
things that they wish would bedifferent, that they hate doing,
that are really autonomous orcould be autonomous, and that's
where some of the gold actuallyis.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yeah, I think one of my.
I think you're successful.
It's not in what you've built,it's who you've empowered.
That's truly the outcome, thatyou're successful.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
It's not in what you've built, it's who you've
empowered.
That's truly the outcome thatyou're looking for.
I love it.
What's one myth?
Speaker 1 (37:51):
that you wish didn't exist around the work that you
do.
The term accelerator and theterm startups so I guess just
the perception that startups areall really small, haven't been
proven technologies and don'tknow how to work with enterprise
, and that's one I wish we couldovercome.
And the other is this wordaccelerator.
It's not necessarily like atime sink for entrepreneurs.
I think it's really hard fortheir time to compete and they
(38:15):
shouldn't always be looking atjoining these accelerators,
because they should be focusedon building their businesses.
We have an accelerator, but itreally is a business development
type focus where we're trulytrying to help these startups
scale and get to the next growthstage.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
So I know the DNA would be different for the right
fit for each of these types oforganizations.
But what would make a good fitfor someone for the accelerator
programs?
Speaker 1 (38:43):
So there's incubators and accelerators in the
traditional sense that helpvalidate, prove out, build out
business plans, help make sureall that foundational stuff is
in place, and those areabsolutely super important for
building up early stage startups.
So when you have that idea,ideation, there's different
groups at different phases thatoffer the skill sets that the
(39:05):
entrepreneurs need.
At that time For plug and playwe're really at the scalings
phase.
So it's like you've got aproduct or a service that's
proven out, validated.
Maybe you need that industryvalidation.
That's something we really helpwith.
So if we get a customer thatsays I'm actually really
interested in this, thatsometimes is all you need and
you get a huge check mark infront of those VCs, that
(39:27):
validation can go a long way toquickly scaling that company.
I think don't quote me on this,I guess I'm on the air but this
is all quoted.
Yeah, I know this is all quoted,but what I'm seeing is it can
take five, maybe five, six yearsfor a company from when we
invest to go into being aunicorn.
Like it's that fast in this.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
That's really rapid.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Super rapid.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, and I saw a stat and I'm going to butcher
whatever the stat is, but ittalked about even the how
quickly technology platforms gotto 100 million users and it
showed the Instagram, theFacebook, the WhatsApp and
ChatGPT accumulated in likeweeks.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
It was ChatGPT for sure.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, and things are moving so quickly on that front
and so you're saying thecompany's valuations and their
growth is also happening.
I don't want to say five or sixyears is overnight, but five or
six years is a really quicktime.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
It's a really quick time and these companies don't
need the amount of talent theyused to, and that has pros and
cons to it, but technologycompanies that were starting
before can now use AI to replacea lot of those bodies.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
So how do we have such good energy and
synchronicity?
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Synchronicity.
Why do we banter so welltogether?
Speaker 2 (40:36):
I don't know.
I feel like we do banter welltogether.
We do banter well together.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
But it's not because we've known each other forever.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
No, I feel, because we met on the panel.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
It's a symptom of Calgary.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
We were asked to go on a panel for the chamber?
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah, it was for the chamber.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
It was about small, medium, medium business
innovation and we had a beer andwe tried to figure out how to
use the robotics arm and then Ichallenged you on everything you
said.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
It's true, I've never I was, I've never been
challenged on a panel like thatbefore, and I remember one of
the moments off mic where youput the mic down.
You were like I hope you don'tmind, I'm actually going to call
you out on the next questionI'm going to disagree with that
yes, okay.
So that's how.
Yeah, and then we fast friends.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
I think it's because you focused on the strategy side
a lot more and I was like no,just get out there and get going
.
Yeah, I think so, yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
I think that for the first time ever, because I feel
like I'm a person that runs outand just zooms into things and I
like to fail really quickly andso and I feel like I found
someone that fail likes to failway more quickly- Thanks, I
appreciate that I have failedlots.
Yes, hopefully that didn't comeacross wrong.
No, I think it came acrossperfect.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
It's true, yeah, but I don't believe that it's
failing.
I believe it's a sign ofleadership, so understanding
when you can make bold moves andkeep going forward.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, so obviously things are moving incredibly
quickly.
We've talked about that a lot.
What does the next 12 monthslook like for you and the Plug
and Play team?
Speaker 1 (42:01):
We always have these incredible events, so I
encourage anybody who isinterested in getting involved
to follow us, for we have anexpo around in Ventures.
It's a really great time forentrepreneurs and anybody in the
startup ecosystem to connect.
We'll be hosting our expo May22nd at the SAM Center and then
we always have our big oneannual summit, and this year
it's going to be back inKanaskis in the mountains in
(42:24):
November, so that's reallyexciting.
There's also opportunities tocome down to our headquarters in
Silicon Valley.
We do summits twice a year toreach out to Plug and Play team,
obviously to get involved inthat, and as far as like growth
and stuff, we have lots of plansacross Canada, so hopefully
you'll see Plug and Playstarting to branch out a few
(42:45):
more tentacles in verypurposeful areas.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
And I imagine you're already a fairly popular person
in your inbox.
But if someone wanted toconnect with you, if they had
more questions, what's the bestway to connect with you, Lindsay
?
Speaker 1 (42:57):
You can find me on LinkedIn.
That's probably the best way.
Alberta at PMPTCcom goes to afew different people, so you'll
get a response if you need adirect connection.
Other than that, the website'sgreat and we are moving and
opening up a brand new office,and so we'll be, hosting
probably some networking mixersand different innovation events
(43:18):
throughout the year in our newspace, which is on 11th Ave.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
I'm excited to see the new building.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show.
