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Over the past few months, many of you have given us feedback on what you feel is missing in this city for young entrepreneurs. Namely – substantive, actionable lessons and guidance from established entrepreneurs, professionals and investors. As a result we’ve formed a pilot program called “Fireside Chats.”  These chats are a unique and valuable opportunity for young entrepreneurs to spend time with local seasoned entrepreneurs and business leaders in a roundtable like setting. 

 Each fireside chat will tackle a separate demand driven issue.  Our first chat is scheduled to occur on December 10, 2008, and will cover off the foundation building blocks towards a successful start-up. This roundtable discussion will offer actionable and meaningful take-aways that you can implement in your own start-up right away.

 We understand this is a valuable opportunity for many young entrepreneurs, however, in order to ensure the fireside chats run smoothly we will only select three to four companies per session.  See below for a summary of our first fireside chat details.  If you are interested, please read the detailed program attached.

 Fireside Chat #1 – “Start-Up 101- Things you better get right”

1)      General Corporate Matters

·         Due diligence within your own organization

2)      Employment and staffing issues

3)      Intellectual Property

·         Protecting your IP and having the proper legal support

4)      Structuring key corporate agreements

·         Shareholder Agreements, customer agreements, etc.

Event Details

Date:  Wednesday December 10^th, 4-7 pm

Location:  TBA

Submission Deadline:  Wednesday December 3^rd 8am.

·         Note the selected companies will be contacted on Friday December 4^th 8am

·         Please do not provide your submission unless you are committed to the event date (Wednesday Dec 10^th)

·         Online at: http://vefmomentum.wufoo.com/forms/fireside-chat-submission-form/

 Facilitators:

·         Jonathan Bixby, CEO of Strangeloop Networks

·         Keith Spencer,  Partner, Technology and Intellectual Property Group, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP

·         See attachment for biographies.

There are a number of tricky areas when hiring your employees. They include:

• interview process
• employment contract
• payroll

Interview Process

When I started the company, we had no interview process. All I did was post up ADs on job boards, collect responses, and set up interviews. Each candidate is asked a different set of questions, and I just decide on who to hire based on my gut feeling. While this worked for a few months, I later learned that I am not able to objectively choose candidates based on how their skills match the job description and how they will fit well with the organization.

I ended up creating a document on questions to ask each candidate. There is also a 2 step interview process where candidates are not just interviewed by me, but also the 2 technical leads at my company. This ensures that we choose the right person for the team.

For younger companies, having the right team is the key to success.

Employment Contract

Other than the interview process, employment contracts are the next major item in hiring employees. Unlike contracting, employment is governed by the BC Employment Act . This means that there are a lot of rules on how emloyees are paid and treated. Some of the key items include vacation pay, payroll deductions and severance. Overtime pay is also a big issue. Note that a lot of the clauses in the employment act do not apply to IT/Software development industries. This includes the overtime pay requirement. It is critical that your employment contract covers all the major areas that define the employment relationship. Other typical issues in the tech industry is intellectual property ownership and non competition. As a result of this and the complexity of the issue. It makes a lot of sense to invest in getting a properly written employment contract.

Payroll

Paying an employee and is not as simple as writing a cheque for the person’s pay every 2 weeks. There are certain deductions that need to be made on your employee’s behalf such as Income Tax, CPP and EI. If you do not file these deductions properly, your company will be fined by government. I would recommend using Simply Accounting, QuickBooks or other software that helps you calculate the payroll amount. Once you reach a high volume of payroll processing requirement (10+ employees), it makes sense to use an outsourced Payroll solution such as that with Sage Online Payroll Software or ADP.

Benefits Plan

Once your company grows to a certain size with more senior staff, it would be time to think about getting a group benefits plan in place. The cost of these plans vary, but a few compaies that offer them to smaller companies include Great West Life and Manulife. Most companies share the cost of these plans with the employee on a 50/50 basis or a 70/30 basis.

Starting a technology company for the first time is a wild and exhilarating experience.   It takes a combination of high energy, naiveté and stubbornness. And in my experience it is life changing–whether you succeed or not.   After this you may never want a JOB ever again. 

Are you standing at this precipice – have an idea?  Want to build your own business?   Not sure where to start, but you’ve eager to get going?   Or perhaps you’ve already jumped in, but you wish you didn’t have to learn everything the hard way?    There’s a team at VEF Momentum that knows just how you feel, and wants to help you harness this energy and excitement, and encourage you to make the leap into entrepreneurship.   Our team is a mixture of aspiring young entrepreneurs, themselves looking for education and encouragement, and those who’ve been there, done that, and want to share their experiences and offer education and support.   

