Lunch Academy 006 - A Solid B (Starring Vivian Chan)

Welcome back everybody to lunch. Academy Episode 006 it's been a while. Well, it's been two weeks.

Yeah, we took a week break. We realized it was way too much to do it every week.

So it means that we don't need lunch every week. We're getting a little bit fat.

Yeah.

But anyways, I am Sam, your co host and as always with me she's like, oh yeah, I have to introduce myself. Star of the show. We have shade on the right here.

Hey.

Hi everyone.

Hello.

And we also have a very special guest with us today. We have Vivian chan. So fun fact, there's two chans at the table. Obviously Vivian is the superior one. We've agreed. No, she's chan number one and is chan number two.

I'm chan number two on my own show.

I mean your handle is another.

Yeah, another.

So another obviously means you're Vivian.

Her handle is the Vivian chan. And then yours is another Sam chan. It should be.

Yeah, I'm going to change it now.

No, you got V Chan. This is free plug for you.

Yeah.

And so I get S Chan.

Pretty excited to have Vivian on the show. Vivian is the former national accelerator operations manager. That's a long title.

Yeah, it's a made up title. I was told to make it up and I did and then when we became national I added national just to make it longer.

Yeah, national acceleration operations manage manager at wavefront. So that pretty much means that she ran all the programming for the accent.

I ran around a lot.

Yeah, she ran around and managed a bunch of early growth and growth stage companies and also did all of the partner programming and all the community. So big role. Yeah, big. Happy to have her on the show. I'm like, I kind of look up to her because it seems like she's doing what I'm doing. But steroids on your title too.

Yeah, it's not that hard.

Like literally we can do it right now. By the end of the show you.

Just tell your marketing team to add a your business card and it gets printed, you're done.

Let me text Ray. She's gonna be national. We could be national incubator operations.

I just don't know if I want the responsibility that comes with that.

It means you go to Newfoundland a lot.

East coast is great.

That sounds fun.

It is awesome out there.

The sunrise is earlier there.

Oh, and there's lobster.

No, it wasn't a fact. It was a joke. Anyway, so welcome to our show. What?

It's a Chan thing to do. Just to be awkwardly like anything.

Yeah. We made a whole show out of being awkwardly.

No, it's great.

I love it.

And we're literally making fun of ourselves for working too hard when we did a weekly show. Now it's a bi weekly show.

Bi weekly show.

That's the whole thing. This is the offside banter of everyday lives here. This is all the in between stuff recorded on a screen for all of you to enjoy forever. Forever. But anyway, you're here. We're glad that you can make it. I texted you a couple days ago. It does come on the heels of some pretty big news in Vancouver. Tech.

Yep.

So, I mean, that's. That's kind of the elephant in the room, is that you were part of, you know, an amazing accelerator for over a decade, or just about a decade.

Yeah, I mean, well, Wavefront has been going on for 10 years, and I was. I've been there for just under eight. So in tech startup world, I'm a lifer.

She's a lifer.

I'm a lifer.

That's heavy.

Yeah. And, you know, for those that don't know, Wavefronts announced that they are closing their doors, I guess as of Monday. Friday.

Friday.

Friday.

I'll go with Friday.

Friday. Yeah. So that's. That's a tough lump to take. But. But I mean, where you're coming from and for all the people that are listening that don't understand, like, what. What do you think? What was Wavefront's purpose and how do you think it did?

Yeah, I mean, it's crazy because, I mean, having been there for almost eight years, Wavefront, when I started, we didn't even have accelerator programs yet. Like, everything was brand new. We were probably one of the first, at least part of that first group of accelerators in Canada. So it was kind of interesting to figure out what that even meant. How do you even work with startups? What are the things that startups need and how do we make sure we can provide that? So it was a lot of learning and a lot of, you know, every year making it different and changing it up just to make sure it matches to what the needs are of the community. So it was a little. It was hard back in the day just because there was no one to really follow in the footsteps of. We were kind of left to figure it out on our own. But no, I think in the 10 years, we've done a lot of good things, and for me personally, it was a good run. I think we helped a lot of people, and that's something I think, regardless of you know, us closing and all that stuff. I think it's something to be really proud of.

Yeah, of course.

I know for myself, like, the programs that, you know, I helped build and run, like, we put through over 250 companies, early stage companies. So for me, like, that's huge. These are 250 companies that wouldn't be in existence otherwise.

I think that's why everybody was shocked because you've always. We've always seen Wavefront as kind of the original incubator. Right. The OG They've had such a long run and they've done so much work, and I would. It.

Yeah. Space.

And they stayed niche. They stayed like they stuck to their ground.

Yeah, we. We knew what our expertise was. We knew that was something that we could provide the best value and the most help. And so we stuck with that. Knowing that, like, we didn't want to just go and be the generals for everything.

Yeah. This is what we're good at that. Right. Because at Launch Academy, we're trying to stay niche, we're trying to stay early stage tech, and we get opportunities every day. They're like, oh, this is a cool company and we want to take them on, but we want to stay, like, true to our beginnings and stay at early stage.

For us, having seen over the last few years all these different accelerators and incubators and other organizations that can help, it's been really cool to see that everyone has their thing because it also, for me personally, has made my job a lot easier. So if someone comes to me and they're not the right fit at Wavefront, I know exactly who to point them to versus just sending them out to the woods and being like, go fend for yourself, child. Hope no wolf eats you.

Yeah. That's what's really great. I mean, incubation, like kind of community here, Vancouver, there's one for everything and one for the stage. Yeah. And we don't even look at each other as competitors.

No. And that was such a big thing for me a few years ago was I was hearing word on the street that we were all competitors, and it wasn't coming from the people who were running the organizations. I mean, I would fight you anyways just for fun. I would win. But. But no, I think we spent a lot of time and effort and still doing so just trying to explain the offerings that everyone has and how we're very different and complementary and not actually in competition with each other. I think over the years, we've put in a lot of time and effort on building you know, events or whether it's a conference or a small scale workshop and doing them together and collaboratively versus being like, this is my thing, don't touch it. So I think that's, that's a really big thing for this community is to have done it.

