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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

2011 Ready to Rocket Life Science Presentation

Here is the presentation presented on March 1st 2011 at the SFU Time Centre.

Announcing 2011 Ready to Rocket Life Science List

Rocket Builders Names Top Companies to “Ready to Rocket” Life Science List

BC’s Life Science companies positioned for significant milestones in 2011

VANCOUVER, BC – March 1, 2011

Rocket Builders today released its first-ever “Ready to Rocket” list of B.C. Life Science technology companies. The ten privately-held companies are positioned to achieve significant milestones in 2011 that will lead them to rapid growth and investment.

The “Ready to Rocket” recognition list is the only predictive list of its kind in North America.

Life Science technology encompasses Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Diagnostics, Medical Devices, Healthcare Information Technology and other innovations improving health. British Columbia has a diversified mix of companies across all of these areas.

According to Thealzel Lee, Senior Partner at Rocket Builders, “B.C. has a strong tradition of creating successful companies in Life Science sectors like biotechnology and medical devices. With strong academic and preclinical research centres, many experienced entrepreneurs, and an active community of angel investors, B.C. has a great climate to generate Life Science companies with great potential.”

The life science industry came through the recent recession remarkably well, with global growth between 4% and 6% and it is forecast to grow globally at 5% to 7% over the next 3 years. In emerging markets like South America, Asia and Russia, growth is over 15%.

The climate for investment is very positive for Life Science companies. "Last year, Life Science investment in Canada jumped 38 per cent over 2009,” said Geoffrey Hansen, Managing Partner at Rocket Builders. “And with growing demand for biotechnology and medical devices in emerging markets like China and India, the investment prospects for young innovative companies from Canada are very good."

Concurrent with the 2011 ”Ready to Rocket Life Science” list, Rocket Builders also released a list of “Emerging Rockets” of fifteen additional B.C. Life Science companies that hold potential for breakthroughs in the coming years.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

2011 Ready to Rocket Cleantech Presentation

Here is the presentation presented on February 22nd 2011 at the Vancity Theatre.

Announcing 2011 Ready to Rocket Cleantech List

Rocket Builders Names Top Companies to “Ready to Rocket” Clean Technology List

BC’s Cleantech sector positioned for high growth and investment

VANCOUVER, BC – February 22, 2011

Rocket Builders today released its first-ever “Ready to Rocket” list of B.C. clean technology companies. The fifteen privately-held companies are positioned to capitalize on clean technology and industry trends that will lead them to rapid growth and investment.

The “Ready to Rocket” Cleantech list is the only predictive list of its kind in North America.

British Columbia’s cleantech sector is emerging as one of the strongest contingents for recovery from the market downturn of 2008. “When the market crashed many analysts predicted that cleantech would also fall by the wayside. That’s simply not the case,” said Geoffrey Hansen, Managing Partner at Rocket Builders. “In fact, cleantech [along with life sciences] have been driving the market’s return and some of the biggest venture capital deals in Canada have been within the cleantech sector.”

For example, Chrysalix, a BC-based energy venture capital firm, was recently named the most active cleantech venture capital firm by the Cleantech Group. According to Mike Walkinshaw, Managing Director and CFO of Chrysalix, "There is a substantial amount of interest and venture capital dollars available for locally-based cleantech companies. I believe Vancouver is one of the top three cleantech hubs in North America based on management teams, technology and available finance." Chrysalix manages over $300 million in assets.

Cleantech investment accounted for approximately 40% of all Canadian venture capital investment last year. In the Vancouver area alone, there are more than 1,400 cleantech companies, and as well, British Columbia has one of the lowest corporate income tax rates in the world making it a desirable location for technology companies to establish and innovate. B.C. has a track record of consistently launching technology companies that are attractive to investors.

According to Dave Thomas, Senior Partner at Rocket Builders, “B.C.’s innovation in the area of cleantech has a number of ‘positives’ surrounding the fact that we have a large pool of engineering talent that is drawn to a substantial number of well-established anchor companies within the cleantech sector such as Ballard, Westport Innovations, MDA, as well as Creo and the like. Also, businesses here in Western Canada are very concerned about sustainability, so there is a definite market trend and mindset toward cleantech.”

