Harry Chemko: Representing Canada at the G20 YES

The Canadian Youth Business Foundation has selected 30 dynamic young Canadian entrepreneurs to form the official Canadian delegation at the G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit (G20 YES) in Nice, France on October 31-November 2, 2011. The G20 YES is an annual international summit that brings together dedicated and influential entrepreneurs of the G20 countries. Harry Chemko is a Canadian delegate.

• My motto: “Always hope for the best – positivity drives positive results.”
• “Be optimistic, but also protect your downside and have a plan B.”
• Company name:  Elastic Path Software Inc.
• Activity: Ecommerce software
• Number of employees: 170
• Headquarters’ Address: 800 – 1045 Howe St., Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA, V6Z 2A9
• Website: www.elasticpath.com

Why did I become an entrepreneur:

I always wanted to run my own business and took the fast-track through university in 1999/2000 so I could do that. We first started Elastic Path as a consulting organization in order to get exposure to many different businesses. It was that breadth of experience that helped us identify the opportunity to launch a new ecommerce software product in 2003. We made a key strategic decision to go full force into that business and haven’t looked back since.

My best moment as an entrepreneur, my success:

I’ve had lots of rewarding moments along the way so it’s hard to point to one. Overall, I’ve really enjoyed seeing our customers use our platform in so many different ways to build their businesses. Visiting with customers to see some of the creative businesses that they’ve built with us has been very rewarding.

My next challenge:

We started Elastic Path about 10 years ago and the potential for the business just keeps getting bigger. The next big step for us is to hit $100 million in revenue. Not a lot of Vancouver technology companies have done that, so I’m looking forward to that milestone.