Where's the community? I know you touched on it from when you first started working at Wavefront. How is it different than what it is now?

Oh my gosh. Just the fact that there are so many people that can help and are willing to help, number one. I mean, back then, because we were one of the only accelerators, by default, everyone comes to us and whether or not they're the right fit. And now it's like there are so many options for everyone. There's no shortage of help and assistance for people who need it. I think we've also learned a lot of lessons from each other in terms of best practices for our programming and whether it's something as small as like, what should my co working space look like? It's like, well, so and so has done it already. You should go and talk to them. So we've learned a lot from each other, so I think it's only going to get bigger and better. But that being said, it's also going to be a lot tougher because, you know, now there's so many other options. So again, not to say we're competition, but at the end of the day, everyone's running a business.

Yeah.

So does that mean that there's actually going to be more startups or if it's the same amount that all gets start to spread out so everyone gets a smaller chunk of the pie?

Yeah.

So those are things, I think again, it's just the more everyone's willing to work with each other and talk to each other, it's only going to be better. And I think as long as we're kind of, you know, being a united front and trying to work together to help, I think that's good. I don't think everyone should be siloed and like running off and doing their own thing. It's only going to hurt yourselves.

Yeah, Vancouver is good for that. Yeah, that was my biggest kind of surprise when I first moved to Vancouver. And the difference between Montreal and Vancouver and the atmosphere and the language, it's pretty much like, yeah, I was like the French. No, like the level of collaboration in Vancouver here is incredible. Like everybody, not even within just like your industry, but adjacent industries, everybody wants to support. Like, even for us, we have no kind of shortage of Partners and people that are willing to come in and do workshops on their expertise and want to support the tech community.

And with Wayfront and I've been super lucky to be a part of it, is we were a national organization. So even though we were headquartered here in Vancouver, we actually had a presence in some way across the country. So for me, not only can I call Sam and be like, I've got this problem. Have you seen it, done it before? What do I do? And he denies me. So then I go to somebody else at Launch Academy, help me.

And how does that presence change now with the news? Like, I mean, I feel like you probably know as much as we do in terms of what was released.

Yeah.

And the house, like, how's that gonna trickle through the contract? Yeah, yeah.

I mean I'm at least I'm speaking on behalf of myself currently working on helping all those companies transition. So whether that means they were just a tenant company and now I'm helping them secure co working space elsewhere. There's, you know, so many options just in co working space alone. So they're working on just finding their next home. And again for us, we were never a co working space first. We were an organization that helped accelerate companies first. Yeah, we just happened to have space. So it was, we were always kind of that landing pad before somebody went to their next office. Whether it was, you know, a closed door office or their own office. We've just again accelerated that process a little bit faster to use.

That's where the word came from.

That's where the word came from. We just do everything a little faster.

English with.

And so right now at Launch Academy we're, I mean that's pretty much what we do in different areas in terms of accelerating and trying to. You come in and then we want to get you out the door.

So that, yeah, we, we have, we.

Are having a hard time getting people out the door.

Yeah.

Because the space, the office space in Vancouver is limited and then it's expensive.

Yeah, it's actually more expensive than I.

Think limit an issue as an accelerator. It's like, okay, you get them to a point where they're ready to go, but now helping them transition into a new place is impossible.

It's not impossible. It's just a lot of research and hard work for some of the companies. They're a little bit larger. They were hitting that double digit employee number. They were currently being housed in offices already with us. So we were kind of that step before they went off on their own. So they're now again accelerating the process of that and trying to find whether or not they're going to go take up two offices in another co working space or is it actually time for them to buckle down and like take care of themselves? For the smaller startups, a lot of them are drop in or they have a single cubicle. There's no shortage of that. Whether it's through, you know, you guys like as partners, you know, launch, BC Tech, Spring, all of those guys, the profile has been helpful. A lot of them have been just literally pick up, go to the next and it hasn't really changed. And my whole thing was to minimize the impact on their business as much as possible. So if you can go and grab your laptop and walk next door and set up to their wi fi and continue business as usual, that's great. So it's just an inconvenience I would say, unfortunately, but I'm not worried. There's space out there, there's a lot of.

And it's good to hear that you guys are out there being very supportive in the transition and we should be. I feel like a lot of people out there saw that news and saw the script on the website and was like, yeah, what, did they just drop everybody and go?

No, I mean it's obvious that you.

Guys wouldn't do that. But I feel like a lot of people kind of start freaking out that and rightly so.

Rightly so. I mean, let's be honest, I freaked a little. But there's, there's a few of us that, you know, over the years we've been really, really lucky to have worked with such great companies and support organizations and partners that like, you can't walk away from that.

Yeah.

So yeah, no, we've just been working.

With the exact same people we normally.

Would be working every day and just trying to help transition everybody. So everyone's been great, everyone's been super supportive in terms of even just programming. Like I'm not ending that. I will find a way to continue and complete that nicely. And a lot of our partners have stepped up to offer help. So now it's just more like going through the process, making sure everyone has the right information and then transitioning them over to another either same or similar program just with a different partner. That's all.

That's great. Yeah, well, it's not great, but that's great.

I mean, yeah, yeah, it, it happened. But I think if for me personally it's, it was a great eight years. We did amazing things, created a lot of good things. For companies. So I. For me, I'd rather celebrate what we accomplished than dwell on anything else because there's. There's only so much I can.

It's also where you met me. So.

Yeah, that was a low point in my life.

What a lot of Launch Academy history that happened at. Wait, I love it.

So that is where I met Launch Academy's future CEO, Ray Walia.

That's where I also met. That's where Ray sat outside my office.

Yeah. Now. Now we are outside his office. It's weird how that world works, but, yeah, like, that's where I met Ray. That's where I met Vivian.

