Ledger Labs is a blockchain consulting company that operates out of Toronto. We’re a small start-up, and the team has the highest level of expertise in the field in Canada and around the world.
I promote Ledger Labs, get new business, consult and help companies understand how they can apply the blockchain concept within their industry. In a nutshell, blockchain is a distributed database that can do things in an automated fashion. It eliminates third parties (like eBay or PayPal) so interactions can happen faster and more affordably.
For example, if you and I want to bet on a hockey game, we might agree that you’ll give me $100 if the Leafs win. But I don’t trust you because I don’t know you, so we go through a third party, like a betting website. And that site takes additional time and fees. With blockchain, you remove the need for that third party.
As the internet was in 1994, blockchain is in early stages and a little bit difficult to use, but it’s going to be really transformative. There are different kinds of blockchain, and the bitcoin blockchain is the best known.
After high school, I went to Queen’s University for life sciences and then directly to McMaster University for the MBA program. The real draw at McMaster was the co-op program. Education can give you a lot of things, but without the experience, it’s not as valuable. The program allowed me to test a few niches and save time in deciding where I wanted to go in the future.
This summer, I spent 10 weeks at Singularity University in Silicon Valley doing its Global Solutions Program. The school encourages people to use exponential technology to solve grand global challenges. Its whole point is to create a class of big thinkers.
A lot of education encourages people to dig as deep as possible. You have people studying one tiny cell in one tiny pathway of a tiny scientific process, but Singularity wants people who can think on a grander scale. The 80 people in this year’s class came from 40 countries around the world.
When I started at McMaster, I aspired to a health-oriented career based on my life sciences degree. I did three co-op placements: at a health care consulting company, a pediatric palliative care centre called Roger’s House in Ottawa and with Doctors Without Borders, the international aid charity. I worked in its Toronto office and missed my graduation at McMaster to work with the org in the field in the Central African Republic.
Marketing came after I finished my fieldwork. After returning from Africa, I worked in Doctors Without Borders’ Toronto office doing fundraising and marketing and then ran the fundraising and marketing program in Dublin, Ireland. I also worked with Dignitas, which does HIV/AIDS programming in Malawi.
I started to read about bitcoins and blockchains and really fell in love. I saw that a lot of the problems we’re dealing with on a day-to-day basis could be wiped out by technologies like blockchain. For me, it’s about solving global health challenges around water and energy, tackling them on a exponentially larger scale.
There will be a lot of issues in the future with technology unemployment, and it’s going to be an interesting time in which the most valuable skill a school can teach you is how to be adaptable.
When I was seven or eight, my parents sent me to a couple of computer camps. I learned how to code and use HTML, but there was a period when tech didn’t interest me much. I got off the technology path, but now that I’m back on it I’m happier than ever.
It’s like being involved in the internet in the early 90s. I’ve watched blockchain grow and the bad press around bitcoin change as groups like the TSX, NASDAQ and major banks get on board. The negatives are when you have people laugh at you. When you say you work in bitcoin, they have a good laugh, but you know you’ll get the last laugh in the end.
