Venture Connection

Surrey

Vancouver

	1 2 3 4 5 6 Growing student ventures from the first spark to business launch. “Jim Derbyshire's business insight combined with his understanding of technology and vision has been wonderful in his mentor role at LayerBoom Systems. By choosing the right product mix and business model, LayerBoom was able to go from start up to acquisition in 13 months.” Howard Wu, CEO, Layerboom Systems “Working with Venture Connection has been a very positive experience. It’s an ambitious project but they have given me more practical experience than all of my previous courses combined. The mentors are very hands-on and have all been there and done that. It’s a very different outlook from the more academic side of business school.” Jesse Robson, Founder, Action Sport Concepts, BBA Candidate "Venture Connection's co-op is a great way to receive some guidance that will help you become the business leader you want to, need to, or desire to become. You will learn from taking action, which is truly at the heart of SFU's new mandate of engagement." Gordon Swenson, Founder, Winsphere Ventures, BBA Candidate "Without SFU’s Venture Connection mentoring Ads on Naps wouldn’t be where we are today. We have received outstanding services above and beyond what we expected. The advice and support given to us has made our idea and concept a reality." Jag Manhas, Co-Founder, New Heights Creative "HiretheWorld was started with $1000, and we didn't have the money to seek out professional advice at the time. Through our access to Jim and the other Venture Connection mentors we were able to raise over $800K in funding from both Venture Capitalists as well as non-equity sources." Terry Beech, CEO and co-founder, HiretheWorld

Venture Meetup

The Venture Meetup Series is presented by Coast Capital Savings

Venture Meetup is a combination of speaker series and networking forum for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to learn more about business, in a casual setting. The events are free of charge and open to any SFU student, any current post-secondary student, and recent SFU alumni.

These forums, focused on stories of success, struggles and quirks from industry professionals with guest speaker(s) and Q&A, are presented in partnership with SFU departments and/or student clubs.

Spring 2013 SERIES

DIGITAL MEDIA STARTUPS - An insider view into starting, running and succeeding in Vancouver.
January 31, 2013
5-7pm
SFU-Surrey, ~~Room 3340~~ *** ROOM CHANGED to #5240 ***

A panel of film, gaming and design founders sit down in an informal session to chat and share their war stories. Speakers include Keith Ippel (Invoke Media/Labs), Warren Anthony (FCV), Michael Fergusson (Ayogo Games), J Joly (OverInterActive Media /CineCoup), Mike Torillo (V7 Entertainment and SFU Alumnus) and Angie Yoo (Iconic State, and SIAT Alumna). Q&A and networking to follow.

Registration required, http://websurvey.sfu.ca/survey/129428120

PAST SPEAKERS

October 1 2009, Concept Evaluation with Brad Palmer (Jostle Corporation)
October 8 2009, Team Development with Ryan Fetterly (EasyPlug)
October 22 2009, Perfecting a Pitch with Ed Levinson (Analusis Consulting Inc.)
November 5 2009, Making $ from your Services with Mayur Jobanputra (Full Motion Group)
November 19 2009, Successful Ventures with Joe Timlin (Growthworks)
February 2 2010, Reaching your Target Market with Social Media with Kemp Edmonds
March 2 2010, Building your Passion into a Business with Graham Buksa
March 16 2010, Operating a Business as a Student with Minna Van
March 30 2010, Resources and Funding for Students Forum with Hafeez Shaikh, Bob de Wit, Tess Menges, and Joshua Zoshi as Moderator
June 15, 2010, Landing your First Client with Christie Anderson and Diana Kidd (NuXD)
July 6, 2010, Solidifying Creative Ideas into a Business with Gordon Manson of MAPT Media
August 3, 2010, Setting up Your Business and a Brief Look at Business Models with Ross St. George (Buyatab)
February 1, 2011 How Can a University-trained Software Guy Open a Successful Food Business? With Brent Kyle (Indishpensable)
March 1, 2011 How Does a Visual Artist Get to be Running a Healthy Meal Delivery Service and Retail Company? with Katie Rodgers (Licious Living Inc.)
April 5, 2011 The LayerBoom Story–From Zero to Acquisition in 13 Months. with Howie Wu (LayerBoom)
June 21st, 2011 Is Franchising Right for you? with Jeff Cooley (Booster Juice)
July 5, 2011 T is for Tea - How 8 Young Entrepreneurs Built an International Company. With Lana Sutherland (T)
August 2, 2011 Adding Business Value through Sustainability. With Lisa von Sturmer (Growing City)
November 22, 2011, Starting and Scaling your Creative Studio with Leah Nelson (Giant Ant Media)
January 21, 2012, How to Validate your Technology in the Marketplace with Matt Ferguson (Progressive Health Innovations)
March 29, 2012, Success, One Tab at a Time: with Matias Marquez of Buyatab.com
July 5, 2012, Women in Technology (Plus one Guy), with Judi Hess, Shannon Susko, Arash Afrooze and Catherine Jacobs
Nov 16, 2012, A Conversation with Chris Neumann

	Students
	Entrepreneurs & Community
	Faculty