Yeah.

And the reason that I'm able to program manage the way I do, basically, I look at a company and I go, would he do something that I would do? And I just make sure they don't do anything that I did to you. For example, never bring my keys.

You never brought your key? Yeah, because he got his key right away and never brought it.

It's like an rfid. It screws up my credit cards.

He's just.

Literally, there's a thing there.

He lucked out because I worked late every single night, and he would text me out of office hours. He'd be like, 6:30pm and just be like, you better be there. I need to get in. And I'd have to go down and, like, open the door.

Just the worst member ever.

Or if, like, I really wanted to leave, he's like, I'm 15 minutes away, and I'd have to sit 15 minutes and work longer just to wait for this chump to show up.

I hope Ray was a better member.

Oh, Ray was great.

Ray was great.

Ray was easy to work with.

I never came in on office hours.

And he never brought good beer.

His sound I did was. Wait, did I. Did I host an event at Wavefront?

So he.

Okay. You know, he hosted a meetup group, and I was helping with that. I said, you know, obviously, I'm gonna show up and help and lend a hand. It was one of our office buildings. He shows up, of course, without his key, and then says, I need help bringing in the drinks. And I was like, what? So he put me to work, and then I get to his trunk, and he buys, like, this giant case of PBRs. I was like, what the heck is wrong with you?

It was on sale. I still. I still remember the store.

It's on sale. And I was like, way to be so Asian about that one. Like, he chose price over tea.

I don't drink beer.

I know. And the best part, everybody knows the devs, obviously they love beer like our developers love our beer. Shout out to all the developers who, you know, drank all my beer from my fridge. But even they made a comment about.

It and they were like, dude, why.

Are there PBRs at our meetup group?

Who bought this? Bring Corona.

I was gonna bring PBR today, but I figured I wouldn't. Just in case I didn't want to overlap your food.

You know, it's Friday, we gotta start drinking at some point.

But you won't be drinking pbr. Apparently not a shout out to pbr.

Sorry to all the hipsters.

Apparently it's not.

Hey, PBR is doing something right. They're still here. There's something to be said.

I had to Google twice what the R stood for.

What does it stand for?

Ribbon.

Ribbon. Oh, I didn't know that either.

Blue ribbon.

Extra beer of choice.

Anyway, so you mentioned a couple of great resources that your company is now going to.

Yeah.

Where are you finding that they're going? Or are they in the middle of certain things or some of it is physical space, but what about some of the other things that's going on?

Yeah, so physical space again, either other accelerators or incubators that have opened up their doors or just co working space again. Some of our companies had already graduated programming so for them they just need space and a good community for that space. Our companies have been amazing working amongst each other and I don't know if they're wanting to kind of be by themselves anymore. I think they, they now like being a part of the community. Some of them are working with actual commercial real estate because they are again at that point where they are looking, looking for their own offices now. So that's great. A couple of our friends have stepped up and in terms of programming again, it's just kind of paused for the week to give myself a week to help them out. But you know, we're one of the accelerators under BC Innovation Council now. Innovate bc. But yeah, I'm working with them to help the companies transition to either another partner organization or whatever it is just to continue that programming. Our executives in residents also work closely with, with them, so they'll be involved in that whole transition process. They've been amazing. So shout out to them. They've actually continued on all their meetings throughout this time just to help the company so that they don't have a break in advisory services.

And how many people are we talking about right now in terms of like under in terms of companies that you're.

Trying to transition out, I mean we have about 30 tenants. Some of them are active program companies, some of them are graduates. In our program, I've got about 20 or so. And it's a mix of those that are just on their last leg of that programming. They're still just taking mentorship and making use of the resources and a cohort that I recently started, they're the ones that really trying to make sure that their programming doesn't stall.

So public service announcement for any wavefront alumni that are that are here. If you want to get connected with Launch Academy, just shoot me an email. S H a D eaunchacademy CA S H A D E on yeah, that's good though.

That's fine.

Other people work for him.

Again, not for me.

I'm scared that one day Sam is gonna forward his emails automatically to me.

You mean it's not already?

No. I'm surprised and he gets mad when I. Because I'm the person in charge of going through our info at Mailbox and then you should forward that. I forward so many emails, even if I know they're useless. I just.

She likes we get some great emails. I think that's gonna be a segment on our show. I just read some of these emails. I'll take out the name.

I feel like that's an ego tribute to you. I feel like that's something.

I think if you don saying like I think we should be nice about it and not say who sent it.

Yeah.

But just the general gist of what that email's about. I think it would be hilarious because we get some pretty good ones too and I'd be happy to send those.

I think that's a future segment right there. But anyway, in terms of. In terms of companies, we understand, you know, there's different places they could go. What do you think the impact is going to be now going forward for the Vancouver community? And I guess specific specifically tech.

I think it sucks. Personally. I think it's a huge loss. It's sad. It's a little bit of a disappointment. Again, we. We did a lot of good things. But that being said, I think a lot of people can take, you know, what we've done in 10 years and our highs and our lows and learn from it and just improve their own organizations more. I don't think we're gonna see a shortage of accelerators and other similar type organizations. I think. I think everyone wants to get in on that. Yeah, I'm hoping this Means it doesn't really affect too much in terms of the people wanting to become startups or entrepreneurs. I'm hoping that doesn't affect that at all. It shouldn't. But I do hope to see more startups doing things that are impactful. There's a lot of opportunities out there and whether that's like for us, you know, we were dabbling in that smart cities and you know, all that stuff. We've got companies doing amazing things in the health, you know, life sciences side. I'm hoping that it's. Those guys will just keep encouraging the next.

Yeah.

Kind of generation of entrepreneurs. I don't, I don't hope to see that there's a shortage of these brilliant people doing good things. There's lots of people that can help and I only see us doing more and more of this stuff just without, wait front being a part of it.

So are you. Are you sick of Vancouver tech now? You're like, finally, I'm done with this crap.