Concurrent with the 2011 ”Ready to Rocket Cleantech” list, Rocket Builders also released a list of “Emerging Rockets” of ten additional B.C. cleantech companies that hold potential for market breakthroughs in the coming year.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Emerging Rockets vs Ready to Rocket

I noticed from questions received and in some of the messages flying over the social media channels that there can be some confusion about what a "Ready to Rocket" company is versus what an "Emerging Rocket" company is.

On the program's website, there is a brief explanation.

Essentially, an "Emerging Rocket" is entering the market and trying to establish a base of initial customers and its primary milestones are first sales, partnerships and investment. An "Emerging Rocket" can be a startup, but many times it is a company that has been around a number of years and a change in strategy, product or market conditions open up a new opportunity.

A "Ready to Rocket" company has clearly established a base of initial customers and revenue and is rapidly increasing headcount and revenue, with the potential to exceed sector growth rates and sometimes doubling in company size in less than a year. After achieving a significant revenue base (ie. for ICT companies, this is $25 million in revenue), a company graduates from consideration for "Ready to Rocket" as the dynamics for growth will differ from companies with less revenue.

A related question seems to be "how come companies are Ready to Rocket for multiple years?" ... As long as companies can repeatedly hit our hurdle rates for superior growth rates, they are competitive for consideration for the "Ready to Rocket" list each year. A few companies have been able to be selected for recognition for 3 or 4 years in a row by meeting double digit growth targets, while others with triple digit growth quickly exceeded the "graduation" hurdle mentioned above within a couple of years.

In our public presentation in Vancouver recently we showed our "Napkin to NASDAQ" chart from the 1990's which illustrated the lifecycle from startup to IPO (see slide #7) and highlighted that a "Ready to Rocket" company is entering a phase of maximal revenue growth while an "Emerging Rocket" company is earlier in the cycle. As you can see in this chart, the ranges of these two categories overlap and cover a significant amount of time in the growth cycle.

Announcing 2011 ICT Emerging Rockets List

Rocket Builders Names 12 Additional BC Tech
Companies to 2011 ICT “Emerging Rockets” List

VANCOUVER, BC, January 26, 2011 – Following release of its ninth annual Information and Communications Technology (ICT) “Ready to Rocket ” list yesterday, Rocket Builders released a follow-on ICT “Emerging Rockets” list of 12 additional BC companies it believes hold great potential for investment and market breakthroughs in the coming year.

The “Emerging Rockets” list profiles technology companies it believes hold great potential for investment and market breakthroughs in 4 primary sectors:

• ICT Emerging Rockets 2011 – includes information, communications, wireless, new media and internet technologies
• CleanTech Emerging Rockets 2011
• Life Sciences Emerging Rockets 2011

Here are the 2011 ICT “Emerging Rockets”:

Hootsuite Media Inc.
Indicee Inc.
Mailchannels Corporation
Mingleverse Laboratories Inc.
Mobidia Technology Incorporated
Mobio Identity Systems Inc.
Optemo.com
QR Loyalty
Veridae Systems Inc.
wantsa
Wishpond.com
Xomo Digitial Inc.

“Emerging Rockets” lists for CleanTech and Life Sciences will be announced on February 23 and February 28, 2011 respectively.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

2011 Ready to Rocket ICT Presentation

Here is the presentation presented on January 25th 2011 at the Vancity Theatre.

Announcing 2011 Ready to Rocket ICT List

Rocket Builders Names Top Technology Companies
To the “Ready to Rocket” ICT list

Annual list highlights technology trends and those private
BC companies positioned for high growth in 2011.

VANCOUVER, BC – January 25, 2011

Rocket Builders today released its ninth annual “Ready to Rocket” list of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies that are best positioned to capitalize on the 2011 technology sector trends that will lead them to faster growth than their peers.

