bcbusiness.ca april 2014 BCBusiness 61
"If you're building a
company to be acquired,
you're not committed
enough to your vision.
How are you going to build
the next Google when
everyone is building
companies to be bought
by Google?"
Michael Cheng
Company Builder
Age: 24
C
alling Michael Cheng a serial
entrepreneur hardly does him
justice. The 24-year-old, who
splits his time between Van-
couver and Toronto, has founded
21 companies since the age of 13
(including his latest eff ort, Cover.ca,
a music discovery site). His biggest
success to date is WittyCookie, a
digital marketing agency he started
while still a student in
SFU's School
of Interactive Arts and Technology.
Now in its third year, WittyCookie
was profi table within its fi rst six
months, and today it employs 50
people and has 1,200 customers
worldwide. Cheng will be the fi rst to
tell you not all his companies have
been successful: failure to him is a
badge of honour. "When you start
to truly see failure as a stepping
stone and not as a sign of incompe-
tence," he says, "that's the key trait
to a successful entrepreneur."
Profi t is also overrated, he says. His
measure of success is delivering
value to stakeholders, "because
a company is like a family: it's got
the employees, the investors, the
suppliers, the manufacturers. If
you're not delivering value to your
extended family then I think it's
time to call it a failure." —D.J.
p38-67_30Under30_april.indd 61 14-03-07 2:05 PM