Are you gonna leave us? Calgary, don't go to Calgary. Don't leave us. If you go to Toronto, I'm gonna cry.

I have not made plans to leave Vancouver at the moment. I will try my best to stay here. I. I love this tech community. That you ecosystem has been great. Like watching it from when I first started at Wavefront to what it is now is amazing. Like, everyone's done such a good job at just building the city to what it is now. And actually even outside of Vancouver, because I'm lucky and I get to work with people across Canada is seeing that Across Canada has been amazing as well. I still want to get involved. Like, I don't want to leave necessarily. I think I.

And I think you at this point having this much experience in the Vancouver text scene, if you leave, that would be a massive loss. I feel like you have a lot to offer. Like, that's a lot of just. Yeah, no, but like, and you've been. You're my favorite part of yours. Eight right now already.

Yeah, I would. It would have been eight years at.

Wayfront and that kind of like experience and talent needs to just move on and keep helping the Vancouver.

That's the Beyonce song, right?

That's what Ray used to call me, right? Beyonce. So he knew. He knew. That's Ray Walia.

Say, that's like up there in nicknames.

What is it better than? Is it better than my double S?

Double S? Yeah. I've never had a nickname and I'm just waiting.

I gave you one. Double S. Yeah.

But that's not good.

She's telling you it sucks. Basically.

I'll keep working at it. But, like, speaking of national impact, I mean, you went to an interesting event last week.

Yeah. Okay. So last week, I attended the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade scorecard release. It's so long.

That's why we have those, like, actors.

As I explained this. Yeah. So they did this breakfast event where they presented and released their scorecard, which they do every two years. And they do this to kind of try to lead Vancouver in the right direction by taking all the information that they can. And they compare Vancouver to. I think it's 19 other cities that are similar. So they are not. They're trying to keep everybody on the same playing field, but then they compare them in terms of different criteria, one being economic and the other one being social. And there's many different dimensions in those two categories, and they rank them, and so it just. They do it so that they get a good idea of what Vancouver is missing and what is allowing it to grow. And so where. Where should they be focusing their energy for future policies and things like that? And I was actually very interested in. Very happy to hear that this is being done every two years, so that decisions are being made in kind of a cohesive. Everybody's on the same page in terms of, like, we've got the data. This is what we're basing our decisions on. This is where we're at. This is where we want to be. We're not just making things up. We've put a lot of effort into comparing ourselves to the world.

Made a whole book on it.

Yeah. Made a whole, like, this thing. Sam was like, I'm not reading this. It's too long.

Just tell me what grade I got, Mom.

And so. Okay, so everybody's. The grade that we got. We're actually number seventh overall. And we made top ten. Yeah. And we. Yeah, yeah. It's pretty amazing. And we did go up two ranks in the last two years.

We improved. Yeah.

That's everything mom wanted, actually.

Yeah. That's going up on the fridge, you guys.

At the breakfast event, the. One of the speakers was like, I can't remember what his position is, but he's top person. Probably something.

Three or four awards.

He was saying. He was like, vancouver is a solid B. And we're. And he's like. And we're okay with that. It's like that. He was like, no, he was making fun of the fact that, like, we're so Canadian. We're just okay with being a B no we need.

But also like 7 out of 20 is such like a Vancouver place to be like we can never, never be like really bad or like really good.

We will never be the worst and.

We'Re like very like indecisive kind of just right in the middle.

The thing that bothered me a little bit is that yeah we're seventh but if you look at us and like so we're seventh overall and then if you look at ourselves in economic ranking and social ranking we fall in different areas. So number one is Singapore and they've always been number one. I think they've been number one for like the last four years. But they do really well economically but do terrible socially. So we're actually better than Singapore socially.

Chew gum.

Yeah, I don't know.

That's what everything knows about Singapore socially.

The overall ranking actually let me go back to this. What's annoying is that Calgary is beating us and Toronto is beating us. Calgary is second.

We're very competitive again.

Toronto is six. Very competitive.

Yeah, I don't care about Singapore. You got to be Calgary.

But like how I've always like I feel like I had these like biases in my mind of where Vancouver was in comparison to Calgary and Toronto. Obviously we deal with different industries. Right. We have different main industries but the way they calculated this, they tried to like separate that and make it more.

Cohesive and it is, it is covering cross crossing issues. Not just tech we're talking about here.

Exactly.

All the other industries.

But it, believe it or not, in the social ranking Calgary is number one.

Congratulations. Calgary.

What does that mean? Before I rage quiz.

Yeah, so okay, so a couple things that they were looking at in the social ranking was well homicide rate, air quality, female labor force, income inequality, labor force so participation rate of female and then non car commuting age dependency ratio which we do terrible at because we've got a bunch of old people and then not a lot of young people to take care of them. So Vancouver does.

So that is directly pointed at us.

Yeah, so because a lot of people.

Come to retire in Vancouver and they mess with our dependency ratio. Come on, retirees go to Florida.

A lot of young people like to come here and find themselves and then they go somewhere and find a good career. They find themselves here and then they.

Move to Cal and so they actually brought that in the presentations. We're like guys, we are losing talent to Calgary and Toronto. People coming here, they start their career, they do the first couple of years and then they realize that they're not Making enough money and that the future for them isn't looking great in terms of one day buying capital, like having a capital investment and things like that. And so they're like, okay, I'm going to go test out Calgary or Toronto.

And they do, but they test it, they test it out and then they come back.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't think that happens.

I knew I'm looking at you.

They were so.

