Interested in anything to do with tech, startups, and the latest trends in innovation? If so, the GROW Conference is the perfect event for you.
Aside from the all-star speaker lineup of CEO’s and VP’s from successful startups in Silicon Valley – some of which include Shyp, Intuit, Google, and Scully – the conference is crawling with extremely passionate entrepreneurs who are eager to share their next pitch, investors who are looking for the next #unicorn, and industry professionals who are keen on learning what trends are up and coming in technology.
Hosted at Whistler, the three day conference provided more than just workshops and speaker series; in fact, in order to get your mind prepped for the day, mornings started with 6am group runs, yoga, and mountain biking – talk about a great conversation starter for networking!
#Unicornordie
Day 1 of the conference kicked off with the theme of “Unicorn or Die”. To those in the industry, a “unicorn” is what they label one of those great ideas, or businesses, that become the next big thing. Unicorns – as you’d imagine – are quite hard to come by, and unless your company possesses the necessary traits that help you fit into that profile, your company will otherwise, “die”.
In the morning, Mark Rolston, Founder of Argodesign, suggested that “future unicorns” will be the companies that are able to leverage technology to deliver their core service, as he expects every experience that can be supported through computing in the future, will be. He provided the unique example of Disney theme parks – where ticket holders and guests are now becoming just “another node in the network”. Using bracelet tags, Disney not only allows you to check in to rides and avoid waiting for lineups – they also track your progression through the theme park, to capitalize on big data and better understand your habits and buying behaviour as a visitor.
Day 2 of GROW was all about education and inspiration. In the morning, with break-out sessions discussing issues with cloud based data, artificial intelligence and fundraising capital. It really got us thinking about where the opportunities and risks are as we develop new fast growing businesses.
The afternoon brought in some Canadian entrepreneurial all-stars including Chief Platform Officer of Shopify, Harley Finkelstein, who talked about how they’re decentralizing online commerce and putting power into the hands of small businesses.
Kevin Gibson, from San Francisco based Shyp (mobile app enabled courier service), discussed the rise of the on-demand economy and when asked about founder issues, his answer was, “surround yourself with the best people at different stages of the company”. This was a unique takeaway because this means that founders with a vision need to prepare for this early on to avoid painful founder issues in the future.
The final talk of the day was closed out with Kevin interviewing Vancouver local Stewart Butterfield, founder and CEO of Slack. This candid conversation discussed Slack as the fastest growing company to reach a $2 billion valuation in 1.71 years. When asked about what keeps him up at night Stewart said, “People. Growing a culture this quickly is extremely difficult.”
It was inspirational to hear from such established Canadian entrepreneurs as it was real proof that you don’t need to be in Silicon Valley to grow a successful start-up. GROW solidified my own goals for building a company and I’m looking forward to putting the knowledge I learned into action.
Article by Beedie Ambassadors Loretta Yang & Brandon Chapman.
Loretta Yang is in her 4th year, concentrating in Marketing and Business Analytics. Her interest in tech stemmed from her current co-op at TELUS Digital Labs, where she supports a team that embodies the start-up mentality.
Brandon Chapman 
is in his final year studying Management, Technology & Entrepreneurship and is starting his career in the financial services industry with Freedom 55 Financial. He is also working on a technology start-up established through the tech entrepreneurship@SFU program using drones to capture and analyze data for Canadian berry farmers. He loves his school, community, and is excited for the future.