Registration is now open for the 2009 New Ventures BC Competition.

Thank you for your patience as we sorted through some extra technical and administrative details.

This year, New Ventures BC is moving to a complete online competition registration system, thanks to Canadian start-up company Chide.it

Chide.it has created a beautiful, customized competition system that will let you submit all your applications online, instead of the hard copies we’ve required in the past. This will particularly make submissions easier for companies outside the Lower Mainland (not more couriers!). Our jurors will also have electronic access to submissions for faster and easier review & feedback. Please let us know if you have any feedback.

Good luck!

REGISTER NOW

The 2009 New Ventures BC Seminar Series & Competition kicks off tomorrow, Wednesday April 1st at 6:30pm, when Bob de Wit, walks you through the seminar “Assessing the Opportunity.”

Seminar Synopsis

Got a better mouse-trap? What to do next? Commercializing new technologies and building companies around them starts by measuring whether you have the right stuff and then crafting your story so that people will buy into your venture. Come join this interactive event that will review what it means to be a technology entrepreneur and help you develop a business opportunity statement that can be used to take your idea or business to the next level.

Speaker Bio

Bob de Wit is a mentor, advisor, investor and consultant to growth-stage technology companies. Bob has executive experience in corporate development (M&A strategy and execution), corporate finance (raising equity capital) and competitive market intelligence. Bob has been a co-founder, advisor or angel investor to Canadian V-Chip Design, Axonwave Software, TechBC Corporation, Flintbox.com, the Fraser Valley Technology Network, RIP.TV, Energy Aware Technology and ClearVision Technologies.

In addition to his involvement with technology companies, he has consulted to the technology transfer offices of Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia and the University of California at Los Angeles where he has worked with university faculty members to develop effective technology commercialization strategies. Bob has undergraduate (BBA, ‘91) and graduate (MA, Economics, ‘94) degrees from Simon Fraser University.

Mark your calendars – NVBC seminars are happening every Wednesday evening from April to June, covering all the business basics for early-stage companies. The cost for all eight seminars is $100 per team or individual. The fee to attend any individual seminar is $20 per team or individual.

The seminar series is part of the New Ventures BC Competition, which is open to BC residents with an early-stage technology business. In all, winners will share in $300,000 in prize packages sponsored by the British Columbia Innovation Council, BC Hydro, and the BC Bioenergy Network.

Last week in Monaco, Vancouver’s General Fusion Inc. was recognized by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco with an award for Excellence in the Field of Environmental Technology Research at the prestigious CleanEquity conference on emerging environmental technologies.

The award was presented to Mike Sherman, Managing Director of Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, the leading venture capital investor in General Fusion (pictured with the Prince). Chrysalix is a Venture Capital Fund focusing exclusively on investing in early stage clean energy technology companies and one of the top 5 most active VCs in cleantech worldwide.

New Ventures BC competition initiator and current director Wal van Lierop is the President & CEO of Chrysalix.

So if you’re sitting on the fence about entering the 2009 competition – get off it.  Competitors that successfully navigate their way to Round 3 get matched with a mentor – a successful BC entrepreneur, venture capitalist, or angel investor.  That experience will be invaluable to your new business venture and you never know who your business idea will be exposed to along the way.

Energy Aware Technology, the 2006 BC Hydro Sustainability prize winner, licensed its PowerTab technology last fall to US-based Comverge, Inc.

The PowerTab is an in-home display that gives homeowners real-time information about power consumption, electricity rates and messages from their utility service provider.  Comverge has exclusive rights to distribute the product in North America and has re-branded it as the PowerPortal.

Lauren Kulokas, vice-president of operations, says the PowerTab will be manufactured with a Canadian contract manufacturer and will be featured in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Athletes’ Village.

“This custom version of the PowerTab, designed specifically for the Olympic Village, will give real-time feedback on energy, hot and cold water, and heating and cooling,” says Kulokas.  “We’re excited by the success we have achieved to date, and look forward to continuing to pursue further opportunities in this rapidly growing industry.”

The company has grown from three to six full-time employees and has moved to new office space in Gastown.

Vancouver newest Greentech initiative launched on March 5th and its evolution has already begin. Based on launch feedback the Vancouver Greentech Forum is now the Vancouver Greentech Exchange.

Their inaugural event was a huge success, check out the video coverage below.

