StartupNorth

Month: September 2013

  • Fireside Chat with Albert Wenger – Oct. 23rd

    Screen Shot 2013-08-08 at 5.00.12 PMWe’re very excited to host Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures on Wednesday October 23rd 2013 in Toronto, at the spanking new OneEleven Accelerator, from 5:30pm to 8:00pm.

    William Mougayar, founder of Startup Management will interview Albert on stage, and there will be a Q&A period with the audience. We will talk Network Effects, the changing landscape in venture capital, advice to entrepreneurs, government and technology, privacy and security, raising money from U.S. VCs, and anything you’ll be asking him. This is a unique event, not to be missed by any one involved in a Tech Startup or ecosystem.

    Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures (USV), a New York-based early stage VC firm focused on investing in disruptive networks. USV portfolio companies include:Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Etsy, Kickstarter, Wattpad,Kik and Shapeways
    Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company’s sale to Yahoo. He previously founded or co-founded five companies, including a management consulting firm (in Germany), a hosted data analytics company, a technology subsidiary for Telebanc (now E*Tradebank), an early stage investment firm, and most recently (with his wife), DailyLit, a service for reading books by email or RSS. His wife is also the co-founder of Ziggeo.

    Albert is on the Board of Edmodo, Shapeways, Heyzap, Twillio, Foursquare, AMEE, Covestor, 10gen, Wattpad,
    Firebase, Sift Science and Tumblr (prior to its sale to Yahoo). Albert graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in economics and computer science, and holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from MIT.

    Location

    OneEleven, 111 Richmond Street West, 5th Floor, Toronto. OneEleven is Toronto’s newest accelerator. It’s your chance to visit this brand new 15,000 square feet facility, dedicated to accelerate the commercialization of cutting edge research and development for the economic prosperity of the region.

    Buy your ticket

    This event is organized by Startup Management and hosted by OneEleven. It was made possible due to the generous Patronage of Wattpad, Sponsorship of OMERS Ventures, and Support of Ryerson Futures.

    SUM Logo Horizontal                       Wattpad logo_200

    OMERS_Ventures200RyersonFutures_200111Logo_200

    Startup Management is a knowledge resource for growing, scaling-up and managing startups.

    Wattpad is the world’s largest community for reading and sharing stories.

    OMERS Ventures invests in companies with significant growth potential and market opportunities, seeking partners with a shared vision of building a vibrant knowledge economy.

    Ryerson Futures is an accelerator for early stage companies connected to the Digital Media Zone at Ryerson University, and manages a seed fund.

    OneEleven is a unique centre for commercialization that will create the talent and technologies that shape our future in ‘Big Data’.

    Eventbrite - A Conversation with Albert Wenger, Union Square Ventures

  • Make stuff

    Maker Faire

    I’m really looking forward to Maker Faire Toronto. It is happening Saturday and Sunday, September 21-22, 2013 at the Wychwood Barns. This is an amazing opportunity to celebrate the Maker Movement. I’m excited to see the inventions, the creativity, the resourcefulness of people to solve problems, to inspire. To be proud of the things they’ve built.

    “That is, no matter what the thing is you’re building, it’s deeply gratifying and incredibly educational to perform the act of creating something, anything.” — Christopher O’Brien

    I am really excited about the opportunity to bring my kids. I’m excited to teach them about entrepreneurship. But even more importantly, I’m excited to provide them access to learn and to explore technology. My friends Tara Brown and Sean Bonner opened LA Makerspace focused on providing a kid-friendly space. My kids have asked me about building robots, making candy and taking apart their toys.  The eldest is now 6 years old, and her problem solving skills and attention are developing where this will be a transformational experience.

    “We are making the tools for passion. When I look around, I don’t see any apathy here.” — Nolan Bushnell

    Much of the DIY culture emerged out of the Homebrew Computer Club in Silicon Valley. And while not directly responsible for the success of many of the companies that emerged, it seeded a culture and the connections between folks that started Apple Computer, Osbourne Computer and others. This is the ground floor, the Mechatronics department at UWaterloo accepted their first class in 2003.  Bufferbox was started in 2011 and sold to Google in 2012. This is a very interesting space if you look at the emergence of other area startups like InteraXon, Thalmic Labs , Upverter, Matterform, Bionym and others. 

    Bring your kids. These are very interesting times indeed.