StartupNorth

Author: David Crow

  • Shelter for startups in Ottawa

    Mercury Grove offices
    Catwalk at Mercury Grove/NetworkHippo offices

    Scott Annan announced he was making available some of the space in the newly acquired NetworkHippo/Mercury Grove office space for startups. It is a raw space located in downtown Ottawa to enable startups and entrepreneurs to come together and share. It embraces the idea that great things come out of the collisions that happen in our communities.

    “The idea behind opening up our space is that I think that Ottawa has some of the greatest entrepreneurs, talent, and ideas in the world. But we don’t spend enough time together collaborating on ideas, discussing technology opportunities, or discussing ways we’re changing the world. I think the more we can be surrounded by people who are facing similar challenges (trying to get launched, trying to get noticed, and trying to get paid) the more we can feed off each other’s successes and learn from each other’s experience.”

    This is different than a coworking space. It’s an entrepreneur that values the collisions, differing view points and conversations that happen in larger offices. It’s Scott making sure that he and his staff have a unique experience by getting to interact with others in the Ottawa community. It speaks deeply to why we host events like DemoCamp and Founders & Funders. And you can see venture firms in Toronto and Vancouver taking advantage of the opportunities of having others drop in (BootupLabs during Grow Conference; and open door policy at Extreme Venture Partners and office hours with Year One Labs).

    If you’re visiting Ottawa make sure that you stop by:

    Mercury Grove Startup Shelter
    Address: 738A Bank St. (map here)
    Phone: 613-237-2071
    Email: [email protected]

  • Shoestring budgets & sponsorship

    We continue to run DemoCamp on a shoestring budget. Sure it sucks that it’s during the day. Sure it sucks that it costs $15. But we run these events at cost recovery. Sometimes we lose money (uhm, StartupEmpire anyone).

    Venue, food, Audio/Visual, and special things like a movie. They all cost money. BTW don’t forget the tax. The ticket price reflects the maximum we think people are willing to pay plus the maximum sponsorship amount we think we can cover. Did you know that a theatre + A/V + special feature + lunch is about $30/person+tax, almost $34/person. So we reach out to the community of companies and include the least amount of advertising and sponsorship. Make sure you check out:

    • Anand Agarawala and Bumptop! This is an EPIC sponsorship. You have to be at DemoCamp from 4pm-6pm to find out what it is.
    • Eqentia builds the a semantic publishing platform for knowledge tracking & competitive analysis
    • XtremeLabs is hiring agile engineers and ui designers for the hottest mobile development company on the planet.
    • Microsoft BizSpark jumpstart your startup and speeds up your time to market.
    • FreshBooks is the fastest way to track time and invoice your clients.
    • Mercanix develops tools that enable organizations and their people to do good work.
    • Rob Hyndman is the bee’s knees & the cat’s pajamas. Startups looking for a lawyer: Start here.
    • Rypple builds social software that makes workplace feedback easy and fun.
    • Dayforce is the hottest enterprise software company in Toronto. Hiring dev, qa, ui and sales ninjas.
    • Kontagent is a Facebook Fund funded startup that is hiring rockstar developers in Toronto.
    • OCE is helping commercialize the next generation technologies like Bumptop & Sysomos.
    • KPMG Information, Communications & Entertainment (ICE) practice helps startups to succeed in turbulent markets.

    These are organizations that are looking for funding, PR, and they are hiring. Are you a developer? designer? marketer? pr professional? Are you looking for a job? Make sure you check out each of these companies. They are part of our ecosystem. They support events like DemoCamp. And they make it possible for you to have a great experience. These folks essentially cough up a relatively small amount of money for a logo, a blog post, and the hope that events like DemoCamp make Toronto a great place to find and retain talent.

  • XX Tech Founders

    Rochelle Grayson by Tris Hussey
    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.

    Leila BoujnaneAnd 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::

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

  • CIX 2010 Submission Deadline

    Canadian Innovation ExchangeThis is your friendly neighbourhood startup spider reminder that the Early Bird Tickets and Submissions to Canada’s Most Innovative Company competition are due tomorrow on October 1, 2010.The 2009 winner was CognoVision and we’ve written about the finalists in the past. The goal is to provide value to all of the finalists and submission. Canadian companies in ICT, Cleantech and Digital Media are encouraged to Submit Your Profile!

    How are companies chosen?

    Companies are evaluated by a selection committee agains 4 criteria. Basically it’s the same stab in the dark we all make when picking investments. One of the key criteria is traction, i.e., there are more mid-to-later stage companies. But it’s less about company age and more about state of corporate development. There’s a preference to companies that are able to demonstrate traction (think customers, intellectual property, partnerships, etc.).