But yeah, it was interesting. This, this whole scorecard thing was good for me to look at in terms of. Because I want to know where Vancouver is and I want to know what we can do as launch academy, what we should be focusing on to help. Right. And they did mention tech a lot and actually tech was the only industry that they mentioned mentioned. So yeah, I was kind of shocked by that. I was like they were talking about all this stuff and then it. The only industry that they actually verbalized was tech and that saying that we need to focus on building a strong tech cluster and that we also need to focus on bringing in more investors and more investments and, and also bringing more head offices, which just helps you bring in more talent. And this loops back to our last episode. We were talking, we discussed Amazon and how there's pros and cons, but we need more head offices. We need more people that are going to encourage talent to come. And then they went on and on about tax, like capital investment tax and how housing is not affordable and, and, but that's like, that's nothing we can ever change or even impact. So I didn't even, I just kind of like shut my brain off and they started talking about that. But we can impact tech, the tech scene, the investors coming in, the head office is coming in like encouraging that to happen, encouraging tech.

Like Vancouver Academy HQ is here. Does anybody else want to join us?

Well, and I think it's also shining a spotlight right on all the good companies and the good organizations that are here. And the more people know about what's happening here, the more attractive our city is going to be.

Yeah, right.

So if we are going to hide under a rock, no one knows what's going on. Why would they come here?

And, and one of the things that they were talking about that I totally agreed with is that we need to start being, stop being so conservative. So Vancouver is a very conservative and it is the Canadian nuts, but Vancouver specifically, even our, our economy, we have a hard time thinking big. So actually a third of our GDP comes from small and business, small, medium, Businesses, and we have a hard time breaking away from that because people aren't. Aren't thinking big. They aren't taking internationally. Like, before a local company here has a product and goes international, they're gonna have, like, a million steps, and they're actually suggestions to, like, go big and go international and.

Yeah.

And keep growing. And also stop being so conservative in terms of our infrastructures. I think it took a long time for Vancouver to agree on expanding the airport and on creating the new conference center that we have. But now it's fully booked, it's overbooked. And so it kind of goes to show that if we expand, the people will come, but we need to have the infrastructures.

I think for me personally, having. Having worked at Wavefront, that was something that we either tried to work on or ran into trouble with. I mean, we had a team that basically their only role was to help companies go international.

Yeah.

So it's. There's only so much you can do here locally. There's only so much, you know, you can do nationally. You got to think bigger.

Yeah.

So what are the things that you. And the steps you need to take to get out to international market? So we had a whole team, Jeff and Ryan, shout out to them, dedicated to doing that. Right. Because they were thinking that for these.

Canada has great trade relationships, and we need to take advantage of those. And they were talking a bunch of that. But are like, Europe trade relationships and how they're, like, ideal and nobody takes advantage of them. Well, nobody does that statement. But not enough people take advantage of them.

Just even, like, the conventions at center, like, spacing and things like that. I mean, you guys probably run the same problem. I've run into it for the last eight years is just in terms of venue space.

Yeah. Right.

Like, we have trouble finding places to hold events that can hit, you know, fit 150. We're always capped out at these, you know, 800, maybe standing room only. And then you go to, you know, Toronto, and their venue fits a thousand, and you're just like, something that makes sense. It makes sense.

Yeah. Like, I don't. I don't know if you were there. Our buddies at Attraction and Demand, they host a conference every year. You know where they do it? Rogers Arena.

Yeah.

Like, so it's like, it's. It's.

It's a good.

I don't know, 500,000 people. But imagine, like 500,000 people were sitting in center ice.

Yeah.

There's literally 17,000 seats around us. And that's your conference hall. Like. Yeah, it's a very weird vibe.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, this scorecard is. Is exactly. This is what they're trying to show. They're trying to show proof of where our tax dollars should go and proof of the fact that we have always kind of outdone the numbers that we've expected in terms of. Okay, we are going to build a conference, another conference center. And it skyrocketed and we did. Well, if it's filled it up.

If you want to know where your tax dollars can go, you can also email me just. Rayaunchacademy. Ca. Ray Ca.

Was that for personal benefit or launch conscious benefit?

Could be both.

Send your tax dollars our way.

In that case, maybe in chat. Could also use a little bit of a system.

Chance at work.

This is what we do.

But I mean, talking about tax dollars and money and things like that, I don't know if you guys. I don't know if you guys know, knew this.

I see.

If I'm doing illegal things, but yesterday the. Our BC premier announced a big investment plan. Right. He did it at BC Tech. I don't. Did you guys read about that?

It was all over 125 mils.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Some big numbers.

10.5 million of that is supposed to be going towards entrepreneurial training.

So my phone number is still here.

I'm not.

I'm gonna keep plugging away all my personal contacts.

Wait a second.

Let's take those $10 million and just put them right into Leap. Perfect. But, yeah, that's the great news. So it's good.

Yeah.

And I mean, it's good to see, like, provincially that investment programs are going towards education and entrepreneurship. But this is like very early stage.

That too. Over the last few years, just the fact that, you know, school curriculum is changing. Right. Even just now, a lot of these coding academies are popping up. They're obviously, you know, trying to prep more people so that they're getting the right jobs.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, this can touch on your wife's job, which is. Ja. Ja is doing great stuff out there. They're teaching kids early about entrepreneurship, about money and how to deal with money. And this is. Just puts them into the right direction of thinking, I mean, strategically and logically about finances. And this is grade fours. Ja.

Becoming adults.

Junior Achievement's gonna start paying me for giving them so many pumps.

Yeah, I guess.

I guess my reward is staying married.

Yeah. Janita. I got you.

I'm sorry, Janita, that you have to put up with this guy.

Hey, it was a Choice.

Was it Janita Wink once if it wasn't.

Anyway, enough of that.

Enough of that.

My turn for games. So, games.

Okay, Fun time. So no more talk about GDP and stuff.

All the. All the important things.

A couple of weeks ago, she tortured me with a game. And I've been thinking of a way to get back at her since.

How did I get in the middle of this? Revenge.

It just. It just. We're competing against each other. So.

So you know what I said? Why recreate the real. I'm just gonna make her play the same game she made me play. So we're gonna play the.

We're gonna play the innovative.

I am super innovative. Hey, Steve Job steals. I can steal, too.

I have so many things I want to say.