This has been an absolutepleasure, Lindsay.
It's been a lot of fun and I'mexcited to see the new building
and continue to chat about coolthings.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yeah, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Super fun to talk, awesome.
Thanks a bunch.
And I always said if you're not failing, if you're
not falling, you're not tryinghard enough because you're not,
you're comfortable.
And I think the same thing'strue in life.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to Sell Me this Podcast, the show where we
explore the bold moves, smartstrategies and big ideas that
shape the business world.
Today's guest is Lindsay Smiley, director at Plug and Play
Alberta, one of the world's mostactive seed stage investors and
innovation platforms.
With a background that spansfrom corporate strategy to craft
(00:34):
distilling, lindsay brings aunique lens to entrepreneurship,
innovation and ecosystembuilding.
From jumping into startupsheadfirst to helping tech
scale-ups connect withenterprise giants, lindsay
shares what it takes to grow abusiness and an entire ecosystem
.
We'll dive into how Calgarybecame a top innovation hub, why
failing fast is a leadershiptrait and how corporations and
(00:57):
startups can truly innovatetogether.
If you're an entrepreneur,corporate leader or just curious
about the future of business,you do not want to miss this one
.
Let's dive in, lindsay.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
It is a pleasure to have you onthe show.
We're going to dive right intothings.
Why don't you introduceyourself to our audience and
tell us a little bit about whoyou are?
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Thanks for having me today.
I'm Lindsay Smiley, thedirector with Plug Play in
Alberta, and yeah, I think I'malways happy to join you, have a
conversation and share a littlebit more about what we're doing
.
My background's really diverseso I won't dive too deep into it
, but I think, coming from areally cushy, corporate,
(01:38):
sustainable job working onstrategies, performance, a lot
of governance stuff all acrossthe province, I decided to jump
out on my own and do somethingreally bold and start a company
with my husband.
So we went into making boozefor a bit and becoming an
entrepreneur and figuring outwhat that world was all about.
(01:59):
That kind of opened up my eyesto the startup world and I was
part of the ecosystem in Calgaryright when it was getting going
.
I think startup Calgary wasjust under Calgary Economic
Development and I was pitchingon stages for the ATB booster
alongside like local laundry andthe Skip the Dishes founders,
(02:19):
and so it was a small littleecosystem at that time and I
fell in love with being anentrepreneur, had a lot of great
time with it Fast forward.
When I left there, all of asudden I realized that
distilling grain made mesomething to do with agriculture
and this world called agri-food.
An opportunity came up withCalgary Economic Development to
help others come into Calgaryand launch here in the agri-food
(02:40):
space in particular, and sowith my CPG kind of background
it was a really nice fit andthat opened the door to economic
development, which was crazy,and through that I actually
helped attract Plug and Playinto Alberta.
Ideally it was going to be inthe egg space.
It didn't happen that way, butlater on we did get a food and
beverage program up and running.
So when we launched they stoleme, they scooped me up, along
(03:04):
actually with Niall Kerriganfrom our life sciences side.
So the two of us have been handin hand over the last three
years building up Plug Play.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Amazing.
So I feel like there's a ton tounpack in there and I have
infinity questions, but one ofthe things that stands out right
off the bat is that jump frombig corporation you talked about
to the startup lifecycle, andso that is a jump that I think a
lot of people are contemplatingright now.
There's a lot of people thatare, I would say, changing their
mind about the way that theywant the next X amount of time
(03:33):
of their career to look.
How did you find thattransition?
Was it exciting, terrifying,exhilarating, all of the above?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
All of the above.
Yeah, I owed all to actuallyJen Lofgren from Enzito and
Brene Brown.
So I went to a leadershipretreat and it was all about
jumping into the arena and doingsomething that scares you.
And if you're not doingsomething that scares you, then
what are you doing?
And you can't judge otherpeople if you're not in there
doing it yourself.
And I really looked like we hadbeen mapping out this business
(04:02):
plan for what a brewery wouldlook like.
There was only 30 at the time.
There's only three distilleriesin the whole province and now I
don't even know what thenumbers are.
It's like hundreds.
And we just kind of went homeand was like, why don't we just
do it, rip the bandaid off andget this done?
And we had a solid businessplan and that was the difference
is we really could make it work.
(04:23):
But through that planningprocess we actually flipped it
up on its head.
So we were originally startingwith a brewery and then
expanding in the distillery.
Because there was only threedistilleries.
It was really smart to do itthe other way around.
So we flipped it, started witha distillery and our business
model was such that my husband'sa firefighter, so in his four
days off we could make, optimizethe operations for a four-day
(04:45):
production cycle and thatallowed him to almost do both
jobs, which, hindsight's 20-20.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Eight days in a row, he was like a poor guy.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
He was sleeping in the bays and stuff, so not smart
.
But, yeah, it's a terrifyingjump.
It's a terrifying like I hadthe stable career, a really
solid salary.
I had the luxury.
My husband has a stable career.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
But that's.
I love what you said, too,about the idea of chasing the
uncomfortability.
And if you're in, if you're ina spot where you're feeling safe
, I feel like that you're notgrowing, you're not doing the
right things.
Do you still have thatmentality?
Is there, chasing yourdifferent challenges and
everything like that?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, it's actually something I've instilled in my
kids.
So they've been competitivegymnasts all their lives and I
always said if you're notfailing, if you're not falling,
you're not trying hard enoughbecause you're not, you're
comfortable.
And I think the same thing'strue in life.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I love that, and so you take this entrepreneur
journey.
