StartupNorth

Month: April 2008

  • SmartHippo – Chowhound for Mortgages

    SmartHippo, based in Montreal, has had quite an exciting week. In addition to launching a new version of the site, a US mortgage search engine and comparison community, at Finovate San Fransisco, George Favvas SmartHippo’s CEO has managed to bring together a fantastic advisory board. Board members include Lori Collins, former Senior Vice President and General Manager for LendingTree Exchange; Bill Rice, CEO of Kaleidico; and Toronto’s very own John Philip Green, Founder and CTO of LearnHub.

    SmartHippo is an interesting startup launching a product into a market in turmoil. Interest rates are all over the map, housing prices are deflating, and homeowners are nervous. While there is possibly going to be less action in the mortgage business while the market finds it’s bearings, it may be just the time to bring together a community to ferret out the best mortgage rates.

    LowerMyBills.com was acquired by Experian in 2005 for more than $330M. Bankrate.com has a market cap of $986M. And LendingTree.com is being spun off by IAC. Mortgage origination pays. SmartHippo’s main challenge now is building a community. He is on the right track by “not letting the business model get in the way of business.”

    “LendingTree and LowerMyBills are pure lead generation plays that match the consumer with the banks that pay the most for the lead (not the ones with the best rates). Bankrate lets banks advertise ‘bait and switch’ rates.” While like its competitors SmartHippo makes money with mortgage application origination, their approach is much more transparent: finding and rating mortgage rates and banks is driven in large part by user reports. Transparency works. It is probably only a matter of time before SmartHippo has to deal with a stampede of smart borrowers.

    Check out SmartHippo’s StartupIndex profile.

  • startupindex.ca – Free our data, free the community

    Tonight at StartupCamp Toronto we are launching Startupindex.ca, an open, community-managed and free startup tracking database for the Canadian startup community. This is Version 1, and we will be putting a lot of work in to it in the next few weeks and months.

    When we began tracking startups here on Startupnorth, there was no other decent source of publicly accessible coverage of startup activity in Canada. In the last year we have tracked over 100 startups, investments and events related to the startup community. While this blog has kept us up to date on a lot of what is going on, we are still only covering a small fraction of what is really going on.

    Why are we doing this?

    Most of us have a pretty good idea of what is going on in our own city. We get to hear about new startups, rumors of the latest deals are always flying around and we have some idea of who the best entrepreneurs are, but the truth is you don’t have to travel very far until things become less obvious. From Vancouver to Victoria, Toronto to Waterloo, Ottawa to Montreal, Halifax to Moncton, we can make a very short trip but still not know who’s who and what’s new.

    By tracking startup activity nationally we can start to build more awareness of which startups are worth watching, we can also quickly find out which Investors are doing deals and which ones are less active. The “Wheat from the Chaff” as they say.

    This is also an opportunity to find out the truth about the Canadian Startup community. Is it dead or alive? We can either put grand claims to rest, or we can light a fire under them.

    A lot of startup activity and almost all of the funding activity in Canada is actively tracked. These databases are closed off from the public and charge access fees nearing $10,000 (that is seed funding for some companies!). They also offer no value back to the very community that needs this data the most. Startups and Investors, who are the basis of the data being captured, either have to pay the subscription fee or live without the data.

    We believe that this data should be free and that it is a liability if startups and Investors do not have a clear and concise place to access this information. We are betting that our open, accessible and equal approach will bring more value to more people, and that is something we think is worth doing.

    So please, head over to startupindex.ca and make sure your startup has a profile. We will be adding new features, such as ratings, email subscriptions and commenting in the short term, and we want your help in building this as it grows.

  • Founders & Funders Toronto – June 4, 2008

    Jevon MacDonald and I are please to announce the second Toronto Founders & Funders dinner on June 4, 2008.

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    What: Founders & Funders Toronto
    Founders & Funders is a private, invite only social event. Founders and Funders is dedicated: to helping Canadian entrepreneurs to meet each other; meet potential funders: angel, VC or other money sources; to have fun; and see how we can help each other create the NEXT BIG successful company.
    When: Wednesday, June 4, 2008 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM

    The inaugural Toronto event sold out. And we’re expecting this event to reach capacity very quickly.

    We are limited to 100 seats. The fee for the dinner is $100 which will include drinks and dinner.  This is a private networking event and we are selecting the audience to ensure a quality group of attendees. And to provide the best chance to network together.

