James Dean started dPoint Technologies 10 years ago with his friend and business partner, David Kadylak. The clean-tech company makes an advanced building ventilation membrane that improves energy efficiency.
Before he created dPoint, the venture capital investors behind a Vancouver Island company called Greenlight Power had brought Dean on to manage the company. Two years later, the company was sold for four times its previously assessed value.
While securing venture capital is always a challenge for British Columbia-based tech companies, it’s doubly difficult for the clean-tech sector, where investment funding has been hard to come by for the last decade.
“Over the last 10 years at dPoint it’s been really tough raising money,” Dean said. “[It’s important to] bootstrap the business because you’re never going to know if you’re going to be able to raise the next round.”
Instead of relying on venture capital investment, Dean said his company has focused on making strategic investments with companies that can open up markets as well as lend dPoint credibility.
One of those partners has been a large European heat recovery company.
“They manufacture a product with our membrane in it and they’re selling it to their competitors, so they’re bringing us revenue that would have been tough for us to get on our own.”
Another has been a real estate developer in Toronto that tested the product with first one apartment, then one floor of a building and then an entire building. The developer now uses the products in all its buildings, and dPoint sells to 25 other Toronto condo developers.
For Dean’s company, making partnerships that also provide market access has proven more valuable than venture capital money. Dean believes that in the future, investments from high-net-worth individuals interested in environmental issues might also be a source of funds for clean-tech companies like his.
On just doing it | “If you’ve got that entrepreneurial spirit, just go and do it. For me it was a little bit tough to leave a salary and job security, but I knew at the end of the day I wasn’t going to be happy doing that for the rest of my life.”
Has a work or life challenge taught you a key career lesson? Contact Jen St. Denis at [email protected].
