Welcome to Canada. Home of the Challenger City.

The beauty of Market Gravity having small hubs across the world is that we’re all working on various schemes, trains of thought or just very cool big ideas. It’s not just Scotland and Canada that hold close bonds, it exists between our teams in Toronto and Edinburgh. Something our Scottish team has been working on struck a chord with how I feel about Canada right now.

You have probably heard of Challenger Brands. The brands that go above and beyond their typical resources, act boldly, are not afraid to go against convention and certainly are not scared of the big boys – the Warby Parkers, WestJets, Brewdogs or Tweeds of the world.

Well, I firmly believe in Canada as a Challenger Country, that’s why we brought Market Gravity north just over a year ago.

No longer little brothers or younger cousins to London, New York or San Francisco

Our Scottish team have been thinking about the concept of Challenger Cities. Why should London get all the attention when Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen can make big ideas real without all this silicon roundabout talk. Scotland, inventors of the modern world (you’re welcome, btw), is sick and tired of London becoming their brain drain.

Isn’t the same true in Canada? Quite frankly, I’m tired of innovation and tech being all about the valley, because it’s simply bullshit.

Yes it’s a lovely location for a jolly; sun, surf, decent coffee and people with very nice white teeth. Canadians are growing bored of chasing the money in the US, tired of an ever aggressive political environment and well, taking their moment in the sun (ok, ok, there’s a lot of snow) to actually show that Canada isn’t just the friendly person at the back of the room. It’s the nation that is going to frankly lead for once and show its peers how it’s done. F*cking right, bahd!

So whether it’s Toronto & Fintech. Kitchener/Waterloo & Communitech. Vancouver & Retail. Heck, even the oil town of Edmonton is future proofing by becoming a leader in cannabis and places some might look at as a backwater …. Moncton, NB (sorry Moncton, I actually love you) are doing some amazing things in gaming, tech and even important cultural actions around bilingualism.

But how do we make more of this? I’ve shamelessly ‘borrowed’ a few thoughts that stood out to me from what our Edinburgh team is calling the ‘Challenger Cities Playbook’. This is for the cities that don’t want to just talk the talk, copy what actually doesn’t work perfectly in a totally different environment and instead make something truly special for their own place.

We have identified a few key principles to help get it right.

CREATE YOUR OWN LEGEND

Tell your own story so you can take charge.

If you want your city to become a real hub of innovation then you will need to convince people to relocate there, change their life plans to stay in the city longer, or risk their savings on a new venture. That means at some stage you need to stop selling an analysis of your future prospects. There comes a point at which you need to have a story people can buy into. Show us actions, results and things you are doing, not just planning.

You then need to shout from the rooftops about it.

BRAVE THE BRUTAL TRUTH

The only thing harder than hearing what you don’t want to hear is realising the truth too late.

There are many blockers of innovation but the most underrated of them is politeness (the Canadian disease of niceness is real, at least a Scot tells you how it is, no matter how bluntly). If you can brave it, and the best challenger cities will, brutal feedback can be a competitive advantage.

You cannot be the best at everything (Canadian NHL teams and Scottish football teams have been showing us this for years). There are some things other cities will do better than you. Accept it. Why? Because if you don’t then you’ll waste time and effort that you could put into your real areas of strength.

Once you brave the brutal truth, you will see the opportunities you can never truly go after, and so commit in a truly entrepreneurial way to the areas and sectors that could transform you future.

SCALE AT THE FRONTIER

Don’t just think big, make it big here.

It is one thing to have the ideas and a set of start-ups that set pulses racing. That’s what makes a good incubator. To create a challenger city you need to find routes to scale too.

What are the advantages your city could have for a scale-up not just a start-up? And what about the support for a new corporate venture and not just a founder team in plaid shirts? 

What happens if you don’t answer those questions? You will create an incubator ecosystem that makes it rain for someplace else.

GO FURTHER TOGETHER

Find your allies.

Cities are rarely islands, but if you are one of the traditional hubs of technology innovation you can afford to imagine yourself to be. Challenger cities tell the world the reasons why they are an amazing place to set-up, scale-up and innovate.

They also know that you can’t build a revolution in one region or just one country. Companies founded in your city, scaling in your city, innovating in your city will need partners and clients doing the same elsewhere. Rather than seeing that as a source of competition, challengers see it as a potential point of competitive advantage.

Challenger cities will find other cities to ally with and proactively build the connectivity between them.

Do you think you city has the potential to launch a challenger proposition? Based on my experience in Canada over the last few years, I firmly believe places like Edmonton (engineering), Halifax (an incredible university city) and even places like Victoria (check this article on its tech scene) can be challenger cities Canada is proud of .... and if I’m missing a city, tell me why!

Do you want to go after the opportunity and become a Challenger City?

Want a copy of the playbook? Get in touch with myself or Nick Sherrard and we’ll hook you up.