StartupNorth

Building a product and growing a startup is a different experience no matter where you live. In many ways every startup experience is completely unique and totally predictable all at the same time. The goals, struggles, opportunities and outcomes are each different and geography is one other thing that can be thrown in the mix.

Building a startup in Atlantic Canada IS different, for better and for worse, than Toronto, Austin, San Francisco or anywhere else.

IF you want to build a competitive, scalable, high-potential startup in Atlantic Canada then here are some of the most basic things I think every entrepreneur here needs to learn:

Get your butt on a plane

It is hard to understate this. Your customers aren’t here. Your partners aren’t here. Your investors might not be here. It is the nature of the place and you need to accept it.

Get on a plane and go see the people who are going to make your business, and you personally, successful. Every startup has different needs but it is best to err on the side of caution. If you are building an enterprise tech startup then you need to be in San Francisco. If you are building a media company then you had better be ready to spend time in New York. If you are selling to brands then I hope you like Atlanta and Minneapolis.

If you are fundraising then this is even more important. I’ve seen entrepreneurs lose a financing round because of a single bad phone call. It sucks but body language and a few dinner tables can make all the difference. Get out there, the world wants to meet you.

Government support doesn’t matter to the customer or your competitors

There are some really great programs available to support tech startups around here. Non-dilutive and relatively flexible IRAP, ACOA and other agencies really can be a great option. The fact is though that you are competing against world class startups who aren’t waiting for an application to get approved and who don’t need their SR&ED credits to make their next hire. Your competitors are moving at a lightening pace and you can’t afford to sit around.

You should be moving so quickly that you can hardly manage to get an application in for a project before you find yourself completing it. Government financing should be strictly secondary to acceleration capital which is going to help speed your execution.

You don’t need to compromise

Startups in Atlantic Canada should not compromise on anything. We don’t have to so we shouldn’t. We have been telling entrepreneurs not to put up with bad terms from local angel groups but the issue runs even more deeply than that. Focus on attracting the best investors and don’t put up with bad deals.

There is a tendency to confuse “we are different” with “we deserve different” here and while it’s ok to BE different we don’t deserve anything less than the best.

The talent pool is world class so you should hire world class

I have hired in a lot of talent rich places and I can say without exception that we have some phenomenal talent in Atlantic Canada. Like recruiting anywhere it can be gruelling. I got lucky: I hired Ben Yoskovitz. I didn’t hire him as a recruiter but he does it in his sleep and it has helped us scale without compromise.

Be picky and only hire those developers, designers, product owners and anyone else who you could drop in to a room in San Francisco, New York, Tokyo or Taipei and not have to worry about how awesome they will be. They are right here in your backyard to start looking and never hire less than awesome again. 

… and finally

You are expected to take on the world

We do not need more me-toos and I’m not talking about lifestyle businesses here. Choosing to live and work in Atlantic Canada is not the easy road and it was never meant to be. We have built many world class companies here and we expect no less from you and your startup.

Making a dent in the universe is not only doable, it’s what you should be striving for. We should be leading the country and globally as a place that punches far above its weight. There is no reason to hold back, because the alternative isn’t a lot of fun.

Do not compromise on the size of your vision or the ferociousness of your execution. You should be audacious in your dreams because building a startup in Atlantic Canada is not about being in Atlantic Canada it is about being FROM Atlantic Canada, and that is a big difference.

These are just a few thoughts, but many of you have built startups here and in other places. What’s your experience and what are your tips for the next generation of startups we are seeing emerge now?

Jevon MacDonald

co-founder of Startupnorth.ca

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Last week, I hosted GrowTalks in Toronto, a conference for entrepreneurs focused on metrics, marketing and growth. The conference brought an amazing set of speakers to Toronto. And personally I was excited to finally get a chance to hang out with Brant Cooper, someone I have been connected to digitally, but until last week had never met in person.

Then something happened after the conference, that put Toronto, our community and our values as Canadians in a very negative light. I am hoping that there is lesson, perhaps a ”teachable moment“, around treating folks with respect and what we should do when we mess up.

Laura was wearing a dress with her company’s logo on it when she gave her talk. This exchange happened on Twitter:

My goal is not to vilify the individual but to highlight the subtle interactions that often happen in the community that can make it more closed and less approachable (this is not the first time we’ve had a similar conversation). The goal isn’t to ostracize or vilify the individual, so please don’t start a witch hunt.

I know this interaction does not represent what my Toronto startup community is all about. My community is generally respectful of people. I believe we are great hosts when folks from out of town visit to share their time, expertise and insight with us. My community understands people like Laura and Brant are rare and valuable and have a choice in how they invest their time and when they choose to invest it in us, we’re grateful.

