Pejman Ghanipour

Pejman Ghanipour already had experience as an engineer with a start-up company and had worked as a research assistant at Simon Fraser University, but wanted to be able to make more use of his people skills. So with a BSc (Combined Honours) in Physics and Astronomy and a Master's in Electrical Engineering, he applied for the WestLink Technology Commercialization Program.

His first placement was as a technology transfer officer with TRIUMF, a particle acceleration institute at the University of British Columbia. He acted as a liaison between patent attorneys and researchers and estimates that he worked on 120 patent applications. "I was surprised at my ability to handle so many different projects at the same time," says Ghanipour, who also helped market many of TRIUMF's technologies, one of which was considered as a basis for a new spin-off company.

Ghanipour then went to Lion's Capital, a Vancouver-based venture capital firm. He performed due diligence on numerous investment opportunities and played a key role in the firm's investment in four startup companies. Ghanipour also watched his firm unsuccessfully attempt to buy another venture capital firm - an attempted hostile takeover - then successfully buy the management rights of a competing venture capital fund. He was intimately involved in analyzing the merits of each of these acquisitions and attended most of the high-level backroom meetings.

"It was exciting to be part of these multi-million dollar deals," says Ghanipour. "Before WestLink, I thought venture capitalists had an easy job, but I soon found out that it involves a lot of work and stress."

Ghanipour's third placement was with one of the companies he did due diligence on while with Lion's Capital: Zeugma Systems. Founded in 2004, Zeugma Systems is one of the best funded start-ups in Canada, with a $50 million in funding to date. The high-tech company makes intelligent routers that allow service providers such as Telus or Shaw to deliver new revenue-generating services on a per subscriber basis. Ghanipour performed competitive market analysis, which included discovering competitor information not easily available. He also helped Zeugma in their search for strategic partners that would help the company enhance and distribute its products. "It was a great experience to see how a big and well-funded start up - with 100 to 120 employees - functions and it was exciting to enter the world of corporate espionage.

Shortly after his internship, Ghanipour worked as a self-employed investment banker, trying to raise $3 million for Versawave Technologies, the startup company he originally worked for as an engineer. Although he has since found a new job at the University of Lethbridge (U of L), he continues to be involved in the fund-raising activities of Versawave.

Now with the U of L's Technology Transfer Office, Ghanipour is excited to be developing policies and raising awareness among researchers and the community about the office. It was a big move from Vancouver to southern Alberta, but Ghanipour relishes the opportunity he has been given.

Looking back, he says WestLink was one of the best things to happen to him. "There is no other way I could have gained the experience I did," he says. "It changed my life from being the engineering lab guy to an active participant in the business side of things. It couldn't get any better than it did."