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General Business Updates and News
#16
(10-26-2014, 11:10 PM)panamaniac Wrote: The Globe and Mail is reporting that a Chinese company will be investing in a new steel nail factory in Kitchener that will employ up to 80 people.

Wynne's China mission brings Ontario 230 new jobs 
Quote:The Suzhou Xingya Investment Co. is investing $20 million on a new steel nail manufacturing plant in Kitchener, which will mean some 80 new factory jobs in a region that can use them.

I'm genuinely curious, how can it be cheaper to make nails in Kitchener than in China?

BTW I'd prefer that Wynne brought the bullet train illustrated in the article to Ontario. That would create a lot more and higher-value jobs. It would also fulfill one of her more fanciful election promises Wink
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#17
Wynne's Chinese trade mission lands Kitchener a new manufacturer
October 28, 2014 | The Canadian Press | LINK

Quote:Premier Kathleen Wynne's trade mission to China continues today in Shanghai.

Yesterday, Wynne was in Nanjing, where Chinese companies announced investments in Ontario that the premier says will translate into up to 230 new jobs.

Suzhou Xingya Investment Company announced it will invest about 20-million dollars in a new steel nail manufacturing plant in Kitchener, creating up to 80 jobs.

Jiangsu Huayi Technology plans to invest 40 million dollars in Ontario's medical sector and create 50 jobs.

Andv Canadian Solar Solutions announced an investment of 70 million dollars that's expected to lead to 100 manufacturing jobs.
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#18
(10-27-2014, 10:04 AM)ookpik Wrote: I'm genuinely curious, how can it be cheaper to make nails in Kitchener than in China?

Nails are heavy so I imagine shipping them is expensive. Machines make all the actual nails and screws out of steel wire (which is made locally). I imagine most of the nails/screws get sold in the US and Canada so the company would have to pay people to do distribution here anyway. It's also a pain to wait 40 days if you want a certain kind and size of nail.
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#19
Shopify sales lab could deepen Waterloo Region talent pool
October 28, 2014 | Anthony Reinhart | Communitech.ca | LINK



Quote:It’s a refrain often heard in Waterloo Region’s tech community: Our engineers are great, but we’re short on top sales and marketing and talent.

This makes Shopify’s decision to open what it’s calling a “sales lab” here all the more interesting.

The eCommerce giant, headquartered in Ottawa with offices in Montreal and Toronto, recently began recruiting for a five-person satellite operation to be housed in Kitchener’s Tannery, home to the Communitech Hub, Velocity Garage, Google and Desire2Learn.

Shopify’s Loren Padelford, who holds the title of Head Sales Scientist, will lead a team of “sales hackers” to come up with new ways to sell the company’s Shopify Plus online commerce platform to customers around the world.

Aside from being another great piece of news for Waterloo Region’s tech community, it’s a bold and seemingly counterintuitive move for Shopify – which employs 500 people and reached a $1-billion valuation last December – to focus on sales in the heart of an engineering hub.

In a Q and A with Communitech News, Harley Finkelstein, the company’s Chief Platform Officer, explained the rationale behind its choice of Waterloo Region for the sales lab, which will open imminently.

Q – Why is Shopify opening an office in Waterloo Region?

A – Shopify has been around for over eight years now, and actually, we’ve never really had a real sales organization within Shopify.

We’re creating a Shopify sales lab really to start experimenting with sales for Shopify, and again, that’s something we really haven’t done.

We have over 500 people today, with more than 100,000 customers in more than 150 countries, but we really have never done something like this before.

And so, the reason why we chose Waterloo is actually kind of interesting.

Most people obviously consider Waterloo or look at Waterloo as a tech hub, and if not the biggest tech hub, then it’s certainly in the top two tech hubs in the country. And a lot of people look at the talent pool there of recent grads and look to setting up a tech office.

We think there’s an opportunity for us to find incredible business students and sales and business people who have a technical background, and we think that combination is really interesting.

