Gordon Pitts - Unicorn in the Woods

The behind-the-scenes skinny on one of the most compelling Atlantic Canadian business sagas in recent memory. Gordon Pitts provides entrepreneurs with a roadmap for what is possible when ambition and smarts meet opportunity, regardless of geography.

John DeMont, author of The Long Way Home and Chronicle Herald columnist

You cant beat Gordon Pitts. No guff, straight-up, Pitts always gets to the guts of things and keeps the story moving. Unicorn in the Woods is an engrossing read for anyone interested in the future of Canadian innovation and the promise of a new age of prosperity for a part of the country looking to write a proud new chapter in its economic history.

Howard Green, author of Railroader and founding anchor, Business News Network

Gordon Pitts, the dean of Canadian business storytelling, expertly maps out how a province with too much infrastructure and not enough people produced not one but two of Canadas most successful startups of the early 2010s.

Sean Silcoff, co-author of Losing the Signal and Globe and Mail business writer

A must read for the thousands of entrepreneurs building their companies, progressive policy makers and business and community leaders. Its also a real story about the challenges and excitement of building new ideas and new companies in emerging markets.

Annette Verschuren, OC, author of Bet on Me and CEO, NRStor Inc.

Also by GORDON PITTS:

The Last Canadian Knight: The Unintended Business Adventures of Sir Graham Day

Fire in the Belly: How Purdy Crawford Rescued Canada and Changed the Way We Do Business

Stampede! The Rise of the West and Canadas New Power Elite

The Codfathers: Lessons from the Atlantic Business Elite

Kings of Convergence: The Fight for Control of Canadas Media

In the Blood: Battles to Succeed in Canadas Family Businesses

Storming the Fortress: How Canadian Business Can Conquer Europe in 1992

Copyright 2020 by Hog Lake Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). To contact Access Copyright, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call 1-800-893-5777.

Edited by Meg Taylor.

Cover and page design by Julie Scriver.

Cover composed with images from Dreamstime (android) and VectorBox (tree).

Printed in Canada.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Unicorn in the woods : how East Coast geeks and dreamers are changing the game / Gordon Pitts.

Names: Pitts, Gordon, author.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200214381 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200214500 | ISBN 9781773101514 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781773101521 (EPUB) | ISBN 9781773101538 (Kindle)

Subjects: LCSH: High technology industriesNew BrunswickCase studies. | LCSH: New business enterprisesNew BrunswickCase studies. | LCSH: New business enterprisesValuationNew BrunswickCase studies.

Classification: LCC HC79.H53 P58 2020 | DDC 338.4/76097151dc23

Goose Lane Editions acknowledges the generous support of the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Government of New Brunswick.

Goose Lane Editions

500 Beaverbrook Court, Suite 330

Fredericton, New Brunswick

CANADA E3B 5X4

www.gooselane.com

To Elaine

Writing a book of recent history is a journey. Some of the landmarks are already familiar, while others are hidden or even unformed as you start, about to be discovered along the way. But nothing prepared me for the massive unprecedented shock of a global pandemic. I could not have imagined that, by the time I finished writing Unicorn in the Woods in spring 2020, it would be a totally different world than when I set out planning the book a few years earlier that a novel coronavirus would strike, challenging almost everything, including the economic assumptions, and the health, sometimes survival, of institutions, businesses and people who figure in this book.

Yet, in this time of staggering uncertainty, the stories in this book do provide the outline of a way forward. They underline the importance of resilience in the midst of formidable setbacks, a social mission to keep communities alive and cohesive, and the need for imagination to overcome the limitations of geography and economics. The people in this book exemplify, in many cases, the core values of New Brunswick and the Maritimes values that are desperately needed now.

I cannot predict where we will be a few years from now, or even a few weeks. But I hope the people and stories featured in this book will inspire us to believe that, yes, we can rebuild whatever was lost in the pandemic. This book is about optimism. We need it more than ever.

I did not expect these would be the lessons of my book when on November 3, 2017, I received an email out of the blue from Bob Skillen, vice president for advancement at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). Bob had an idea he wanted to explore, and he wanted to meet me at Torontos Royal York Hotel. University President Eddy Campbell came along with him. They had the seed of a concept, to build a book around the spectacular exits of two local companies, Q1 Labs and Radian6 Technologies, six years earlier. I was skeptical at first, but as I read and talked with people, I saw something bigger a book on how Canadian technology, conceived far from the beaten path of Central Canada or Silicon Valley, gets out into the world.

Bob and Eddy deserve a lot of credit for initiating and encouraging this project, and the current president of UNB, Paul Mazerolle, provided words of support at a key moment. In time, Susanne Alexander and Goose Lane Editions along with production editor Alan Sheppard and the rest of the team at GLE would pick up the responsibility for guiding it through to fruition.

So many other people to thank: my friend Morrey Ewing, for his relentless support of the idea and its execution; my bosses at McMaster University, Leonard Waverman and Michael Hartmann, for being so flexible in their demands on my energy and time; John DeMont for sharing his own rich authorial experience; Geoff Flood and Scott McCain for early encouraging conversations; Kelly Anderson for crucial advice and contacts; and Jacques Poitras for his own wise perspective as the chronicler of modern New Brunswick. The folks at the Carriage House Inn in Fredericton, Jamie and Natalie, treated me like family. Dave Pyette accompanied me on a rollicking Toronto-to-Fredericton road trip that yielded good fun and great insights. Thanks to Paul and Nancy Mann for welcoming us into their home, and sharing the excitement of an NBA championship game. Among the contributors, David Foord stands out for his outstanding work, including a key article and case-study draft. Sarah Ketcheson is not just a wonderful niece, but a constant friend through my East Coast adventures.

I have to salute the key actors in the Q1 Labs and Radian6 narratives, who took time to tell their stories (and I kept coming back and back): Chris Newton, Brian and Carolyn Flood, Sandy Bird, Dwight Spencer, Marcel LeBrun, Chris Ramsey (a fabulous door opener), David Alston (ditto), Brian Dunphy, Marie Jo Thibault and Daniella DeGrace. First among equals is the redoubtable Gerry Pond, whose spirit is all over this book.