Welcome to this week’s Sunday Briefing. In this issue, read about a local marine tech company keeping your watercraft safe, a new entrepreneurship podcast based in Victoria, and how Certn scaled to 500 employees over just two years.

Now onto today’s briefing. It’s 569 words: a three-minute read.

-Emily, [email protected]

By the way, if you're not already subscribed, you can fix that here.

Victoria-based W Venture launches a new program to scale women-led tech companies across B.C.

W Venture, an organization focused on supporting female entrepreneurs, has launched a new program to help more women-led tech companies in B.C. to scale in a rapid and sustainable way.

Named W Venture Growth, the one-year program begins this September and offers access to resources, mentorship, and a community of female entrepreneurs. Twenty startups will receive guidance from seasoned CEOs, partake in monthly accountability groups to keep their ventures on track, and learn from quarterly strategy sessions for key priorities and market strategies. 

The program is now accepting online applications and will host a virtual info session next week, on August 13.

📰 More Victoria innovation news

🛥 Rock the boat: The Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce highlighted another local marine technology company this week. Brandon Wright, CEO of boat security and monitoring company BRNKL, joined the latest episode of Chamber Chat.

✨ Put a spell on you: Joanna Buczkowska-McCumber, CEO and chief strategist at Ideas for Impact Sustainability Agency, launched a new podcast on why investors choose impact.

📈 Expansion, expansion, expansion: Certn CEO and co-founder Andrew McLeod highlighted the company’s growth. Find out how, over the last two years, the Certn team scaled from 24 employees to 500.

🕴️ Tech jobs of the week

Find your next career:

• Program Manager at the W Venture Growth Program

• Senior Solutions Specialist (24-Month Fixed Term) at BCI

• Digital Marketing Specialist at Web Advisors

Hiring in Victoria? Reply to this email and let us know!

📅 Upcoming events

August 23 | VIATEC Summer Tech Together

Picture this: Crowd surfing the CEO of your team to the raddest live band under the sun, and savagely beating your tech rivals in the potato sack race, all while showing off those summer gains in the tug-o-war.

• Chill and connect: Soak up those summer rays with top tech teams in our city.

• Demolish your tech rivals: Prove to the Tectorian community why your company is the best by sprinting to the finish line in the three-legged race and flaunting your superior senses in the blindfolded obstacle course.

• Bring your conductor hat: Take a relaxing cruise through the heritage grounds on the trains with your kiddos.

• Wave your glow sticks: Mosh-pit with your boss and embarrass your kids in front of the main stage.

Have an upcoming event? Reply to let us know.

🙋 I need a…

We at Victoria Tech Journal know you, our community, pretty well. Are you searching for someone in your field to have coffee with, a hiring hookup, a lead on local investors, or suggestion for a great Victoria tech tool? Whatever you’re hunting for, let us know. We’ll post it in this section and make it happen.

Email your requests to [email protected].

Have something or someone we should know about?

Reply or email [email protected] so we can work together to spotlight the lesser-known stories of Victoria's tech ecosystem.