StartupNorth

Search results for: “bumptop”

  • Be the next Bumptop

    Too bad Bumptop wasn’t actually an ExtremeU company. However, the recent acquisition of Bumptop should help raise the profile of the 2010 Extreme University.

    If you’re a student, a founder or just thinking about starting something you should apply to Extreme University. This is a world-class program, from an up-and-coming venture capital firm in Canada. They have a track record of selling companies to big players (Bumptop to Google, J2Play to EA). The Extreme Ventures, XtremeLabs, and Extreme University programs are building into a fantastic training and breading ground for a new generation of mobile and Internet startups. It feels like something big is happening inside the walls of Extreme Ventures.

    Extreme University 2010

    Who?

    We are looking for four smart and fast moving teams to participate. Typically all members of the two-three person team will be deep technically, but at least one of the founders should have a technical background.

    What?

    • Get an initial $5000 + $5,000 (US) per founder in exchange for a 10% ownership stake in your company
    • Move your team to our shared ExtremeU office space at Yonge & King (downtown Toronto)
    • Have weekly mentoring sessions by industry experts in technology, funding, legal, PR, marketing and HR
    • Meet a who’s who of experts at our weekly socials and have an opportunity to practice your pitch and demo your in-progress prototype
    • Have access to local shared resources to accelerate product development (mentors, servers)

    When?

    Applications are due by June 4th, 2010. The program starts Monday June 14th, 2010 to Thursday September 10th, 2010 at the ExtremeU offices in Toronto at Yonge and King. The final demo day will be Tuesday September 16th, 2010 at DemoCamp

    How?

    It’s a great program located in downtown Toronto for early-stage entrepreneurs and founders. The Xtreme Labs has a great track record. If you’re interested, make sure you apply before the June 4, 2010 deadline.

    Alumni – The Class of 2009

    UkenUken Games
    Uken Games makes highly addictive games for social and mobile platforms.

    Uken Games was born in March of 2009 when two normal guys decided they wanted to have super powers. Given real world limitation, they turned to the virtual world to make their dreams a reality. They built Superheroes Alliance, their first game, which eventually grew to over 150,000 monthly active users. Since then, they’ve launched 2 other games: Villains and Twisted Treasure have amassed over 300,000 total users. Going forward, they are committed to building a strong community around each of their games, expanding across other both social (Facebook) and mobile (iPhone, Blackberry) platforms. Uken Games has received a follow on investment and are driving hard towards this goal.

    AssetizeAssetize
    Assetize is a Twitter ad network that enables publishers to monetize their social content. Publishers within the Assetize network range from large news and media organizations to individual users. The company has also partnered with a premiere sports agency to launch FanWaves – a Twitter monetization network exclusively for the sports world. The growing list of FanWaves publishers includes the NHL, NY Knicks, Phoenix Suns, Washington Capitals, as well as several professional athletes.

    Next, the company plans to extend their monetization solution to other social networks, as well as other links stemming from media websites and blogs. Given the nascency of this space and lack of history, one of the challenges Assetize has faced is partnering with advertisers willing to market through social channels – a difficulty that is expected to decrease as brands realize the immense potential of social networks. Following Extreme University, Assetize is generating revenue and has secured a seed round of financing. The company is also currently in the process of syndicating a larger round from local and US-based VCs.

    LocationaryLocationary
    Locationary is changing the way that data on local businesses and other places is collected and verified.

    This data is fundamental to the local search and local advertising markets which have revenues approaching $50 billion a year. Google and other local search engines currently buy the bulk of their local business data from aggregators that have employees copy the printed yellow page directories. The current process can’t scale and results in expensive, stale and outdated information typically 1 to 2 years old. Locationary has created a patent-pending, crowd-sourced solution to collect and verify this information across the globe.

    Locationary is growing quickly and now has users in over 70 countries. They’ve collected data on over 20 million places and are now updating over 100,000 places a day. In this business, the fresher the data, the more valuable it is; and that’s what makes them special. Locationary has raised a Series-A investment through the connections made at ExtremeU.

    Extreme Labs has a history of bringing great mentors and presenters to interact and engage with ExtremeU participants. In 2009, participants met some of the best lawyers, founders, VCs and others in Canada.

    Albert Lai Kontagent Startup Lifecycle
    Ali Asaria Well.ca How to get funding
    Colin Ground Cassels Brock & Blackwell Setting up a VC friendly structure
    Dan Debow Rypple Sales & Marketing
    Leila Boujnane Idee Business Development
    Mike McDerment Freshbooks Product Management
    Rick Segal JLA Why do a startup now?
    Rick Yazwinski Tucows Agile Development
    Sal Rocco Stonewood Group How to hire superstars

    The list of already confirmed speakers in 2010 is amazing:

  • Bumptop acquired by Google. The gPad is coming?

