CEOs of Alberta’s emerging companies are about to get their marching orders. Having set their sights on an elusive target – venture capital – these chief executives are headed off to Banff Venture Forum bootcamps in Calgary and Edmonton this month as they prepare to take their companies to the next level.

The bootcamps, a one-afternoon event considered an essential tool of any company’s financial arsenal, are a key factor if they are to succeed at this September’s edition of the Banff Venture Forum, according to Ernst & Young’s John Pinsent.

“Five of the six companies that have won Banff Venture Forum awards in the last three years have taken part in the bootcamps,” said Pinsent, a senior Ernst & Young manager and director of the firm’s technology, communication and entertainment practice for northern Alberta.

“About four years ago, the organizers were looking for ways to enhance the quality of the presentations that would be made at the forum and they engaged our firm to provide the bootcamps,” said Pinsent.

Mike Sturk, Business Edge
New Parking CEO Thomas Janacek, right, and Jackie De Jong demonstrate firm’s cellphone-based parking-meter service.

“The idea is that in order for these entrepreneurs to have their best moment in the sun with the investment community, they need to be well prepared to deal with the realities of their audience. They have to be able to speak to the critical elements that have to be in a presentation in order to generate the interest of the investor.”

Bootcamps are tailored for members of the senior management teams of aggressive growth companies considering raising capital over the next year. This year, attendance is expected to net 40 CEOs from Edmonton and 60 from Calgary, at least a third higher than normal.

Upon completion, bootcamp graduates are then ready to submit their Banff Venture Forum applications and will be in a better position to put together their investor presentation at the fall event, being held September 24 and 25 in Banff at the Rimrock Resort Hotel.

Thomas Janacek, co-founder, president and CEO of New Parking, said attending this year’s bootcamp will enable him and his team to better read the mood of venture capitalists.

Janacek wants to crack an estimated $3-billion North American parking-meter market and put an end to what he calls the “tyranny of the parking meter.”

Using a digital parking payment and management solution, the Calgary-based company’s technology allows motorists to use their cellphones instead of coins to pay the parking meter. Aside from eliminating the need for pocket change, drivers would no longer need to worry about running back to refill an expiring meter.

“A single phone call,” said Janacek, “allows the motorist to enter the parking meter identification (found on the meter pole) through the keypad. If you have an account with us, we charge your account like a mobile phone bill. If you don’t have an account, a message is played offering free parking for the first time. We pick up the cost but if you accept, it gives us permission to call you back at a later time to solicit an account.”

New Parking plans to make its money from a transaction fee or a flat fee paid by the parking authority. Janacek doesn’t see this as an impediment, as the company is reducing operational costs for the meter operator, such as eliminating the need to collect and count coins.

Venture capital would help the company, Janacek said, as it finalizes program development and negotiates with customers. It plans to start operations with a pilot project in Alberta this fall. Initial target markets are Canada and the United States, where there are the largest numbers of single-space parking meters.

Meanwhile, bootcamp veteran Oscar Jofre is ready for another round. With bootcamps in Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver already under his belt, the Meta4hand CEO said these learning experiences are not a one-time thing.

“The financing game changes all the time. It’s about improving your skills and getting ready,” said Jofre.

“Quite often a company’s biggest mistake is that they concentrate on their technology during their presentation,” said Jofre. “These investors have seen many great technologies, but they also know a good technology needs a good management team – people who can give them a return on their investment.”

With the Edmonton-based Meta4hand seeking $4.5 million in funding for its technology, one that enables a mobile unit such as a smartphone to communicate wirelessly with an external display such as a television screen, Jofre wants to make sure Meta4hand is a company that will grab the attention of venture capitalists.

With their product at the commercialization stage – licensing deals mean it will be in stores this Christmas – Jofre sees the latest bootcamp as a chance for a quick refresher course while also making sure his team is on the right track.

“Our goal is to close half of that money during the Banff Venture Forum. We anticipate it will be done in segments and not one lump sum. That’s the common way people are investing today,” said Jofre.

Opportunities for investment and innovation at the forum are also expanding. No longer limited to the best investment prospects in information and communications technology (IT), oil-and-gas technology opportunities will be on the agenda as well.

It’s a conscious decision to open up the two-day event to reflect the great expansion of these technologies in the province, said Pinsent. “I wouldn’t say it was excluded in the past, but there wasn’t as much of an emphasis as there was on software, hardware and traditional IT opportunities.”

The Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada will also fold its energy technology financing event into the camp.

Pinsent noted there has been a recent upturn in venture capital spending, with the first quarter of 2004 up significantly compared to the same period in 2003.

“This year, we’re in a situation where the market has turned, more investments are being made, valuations are improving and the investment community is looking for opportunities that are going to lead them to solid steady early returns,” he said. “The level of money sitting on the sidelines has been significant and the only way venture capital funds can stay in business is to put their funds into play.”

Meanwhile, one bootcamp graduate, Synodon CEO Adrian Banica, won’t be attending this time around. Banica took part in bootcamps in 2002 and ’03, seeking about $2 million in seed capital.

“I (originally) had no idea of what the whole thing was about. I tend to go to things like this because it’s worthwhile to learn things. The immediate reaction afterward was that it was extremely good from the point of view that we didn’t have any grasp at all about attracting venture capital,” said Banica.

Even though Edmonton-based Synodon was selected to present to the venture forum in 2002, Banica notes that while investors were intrigued by the technology of using helicopters to detect underground natural gas pipeline leaks, it didn’t fit in with the venture capitalists’ investment profiles at the time.

“We’ve done the pitch there and now we have raised the money we wanted to raise, so we don’t have to pitch again,” said Banica. “It made it easier to raise the money elsewhere. Banff was quite useful for us to get feedback from the investors, even though they weren’t the right investors, and to go through pitching and presenting to an investor group.”

Web watch:

www.banffventureforum.org
www.new-parking.com
www.meta4hand.com
www.synodon.com