How UBC’s Venture Showcase is reversing Canada’s entrepreneurial decline

By Michelle Sklar, entrepreneur-in-residence and head of venture growth strategy at entrepreneurship@UBC

Entrepreneurship is crucial to Canada's economic well-being and plays a pivotal role in generating societal prosperity, such as jobs and new pools of capital. Yet despite a strong desire among many Canadians to embark on an entrepreneurial journey, the number of people actually doing so is declining. According to a new report by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), this country is home to 100,000 fewer entrepreneurs than it was 20 years ago. At the same time, only 1.3 individuals out of a thousand are starting new businesses, compared to more than double that number at the start of the 21st century. These declines raise concerns about our economic future, and underscore the gap between entrepreneurial intentions and startup success.

To bridge this gap, entrepreneurs must cultivate essential skills for sharing their innovative ideas with investors, funders and industry.

Good thing the sharing of ideas is just the tip of the entrepreneurial iceberg at the Venture Showcase, which since 2020 has been highlighting members of the UBC community who are set to be the next generation of leaders in impact and innovation.

UBC is uniquely fertile ground when it comes to venture creation. As one of the Top 40 research universities in the world, its multidisciplinary culture of collaboration attracts global leaders who are leveraging their insights and discoveries to solve some of the most pressing problems we are facing today across climate, human health, and social impact. Indeed, the university has spun out more than 250 companies, including entrepreneurship@UBC alumni Acuva, Aspect Biosystems, and NZ Technologies.

As well as sharing the novel solutions developed by many of these leaders — not to mention celebrating its 10th anniversary — the 2023 Venture Showcase is an unmissable event for entrepreneurs, investors, funders, and industry representatives alike for the following five reasons.

A deeper dive

Enabling investors, funders, and industry reps to get under the hood of new ideas drastically increases the chances of commercial engagement and, ultimately, of maximizing potential. That’s why the Venture Showcase welcomes a curated group of presenters to the Robson Square stage to share their ideas across three categories that provide valuable context to audience members who have varying levels of interest in ventures at each incubation stage. “Sneak-a-Peek” teams are at the outset of their incubation journeys, “Ones-to-Watch” are in the middle of commercialization, and “Ready-to-Raise” HATCH Venture Builder teams are gaining traction at the acceleration stage. To ramp up engagement even more, guests go on to bestow Audience Choice Awards in each of the three categories.

At the same time, many presenting teams host displays of their solutions where they connect with attendees throughout the event, and gain organic opportunities for networking across audiences. Speaking of which…

Connect like never before

Never underestimate the power of face-to-face gatherings, especially when they involve the kind of enthusiastic presenters and receptive audiences found at the Venture Showcase. Attending provides ventures and their prospective partners and collaborators with unique opportunities to interact with others in their fields of activity and interest, and to develop authentic relationships and even partnerships along the way. Indeed, every single presenting venture made at least three connections at the 2022 event, a survey revealed, with half making six or more. Given that a remarkable 136 investors or funders from 116-plus firms were on hand, this comes as no surprise. This also explains why 91 percent of the 2022 presenting teams noted that networking and connecting were the most valuable parts of the Showcase.

Unparalleled experience

Regardless of their incubation stage, all presenters gain vital in-person pitch experience covering not just detailed descriptions and insights into their ideas, but also raising funds, connecting with partners, building their teams, and perhaps most importantly, demonstrating the traction they’ve built around their venture solutions.

In 2022, a total of 687 people attended the Showcase — that’s a 31-percent increase over 2021 — watching 18 selected ventures take the stage. Of these registrants, 47 percent had never attended an entrepreneurship@UBC event, demonstrating the extensive impact events like the Venture Showcase have on building the innovation pipeline. I’m especially proud that 45 percent of 2022 presenters identified as female, representing a 55 percent increase year over year. The same goes for survey findings that revealed 100 percent satisfaction with the smoothness and fairness of the application process.

Learn from success stories – and from the competition

Past presenters-turned-success stories such as Arca, Avivo, MintList, Pocketed, Total Flow Medical, and Verdi are typically on hand at the Venture Showcase to share insights into their own startup journeys.

Indeed, one of the key jobs of an entrepreneur is to check out how everyone else is positioning themselves. As well as helping to identify market and industry trends, this can also determine how potential partners and collaborators prefer to be approached.

Take the next step

Leveraging any or all of the aforementioned benefits can help ventures that are ready to raise seed or Series A rounds to earn a spot in a future Investor Showcase. Hosted by entrepreneurship@UBC each spring since 2021, this exciting event has enabled high-potential ventures across a range of industries currently supported through the HATCH Venture Builder to pitch their stories and solutions to the diverse entrepreneurship@UBC investor community.

Over the course of both events, an innovative idea can journey from creation to awareness, to support, to implementation, and finally to impact. And from there, the sky truly is the limit.

If you haven’t already, be sure to register now to join us at Venture Showcase — you don’t want to miss out.

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