Digital Media People to Watch in BC in 2008
One of the benefits of blogging about technology in BC is the opportunity to meet and interact with innovative technology leaders and evangelists everyday. During 2007, we’ve had the pleasure of covering some great people, start-ups, and events and as a result are very excited about what 2008 promises for the BC Tech industry.
To kick off the year, we’ve put together a list of British Columbians in the Digital Media space that we think are worth watching in 2008. While all have been super successful to date, this upcoming year promises to be a BIG one. Mark our word.
David Ascher, MailCo – Ascher heads up this spin off of Thunderbird technology from Mozilla Corporation (Firefox) and is building a team in Vancouver. Mozilla’s strong backing will give Ascher the flexibility to build open source software that takes email to the next level.
Ian Andrew Bell, Something Simpler - Bell is a Silicon Valley veteran who is bringing his consumer market savvy to bear building a series of high-profile services leveraging the PubSub realtime content matching engine. His small team of industry veterans will release the first of their services, a Facebook recommendation engine called “Pulse”, in January.
Leonard Brody, NowPublic.com – NowPublic.com was named one of the Top 50 websites by TIME magazine in 2007 and went on to record the 2nd largest VC financing of the year - $11.6 Million. All eyes will be on Brody to see what he can do as an encore.
Jonathon Ehrlich, Communicate.com – Former Executive VP of Online at Indigo Books & Music came West to join Communicate.com in late 2007. Ehrlich has big e-commerce plans for a portfolio of online properties that include Boxing.com, Call.com, and Cricket.com.
Markus Frind, Plentyoffish – Vancouver’s most successful one-man operation is due to cash-in on his Google Adsense cash cow as online dating consolidation moves North. Will he find the right match?
Kris Krug and Robert Scales, Raincity Studios – Raincity has big plans for their recent Bryght acquisition and 2008 should be an interesting year as they integrate the Bryght product and expand into China.
Boris Mann, Raincity Studios - Vancouver Tech evangelist and open source specialist recently sold Bryght and is rumoured to be planning his next big thing in town to help even more companies get started here.
Danny Robinson, Strutta - Robinson is a serial entrepreneur who previously founded two Internet companies (Peerflix and Spinway) is due to launch eagerly anticipated Strutta in early 2008.
Fred Speckeen, AERS - Speckeen brings two decades of experience to Victoria-based e-commerce analytics leader AERS. Founding Sukow Brothers deserve kudos for growing annual revenue to $2 Million and recognizing the need for an experienced CEO. Look for Speckeen to attract the spotlight to AERS in 2008.
Tom Williams, GiveMeaning - GiveMeaning has been reducing the barriers separating people’s generosity from the problems that need attention since 2004 but you can’t help but feel that the former 14 year-old Apple prodigy is just getting started. Look for him to take crowd-sourced giving up a notch in 2008.
As Techvibes continues to increase coverage in other technology hotbeds, look for similar lists throughout the year. And if we’ve missed someone, be sure to add your pick to the comments below.
- Raincity Studios acquires Bryght
- Pacific Northwest Team to build Brazil.com
- Best Companies to work for in BC
- Live from nextMEDIA: Canada’s Hottest Digital Media Innovators
13 comments
kk+ said on Jan 2, 2008 at 11:21 am:
honored to make your list. with all the interesting things goin on in Vancouver these days the list could have been a lot longer!
add ian bell/weston trimesta to yer list. excited to see pul.se launch and feel it’s going to be strong. also don’t forget about dave/alexei/bryan/dre etc over at nitobi. they keep quiet but are always up to seriously interesting stuff. 
Cinci Csere said on Jan 2, 2008 at 3:20 pm:
Let me know if anyone is interested in CaseCamp 2008 http://www.casecamp.org, it would be great to have inspiring stories and idea sharing, thank you!
kk+ said on Jan 3, 2008 at 2:15 pm:
PS. I posted this to my Facebook and my friend Romina pointed out that they list is made up entirely of men.
Hmm. Interesting. Why do you guys think that is? Who would you add to this list?
Dave O and I are working on a supplemental list featuring BC’s women to watch on the tech scene.
DaveO said on Jan 3, 2008 at 2:38 pm:
I’ve added a New Year’s resolution to have a beverage with each of these gents at least twice this year - should be done in a couple of weeks ;-).
PS Like how Krug and Scales are becoming joined at the hip a la Jagger and Richards.
Miss604’s Canuck Life :: A Vancouver Blog » Blog Archive » Friday Morning Link Fest: From Caucuses to Geekery said on Jan 4, 2008 at 5:01 am:
[...] Studios responds to Techvibe’s “Vancouver tech-industry leaders to watch in 2008” as there are no women represented. Kris Krug and Dave Olson put together an amazing list of [...]
Danny Robinson said on Jan 5, 2008 at 1:01 am:
I’m honored and pretty excited about 2008. It’ll be a great year for Vancouver startups. I’m glad to be here, and not in the noisy valley.
And, DaveO, i’m always up for beverages.
Ian Bell said on Jan 14, 2008 at 12:28 pm:
I wrote some context around this at ianbell.com. Sorry, forgot to trackback.
Roshan Shah said on Jan 18, 2008 at 6:32 pm:
I’m glad to see Dan’s name there. Boss is rocking again!. Well good to see so many people I know personally- Boris, Kris and Robert. Congratulation guys!
Launch Party Vancouver 3 - January 25 « Maura this, Maura that said on Jan 27, 2008 at 11:43 pm:
[...] photographer/tech guy - Duane Storey captured some photos of the evening and groups shots of the Digital Media People to Watch in 2008 and Raincity’s list of Tech Women to Watch in 2008 as well. As soon as I see them, I will [...]
Goalie launches an eVite for Sports Teams said on Feb 15, 2008 at 3:18 pm:
[...] Bell of Something Simpler fame (and our Digital People to Watch in BC list) launched version 1.0 of his pet project RosterBot today. RosterBot is an RSVP system for sports [...]
Duvar Kagidi said on Mar 2, 2008 at 4:28 am:
est il availible en Francais, my English not good
Victoria’s AERS launches Terapeak 5.0 said on Apr 15, 2008 at 8:24 am:
[...] from Vancouver Island. After being named to Techvibes’ Digital People to Watch in BC list and then premiering at #3 on the Victoria Start-up Index for March, Fred Speckeen and Terapeak [...]
Tom Lee said on Jun 23, 2008 at 4:55 am:
The story about Markus and his site plentyoffish.com is just fantastic, a great success story about one person outperforming company’s with 300~400 employees! Wow, keep up the good work Markus.
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