Helping Alberta `Build Something Massive'

Business schools' program aims to aid early-stage deep technology startups

Albertans think big.

We take on big problems — after all, what's bigger than trying to be world leaders in energy evolution? — and we are not afraid of a challenge.

As deans of the province's two leading business schools, we see tremendous opportunity in Alberta for our graduates. Not only for those new graduates just entering the workforce after completing their bachelor's degrees — but also for the executives who study in our schools to do their Executive MBAS. We believe Alberta is poised to meet the moment.

Of the things that give us such confidence, few stand out as much as the Creative Destruction Lab — Rockies (Cdl-rockies). Housed at the Haskayne School of Business, Cdl-rockies delivers an objective-based program for startups building novel technologies applicable within a diverse cross-section of industries, with a particular focus on energy evolution and the future of food. CDL-ROCKies is part of a wider network of 11 CDL sites spread across five countries. Each site is tied to a leading business school and bases its program streams on the strength of the local business, science and technology ecosystems.

The CDL tag line is to “Build Something Massive.” Indeed we are, together.

We are proud to say that the University of Calgary and University of Alberta collaborate very closely to build Cdl-rockies. The team is based in Calgary with the program supported by mentors and scientists from the University of Calgary, and complemented by an academic director and scientists from the University of Alberta — as well as the involvement of the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute.

The ventures that have participated in the Cdl-rockies programming have created $1.7 billion in equity value in just five years. Of that, $535 million was created by Alberta-based companies.

Of the 950 jobs created by Cdl-rockies alumni companies, 344 are right here in Alberta.

Last week, Alberta Innovates announced $9.1 million in funding to 15 projects as part of the Alberta Innovates Ecosystem Development Pilot Program. Cdl-rockies was one of those recipients and we fully intend to leverage what makes CDL so successful to deliver an outstanding return on investment. This funding we receive will be used to support the Nurture program. Piloted in 2021, CDL developed the program in response to a growing gap in the ecosystem to help promising startups with novel technology too early for accelerators.

The Nurture program aims to address the “pre-accelerator-stage” gap for Albertabased deep technology startups, acting as a triage system helping early-stage founders through programming on skill-specific topics as well as connecting startups to services and organizations within Alberta's innovation ecosystem that can directly help founders address key problems preventing them from joining Cdl-rockies or similar accelerator programs.

Later this month, 19 ventures represent the

2022 graduating class from Cdl-rockies. They completed the program smarter, more resilient and hungry to scale their businesses here in Alberta, and beyond.

As deans of business schools in Calgary and Edmonton, we are committed to building something massive right here in our home province. We may have cheered for different sides in the Battle of Alberta, but we are Alberta-focused and will deliver on a national scale.