So, while everyone is kind of focused on finding engineers and developers there, we’re actually looking for sales people and people with a business mind who have a particular penchant, interest, passion or even background in technology.

We think that’s a different way to go, and very much in keeping with Shopify’s culture of experimentation.

Q – That’s interesting, because we often hear there’s a shortage of sales talent in Waterloo, due partly to the proximity of Toronto and its ability to lure sales talent away.

A – I would actually argue it’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, because some of the great businesspeople, some of the great sales and marketing people who are in Waterloo, likely may have to leave Waterloo to find great work – whereas, we’re actually coming to Waterloo.

We’re a very engineer- and product-driven company, and our R and D team is half the company at Shopify, and so we have a tonne of developers and programmers and designers who work here. But we look for opportunity where others maybe don’t see it, and for us, we see a huge opportunity in Waterloo, because it’s a tech environment.

You can walk into any coffee shop in Waterloo, or you can walk into any meetup or conference in Waterloo, and it’s constantly about technology. And that’s exactly what people are interested in.

So, rather than looking for the engineers per se, we’re really looking for people who maybe have an interest or passion towards the sales and business side of technology.

It’ll be an extremely small office to start. We’re right now looking to hire five people for our initial staffing of the office, and Loren will be the Chief Sales Scientist to run the office.

But frankly, if this works well, our ambitions are to grow that office fairly large.

We’re going to be housed in the Tannery building, which you know obviously. And we just think being around great companies like Desire2Learn and Google and the Velocity guys – those are all friends of ours, and we just think it’s going to be a really great environment for really interesting technical salespeople to come on board.

We like going against the grain, and we think opening a sales office in Waterloo certainly does that.

Most people might be shaking their heads thinking why are we doing this, and it’s really because we like to find opportunities where others might not find those opportunities.

Q – Which ideally, over the long term, will help diversify the talent pool here, and help build Waterloo’s reputation as a source of great sales expertise, too.

A – And how cool would that be, right? That would just be amazing.

We’re very clear to call it a sales lab and not a sales office, because there’s going to be a lot of experimentation here. It isn’t going to be your typical sales office; it isn’t going to be your typical sales operation. It will be very different.

We’re calling Loren a scientist and we’re calling it a lab because we really want people to understand that we’re going to be doing things here that really have not been done in the context of a sales organization.

We’ve done a really great job of building our company primarily without a sales team in the past, and we think building up a sales team today is just a really great idea.

Q – Your workspace in Ottawa looks amazing. Tell me about the work environment you’ll be setting up for team members here.

A – It’s a Winston Churchill quote, if I’m not mistaken: First we shape our buildings and then our buildings shape us. We believe that and really buy into that.

So, if you look at our Montreal office or Toronto office or Ottawa office, each of them is a really interesting, creative environment, and all three sort of serve as hubs for the community. We do events all the time, tech events and business events.

But each office reflects its own character and its own culture. The Montreal office is on St. Laurent and Prince Arthur, in what used to be the club district there, so there are a lot of elements; the murals on the wall, for example, are done by some of the most famous Montreal graffiti artists, and there’s a lot of Montreal theme to it.

In Toronto, we’re at Spadina and King, and we try to bring a lot of that Toronto vibe to that office.

And certainly in Ottawa, which is our head office, we’ve created a really unique office here.

But we don’t want to dictate how each office should look or should feel. Each office should have its own unique identity.

That being said, although we’re only going to have five to 10 people starting in Waterloo, our intention is to make it an incredible space where people feel engaged and they feel excited about coming to work every day, and that doesn’t actually feel like an office, but feels like a place where you can go and do your very best work.

Our number 1 objective with all these offices is that we create environments where people can do their life’s work, and that is really unique.

We obviously have some cool stuff, and people talk about the slide a lot, but what they didn’t talk about was the fact that the slide is actually the most efficient way to go from the second floor to the first floor.

We try to be very deliberate and thoughtful about these things.

The Waterloo office will grow quite a bit, but we expect people to feel just as engaged, and feel that ‘wow’ factor they feel in all our other working spaces.

