In 1995, Byron Osing founded a company based on software developed by a retired University of British Columbia professor. The company, Telebackup, was recently sold to Veritas for $230 million (Canadian).
Osing then moved on to create Launchworks (www.launchworks.com), whose goal is to provide early stage, Canadian technology companies with the necessary financial, intellectual, and technological resources they need to succeed.
“We do more than just write a cheque. We are a full contact, heavy lifting partner, who gets right in there and creates value in the company,” says Osing.
Tomorrow Launchworks is holding an open house to officially launch its Vancouver office. The company already has offices in Toronto and Calgary.
The Vancouver operations will be headed by Managing Director Ben Pedret. According to Pedret, Launchworks will fill a gap in the BC market for intelligent seed capital, “We are essentially technology people who have had our own companies, have felt the pain and bear the scars that entrepreneurs have. Our mission is to find these companies, fund them and fix them.”
According to Pedret, things are already very busy at the Vancouver office. He has found that the retraction in the market has caused a lot of investors that were involved in early stage to move up to the mezzanine level. Pedret believes that his company’s specialization in early seed will continue to generate investment action.
And not just in Vancouver. Pedret is also responsible for the company’s activities in the Seattle area, and
he is very interested in forming partnerships with Seattle area entreprenuers and investors.
Among the direct investors in Launchworks’ business model so far are BMO/Nesbit Burns, Thomson Kernaghan and Yorkton Securities.
