Back to Reality – Vancouver Enterprise Forum

index_r1_c3.jpgWhile the rest of us are sitting around moaning about the state of canadian venture capital, it appears that Vancouver is so over it, the Vancouver Enterprise Forum is at least.

This Tuesday, November 27th, they are hosting “Beyond B.C. VCs – tips for Sourcing Tech Funding from American Venture Capitalists”

In the November VEF event, we?ll hear from experienced American venture capitalists as they explain the fundamentals they look for when investing in B.C. and Canadian companies. How do you approach American VCs? What kind of information and potential do they want to see? What approach is best? These questions and more will be answered by Geoff Entress from Madrona of Seattle, which made an investment in Victoria based PixPo in 2006, and by Alex Gove of Walden Venture Capital of San Francisco.

This is not a small matter for Vancouver, which has seen its share of startups heading south for funding.

The catch? How long will startups stick around beautiful Vancouver, or anywhere in Canada, when their Venture Capitalist investors are beckoning them to come south. It starts with “let’s move the sales office”, and soon enough everyone but the developers are gone.

This is a subject that we will be diving in to more here. Would you rather take funding outside of Canada, or would you consider it a secondary option? Considering how tightly connected Canada and the US are, does it even matter? Do we need to be doing more to make it easier for american funds to invest here?

Startup M&A – Raincity Studios acquires Bryght

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Bryght, a Drupal managed hosting startup based in Vancouver, BC has been acquired by long time partner RainCity Studios, who have developed sites such as Ozzy.com and Ask a Ninja.

While the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, and I am not sure the number would be huge, this feels primarily like a smart consolidation of two very complimentary businesses. Servicing the same niche doesn’t necessarily mean two businesses should merge, but in this case the two organizations have been working together on so many projects, for so long, I have a feeling that this will be a chance to consolidate their efforts and cut some of the fat by re-directing effort.

Many of the Bryght and RainCity Studios employees and partners are also responsible for the Northern Voice conference, which has been a huge hit for years.

The new company is underway opening a new office in Shanghai, China, and my bet is that the renewed energy from this merger will result in a lot of cool projects in the near future. Kris Krug will be the President of the new organization with Robert Scales as CEO and running the European and Asian side of the company.

I should also disclose: I have been a happy client of both of these companies in the past.

Update: More straight from the source here.
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ThoughtFarmer – Facebook for the Enterprise

Thought Farmer LogoThoughtFarmer, based in Vancouver, BC, is a startup in the hot enterprise 2.0 space. Why is the sector so exciting? Because it is changing enterprise work flow, knowledge sharing, and collaboration. Try imagining university before Facebook.

ThoughtFarmer’s journey began with a consulting project in 2004; a client wanted an engaging intranet and knowledge repository, all without staff dedicated to the project. The solution… a wiki. The product developed from there, inspired by JotSpot and the growing importance of social networks.

ThoughtFarmer sold its first license in 2006. Yep, this is behind-the-firewall software. With companies large and small racing toward the era of software as a service, this is an almost contrarian bet. It will be interesting to follow this company and see how it all plays out. One last thing… ThoughtFarmer is profitable and not seeking funding.

Contact: Chris McGrath