StartupNorth

Author: Jevon MacDonald

  • Launching TalentEgg

    Two months ago we received an email from TalentEgg’s founder, Lauren Friese, brimming with excitement about her latest venture into the world of online recruitment. TalentEgg, which just hatched, is a website that connects high quality Canadian employers with students and recent grads that are looking for meaningful work.

    Job seekers using the site will be able to build TalentCards (Resumes), ask for advice using Grad Q&A (Forum), and read up on how to land a job on the TalentEgg Insider (Blog). Employers can create a free profile, but have to pay to advertise specific job openings, create awareness with site sponsorship, search through TalentCards, and send out targeted emails to job seekers. For the month of April the site is free on a trial basis to employers. TalentEgg hopes to cater to small and medium size employers who can’t make it to every campus recruitment day.

    This is a tough market to crack, TorStar’s Workopolis dominates; even the venerable Monster has had trouble getting traction in Canada. And TalentEgg faces a classic chicken or the egg problem: job seekers are interested in sites with lots of jobs and rational employers will only pay to advertise once the site’s user base reaches a certain threshold. Despite all this, something tells me it is only a matter of time before Lauren Friese figures out how to make this site lay some golden eggs. Congrats on the launch!

  • TSOT gets started with Greeks

    TSOT LogoTSOT, based in Toronto, has been working since 2006 on building out a membership management system. Their strategy differs from more generalist solution providers like Ning and Toronto based Wild Apricot in that TSOT started out focusing on Greek organizations.

    Fraternities and Sororities pride themselves on their membership rosters, so it makes sense they might want to migrate from a spreadsheet that could easily be lost when someone spills a beer on their laptop, to a web based solution to manage their chapters and alumni. In pursuing this market TSOT sought the approval of a Greek Licensing body to kick start sales.

    TSOT’s product, Fraternity Live, looks and feels a lot like Facebook. Each member gets a profile page, photo album, and status updates. Each chapter resembles a group with admins, group messaging, and unlike Facebook finance and calendar pages. Fraternity Live even built a Facebook App, which like just about everyone else’s is a disaster (3 daily active users). For all the similarity, Fraternity Live is unlikely to approach stratospheric social networking site valuations. Why? At least for now, TSOT is in the business of selling websites, which significantly slows adoption. While this is certainly something one can make money at, the market is rewarding eyeballs, creative monetization strategies, and horizontal web services.

    Like many startups, TSOT struggled a bit nailing down their business model. The original plan was to charge Fraternities and Sororities a subscription fee. Then TSOT explored offering the service free and monetizing views with banner ads. Unfortunately for TSOT, Facebook rules the roost; it seems despite all the private Greek functions, frat boys and sorority girls want to hang out with everyone else on campus. So TSOT is back to charging a setup fee and annual subscription.

    TSOT plans to take its platform into other verticals later this year. In doing so they will be swimming into deeper more competitive waters. Affinity Labs, a provider of niche social networks organized around jobs like police work and nursing, hit a $61M payday when Monster acquired them. Affinity Circle, with whom TSOT competes directly, is forging down the job listing monetization route. It will be interesting to watch TSOT experiment with their business model and the openness of their system’s social graph.

  • Pitch at StartupCamp Toronto 2

    So you want to pitch your startup at StartupCamp Toronto 2? Application forms don’t get much simpler than this…

    Company:
    Website:
    Email:
    Describe your startup in a single twitter post (140 characters max):

    Please submit your application using the following form available here by Sunday, April 13th. The 5 presenting startups will be selected by popular vote in advance and notified by Friday, April 18th. See you there!

  • One more reason to StartupNorth: Office Skating Rink

    AideRSS Office Rink

    Here’s a perk you don’t see everyday… an office skating rink. This shot of the rink behind the AideRSS office was taken by their chief marketer Kevin Thomason. Hat tip to Ali Asaria of Well.ca.

