Written by James Matthews at VantechJournal.

Actenum wins 2022 Greg Smith Award, honouring investor who ‘helped keep the lights on’ during company’s dark days. The award is presented by Angel Forum to recognize grit and resilience in the tech community.

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Paul Maurer made the difficult decision to go hunting for a second job. The CEO of Actenum, a software company for clients in the oil and gas industry, had just facilitated a raise for the company in 2006 which started to generate revenue that same year. But, times started getting tough over the next couple of years. It was so tough that Angel Forum president Pieter Dorsman remembers being told by Maurer that the pair would have to split the cheque when it came time to settle up after a lunchtime brainstorming session. 

Fast forward to today and Actenum is profitable, has 30 employees in Canada and the US, and Maurer is solely the company’s CEO — no need for that second job (as far as I could deduce on his LinkedIn, anyway). The cherry on top for the company that he helms? Actenum are newly-minted winners of the Greg Smith Award. The award is doled out by Angel Forum to pay homage to a fixture of the tech community. Smith, an entrepreneur in his own right, started supporting early-stage ventures after the successful exit of his first company, AIS Technologies. He then joined BDC and went on to co-found Espresso Capital then TIMIA Capital. Smith passed away from ALS in October 2021.

You can continue reading this great write up by James at VanTech Journal here.

Find Actenum’s website here.

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