Editor’s note: This is a cross post from Mark Evans Tech written by Mark Evans of ME Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @markevans or MarkEvansTech.com. This post was originally published in January 3, 2012 on MarkEvansTech.com.

 Some rights reserved by Eric Brian Ouano

The flurry of high-tech deals last year saw a bunch of promising startups snapped up – Zite, Rypple, PostRank, PushLife, Tungle and Five Mobile to name a few.

The encouraging part of the Canadian landscape is the growing number of high-quality startups being created and, thankfully, funded. It means that rather than having M&A activity “hollow” things out, there are more startups ready to step into the spotlight.

So, who are the Canadian startups that warrant our attention in 2012?

Who’s going to grow in a major way, attract a significant number of users and customers, launch exciting initiatives, or be acquired. Granted, it’s a subjective list but it is an interesting way to speculate on companies that will capture the spotlight this year. If you leave a comment, I’ll update the list.

To get the ball rolling, here are some of my choices for the “Hot Startup” list:

• ScribbleLive, the world’s leading real-time content creation and publishing company whose clients include Reuters, AP and FA.
• WineAlign, which cracked the 100,000 unique visitor mark for the first time in December
• 500px, one of the leading places to display and share beautiful photography
• Pressly, whose technology is helping publishers create mobile Web sites that embrace the “swipe and read” functionality of apps
• QuickMobile, one of the leading event and conference mobile application developers
• Atomic Reach, which makes it easier for brand to discover, publish and market content
• Wave Accounting, which recently raised $5-million to drive growth of its free online accounting service
• Keek, which offers a video-based social network
• Fixmo, a mobile security company that recently raised $23-million
• TribeHR, which develops human resources service for small and medium businesses
• GoInstant, which is creating technology that lets people co-browse a Web site at the same time.

Note: ScribbleLive and Atomic Reach are digital marketing clients of my company, ME Consulting.
Editor’s note: This is a cross post from Mark Evans Tech written by Mark Evans of ME Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @markevans or MarkEvansTech.com. This post was originally published in January 3, 2012 on MarkEvansTech.com.

Some rights reserved Photo by ALL CHROME

There is a lot of crazy young talent kicking around. We’ve seen that great talent that UW Velocity is producing with Ted Livingston(@ted_livingston) at Kik. There are the Christopher (@golda) and Michael (@michaelmontano) at BackType. There is the stupidly awesome team at Extreme Venture Partners (@avarma, @fnthawar, @sundeep).

I thought I’d throw together a quick list of designers, developers and entrepreneurs that are young, hot, kicking ass and taking names. There is an amazing amount of talent in Canada. And this is who I’m watching because they are hot sh!t.

1. Dan McGrady (@dmix, LinkedIn), CareLogger
2. Kaitlyn MacLachlan (LinkedIn), AskItOnline & Yellow Pages Group
3. Casper Wong (@wongcasper, LinkedIn), CommunityLend
4. Jennifer Fong-Adwent (@ednapiranha, LinkedIn), Rocketr
5. Josh Davey (@joshdavey, LinkedIn), BurstN & Chango
6. Alex Black (@waterlooalexjo, LinkedIn), SnapSort
7. Cody Fauser (@codyfauser, LinkedIn), Shopify
8. Vincent Cheung (@veenix, LinkedIn), ShapeCollage
9. Wes Bos (@wesbos, LinkedIn), DealPage
10. Michael Litt (@michaelrlitt, LinkedIn), Vidyard
11. James Stewart (@JamesStewartUXD, LinkedIn), PostRank & TribeHR
12. Julie Haché (@juliehache, LinkedIn), Shopify
13. Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana (@dups, LinkedIn), EmpireAvenue
14. Joseph Fung (@josephfung, LinkedIn), TribeHR
15. Andrew Peek (@drupeek, LinkedIn), Rocketr
16. Simon Law (@sfllaw, LinkedIn), TrustCentric
17. Eric Diep (@ediep, LinkedIn), A Thinking Ape
18. James Blair (@jamesblair, LinkedIn)
19. Edward Ocampo-Gooding (@edwardog, LinkedIn), Shopify
20. Satish Kanwar (@skanwar, LinkedIn), Jet Cooper
21. Jesse Miller (@jesse_miller, LinkedIn), Attachments.me
22. Josh Merchant (@joshmerchant, LinkedIn), Lymbix
23. Boris Chan (@borisc, LinkedIn), XtremeLabs
24. Tyler Galpin (@TylerGalpin, LinkedIn)