  • Ontogenix raises funding from GrowthWorks

    GrowthWorks LogoOntogenix, based in Toronto, has been developing its patent pending social media ad serving technology for the last 3 years. Things are looking up, earlier today we heard Ontogenix landed a substantial round from venture capital fund GrowthWorks and strategic investor Pareto Corp (TSE: PTO).

    The company was founded in 2005 by Amit Kanigsberg (former Pareto CTO), Josh Mozersky (Queen’s University Professor of Logic), and Daniel Veidlinger (California State University Professor of Linguistics). As part of the funding round, Ontogenix is bringing on serial tech entrepreneur Chetan Mathur as Chairman and industry expert Marc Ruxin (SVP Digital Strategy & Innovation for McCann Worldgroup in San Francisco) as a board member.

    Ontogenix is raising the round to go to market with their first product, an Interest Correlation Engine. The technology is designed to increase the relevance of ads presented on social media sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, etc.) by targeting users based on their individual interests. The company searches for information on the general public’s interests, attitudes, and opinions on hundreds of publicly available sources such as social networks, blogs, and forums. This information, collected in aggregate to preserve user privacy, is then combined with the company?s proprietary data model to form the basis for a predictive engine that can tell advertisers which ads will have high relevance to different types of users.

    A number of companies are gunning for this market including Lookery and Lotame. In pilot tests, Ontogenix was able to increase click through rates by 400%. With Google publicly expressing remorse for the $900M guaranteed ad deal with MySpace and Facebook being lambasted for their Beacon program, it is high time someone figured out a better way to serve ads on social networks; we’re hoping it’s a Canadian startup.

  • Novell acquires PlateSpin for $205M

    Novel PlateSpin LogoPlateSpin, based in Toronto, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Novell for $205M. The company, which makes a suite of solutions for the server virtualization market, was founded (for the second time) in 2003. You see, PlateSpin is a restart.

    PlateSpin1 was founded in 2000, raised $1.9M in 2002, and closed up shop in 2003. PlateSpin2 was restarted with new management in 2003, raised $3.5M from Toronto venture funds Covington Capital, Castle Hill Ventures, Skylon Capital, and Four Quarters, and another $7M in 2005 from Insight Venture Partners of New York.

    Word is that PlateSpin2 had trailing revenue of $20M, and that Citrix, Microsoft, and Unisys were all vying for the prize. Congrats to PlateSpin and its backers on the Novell acquisition. We’re chalking this up as a win. While it doesn’t put PlateSpin on the road to VMware glory ($22B, P/S 16.84) it is a solid exit for all involved… especially the funds. I am guessing they cut a nice slice of pie as part of the restart.

  • Canadian DEMOgods

    demogods You are all DEMOgods to us! As promised here are the DEMO videos from our very own: Standout Jobs (Montreal, QC), Cozimo (Montreal, QC), HealthPricer Interactive (Vancouver, BC), Rove Mobile (Ottawa, ON), SceneCaster (Richmond Hill, ON), and Xtranormal (Montreal, QC). Congrats guys!

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  • Game On Finance – Browser going to wallop Super Mario

    Last week we got our finance on at Game On, a top notch event by Interactive Ontario that brought together thought leaders from the games business. Right from the start it was apparent the games industry is incredibly diverse.



    Over half the attendees were in the console game business, by and large a mature industry. More than a few people didn?t appreciate their industry being called mature? but what else can you call it when $15 million is required to create a new console title and there is virtually no way to get a project financed without the backing of an established publisher like Ubisoft or EA. “The large investments required rule out venture capital interest” noted Randy Thompson of Argon Venture Partners, so financing a title more closely resembles feature film (without the promise of Hollywood glamour). Eric Zimmerman, Co-Founder of Gamelab, made a particularly incisive point by posing the question ?do ever more realistic lumbering 3d giants really drive greater entertainment value??

