C2 S AT U R D AY, J A N U A R Y 1 7, 2 0 1 5 C A L G A R Y H E R A L D F I N A N C I A L P O S T

L L OY E D L O B OF O R T H E C A L G A R Y H E R A L D

There is a glut of valuable capital tied up in surplus oilfield equip-ment and idle inventory. Oil and gas explorers and producers and oilfield service companies are look-ing for better ways to manage and monetize their surplus and idle assets.

Fuelled Marketplace is a web and mobile application that connects buyers and sellers of equipment. Companies can generate reports to understand the number of views a listing receives and how much equipment has been sold or rede-ployed internally. The application also provides the ability to do engi-neering calculations and unit con-versions. It also has a community forum for questions and answers.

Here’s more from founder and CEO Raj Singh:

Q How did you come up with the idea for your startup?A I have been in the oilfield services business for the past 13 years and a constant theme over this period has been services companies looking to reduce their cost of new customer acqui-sitions and producers seeking out solutions to deal with surplus equipment. I knew there had to be a better way, but I wasn’t sure until a good friend and entrepre-neur pushed me to use technol-ogy to help solve the problem.

We’ve spent the last year understanding what our custom-ers and users are looking for and we are confident that the Fuelled Marketplace will be the first place people go when sourcing oilfield equipment.

Q What has been the biggest challenge so far? What have you done to solve it?

A Trying to perfect every aspect of the app can be a challenge. While we have an amazing devel-opment team that can build any-thing quickly, we’ve come to the realization that we do not need to incorporate all the functional-ity and ideas on Day 1. We will continue to improve the product with customer and user feedback.

Q What’s new with your startup that we can share?A We started working on Fuelled Marketplace when oil prices were over $100 per barrel. At the currently depressed commodity price levels Fuelled Marketplace is even more important to help increase efficiency and drive down costs for producers and oilfield services companies.

Q What advice would you like to share with others just starting out?A Our mission is to provide solu-tions that help solve inefficien-cies and pains in our industry. New entrepreneurs should spend a lot of time trying to understand

their customers’ problems and then find innovative ways to solve them.

Q What made you choose to go the path of entrepreneurship?A I don’t believe in doing any-thing halfway and for Fuelled to be successful I felt I needed to leave my position (as a vice-president) at an oilfield services company and jump all-in. Hav-ing been involved in startups previously, I know first-hand the blood, sweat, tears and sleepless nights involved in making it a success.

Q What are your thoughts on our startup ecosystem?A Alberta is a hot bed for entre-preneurship. In particular the oilpatch is always looking for innovative technologies and new concepts to address inefficien-cies that exist in their business. I honestly believe this is one of the best places in the world to be an entrepreneur.

Q What do you and your startup need help with?A Check out the Fuelled Market-place at fuelled.com and down-load our free app in Google Play or the App Store.Lloyed Lobo covers technology start-ups in Alberta. He is a partner at Boast Capital and a board member at Startup Calgary. If you’d like to be featured, please e-mail llobo@boastcapital.com.

Making connections in oilfield equipment

From left to right: Brooks Capewell, Raj Singh and Ted Crozier of Fuelled Marketplace, a startup that matches buyers and sellers of used oilfield equipment.   F U E L L E D M A R K E T P L AC E .

M A R I O T O N E G U Z Z IC A L G A R Y H E R A L D

Canadian women have led  the charge into entrepreneurship since the 2009 recession, says TD Economics.

While overall self-employment has been fairly flat since then, self-employment among women has grown, the bank said Friday.

However, women remain un-derrepresented among entrepre-neurs, despite the recent upswing, the report said.

Statistics Canada data show 77,300 men and 41,600 women were self-employed in the Calgary region in 2009. Last year, that had grown to 84,200 men and 43,300 women. The number of self-em-ployed Calgarians with paid help also rose, from 20,500 to 27,900 (for men) and 6,500 to 7,600 wom-en in the same time period.

“Absolutely this is a trend we are seeing across the country and even within our own membership, and thank goodness," said Richard Truscott, Alberta director for the Canadian Federation of Indepen-dent Business. "Canada is facing some major challenges in terms of business succession. We will have a lot of business owners exiting in the next 10 years.