This list is incomplete

I am completely aware that this list is incomplete. But who are the tastemakers that are building the next generation of emerging technology companies that no one knows about in Canada. Help me find great talents that are under 40 (this is irrelevant, who are the entrepreneurs, designers and developers that are shaping things) and based in Canada.

Our friend Howard Lindzon is back in Toronto on November 4, 2010. He’s having lunch with entrepreneurs.

Who: Howard Lindzon
When: November 4, 10:45am to 1:00pm
Where: POD 250 in the Podium Building, 350 Victoria St at Ryerson University

This is an open brown bag lunch. Come hang out with Howard.

Don’t know who Howard is? Seriously? He’s a rockstar. He’s crazy. And he’s an interesting guy as both an entrepreneur and as an investor. We had him at StartupEmpire back in 2008, he spoke at Mesh in 2009. He’s a native Torontonian who lives in San Diego. He’s just raised a $4MM C round for StockTwits.

He’s here looking to meet entrepreneurs. He’s going to share his experiences getting acquired by CBS, about raising money, and about building a compelling media outlet for investors (ps I love StockTwits it’s really a great example of what a modern Bloomberg looks like). The part that I love is that as Howard said “they can read about my successes, I’m going to talk about my failures”. This is awesome! I continually do a lot of things wrong, and I can’t wait to hear about the craziness of Howard’s mistakes. Because seriously his successes are awesome and that only means bigger fail and lessons learned.

Thanks to Karthik (@soravanahalli), SIFE, and William Mougayar (@wmougayar) at Eqentia for helping to make sure we take advantage of having world-class folks like Howard available.

Rochelle Grayson photo by Tris Hussey

An entrepreneur asked me last night, at StartupDrinks Toronto, if I knew any women entrepreneurs in Canada. Here is a list of entrepreneurs and advisors that I can think of off the top of my head. It also prompted me to reread Tereza Nemessanyi’s OpEd about women founders and the notion of an XX Combinator. I look at our events and many of my interactions with entrepreneurs and it is distinctly male, probably more specific it’s young males between 18-30 (the good news is that it’s no longer distinctly white university educated males it’s a mix of cultures and nations of origin though it’s still very male).

“Much of what we think of as innovation is the creative tension between differing viewpoints” – Xerox PARC

There’s a strong need to celebrate our differences. The diversity (and acceptance of differences) is one of the things that makes this a great spot for startups. The large number of cultures, ages, and other factors make for great teams and for opportunities for something special to emerge.

And I was thinking about my daughters, and reflecting about the great women entrepreneurs and change makers that I’m met recently (and some I’ve only read about). This list is by no means comprehensive, but it meant to help others find inspiration in the great companies being started in Canada. The list includes::

