I just thought some of you may wonder how NorhTec all started and how did a
company like this end up in Calgary, vs Silicon Valley. I think it may
help other entrepreneurs out there in CLUG.
Here goes:
About 18 months ago, I met my partner, Michael Barnes (who I have known for
10 years) in Bangkok. I was returning from a trip to Bangalore, India
(that country's Silicon Valley). Michael has 25 years in computer industry
with the last 13 years at Sun MicroSystems. During that meeting, Michael
explained to me he would like to start a new company to build very small
servers--MicroServers. The industry trend at the time was towards bigger
and bigger, faster and faster energy hogging servers. You must appreciate
that Michael had sold million dollar servers and then million dollar SW to
go with them. At that meeting, Michael said that soon, even small
businesses would actually be able to actually afford and to have Data
center functionality themselves. They would be able to do this using
Linux. Truthfully, I chuckled to myself, because until 18 months ago, I
thought of Linux as a geeky thing. I had started a business ISP in
Vancouver in 1993 and we actually used Linux to authenticate, but our main
servers ran HP Unix.
Eighteen months ago, we decided to start down the road to build a
company. Michael was still with Sun as Head of Government Sales for Asia,
South and he was doing very well. I thought it would be quite simple to
put together a good Business Plan (I have written about 50 during my
career) and obtain financing. Little did we know at the time, that Tech
markets would continue to crash and crash even more. Little did we know
that so much money would be lost on a market like Nasdaq, and of course we,
being believers in Tech would also suffer so much loss.
In any event, it certainly helped me to see companies like IBM make a
billion dollar investment into Linux and then to report they had recovered
the billion within 11 months. It gave us more confidence. We persevered,
without any salaries, keeping extremely tight control of expenses and
raising fairly small amounts of capital from friends and associates. We
were able to be very resourceful, call on help from friends and colleagues
and most important, to progress with our technology. In the meantime, we
did a lot of investigation and R and D into the whole Linux and OSS
movement and where things where future markets were headed. Fortunately,
we have made the right decisions and the right choices. Michael left Sun
almost one year ago and we are about to actually launch our new products.
And, to top it all off, within the last 3 weeks, I have been able to raise
very significant amounts of capital. I have closed one financing and as of
late last night, I have reached final agreement to close an additional
financing. As it happens, we have investors from Canada, the US and Asia.
Needless to say, things have been a real challenge but now we are ready to
really build NorhTec into an exciting venture.
For any budding entrepreneurs, if you really feel good about, go ahead and
take the leap. Now is a much better time to start than when we did (as
capital markets seem to have bounced) but be prepared to keep costs to the
minimum, keep positive no matter what and most important of all, be
prepared to persevere!
I truly hope you can all benefit in one way or another, from our being an
Alberta company, based in Calgary.
Best to all,
Barclay
ApecTec Inc.
www.apectec.com
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: (403) 685 1888
Fax: (403) 685 1880
