What happens when you meet Mr. Luck

Plus, developing career paths for the blue economy

Author

Emily Edwards
May 15, 2024

Welcome to this week’s Midweek Memo. In this issue, read about another new addition to COAST, fresh air from Origen Air, and a rapid earthquake alert from Ocean Networks Canada.

Now, onto today’s briefing. It’s 763 words, a three-minute read.

What happens when you meet Mr. Luck

Tiny co-founders Chris Sparling and Andrew Wilkinson with Berkshire Hathaway’s Charlie Munger. Source: Andrew Wilkinson / @awilkinson Twitter

They might’ve called the company Tiny, but they’re doing big things. A Victoria-based investment company with a fresh philosophy, Tiny buys and invests in companies using a straightforward one-month process before “leaving the companies alone to do their thing.”

At the VALUExBRK investment conference earlier this month, Tiny co-founder Chris Sparling told the story of how he, alongside fellow co-founder Andrew Wilkinson, dreamed of pivoting from being serial entrepreneurs to becoming investors.

“Our goal was to create the Berkshire Hathaway of the internet. As we sat, waiting for this sea plane, we tossed around names for this new company. And we decided we needed a goal — an audacious goal. We wanted to one day meet our idol, Charlie Munger. It’s hard to underscore how unrealistic this goal seemed at the time. As Guy said, we’re two Island bumpkins from Victoria, B.C. And really, I think what we had no, I kinda think no right to believe that this was possible.

But I’m a big believer in a simple idea; and that is that somewhere out there, there’s a person with the name tag ‘Luck’ on their chest. And the probability of running into Mr. Luck goes up if you’re leaving your house; if you’re just not sitting at home. And your odds of luck or of running into Mr. Luck goes up further if you’re travelling: if you’re going for business, or if you’re going to conferences.

And that’s exactly what happened to us. By pure serendipity, we crossed paths with someone I’m going to call Mr. Luck.”

Chris Sparling, co-founder, Tiny

Tune in to find out how a chance encounter with Mr. Luck led to the pair nearly merging with the Daily Journal and the lesson they learned from its then chairman, the late Charlie Munger.

Editor’s note: Andrew Wilkinson is also an owner of Overstory Media Inc. which operates the Victoria Tech Journal.

📰 More Victoria innovation news

🌊 Which way will I take? Another people announcement for COAST: The ocean organization has brought on Tom Roemer as director of the Blue Pathways Initiative, where he’ll work on developing career paths in the blue economy.

🌬 All we can do is keep breathing: Origen Air launched its Eliza Air Purifier. Eliza is made from 100% recycled plastic and, honestly, it looks pretty cool too.

🌎 Shake it off: Ocean Network Canada’s seismic network alerted its critical infrastructure subscribers to a small offshore earthquake earlier this week. Subscribers received over a minute of advanced warning that there would be ground shaking.

🕴️ Tech jobs of the week

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