The brands, the names you'retalking about I feel like those
are some of the core of theCalgary ecosystem today,
including yourself.
What was the Calgary ecosystemlike then versus now?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I thought it was amazing.
I was like this is great, We'vegot peers.
Craig Elias was around doinglots of these startup things.
I was part of a little cohortwith Brett Wilson, darlene
Dickinson had one going at thesame time and we were like
competing.
A Dragon's Den style competitionit was like a Dragon's Den
style coaching for startups.
(06:09):
So we thought we were allpretty cool and ATB was very
active at that time, so therewas lots going on, but nothing
like it is today.
Yeah, like it's just incrediblewhat's happening in Calgary
today.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And for people that aren't in Calgary and I know
this is going to be achallenging question to describe
, but how would you describe theCalgary ecosystem right now?
Because it is something reallyspecial.
It is electric and it is a lotof fun, but, like from your
perspective, you get to live inthat world every day.
How would you describe itversus?
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, I think everybody talks about it like
something what's this magic?
And if I put it into VC terms,Alberta as a whole is in the
fourth position across Canadafor ecosystems and dollars and
numbers of deals.
But 90% of that happens inCalgary.
90% of the whole province'simpact is out of Calgary.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That's incredible.
Yeah, I didn't know it was thatsignificant it is.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Take it in perspective.
It's usually a couple dealsthat are big that make that, but
those big deals are what everyVC are looking for.
You don't get 90% of yourportfolio being unicorns making
massive rounds and stuff likethat.
Like it's usually a one to twopercent if you're lucky and so
that those numbers coming out ofCalgary are really impactful
(07:19):
and so I read a reallyinteresting article that kind of
talked about that VC arithmetic.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
That said you're chasing the unicorn and then
hoping that enough of the otherstuff supports it in the interim
.
Is there something special inCalgary that's creating some of
those unicorns?
Because there's some reallystrong brands here that are
really taking the world by stormright now.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
What's the model of doubling down on your winners
and it's a love-hate thing forme, because I want everybody to
succeed but in the VC world inparticular, you identify those
that have the strongestpotential to scale and then you
put everything you have behindthem.
Calgary is really good at doingthat.
So those ones that they'rerecognizing as being really
strong.
You've got organizations likeAlberta, innovates, osef, ced
(07:59):
they're phenomenal.
You've got the Tech Thursdays.
You're getting a lot of airtime.
We've got trade missions.
We've got all sorts of stuff,and we're really good at putting
our best out on display andconnecting them.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And that's one thing I have noticed is it does seem
the province does do anincredible job of showcasing
those stars, lifting them up andputting them on a little bigger
stage than just the municipalone.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
You have to.
And here's the thing it's likeI always hear you don't want to
pick winners and losers, andit's not about picking winners
and letting everybody else lose.
You have to double down onthose ones.
Make those stars really good,scale them, do everything you
can.
Those are the ones that aregoing to trickle down and help
(08:42):
the other ecosystem.
The ecosystem is going tobenefit.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Everything follows after that 100% and it attracts
the talent, it attracts thestories, the investment, and so,
all of a sudden, you start tocreate this more, better round
and it becomes really exciting.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And we want to keep them here.
I do like to say plug and playreally plays that global
connective role.
We have massive network butgrow locally, scale globally.
That's the thing.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So I haven't really given you an opportunity yet to
even mention what Plug and Playdoes, and obviously you're
fairly familiar with it.
But if you were to describe tosomeone the work that Plug and
Play embarks on, how would youdo that?
Speaker 1 (09:20):
We do three things really well, and I like it
because it's simple.
So, yes, we're a VC familyoffice, one of the most active
seed stage investors in theworld, deploying 30 to 60
million dollars every year in250 companies.
So very active small stage orsmall checks, early stage.
That's all run out of ourfounder's family office and
(09:42):
separate from what we do ascorporate partners.
So very early on we realizedthat it's not just capital, it's
not just connection, it'sactually growing a network that
helps these companies scale, andso we've spent the last I'd say
, 18 to 20 years now buildingthe largest open innovation
platform in the world.
So we're in 65 locations aroundthe world.
(10:04):
We started in Silicon Valley, inthe heart of it.
In Silicon Valley, in the heartof it, saeed was named this
year as the top 100 founders inthat ecosystem, alongside Peter
Thiel and some of the big names,which is phenomenal.
But essentially, the largecorporate partners pay us to
help filter through the noise oftechnologies and solutions that
are out there to either get ina competitive advantage, stay
(10:26):
ahead of the trends and thedisruption coming, or to solve
problems, save costs, findefficiencies.
That's what we do.
We put entrepreneurs andtechnology startups in front of
those corporate partners.
We don't charge the startups,we don't take equity, we don't
take finder's fees or successfees.
So it's pretty founder-friendly.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So you're trying to find those winners, build them
up to a stage and then not evenjust give them money, which is
also important, but also connectthem with their potential
customers, which solve a veryreal challenge for them as well.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, we invest in very few, like they have to
really match our thesis andthings If we're not investing.
Sometimes we're helping themfind investment.
We co-invest with a lot of VCs.
So, yes, a lot of founders thatare looking to raise come to us
and we help with that process.
(11:16):
But more importantly I think wehelp make sure they're good
companies and we help open doorsto help them scale.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
That makes sense, and so you have a really
interesting lens then, workingwith both the agile startups
along with some of these largerestablished enterprises which I
think are struggling forinnovation, and this is a very
situational question.
But if you were to look at someof the themes that you see
across the enterprise versusstartup landscape, what are some
of the key differences of justwhat that's creating the
(11:41):
challenges from an innovationstandpoint at the large
enterprise scale?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
That's like such a big question because there's not
one challenge, there's a lotand there's different
differences that I'm starting toreally see.
