This event was created by our IET Ottawa Network in conjunction with Algonquin College
From Engineer to Entrepreneur, My Journey Brian Hurley, CEO PurpleForge https://purpleforge.com/
In spite of horrendous weather conditions we were able to experience an excellent three hour presentation given by our guest speaker Mr. Brian Hurley of PurpleForge.
David Mann, the local Chair Introduced the speaker and thanked Leanna Verrucci and Sahar Fariqi of Algonquin College for being our hosts for the evening. Leanna gave a brtief overview of the facilities available at the College for entrepreneurial education and thanked the IET for bringing this talk to the College. The speaker then provided an engaging presentation about his journey into building entrepreneurial ventures. He covered:
- His insights into building a technology start up
- Understandings about how failure can be a great teacher
- His passion about the excitement and ups and downs of creating new companies
- His insights into the key things needed to make success happen
- The necessity of early customer engagement and relationship building
This was followed by the audience debating take-aways from the presentation. After a short break the speaker completed his presentation followed by Q&A.
David Mann presented a framed poster to both the College and the Speaker, that had been developed by one of our volunteers. This was received with grace and
Brian Hurley is the President and CEO of Purple Forge. He is an entrepreneurial leader with over 30 years of experience in building strong teams, innovative products and international businesses. He previously founded Liquid Computing in 2003 and as it’s CEO raised over $44 million in venture financing, built a world-class team, delivered an award winning product to market and won international sales. He has built and led numerous successful business teams in Nortel, Bell-Northern Research and Microtel Pacific Research. Brian is the author of the best selling book “A Small Business Guide to Doing Big Business on the Internet“. He was the 2007 winner of the OCRI “Next Generation Executive” award. Brian is a member of the GTEC SCOAP Honouree Selection Committee. He is a past member of the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce board of directors. Brian graduated from Carleton University with a Bachelor of Engineering.
Interview conducted with event participants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu7KJJCa2C8&feature=youtu.be
Speaker
Brian Hurley is the President and CEO of Purple Forge. He is an entrepreneurial leader with over 30 years of experience in building strong teams, innovative products and international businesses. He previously founded Liquid Computing in 2003 and as it’s CEO raised over $44 million in venture financing, built a world-class team, delivered an award winning product to market and won international sales. He has built and led numerous successful business teams in Nortel, Bell-Northern Research and Microtel Pacific Research. Brian is the author of the best selling book “A Small Business Guide to Doing Big Business on the Internet“. He was the 2007 winner of the OCRI “Next Generation Executive” award. Brian is a member of the GTEC SCOAP Honouree Selection Committee. He is a past member of the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce board of directors. Brian graduated from Carleton University with a Bachelor of Engineering.
Interview conducted with event participants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu7KJJCa2C8&feature=youtu.be