But I also believe a community is defined by how it reacts when folks do things that fall outside of what the community defines as acceptable. After seeing this interaction I worried that unless someone from Toronto made it clear that this isn’t what we’re about, our public silence would be seen as a statement that we think it’s OK to be disrespectful to conference speakers (or heck, anyone, for that matter). I’d like Laura (and anyone else watching from the sidelines) to understand that we noticed, and we are appalled.

Which brings me to the second part of this teachable moment. None of us are perfect. I personally have a colorful history of amazing screw-ups. Miraculously, people forgive me. I think they forgive me because I let them know I’m not TRYING to be a jerk, but sometimes I hurt people anyway and if given the chance I will try hard not to do it again. They forgive me because I’m trying to be better.

If you were the Tweeter in this particular incident there are things you could do to avoid the inevitable backlash caused by your poor behavior.  You could delete the Tweet. You could change your Twitter handle. You could remove your photo. But that doesn’t really convince anyone that you weren’t trying to be hurtful and it certainly doesn’t make Laura feel better. Apologizing does.

In the future I hope we treat our speakers with more respect and if we blow it, we have the good sense to say we’re sorry and try better next time.

David Crow

David Crow focused on product design, customer development and go-to-market implementation on $0. He is available as a consultant. He is a mentor at UW VeloCity, Jolt and FounderFuel. Follow him on Twitter @davidcrow or at DavidCrow.ca

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There are a lot of models that people throw around for how to build a strong startup community. There are a handful of types of players in each community, so there are many permutations of “who gets what” and how resources are moved around.

It gets complicated, fast.

So there is a model that I subscribe to. It can be a little myopic, it can be a little bit pigheaded, but it is always effective. It is the one metric that matters for startup communities and it is why we back the things we back and why we take exception to the things we do.

In Halifax there has been a recent discussion about a local angel group and their funding model, which we do not believe is founder friendly. Hopefully this post will clarify for some people as to why we see things in such a black and white contrast.

There is a litmus test that can get to the heart of many issues:

• Does this help founders create more companies?
• Does this help founders build better companies?

You need a Yes on either one of those, otherwise the effort isn’t worth it.

OK, there are more than just founders in the ecosystem, I know. The truth is however that Founders are the only ones who rely on everyone else in the ecosystem to be successful. Nobody else is so ecosystem dependant. Service providers can always find work elsewhere, investors can always squirrel their money in to safer places.

It is founders and founders only are the assemblers, allocators and creators of resources that make successful startups. It is those successful startups which are the only things that demonstrate the success of the community.

In early 2008 we started talking about how Startups Will Save Venture Capital in Canada. I believe that post and the thesis behind it has stood the test of time:

My thesis is simple: Startups just aren’t getting started in Canada nearly as often as they should. This isn’t about education levels, creativity or even for a lack of cash floating around this country. This is about ambition.

This is about hustle.

Most entrepreneurs have heard that things aren’t great for VCs right now. LPs are shaky, some funds are crashing, others are just throwing their hands up, and for a lot of startups it seems like no matter how many people you pitch, you aren’t getting anywhere. I tried to put some hard number behind that, and they paint a scary picture.

This goes two ways, and nobody wants to sit around while we all whine and moan that nobody can get funded. It’s time to build companies that are worth something.

We need to focus on building our local startup communities more than ever. Local communities are important because they are far easier for local Angels and Entrepreneurs to connect to, and they also act as a great filter to help find people who need national and international exposure.

(Read the rest . . .)

David Crow started this thinking in 2005/2006 when he built the thesis that Community is the framework. That approach has brought incredible success to many startup communities. Founders are the anchor of community. Every year or so we publish the Hot Shit List and we focus on profiling founders who are taking pushing our communities to the next level.

In an community it is the ability of founders to succeed through diligence, hard work and creative thinking that determines success. All encumbrances to founder success must be removed to achieve a sustainable model for growth.

There is no half way, there is no “maybe” there is no “but…” there are just founders. Founders who are picking investors, lawyers, accountants, marketers, developers, product managers, customers and markets. It is founders who develop vision and create early product.

It is only the founders who are tracking their cash, calculating runway and determining what is going to make their startup successful.

So the next time someone tells you that anyone or anything matters then tell them that you will not water down a founders-first approach. Not because someone else needs a little something, not for any reason.

Remember the great founders you know who have struggled against all odds to build incredible companies. Forget the rest and focus on what matters.

Jevon MacDonald

co-founder of Startupnorth.ca

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