    How do I get an Invite?

    If you would like to attend the dinner, please fill out the following form and let us know who you are.

    We will be contacting those invited with details on the registration and attendance details for the dinner in the coming weeks.

    Special Guest  – Dan’l LewinDan'l Lewin

    We’re incredibly lucky to have Dan’l Lewin scheduled to be in attendance (Dan’l is the Corporate Vice-President, Strategic and Emerging Business Development for Microsoft). Check out GigaOM’s interview with Dan’l where he talks candidly about his role in Microsoft and how Microsoft works with other emerging technology companies.

    Dan’l Lewin is corporate vice president of Strategic and Emerging Business Development, responsible for managing worldwide strategic business relationships with venture capitalists and emerging venture-capital-backed businesses, as well as managing the business relationship with leading global industry partners such as SUN, Adobe, Intuit and BEA to ensure their applications interoperate with and run well on the Microsoft platform – for the benefit of the companies’ common customers. Lewin is based at Microsoft’s Mountain View, Calif. campus.

    A 25-year Silicon Valley veteran, Lewin was most recently CEO of Aurigin Systems Inc., an enterprise software company focused on intellectual property asset management. He also spent 18 years as an executive, leading sales and marketing divisions for companies including Apple Computer Corp., NeXT Inc. and GO Corporation. In addition, Lewin has served as a consultant for emerging companies, venture capital firms and corporate joint ventures.

    Lewin holds an A.B. in politics from Princeton University.

    Sponsors

    We’re working with a number of great organizations to sponsor the event.

    If you would like to sponsor this event or other Founders & Funders events across Canada please feel free to contact David Crow or Jevon MacDonald.

  • Akoha – $1.9million for gaming that does good

    Akoha is going public today with details on their financing to date. The $1.9million in investment, which has come in over two rounds, will go towards expanding the development of their game which is targeted for a Fall 2008 release.

    The investment comes from a slew of angel investors, including David Chamandy, John Bromley, Jean-Sebastien Cournoyer, Ron Dembo, Jake Eberts, Alan Gershenfeld, John Meeks, Reg Weiser, Jonathan Wener, Robert Montgomery, Chris Emergui and Montreal Start Up.

    Details on what Akoha is are sparse, but here is what we have been able to pick up: Akoha is producing a game which is focused on creating positive spin off from the game play.

    Akoha is developing a new type of social game inspired by elements of social entrepreneurship, massively multiplayer and reality-based games.

    CEO Austin Hill recently posted a video to the Akoha blog that paints a broad picture of their goals.

  • communitynorth.ca – Welcome to the family

    Our CEO and mascot, David Crow, is going live today with CommunityNorth.ca, the latest addition to our little family of blogs alongside Wirelessnorth. David will be profiling what is working, and what isn’t, in Canada’s communities both online and off.

    CommunityNorth is a project to profile Canadian communities and the best examples of community marketing, social capital, building meaningful relationships and evangelism practices.

    File PhotoFor all of the people out there who call themselves “Community Marketers”, “Social Media Consultants” and everything else, David is the one guy who has really done it in Canada. There simply aren’t any other people who have built sustainable online/offline hybrid communities the way he has managed to do.

    So, here is your chance to learn from the best. I know I took notes from David for years and I owe him credit for equipping me to get StartupNorth off the ground.

    Oh, and apologies for how ugly all these blogs are. We are working on that.

  • Weekend Reading – April 26, 2008

    We have an exciting week ahead! LoyaltyMatch, Brainpark, Natural Semantic Modules, SocialDeck, and AskKinjo will be pitching at StartupCamp Toronto. And the amazing whip-cracking Leila Boujnane, CEO of Idee, will be kicking off the night. If that wasn’t enough, another 20 startups will be pitching at CIX. We look forward to catching up with everyone at the events. If you couldn’t get a ticket, don’t despair, join us at the SummerCamp Afterparty Tuesday night from 10pm – 3am at Circa (126 John Street).

    How to avoid the pitfalls that are happening to the .coms right now… just ask Ali Asaria of Well.ca.

    Check out this nifty Brainpark video.

    More than AAA Beef coming out of Alberta… iNovia Capital has set up shop in Edmonton with local partners.

    How did we miss this one right in our own backyard? Toronto based Adcentricity raised $3M from Propulsion Ventures.

    Idee’s image search engine TinEye, in private beta, is now officially searching 487,000,000 images. It is scary cool.

