University of Manitoba science graduate Chris Schmidt comes from a family of physicians, a career path he was planning on pursuing.
From an early age, however, Schmidt showed a passion for launching businesses (he started his first, Schmidt Tree Banding, at the age of 10) so, upon graduating, and with a little encouragement from his father, Schmidt decided to pursue his true passion: entrepreneurship.
“I just kind of continued on that path and never looked back to go into medicine,” said Schmidt, just before presenting at a University of Manitoba speaker series on the paths to entrepreneurship science program students can take.
“The skills you learn going through science actually play really well into entrepreneurship,” said Schmidt, “Some of those skills are problem-solving, critical thinking, being meticulous.”
Schmidt has certainly put those skills to good use.
After completing his Bachelor of Science, Schmidt founded the world’s first Snapchat filter company, Geofilter Studio. In 2017, Geofilter Studio was Canada’s fastest-growing company in 2017.
Now Schmidt is the CEO and co-founder of Pluto Ventures based out of Osborne Village. It’s a machine-learning company that recently launched Parallel, a social commerce platform that helps users find the right size when shopping for clothes online.
Despite calls to head to Silicon Valley or other major North American tech hubs, Schmidt is planning on staying in Winnipeg, partly because he doesn’t need to look far for skilled workers.
“The talent is in the city where you can find senior machine-learning engineers,” he said, “You can find those niche skills because our education system does a good job of getting people into the economy for that.”
“You don’t have to be in the Valley and you can still build successful companies. I like Winnipeg, I’m going to stay here,” Schmidt said.
Most science students, however, don’t think the same or even realize they can enter the realm of entrepreneurship, says U of M lecturer Steven Theriault, who also heads Cytophage Technologies inc., a Manitoba-based bioscience company “I tell them that, if they have an idea, a scientific idea, you put that idea down into a business case or business plan,” said Theriault. “Then you take that business plan and … see if it’s actually something that can get legs.”
Theriault didn’t immediately get into entrepreneurship after completing his Ph.D. in virology. He initially got a government position, a job Theriault describes as stable, but without a lot of creative leeway to pursue ideas.
After fifteen years, Theriault decided to launch Cytophage in 2017, which uses synthetic biology and molecular genetics to create “bacteria phage,” viruses that only target bacteria in animals and humans.
The private company is now valued at $75 million, says Theriault.
“It’s very rewarding after you’ve put all the energy in because it’s all your own research, it’s all your own idea, and at the end of it, it’s the money that you make for your own idea,” he said.
Workers with backgrounds outside of the sciences, like business or economics, are also increasingly entering the Winnipeg tech workforce.
“We do see it and it’s more common now than it was five years ago,” said Robert Langtry, VP of product operations at LotLinx, an automotive inventory marketing technology company with its largest Canadian office based in Winnipeg.
A background outside of computer science can provide prospective employees with a broader skillset, says Langtry, though he does credit locally available post-secondary computer science programs for churning out top tech talent.
“We, a lot of times, hire right out of those programs,” said Langtry, “So a lot of the homegrown talent is here.”
Langtry also credits immigration for bringing in many skilled tech workers to Winnipeg, which, when combined with recent graduates, has created an “untapped’ tech workforce in Winnipeg.
“I think a lot of times people would look remote or outsource or not even think about starting a technology company in Winnipeg,” he said, “But there’s a lot of untapped talent that’s starting to build up here.”
That talent pool is increasingly getting tapped by employers in Winnipeg and outside the city, says Dayna Spiring, president & CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg, who points out that Winnipeg was named an named an up-and-coming tech hub in 2019.
Spiring says that, thanks to a lower cost of living compared to other major tech cities, and a “small-town feel” that lends itself to community collaboration, Winnipeg is on track to become even more attractive to tech workers and companies.
“People don’t necessarily want to work in a basement in Silicon Valley,” Spiring said, “They may want to be in a connected, downtown or Exchange District where they can collaborate with their peers and build new, cool stuff.”
“Winnipeg has that to offer.”
