Grow – A Conference – Aug 19-21, 2010

Our friends at C100 and Bootup are bringing Dealmaker Media to Vancouver for a great event in August. If you don’t know Dealmaker, you should. It’s run by a Canadian, Debbie Landa. They produce 2 of the most valuable events for startups in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles – check out Under the Radar for a list of events and companies.

They are producing an event, Grow 2010, in Vancouver on August 19-21, 2010.

The event is a 3 day event with an invite-only Day 1 to connect Canadian founders with the best and brightest from Silicon Valley and across CAnada. Days 2 & 3 feature great speakers and the opportunity to build unique lasting relationships.

Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos
Tom Conrad, CTO, Pandora
Lane Becker, Co-Founder and President, Get Satisfaction
Leonard Brody, President,Clarity Digital
Dave McClure, 500 Hats
Dan Martell, Flowtown
Rob Hayes, First Round Capital
Aydin Senkut, Felicis Ventures
Ariel Poler, TextMarks
Bill Tai, Charles River Ventures
Jeff Clavier, SoftTechVC
Rick Segal, FixMo
Dana Settle, Greycroft Partners
Chris Albsinson, Panorama Capital
Rob Chaplinsky, Bridgescale Partners

If you’re an entrepreneur and you missed MeshU in Toronto (and it’s really too bad, this was one of my favourite events of the past 2 years), you should attend Grow 2010. Buy your ticket today and it’s $185, if you miss the super early bird (or as I like to call it the just getting in from a late night), you can grab an early bird ticket for only $230. This is unbelievable! Add in an approximately $700 flight it’s possible to do this for less than $1500. It’s worth the opportunity to meet the companies, build the connections, and help grow your company.

We’ll be coordinating shared hotel rooms for entrepreneurs from Toronto, Montreal, Waterloo, Ottawa, Halifax and anywhere. If you’re not local to Vancouver we’ll help you find a shared room to manage your costs. Add a comment if you are attending and we’ll try to help you find a roommate.

Bootup 2.0 – Now with less Boris

We kept pretty mum about the recent mess at Bootup Labs that culminated with a Techcrunch piece and a “I’m Sorry” post from Danny Robinson, one of Bootup’s founders.

I was ready to get some nails and start sealing the coffin of Bootup. The whole scenario has been a huge credibility killer for Bootup and I am sure it has been tough on the community in Vancouver.

Before I started hammering away at those nails however, I decided to reach out to Boris Wertz. Boris Wertz is a bit of a sage and I figured he would have a sense of what was going on. It was then that I found out that Boris W would be joining the board of Bootup and would be helping to back it.

Danny Robinson posted yesterday that the other Boris, one of the original founders, would be leaving Bootup. I’m not going to speculate on what caused this, but it does seem like everyone at Bootup have committed to doing whatever it takes to get this thing back on the rails.

So here is my endorsement for the new Bootup. Vancouver needs Bootup as much as Bootup needs Vancouver, and with these recent changes I hope that the Vancouver community can get behind Bootup 2.0 as well. I expect that it will take a while, and Bootup will suffer greatly for it, but time will hopefully heal all wounds.

Vancouver is truly one of the best cities in the world, and I know that the startup community there will continue to live up to that reputation. It is a unique place, with a unique startup community and set apart in Canada. Vancouver is a lynchpin of change and I hope a city that leads the charge in rebuilding the definition of what it means to be a startup in Canada.

We have maple syrup and beer

I was reading Anil Dash’s New York City is the Future of the Web post over the weekend, and there is a great list of startups (and funders) based in NYC. The list is pretty impressive starting with the money folks including Union Square Ventures and Fred Wilson to Founders Collective and Chris Dixon. The startups Foursquare, Hunch, Etsy, Kickstarter, and 20×200. I was starting to think that the grass might be greener in NYC. But I was reminded of the great things going on in Canada when I was redirected to the 2009 Canadian New Media Awards finalists.

There is a great list of companies that are finalists for the CNMA. You can round this list out with the great list of companies announced as part of the CIX Top 20. There are a lot of great Canadian startups that continue to execute, find customers, and raise their profiles internationally.

These companies show the breadth of solution and corporate development of the Canadian startups. The startups are spread across the country, but entrepreneurs in Canada are building great things. Feeling good about the state of startups, hoping that Canadian funding scene continues to evolve, and that these companies continue to have the opportunities to change the world.