    • Quality of Innovation
    • Market Potential / Viability
    • Management / Industry Experience
    • Competitive Positioning

    Who does the choosing?

    Check out the 2009 selection committee, they are some of the most respected folks in the Canadian VC, academic and business circles. The list includes folks like:

    The team at Achilles Media has been extremely receptive to entrepreneur and community feedback. They have made changes to the submission process, the ticketing for finalists, and continue to try to evolve the program and benefits for submitting companies to up the value. The realization is that media exposure is a small part of the benefit to the CIX Finalists. They are doing a great job to make CIX participation a valuable decision for Canadian companies. The best part, if you have an idea about what would make CIX more valuable to you, send it to the Achilles Media team they are open to making things better. Make sure you check out the 2010 program and think about an Early Bird ticket.

    The first step is to Submit Your Profile!

  • The Next 36

    The Next 36The Next 36 is a new program at the University of Toronto that “aims to transform Canada’s most promising undergraduates into high impact entrepreneurs”.  The program is founded by Reza Satchu and Tim Hodgson. Mr. Satchu was the founder of SupplierMarket which sold to Ariba in 2000 (for a reported $581MM) and founder of StorageNow Holdings sold to InStorage REIT. SupplierMarket was a Sequoia Capital company and was eventually acquired for approximately $581MM. Mr. Hodgson was CEO of Goldman Sachs Canada and is connected on the finance and banking side.

    The program is aimed at identifying 36 high potential undergraduate students that are in entrepreneurship. It provides a program that includes:

    • Personal mentorship from Canada’s top business leaders and entrepreneurs (think Anthony Lacavera, Kevin O’Leary, Nadir Mohammed and others)
    • Support for the development of your own mobile app company
    • Combination of academic theory, business mentorship and practical entrepreneurial experience
    • A powerful peer network with 35 of Canada’s most talented and innovative students
    • $25,000 scholarship for each student selected

    It’s an interesting opportunity to build a mobile application, get a $25,000 scholarship, build the personal network with the most powerful business folks in Canada. It’s an interesting opportunity for the Next 36 team to partner with other local organizations like MEIC long with their existing corporate sponsors.

  • Demos announced for DCT27

    DemoCamp lineup has been announced:

    This is a great set of early stage Toronto and region (Waterloo) based startups. Some of the folks are getting their second shot at a demo. It will be interesting to see how far they’ve come from their launch. I hope that everyone takes the time to understand the need for “wow” in the demo. And remember the goal is not to heckle but to give entrepreneurs a chance to show what they’ve been working on, how they’ve improved and to get feedback.


    DemoCamp Surprises

    Anand Agarawala has stepped up with an EPIC DemoCamp sponsorship as a thank you for all of the support from the Toronto community and DemoCamp for helping promote and inspire Bumptop. We’ll take none of the credit for Anand and the Bumptop team’s hustle in getting acquired by Google, but we’ll enjoy the rewards at the next DemoCamp.

    Sponsors

    I know and appreciate everyone paying for a ticket. We don’t run DemoCamp as a business. We run it as a cost recovery event, that is, our goal is not to generate a profit (often we run at a loss). We couldn’t do this with out the support of our sponsors. There are some great local companies including:

    • Anand Agarawala and Bumptop! You have to be at DemoCamp from 4pm-6pm to find out what it is.
    • Eqentia builds the a semantic publishing platform for knowledge tracking & competitive analysis
    • XtremeLabs is hiring agile engineers and ui designers for the hottest mobile development company on the planet.
    • Microsoft BizSpark jumpstart your startup and speed up your time to market.
    • FreshBooks is the fastest way to track time and invoice your clients.
    • Mercanix develops tools that enable organizations and their people to do good work.
    • Rob Hyndman is the bee’s knees & the cat’s pajama. Startups looking for a lawyer. Start here.
    • Rypple builds social software that makes workplace feedback easy and fun.
    • Dayforce is the an enterprise software company in Toronto. Hiring dev, qa, ui and sales ninjas.
    • Kontagent is a Facebook Fund funded startup that is hiring rockstar developers in Toronto.
    • OCE helping commercialize the next generation technologies like Bumptop & Sysomos.
    • KPMG Information, Communications & Entertainment (ICE) practice helps startups to succeed in turbulent markets.

  • Contest: The Art of Management tickets

    The Art of Management - Nov 15, 2010 - Toronto, ONOur friends at The Art of Productions have given us 2 tickets to give away. There are tickets to:

    You can buy a ticket right away and get $50 off the regular price (you’ll pay $349) — just use the discount code SK23 and visit http://www.theartofmarketing.ca/promo/SK23 or http://www.theartofmanagement.ca/promo/SK23.

