By 
startupnorth on May 14th, 2013
Wall art on the Build Ventures/Volta wall
Patrick Keefe is announcing his new fund today called Build Ventures, a $50m early and mid stage fund based in Halifax.
The guy is a Harvard MBA, an Oxford grad, former Atlas Ventures principal, Boston Consulting Group executive and he built over a dozen Starbucks coffee franchises which he then sold back to Starbucks corporate. When you meet Patrick and dig in to his background you start wonder where the hell this guy came from.
What’s even better is that Build is the in-house fund at Volta, a new startup crash pad in Halifax that currently houses 10 startups. The fund has taken up residence at Volta and has been a key part of getting it started.
The fund has just launched so it hasn’t announced any investments yet, but we are excited to see which deals they do first.
Volta and Build are two big leaps for the startup community in Atlantic Canada and when you consider it alongside what has been happening in New Brunswick with Launch36 and Startup Week, as well as a recent string of big exits, it seems like things are accelerating incredibly quickly.
The next major event is the Atlantic Venture Forum in June which is being keynoted by Paul Singh.
By 
David Crow on May 9th, 2013
It’s the time of the year where we either make you a hero or we make you hate me a little more. As stated in the previous comments, this could very well be The List of People That David Crow Wants to Be Associated With (but I think I established that is a different list). Either way, the commenter is correct, the list is something and it is highly suspect and by no means complete. If you don’t like the list, leave a comment. If you think I left genuinely left someone off, leave a comment (ps suggesting yourself, either demonstrates your overly inflated ego or you might not realize that your suggestion by itself if a reason to be left of the list). I’m open to being corrected and having the list added to.
Past issues of the list include 2011 and 2012.
For 2013, the list is divided between those we expect to break out (Breaking Glass). And those that are taking it to the next level (Going Big). Basically, you will be hearing from or about these people over the next 12 months. So everyone get in a circle, it’s time for the 2013 instalment of the Hot Shit List.
Hot Sh!t List 2013
Breaking Glass
- Steve Lake
, Thalmic Labs , Aaron Grant and Matthew Bailey , Thalmic Labs
- Heather Payne , Ladies Learning Code/HackerYou
- Zak Homuth , Upverter
- Wojciech Gryc , Canopy Labs
- Janice Diner , Catalysta
- Karl Martin and Foteini Agrafioti , Bionym
- Ben Zifkin , Hubba
- Mark Ury , Storybird
- Matthew Harris and Brad Van Vugt , Send With Us
- David Alston , IntroHive
- John Boxall , Mobify
- Katherine Hague , ShopLocket
- Rob Ellis and Brock Whittens , Harp.io
- Ozge Yeloglu ,Toplog
- Trevor Orsztynowicz , Caliper.io
- Ariel Garten , InteraXon
- Frank Falcone , TriggerFox
- Andrew Sider , Bunch
- Sreejata Chatterjee , Leadsift
- Dan Holowack , CrowdRiff
- Adrian Bentley , AnalyzeRE
- Lisa Zhang , PolyChart
- Sam Pasupalak , Maluuba
- Malgosia Green , Top Hat Monocle
- Narayan Sainaney , Moj.io
- Matt Rendall , Clearpath Robotics
- Jacqui Murphy , Fongo
- David Quail , Zenlike
- Dan Robichaud , PasswordBox
- Josh Sookman , Guardly
- Vlad Berteanu , Octav Druta and Andrei Soare , TalentBuddy
- Carl Mercier , HipYard
Going Big
- Tobi Lutke and Harley Finkelstein , Shopify
- Ryan Holmes , Hootsuite
- Ethan Song and Hicham Ratnani , Frank and Oak
- Wilkins Chung , Kenshi Akashi and Eric Diep , A Thinking Ape
- Ted Livingston , Kik
- Amar Varma , Xtreme Labs
- John Baker , Desire2Learn
- Rick Segal , Fixmo
- Mike Silagadze , Top Hat Monocle
- Chris Sukornyk , Chango
- Carol Leaman , Axonify
- Dax Dasilva , LightSpeed
- Kyle Vucko , Indochino
- Mark Organ , Influitive
- Oleg Gustol , 500px
- Mike McDerment and Mark MacLeod , Freshbooks
- Ben Baldwin , ClearFit
- Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen , Wattpad
- Kirk Simpson and James Lochrie , Wave Accounting
- Noah Godfrey and Pema Hagen , Checkout51
- Mike Litt and Devon Galloway , Vidyard
- Dan Martell , Clarity Inc.
- Joseph Fung , TribeHR
- Jamie Shulman and Jamie McDonald , HubDoc
- Jason Bailey , East Side Games
- Albert Lai , Big Viking Games
- Derek Ting , Enflick
- Chris Ye , Uken Games
- Ken Seto , and Garry Seto , , Massive Damage
- Rick Perreault , Unbounce
- Jeff Shiner and Roustem Karimov , AgileBits
- Yona Shtern , Beyond The Rack
- Jack Newton and Rian Gauvreau , Clio
The icons are courtesy of Anil Zaimi, though I haven’t spent the necessary time to make this work with our stylesheet and theme in WordPress.
By David Crow on May 7th, 2013
Some rights reserved by bara-koukoug
Is it me, or does it feel like there are 2 distinct seasons of activity in the startup community?
- Post Christmas Pre-Summer (aka golf season) Holiday
- Post First of School and Pre American Thanksgiving
Whether it is reality or bad cliche, it feels like there are 3-4 months of the year where nothing gets done. But no more!
Thanks to events like Startup Festival and Grow Conf, the summer season for Canadian startups is getting stronger and more important. There are localized opportunities to connect with investors, strategic partners, and potential customers at events like the aforementioned Startup Festival and Grow Conf plus Jolt Demo Fest, Atlantic Venture Forum, Metabridge and others. (You could go to CVCA in Banff, and golf with the Canadian VC landscape, that might up your chances of raising funding).
Things for Startups To Do
- Apply to pitch at StartupFest. Startups get access to press, investors, and a chance at a $50k investment prize from the organizing committee.
Deadline: Friday, May 10, 2013 5pm EDT.
- Apply to be one of the 45 Canadian startups at the Metabridge retreat. You’ll get access to investors, advisors and a great cultural event.
Deadline: Friday, May 10, 2013 5pm PDT.
- Apply to throwdown at the Smackdown at GrowConf. Winners will get access to press and investors. Plus more Debbie Landa.
Deadline: Tuesday, August 13, 2013
There are a lot of opportunities for Canadian startups to get access to both local and foreign capital, corporate development folks and press by participating in these events. Take a bit of time, and figure out which ones you benefit from attending. Plus it’s a great excuse to get out of the office and hustle.
