Our Mission

Each member of the Campbell River Area Angel Group (CRAAG) has been inspired by the beautiful nature that surrounds us, by the quality of the people in our community, by the talented businesses that are established here and by the incredible resources that exist at our doorstep in the Campbell River area.

It is against this backdrop of positive experiences and with a sense of gratitude towards place, that we endeavour to play our own part in building economic capacity and resilience in the region. Given our backgrounds in technology, investment and entrepreneurship, our mission is to establish Campbell River as a high tech growth area, focused on markets that are inspired by local culture, that have global impact and that are aligned with a broader vision defined by our community.

Campbell River, a place that inspires…

Goals

Short-Term

To develop a tech advisory team and incubator to foster the growth of innovative companies in Campbell River...

  • Form a small tech entrepreneur advisory group.

    • Complete!

  • Form a CR based angel investor group

    • Complete! We’re always keen to meet other, likeminded investors. Contact us if interested!

  • CRAAG to fund an innovation competition with CR support

    • Ongoing! NexStream.is is well underway with 40 individuals and businesses entered in phase 01.

  • Develop and launch a tech attraction marketing campaign

 
 

Mid-Term

To develop and launch a marketing campaign designed to attract the right talent to Campbell River….

  • Work with NIC and other educational programs to develop coursework for EE, CS, GIS, Multimedia & business

    • In Progress. Actively engaging leaders at NIC and bringing outside experts to build capabilities in entrepreneurship to the area.

  • Encourage CR to consider incentives for tech startups…

    • In progress with ongoing thought-partnership with CR.

  • Work with regional airlines/hotels/realtors for incentives & discounted rates for startup personnel

  • Work with local/commercial industries/companies to understand their challenges and how to solve them with tech/AI

    • Ongoing with active engagement with businesses and individuals on a weekly basis.

  • Use learnings from interaction with industry to inspire future tech challenges and hackathons

    • In progress! Future directions are already being shaped in collaboration with local business and experts.

  • Begin dialog with larger tech companies regarding investment (offices) in CR

    • In progress and ongoing!

 
 
 
 

Long-Term

Attract an anchor company to CR to be leveraged as a magnet…

  • Continue to support and encourage broadband expansion and other infrastructure development

  • Convince one or more larger companies to locate an office in our region

    • This will spawn cottage industries/new startups

    • This is the fifth ‘magnet’ along with advisors, investors, academia and infrastructure

  • Continue with innovation challenges

  • Continue to focus investment towards Tech/AI solutions for local industries (e.g. logging, fishing, aquaculture)

  • Market the success stories and wash, rinse and repeat!