    Something was definitely up with Bumptop in the last few weeks, and the rumours were flying all over the place. Not wanting to kill a deal, we decided not to post anything here on Startupnorth, especially something we couldn’t fully substantiate.

    Enter Chris Arsenault, Mark MacQueen and Techcrunch to confirm that Google has indeed picked up Bumptop in a deal that closed this week. We have covered Bumptop news regularly in the past.

    Bumptop was first funded by Xtreme Venture Partners and Austin Hill and followed by Scott Pelton at the Growthworks Commercialization Fund. Based on what we know about the terms that drive Xtreme Ventures and Growthworks’ Comm fund deals, our guess is that the price of this acquisition is north of $25million.

    What does this mean? I believe it means that Google is working hard to develop an iPad competitor. If you have used Bumptop before you will know that it is one of the most intuitive touch-screen interfaces available, much better than the current iPad “mash your finger everywhere” UI. Bumptop is undoubtably the owner of some pretty nice IP focused on those interactions, and they now give Google a warchest of techniques that will easily rival multi-touch. The three-finger-swipe and two-finger-zoom of the iphone and ipad are easily outclassed by the extensive capabilities of Bumptop, but Bumptop’s gestures are just a little too complicated for the small screen of the Android or iPhone. Bumtop holds a Canadian patent for many of the gestures and features.

    I have to hand it to Anand. For the last 4+ years he has walked around Toronto with his laptop strapped to his back always ready to give anyone a demo of Bumptop. His energy and focus have definitely set him apart from the crowd, and he stuck with his dream longer than many of us thought he would. Eventually the right people stepped up to back him and he seemed to become more determined than ever to make Bumptop a success. This was not handed to Anand, he worked for it.

    This is exactly the kind of story that many a bad VC will tell you can never happen in Canada. A fast, efficient and IRR-pumping exit. There are all sorts of dead and dying VCs here who will tell you that there is not enough of an “entrepreneurial culture” to drive their business, no wonder their LPs are putting them on notice (the sad part is that some good funds are getting dragged down with the bad –more on that later) — they aren’t willing to get down in the dirt (or the Imperial Pub for that matter) to meet the Anands of the world.

    The truth is that it takes financiers with as much hustle and vision as an entrepreneur, and that is what we are getting with XtremeVP, Austin Hill, and Scott Pelton. In my eyes this deal is a confirmation of the need in Canada for a new type of venture fund(s) to get healthy and to get the backing they need.

  • Just Launched: BumpTop Multi-Touch for Windows 7

    BumpTop has just launched Multi-Touch for Windows 7. This is on the heels of forming partnerships with some of the largest graphics card makers in the world including: HIS, PowerColor, and SAPPHIRE, who are now distributing BumpTop by bundling a free copy with their graphics cards.

    Cool, huh! Heck, I’d attend a Windows 7 House Party to give BumpTop Multi-Touch a whirl.

  • BumpTop Beta: first 100 to register get access

    For those of you viewing this post from your RSS reader, visit StartupNorth for the submission form.

  • BumpTop coming soon to a Mac near you…?

    apple-bumptopEarlier today MacRumours reported on the publication of dozens of Apple patent applications covering, among other things, a ‘Multi-Dimensional Desktop’ that looks strikingly similar to Toronto based BumpTop’s 3D Desktop. Who says cutting edge technology isn’t coming out of Canada? Don’t want to wait for Apple to introduce this in 2012… sign up today for the BumpTop Beta. You can bet the lawyers got a call this morning!

  • Finding next at the University of Toronto

    I’m guilty. I’ve been pandering to my alma mater, the University of Waterloo. I love Waterloo and UWaterloo startups. There is so much to love. There are Vidyard, Thalmic Labs, TribeHR, Desire2Learn, PostRank (acquired by Google), . There is even a Waterloo mafia in Toronto with Upverter, Top Hat Monocle, SocialDeck (acquired by Google), PushLife (acquired by Google), Xtreme Labs (Amar, Sunny, Farhan are all UWaterloo 1998 grads along with Social+Capital‘s Chamath) and others.

    But have you seen the awesomesauce that is originating at the University of Toronto:

    • Bumptop acquired by Google, founded by UofT CS Masters student Anand Agarawala
    • Sysomos acquired by Marketwire, founded by UofT CS prof Nick Koudas and Nilesh Bansal (UofT CS PhD candidate)
    • BackType acquired by Twitter, founded by Christopher Golda and Michael Montano, both UofT Electrical Engineering Grads
    • CognoVision acquired by Intel, founded by Shahzad Malik (UofT CS PhD)
    • ScribbleLive cofounder Jonathan Keebler is a UofT CS grad
    • Rypple acquired by Salesforce, founded by Daniel Debow (JD/MBA UofT) and George Babu (Engineering, MBA and JD)
    • Canopy Labs founded by Wojciech Gryc a UofT grad
    • Wattpad founded by Allen Lau (UofT Engineering) and Ivan Yuen (UofT MBA + UWaterloo Engineering)
    • DNNresearch Inc. acquired by Google was founded by UofT prof Geoffrey Hinton and 2 graduate students

    There are a number of spots on the UofT campus to find high potential growth startups and engineers. You can look at Creative Destruction Lab in the Rotman School of Business. You can look to the Entrepreneurship Hatchery in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

    You can also attend the Computer Science Department’s Research In Action Showcase on April 17, 2013.

