In early 2018, as part of my academic studies, I undertook a research study of the Calgary technology ecosystem to analyze the overall health of the Calgary startup community in comparison to Silicon Valley success factors.  The research conducted found that the Calgary region’s ecosystem is young and developing and looking at the age-adjusted rankings, you can see the picture looks bright for the evolution of a healthy ecosystem. I’ve highlighted aspects of the research study below, hoping to stimulate conversation and action among the business, academic, and startup communities. We at Brockman Consulting believe that Calgary has an amazing and bright future in the tech sector. How we collectively move forward in the coming twenty-four months will dramatically shape the tech community in the Calgary region for decades.

 

Thousands of Calgary jobs have been lost due to the prolonged slump in oil. In fact, economic models demonstrate the impact will not be just in the Calgary region but will impact the broader Canadian economy. The provincial and municipal governments understand the impact of low oil prices on the local economy; both have been focussing on bringing tech companies to the Calgary region as a way to diversify Calgary’s economy. However, Calgary has some catching up to do; after so much focus on oil and gas, the city is behind in terms of progress when compared to regions like the Toronto-Waterloo innovation corridor. There are several preliminary indicators that Calgary is a strong candidate to become a technology innovation hub, but the question remains: Can Calgary transition to a technology-based economy following in Silicon Valley’s footsteps? And what steps will need to be taken by the various groups involved in building this new economy?

 

It seemed like Calgary was collectively surprised when it didn’t make the Amazon HQ2 shortlist. Some quick self-reflection by the technology and business communities quickly came up with an answer to the lack of success: a shortage of talent. By some estimates, Calgary is short tens of thousands of technology professionals and this is a valid issue that is critical for the city to tackle. However, Calgary needs more than just people with experience to transition to a technology focussed economy.

 

Research participants highlighted that Calgary is currently a fifth-tier technology city worldwide. This is a result of the key gaps in the level of talent, research, and corporate involvement in the ecosystem. The support organizations are here to help new companies grow and develop, but those three barriers will prevent a significant development of the ecosystem. The federal, provincial, and municipal governments will need to work together to address those gaps in a coordinated fashion. Local corporations need to step up and become more involved, acting as customers or partners to these new firms.

 

While capital is always a hurdle for new businesses, it is felt that it is not a large gap within Calgary now. Participants felt that more grants are not the answer, more customers and more talent are. The objectives of the recommendations are to push the Calgary region towards a centre of technical excellence. There is a long way to go to compete on a world stage, but if we work together with commitment and energy towards the nine recommendations in this report, we can get there.

 

To summarize the report’s recommendations, the following stem from the comparison of the interviews and Silicon Valley success factors:

 

1. Education for Calgary corporations – Calgary corporations need to engage more, become customers and supporters of the young technology companies that exist today.
2. Increased funding for post-secondary computing science programs – We graduate far too few computer sciences and engineering graduates to support those existing enterprises here in the city. Consistently tech companies in the Calgary area are outsourcing high-quality work to overseas talent.
3. Education for Calgary investors – Calgary investors are used to oil and gas investment returns and cycles. Investors, especially those angel investors, may need to adjust expectations of the returns and success rates of technology investments. This will prevent unrealistic expectations on investors part and avoid creating negative experiences from said investors and entrepreneurs.
4. Centralized infrastructure to identify talent already here – The talent here remains somewhat untapped. We’ve all had the experience of driving in a taxi driven by a Masters of Computer Sciences graduate. We need a good way to identify tech talent already here in Calgary.
5. Alberta Innovates mandate review – Support organizations and startups would like to see a review of how Alberta Innovates fits within today’s ecosystem. More grants are not the answer. Programs like the Federal BCIP program are pointed to as a model that helps startups thrive and grow.
6. Change how the government monitors the success of funding and granting impact on the economy – The Alberta government measures the impact of the energy industry on the Alberta market quite closely. Similar monitoring and reporting should be made available for the technology sector. This will increase the visibility of the impact of funding dollars that are flowing through to Calgary region technology startups. The suggestion from research participants was to update the GDP measures to include detail around the non-energy metrics.
7. Business Infrastructure – There is an opportunity for the Calgary region to plan out how its ecosystem will evolve. Appropriate land and infrastructure will assist the formation of an innovation cluster in the Calgary region. It will also help foster the connection between these new companies and established corporations.
8. Online and digitized resource catalogue – One of the quick wins for streamlining the entry process would be to make it easy to find all the resources available in the Calgary region.
9. Streamline immigration processes for technical and business talent – Canada and the Calgary region have a large opportunity to fill the talent gap. The current founder visa immigration program needs to be extended beyond founders to those business and technology resources that can support fledgeling startups. The Calgary region’s talent gap is so large that there will need to be a concerted effort and alignment of federal, provincial, and municipal regulations and support systems.

 

I’d love to hear the thoughts of the Calgary community about the recommendations above. Does this resonate? What is missing? What needs to be changed? Are the conclusions incorrect?

 

For those of you interested, below is a link to the full report (40+ pages). I’d love to continue the research, so if you’re a founder, a funder, a technologist, business professional, support organization member, or just interested in Calgary tech, please reach out! I’d love to sit down for a coffee and hear about your experiences.

 

Calgary: A Transition from Oil to Tech