StartupNorth

Month: April 2010

  • C100 – 48 hours in the Valley

    The C100C100 - 48 hours in the Valley

    Our friends at the C100 have issued the reminder that the submission deadline is April 29, 2010 for their 48 hours In the Valley. Did you wonder what entrepreneurs thought about the last mentoring session? Check out the comments from both the entrepreneurs and a mentor below.

    The C100 has an impressive list of members. And continues to participate in events like the DFAIT Entrepreneur Bootcamps and through tele-mentoring sessions which ran most recently in Ottawa (I’m assuming with folks at OCRI).

    Maryam Mahdaviani & Jan Ulrich, Optemo

    Trevor Doerksen, Mobovio

    Sanjay Beri, Juniper Networks – C100 Mentor

  • Digital Puck and Mentor Mondays

    There are bound to be more US-led foreign investment firms making their way across the border with the elimination of the long dreaded Section 116.  There have been a number of US firms that were making investment in Canada prior to the removal of this taxation law including: Rho Ventures, GrandBanks Capital and Bridgescale Partners. Bridgescale is an interesting firm. They are focused on the later stage deals but realize that these deals are part of a larger ecosystem.

    Bridgescale is led by Rob Chaplinsky. Chaplinsky is a Mechanical Engineering grad from the University of Waterloo (with an MBA from Harvard). He cut his chops as a general partner doing early-stage deals at Mohr Davidow Ventures. He’s a little old school, investor in Bluecat Networks, and a little new schook, he’s an investor in lean startup ninja Eric Reis’ IMVU.

    There is also Howard Gwin. Howard’s located in Canada. He’s on the ground helping companies, serving on boards, and generally helping companies grow. Currently he serves on the boards of Coveo, dna13, Kinaxis and others. He’s on the ground and focused on helping Canadian companies. He was on the board of Taleo which has a market cap of >$1B. Not a bad guy to have on your board.

    Digital Puck

    The interesting part is the desire to build connection and community. It’s similar to the efforts that the C100, which aim to help Canadian startups connect with senior level talent and connections in Silicon Valley. The Bridgescale team has created Digital Puck. Apparently all Canadian startup CEOs and founders are hockey fanatics (well, that’s not far off from the truth). Digital Puck is an opportunity for Canadian startup leadership teams to connect with each other and other key players. The goal is to help bootstrap the next generation of companies, and if I’m not a rocket scientist to help educate and grow companies that Bridgescale can invest in. The goal is to build the connections. It is through the connections that value is transferred. It may not always be a direct transfer, and the Bridgescale team seems to understand the need for individuals to be connected across Canada.

    Mentor Monday is a mentoring forum for private company CEOs that will take place in the afternoon of the last Monday of every month. There will be three CEOs at each event – a mix of early and later stage companies. On hand will be several very experienced Digital Puck board members – current or past CEOs, CIOs, COOs, and other VP level technology backgrounds. The CEOs will get a great forum to test your business strategy, explore growth plans, look for contacts, board members, advisory board members or just discuss things on your mind. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP on the “Events” section of DigitalPuck.

    Whether this is a Silicon Valley firm looking for better valuations on mid-to-late stage deals in Canada or a set of Canadian expatriates looking to make investments in their country of origin, it’s all good for Canadian startups. I participated in today’s inaugural Mentor Monday session that saw 3 companies present today including:

    It will be interesting to see this event evolve, but I think the session was incredibly valuable for each of the startups. It was most valuable as an participant when the founder introduced their business and then described the business problem they needed advice solving. It was very similar to a board meeting with a lot of outside connections. Where else do you get feedback from CEOs, technologists, funders, lawyers, accountants, etc. There is some evolution that needs to happen to the format, but it was a great session. Definitely a great forum for companies that are looking for go-to-market strategies, sales channel discussions, and other growth questions.

  • Week in Review

  • Week in Review

  • 48 hours in the Valley

    The C100C100 - 48 hours in the Valley

    Our friends at the C100 are hosting 20 Canadian companies on May 18-20, 2010 in Silicon Valley. Interesting tradeoff, accepted startups will need to weigh participation in the C100 with participation at OCE Discovery, MeshU and Mesh (assuming you don’t win the GOAP ticket from StartupCamp Montreal). It shouldn’t be a huge debate, because the opportunity to engage with Canadian mentors in Silicon Valley should be pretty straightforward for most startups.

