(Talk) Startups – opportunities and challenges

  • Speaker: Narayan Sainaney
  • Location: 1415 SFU Downtown Campus, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street
  • Date & Time: May 2, 2013, 6:00pm to 9:00pm

Abstract

Vancouver has a vibrant and quickly growing startup ecosystem with over 400 companies. A number of venture capital firms, angel investors, and incubators are active to help local entrepreneurs develop their businesses. Consequently, Vancouver is said to be one of the best places for startups. Still, there are real challenges that new companies face in the first years and only some of them grow into profitability.

Narayan will start with a short presentation, sharing his hands-on experience on going from a great idea to finding partners, raising money from angels and VC, all the way to shipping your product to your first customer. He will talk about opportunities and challenges that most new startups will have: choosing the right idea, shaping the organisation at various stages of development, choosing the best financing options, and more. The presentation will be followed with an open forum where you can ask your questions, start a discussion, and share your experiences.

The event is free and open to public. Please confirm your attendance.

Speaker’s Biography

Narayan Sainaney is a technology entrepreneur and business strategist with over 15 years of expertise.

Narayan’s has worked on high profile products for Microsoft (Office 97, PhotoEditor), Adobe (Acrobat 4.0, Illustrator 7.0), Aldus (PageMaker 6.5), Apple as well as the Government of BC. As an entrepreneur Narayan co-founded Mindquake Software, Digital Snaps, Vitrium System, Brainify.com and moj.io. He has experience in raising capital, building management teams, developing products, establishing market presence and executing sales. As an intellectual property expert, Narayan has successfully built trademark, copyright and patent portfolios.

Narayan lends his experience and expertise to start-ups, acting as Chief Technology Officer and as an advisor and mentor to fellow entrepreneurs and management teams. He focuses on new market and product development to that critical profitability stage.

Narayan holds a Bachelor of Science degree, with a specialization in Computer Science, from the University of British Columbia and an MBA from the Sauder School of Business at UBC. When not working, Narayan is an avid sailor and amateur astronomer.

vitrium

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