• Leila Boujnane (@leilaboujnane), Idee Inc.
• Suzie Dingwall Williams (@suziedingwall), Venture Law Associates
• Maggie Fox (@maggiefox), Social Media Group
• Tara Hunt (@missrogue) & Cassandra Girard, Shwowp!
• Kristine Matulis (@kristinematulis), Firstround Marketing
• April Dunford (@AprilDunford), RocketWatcher
• Debbie Landa (@deblanda), Deal Maker Media
• Jacqui Murphy (@jacquimurphy), TechCapital
• Amber MacArthur (@ambermac), MGImedia
• Elizabeth Caley (@ECaley), Common Enterprise
• Gosia Green, LearnHub
• Rochelle Grayson (@RochelleGrayson), BookRiff
• Lauren Friese (@LaurenFriese), TalentEgg
• Sarah Prevette (@SarahPrevette), Sprouter
• Cindy Gordon (@Helixcommerce), Helix Commerce
• Jen Evans (@nejsnave), Sequentia Environics
• Krista LaRiviere (@KristaLaRiviere), gShiftLabs
• Tonya Surman (@tonyasurman), Centre for Social Innovation
• Sacha Chua (@sachac), IBM
• Ali de Bold (@alidebold), ChickAdvisor.com
• Caterina Fake (@Caterina), Hunch
• Maria Ly (@marialy), Skimble (whose post was a huge help)
• Nancy L. Knowlton, Smart Technologies
• Monica Goyal (@mylegalbriefcas), My Legal Briefcase
• Rayanne Langdon (@rlangdon), HighRoad Communications
• Amrita Chandra (@tinkugallery), Director or Marketing, Asigra
• Evelyn So (@evelynso), Noesium
• Katherine Barr (@kbmdv), Mohr Davidow Ventures
• Layla Jazrawy (@layla), JazLife
• Joanna Track, sweetspot.ca
• Carol Leaman (@carolleaman), CEO, Postrank
• Andrea Baptiste, CEO, Benbria
• Sally J. Daub, ViXS Systems
• Dulcie Clark, Pip Animation
• Sue Miller, Hatsize
• Alice Reimer, Evoco Inc
• Lakshmi Raj, Replicon
• Sharlyn Ayotte, T-Base Communications
• Julia Elvidge, Chipworks
• Sue Abu Hakima, Amika Mobile
• Lydia Sani, Invisions
• Catherine Devlin, Devlin Applied Design
• Karen Spaulding, Metaworks
• Tanya Shaw Weeks, Unique Solutions
• Pj Lowe (@pj_MamaHippo), tinyHippos
• Lucia Mancuso (@lulula), The Blog Studio
• Erica Ehm (@yummymummyclub), Yummy Mummy Club
• Julia Rivard, SheepDog
• Maura Rodgers (@maurar), Bootup Entrepreneurial Society. Strutta.
• Angel Pui (@angelpui), Weddingful
• Amielle Lake, Tagga
• Amy Yee (@amy_yee), EventBots
• Caroline Kealey (@carolinekealey),Results Map

I know that I’m missing a lot of founders. Let me know directly or help add folks in the comments.

We gearing up for the next 48 Hrs in the Valley here at C100 global HQ. We’ve learned a lot from previous 48 Hrs events so expect a few surprises, to be announced soon.

But in the meantime, a few dates for you to be aware of:

• Sept 29: Drop dead deadline for companies to complete the application form
• Oct 7: Selected companies will be notified
• Oct 13: First draft of mentor deck due
• Oct 27-28: 48 Hrs in the Valley

I know what you’re saying, “What the heck is this Oct 13 deadline? We gotta hand in drafts of our presentations??”

Short answer: “Yes!”

The upcoming 48 Hrs will be the C100’s eighth mentoring event and after each one the mentors always told us the same thing, “We wish the companies were more prepared.”

That is a strange coincidence, because the companies always tell us, “Damn, I wish we were more prepared.”

Well, the good thing about the C100 mentoring team is you only have to tell us something seven times before we start to take immediate action.

To make sure everyone feels they are properly prepared, we are asking… nay, demanding… that all companies complete their mentor decks and submit to us by Oct 8 for feedback by our crack team of mentor experts.

To help you out, here are some useful tips on how to prepare you 48 Hrs mentor deck:

• Think of the biggest challenge  facing your company and talk about it. What exactly do you want to get mentoring on? (In C100, we call this the “challenge statement” meaning, what is the biggest challenge  facing your company right now)
• Don’t get bogged down in technology: Mentors want to talk about business issues, not about speeds-and-feeds
• Don’t talk history: Mentors want to discuss the here and now, the long road you took to reach your current destination probably isn’t relevant
• Be specific: generic presentations get generic feedback. Drill down into one aspect of your business, describe what is going on, and ask for specific advice and feedback

Here is a deck template all companies should follow. Your deck shouldn’t be more than nine slides long:

1)      Executive Summary: Short bullet points what your company does and what is your “challenge statement”

2)      The Market: Give mentors background on the market your company addresses

3)      What do you do?: How do you address your chosen market

4)      Who are your competitors?