Q – When do you hope to be up and running in the new space?

A – The lease is now signed, and we’re going to start moving in Nov. 1.

We like to move fast, and we’re just really excited about this project.

We all spend quite a bit of time in Waterloo just because it is such a great tech centre, and this is just the evolution of our participation in the community.

Just like Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, we’re also going to have a responsibility to the community, to help out and support the community, whether that’s through events or through mentorship and allowing people to come and work in our office at times.

We hope to be really good new Waterloo citizens, and part of that community.

What’s so wonderful is that Shopify has a fairly robust app ecosystem. We have hundreds and hundreds of app developers all over the world who build extensions and apps for Shopify, and we’ve actually had quite a few apps built out of Waterloo in the past.

So, we really expect to participate in the community. We’re not just going to come and set up shop and do our own thing; we’re a company that cares very much about the environment that we live in.

We’ve done that in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa and we plan to do that in Waterloo as well.

We’re really excited about it and the community has been amazing. Even just looking for offices, we had so many people in the community – from the Communitech guys to Velocity – just helping us navigate, and it’s been terrific.
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#20
Four K-W companies made Deloite's annual list of 50 fastest growing companies in Canada.

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/5026...t-50-list/
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#21
Auto parts company opens plant in Cambridge

Waterloo Region Record
By Record staff

CAMBRIDGE — A Michigan-based auto parts company has opened a plant in Cambridge. 
TWB Company started production in the Lingard Road plant this week with 16 employees. .....

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/5030...cambridge/
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#22
Another acquisition by Descartes Systems:

Descartes acquires Airclic for $29.7-million US
Nov 20, 2014 | The Record | LINK

Quote:WATERLOO — Descartes Systems Group has acquired Pennsylvania-based Airclic Inc. for $29.7 million US.

The two companies have complementary technologies used by freight and parcel delivery carriers to manage their logistics.

Airclic uses hand-held wireless devices connected to computing services that automate processes, such as proof of delivery.

Waterloo-based Descartes operates a global network system used by its customers to plan routes, schedule shipments, track resources, and perform various documentation functions.

"Descartes and Airclic have several common customers who have achieved significant value by augmenting their route planning and optimization systems with comprehensive mobile data at the driver, vehicle and stop level," Edward J. Ryan, chief executive officer of Descartes, said in a statement Thursday.

"With a focus on integrating our businesses to provide superior results for our customers, we believe we can meet the growing demand for integrated routing and mobile fleet management solutions and put Airclic on a path to achieving similar operational profitability to Descartes."

Airclic is headquartered in the Philadelphia-area community of Trevose, Penn.

The acquisition is Descartes' third this year.

In June, it purchased Custom Info, a provider of trade data and research tools based in Salt Lake City, for $41.5 million US.

In April, it paid $6.6 million US for Computer Management USA, a specialist in security filing and custom clearance solutions for the air cargo industry.


Kik acquires visual messaging company, also raises $38.3 million
Nov 19, 2014 | Rose Simone | The Record | LINK

Quote:WATERLOO — Kik Interactive, creator of the chat network Kik, has acquired Relay, a Toronto-based company that has developed an animated visual messaging application.

It is the first acquisition for Waterloo-based Kik, which was founded in 2009. The terms of the cash and equity deal were not disclosed.

Separately, Kik announced Wednesday that it has raised $38.3 million from a number of venture capital funds. The new round of financing increases the funds Kik has raised to $70.5 million.

Relay employs four people in Toronto. Relay founders Jon McGee and Joe Rideout, both University of Waterloo graduates, will take roles with Kik in Waterloo, and the firm will end the Relay service on Dec. 15.

Kik said it will integrate the Relay technology into its Kik messaging application.

Relay allows people to share animated GIFs, which are short, repeating video loops, such as a five-second loop of someone laughing or making a gesture. Relay has a large library of GIFs from popular culture that people can share, but they can also create their own GIFs with their smartphones.