    Add your events to our calendar.

    Research In Action 2013

  • Rebooting DemoCamp

     

    CC-BY-NC-SA-20 Some rights reserved by hyfen
    AttributionNoncommercialShare Alike Some rights reserved by hyfen

    DemoCamp was conceived in 2005. I have hosted approximately 30 events (I only missed one and that resulted in 2 companies that eventually exited: Bumptop and Sysomos). It has been 7 years. But the world has changed. There were no accelerators or cyclotrons. There was no iPhone or Android. And while Demo and DemoCamp continue to work (see mHealthDemoCamp, Hamilton, Guelph, Edmonton, Eclipse and others). The format is simple (DIY instructions here).  But I’m feeling like it is time to open a broader discussion about the role events like DemoCamp should play.

    mHealth DemoCamp

    Craig Netterfield (LinkedIn, @cnetterfield) described DemoCamp as “DemoDay for companies that aren’t in an incubator”.  It was an interesting observation about the role DemoCamp played as a structured social process for entrepreneurs, funders and the community. My challenge is that DemoCamp in Toronto can not continue in the same incarnation. I am hoping to have an open conversation and gather feedback from students, founders, employees, funders about how we make it better. There are lots of events in Toronto. I don’t want to do an event for the sake of an event. I want to build something better, something that solves a need that is a catalyst for success of entrepreneurs.

    Sources of Event Inspiration

    I keep wondering about what is the role of an event like DemoCamp. Is it one of the following?

    • PR and Awareness
    • Recruiting
    • Inspiration
    • Education
    • Social

    Does an event like DemoCamap need to exist?

    “Good things happen to you at events” – Nivi

    Events are great. They allow individuals an opportunity and to interact in social norms, we are inherently social animals. And events “are the place to meet people who won’t meet with you. People who aren’t available over email or one-on-one go to events to make themselves available”. But it is the social norms or the event dynamics that can make for meaningful experiences. There is an assumption that we should continue hosting events like DemoCamp and Founders & Funders. The assumption is that these events are valuable to entrepreneurs, developers, designers, marketers and others.

    The thing about events is that someone has to organize and pay for them. What are the costs? Facilities, audio/visual, ticketing, insurance, bar staff, liquor license, etc. While we strive for $0 or low cost to attendees, there are still hard costs that have to be covered. (And this doesn’t include lost opportunity costs of not working on other things). The Brad Feld book tour event for example had costs of approximately $17000. These costs included books, space rental, food, and staff. The books were the offset/proxy for the travel expenses for bringing a guest speaker. We had basically 2 revenue streams: sponsorship and ticket sales. But the goal was to host an amazing event with a great speaker that derived real value for entrepreneurs and policy makers.

    What would you do to completely reboot DemoCamp? How would you change the event? What do you find valuable? Is it worth rebooting? What changes would you like to see?

    Please fill out the survey and leave a comment!

    [gravityform id=”9″ title=”false” description=”false”]

  • Blueseed or Canada?

    I was recently asked to comment on Blueseed. And I have not been following the issue very closely. I have held a number of non-resident visas during my stay in the US as a student, employee and entrepreneur. I have held at various times during my time in the US an F1 visa, H1B visa, TN-1, B-1 and been an applicant for permanent residency. So I understand the intricacies of working with INS and making sure that I hold the appropriate entry documentation at all times. So I understand for many foreign entrepreneurs the bureaucracy that drives an initiative like Blueseed and the reforms for the StartupVisa initiative when trying to get access to the US.

    But why do Canadian entrepreneurs care? If you can’t get into the US on an appropriate visa, should you care about an offshore community.

    CC-BY-NC-20 Some rights reserved by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
    AttributionNoncommercial Some rights reserved by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

    For Canadian entrepreneurs and founders looking to immigrate to Canada, we have a number of very similar benefits to the US, and we are probably an even better place for most people to live. There are a number of benefits just based on our proximity to US cities with strong startup ecosystems.  Vancouver is in the same timezone as the Bay area. Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal are in the same timezone as Boston and New York. I think that Canadian startup ecosystems are amazing and I’m not alone (see Startup Genome’s report and their methodology). Toronto placed #4, Vancouver #16 and Montreal #25. We have strong story of investments (Hootsuite, WaveAccounting, Fixmo, ScribbleLive, Kik, Wattpad, TribeHR, Achievers, etc.) and exits (Dayforce, Rypple, Varicent, Postrank, PushLife, Bumptop, SocialDeck, Cognovision, Radian6, etc.). The next 5 years look like a great time for startups in Canada.