We're just gonna leave it at that. Yeah.

So for those that don't remember, and for Vivian's sake, since we just dropped this on her, she. This. This is live and this is real. She has no preparation of this game whatsoever. The lyric game is where I say a word and then you guys race to sing a line with that word in it.

Oh, yeah, I'm good at this.

Oh, yes.

Shoot.

Let's bring it on.

Sorry for breaking any windows.

I took Shade's original list and I modified it because I didn't recognize most of the words on her list.

Wait, so she.

Perhaps she gave you a list?

No, no, I gave him a list that I had created because it was songs from the 80s 90s, and told him to look at this list. Change it to something more. 2000s. Yeah, because we're hip. We're. We're up to date. You know, we know the songs.

I should have been like, like, warned before.

No, there is. There is no warning. We. We lure you in with the food, and then.

We know. Worked really well.

This is why we give the food at the end.

Yeah, I'm coming.

Yeah, yeah, we talk about food and weather. That's what we do.

Oh, we didn't talk about the weather.

We'll get there.

Don't worry. Yeah, okay.

But this game. This game. So I'll give. I'll do a couple, just as an example that we did last time. So. So to kind of game you rolling. And then we'll start for real. So the first one. And really, if you guys take more than five seconds to think of a song, we'll just move on. Pretty simple.

And we'll go.

We'll go until producer lady says, so ready?

She's like, shout out to our producer.

And I'm like, scared I am scared.

I am ready for this. Yeah.

Now you know exactly how I feel.

Like I'm being so, so confident. I'm just gonna choke. Yeah, I'm gonna choke.

So the first example that we used last time as well is love.

Love is love. Wait, no, that's good. I was gonna go, l is for the way I was like, ah, that doesn't make it.

See, it's harder than you think. It is actually harder than you think.

I was like, I can do a sentence with them.

And she made fun of me last time. She's like, how could you not come up with a song with the word love in it? It's like every song ever made.

I know, but it's a lot harder when you're put in this, like, awkward situation of having.

Yeah. Pressure.

Okay, so. So another. Another intro one. And then we'll go for real.

Okay.

Oh, geez. That.

That's a warm up point.

Warm up point.

Happy.

If you're happy and happy, blah, blah, blah. And then he says a lot of.

Don'T worry, be happy, but yes.

Yeah, that's good. I think you're gonna win. Okay, let's go.

So let's start for real now. Now we're on the clock. First word. Ymc, ca.

Y, mca. Do I get. Hey, that's equal.

Get the point.

I say we both do.

Yeah, we both get points. Okay. Okay.

But you did the hand movements. I feel like you should get.

Well, I should get an extra.

This is like the least competitive game ever. I feel like I'm the one getting bullied. How. How am I playing a game that I'm not participating in? I feel like I'm gonna be the loser.

We're, like, telling you what to do, Sam.

You just realize that you're the loser.

Which is funny because the next word is lose.

Oh, damn.

Lose yourself. And you know the Eminem song. But I can't rap. And I'm also too nice to say all the swear words.

I don't know anything with lose.

Damn in the music. Lose yourself in the music.

No.

Okay.

I still get that point for.

Yeah. Yes.

Well, because I'm really good at.

Name that.

Our judges.

He's not singing the tune.

Our judges are very lenient today.

Are you the judge?

Apparently. All right, next word. Win.

I don't know. Ooh, that's a hard one.

All I do is win, win, win, no matter what.

Okay. You're just picking songs that you know.

I just realized that.

I was like, wait a second.

Next word.

He wants single.

Oh, the Single ladies. Oh, the single ladies calling.

I keep on falling. Oh, wow. Well, and then it has the word love. Oh, I get an extra point for going back.

I think for the falsetto, she gets an extra point.

Man, I'm getting destroyed.

It's only four, too.

This isn't even alcohol in here. You guys like water?

It's pbr. Okay. Stronger.

Oh, oh.

I don't know.

I realize this because this is a 90s song. She was born in the 90s.

Oh, oh, oh.

I know a couple.

It's the Britney song stronger than yesterday.

What? That's a Britney song?

Jackie Murchison. The Britney song was for you.

Shout out to Jackie, but also Kanye.

I underestimated Vivian.

See, the 90s, I think I got. All right, all the boy band stuff.

We'll go. We'll go with some easier ones. Way, way W a y way.

Please hold.

That movie, that song that says, I love the way you are.

You mean the song called. You mean the song called just the way you are?

Just the way you are? Yeah.

Sing it again.

I don't know. This is.

This is what happens.

I love you just the way you are.

Moving along. That is not saying no point. What, Miss?

Like, I'm drawing blanks now. It's past the point.

Miss.

It's.

It's a very. What's the word?

Sing the song that's in his head. No, actually, what this game is.

I don't know actually what song is, but I'm saying this is a very momentum feel game. Like, once you get one, and then you kind of.

Yeah, okay, next. I don't know. Miss.

Miss. Okay, call.

Call me.

Call me maybe.

Yeah, she's louder. That's what it is.

I was gonna sing Blondie. What's this Blondie song? Oh, yeah. So call me that one. I'm just slow. I know the songs.

I'm slow bad.

We are at this game, shout out to blondie.

Watching right now. She's like, thanks, girls.

All right, let's keep rolling.

Hakuna, hakuna matata.

Damn, she's fast.

She's fast, too.

Well, that one was easy. Like, you gave me the beat. How come we can't.

I know. Next.

You're just like, next.

Michael Jackson.

Oh, beat it. Damn.

Name.

That's not my name. They call me. No, I sung in France. You know that song? That's not my name.

Yes.

That's not my name.

Sometimes I can't tell if she's actually singing a song because sometimes she just sings sentences.

She sings sentences because I Sing my sentences.

They call me something they call me something that's not my name the change.

Cry.

Cry me a river. Okay. God. Justin Timberl.

That was fat.

Okay. Cuz I was going to marry him, so I have to by heart.

