Ted Livingston is insane in the best sort of way

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A lot of people talked shit about the recent valuation of Kik. It all seemed a bit insane and I admit the numbers I heard seemed wild. That was until word dropped that Union Square Ventures has joined the deal alongside RRE.

Today Techcrunch is reporting that Ted Livingston is using a chunk of the money that he took off the table in the recent financing in order to further back UWs Velocity dorm/program.

Say what you want to but Ted Livingston gets it and the moment he had the chance to do it: he gave back. That is all too rare a thing. He obviously did well in the transaction that generated the extra $1million, but not THAT well. He is obviously just an incredibly generous person. I am totally inspired.

If we can continue to back and inspire entrepreneurs as passionate as Ted then we just might get somewhere.

Comments

10 responses to “Ted Livingston is insane in the best sort of way”

March 29, 2011

ddebow

That is incredible. Really really incredible. And smart too. Gonna start pulling more and more talent from the tractor beam that is RIMM.

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March 29, 2011

ScottjHoward

Given the article today in the Globe (Why Canada is late to the tech party http://ow.ly/4oKRI via @globeandmail) this is great news. Its a critical time for Canada’s startup community, entrepreneurs need to step up with good models and awesome execution, private capital needs to show some guts like Ted. He’s not even in the capital game, its a shining example that we need to celebrate! Where are the guys sitting on 9 figure funds making bets on unproven companies? Well funded failures will generate success stories down the road, if the bets are placed on the right PEOPLE. Balance sheets are for bankers, pay attention to the V part in VC and place capital in the hands of entrepreneurs.

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March 29, 2011

Jesse Rodgers

Just coming up for air now after a crazy day. I worked with Ted on this and I have to say that he so gets it. We have seen a huge ramp up in quality and focus along with the community of ‘VeloCity Alumni’ that is getting more and more connected. The donation couldn’t have been better timed, i can’t wait for what’s next.

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1. March 29, 2011
  
  Jevon
  
  Very cool Jesse and glad to see such a high profile payoff for some of your hard work.
  
  Reply
March 30, 2011

Jim Rudnick

Best news of yesterday! Velocity rocks, I’ve been to a couple of events there and know one of the honchos, and all I can add to this is KUDOs Ted! Smart, future-istic move, lad!

🙂

Jim

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April 1, 2011

Karamdeep Nijjar

I’ve had a few days to process this…and I’m still in awe. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is! These are the types of guts it takes to grow a billion dollar company. Go Ted!

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April 13, 2011

Anon

It’s all positive publicity to steer attention away from the fact that he stole ideas from RIM, broke an NDA and is now going to pay big time.

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May 6, 2011

» The VeloCity Venture Fund | StartupNorth

[…] Ted Livingston’s insanely great donation to UW VeloCity, well it looks like it is being put to good use. The VeloCity team announced The Velocity Venture […]

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May 10, 2011

Canadian SEO | Local Canadian SEO | Hamilton SEO|CanuckSEO.com

[…] Ted Livingston was a Velocity resident at Waterloo for his university life and he is the same fellow who founded Kik Interactive, and studied mechatronics at Waterloo from 2005 to 2009, and recently sold some of his own personal shares after a round of VC financing…and he’s donated $1,000,000 to Velocity just a few weeks back as reported here too! […]

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July 11, 2012

Ted Livingston: The Shape of Canadian Tech to Come | PandoDaily

[…] with it,” says Ted. Not wanting to have the money drive a spike between himself and his team, he gave the entire sum to the University of Waterloo to start a venture fund for startups in his old dorm-slash-startup incubator, […]

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