    Canada is a great place to live

    Mercer cites Vancouver (5) followed by Ottawa (14), Toronto (15) and Montreal (22)  as having the best quality of living. The Economist cites Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto as #3, 4 & 5 best places to live (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World’s_most_livable_cities). We have a ways go to improve compared to places like Norway (Canada #20 on best place to be a mom). All in all, the quality of life in Canada is amazing. The access to health care, education, culture, capital, security, is unmatched (in my opinion). Sure it’s a little cold but man it just makes patio weather so much more valuable.

    Connecting beyond Canada’s borders

    We have a growing expat support community with The C100. With strong ties in the Bay area, NYC, Boston and now the UK. We have a Canadian government that is starting consultation on a new “startup visa” for new immigrants.

    Canada is an awesome place to be an entrepreneur. And we offer a high quality of life. I can’t imagine being anywhere else.

  • Extreme Startups

    Extreme Startups

    Rob Lewis and TechVibes is reporting that ExtremeU (you can read our past coverage 2009, 2010, 2011) has launched a new Toronto based incubator that leverages their experience over the past 3 years. Mark Evans provides additional details that includes “$7-million in funding from Extreme Venture Partners, OMERS Ventures, Rho Canada Ventures, BlackBerry Partners Fund and BDC.”

    Extreme Startups includes a who’s who of  the Toronto startup scene as mentors:

    • David Ossip
    • Daniel Debow
    • Anand Agarwala
    • Michael McDermentt
    • Ameet Shah
    • Albert Lai
    • Leila Boujnane
    • Ali Asaria
    • Noah Godfrey
    • Ray Reddy
    • Rick Segal
    • Salim Teja
    • Derek Seto
    • Nick Koudas

    Congrats to Andy Yang, Sunil Sharma and Amar Varma in getting this thing launched. Plus how can this not be awesome with Andy Yang as Harold and Sunil Sharma as Kumar in Extreme Startupping.

    Andy Yang and Sunil Sharma go EXTREME STARTUPPING

     

  • Nina Sodhi returns and BluTrumpet launches

    One of the great things about the number of exits (be they big or small) since 2010, is that they are enabling a new class of veteran, serial entrepreneurs. The knowledge, the contacts, the street cred, the capital – the second time around can be easier than the first. And it should be good for investors, hopefully some of the returning class will go for building big companies with $100mm+ exits instead of “getting paid” with a $20-$30mm exit.

    Take for instance Blu Trumpet, who launched a few days back. Led by Nina Sodhi, former COO of Bumptop – who were acquired by Google in 2010, Blu Trumpet is the first company to launch out of IAC’s Hatch Labs mobile incubator.

    Hatch Labs, a joint venture with IAC and Xtreme Labs, today introduce Blu Trumpet, an app discovery wall that lets advertisers reach millions of devices with clean, user-friendly ads. Blu Trumpet uses sophisticated design to provide publishers a non-intrusive app discovery tool that users actually enjoy, an alternative to banners, and a more creative way to monetize any app.
    “At Hatch Labs, we know the mobile space and we really saw a need for a new type of mobile ad platform that caters to the new app economy,” said Nina Sodhi, CEO at Blu Trumpet. “That’s why we aren’t focusing on display or pop ups. Blu Trumpet gets integrated into an app’s tab bar, allowing users to find us when they are curious and interested. The consumer is happy — and the publishers and advertisers benefit from that.”

    Blu Trumpet offers consumers a new, non-intrusive way to find cool apps without searching through lists of a million apps through Blu Trumpet’s in-app ad platform, “the app wall.” While in a favorite app, consumers can view the Blu Trumpet app wall to discover new recommended apps based on those they’re currently using.

    “It’s like getting a tip from a friend,” said Karthik Ramakrishnan, Blu Trumpet Product Director. “Consumers avoid intrusive pop up and banner ads, and get to discover recommended apps they’d probably never find otherwise.”

    I think Nina Sodhi becoming a GM at IAC and CEO of BluTrumpet, along with her amazing bio (UW Elec Eng, Harvard MBA, VP at Merril Lynch, COO Bumptop, etc, etc), puts her up there in the elite rank of Canadian entrepreneurs. And hopefully her results at IAC and with BluTrumpet will push some of the other recent “exitees” to come back and fight the entrepreneurial good fight. For instance, Jeson Patel, Anish Acharya, Anand Agarawala – aren’t you guys all coming up to 1 or 2 years at Google.. isn’t that enough time to claim your prize and start something new??

More posts