Ready to Rocket: 2014

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

2015 Call for Nominations

Have a "hot" growth company in the technology sector you want the world to hear about? Nominate them to BC's 13th Annual "Ready to Rocket" list.

Rocket Builders is Seeking Nominations for the 2015 "Ready to Rocket" and "Emerging Rockets" Lists. This recognition program will showcase companies in ICT, CleanTech and Life Science sectors and will be presented February 26 2015. Rocket Builders is joined by Colliers International, Fasken Martineau, Go Recruitment, Garibaldi Capital, PWC, and Innovate Calgary in welcoming new nominations.

BC is home to many of Canada's most exciting technology companies. Rocket Builders has built a unique methodology for analyzing market trends and using this knowledge to predict revenue growth in the coming year. Each year Rocket Builders publishes lists which profile the BC companies that have the greatest potential in the coming year.

The "Ready to Rocket" Lists feature top technology companies that are best positioned to capitalize on the largest growth trends in the technology industry. This upcoming list will be the 13th year of this recognition list. We expect that companies selected to the "Ready to Rocket" list will outperform the economy and represent important trends that are creating rapid revenue growth.

We are seeking nominations for the 2015 "Ready to Rocket" lists that we will present on February 26th 2015. Nomination deadline is February 20th 2015, but submission as soon as possible will allow the selection committee more time to consider your nomination.

Nominate Now!

What are we looking for in "Ready to Rocket" companies?

CleanTech Ready to Rocket List for 2015

To qualify for nomination, a company must be beyond the proof of concept stage - customer validation, scalable demonstration project, and established industry relationships.

The selection committee is looking for companies that have the potential for 50% to 100% growth in the coming year, and are in good position to leverage industry trends or key industry partnerships.

CleanTech includes Renewable Energy (wind power, solar power, biomass, hydropower, biofuels), Green Transportation, Electric Motors, Green Chemistry, Lighting, Environmental Protection (air, water, soil) and any innovation that improves energy efficiency.

Life Sciences Ready to Rocket List for 2015

To qualify, a company must be entering a breakthrough stage in their maturity - customer validation, regulatory approval, and established industry relationships.

The selection committee is looking for early indicators of long-term potential and increasing shareholder value, such as passing key regulatory hurdles and achieving related validation steps.

Life Sciences Technology includes Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, Healthcare Information Technology and other innovations improving health.

ICT Ready to Rocket List for 2015

To qualify for nomination, a company must have more than $500K in revenue and a growing base of customers.

The selection committee is looking for companies that have the potential for 50% to 100% growth in the coming year, and are in good position to leverage industry trends or key industry partnerships.

ICT includes Information, Communications, Wireless, New Media and Internet technologies.

Nominations

Nominations can be submitted online at: http://www.readytorocket.com/p/nominations.html

Please nominate a company even if the company is "too early" to qualify as Rocket Builders also recognizes emerging companies. Many promising companies are too early in commercialization, too early in first revenues, or in transition to new markets or business models. Based on the potential of their technology alone, Rocket Builders recognizes their potential in a "Emerging Rockets" list. These companies represent companies to watch over the next few years and are likely to mature into "Ready to Rocket" companies.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Press Release - Mid Year Review of the 2014 Ready to Rocket List

Top BC Tech Companies Forecast Triple Digit Revenue Growth for 2014

Rocket Builders Mid Year Review of the 2014 Ready to Rocket List

VANCOUVER, BC - November 5, 2014

Rocket Builders recently gathered data to complete their yearly Mid Year Review on the companies on the 2014 Ready to Rocket ICT List and discovered high revenue growth, high full time employment growth and over ten million dollars raised in angel and venture capital financing.

Ready to Rocket is an annual list of the companies in Information Communications and Technology (ICT), Clean Tech and Life Sciences that Rocket Builders believes are most likely to show break out growth in the coming year. This year Rocket Builders focused on companies in the Information and Communications Technology List as these companies are at the heart of the British Columbia innovation ecosystem and they tend to have more revenue traction than companies in Clean Tech or Life Science.

Data showed early-stage companies experiencing up to 7X growth and larger companies expecting to see revenues grow by more than 100%. The major trends supporting the growth of the Ready-to-Rocket companies are Cloud, Social, Mobile, Big Data, and Security. The most successful companies are those that have translated these trends into opportunities in a specific segment.

“There has been a lot of excitement about start-ups in Vancouver, and this is good, but it is during the growth phase that most value is created and there needs to be more attention to and support for Vancouver's growth stage companies," said Rocket Builders partner Steven Forth. "A 1 or 2% difference in month-to-month growth makes a big difference early on.

Companies are projected to increase growth in full time employees by 34% by the end of the year. There was a 25% decline in revenues per employee, but this decline is likely due to the number of very successful companies that graduated from the Ready to Rocket List and the remaining companies are on average smaller and less mature. As large technology companies open offices in BC there will be upward pressure on local wages as well.

Reg Nordman, managing partner, is “constantly impressed by the resiliency of the Ready to Rocket companies to grow steadily regardless of economic events. It is a testimony to these companies’ abilities to address real needs in strong markets.”

