Hello INNOVATEwest Community,
Becoming more innovative is not done for its own sake; innovation drives national productivity forward (and brings with a host of delightful benefits). Entrepreneur turned VC Boris Wertz knows this well, having built and sold a company during the dot-com boom and bust. Now, as Founding Partner of Version One Ventures, Boris is funding the next generation of founders. Speaking with INNOVATEwest, Boris shared his views on what’s necessary to drive more innovation in Canada.
Key takeaways:
- The purpose behind innovation is to improve productivity, build wealth, and improve the overall standard of living for people.
- For Canada to succeed, every entrepreneur needs to drive toward being more innovative in their organizations, regardless of whether they are VC-backed or bootstrapped.
- Entrepreneurs from all types of businesses will succeed faster (and go farther) if they have a space to meet and learn from one another.
Dave Tyldesley
Co-Founder/Producer SAAS NORTH & INNOVATEwest
Editor INNOVATEwest PULSE
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Boris Wertz founded and sold a startup during the dot-com crash and moved from his native Germany to Vancouver in the process. Then Amazon acquired the company that bought his startup. After leaving Amazon, Boris became a VC full-time, investing in the “next generation” of entrepreneurs with his fund Version One Ventures.
Looking ahead, Boris is both excited and worried for Canada’s future. As a speaker at the inaugural INNOVATEwest, Boris shared more about his vision for a more productive, innovative Canada—and why it’s crucial for entrepreneurs of all stripes to meet and connect with one another.
What innovation does for Canada
A lot of thought leaders call for more innovation in Canada. But that call begs the question: for what? For Boris, innovation is the spark of productivity—and productivity drives everything else from wealth creation to increased standard of living to improved health outcomes.
“Innovation I think is just super, super important for a country to figure out, to accelerate, to make possible,” said Boris. “Especially in Canada, we have a huge challenge around productivity growth and have been stalling out. And so it definitely feels like we could do way more in Canada.”
For anyone skeptical of that logical flow, Boris simply points to most of the conveniences we enjoy today, from smartphones to improvements in virtual healthcare access.
“All of these things that we’re using on a daily basis that we cherish, that we couldn’t live without anymore were part of science and part of technology development,” said Boris.
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Two paths to innovation
Understanding that we need to accelerate innovation in Canada and actually empowering it are two very different things. While the work of explaining the benefits of innovation is never done, Boris wants to see all leaders, whether political or business, go one step further.
The first step is to actually promote the idea of innovation—including promoting role models—to everyone who is already in the country, whether entrepreneur or employee. Second, both as a mindset of innovation is being developed and after it begins to take hold, Boris wants to see Canada explicitly welcome more people who already have that mindset.
“We need a higher priority on innovation and entrepreneurship for everyone who is already in the country,” said Boris. “Shared through role models and general awareness. And then secondly, we need to bring more entrepreneurial minded people into the country.”
Defining entrepreneurial thinking—the people Boris defines as the “next generation” of leaders—comes down to three distinct traits. First is being a little “out there” and willing to take the “positively crazy” risk that building a business truly is. Second is being a great storyteller with an incredible customer focus. And third is either being able to build a technology product yourself or having a sense of what a great product looks like so you can guide others.
Underpinning all of these traits is a deep passion for the problem you want to solve and the people you want to solve it for.
“You have to be all-in as a founder and rally the troops, and rally the investors, and rally the customers to get some traction,” said Boris. “Over time, obviously that gets much easier. But in the beginning, it’s just the sheer willpower of a founder that puts a startup into business.”
There are many ways to build great companies
While Boris is a VC and naturally focuses on hyper-scale opportunities, he knows there are multiple ways to actually build a business, whether that’s VC, bootstrapped, or some version in the middle. Regardless of your model, though, he wants entrepreneurs of all stripes to have a central place to meet and connect; it’s one of the core reasons he got involved with INNOVATEwest.
Because in the end, it all boils down to building wealth, improving the standard of living for as many people as possible, and improving overall productivity outcomes for the country—a goal that can only be achieved by every entrepreneur embodying the drive for innovation.
“All of these entrepreneurs face the same challenges of hiring, of building, of scaling,” said Boris. “They might do it with different resources and different speeds and perhaps a different focus. But ultimately they would benefit from meeting each other and learning from their shared experiences.”
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