    If this sounds familiar, it’s the exact same deal as our friends at NextMontreal.com (so you can increase your odds of winning by entering at both sites ;-). And we’ll just borrow the

    How to Enter

    • Just retweet this post. That will count as 1 entry. Tweeting multiple times won’t help.
    • For a second chance, help us out by completing this form:
      [gravityform id=1 name=Chancefor tickets to The Art of Management title=false description=false ajax=true]

    November 15, 2010 – The Art of Management

    Management lineup includes:

    Both events look like great networking and learning events. As a startup, we like the chance for “free” tickets.

  • Where are the Canadian super angels?

    Boris Wertz asks where are all the Canadian super angels?

    “So when I check Angellist, the most important directory of angels in North-America and Europe, I only find 3 Canadian angels (of a total of 350 registered on the site), two in Vancouver (Danny Robinson and myself) and one in Edmonton (Kevin Swan).”

    While Angellist is not the comprehensie list of global angel investors, it is the best list of Internet and mobile investors around. It has folks like:

    There are angel groups in Canada. You can see the great work that our friend Bryan Watson at the National Angel Capital Association is doing to educate and advocate for angel investments, they provide a great list of angel groups in Canada. There are the efforts of groups like Maple Leaf Angels and the work of Randall Howard with the Golden Triangel Angelnet. And you can see the work that ad-hoc events like Founders and Funders to connect angels with emerging technologies and early-stage companies and founders.

    However there are less well know angels like:

    The thing that makes Angellist so amazing is the self-service nature of first person connection. You don’t need to know the right people. It provides one click, direct access to the key players in the economy of emerging companies. It’s something that is missing from the Canadian scene. The best part of Angellist is that Nivi and Naval validate and reference check all of the angel investors, so the wannabes are edited out. This is an edited list of the best angels actively doing deals.

    Here’s hoping that more Canadian angels take the time to complete their Angellist profile.

  • Toronto community mourns passing of angel investor

    Paul Maasland from CBC
    Paul Maasland source: CBC & OPP

    Local angel investor Paul Maasland was murdered, his body was found north of Toronto at a public boat launch. We extend our deepest condolences to Mr. Maasland’s family. And our sincerest concerns go out to his friends and colleagues at Maple Leaf Angels and his investments (according to Mr. Maasland’s LinkedIn profile) including:

    The conversations with his investees shed some light on Mr. Maasland as an investor. From one of the portfolio companies CEOs:

    “I’d just say he was very generous with his time and resources and provided great input into how we ran [company removed]. He always was positive and excited about the initiatives were were doing.”

    These comments were repeated throughout Mr. Maasland’s portfolio. He was a knowledgeable, generous investor that provided useful guidance and support for his companies.

    This is an unexpected situation for anyone including many startups. It opens questions for startups about succession planning for Board Directors, questions around the Shareholders Agreement and the shares of a deceased investor. Hopefully most Boards are experienced in succession planning. As the shareholders change over time with new investment, replacing board members is a fairly straightforward and common practice (albeit usually under very different circumstances). Regarding what happens to a deceased investors shares this is decided between the deceased’s estate and the shareholders agreement. If an estate needs or chooses to liquidate the investment, many shareholders agreements have a clause that allows the company or other shareholders to purchase the investment at Fair Market Value. There are tax and legal considerations, so this should not be considered tax or legal advice, please consult a professional.

    It’s unfortunate for our small close knit community to suffer such a sudden, tragic loss. We are deeply saddened to hear about the loss of a member of our community.

  • Year One Labs launches

    Year One LabsIn case you missed it on TechCrunch, Year One Labs launched today.  Year One Labs is a startup incubator/accelerator in Montreal with a great team: 

    This a team that is deeply steeped in the Montreal software/internet/infrastructure startup scene. They have a combination of deep technical chops plus the necessary hands-on operations with early stage companies looking for a scalable business model with customers.

    If this isn’t enough they’ve surrounded themselves with great advisors including Dan “I’m Everywhere Man” Martell, Rails core team member and Shopify founder Tobias Lütke and others.

    The Year One Labs Program

    It’s an interesting program that provides:

    • $50k, issued in tranches based on milestones
    • Four partners who will work alongside you and your team
    • An international network of mentors
    • Direct access to Angel investors and VCs, both 1-on-1 and during our Demo Day events
    • Free rent, Internet, coffee etc. in the Year One Labs space

    In exchange for “a minority stake in your startup, typically between 10-20% under standard Series Seed terms”.