Like the word startup, first ofall, I have to go back and
define that because it scaresany large enterprise.
Startup means risk.
Startup means unproven Startupmeans two guys in a garage.
Startup means it's a lot ofwork for me to connect with.
(12:06):
They don't understand bigindustry.
That's not always the case.
When we say startup, it can beany scale.
So, yes, the early ones are theones we invest in, so they're
on our radar early, whetherthat's through universities and
so on.
We like to make sure we'refollowing them.
But the companies that we'reusually putting in front of our
enterprise partners are like 100million revenue they're bigger,
they can scale.
(12:27):
Million revenue they're bigger,they can scale, they're ready
to make things grow.
But one big challenge ordifference between large
enterprise and startups is justthe ability for them to adapt to
change.
We've seen lots of companies.
Did you know Slack started outas a gaming company?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
It was called a game called Glitch, and the
developers, while they weredeveloping this game, actually
had created an internal platformso they could communicate.
And then the game actuallyflopped and it was completely
useless.
But they're like, hey, this wasreally helpful, maybe others
could use this communicationtool.
And now Slack is what it is.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
That is insane.
Okay, I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, and there's like tons of examples like that
where startups can pivot quickly.
I think YouTube started out as avideo dating game or a dating
platform and people weren'tusing the video platform for
dating so much as they were tostore videos and share them, and
so that's where YouTube cameout of today, which kind of is a
little bit more in line withwhat they were doing.
But just the concept ofstartups being able to pivot and
(13:29):
change and adapt is somethingthat can be a huge value add to
the enterprises that are likebig, massive ships, I think you
like this analogy.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I've used it before.
I love this analogy.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
But enterprise and corporations are like those big
Titanic ships they steady, theyhold the way, they have the
resources to go the distance.
And the startups are like theselittle speed boats that go
alongside and they check outlittle directions and they go
and get little resources, bringit back to the ship.
But together is how you getfarther ahead, because the ship,
big ships, are needed to getthose small little speedboats
(14:00):
the distance.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
So what do you think right now of that state of the?
We'll call it enterprise,startup or enterprise scale up
collaboration.
Do you feel like there's it'sflour collaboration?
Do you feel like it'sflourishing?
Do you feel like there's roomto grow still?
What do you think of thecurrent state?
We're so far behind in Canada.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, one example we work with companies all around
the world over the last 20 yearsand from all innovation
maturity levels, right from thebeginning, where they're
thinking what should we do tohaving active corporate venture
capital arms spinning out, orhaving an internal venture
builder capacity, where they'rebuilding startups inside of them
(14:36):
.
Those are the really maturecompanies.
Everything in between.
And in Canada, I think we have6% of corporations that have a
CVC in Canada, compared to 40%in the US, or like almost half.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And just for our listeners.
So what's a CVC?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
It's a corporate venture capital arm, so they're
investing in startups, they'reputting equity behind and
usually where they see they canadd value or they can, if they
purchase that product or throughtheir network or their
applications they can take itand go farther.
So therefore they can raise alot of money.
So we have a lot of work to doon that.
We have Canada's built a lot ontraditional industries, so
(15:13):
you've got like the oil and gasmining agriculture.
Those industries are still verytraditional.
There's so much technologygoing on in there.
You have this gap between ITand the technologies and the
applications, and even wherethat's going is so rapid
advancement but operations areso far behind and the two of
(15:34):
them are.
That's a huge challenge rightnow to get the technologies and
the operations functioning, toget all those old traditional
processes and equipmentconnected in and having the
sensors that are giving you dataand analytics to drive
decision-making real time.
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I know that we were at an and analytics to drive
decision making real time.
It's crazy.
I know that we were at an eventyesterday that talked about
this exact thing, and one of thethings that I find so alarming
is that disparate nature betweenwhat the business needs
technology for to grow, todeliver value to their customers
, to deliver value to theirshareholders and, on the flip
side, what corporate technologyteams are really focused on
right now, and I think that therole of IT has changed so
(16:14):
rapidly that some of thesetechnology teams are just being
left behind.
And I'm probably not going tobe very popular for saying this,
but I think there are a lot ofthe bottlenecks sometimes in
these organizations.
Because something has an IPaddress, all of a sudden it
becomes domain of the IT groupversus some of the more nimble
parts of the organization.
Are you seeing that assomething that's true, or am I
(16:35):
being the grumpy old person ontheir porch?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
There's a lot of validity behind the hesitation
of operations.
I think yesterday what we heardwas the language gap.
So if you have somebody that'sa technology expert not
necessarily understanding theoperations and one of the things
that caught my attention inparticular was the fact that if
IT suggests something in a wayto secure technology and
(17:01):
operation says that's going tokill it, and IT goes well, I
don't actually know if that willor not, so I have to take their
word for it.
Then it becomes a learnedpattern where, in order to get
IT to go away, I just tell themit's going to kill it.
And so I think there needs tobe a level of operational people
that are trained and have skillsets in the IT space that
better understand the true worldand the implications in
(17:25):
operations.
And until that happens, wherewe have more of our more talent
and more workforce trained inthese digital technologies and
securities required in thesolutions, I think there's going
to continue to be that learningprocess and that language
barrier between the two.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, and I think the theme that I love as well as
curiosity, because, to yourpoint, sometimes things are just
taken at face value and one ofthe skills that I see becoming
more and more relevant and moreand more important is just even
the desire to ask the nextquestion and the follow-up
question and the third and justto try to unpack the puzzle a
little bit, because I think alot of people take things at
face value and it doesn't serveanyone well.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, and I think you hit it on the nail on the head
with the fact that you have toask questions.