"It has become like a language on the Internet, a way of expressing emotions and a way of capturing moments," explained Rideout, co-founder of Relay, which was launched in 2012.

Chris Best, co-founder and chief technology officer of Kik, said Relay's technology will make Kik more engaging to users and enhance the core chatting experience.

"When we first downloaded the Relay product, we fell in love with it," he said. "The execution and the product itself were great, so right from the get-go, we thought this would be awesome to have. Fortunately, it worked out."

Rideout said his company had a number of acquisition offers, including from messaging companies in the United States, but Kik was the perfect match.

"The opportunity to join a big player and stay in Canada was exciting for us," he said.

It would have taken years for Relay to develop the kind of a user base that Kik already has, Rideout said.

"This is a way we can get our ideas and technology out overnight to hundreds of millions of people."

Kik, which employs about 60 people, has 185 million users. The company says its worldwide user base is growing by 250,000 people per day and they tend to be young. Best said about 40 per cent of youth ages 13 to 24 in the United States are active on Kik.

Kik said the new money it raised will be invested in product development, and in growing its engineering and business development teams.

The financing is coming from Valiant Capital Partners, with participation from Millennium Technology Value Partners and SV Angel. Existing investors, Foundation Capital, RRE Ventures, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures, are also involved.

Best said Kik is aiming to double its size over the next year, depending on how quickly it can find the right talent.

Kik is in the early stages of finding ways to generate revenue. It has developed a Kik Promoted Chats service, which now has about 25 brands using Kik to reach a young audience.

The acquisition of Relay's technology will increase the user base and open up new opportunities for Kik to explore as it looks at other monetization strategies, Best said.

Ted Livingston, Kik's chief executive officer and co-founder, said in a statement that the acquisition of Relay and the funding, "puts us in a really strong position to dominate in chat."
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#23
Nice!

Aeryon Labs wins Ontario Exporter of the Year award
Waterloo Region Record
By Record staff

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/5159...ear-award/
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#24
Tired of buying “stuff” for kids? A Kitchener-Waterloo startup has a local solution
Dec 1, 2014 | Exchange Magazine | LINK

Quote:Waterloo – If you’ve ever found yourself wandering aimlessly around a toy store, or melting down on Christmas morning because of the amount of “stuff” your kids have received, a new startup in Waterloo Region has a solution, and it’s just a click away.

Marmanbee.ca is an online marketplace where parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and others can go to buy experience-based gift packages for local kids and teens. Launched in October, Marmanbee.ca offers everything from rock-climbing lessons, to knitting classes, to hockey skills training.

“This is an opportunity for kids to try a new adventure, to learn about themselves, and to create memories with loved ones that will last a lifetime,” says Marmanbee CEO Sandra Muir.

Every experience comes gift-ready in a package that includes colourful socks, temporary tattoos, and other items related to the experience. For example, the KW Symphony concert package includes musical instruments.

“Kids, particularly young kids, don’t always understand the concept of an experience gift,” says Muir. “The package gives them something to open and it tells them a bit about what they are going to do. It also feels good as a gift giver to have something to physically give a child or teen to open.”

The Marmanbee packages feature local vendors in Waterloo Region and surrounding areas, with services for kids aged 2-19. “There are so many great companies in our own backyard. The opportunities for fun and unique gift packages are endless,” says Muir.

Muir created the company while doing her MBA at Wilfrid Laurier University, as part of the Laurier LaunchPad program. As an aunt to 11 nieces and nephews, godmother to three, and with many other kids in her life, she had been searching for a gift-giving solution for kids and teens.

“I was already buying experience gifts for my own nieces and nephews, and my market research validated that many others – including kids – also valued experiences,” she says.

Muir is also part of a newly identified market segment known as “Professional Aunt, No Kids,” or PANKs – a term first coined by Melanie Notkin, founder of the Savvy Auntie brand. A survey found PANKs spend $9 billion US every year on kids.

