What role does a Product Manager play within a company?
Serial Entrepreneur, Evan Hu, shares the importance of a Product Manager and Sales within a business or organization.
Evan Hu has been called the King of Lean Startup in Calgary. He is a serial entrepreneur himself, co-founding the ERP technology consulting firm OmniLogic in the 1990’s which grew to over 500 staff in five offices across Canada before being acquired by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He was one the original founders of MapleMusic, now Canada's largest independent music publisher and distributor as MapleCore, was one of founding team and Chairman of the charity UEnd, and was founder and partner at Ideaca, a management and technology consulting firm until it was acquired by Hitachi Solutions in 2013.
Evan didn’t make his start in technology. He moved to Alberta from Ontario in the 70’s to pursue a degree in engineering, right before an economic downturn, leading him to graduate into a recession. A Master’s in Engineering Management and the foundation of a career later, Evan began to get curious about computer science. At the time, “consulting” was seen as a euphemism for “unemployed” but Evan saw a gap in that space that he could fill.
With two large exits under his belt and over two-decades working in this space, Evan is one of Calgary’s biggest cheerleaders for innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. He has taught courses at Mount Royal University, and been a guest speaker in dozens of entrepreneurship courses. He plays an active role in community initiatives and organizations like Innovate Calgary and Rainforest AB and is an active investor in tech startups both as investment angel and venture capital limited partner.
Evan embodies the supportive ecosystem of mentors and experts that is being built in Alberta.