Little-known fact: The creator of Flickr, the hugely successful photo-sharing website, lives across the street from me in Vancouver. In fact, the city has evolved into a kind of Silicon Valley North in recent years, with start-ups attracting attention from major international investors. I looked at some of Canada’s most promising new tech companies – in social media, gaming and more – for the Globe and Mail newspaper’s Report on Business magazine.
The People Behind Canada’s Most Promising Tech Start-Ups
Content from Remy Scalza, Dawn Calleja and John Lorinc for the Globe and Mail
The éminence grise of Vancouver’s tech scene is in his late 30s, wears Converse sneakers and plaid flannel. Stewart Butterfield rocketed to tech stardom all the way back in 2004, when he launched Flickr, the site that ushered in the era of digital photo-sharing. He sold it to Yahoo in 2005 for a rumoured $35 million (U.S.). Flickr today is likely worth many, many times that. Butterfield doesn’t mind.
“If I could be doing anything right now, I would be doing this,” he says. This is Tiny Speck, the 40-person company developing Glitch, a web-based multiplayer game involving giants, elfish avatars, barnyard animals and a mission to save the future. He thinks it’ll make his Flickr sale look like small change.
Click here to read the full article on the Globe and Mail website.
