Serial Entrepreneur

Profile: John Seminerio

OctigaBay founder John Seminerio has helped mastermind the development of two local companies that have created hundreds of jobs and attracted millions of investment dollars

Mission: enjoy some time off after building and selling two tech companies; in the longer term, perhaps launch another start-up

Assets: a storied career in technology and telecommunications that developed the right skills for a start-up CEO

Yield: headed two B.C. tech firms that employed hundreds, encouraged innovation and were eventually sold for hundreds of millions of dollars

By Glenn Drexhage

It's funny how life works out sometimes. While the National Energy Program - introduced over two decades ago - stills riles oil-proud Albertans, it also inadvertently boosted B.C.'s tech sector.

Without the NEP, it's unlikely that John Seminerio - named Person of the Year in 2004 by the British Columbia Technology Industries Association - would have ended up in this province, let alone the tech sector.

That would have been a loss, given that he's been instrumental in the development of two local companies that have generated hundreds of jobs, mega-million-dollar sales and serious innovation. And more could be on the way.

"I think that John is one of the most impressive serial entrepreneurs that I've ever met," said Steven Hnatiuk of Yaletown Venture Partners, where Seminerio is a special limited partner.

Seminerio had originally intended to work in the oil business after graduating from the University of Waterloo with an engineering degree. First up, though, was a backpacking sojourn overseas.

"By the time I came back from Europe, Pierre Trudeau had passed the National Energy Program, which kind of killed the oil industry overnight," Seminerio, a 46-year-old Hamilton native, recalled. "And so I kind of lost my job before I even started."

He decided to go back to school and attended the University of Southern Mississippi.

Two years later, Seminerio returned to Canada, armed with an MBA and ready to begin a career - this time in telecommunications. He began in Toronto at Northern Telecom (known today as Nortel Networks Ltd.), gaining experience in such areas as product management and marketing.

After five years, he'd had enough. To this day he prefers a start-up environment, not surprising considering he led local tech firms Abatis Systems Corp. and OctigaBay Systems Corp.

"I thrive in an environment where it's small, it's dynamic, [where] decisions are made very easily and quickly. And the goal is always in sight," he said. "And I like it when I can walk around and I know all the employees."

Seminerio subsequently joined the Canadian subsidiary of Texas firm DSC Communications Corp. He excelled in sales and eventually became general manager. The experience served him well.

"John is not a shy individual," Hnatiuk said. "He is one of the best salespeople I've ever met, which is a hallmark of a great CEO."

Seminerio moved to Vancouver in 1995 to work at MPR Teltech Ltd., BC Tel's former research arm. He wasn't there long, though, and after about nine months was back in Toronto working with a series of small companies.

Then the tech gods intervened.

Through a series of prior connections, Seminerio met Adam Lorant and Paul Terry.

The two Newbridge Networks employees were keen to start a new company. They were looking for a CEO, and a colleague had mentioned Seminerio.

The three ended up meeting at a Toronto airport lobby.

"We sat there for about an hour and a half, talking about what eventually became Abatis," Seminerio said.

In 1999, he moved back to Vancouver as Abatis's president and CEO. The company offered hardware and software to deliver services, such as video-conferencing, over Internet protocol networks.

Abatis won a BCTIA product innovation award. The company also impressed other industry players.

In the summer of 2000, California's Redback Networks Inc. bought Abatis, which then had 126 employees, in a share deal worth a stunning US$676 million.

The timing was sweet. When he was 33, Seminerio had set himself a goal to be financially independent within 10 years. Abatis was sold five months before his 43rd birthday.

The next year, he hit another milestone and got married. Some travelling ensued, followed by an entrepreneur-in-residence stint at Ventures West Management Inc.

Seminerio, Terry and Lorant also started Magellan Angel Partners, which has invested in a couple of local companies.

The trio then began talking with a handful of former Abatis and Newbridge employees about a project code-named A2 - as in Abatis, part two. Originally, the three had aimed to serve as mentors. But, said Seminerio, "by the time the idea came up to do a high-performance computer at an affordable price, I'd had enough of not being involved any more."

OctigaBay was officially founded in December 2001, and the following July, Seminerio - once again serving as president and CEO, as well as chairman - hit the street looking for cash along with Terry and Lorant.

Nearly six months later, the company closed a hefty $24 million round of seed financing. But the really big news was still to come. The following November, OctigaBay unveiled its 12-K supercomputer project at an Arizona trade show.

The product caught the eye of Seattle supercomputing titan Cray Inc., which contacted OctigaBay shortly after for a chat.

"I was surprised at how quickly it was happening," Seminerio said. "But I knew that we had designed something phenomenal. I knew that we had broken some traditional bottlenecks in the high-performance computing industry."

Shortly after, Seminerio and his colleagues again hit the jackpot, selling OctigaBay to Cray for US$115 million.

"In some regard it was a little bit sweeter [the second time around], in that OctigaBay was just - in my opinion - that much better a company than Abatis was," Seminerio said. "It was a better product; it was a much better engineering team."

OctigaBay, which had more than 60 staffers, became Cray Canada Inc., and a "few" more have been added to the roster since the deal.

Seminerio had been president and CEO of the Canadian division, but left the company in mid-January. OctigaBay's product had become an important - and commercial - Cray offering, and the deal-maker felt his mission was complete.

Terry and Lorant remain with Cray Canada. And for now, Seminerio is content to take a bit of time off, although he "absolutely" plans to stay in Vancouver.

He'd like to focus some more on his health - something that takes a back seat, he said, when you're in a start-up - and spend time with his young son Kobe. Plus, Marie, his wife, is expecting another child.

So after two mega-deals, might we see a third attempt?

"I think once Adam and Paul leave Cray, whenever that day is ... then we'll start to have more serious discussions about what A3 would be."