Purpose

Canada has one of the most successful tech startup ecosystems in the world. But relatively few Canadian tech companies have become global enterprises.

The Lazaridis Institute is working to change this.

Constraints to Scaling

As we prepared to launch the Institute, we talked to entrepreneurs, investors, policy-makers and tech influencers across North America and around the world. We asked them what they thought were the biggest constraints to scaling a tech company.

The results?

1. A shortage of executives with scaling experience (53%), especially in the key areas of:
   • Sales, marketing (68%)
   • Organization design and execution (30%)
   • Product management (17%)
   • Internationalization (17%)
   • Operations and finance (10%)
2. Ecosystem dynamics including attitude toward risk and other cultural factors (20%)
3. Insufficient access to capital (16%)

These insights provided the starting point for the design of the Lazaridis ScaleUp Program. In parallel, research at the Lazaridis Institute advances scholarly and applied work related to the challenges of high growth tech firms. From the lessons of both research and practice, the Institute is developing new curriculum for the next generation of Canadian business leaders.