The Ready-to-Rocket companies seem to have a balanced approach to metrics overall, but about half are focused only on backward looking financial metrics. This is like driving a car by looking in the rearview mirror. Companies have an opportunity to sharpen their differentiation by developing metrics that are specific to their offer and that measure the value to the customer. These are the metrics that can change future performance.

Contact Rocket Builders (rnordman@rocketbuilders.com) for access to more metrics.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Ready to Rocket Presentation 2014

Here is the briefing provided to investors and advisors of technology companies in Vancouver on March 12th 2014 at Robson Square Theatre. We are getting a lot of traffic today, so the following link may work better:

http://portal.sliderocket.com/ACPRT/Ready_to_rocket_2014_briefing

Rocket Builders Names Top Technology Companies To the “Ready to Rocket” lists for 12th Consecutive Year

Annual list highlights technology trends and those private

BC companies positioned for high growth in 2014.

VANCOUVER, BC – March 12, 2014

Rocket Builders today released its twelfth annual “Ready to Rocket” lists of British Columbia technology companies that are best positioned to capitalize on the technology sector trends that will lead them to faster growth than their peers. Rocket Builders also released results from its lists, with 1 company being acquired and 2 companies graduating from future consideration having achieved greater than $20 million in revenue.

The annual 2014 “Ready to Rocket” lists provide accurate predictions of private companies that will likely experience significant growth, venture capital investment or acquisition by a major player in the coming year. The lists cover 3 different technology sectors:

● Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

● Cleantech (CT)

● Life Science (LS)

The “Ready to Rocket” lists are the only predictive lists of its kind in North America, requiring many months of sector and company analysis.

“The technology sector continues to grow in B.C. and presents a growing challenge to select and identify the most likely to succeed.” said Geoffrey Hansen, Managing Partner at Rocket Builders. “Three elements characterize these ‘most likely to succeed’ high growth firms: a growing market opportunity, a unique competitive position and customer validation of a must-have value proposition.”

“The majority of companies on the Ready to Rocket lists do the majority of their business in the United States,” said Reg Nordman, Managing Partner at Rocket Builders, “Economic growth in the USA was modest (about 2%) in 2013, but is expected to be well over 3% in 2014. This economic boost, along with the weakening Canadian dollar, is expected to give B.C. technology companies a revenue boost next year. In past years when the Canadian dollar weakened, Ready to Rocket companies were able to be more competitive and increase profitability.”

The 2013 Ready to Rocket list for ICT performed extremely well. The median growth rate on that list was 50% growth, with the 6 companies exceeding 75% growth and 3 companies exceeding 100% growth. The majority of companies on the list had between 20% growth and 100% growth, and the list as a whole represented the creation of over 400 jobs (40% headcount growth). The 2014 list will feature 25 companies, and the list can be found here:

http://www.readytorocket.com/2014/03/2014-ready-to-rocket-ict-list.html

“The number of ICT companies in B.C. continues to grow, with a number of high profile accelerators contributing to this trend.” said Steven Forth, Senior Partner at Rocket Builders. “The ICT sector as a whole has been driven by cloud computing, mobile and social trends and technologies, and we see those factors driving many of the B.C. companies. Of particular interest is the trend of the ‘Internet of Things’ and ‘Big Data’ which seems to be influencing some of the emerging companies.”

The 2013 Ready to Rocket list for Cleantech also performed extremely well, with a median revenue growth rate approaching 75%. The Cleantech list companies created over 125 new jobs, representing over 35% employment growth. The majority of companies had between 20% and 100% revenue growth and an impressive 33% of the companies on the list were able to more than double their revenue. The 2014 list will feature 15 companies, and the list can be found here:

http://www.readytorocket.com/2014/03/2014-ready-to-rocket-cleantech-list.html

According to Dave Thomas, Senior Partner at Rocket Builders, “The Cleantech sector in B.C. is broad and becoming more diverse. Growth rates are better than many other regions of North America. B.C. has strong Cleantech companies across key industrial verticals such as: Clean energy, Oil Sands, Petroleum, Transportation and Construction.”

The 2013 Ready to Rocket list for Life Science featured many new investments and key milestones. The 2014 list will feature 10 companies, and the list can be found here:

http://www.readytorocket.com/2014/03/2014-ready-to-rocket-life-science-list.html

According to Thealzel Lee, Senior Partner at Rocket Builders, “2013 has seen significant investments in BC’s life science companies. The major trends influencing this sector include evolving regulatory issues, the need for efficiency in healthcare delivery, and the ongoing convergence with IT technologies.”

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Tuesday, December 16, 2014

2015 Call for Nominations

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Press Release - Mid Year Review of the 2014 Ready to Rocket List

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Ready to Rocket Presentation 2014

Rocket Builders Names Top Technology Companies To the “Ready to Rocket” lists for 12th Consecutive Year

2014 Life Science Emerging Rockets

2014 Cleantech Emerging Rockets

2014 ICT Emerging Rockets

2014 Ready to Rocket Life Science List

2014 Ready to Rocket CleanTech List

2014 Ready to Rocket ICT List