Making A Technology Cluster In Thunder Bay
by Scott A. Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
Yvan Couture is the President & CEO as well as investor and Chairman of the Board of Primal Fusion Inc. a Waterloo- based emerging technology company. Primal Fusion is generating a next generation internet platform based on it’s significant technical and market innovations. Yvan as well as his co worker Shane O’Neil COO and VP Technology Operations of Primal Fusion Inc. were brought to Thunder Bay by the CEDC to speak as part of the “ Inspiring Change- Creating Opportunities” Speaker Series.
Couture was born and raised in Smooth Rock Falls and moved to Waterloo in 1987. He fell into technology and ran a number of companies, selling one in 2002 and retired.(generating hundreds of millions) After retiring Couture invested in several companies and was very excited about one of them, Primal Fusion which has about 35 people now and is still pre revenue and doing their next round of pre financing shortly.
“ I went of Waterloo to go to business school at Wilfred Laurier and came back to the north, got married and spent 4 years in several jobs. We then went back to Waterloo and fell into technology. We had a big company called Mitra, a healthcare infomatics firm which we grew to 400 people and sold to Agfa Gevaert, a Belgium company,” smiled Couture. “ I was 42 years so I spent some time at home and then became an angel investor. This company Primal Fusion interested me so much I came back to work. This could be a bases clearing home run if we pull it off. The opportunity is there if we do it. It is a journey. I like to work with people and create wealth. We share with the employees. RIM Technologies of the Blackberry in Waterloo for example has donated some $700 million to charity which has really helped the community. It is inspiring they were able to create that kind of wealth.”
Important to the success of a region with technology based companies is making a technical cluster according to Couture. “ Thunder Bay has a lot to offer geographically. Technology can happen anywhere. You can be programming anywhere in the world. I have friends in echnology that would love to come home to the north and live that lifestyle. There are few opportunities to work in the north.” said Couture. “ What you need is the bringing together of money, brains and culture. You need an angel community to invest. An angel community needs $500,000 or more as you to need to make bets in several companies. To mitigate risk you invest in several communities with others.”
Also important according to Couture are good government relations not to save your ass but to help you to get ongoing support.Many technical people don’t have business training and you need that as well. You need to transition from academic to a business opportunity.
“ It takes time to build a critical mass. RIM in Waterloo is very motivational. I remember when they had 14 employees and now they have 14,000. You have to be serious about creating a culture. The human element is critical. You should meet regularly and talk about common
interests. An association is very helpful,”said Couture. “ Istarted in technology in 1991. In 1993 we proposed an association where everyone would put in $5000. It didn't work put I tried again in 1995 and said in 30 days I would have 15 members. In 25 days I had 25 who wrote a
cheque for $5,000 and when we launched we had 47. The first thing we did was hire a manager. Having a collective, larger voice is important.”
“ If you focus on accumulating wealth you typically don’t succeed. If you focus on creating wealth everyone benefits including the community. If you create great, well paid employment it is a win win situation. A technology cluster will be a 10 year project. Today we have way more start ups that are solid and seeing the momentum in Waterloo. You have to make it happen.” said Couture.
Shane O’Neil is COO and VP Technology Operations of Primal Fusion Inc. “ Using our new technology we are able to put a concrete sympatic representation of you thoughts. The machine can read your thoughts and intent to create collective intelligence. We look at content and use fusion out technology, reassemble it and create a dynamic project. We are focused on being the platform and are a data company that is free to the consumer.
“We have spent the first 5 years developing the product, a web 3 project. We define the topic that you are interested in using sympatic technology. We have lots of great patents and will let others build applications from it. We have been quiet because of our patents. We are not building the company to sell it but to grow it over the long haul,” said Yvan Couture. “ There is no reason why Thunder Bay can be like Waterloo. You are an hour and a half flight from Toronto. It is as easy as getting to London, Ontario.”