“It feels good to give my nieces and nephews something unique. It’s also the type of gift that brings us closer together, and creates shared memories, which is the greatest gift you can ever give or receive.”
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#25
(12-04-2014, 11:48 PM)rangersfan Wrote: Tired of buying “stuff” for kids? A Kitchener-Waterloo startup has a local solution
Dec 1, 2014 | Exchange Magazine | LINK


Quote:Waterloo – If you’ve ever found yourself wandering aimlessly around a toy store, or melting down on Christmas morning because of the amount of “stuff” your kids have received, a new startup in Waterloo Region has a solution, and it’s just a click away.

Marmanbee.ca is an online marketplace where parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and others can go to buy experience-based gift packages for local kids and teens. Launched in October, Marmanbee.ca offers everything from rock-climbing lessons, to knitting classes, to hockey skills training.

“This is an opportunity for kids to try a new adventure, to learn about themselves, and to create memories with loved ones that will last a lifetime,” says Marmanbee CEO Sandra Muir.

Every experience comes gift-ready in a package that includes colourful socks, temporary tattoos, and other items related to the experience. For example, the KW Symphony concert package includes musical instruments.

“Kids, particularly young kids, don’t always understand the concept of an experience gift,” says Muir. “The package gives them something to open and it tells them a bit about what they are going to do. It also feels good as a gift giver to have something to physically give a child or teen to open.”

The Marmanbee packages feature local vendors in Waterloo Region and surrounding areas, with services for kids aged 2-19. “There are so many great companies in our own backyard. The opportunities for fun and unique gift packages are endless,” says Muir.

Muir created the company while doing her MBA at Wilfrid Laurier University, as part of the Laurier LaunchPad program. As an aunt to 11 nieces and nephews, godmother to three, and with many other kids in her life, she had been searching for a gift-giving solution for kids and teens.

“I was already buying experience gifts for my own nieces and nephews, and my market research validated that many others – including kids – also valued experiences,” she says.

Muir is also part of a newly identified market segment known as “Professional Aunt, No Kids,” or PANKs – a term first coined by Melanie Notkin, founder of the Savvy Auntie brand. A survey found PANKs spend $9 billion US every year on kids.

“It feels good to give my nieces and nephews something unique. It’s also the type of gift that brings us closer together, and creates shared memories, which is the greatest gift you can ever give or receive.”

I wonder what the PUNKs are spending on kids these days....
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#26
Auvik poised to grow in bright, rejuvenated space
Nov 27, 2014 | Anthony Reinhart | News.Communitech.ca | LINK



Quote:There are few things more depressing than an office crammed with cubicles – except, maybe, an empty office crammed with cubicles.

Such was the scene inside the Waterloo building formerly known as BlackBerry 5, when a startup called Auvikmoved in earlier this year.

Security turnstiles still bearing the old RIM logo stood open and deactivated.

Meeting rooms, named after Monopoly game-board properties, sat silent.

High-backed office chairs were left clustered into corners, like debris from a receding tide.

“The term you can quote me on was ‘soul-crushing’,” said Alex Hoff, co-founder and Vice President, Product Management at Auvik, a cloud-based service that makes it easier for companies to manage their IT networks.

Today, the tide is rising and a sense of soul is returning to 156 Columbia St. W., as three-year-old Auvik gets set to come out of beta and release its offering commercially.

“This means growing and gearing up the sales team to keep up with all the marketing leads coming in,” Hoff told me recently, as a customer-feedback session in the company’s offices wrapped up.

The building is one of many properties BlackBerry sold off as the smartphone pioneer undertook a painful restructuring. Now owned by colourful Toronto investor and Dragons’ Den judge Michael Wekerle, who helped take BlackBerry public in 1997, the building houses Auvik’s 30-member team, and ongoing interior work suggests the company will soon have neighbours.

As for Auvik’s expansive second-floor space, it has been transformed from colourless cubicle farm into a bright, playful and more-open space, as befits a growing startup.

In addition to accent walls painted in vivid Auvik purple, the office features a bear mural, hand-painted signs displaying the company’s seven core values and other flourishes by Ontario artist Chris Austin.