    This is a variant of TechStars for Canadians. You get the chance to connect with the most connected Canadians in Silicon Valley. You can the opportunity to pitch, receive mentorship, and gain access to business development resources. This is a great opportunity for local startups to gain access to markets, companies, and decision makers in Silicon Valley.

    “These customers and markets don’t need to be located in Canada. In fact, Canada can often serve as a providing ground, an incubator, for a variety of market segments. We need to leverage the unique attributes of a diverse population of immigrants for the creative tension of differing viewpoints, and to help forge connections with remote markets.” Creating a Venture Culture, The Mark News

    It is an opportunity for a Canadian startup to build locally and market globally.

    Requirements

    To qualify, companies must:

    • Be substantially Canadian in leadership, employees or location
    • Have a product/service with users/customers
    • Be in a position to expand its business in the U.S. and internationally
    • Be willing to cover its own expenses (flights, hotel, some meals)
    • Be endorsed by a C100 Charter Member or a C100 Seed Partner
    • Apply online

  • Week in Review

  • What happened to MontrealTechWatch?

    Ben wrote a post about reviving MontrealTechWatch and how the Montreal startup community needs MontrealTechWatch now more than ever.

    Heri started MTW about the same time that we started writing StartupNorth. He has become a good friend of mine over the years and is someone who always has the best intentions of the community at heart in everything he does.

    The main complaint is that there just aren’t any posts on MontrealTechWatch anymore. The blog which was once the center of the Montreal startup community is now more or less dead. The simple reason? Heri just doesn’t have the time to blog anymore. I think there is more to it than just that however.

    StartupNorth might have met the same fate as MontrealTechWatch this year if David Crow hadn’t joined in to bear the brunt of the burden. Since the sale of my company last year I, like Heri, have had practically no time to devote to the blog, and Jonas was similarly stretched for time. In the case of MontrealTechWatch, Heri didn’t have a Dave or Jonas to put their shoulders to the wheel. The community that was once so loving lost its leader and didn’t even realize it.

    So, what’s going on here? Do we need startup communities? Do you want a community? Are people really willing to pitch in and spread around the work? Do communities need community, or do they really need leaders? How do we create more MontrealTechWatch’s and keep them around?

    There is a push in Montreal to make some plans and to get a group together to revive what was MontrealTechWatch. Montreal does not need some coordinate effort, it needs someone to open their email client and send Heri a message “Hey, can I get an account on MTW as a writer? I would like to make some posts, perhaps profile some of the amazing startups we have here in town and cover some events.”. Then, when you have the account: just start posting. Just do it.

    Find what it is about startups, community and your city that you love and then do something about it. Share it. That is what Heri did and that is what we need more of. Nobody else is going to step up. As soon as you start writing about what is happening in the community, you will quickly learn what else the community needs in terms of events and content.

    The problem, as Heri found out, is that this is hard and very unrewarding work. People rarely say thanks, and even less often step up to actually help.

    Heri put his heart in to that blog and he didn’t ask for anything in return. This is your chance to show him that you understood what he was doing and that it meant something to you. Pick up the torch, but please don’t kill MTW by committee.

  • Meet The Woz

    OCE Discovery 10, May 17-18, 2010

    Ontario Centres of Excellence are hosting their innovation-to-commercialization conference again in Toronto. The OCE Discovery 10 conference is happening May 17-18, 2010 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. They have a history of bringing great keynote speakers including Clayton Christiansen, Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Sir Terry Matthews. 2010 is no different, the OCE team is bringing Steve Wozniak to Toronto.

    iWoz signed by Steve WozniakSure we know Steve from the Apple I and Apple II computers. You might even know him from Dancing with the Stars. You probably didn’t know that the Gipper awarded him the National Medal of Technology, the highest honor bestowed America’s leading innovators, in 1986. And Steve Wozniak is still working on new technology. He’s a the chief scientist at Fusion-io working flash-based memory architectures for storage. He’s on a member of the board for member of the board of directors for Jacent, a developer of cost-effective telephony solutions, Danger, Inc., developer of an end-to-end wireless Internet platform, Ripcord Networks and others.