5)      Short background on the team (emphasis on short)

6)      Financial snapshot including funding, revenues and expenses

7)      Challenge statement: This is the most important slide of the deck… what issue do you want mentoring on? Be very clear and specific here

8)      Context: How did this challenge come about? How have you addressed similar challenges in the past

9)      Importance: Why is addressing this challenge important? What would happen if this challenge was addressed? What would happen if it wasn’t?

Trust us, follow this template and your mentoring session will be way more valuable than if you didn’t.

The goal is always to make the mentoring sessions as useful and impactful as possible. So we at C100 will be asking the companies early and often to provide drafts of their decks so we can help ensure they are prepared for the mentoring session and ready to go.

One way to segment  the world of  VC is into two camps: (1) financial investors and  (2)  corporate investors. My guess is that a lot of the VCs lurking around here are what you would call financial investors; meaning, they take other people’s money, invest it in start-ups and try to make more money.

But there is the other type of investor, the corporate ones. These investors tend to work for a large corporation and invest the company’s money. Their goals are also to make a lot more money off of their investments but they are also tasked with producing a strange and esoteric thing called a “strategic return”.

In a nutshell, these investors have to invest to make money, and to make their company smarter by learning from you, the clever start-up.

For start-ups, having a corporate VC as an investor can have many benefits if the relationship is correctly managed including credibility, access to the corporations sales and engineering teams,  access to go-to-market channels, and opportunities to conduct joint R&D.

So it is important that start-ups realize that pitching to strategic investors is not like pitching to financial investors. So here are a few ideas to get you started on your corporate VC pitch:

1. Prepare a pitch: Sounds obvious, right? You’d be amazed at how many start-ups show up without a pitch. I guess  they think they can come in and talk shop for 30 or 45 min and that will be enough to land a deal. It isn’t. Show up prepared and ready to go.
2. Know the company’s investment thesis: Companies aren’t shy talking about their investments, so there should be a lot written about past deals. Don’t come in with a canned investor pitch, read up on past deals and come in with a pitch tailored to the company’s investment thesis.
3. Tell them why you’re relevant: Corporate VCs often have to get support from a BU for a deal, so help them position your company with the BU. Figure out which part of the company will be most interested in you and explain that in your pitch.
4. Better yet, have traction: Come in with a history of working successfully with a BU. Show how investing in you will help you scale/innovate and make the BU relationship even more successful
5. Don’t come in as a competitor: If you’ve built a competitive product that is better than theirs (or so you think), don’t think you’ll get money from them to keep you off the market. They won’t invest in you. They’ll probably just try to crush you. It is easier.
6. Come in as a partner: If you and the larger company are in the same space, it doesn’t mean they will necessarily be interested in you. “You do software, we do software” is not a compelling reason for a corporation to invest.  Rather, tell them how your software (product, service) will help better position their software (product, service) in the market.
7. Finances: Oh yeah, nothing drives corporate investors battier than being treated as  dumb money. You’ll need to come in and talk strategic alignment, but very soon the conversation will turn financial. Remember, these people live and breathe your markets every day,  so they can tell if your market sizes/growth assumptions are for real

Meeting with corporate investors can be a maddening, time consuming process. They will ask a million question not only about your business, but on how your business relates to their business. So you need to know your business cold and their business cold. But if you come prepared with insight and some existing wins under your belt, this crazy process may have a profitable outcome.

Jevon, Jonas and I are all heading to Vancouver for Grow Conference happening Aug 19-21, 2010. But I’m hear in Vancouver hanging out at Bootup Labs.

Bootup Labs is holding open office hours this week. Basically if you’re a startup and you’re in Vancouver and you want need some touchdown space, you should visit Bootup Labs.

Bootup Labs
163 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

Hanging out in the middle of Bootup Labs

This is a fantastic place. There is a fantastic vibe. There seems to be real evolution and growth of Bootup Labs since the dark days. I’ve been hanging out the past day or so with:

• CompassEngine
• Foodtree
• Summify
• AdHack
• OverInteractive
• LexPublica & Contractually
• Mozilla Raindrop team
• Strutta

There are a lot of companies, entrepreneurs and things to like happening at Bootup. I am really impressed with a few things.

