Roger Killen

Business adviser, Business mentor, Christian, Consultant, Educator/Teacher, Entrepreneur, Event planner, Idea generator, Investor, Marketer

I was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, attended Trinity College in Dublin and graduated with an honours degree in Business Studies and a single digit golf handicap in 1973. I immigrated to Canada in 1975 and worked as a salesman and product manager for Xerox Canada until 1979. I have 40 years of frontline experience involving 10 startups plus 2,000 hours of teaching entrepreneurs how to build startups that work. I have taken one company public and been an angel investor 8 times. I have raised over $8m in startup equity and leveraged this into $14m of early-stage capital. From 1998 to 2012 I was engaged by nearly all the entrepreneur-serving organizations in British Columbia and the Yukon to deliver programs on designing, building and financing early-stage businesses. I then created an alternative way of educating entrepreneurs – the Sizzling Sales Show – which packaged education inside entertainment. My vision is to assist entrepreneurs fuel an upward spiral of startup quality, startup success and stakeholder rewards. I believe that this spiral will produce robust solutions for customers’ problems, massive job and wealth creation for society and fulfillment, fun and fortune for entrepreneurs. To support this vision, I take on worthy, high-potential projects that can leverage my reputation, contacts, skills and experience.

Improving the 5% success rate experienced by independent new businesses. Any improvement in this success rate will positively impact the world's prosperity.

There is a proven framework that has an enormous impact on the success rate of independent new businesses. The elements of this framework are proven strategies and tactics and these are learnable and replicable. If entrepreneurs were exposed to this framework and executed around it, their startup businesses would have much-improved sustainability. These sustainable new businesses would create new solutions, wealth and jobs for the betterment of the world and fulfillment, fun, fame and fortune for their founders.

ballroom dancing, Emceeing, Entrepreneurship & startups, Entrepreneurship Education, Event organizing, Public Speaking and Teaching

I attended the TEDxVancouver event in November 2011 and fell in love with everything TED. So I successfully applied to be the licensee for TEDxStanleyPark and produced a solidly successful event on March 16, 2013. I now feel called to produce another TEDxStanleyPark event in Vancouver.

Baking Irish wheaten bread.