THE NEXT GENERATION

The early days of establishing the business came after working our
regular day jobs. We’d get together in the evenings to investigate and
refine the idea. We recognized that the key was to commercialize it
in order to run a successful business.”
“We also knew we needed financing,” notes Sit, who came into
this venture after working for several years as an investment banker.
“But we decided that the best way to build a company was to develop
a product and focus on executing the business plan first. If all you
are concerned about is securing financing, you’ll neglect the fundamentals
of the business. Our company has always been 100% self
funded, first through our own pockets and then through cash flow.”
While the company is now profitable and on a strong growth
trajectory, Sit and Choi are aware that there will be other challenges
ahead. “We know that we can’t become a giant success story
overnight,” says Choi. Instead, the plan is to expand intelligently and
C ANOPCO I NC.
Skule alumni at the core
of the company include:
Back row l.-r.: Tony Lacavera
and Mirek Nawrot. Front row
l.-r.: Rishi Bahall, Gianni Creta,
Ashvinder Brar, Anthony
Cozzi and Peter Spinato.
focus on controlled growth, while being aware that their products will
need to evolve to suit the changing marketplace. “We will succeed only
if our products and services continue to satisfy our customers’ needs.”
a time when some big name hardware and service
AT providers in the telecom sector are downsizing and struggling
with heavy debt and flat demand, how is it that Canopco Inc.
has experienced a 4,500% growth in sales since its inception four
years ago? Tony Lacavera (BASc Comp 9T7), President, CEO and
Co-Founder of the private telecommunications company that got its
start serving the hospitality industry, has a few thoughts on the matter.
“When we started Canopco, we saw the opportunity that the
deregulation of the telecom industry created. We developed a
service offering based on proprietary software to supply operator
services to the new, competitive local exchange carriers that were
14 FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCE & ENGINEERING/skulematters