    He’s an engineers engineer and knows a thing or two about tech startups. He’ll be at OCE Discovery from 2:00pm – 3:30pm and this includes a book signing opportunity (Mac nerds rejoice, even more impressive if you have an Apple I or Apple II to get signed).

    “Every engineer—and certainly every engineering student—should read this book. It is about the thrill of invention, the process of making the world a better place, and the purity of entrepreneurship. I, Woz is the personal computer generation’s version of The Soul of a New Machine. It is, in a nutshell, the engineer’s manifesto. I hope that the so-called “innovation experts” and MBAs choke when they read it.” – Guy Kawasaki 

    The rest of the OCE Discovery 10 schedule is packed full of startups, policy makers, innovators, academics. We’ll be hosting a DemoCamp, while not currently as cool as the “Ontario’s Next Top Young Entrepreneur Start-up Pitch” happening on Monday, May 17 which will give grant the winning startup a “non-recourse micro-loan of up to $18,000 ($6,000 per team member) to launch a new start up, have access to advisory services and have the opportunity to network with key mentors and private investors”. It is a great opportunity for local startups to demo their wares and do demand generation with local investors, government agencies and businesses.

    We’ll be doing a bunch of work to clarify what type of startups can maximize the value from presenting and start accepting nominations for demos in the next couple of weeks. What DemoCamp for details.

    • Discovery DemoCamp
      Tuesday, May 18, 2010 3:15pm-4:15pm EDT
      Inspired by Toronto’s Tech community, see showcase technologies presented in 5-minute demos by some of the communities hottest inspiring web, mobile and social media startups.

  • Calling all enterprise startups: Enterprise 2.0 Launchpad

    The Enterprise 2.0 Conference hosts a startup launchpad every year that has proven to be a great way for high quality Enterprise 2.0 focused startups to get in front of a group of potential partners, analysts, press and customers. In return, the Enterprise 2.0 conference audience has a chance to see the most promising and innovative enterprise Social Business software coming to the market. This has always been my favorite part of the Enterprise 2.0 conference.

    I will be one of the judges this year and would love to see some Canadian companies in the running. Brainpark was one of the finalists last year.

    To enter the first round of judging, simply tweet about your startup using the #e2conf-lp tag!

    The competition invites all companies and developers, large and small, to enter their application. Their is no fee for entry, nor do do you need to be an exhibitor at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference (although if you are, that’s cool too). The bar for entry is set very low – simply Tweet to #e2conf-lp and tell us in 140 characters or less why you are ‘Launch Pad worthy.

    You have until April 19th to complete your Twitter pitch – we’ll close submissions at the end of the day. Upon Tweeting your entry to #e2conf-lp, the Launch Pad Jury will make note of your entry. Our Jury will then vote to whittle down the Twitter submissions to 8.

  • StartupSquare Montreal and MTL NewTech

    Montreal is a happening place. There’s StartupDrinks. There’s the launch of a new seed fund, Founder Fuel. The announcement of another StartupCamp. There comes two new players: StartupSquare and MontrealNewTech.

    StartupSquare

    StartupSquare Montreal

    StartupSquare is hosting their kick off event on April 13, 2010. The group is made up students at McGill University, Concordia University, HEC Montreal, and other local universities. The goal of the group is to help promote entrepreneurship and commercialization to create growth companies. It is roughly modeled on Aalto Entrepreneurship Society which was started by StartupSquare co-organizer Riku Seppala.

    Montreal New Tech

    Montreal New Tech

    Montreal New Tech is headed by Felipe Coimbra aka TwtFelipe who got some coverage this week by Mark Suster around US immigration policy and the Founder Visa. MTLNewTech is a great example of the evolution of community. It has taken the best part of DemoCamp, Web Innovators Group, TECHCocktail and other events over the past formative years. And it has evolved to help enable, educate and connect local tech entrepreneurs, i.e., it’s Felipe doing the things that help him with 63 Squares and YowTrip!

    It is great to see entrepreneurs take responsibility for ensuring that the events and activities they need and want are created. Make sure you check out both of these groups, they are doing great things.