I think anything in life,anything we do, we have to
better understand and we have toseek to understand.
That's the same with innovation, like when we go to find a
technology or a solution for abig enterprise corporation.
There's a lot of back and forthand it's an iterative process
on really defining what it iswe're looking for, and that's
(18:28):
true to pilots and validations.
That's why there's a wholeprocess.
It's iterative.
Hopefully you fail fast, butyou have to have the processes
to fail in a safe, secureenvironment, in a way that will
get you to the quick no, orthese are the things I have to
change in order to make itsuccessful.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
So you talked about going to find some of these
technologies for these largeenterprise organizations.
Are you usually starting withkind of the use case in mind,
like large corporation says Ihave this challenge, can you
help me solve it?
Or are you starting morerepresenting the technologies
and then finding the fitafterwards?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
100%.
We go with a challenge andwe're actively sourcing for that
specific challenge.
That's what makes us special.
So when we make an introductionto a founder and a corporation,
there's already an interestthere and a solution that's a
possible fit.
So it starts the conversationreally well.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
So you're finding real challenges for enterprise
and saying, okay, what is thenew emerging startup that can
actually solve these specificchallenges?
And then how do we put our bitebehind it to help solve that
specific challenge?
But then add a whole bunch ofhorse power to keep going.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, and we don't necessarily put our money behind
each of those.
So we do it both publicly andprivately.
So we'll source for either oneor multiple different industries
that have a challenge and webring a list of solutions that
could be a fit and those areglobal solutions.
From there, that's when thatpartner gets to decide what's
(19:55):
relevant or not, what they wantto explore more, and they can
either go into a cohort programwhere we then wrap our arms
around that startup, make surethey're ready to raise, they
have the avenue to scale, makesure their business is sound and
all those kinds of things.
And that means that if anenterprise partner actually does
continue to work with thestartup, that they're going to
be a successful company andthey're going to still be there
(20:15):
tomorrow.
That's how we work with thatside of it.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
And so how much if you were to coach a startup on
the best way to be appealing tosome of these larger enterprises
to kind of reduce the risk andI'm sure this is a lot of the
conversation you have are therethings that you can share to
some of these larger enterprisesto kind of reduce the risk and
I'm sure this is a lot of theconversation you have Are there
things that you can share tosome of these founders or these
early stage companies that willhelp them position themselves
differently or better to largeenterprise?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
It's a different audience than raising capital.
So a lot of what we do is getthem ready to talk to venture
capital or to raise money.
To get ready for industry meansyou have to listen, you have to
look for how you can adapt andyou have to talk about the ROI
and its lead.
(21:03):
With the ROI we're going tosave this much.
We're going to demonstrate howthis can adjust your operations
for whatever way.
They're either looking toreduce costs or redundancies or
whatever.
So the impact of the solutionneeds to be the driver in that
conversation With VCs.
It's very differentconversation.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
So what if we flip that around?
So if we think about gettingready for the industry, what
would you say to thoseorganizations?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
if we think about getting ready for the industry.
What would you say to thoseorganizations?
It depends on what, how theindustry is for sure, because
there's actually a framework forinnovation that we start with,
and it involves strategy,capabilities and culture, and so
working with companies to getthem better prepared, a if they
don't have a strategy, there's alot of work we can do to help
them actually understand whattheir innovation strategy is.
(21:51):
Capabilities are really yourprocesses, your resources, the
ability to quickly identifythose areas of interest, and
then the culture is the big one,and it's not just an innovation
team running on its own in on asilo.
It really needs to start at theC-suite, it needs to be in
operations with IT and becomepart of that whole organization.
(22:14):
Then there's a whole side ofexecution, and that execution
side for innovation teams caninclude those corporate venture
capital investment arms caninclude the venture building or
what we call venture clienting,which is doing pilots, proof of
concepts, validations, and so toprepare our industry partners
(22:34):
to talk with startups, they haveto have the internal system and
framework in place to betterwork with them, and that's not
an easy thing, and so this iswhere it's not an easy
conversation.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And I feel like this is where some of the roadblocks
come, because you have theseorganizations that say hey, we
want to innovate, we know weneed to innovate, we know we
need to change and startsomething today.
So, even if that is windowshopping, in what?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
it could look like and involving a few other people
, maybe doing an innovation day,getting people excited about
what could happen.
That's fine.
Get started.
Get used to meeting startups,looking at the potential.
(23:23):
It could be a simple step likethat, and that's many of our
partners do that right now, likethey're curious, they're
getting curious.
And that's many of our partnersdo that right now, like they're
curious, they're gettingcurious.
So that curiosity is step one.
You're already there.
Get started, look for more.
Take those initial baby stepsand it'll all start rolling into
place.
And try to find the quicklittle wins when you can.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, and so you mentioned innovation teams as
well, so I feel like that's areally interesting concept,
because I think there's someorganizations that have done it
well.
There's some that have thisinnovation team that essentially
becomes this sequestered arm oftheir business that never sees
the light of day.
What are some of the thingsthat you've seen work really
well for enterprises whenbuilding out some of these
(24:04):
innovation teams, and what aresome of the roadblocks or traps
that you've seen organizationsfall into when building these
out?
Speaker 1 (24:12):
I think one trap is they will create an innovation
team and leave them out to dryand they get treated like the IT
team.
Don't come talk to me.
You're just going to createmore work on the side of my desk
.
That you're going to bring mesolutions I have no desire for
and that doesn't work.
I think you need both.
You need a centralizedinnovation team as well as
innovation people in the fieldin operations, and they do
(24:36):
different things.