The annual “Ready to Rocket” ICT list provides accurate predictions of companies that will likely experience significant growth, venture capital investment or acquisition by a major player in the coming year. The “Ready to Rocket” ICT list is the only predictive list of its kind in North America.

“After a number of years of low growth in the ICT sector, spending is expected to grow and many BC companies are well positioned for significant revenue and employment growth,” said Geoffrey Hansen, Managing Partner at Rocket Builders. “For the coming 2011 year, we are predicting that companies focused upon cloud computing, social media and mobile applications will have the most opportunity for significant growth.”

There are 11 companies on the 2011 list that were on last year’s “Ready to Rocket” list. There are 14 new companies to appear on the 2011 “Ready to Rocket” ICT list including:

Alligato, Inc.
BroadbandTV
LiveCast Media, Inc.
Mobify
PartnerPedia
QuickMobile
Recombo Inc.
ResponseTek Networks Corp.
Spark Integration Technologies Inc.
Star Solutions International Inc.
StrangeLoop Networks
Subserveo Inc.
Tagga Media Inc.
Vineyard Networks Inc.

According to Dave Thomas, Senior Partner at Rocket Builders, “BC has consistently been launching innovative technology companies that are attractive to investors. At this year’s upcoming Canadian Financing Forum being held on February 20, 2011, many of the “Ready to Rocket” companies are, as usual, expected to attract significant investment.”

This year’s predictive 2011 “Ready to Rocket” list of companies has been expanded to three separate lists that are address specific tech sectors. The three sectors are: 1) Information and Communications Technology (ICT) that includes information, communications, wireless, new media and internet technologies, 2) CleanTech and 3) Life Sciences. Announcements of “Ready to Rocket” for CleanTech and Life Sciences will be made on February 22 and February 27, 2011, respectively, and nominations are currently being accepted. For details on the “Ready to Rocket” list and to nominate a company for the CleanTech or Life Sciences ‘ listing, please visit http://www.readytorocket.com

2010 Ready to Rocket list results

2010 “Ready to Rocket” Report Card

Rocket Builders reports significant growth and employment among last year’s
2010 “Ready to Rocket” list of tech companies

VANCOUVER, BC – January 25, 2011

Each year, Rocket Builders releases a follow-up report card of the previous year’s “Ready to Rocket” list in conjunction with the announcement of the coming year’s list.

Despite last year’s challenging economy, the 2010 report card revealed better than average revenue gains, significant growth in new jobs, and a market focus on both the US and Western Europe.

“The average growth rate across 25 companies on our list was over 70%, with 5 companies more than doubling their 2009 revenue performance,” said Geoffrey Hansen, Managing Partner at Rocket Builders. “Equally impressive were the over 1,100 employees at these companies, and the 29% average headcount growth representing over 260 new jobs in BC that were created despite the slow economy.”

A significant factor in achieving the 70% growth rate was the fact that many of these companies are focused upon specific vertical markets.

“With many of the “Ready to Rocket” companies being vertically focused, we observe their growth rate to vary across industry focus,” said Reg Nordman, Managing Partner at Rocket Builders. “And despite the slow economic progress in the United States and Western Europe, many companies reported these regions offered the greatest sales growth.” According to research company Gartner, worldwide IT spending grew only 5.4% in 2010 and is forecast to grow at 5.1% in 2011.


Other key indicators in Rocket Builder’s 2010 report card:
40% of companies on the list secured $30M of new investment capital
Many companies that did not receive investment are profitably operating
One company, Bycast, was acquired by a US-based company
Approximately 260 new jobs were created last year

Rocket Builders also announced today that this year’s predictive 2011 “Ready to Rocket” listing of companies is being expanded to three separate lists that are address specific tech sectors. The three sectors are: 1) Information and Communications Technology (ICT) that includes information, communications, wireless, new media and internet technologies, 2) CleanTech and 3) Life Sciences.

For details on the “Ready to Rocket” list please visit http://www.readytorocket.com