I see.

I still might.

Next marriage. Next marriage.

Next. Next marriage. When's my first one?

His next marriage.

Weirded me out for a second there.

Jungle.

The one about concrete jungle. I don't know if this. Is there a song? But like, New York is that song.

Oh, yeah.

Something. And then the concrete jungle. Something.

Worry.

Don't worry, be happy.

Oh, good one.

Sometimes.

I don't know.

Vivian knows it and doesn't want to sing it.

I know what you're trying to do. Believe I believe I can fly.

I give up. Jiggy, jiggy the jiggy with it.

I couldn't tell what you think I said.

I don't know. It sounded like jelly.

Okay. Chandelier.

Oh, I want to swing the chandelier. What's the song called?

Chandelier by Sia.

Yeah.

I don't even know.

No, we. We both. We both didn't sing that. No. No one should get a point. No, but.

But he wrote a word that he couldn't even pronounce.

Minus 1%.

What am I losing for every word he mispronounces?

All right. Kanye.

Wait, but that's.

Is he. Is he. Is there a Kanye song with Kanye?

There probably is.

Is there?

No.

Ray, I need your help.

I miss the old Kanye. It's not like the new Kanye.

I don't know these things.

The pink polo. Kanye. Crazy.

Sorry, what was that?

Does that make me crazy?

I thought he was just saying, does.

That make me crazy like you're crazy?

I thought he was still just talking.

Okay, a couple more. Let's run through this and see if Shoddy can catch up. It's 10 to 8. Oh, no. It's 10 to 7.

Oh, no.

You have these.

Okay, perfect.

Perfect. Oh, damn. I don't know. No. Next.

Next skater.

Because the skater. See you later. He wasn't good enough for her.

It's all in his head and he just wants us to match it and embarrass ourselves.

Okay, we get like. We get.

I get to Google.

Vivian can get that one. She started that.

I had to Google the top 50. I don't know, 50 songs.

Top 50. Good to know. It's on the top 50 list, woman.

I feel like that should be easy. Next. I give up quick on these.

Yeah. As I'm still thinking. Next. Just go. Just go.

Feeling.

Feelings. Nothing more than feelings.

What is that a real song?

Song from the past that Sam's too young to know. And I used to listen to oldies, cuz my family.

Okay, we'll give her that.

I thought it was, like, just an Timberlake, but, you know.

Okay, that's what you were thinking, right? You were trying to get me to say no.

I think this was the catching up list. This is actually her list of songs now.

Oh, it is. Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Now she's got a magic carpet.

This one's mine.

Magic carpet.

I don't know, it's.

Is it one of those dirty songs with inappropriate language that I should.

What is wrong with these people?

No. I feel like it's an 80s song. Is it?

No.

I don't know. Magic carpet.

It's Aladdin.

Oh, I didn't watch TV when I was a child.

I'm so sorry.

You know this about me, all right? I lived in a jungle. I didn't watch Aladdin until I was like, 15.

Wait, you lived in a jungle?

Yeah, I grew up in Costa Rica in the middle of nowhere. No electricity.

We're supposed to be torturing.

There's like a sloth sanctuary.

Yeah, I want to go.

We're totally going off topic, but I'm really intrigued.

All right, last word.

Work, work, work, work, work, work.

You see me, which currently I can't.

Win because I'm unemployed. Vivian doesn't. Work, work.

Moving along. I'm done with this game. I hate this game. Somehow I played it twice.

Who won? Who won?

Vivian technically won.

Technically.

That was a good one.

13.

Okay, I was close. I was also pretty amazing, so I can't even say anything.

Also, I lost. I lost. And now it's on the Internet where it lasts forever.

Boring stuff now.

And it's on. It's on Facebook server, too, which means it'll last forever even if you delete it.

I apologize to my future, future grandchildren.

Who will somehow dig this. We're gonna. We're gonna move on to the boring stuff. Okay? We're going to get serious.

Exciting stuff announcements.

No, actually, exciting stuff announcements. This is kind of where I give shout outs to some of our members and things that are happening. I only have one shout out today, and it's for Shape Immersive. And Alex, I know you're watching right now because you just slacked me. Shape Immersive just launched their website, so go check it out. I can't Even, Shape Immersive.com. i was gonna say Shave Immersive.

Shave Immersive. Dollar Shave Shave Immersive Club.

Yeah. And Shape Immersive is doing some really cool stuff in mixed reality. They're gunning for the most spatially accurate mixed reality in the world. Pretty awesome. So check it out. They have their demos on their website and it's pretty awesome.

I feel like.

So it was started by Alex, which is our co founder of Launch Academy.

Yay.

Starting things extra points for hours. Better not be cooler than Launch Academy.

Yeah, just saying. Otherwise I want a job at Shape Immersion.

I was going to say Vancouver should be the mixed reality place of the world. It's not real reality. It's not fake reality. It's somewhere in between.

Is that 7 out of 10?

Yeah, it's 7 out of 20. 7 out of 20 is reality solid?

B, man, I feel like I invented mixed reality. I've lived my entire life too. Mixed reality. Never really sure.

Are you here? Were you here?

Alex, if you need an advisor, I have a lot of experience in mixing.

Reality and what is real and what is not.

So moving on, events, we've got a few fun events coming up. On May 22nd we've got a startup fundraiser workshop. So if you're an early stage startup, you want to learn more about how to fundraise, it's kind of fundraising 101. Join us on May 22nd and on May 29th we have a talk about the future of decentralized innovation with. I don't know how to pronounce this. Hetera Hashgraph. Apparently that's a new type of distributed ledger technology. So yeah, cool stuff. I might go because I have no clue what that is or how to spell it.

Hetero. What?

Hetera Ra. Hashgraph. I really, I feel bad that I work in tech and I don't know how to say this.

Hashgraph. Hashgraph is a normal word. I thought it was like some. Some name.