So the innovation people in thefield in operations are
constantly looking for processefficiencies or gaps or
opportunities to challenges thatthey're seeing, and those guys
are looking at what we call.
We call it like horizon one,two and three.
When it comes to innovation.
Horizon one is really core toyour business.
(24:57):
It's the things that you'redoing.
So how do I improve myefficiencies?
How do I improve what I'mcurrently doing?
Those really sit with thoselocal innovation people, teams
close to operations.
Horizon two is like theadjacent stuff that you would do
that might start you in adirection of changing your path
or offering a new service or soon.
(25:17):
Those one can sit in eithercentralized innovation teams or
in the localized size.
But then there's these thingscalled Horizon 3.
These are like, if you thinkabout they'll be the highest
risk type initiatives.
Think about what causedBlockbuster to go obsolete.
They completely missed lookingat anything Horizon 3, like what
(25:40):
is going to disrupt us?
How are we going to actuallypivot completely?
Where can our business go in acompletely different direction?
They completely missed the boatand did not look at these
Horizon 3 opportunities.
They take the most time,resources, money and they have
the most risk, but they'll havethe biggest rewards when they
pay off and I thinkorganizations need to understand
(26:02):
that 10% of their innovationefforts need to be focused on
horizon three and those need tosit in a centralized innovation
team.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Right, and the horizon three is all the
exciting stuff, right.
These are the big moonshots.
These are the things thatreally require thinking outside
the box.
Are these technical discussions, or who are the right people to
be having these kinds ofinnovation discussions?
Speaker 1 (26:22):
So they're less technical actually.
So it's like where it's morelooking at like economic drivers
and trends, and right now it's,I think, it's more important
than ever with the pace ofinnovation and technology
rapidly scaling, with AI andquantum around the corner.
So if they're not thinking abouthorizon threes.
I think industry is really setto be disrupted and that's not
(26:45):
always a technical conversation.
I think it's more higher levelC-suite, really close to the top
executives.
Like where are we going Ifthere's a complete change in
energy or let's say, uranium isnot politically acceptable and
that gets shut off?
Where is the mining industry?
Where are we going to go?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Do you think so?
This is going to be a littlebit of a loaded question, but do
you think executives areprepared to have these Horizon 3
discussions right now, or doyou think that it's intimidating
just because of the hugetechnology component to it at
the moment?
Speaker 1 (27:19):
It's a really big challenge because there's
shareholder expectations andit's not my business today and,
if you think about it, almostlike politicians have four-year
terms, like big executives havea responsibility to the current
shareholders and the price todayand commodity priced industries
(27:40):
really are challenged withhorizon three and thinking
completely different in thefuture.
I think they're in a hard spotbut I think if they're not
thinking that way, they're doinga disservice to that company.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
That makes sense and I feel and I don't know if these
things are connected, but weknow we've seen a drop of IPOs.
We've seen, actually, a bunchof large companies that have
started that process to becomeprivate again, and there seems
to be huge advantages from anR&D, from an innovation
perspective to being privatecompanies, because you can make
some of those long-term eventsdifferently.
Is that a trend that you'reseeing or is that something that
(28:15):
is still to be determined inthe market?
Speaker 1 (28:20):
I don't have a crystal ball.
I think things are changingdrastically and even the amount
of capital that's required forstartups to build massive
companies is so much less.
I think it's changing the needfor venture capital.
I think we're going to see IPOsnot necessarily be the thing
that people are going to, or theopposite.
(28:43):
They can go there a lot fasterwith a lot less people and a lot
less capital going in.
So the landscape's reallydifferent and I don't think
anybody has the answer and Ithink everybody is really
watching closely.
This could go in differentdirections, but we all agree
that there is massive change.
It's rapidly going like we'venever seen before and I think
(29:04):
it's really important forcompanies of all sizes, even the
small mom and pop shops, likeI'm seeing record numbers of
businesses not there and it'ssad like you drive by or you go
to your favorite place and it'sno longer there, and it's sad
like you drive by and you go toyour favorite place and it's no
longer there, and so thesecompanies are getting disrupted
by technologies, by peoplegetting access to things online
(29:25):
faster, or it's just incrediblewhat's happening and I can't
understate the amount thatpeople need to be taking or like
dedicating the amount of timethat's required to dedicate to
innovation and technologiesshould be something at the
forefront of everybody'sstrategy planning and thinking
right now.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I couldn't agree more , and I know you and I have had
this conversation before, but Ithink there's a tremendous
opportunity too, even especiallyfor the small organizations.
They don't have some of the redtape, they don't have some of
the way they've always donethings, and they can make
decisions right here and theydon't have to go offer approval
for four other layers, wait forthe next budget cycle.
They can do them now and Ithink that, with the speed of
(30:06):
everything that's innovatingright now, that has to be the
way things are done.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, exactly, and I think those organizations or
companies have a competitiveadvantage from that standpoint
because they can really look andadapt and do something really
differently that otherorganizations can't.
And those big industry playerscan use smaller organizations
and startups to test out markets, solutions, business models and
(30:32):
things like that in a fairlyrisk adverse way.
And that's that model of havinga ship and a speedboat.
Use those entrepreneurs in thatstartup structure to test out
where that can go and that willset you up for success in the
future.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Definitely so.
You mentioned technologies, andwe've gone this far without
mentioning AI.
Bingo, I think.
But from your perspective, youprobably get to looking glass
into some really innovative andcool things that are coming out.
What are some of thetechnologies that you're seeing
that are really shapingeverything right now?
Obviously, ai is one of them,but is there anything else
that's on the horizon thatpeople should be considering and
thinking about?