Our mandate is very simple:  Connect and educate a new generation of young entrepreneurs in Vancouver.  Our goal is to offer relevant content and networking opportunities to young and first time entrepreneur. Our plan is to do this through a series of open, accessible events.   And to have fun doing it.

It is a great time to be a technology entrepreneur in Vancouver.   The talent, support and expertise in this city is incredible and the buzz around technology entrepreneurship is stronger than ever.   We want to  help first time entrepreneurs become part of this buzz and  take those first ( or second and third)  steps to building their dreams.  If our program can convince even one of you that being a technology entrepreneur is worth the time, energy and risk, then we will have served a very important role in this community.

I wish that I had a dollar for every time I have heard excuses about why people delay starting their company, usually centered around not having the perfect idea or the right team or it not being the optimal time.     I can say from personal experience that a perfect company does not exist and that you won’t win every time, but by starting a company you at least give yourself the opportunity to win.  So, if you’ve got an idea,  if you’re standing at the precipice .. or if you’ve already jumped in with both feet .. Come and join us at the VEF Momentum events  - we’ll help you as you reach those dreams. 

Or, If you’ve already been there, done that and have experience to share, come and join us to share your experience, pass on your knowledge and join in the excitement.  

The Necessities:

• Date: Tuesday September 30th
• Time: 6:30-10pm
• Location: Newly established “Tunnel Multi Lounge”
• Address: 622 W.Pender St., Vancouver: www.entertunnel.com
• Keynote Speaker: Dr. Geordie Rose, Founder, CTO D-Wave Systems
• Theme: “Building momentum in Vancouver: Lessons for a young entrepreneur.”
• Registration: Click here
• Light dinner will be served & registration will be capped at 150 due to occupancy restrictions.

What to expect:

• Young leaders from over 15 young entrepreneurial organizations and groups.
• Prominent established entrepreneurs, investors, and industry leaders.
• Tangible lessons from a successful Vancouver entrepreneur
• Trendy new venue and relaxed environment.

How to be part of the action:

By now, it is no surprise that our intention is to bring together Vancouver’s young entrepreneurship community. We have spent the past few months meeting with over 15 organizations that are dedicated towards supporting our goal. So how can you be part of the action?

• If you register now, you may be able to get a free early-bird ticket to the event.
• Otherwise, registration is on a first come first serve basis for a confirmation fee of $5.00.
• If you received a VIP Invite Pass, enter the discount code for a full discount on the registration fee.
• Registration is online only, and it takes 2 minutes. Click Here to Register.

What to expect in the future:

• Quarterly networking and speaker sessions
• Exclusive mentorship opportunities
• Themed fire-side chats
• Involvement opportunities with other organizations.

With that said, I thought a fitting first post would talk about Momentum at its conception. And to do that, I should probably talk about the significance behind the name. Call me cheesy, but remembering the significance behind the name of something (this name in particular) is a great way to bring you back to where you started, to make sure you’re still moving in the right direction.

The purpose of establishing Momentum was to create an organization that would help young entrepreneurs not only connect, share and learn from one another but advance their ideas and entrepreneurial aspirations. When establishing Momentum, we identified three largely untapped groups that we thought we could help:

• the student at a local university or college who wants to start a business upon graduation
• the aspiring entrepreneur working for someone else but has clear plans to start their own business in the near future
• the first-time entrepreneur who has established their business but needs to know where to go and what to do next.

But what could we help them with? Well, we could help them connect to like-minded entrepreneurs. Maybe meet a business partner, or find someone to help vet out their ideas. We could help them meet mentors and other entrepreneurs for practical advice and inspiration. We could help them promote and pitch their business ideas. We could help facilitate interaction with angel investors and make it easier to find financing.

So what did this all mean? When we took a step back and looked at the demographic we’re targeting, the different things we can help with, the program of events that will help us do all those things, what were we actually offering? Well, after a few e-mails back and forth we quickly realized – we were providing momentum. We were helping young, aspiring entrepreneurs gain traction and advance their dreams, their ideas and their businesses forward.

And so you’ll see over the coming weeks, months and years that every thing we decide to do will have that initial premise in mind. Our events, our blog posts (most of them), our meet-ups, or whatever else we decide to do will have to pass the simple test: is this helping that young entrepreneur take a step forward, is it helping them gain momentum?