Where to study marketing:
ALGOMA UNIVERSITY (Sault Ste. Marie) Marketing and communications: $6,940/year. algomau.ca
ALGONQUIN COLLEGE (Ottawa) Advertising and marketing communications: $8,155/year business administration marketing: $5,855/year. algonquincollege.com
CANADORE COLLEGE (North Bay) Advertising and marketing communications: $2,114/semester. canadorecollege.ca
CENTENNIAL COLLEGE (Toronto) Business administration – marketing: business – marketing: $3,717/year. centennialcollege.ca
CONESTOGA COLLEGE (Kitchener) Advertising and marketing business/business administration – marketing: $4,126/year. conestogac.on.ca
CONFEDERATION COLLEGE (Thunder Bay) Business – marketing: $2,818/year (plus fees). confederationc.on.ca
DEGROOTE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS/MCMASTER UNIVERSITY (Hamilton) Master of
business administration: $38,000/program co-op: $43,500. degroote.mcmaster.ca
DURHAM COLLEGE (Oshawa) Advertising and marketing communications: $4,098/year marketing – business/business administration: $3,991/year. durhamcollege.ca
FANSHAWE COLLEGE (London/Woodstock) Business – marketing: $2,000 business administration – marketing marketing management: $2,050. fanshawec.ca
FLEMING COLLEGE (Peterborough) Business administration – marketing: $2,442/semester. flemingcollege.ca
GEORGE BROWN COLLEGE (Toronto) Business – marketing: $3,692/year business administration – marketing: $3,716/year Continuing education – marketing: $1,970/six courses. georgebrown.ca
GEORGIAN COLLEGE (Barrie) Advertising and marketing communications: $4,040/year business – marketing: $3,990/year. georgiancollege.ca
GOODMAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS/BROCK UNIVERSITY (St. Catharines) Bachelor of Business Administration – marketing concentration: $8,393/year (plus fees) master of business administration: $12,166/year (plus fees). brocku.ca/business
HUMBER COLLEGE (Toronto) Advertising and marketing communications: $3,937/year bachelor of commerce – marketing: $7,446/year business – marketing: $3,972/year marketing management: $6,163. humber.ca
IVEY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS/UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO (London) Honours business administration: $62,118/program master of business administration: $84,250/program (plus fees). ivey.uwo.ca
LAKEHEAD UNIVERSITY (Thunder Bay) Bachelor of administration: $6,277/year master of business administration: $19,435/program. lakeheadu.ca
LOYALIST COLLEGE (Belleville) Advertising and marketing communications business sales and marketing: $4,040/year. loyalistcollege.com
MOHAWK COLLEGE (Hamilton) Advertising and marketing communications business – marketing: $2,836/year (plus fees). mohawkcollege.ca
NIAGARA COLLEGE (Niagara-on-the-Lake) Business administration – marketing co-op: $4,609. niagaracollege.ca
ODETTE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS/UNIVERSITY OF WINDSOR (Windsor) Business administration (honours): $5,189./year master of business administration: $5,645.06/year. uwindsor.ca/odette
QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY (Kingston) Bachelor of commerce: $16,764/year (plus fees) master of business administration: $79,000/program. smith.queensu.ca
ROTMAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT/ UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO (Toronto) Master of business administration: $98,424/two-year program (plus fees). rotman.utoronto.ca
SCHULICH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS/YORK UNIVERSITY (Toronto) Masters of business administration: $74,176/year. schulich.yorku.ca
SENECA COLLEGE (Toronto) Business administration – marketing business – marketing: $3,832/year marketing management co-op: $5,434/year. senecacollege.ca
SHERIDAN COLLEGE (Oakville) Advertising and marketing communications: $4,066/year (plus fees) bachelor of marketing management: $8,270/year (plus fees) business administration – marketing: $4,236/year (plus fees) marketing management: $6,364/year (plus fees). sheridancollege.ca
SPROTT SCHOOL OF BUSINESS/CARLETON UNIVERSITY (Ottawa) Bachelor of commerce (marketing): $8,763/year master of business administration: $8,754/year. sprott.carleton.ca
ST. LAWRENCE COLLEGE (Kingston) Advertising and marketing communications management: $4,606/year (plus fees) business administration – marketing business marketing: $2,850/year (plus fees). stlawrencecollege.ca
TED ROGERS SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT/RYERSON UNIVERSITY (Toronto) Marketing management: $6,561/year. ryerson.ca/tedrogersschool
TELFER SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT/ UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA (Ottawa) Honours bachelor of commerce (marketing): $4,363/year master of business administration: $9,085/year. telfer.uottawa.ca
UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH (Guelph) Bachelor of commerce (marketing management): $4,651/semester. uoguelph.ca
UNIVERSITY OF ONTARIO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (Oshawa) Bachelor of commerce: $8,151/year master of business administration: $33,067/program. uoit.ca
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO (Waterloo) Honours arts and business environment and business: $6,420/year. uwaterloo.ca
WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY (Waterloo) Honours bachelor of business administration: $8,300/year master of business administration: $30,040/program. wlu.ca
kevinr@nowtoronto.com | @KevinRitchie
