Vineyard Networks a Winner – January 2012 Update
Vineyard Networks Canada, a 2009 BCIC-New Ventures competition Top 10 finalist, is now reaping international kudos for its network intelligence and deep-packet inspection technologies.
In December 2011, Vineyard Networks was the only Canadian company to receive a Red Herring Global 100 award, which recognizes the year’s most promising private ventures from North America, Europe and Asia. Previous winners have included Google, Skype and YouTube.
The Global 100 list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising companies and entrepreneurs. Companies were evaluated on criteria including financial performance, technological innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration.
In 2009, CEO Jason Richards was operating the five-employee company out of his basement in Kelowna. His product, a next-generation deep packet inspection engine for analyzing and identifying traffic flowing across the Internet, was still in development.
He joined the BCIC-NV competition for the networking, exposure and prize money.
“It was a great exercise,” he says now, “and we had a lot of fun doing it.” He appreciated the feedback from judges and says the networking was excellent. And while addressing the competition’s questions was an arduous process, he recommends it to other entrepreneurs.
“If you can’t answer the questions, then you should rethink the validity of your business plan,” he says.
Today, Vineyard’s 33 employees work out of a 15,000 square-foot office in downtown Kelowna. Last year, BC Business magazine named it among B.C.’s “Best Companies to Work for” in the “100 employees or fewer” category.
Vineyard has partnered with more than 30 leading network-infrastructure companies that are delivering solutions to over 100,000 end users in 200-plus countries. In 2012 Vineyard will be releasing new versions of its core product, focused on the mobile telecom and lawful interception markets.
Richards says the company has been profitable since 2010 and started with the help of local angel investors. He expects to double revenues this year over last.