Learning to Peak at the Right Time
It was good to see a local start-up getting some well-deserved media attention with Jim Bagnall’s recent profile of IPeak Network’s CEO Martin Horne in Saturday’s Ottawa Citizen. Under Martin’s leadership, IPeak is poised for growth.
IPeak is a great Ottawa example of a company that started with a good technical idea and a desire to learn how to turn that idea into a successful enterprise. Not only did Matt Williams, founder of IPeak, help develop the company’s core technology but Matt was very open to learning from others who had built companies before. He was able to gather the best people around him early on to move the business forward.
IPeak was a two-man operation when OCRI’s Investment and Commercialization team began working with them three years ago. When they graduated from the OCRI Business Accelerator they had expanded to seven employees, had secured their first sale, and raised over $1M in angel financing. They also were selected as a winner of the Canada’s Top 10 Competition which gave them exposure to a broad range of investors in Canada and the U.S. at an early stage.
Pulling together the right team has been one of Matt’s key strengths as a founder. He was not afraid to let go of the reigns as CEO and focus on his strengths on the technology side of the business as CTO. Couple that with his passion for the IPeak product and validation from key markets that his company met a market need and he was able to attract a high caliber CEO in Martin Horne to help grow the company to the next stage.
IPeak is just one example of how founders in our portfolio are working to build success in their own verticles and businesses through working with our team. It is an approach we think will result in the growth of more leaders like Matt and more growing, competitive companies like IPeak.
That’s the type of development that OCRI is working towards for Ottawa companies and entrepreneurs.
Leave a Comment