The Vancouver Greentech Exchange’s next event in on Wednesday, April 15th at 5:30pm and will feature networking, a few short presentations from Government funding program representatives, 10-minute pitches from GR Green Building Products, Inc. and MSR Innovations and, of course, more networking. GR Green Building Products was a Top 10 finalist in the 2008 NVBC competition and MSR Innovations was a Top 10 finalist in the 2005 NVBC competition.

Also on April 15th is the 3rd seminar in the New Ventures BC seminar series – Market Research and Product Marketing. Starting at 6:30pm, you’ll have time to take in both events as they are both at the Segal Graduate School of Business at 500 Granville Street.

The BC Bioenergy Network is sponsoring a $20,000 prize in the New Ventures BC competition for the next three years for the best application of early stage technology fostering the use of bioenergy within BC.

“The BC Bioenergy Network is pleased to support and partner with the NVBC Competition,” says Michael Weedon, Executive Director of the BC Bioenergy Network. “Announcing our support for a Bioenergy Prize will stimulate innovative bioenergy technologies resulting in the development of a world class industry and capacity in BC.”

The BC Bioenergy Network Bioenergy Prize was conceived by Dr. Scott Stanners, Director of Research with the BC Bioenergy Network. Stanners participated as a judge and mentor for the NVBC Competition last year and was impressed with the quality of participants and projects. “We hope this new Bioenergy Prize will encourage entrepreneurs in the bioenergy sector to develop their business plans and consider the application of their technology in the commercial realm.”

For those of you living outside of the Lower Mainland, you may not know that New Ventures BC will reimburse travel costs up to $750/team to help enable out-of-town participants to attend NVBC events based in Vancouver between the dates of April 1st and June 4th, 2009.

Eligible travel costs include transportation (up to a maximum of $350 return, per person, per event) and accommodation (up to a maximum of $175 per night, per team, per event).

Who’s eligible? Those NVBC participants who are deemed eligible for Round Two of the competition, and whose business base is located outside Metro Vancouver.

How do I get my reimbursement? Eligible applicants will be notified of their eligibility following the identification of the successful Round Two participants. At the time of notification, an expense form will be delivered electronically. Successful applicants must submit their expense form, along with original receipts, no earlier than May 21st, 2009 and no later than June 10th, 2009. For budgetary reasons, submissions received before or after these dates will not be accepted.

DOWNLOAD EXPENSE CLAIM FORM

Important notes:

1. NVBC reserves the right, providing reasonable notice to participants, to cancel the program. In that event, expenses incurred by participants will be reimbursed to participants as provided for above.
2. NVBC expects that further funding will be made available, of a similar nature, for later aspects of the NVBC program. Announcements regarding the availability of such funds will be made in due course.

Questions about the travel reimbursement guidelines? Contact Angie Schick via email.

To keep up with the Internet’s currently fastest rising communications medium, we recently launched a New Ventures BC Twitter account and have amassed a handful of followers despite only mentioning it a couple times in passing.

We’re currently tweeting headlines from the New Ventures BC blog along with links to the individual blog posts. Over time we’ll start including breaking news, live event coverage, and any miscellaneous commentary we can fit into 140 characters. We’ll be keeping the format loose, but think we can make it a useful companion to this site for New Ventures BC competitors and alumni.

You can follow us at twitter.com/nvbc, and we welcome your feedback.

2007 NVBC Competition runner-up TeamPages was featured on Canada AM this morning.

Co-Founder Mike Tan continues to pile up his press mentions with an appearance on CTV’s morning show this morning. Tan and soccer coach Kent Green joined host Seamus O’Regan to talk about how TeamPages can simplify team organization thanks to its Facebook-like features.

Check out the video here – look for the link titled TeamPages allows players to keep in touch to skip past the rest of the broadcast.

Earlier this year, Tan and his startup team were featured on CBC’s Fortune Hunters. Kudos to their PR reps for the amazing coverage to date.

2003 New Ventures BC 2nd prize winner Genologics quietly completed their 3rd round round of financing late last month adding another $5 million which will be applied towards ongoing expansion plans. This latest round of financing was led by OVP Venture Partners of Seattle with support from Growthworks and Yaletown Venture Partners of Vancouver.

Since 2005, the privately-held Victoria headquartered GenoLogics has attracted more than $17.5 million in investment from leading venture capital funds and strategic partners.

GenoLogics’ major investors include OVP Venture Partners, Yaletown Venture Partners, Growthworks Capital, and Tech veteran Don Listwin.  GenoLogics also benefits from the involvement of several of North America’s most accomplished life science and technology executives as angel investors.