Speaker 1 (31:10):
I think, just the level of personalization and
customization of everything.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
From healthcare.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
we're seeing hyper-individualized modalities
and treatments, food items,diets.
Ai is incredibly applicable andthere's this one technology.
It still sticks in my mind.
But we understand facialrecognition and that's been
around for a while, but I sawfacial recognition for a steak.
(31:38):
It's like literally yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Like a piece of meat.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yeah, it can identify which cow or which animal that
came from, based on the ligamentstructure within that cut of
meat.
And so if you can imagine theworld of traceability in our
food from right at the time ofprocessing, if they have the
technology in place to identifyand trace that animal to the
(32:05):
store and the grocery when aconsumer picks up a steak from
the store, you literally cantrace that right back to an
animal.
And in the world of today wherewe've had massive recalls and
things like that kind oftechnology can really change a
lot.
It's just one example.
There's tons, there's newmaterials that are exciting.
The stuff that we're exposed tois incredible, even in the
(32:28):
carbon capture space.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
I'm not sure if I want a picture of my cow looking
back at me as I pick up thesteak at the grocery store, but
it is incredible and I thinkyou're right.
It is changing everything.
So how does a sorry, I'm beingthrown off by this image of the
steak cow.
Yeah, don't think about it inthe purpose of you knowing.
(32:52):
No, I totally understand.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Or in the purpose of recall.
So if you need to recall, ifthere's a problem or an issue,
it's one animal or one herd asopposed to all from a country.
And we've had that before inCanada, so it's a very important
thing.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
No, and I think you're correct and even from a
traceability.
We had Kalaya on the show acouple of weeks ago who was just
talking about some of the powerof some of the different
blockchain technologies andquantum and everything, and the
world is definitely speeding upat a very rapid pace on that
front.
If someone is, I think there'snever been a better time to
start an organization as well.
So if someone's in Calgary,they have an idea, what are some
(33:32):
of the things that you wouldrecommend to them?
To kind of start to surroundthemselves with the community to
test out that idea, to kind ofsee what's out there and start
to prove out if that actuallymakes sense for them to build a
business out of it.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Network 100%.
Get out there, start meetingpeople, find out the areas that
you feel less confident in andthat are weaker, and seek out
mentors that have been there.
Done that.
Find other founders and othermentors that have been there.
Done that.
Find other founders and otherpeople that have done it before
as your mentors not necessarilypeople who have a lot of advice
(34:05):
to give that haven't lived thatpath.
I think that's one key thing.
There's a lot of advice outthere and it's not always good
advice.
And I would also say get out ofour ecosystem as well and try
to spend some time in theseecosystems that are ahead of us
and then bring that knowledgeback and bring that drive back
(34:26):
here and test out and validateyour idea.
Ask questions, get to know whatreal people think about what
you're doing, and that can't beunderrated.
People think about what you'redoing and that can't be
underrated, and I think we oftenhear of founders that ask their
friends and family or thosethat they know for advice on
what their product is or theirsolution, and they get really
good feedback because they'reclose friends and family.
(34:48):
So you need to find people whowill give you harsh feedback and
authentic feedback, and so Iguess just network, get out and
really seek to understand whatthat customer is looking for.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
And I like that idea a lot of, kind of almost like
trying to find a way to chaseout the negative.
It's really easy to ask yourpartner, to ask your parents is
my art project cool?
But I think that if you findsomeone that can really find the
holes because it's only goingto make that idea better prove
it out or save you from somehardship down the line as well.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Yeah, how fast can you get to 10 iterations?
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yeah, and even when I know we've talked about this,
as we've grown our business, Ifeel like what we, the idea we
started with, is miles differentthan what we're, the work we're
doing today, and I feel like inanother year it'll probably be
another 10 iterations away andit'll continue to evolve and
change and it becomes a reallyfun journey of experimentation
and seeing what works and whatfails and getting there as fast
as possible there.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
I often wonder what that next chapter is really
going to look like.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
It's exciting, that's the fun part right, and I feel
like that's the part that keepsit on the entrepreneurial side
of things.
It keeps you on your toes andkeeps you excited and curious
and I think a lot of peopleprobably get a little bit
addicted to it's true.
Yeah, on the flip side.
So enterprise leaders listeningtoday.
What's some things that theyshould be doing?
If they're looking across theirorg they're saying, hey, we're
(36:02):
a little bit stale.
What are a couple actions thatthey can take tomorrow that will
practically start to makechange in their organization?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
I think don't think about innovation as a make work
project or a standalone, soembedded in everything you do.
And innovation isn't robots andtechnology and AI for your
stake.
It's process improvement, it'sefficiencies, it's thinking
about saving costs and so reallylooking for those areas where
you have a lot of time,redundancies, repetitive work
(36:36):
what are those tasks?
And then look to technology totry to reduce those and start
there.
And that's for the smaller,obviously, the enterprises.
The big level it's start makingthat plan.
Get curious about innovation.
And how can your organizationbuild the culture internally of
failure of bringing their ideasup?
(36:57):
Your people on the groundalready have the top hundred
ideas and priorities to getgoing on.
If you don't know what they are, then you don't have the
internal culture to get it toyou.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah, and that's one thing that we haven't really
touched on but the power ofpeople's teams and being on the
front line, and a lot of thoseideas exist, and a lot of those
people that are doing the workevery day have a laundry list of
things that they wish would bedifferent, that they hate doing,
that are really autonomous orcould be autonomous, and that's
where some of the gold actuallyis.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yeah, I think one of my.
I think you're successful.
It's not in what you've built,it's who you've empowered.
That's truly the outcome, thatyou're successful.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
It's not in what you've built, it's who you've
empowered.