    Gigpark Founder Pema Hegan’s notes from the Rick Segal Roadshow.

    Open (Irish) Coffee 2.0… StartupDrinks Montreal next Wednesday, April 30.

    Many thanks to the StartupCamp Toronto Sponsors:

    Arshad Merali | Daniel Shapiro, Microsoft | Mike Middleton & Frances Fast, Q1 Capital Partners | John MacRitchie, OCE | Jacob Senderski, Benefact Consulting

  • Thanks for coming out!



    Thanks to everyone who came out last night to celebrate a year of StartupNorth. Putting names to faces is always nice. We got to meet some new startups, some VCs were working the room and the Imperial worked its usual charm.

  • Tripharbor.com – community, cruising and a real business!

    Here is an industry that you don’t see a lot of startups jumping in to. There is something about starting a travel website that scares people off. It is a huge industry, and one where customers actually spend a lot of money and the commissions, especially on something like cruises, can be massive. So, I was excited when I first started hearing rumblings about what Stuart was up to.

    Enter TripHarbour, a startup led by former Chief Marketing Officer of Expedia.com and Founder of Expedia Canada, Stuart MacDonald. TripHarbour went live this morning and is probably one of the most polished launches I have seen in the last year.

    Stuart and the team didn’t go in to “beta”, instead they tested the site internally as much as they could and only launched when they had a site that was shipshape. This approach makes a lot of sense when your target market is the general public (not early adopters) and if they encounter a single error or get confused even once, they may never come back.

    The thing that sets TripHarbour apart from other travel sites is that it is focused exclusively on cruising. There are surprisingly few decent cruising websites and none that combine community features and cruise buying all in one. Segmenting the travel market is bound to pay off, cruising is a $21 billion dollar market, that’s enough treasure for any sailor.

    Congrats to the entire TripHarbour team. Now the real hard work starts: Getting people to the site. Luckily Stuart has some experience with that, and I am going to watch closely and learn as much as I can as they get TripHarbour out there.

    Contact Stuart MacDonald

  • indochino.com takes new round of financing from Burda Digital

    Shanghai (by way of Victoria) based startup, Indochino.com, who we first profiled in September, and who I finally got around to ordering from a few weeks ago, has announced that they have taken a new round of financing from Burda Digital Ventures, a German Venture Capital group who have been very active in Western Canada, getting a lot of deals that Canadian VCs are missing including TeamPages, Suite101.com and Nexopia

    Indochino.com is a unique online retailer that specializes in custom-tailored suits, shirts and other apparel based on measurements done by the customer. I ordered a jacket and shirt from them a few weeks ago and I think I got a taste of both ends of the spectrum of ordering online.

    The shirt came and right out of the package it was hands down the nicest shirt I have ever bought. The fit was perfect and it looked and felt great. The jacket looked great as well, but a few of the measurements are off. So I printed off their claim form and will take the jacket to a tailor tomorrow. For the price however, the jacket is great.

    This round of financing is focused on building the operations back-end as well as scaling up to meet growing demand.

    This is a long way from where they were when I first profiled them just 8 months ago and things are looking up. I am looking forward to seeing what they do in the next 8 months with new financing and some more experience behind them.

  • SummerCamp Toronto – *campers can have fun too

    Well, as if the next week+ isn’t packed enough. With StartupCamp Toronto 2, CIX and our slightly more easy going Thursday plans, Mark Kuznicki has taken it upon himself to throw the biggest party of the year yet: Summercamp.

    It will be getting started after StartupCamp and Casecamp on the 29th. Cabs will be leaving The Carlu and heading down to CiRCA for anyone who wants keep the night going.

    CaseCamp along with its sponsors transform CiRCA into ground zero for Toronto’s creative communities: art, design, communications, technology, media, social change and entrepreneurship.

    DJs, interactive art, and the closest friends you haven’t met celebrating their passion for participatory culture, creative practice and society.

    Book off the next morning and celebrate with Toronto’s emerging creative leaders who are remaking the city. Check out the links to just some of the feeder events and groups below!

    NO COVER!

    Performers include:
    – Andrew McConachie (DJ Set)
    – Jimmy Blak (DJ Set)
    – Abdul Smooth (DJ + Visuals)
    – Gabe Sawhney (Interactive Visual Installation)
    – Newmindspace (Cool Stuff)
    – Other Guests…