The cubicles have been tamed with lower barriers between them, Nerf guns abound and a couple of stand-up workstations (one with a treadmill) serve to mix things up.

“You’ll note that almost nobody has an office,” Hoff said, adding that the one exception is Auvik’s salesperson, “because we don’t want to hear him on the phone all day. That’s for mutual benefit.”

A kitchen and eating area are open to the rest of the office, and thirsty guests can enjoy a beer from the company keg.

Wekerle “loves the keg” when he pops by to visit, Hoff said.

“And every time he comes, he leaves money,” said Jacqui Murphy, Auvik’s VP of Marketing. “He comes, and he’ll entertain people and show them the building and offer them a beer, but then he always leaves money on the keg.”

“It’s like, ‘You don’t have to’,” Hoff said.

For Auvik employees, it’s been an adjustment moving from their original location at Workplace One, in downtown Kitchener’s historic, brick-and-beam Breithaupt Block, to a more suburban-style office building. But parking is abundant, transit is right outside the door and plenty of food options are nearby, with the University of Waterloo so close.

As for the company, which raised $6 million in venture capital in 2013, the coming year will be all about ramping up sales and marketing as it comes out of beta testing, Hoff said.

Since it’s a web-based product that automates processes, growth is not dependent on a massive increase in headcount, though 10 to 15 new hires can be expected over the next year if things go well.

“I’d like to say with any startup, you’re either going to double or go to zero. There are really only two outcomes: Either this product is a success and sales will drive growth, or it’s going to flop, and then you have to re-evaluate what you’re doing,” Hoff said.

“So there’s only two directions; there’s no middle of staying where we are.”

With plenty of room to grow in a bright new environment, I’m guessing the middle wouldn’t be much fun for Auvik, anyway.
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#27
Descartes Systems makes buys two U.K. companies


Waterloo Region Record

WATERLOO —Descartes Systems Group has made two acquisitions in the United Kingdom to bolster its services for the global logistics and transportation industries.

E-Customs Inc. provides electronic security and electronic document services to comply with U.K. filing requirements.

Pentant Ltd. offers systems that handle customs documentation and inventory control for ocean, truck and air cargo for several U.K. ports and airports.

The total up-front cost of the two acquisitions is about $11.8 million US, with provisions for Descartes to make additional performance-related payments.

The Waterloo-based company said Monday it will pay 5.8 million pounds, or about $9 million US, for E-Customs, and up to about $1.2 million US over the next year of certain targets are met.

It will pay 1.8 million pounds, or about $2.8 million US, for Pentant plus up to $400,000 in additional payments.

E-Customs and Pentant were previously independently operated companies under the common control of several private investors in the United Kingdom.

Descartes operates a global network that provides tools and services for air, land and water-borne carriers, logistics companies and their clients.
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#28
More details about the Chinese nail factory opening in Kitchener next year.

Plant to open in Kitchener thanks to U.S. duties on Chinese steels nails

Steel nail plant will open in Kitchener next year
Waterloo Region Record
By Rose Simone


KITCHENER — Manufacturing normally moves the other way, from Canada to China.

But in an unusual reversal, a Chinese-based company will boost Kitchener's manufacturing, by setting up a plant on Manitou Drive next year to produce and ship steel nails that will be sold in the United States.

The plant, to be called United Enterprise, will initially employ 50 people and could hire as many as 80 people, the company's chief financial officer, Simon He, said on Thursday. The hiring will happen in several stages during 2015. ...

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/5203...els-nails/
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#29
I saw a small paper sign today in the door at 41 King St W for "Latitude Geographics"  http://www.latitudegeo.com/  .  Are they new in town?  Moved from another K-W location?
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#30
(12-12-2014, 05:02 PM)panamaniac Wrote: I saw a small paper sign today in the door at 41 King St W for "Latitude Geographics"  http://www.latitudegeo.com/  .  Are they new in town?  Moved from another K-W location?

I think they were at 260 King Street West before.
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