Chris Izquierdo’s speech at The Fast Growth 50 Reception

February 9, 2011

I'm honoured to receive this award on behalf of DevFacto Technologies. It has always being interesting to me how CEOs and other C-level executives get to accept awards that are anything but theirs, and today it is my turn. There are so many people who have made this possible, our colleagues whose companies have inspired us, our co-workers whose efforts have made it possible, our advisors that have allowed two geeks with no experience running a company to build a successful business, our customers who trusted in us from the beginning, our family for putting up with crazy hours and missed dinners and our friends for their encouragement and support without all of them DevFacto would not have topped the list, without them we would still be a small company with a big dream and not much else. With them we have delivered very interesting solutions for clients not only in Alberta but across the world.

It is great and humbling to be here surrounded by some many successful companies. I ended up in Alberta by accident coming from Cuba about 13 years ago and I did not realize my luck then, -26 degrees on your first day would do that, that luck has become evident in the last few years. While the world entered a recession, Alberta has continued to grow and has made possible through our so called Advantage that 50 companies post an average of 315% revenue increase over those same years. The list is also very diverse with companies coming from many different verticals and from cities and towns throughout the province.

I want to thank Alberta Venture for providing a medium through which companies like ours can get recognized, the program brings a lot of value to anyone who makes the list and the questions asked serve to either enforce or rethink our business strategies.

I find it impressive when companies make the list year after year and some of you have done that. I believe that's our next challenge at DevFacto. I would like to end by asking all of you to please stay hungry, humble and continue to do great things for Alberta. See you next year, thank you very much.