That's truly the outcome thatyou're looking for.
I love it.
What's one myth?
Speaker 1 (37:51):
that you wish didn't exist around the work that you
do.
The term accelerator and theterm startups so I guess just
the perception that startups areall really small, haven't been
proven technologies and don'tknow how to work with enterprise
, and that's one I wish we couldovercome.
And the other is this wordaccelerator.
It's not necessarily like atime sink for entrepreneurs.
I think it's really hard fortheir time to compete and they
(38:15):
shouldn't always be looking atjoining these accelerators,
because they should be focusedon building their businesses.
We have an accelerator, but itreally is a business development
type focus where we're trulytrying to help these startups
scale and get to the next growthstage.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
So I know the DNA would be different for the right
fit for each of these types oforganizations.
But what would make a good fitfor someone for the accelerator
programs?
Speaker 1 (38:43):
So there's incubators and accelerators in the
traditional sense that helpvalidate, prove out, build out
business plans, help make sureall that foundational stuff is
in place, and those areabsolutely super important for
building up early stage startups.
So when you have that idea,ideation, there's different
groups at different phases thatoffer the skill sets that the
(39:05):
entrepreneurs need.
At that time For plug and playwe're really at the scalings
phase.
So it's like you've got aproduct or a service that's
proven out, validated.
Maybe you need that industryvalidation.
That's something we really helpwith.
So if we get a customer thatsays I'm actually really
interested in this, thatsometimes is all you need and
you get a huge check mark infront of those VCs, that
(39:27):
validation can go a long way toquickly scaling that company.
I think don't quote me on this,I guess I'm on the air but this
is all quoted.
Yeah, I know this is all quoted,but what I'm seeing is it can
take five, maybe five, six yearsfor a company from when we
invest to go into being aunicorn.
Like it's that fast in this.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
That's really rapid.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Super rapid.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, and I saw a stat and I'm going to butcher
whatever the stat is, but ittalked about even the how
quickly technology platforms gotto 100 million users and it
showed the Instagram, theFacebook, the WhatsApp and
ChatGPT accumulated in likeweeks.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
It was ChatGPT for sure.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, and things are moving so quickly on that front
and so you're saying thecompany's valuations and their
growth is also happening.
I don't want to say five or sixyears is overnight, but five or
six years is a really quicktime.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
It's a really quick time and these companies don't
need the amount of talent theyused to, and that has pros and
cons to it, but technologycompanies that were starting
before can now use AI to replacea lot of those bodies.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
So how do we have such good energy and
synchronicity?
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Synchronicity.
Why do we banter so welltogether?
Speaker 2 (40:36):
I don't know.
I feel like we do banter welltogether.
We do banter well together.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
But it's not because we've known each other forever.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
No, I feel, because we met on the panel.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
It's a symptom of Calgary.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
We were asked to go on a panel for the chamber?
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah, it was for the chamber.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
It was about small, medium, medium business
innovation and we had a beer andwe tried to figure out how to
use the robotics arm and then Ichallenged you on everything you
said.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
It's true, I've never I was, I've never been
challenged on a panel like thatbefore, and I remember one of
the moments off mic where youput the mic down.
You were like I hope you don'tmind, I'm actually going to call
you out on the next questionI'm going to disagree with that
yes, okay.
So that's how.
Yeah, and then we fast friends.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
I think it's because you focused on the strategy side
a lot more and I was like no,just get out there and get going
.
Yeah, I think so, yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
I think that for the first time ever, because I feel
like I'm a person that runs outand just zooms into things and I
like to fail really quickly andso and I feel like I found
someone that fail likes to failway more quickly- Thanks, I
appreciate that I have failedlots.
Yes, hopefully that didn't comeacross wrong.
No, I think it came acrossperfect.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
It's true, yeah, but I don't believe that it's
failing.
I believe it's a sign ofleadership, so understanding
when you can make bold moves andkeep going forward.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, so obviously things are moving incredibly
quickly.
We've talked about that a lot.
What does the next 12 monthslook like for you and the Plug
and Play team?
Speaker 1 (42:01):
We always have these incredible events, so I
encourage anybody who isinterested in getting involved
to follow us, for we have anexpo around in Ventures.
It's a really great time forentrepreneurs and anybody in the
startup ecosystem to connect.
We'll be hosting our expo May22nd at the SAM Center and then
we always have our big oneannual summit, and this year
it's going to be back inKanaskis in the mountains in
(42:24):
November, so that's reallyexciting.
There's also opportunities tocome down to our headquarters in
Silicon Valley.
We do summits twice a year toreach out to Plug and Play team,
obviously to get involved inthat, and as far as like growth
and stuff, we have lots of plansacross Canada, so hopefully
you'll see Plug and Playstarting to branch out a few
(42:45):
more tentacles in verypurposeful areas.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
And I imagine you're already a fairly popular person
in your inbox.
But if someone wanted toconnect with you, if they had
more questions, what's the bestway to connect with you, Lindsay
?
Speaker 1 (42:57):
You can find me on LinkedIn.
That's probably the best way.
Alberta at PMPTCcom goes to afew different people, so you'll
get a response if you need adirect connection.
Other than that, the website'sgreat and we are moving and
opening up a brand new office,and so we'll be, hosting
probably some networking mixersand different innovation events
(43:18):
throughout the year in our newspace, which is on 11th Ave.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
I'm excited to see the new building.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show.
This has been an absolutepleasure, Lindsay.
It's been a lot of fun and I'mexcited to see the new building
and continue to chat about coolthings.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yeah, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Super fun to talk, awesome.
Thanks a bunch.
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