It had everything but the freeze-frame cap toss at the end of the movie: L-Spark grads walked across the stage Tuesday night, but pitched their businesses – not their caps – as the latest cohort graduated from the Kanata-based SaaS accelerator.
Proud parent and managing director of L-Spark Leo Lax was sentimental as he reflected to Techopia after the accelerator’s regular SaaS Showcase, held this week at the Ottawa Little Theatre.
“We have been able to help companies actually achieve some of their most audacious dreams,” he said.
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Two such companies were Member365 and Bluink. Stephen Borza, CEO of the latter, says the moment was a milestone, especially for his employees in attendance.
“Our team has never seen me pitch! I’m usually out pitching in New York or the Bay area … they’ve been bugging me to pitch for a while, and I refuse unless there’s an audience,” he said with a smile. “I hope they appreciate me more tomorrow than they did today.”
Member365 CEO Stephen Foley also told Techopia that the event was a rallying point for the company that has been a part of the program for more than a year. The firm is set to move out of the L-Spark accelerator in August, the latest member of the Kanata North tech park.
“It was a great team-building exercise, in a way, to celebrate all of the success our team has been able to achieve over the last 16 months,” he said.
Lax said that the latest SaaS showcase, which L-Spark also holds in New York and San Francisco, has represented an opportunity to tell Ottawa its own success stories.
“I think we are somewhat shy as a community,” he said. “I think we are becoming much more visible in the market and helping Ottawa, as a whole, for that which we are, probably the best in SaaS.”
