Jevon MacDonald

co-founder of Startupnorth.ca

Housecleaning and what’s next for StartupNorth

We have a little house cleaning to do here. We are starting to pick up the pace with posts but we are still missing a lot of good stuff. A lot of it gets posted to our Twitter account but since we stopped the Weekly Reading posts, many of you are missing those.

  • First off it is worth mentioning that things seem to be heating up in Waterloo, Toronto and Montreal. We are seeing acquisitions picking up pace and I think that will continue for the next year at least. The overall level of activity in these cities has been staggering
  • We are tracking almost a dozen “any day now” acquisitions and look forward to posting them. Of course we are a very discreet bunch so we don’t make a peep in advance. Some people could learn from us on that front I think.
  • So while things are really taking off in those cities, I am wondering what is happening everywhere else? Where is the action in Edmonton, Vancouver, Halifax, Calgary, Ottawa and Quebec City? Let’s get more of the great stories from those cities told.
  • Congrats to Lymbix on closing a financing with Growthworks Atlantic. That is $1.35m more in for a total of almost $4million in. Growthworks continues to be a source of needed capital in Canada and they continue to play in places others don’t seem to have an appetite for. Thanks guys.

We have some very cool things in the pipe. Taking on sponsorship has helped us reinvest in StartupNorth and we owe a big thanks to KPMG and VMFarms for that. We have two very cool changes on the way and the result will be a very different StartupNorth. We think there is a lot of great content out there for Canadian startups now. The news and events that never used to get coverage are all well reported on both via blogs and twitter.

I see our role changing to focus more on:

  • Direct support. We are going to focus more on connecting great startups with the right resources. There are a lot of great folks who have reached out to us over the years who are willing to help out and we think it is time to take them up on their offer.
  • Advocacy. Startups are not on the economic or political radar in Canada. It is sad and we think there are some things we can do to change that. Our activities will piss some people off and will hopefully inspire others. Either way, are going for broke.
  • Data. To advocate for startups you need a clear picture of what is happening. We have some very cool updates coming to StartupIndex and we hope it will be a powerful tool for the entire community.
  • Events. Grassroots events off the beaten path. It’s what we are good at and we hope to do more.

That’s it for now.

 

Coradiant acquired by BMC software

On the heels of yesterday’s acquisition of Tungle, BMC Software has announced today that they have acquired Montreal’s Coradiant, which was co-founded by Year One Labs partner Alistair Croll. We are happy that Montreal has managed to win something in the last few days.

The price is currently undisclosed, but the back of the napkin calculation tells me this was a monster one. Probably not as large as the recent Radian6 exit, but sources put this acquisition well in to the 9-figures territory.

This has been a long time in the making as Coradiant’s founding goes back to 1997 when Alistair Croll and Eric Packman founded NetworkShop.

Startup Festival coming to Montreal – Why it’s important

I know that David just posted about the upcoming Startup Festival, but I thought I would add my own thoughts:

I have definitely been getting the feeling that the whole “startup conference” format is getting a little stale. The same formats in the same cities with most of the same speakers. The real benefit of any conference, the ability to spend time with smart people, is still enough of an incentive to keep us coming back.

So when Philippe told me about what he is working on for the Startup Festival in Montreal, I needed a minute to re-set my thinking. When I did that however, it was clear that this would be something new.

The announced lineup is looking great so far, but that is not the really exciting part. The entire format of the event will be much more fluid and engaging than a typical 1-2 track conference agenda.

Philippe is engaging with the community and opening up the event as a platform for other groups to throw in and create their own events and activities during that time. We (the royal We – Startupnorth) are looking in to doing our own event one evening.

I am excited about an event that is focused on openness and a shared sense of purpose with the community.