StartupNorth

Month: December 2007

  • Holiday Update

    StartupNorth has now been around for 8 months or so, which I have to admit is longer than it feels. We have been working hard to do good things for Canadian Startups, and it seems like more and more cool stuff is happening every week. We have been lucky to have seen startups from the very beginning right through to their first round of funding, we also had a blast putting on StartupCamp Toronto and we’ve been fortunate enough to help get StartupCamp Montreal started, and hopefully a few others soon.

    We have also had a chance to talk with dozens of Angel Investors and smart VCs who “get” what it’s like to be a startup. They all want to help startups and want to know how. It’s great to see their open minded approach and their excitement for Canadian Startups.

    Postings will be slow for another few days at least and then we will be back to a normal schedule. We are incredibly excited about the rest of January, which will see a few big announcements from us about some things we have been working on. These projects are going to be a direct benefit to startups, and I am barely managing to keep myself from blurting out the good news.

    If you want to drop us a line about anything at all, you can contact us through the form on our about page, or you can post a comment here.

  • WalkingSpree.com inks pilot deal with Calgary hospital

    WalkingSpree.com, a Calgary, Alberta based startup run by MeshEast editor Lisa has just signed a deal to run a pilot project in a major hospital

    ” . . .selected patients under the care of local Calgary West Central PCN family doctors will be given USB Pocket Pedometers from WalkingSpree.com to track and automatically upload their walking data to the WalkingSpree website. The patients can add other activities such as swimming or cycling to get a full picture of the calories burned. Patients can also track calories consumed with the online food and nutrition tracker to balance their daily “energy in-energy out” equation, thereby assisting with weight loss and weight-loss maintenance. These patients will receive support from WalkingSpree’s online Fitness and Nutritional Coaches.”

    WalkingSpree provides a USB pedometer which can upload data to the WalkingSpree website, which provides coaching and tracking features. It seems to be a lot like NikePlus, but with more value added features (and I assume upsell opportunities).

    Nice work on getting this pilot together, I am looking forward to hearing the results.

  • Angel financing – What angels look for in a company: Execution strategy (Part 6 of 6)

    The previous topics I have covered in this six part article series have largely spoken about where your company is today:

    These areas collectively form the basis of what you are pitching and why you feel your company is a good investment candidate. To round out your investment pitch you now need to provide details on what is the company’s execution strategy to take the company forward. Namely, investors are putting money into the company at a valuation based on the progress the company has made to date and its potential for the future. They will want to know how the new money coming in will be used to grow the company and increase the company’s value.

    (more…)

  • GameOn: Finance – Startup Passes available

    gameonfinance.png GameOn: Finance is a conference focused on helping gaming companies understand their financing options. The conference takes place in Toronto on January 17th and 18th and is being put on by Interactive Ontario

    “Interactive Ontario is pleased to announce the new Start-Up Pass for GameON: Finance, to assist small games companies “on the rise” in gaining access to this unique opportunity to meet face-to-face with the investment community, as well as to network and become more acquainted with the gaming community.”

    To make sure that startups can all afford to make it, the organizers are providing discounted tickets to qualified companies. In order to be eligible for the Start-Up Pass, you must have:

    • 5 staff members or less;
    • been in operation for less than 3 years; and
    • made, or plan on making games your core business.

    The number of startup passes available is limited and they are being provided on a first-come first-served basis. You can sign up here. The full schedule for the conference is available here.

    (more…)

  • Calgary's first BarCamp a hit, startup focused

    2112453857_f4859c284a_m.jpgCalgary had its first BarCamp this past week and by all accounts it was a hit. Patrick Lor has the best recap of the day. What struck me was how startup-focused this BarCamp seemed to be. Perhaps that is just how things seem when you only listen to entrepreneurs, but the day involved a “Startup Hacks” session and 2 talks by Guy Kawasaki.

    Guy had the crowd vote on which of his talks they wanted him to do:

    The crowd gave him a resounding yes, and split their vote between a talk on innovation, and “how to start a web 2.0 business with $12,700”. So, he did both. It was twice the work for him, but he tells me he really enjoyed presenting this Calgary crowd.

    It is great that someone like Kawasaki was able to attend the first BarCamp for Calgary, that is such a great way to kick off the movement there. Some love him, some hate him, either way: He has a high profile and I am sure he got the crowd excited.

    I would love to see a StartupCamp take place there. I am mildly obsessed with what is going on in Alberta, the whole thing fascinates me and the opportunities for startups in tech and outside of tech are huge. I think I will just hop on a plane next time there is an event and start meeting some of Calgary’s entrepreneurs. Keep it up!

  • WirelessNorth.ca – Canadian Wireless News and Opinion

    I thought I would remind everyone that wirelessnorth.ca is now alive and you will soon start seeing updates and information on Canada’s emerging wireless industry (some terms used lightly!).

