Ready to Rocket: January 2011

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.

2011 ICT Emerging Rockets List

Hootsuite Media Inc.
Indicee Inc.
Mailchannels Corporation
Mingleverse Laboratories Inc.
Mobidia Technology Incorporated
Mobio Identity Systems Inc.
Optemo Technologies Inc.
QR Loyalty Systems Inc.
Veridae Systems Inc.
Wantsa Media Canada Inc.
Wishpond Technologies Ltd.
Xomo Digitial Inc

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

Ready to Rocket

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