Hey everyone – William here.
Over the weekend, I found myself reflecting on last week’s Vancouver Tech Days—and what an incredible two-day experience it was.
We brought together founders, operators and investors for candid conversations about what it takes to build ambitious technology companies from Vancouver. There were plenty of insights I’m still thinking about, but one moment in particular has stayed with me.
During a fireside chat between Ada Slivinski and Hiive co-founder and COO Sarah Huggins, I realized that Vancouver’s greatest obstacle may not be talent, capital or ambition.
It may be the voice in our own heads.
Ada had asked Sarah what Vancouver gets right—and what it gets wrong—when it comes to building businesses. Her answer was essentially two sides of the same coin: optimism and pessimism.
“We’re so hopeful, we want to be able to do this, we’re so excited—but, damn, it’s Vancouver,” Sarah said, describing the reflexive doubt that still shadows the local technology community.
Then she rejected it just as quickly.
“No. We can do it here. We can.”
That exchange captured something that surfaced repeatedly throughout Tech Days. The people are here. The talent is here. Increasingly, the examples are here. But too often, we still treat every company that succeeds from Vancouver as an exception to the rule rather than evidence that the rule itself may be changing.
As Sarah put it elsewhere in the conversation: “We do not need to be insecure about the fact that we’re here.”
We’ll be continuing these conversations at Tech Days Vol. 2 on October 19-20. Tickets are already available to VTJ Insiders right now, so become an Insider to get early access to the next edition.
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