    The approach with WirelessNorth will be the same that we have used to grow StartupNorth: Slowly but surely. We have tried to bring you high quality fact/news/opinion here as regularly as possible, and you have all responded by commenting, emailing and just talking about what we are up to.

    The guys at WirelessNorth will be doing the same. So head over, subscribe to the RSS feed and start digging in. Wireless in Canada is possibly going to change more quickly in the next 18-24 months than any other industry, and wirelessnorth.ca will be the best place to stay on top of it all.

  • CommunityLend Raises $2.5M

    Community LendSocial lending is coming to Canada. Founded more than a year ago by Michael Garrity and Colin Henderson and following the successful model of Zopa in the UK and Prosper in the U.S., CommunityLend will be launching a P2P lending service in Canada.

    P2P lending works like this. Borrowers provide their details to CommunityLend, including a public profile and reason for the loan. CommunityLend performs a credit check on the borrowers and then posts the borrower’s story, profile and credit rating to a community of prospective lenders/investors in an eBay-like interface. Investors then bid on pieces of the loan (each loan is typically divided up among many lenders which mitigates everyone’s risk). After the bidding process the loan is then issued at the minimum rate required to satisfy enough lenders to fund the full amount.

    The company will be offering, at first, one standard type of loan – 3 years, fixed rates to a maximum of 25k. Judging by other services like Prosper.com, social lending seems to fill a gap in the product offering of a traditional bank. Rates are typically in the 10-18% range, which fits above bank rates for unsecured lines of credit and below that of high interest credit cards. CommunityLend makes money by charging a small spread to both the borrower and the lender.

    With the current “sub-prime” troubles in global credit markets, the timing may be perfect for CommunityLend. Banks in Canada and the US have been tightening their credit policies making borrowing more difficult, especially for marginal creditors. The transparent, market-based P2P model may well prove to be a solution than can judge and price loans in this segment better than the big institutions.

    In addition to the funding announcement (of mostly non-Canadian investment dollars btw), CommunityLend is also announcing a new slate of directors including Barry Campbell, former MP and Secretary to the Minister of Finance and Jim Jones CEO of GMAC Residential Capital [100B lending portfolio].

    Congratulations to the team for reaching this milestone. We look forward to providing a more thorough review of the lending service once it goes live (we’re told early to mid next year).

    For the time being you can get more info at the company’s newly launched website: CommunityLend.com.

  • StartupCamp Waterloo – February 26, 2008

    startupcamplogo.png

    StartupCamp Waterloo is set for February 26th, 2008 at the Accelerator Center in Waterloo. They are sticking to the original format, which is the DemoCamp style pitch and feedback setup.

    Signups for StartupCamp Waterloo are being handled here on the wiki. I think it would be great to see some out of town startups coming out to support what is going on in Waterloo. There is a great group of people in Waterloo who are working hard to build a startup community there. Mic Berman, Jesse Rogers and Simon Woodside organized the first StartupCamp there a few month ago and have come out to a few Toronto events.

    Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

  • Blognation Shuts Down

    Blognation finally folded today. I have no idea which side of the story is true and which parts are false, but it doesn’t really matter. I won’t link back to all the posts, there would be too many to go back and find.

    Tris Hussey has been blogging at ca.blognation.com since April (I believe — I can’t seem to tell from the site). Tris has done a fantastic job of covering Canadian tech startups and has given us especially great coverage of West Coast startups. He has also scooped us on a few great stories.

    I am bummed that Tris won’t be blogging about Canadian startups for the next while at least. Canada is losing out on this one, for now at least. It was the editors/writers of Blognation who got the worst end of the deal.

    Tris has posted that he is looking for full time work, specifically as a community manager. I have heard from a few companies recently that are looking to hire someone in the same type of position, so I am pretty sure that it won’t take long for Tris to land on his feet, considering his depth of experience in building communities and in the blogging tools space.

  • StartupCamp Montreal – January 23 2008

    Update: Wow! All of the first-release tickets (except for Service Providers, who can still get tickets) are now sold out! It looks like the Montreal event is going to be a huge hit.

    startupcamp-montreal-logo.gif

    StartupCamp Montreal was announced at StartupCamp Toronto, and it is set for January 23rd at the SAT – Société des arts technologiques. The format will be similar to the Toronto and Waterloo events, but not exactly the same. Startups will have 10 minutes to present, and there will only be 5 minutes of questions (not 15 minutes of skewering this time!).

    Montreal is a wonderful city, and some of the best startups in Canada are calling it home these days. Both CakeMail and Defensio were well received in Toronto and I am hoping that we will see some startups from Toronto and Ottawa on the slate for Montreal.

    I just got an email from Philippe and he let me know that you can get more information on the web site and a first release of tickets is now available. The first batch are now up for grabs at startupcampmontreal.eventbrite.com, get one while you can!