The hurdles to launching a tech startup may be fewer than ever. If you’ve got talent, Internet access and moxie to burn, the leap is yours.
That’s not to say you’ll land on your feet, much less keep your dream running. But going it alone won’t make it any easier.
This message isn’t lost on Eric Preisz, CEO of Vancouver-based GarageGames LLC, a provider of video game technology.
After relocating his company’s headquarters to downtown Vancouver from Las Vegas over the summer, Preisz wasted little time helping launch Vancouver Tech Project, the city’s first self-organized, open community focused on bringing together technology professionals, enthusiasts and investors to show off their work, teach each other and grow.
The reason for the project’s launch hinges on both the relative ease of creating a tech startup and the wisdom of connecting with like-minded entrepreneurs: “Determination and hard work and a very small group of people with laptops can become community-changing companies overnight,” Preisz said in an email to The Columbian. “By bringing together these small groups, we are able to learn from each other and share our strengths and lessons learned.”
A central vehicle for creating such connections is the tech project’s Vantechy component: free, biweekly meet-ups with breakout sessions that, as the website puts it, “will entertain and educate you on topics important to tech startups.” The next Vantechy event runs 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, at Torque Coffee, across from the Hilton Vancouver Washington on Columbia Street downtown.
The Tech Project arrives as local government and business leaders formally work to cultivate high-tech companies. About a year ago, the Washington State Department of Commerce named portions of Vancouver and Camas as an Innovation Partnership Zone, or IPZ. It opens possibilities for funding additional fiber-optic cable, and for development of a business incubator to develop technologies and talent. It also aims to foster collaboration between research institutions, businesses, workforce training officials and local governments.
The Vancouver-Camas IPZ, one of 18 such zones in the state, is called the Applied Digital Technology Accelerator. It includes Vancouver’s downtown and waterfront, as well as both sides of Southeast 192nd Avenue.
Preisz said the innovation zone and the tech project are “highly collaborative, with very similar goals of growing technology in Vancouver.” They’re just structured differently. The Tech Project “may change goals more frequently as it self-organizes,” Preisz said, while the innovation zone “has more structure that aligns with the designation given to it by the state.”
The city of Vancouver welcomes the rise of the Vancouver Tech Project. “It’s exactly the kind of project that the (innovation zone) is about,” said Sandra Towne, the city’s planning and policy manager, and administrator for the zone. Towne said the zone helps magnify grass-roots efforts such as the tech project while encouraging new tech initiatives. “It creates a buzz,” she said. “It creates that brand.”
Backers also are aware of what’s actually in the zone that may help expand or attract tech companies: “Geographically, the area is also big enough to allow for growth with vacant land around the downtown waterfront and available industrial land at 192nd, but small enough to focus in on a targeted industry and collaborative research opportunity,” according the zone’s business plan. The zone also is “supported by 400 route miles of fiber, proximity to an international airport and a non-landlocked port, as well as a nascent downtown renaissance.”
Mike Bomar, president of the Columbia River Economic Development Council — a partner in the innovation zone — said Preisz’s work in helping kick off the tech project exemplifies his commitment to “make something happen” rather than being content to just be here.
Preisz said Vancouver possessed “a lot of potential energy” for something like the tech project before GarageGames moved its headquarters to the city in July. “All we did was launch the first event, send a few emails, and now the movement is taking on a life of it’s own,” he said. “No one really owns the group or brand. The culture of the group is to make of this what you want, but don’t wait for someone else to take the first step towards something you think it important.”
