After eggheads and tech wizards from across the North American startup landscape descended upon Vancouver for the first-ever Traction conference last June, organizer Ray Walia quickly realized he had a success on his hands.
The conference brought together speakers to talk specifically to startups looking to grow quickly, secure a solid customer base and begin monetizing.
“The speakers that came from Silicon Valley to speak at Traction in Vancouver wanted the conference to happen in Silicon Valley itself,” recalled Walia, CEO of the local Launch Academy accelerator.
“How often can you identify a Canadian conference that was so popular that it was demanded to go to San Francisco?”
Within four months, Launch Academy had already partnered with Silicon Valley startup AppDirect to bring the conference south of the border.
The conference returns to Vancouver again June 22-23, bringing with it notable tech minds like Domo chief marketing officer Heather Zynczak, The Honest Company co-founder Christopher Gavigan and Thumbtack CEO Marco Zappacosta.
Walia said the conference will be back in San Francisco this fall.
Part of the reason there's interest in California, he said, is that there isn’t as much dialogue going on about how to attract customers and begin monetizing in what is already home to many of the world’s biggest tech giants.
“Funding is getting more and more difficult to secure at the early stage and the companies that are at later stages know the value of having that strong customer base, that monetized customer base in order to increase your valuations so that you can raise money,” Walia said.
The fact this conversation is being brought up in Vancouver reflects both the city’s need for more capital investments as well as the maturity its own startup ecosystem is reaching, Walia added.
Such conferences are one of the ways an accelerator brings in revenue. They also rely on government grants, corporate sponsorship, tuition-based programs for entrepreneurs and charging fees to startups for use of its facilities.
After the fall Traction conference in San Francisco, Launch Academy may expand beyond the West Coast for the first time.
Walia said tech leaders from Toronto, New York, Arizona, Texas, Brazil and Dubai have all reached out to Launch Academy about bringing the conference to their respective jurisdictions in 2017.
@reporton