"More women starting new en-terprises, or taking over existing businesses, is clearly a big part of the answer.”

The TD report found Newfound-land and Labrador led growth of self-employed women between 2009 and 2014, at 48 per cent, fol-lowed by Saskatchewan (nine per cent), Manitoba (six per cent), Prince Edward Island (six per cent) and Alberta (five per cent).

“While women make up nearly half the workforce, they are still much less likely than men to be entrepreneurs,” said Leslie Pres-ton, economist with TD Econom-ics. "Some factors like greater risk aversion and occupational choice ... are likely to be slow to change.

“However, the recent growth of women entering self-employment since the recession is  a positive sign.”mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com Twitter.com/MTone123

Growing number of women start own business Self-employed, entrepreneur numbers on rise

M A R I O T O N E G U Z Z IC A L G A R Y H E R A L D

Vacancy within Calgary’s down-town offices is rising as more com-panies put unwanted space back on the market, says a new Avison-Young report.

The commercial real estate firm said downtown vacancy topped seven per cent in the fourth quar-ter of 2014 as firms took a more conservative approach with their real estate.

“Sublet space is being used as a tactic by large companies to miti-gate their short-term exposure. Their strategy includes taking more space than immediately necessary to allow for long-term growth, then subleasing portions of it with staggered expiries to con-trol their future options,” its 2015 forecast states.

The downtown office vacancy rate moved to 7.4 per cent in the fourth quarter, from 6.2 per cent three months earlier.

Calgary’s overall office vacancy rate rose to 8.8 per cent in the fourth quarter, from 8.6 per cent in the previous quarter.

Top-tier Class AA vacancy in-creased from 0.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2013 to 3.3 per cent last quarter.

Avison-Young said five projects totalling 3.9 million square feet of Class AA office space are un-der construction downtown, with more than half pre-leased.

Its report said Canadian office vacancy rate rose to 9.4 per cent at the end of 2014. Vacancy is ex-pected to near 10 per cent by the end of 2015.mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com Twitter.com/MTone123

Commercial real estate sees vacancy rate rise

Calgary’s downtown vacancy topped seven per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014.   G AV I N Y O U NG / C A L G A RY H E R A L D F I L E S

B E N I N G R A MN A N A I M O D A I LY N E W S

Nanaimo entrepreneur Morgan Carey has spurned a $2-million deal he secured on the reality TV show Dragons’ Den for a richer in-vestment involving one of the stars of American spinoff Shark Tank.

The Real Estate Webmasters president will detail a new agree-ment that values his company at $50 million, $10 million more than the Dragons’ offer, later this month at a New York real estate confer-ence.

The new agreement involves Barbara Corcoran, a real estate en-trepreneur and star of Shark Tank.

“I can say we’ve partnered with a multibillion-dollar software com-pany,” he said in an interview. “It’s a much better deal that is due in part to our exposure on Dragons’ Den.”

Carey said he had every intention of going through with the Dragons’ deal, but that “there just wasn’t enough value there. They didn’t bring enough to the table.

“Like I said on the television show, I don’t need the money. We had $2.5 million in sales last month,” he said. “It was about the contacts and it was about the ex-posure. It always was.”

Carey appeared on the broadcast in November, where Dragons Jim Treliving and Mike Wekerle agreed to partner on a five-per-cent stake of REW, in exchange for $2 million, or a $40-million valuation of the growing company.

REW creates customized web-sites for real estate companies that are search-engine-optimized to generate traffic. The Nanaimo-based company employs about 180 workers and Carey hopes REW will grow to 1,000 employees with mul-tiple international offices over the next five years.

A crucial element of that push is expected to be announced by Carey

at this month’s industry event in New York.

REW is looking at expansion op-portunities in Victoria, Toronto and the eastern U.S.

Armed with the more lucrative agreement, Carey said REW will target a five-year revenue goal of $100 million, which could push the company past the $1-billion valu-ation mark.

Entrepreneur picks Shark over Dragons

Fuelled Marketplace app hooks up buyers, sellers of used or surplus gear

S TA R T U P O F T H E W E E K

Real Estate Webmasters president Morgan Carey with ‘Shark Tank’ star and soon-to-be partner Barbara Corcoran.  F O R T H E C A L G A RY H E R A L D