Yeah. So a new type of distributed ledger. We'll be doing a big talk about it and we'll have some. I can't remember who exactly is doing the talk. Just come. Yeah. Any announcement from you, Vivian, that you want to shout out announcements?

This is your chance to do another solo to the world. Yeah.

Well, I don't know if everybody knows, but if not, I am still co chair of Vancouver Startup Week.

Which week is that?

It's September 24th. The week.

So last week of September, A couple weeks from now?

Yeah, in September?

Yeah.

Like 18. But yeah. No, we've got an awesome team. They're working hard trying to set up that week. But if there Are people who want to get involved, whether it's sponsoring the week or hosting an event or just taking.

Should we do a live show on Startup Week?

Yes, let's do it. Yeah. So message us. Vanstartupweek ca come talk to us. We'd love to get you guys involved. There's gonna be a hackathon, a recruitment fair. Cool community crawl, hundreds of events. It'll be a good time. Yeah, we're gonna throw Are we part.

Of the community call. I feel like I got an email about that. And then you better be.

And if not, is it one of.

The ones you forwarded to me?

Probably. Yeah.

No, it's gonna be great. It'll be a lot of fun. So hopefully everyone will be there.

Vancouver started week, September 19, right?

No, it's the week after that. You just made up.

I just made up a number. At least it was within the calendar.

The last week of September.

September 24th. September seems far away, but it's like it's not. This is a. What happens when you become an adult? The time between June and September. It feels like a week. Anyways, that's me.

Isn't that what happens when you're a kid? No, summer's too short.

Oh, no. When I was a kid, when somebody was like, oh, in a month, I was like, well, frick.

You have lived different lives.

Yeah, it was a mixed reality.

It was mixed reality where summers were long and the school year was short.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm telling you, I have a lot of experience in mixed reality.

All right.

It's great.

Cool. So what are we eating?

Okay, so it's my turn to bring food this time around.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Before you do that, shout out to whoever left these frozen cards in our office. They've been here for a month. I just thought so for the people.

Who are listening and don't have the video, we found a deck of frozen cards.

Two decks.

They're not actually frozen.

Playing playing cards.

The theme of frozen.

They say I'm Olaf on them.

It's pretty awesome.

That's frozen.

We have to think of a game where we can play with frozen cards, because that's it. Now are the official launch academy.

Yeah, they lost it, so they let it go.

Bring on the food.

All right.

No pizza. Salad, please.

Surprise. It's actually. It is pizza.

Oh, she put up.

He complained so much about my pizza last time around. I'm gonna make you discover a new type of pizza. It is still vegan.

It's my first time on the show and she's giving me a vegan pizza.

You guys, you're gonna love this.

Vegan for baby.

Are you ready for this? It smells pretty good.

I am.

It doesn't look bad, actually. What is this?

What's wrong with regular pizza?

Looks good, right?

But does it taste?

And so this pizza has fake pulled pork.

Okay, hold on.

Pineapple.

What's it pulled from this?

So the we should find out. It's pulled from jackfruit. So. And vegetarian people. Vegetarian people.

He's losing his mind right now.

I believe you gave me two, not.

One, instead of pulled pork. And it's awesome. At first, I was not down. I was like jackfruit instead of cold pork. It's so good. Try it.

This is the place for me.

I'll try anything.

I think I'm gonna win with this. Have a slice. Tell me what you think.

I want Sam's. Eat it first, actually.

And this delicious pizza is from Virtuous Pie. Shout out to Virtuous Pie because they make delicious pizza and they make delicious ice cream for all the vegan.

Vegan. Ice cream.

Vegan people out there. No, but it's so good.

That's what they all say.

It doesn't even matter. Like, when somebody says vegan. Dairy free. I see. I'm like, I don't need to know that. I'll eat it. It's ice cream. Hi, Kobe.

You ready, Buzz? Here, pizza. Cheers.

What is. What is my life?

And so the cheese that's on top is made out of cashews.

Just so you know, cold what I was about to put in my mouth, and she told me it's not cheese. And for those that know me, know this is vegan. The hardest moment of my life right now.

Again.

They make their own cashew mozzarella.

Well, it's better than last week. So.

Doesn'T it actually taste like cold pork?

Taste tastes like barbecue.

See, this is what I'm winning Sam over. He likes it.

You did a good job by winning us over with the pizza, though.

I'm so far from being won over.

But if she gave us a salad, I think we would have walked out. Hey, like, what if she just threw, like, some kale at us?

I almost prefer a salad to really?

Well, last time I brought you pizza, you called it a salad.

That pretending to be a pizza. She started with, oh, this is a vegan pizza, and then it turned out to be a salad.

That was straight up lie.

That was lying.

This is a pizza doesn't have meat on it. It's actually pretty good.

I actually like this.

So you did good. Great episode, guys. Great pizza.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks for coming. And I got food in my mouth.

I'm drinking, like, the Smallest bites.

Next level. Doing a podcast.

So how can people reach out to you now?

I'm on Twitter V Chan, B, C, H A n. I'm on LinkedIn under Viv Chan because a Vivian Chan beat me to it.

There's a lot of Vivian Chan. Almost as many Sams.

Almost. Yeah, but Vivians are cooler.

Yeah.

My dog is creeping up on the show.

That's great.

Yeah.

So I'm. I'm not moving. I'm still everywhere that I used to be, so. So if you got a hold of me yesterday, you can get a hold of me tomorrow.

All right, so for us, we're launchacademy on Twitter, on the Instagrams, on the Instagrams, on Facebook. We are launch academy ignited. So make sure you're adding us to all those things. We're still waiting on our five star rating.

Yeah.

Come on, guys. Just go on itunes. It's simple.

Make an account, Apple podcast. Read the 18 pages of.

Don't even read anything. All you have to do is click on a star. No, I think you can handle it.

No, not click on a star. We need five of them. One star is a bad.

Yeah, but all you have to do is click. You click the fifth star, and four.

Stars is a solid B.