1. The space – it is gorgeous. It’s the right mix of location and finish. The offices are safe, comfortable, and interactive. There’s a great mix of open working areas, private meeting rooms, a kitchen and private offices with sliding doors. The natural light. And it’s nice but not posh. As companies demonstrate traction, there is incentive to find different space, for example Dimerocker has moved out. Having Mozilla and Strutta as “anchor tenants” also reduces the risk to Bootup Labs. It also means that there’s a lot of fun interesting people flowing through.
2. The location – it is right on the edge of Gastown. There is a great mix of restaurants and other things going on. I had breakfast at the Medina Cafe just around the corner from the office (best breakfast I’ve ever had). There’s the Fluevog store. It’s a great neighbourhood that has come a long way since I first visited Bryght in 2005.
3. The companies – all of these companies and the entrepreneurs working there are pushing really hard and demonstrating traction. There are exits, see Layerboom acquired by Joyent. And there are a lot of good things happening.

My recommendation is that if you’re in Vancouver you come hang out at Bootup Labs with us. Ping me @davidcrow or @startupnorth or just drop by 163 West Hastings St in Vancouver. I’ll be here until August 20.

Congratulations to the team at Vanilla Forums. In the past year they’ve attended TechStars in Boulder, moved to Montreal, and released version 2 of Vanilla Forums. What is Vanilla?

“Vanilla is an open-source, standards-compliant, multi-lingual, theme-able, pluggable community forum.

Over 350,000 sites use Vanilla Forums to manage feedback, spark discussion, and make customers smile.”

There are competitors ranging from bbPress, phpBB, and punBB (like others we’re torn between bbPress and Vanilla – the proxyConnect plugin allows us to integrate Vanilla with WordPress). But Vanilla is a leading solution offering a great user experience, simple customization and hosting with a large user community. Plus they’re funded by our friends at Montreal Startup which makes them an easy choice.

The C100 is now coming at you live and in 3D right here on Startup North.

What does that mean for you? Well, as if Startup North wasn’t already an indispensible source of news, insights and opinions on the rapidly expanding  Canadian start-up and venture capital scene, you can now check this space for regular news and views on innovation from the unique perspective of the successful Canadian tech entrepreneurs, company execs and VCs in Silicon Valley who make up the C100.

What is the C100 you ask? Remember in Pulp Fiction when Jules Winnfeld (Samuel L. Jackson) refers to Vinnie Vega (John Travolta) as “my man in Amsterdam?” Well, that’s us. We’re your man in Amsterdam.

Except we’re a group of men and women… and we’re in Silicon Valley.

But more importantly, C100 is a huge fan of both technology and of Canada and we’re here to share our thoughts, insights and contacts with the established and the up-and-coming, with the best dreamers, entrepreneurs and innovators Canada has to offer.

So check us out online, visit our blog, get mentored, but most importantly stay tuned to StartUp North where we’ll be looking for new ways to increase the connections and communications between Silicon Valley and Canada.

Congratulations to Scott Annan and the Network Hippo team for their great demo at Demo Spring 2010. Scott Lake wrote about the performance on StartupOttawa, and I’d agree it’s worth taking the 5 minutes and 24 seconds to watch a great demo.

Funding Details

Self-funded

Competitors

No direct competitors. Secondary competitors include Gist, Plaxo, Xobni, Highrise, and Batchbook.

Product Description

Network Hippo is the smartest way to manage your network. We help individuals and businesses manage and stay connected to people across social, professional, and business networks. Network Hippo aggregates and organizes contact information intelligently from email and social networking sites and has proactive, addictive tools to engage your network. Close more deals, crowdsource your next product design, or change the world: Network Hippo and your network make it possible.

Market Opportunity

Jack Myer’s Media Business report forecasts spending in social marketing to grow from $800 million to $3.2 billion by 2012. AMR projects CRM revenue of $22 billion in 2012 (up from $14 billion in 2007) and Gartner predicts 80% of the immediate growth to come from “social application vendors.”