    Also in attendance were developers of mobile games. The mobile games business is currently controlled by carriers who use their decks (the preset homepage and application managers) to strong arm developers, control billing, limit distribution, and take a hefty cut. The challenges of mobile game developers are many, perhaps the most significant being porting (ensuring a game will work on the 1,500+ mobile phones on the market). Phil Giroux of Magmic Games, one of the most successful mobile game companies out there, noted Magmic spends significantly more time porting than creating new titles. There are definitely some opportunities in the mobile space for startups, but my guess is that they involve less game development and more figuring out how to ensure games work across devices. How many of you have tried entering the mobile application space? Have any of you succeeded?

    Bowser - Game OnBy far the most exciting space at least as far as startups are concerned is internet gaming. The flash enabled browser represents a distribution channel larger than xbox, playstation, and wii combined. There are of course challenges, internet users have grown accustomed to free. John Walsh, CEO of Groove Media, really blew the crowd away with their plan to monetize free games with in-game advertising and upgrades. Others must also be impressed, the Toronto based Groove Media has already raised $30 million, talk about taking it to the next level!

    We met a great group of Canadian entrepreneurs at Game On Finance. Vikas Gupta of Transgaming Technologies, John Walsh of Groove Media, and Nathan Gunn of BitCasters. We?ll be following up with profiles of each over the next few weeks, cause one thing is for sure, Canadian entrepreneurs will be behind the next revolution in gaming.

  • Overlay.TV lands a $4,600,000 Series A

    Overlay TV LogoCeltic House Venture Partners, EdgeStone Capital Partners and Tech Capital Partners announced today a Series A investment of $4,600,000 in Overlay.TV.

    The company, based in Ottawa, is building out an internet video-advertising platform that allows viewers to interact with online video, and enables content owners and distributors to monetize videos. Videos stream from their original location (e.g. youtube) and viewers are able to opt-in to receive overlays with contextual information and links (e.g. affiliate shops).

    Stay tuned for a full review following the official launch February 14, 2008.

  • OmniDate.com – Virtual Dating is the new Starbucks

    OmniDate LogoOmniDate, based in Toronto, has been hard at work building a virtual date technology and it’s likely we’ll see their avatars coming to big name dating sites soon. We’ve all heard about sex in Second Life, the truth however is a lot less steamy; most people have a hard time getting Second Life installed and running on their machine.

    Unlike Second Life, OmniDate intends for its avatar dating system to be used by real people who want to set up real life dates. Going on a virtual date is less time consuming, less expensive, and more secure than meeting at a local Starbucks. Once you’ve found someone you enjoy chatting with online, it is more likely you’ll enjoy meeting that person in the real world. My guess is that people will also use OmniDate to flirt, etc.

    There are quite a few things to like about OmniDate’s approach:

    • It is entirely flash based, this means there is no download, installation, or PhD required. This increases adoption.
    • Rather than putting all their eggs in one basket and building a brand around virtual dating, OmniDate is starting out licensing its technology to established players with large audiences and strong brands. This increases their likelihood of success, sidesteps the cost of acquiring initial users, and removes the burden of building brands for each market segment.

    OmniDate AvatarsDon’t think dating sites would be interested? Guess again. Technologies like this increase the entertainment value of dating sites (read: ad impressions), keep users subscribed longer (read: recurring revenue), and get users comfortable interacting with each other (read: higher conversion).

    OmniDate is already working with some large dating sites who plan to use the virtual date technology on their sites. Is now the time for avatars to go mainstream? I can confidently say increased interaction makes sense and it is safe bet online dating will evolve past profiles to entertainment experiences. Give OmniDate’s recently launched demonstration site a try for yourself and leave your thoughts in the comments.

    Taking off my rose colored glasses for a second, I think OmniDate has a few things it could improve:
    – I read all about the challenges Pixar designers had with Ratatouille. Test audiences noticed if the color of lettuce wasn’t just right, Pixar spent an inordinate amount of time on the color green. Likewise 3D human avatars can go from cool to creepy very quickly. I was thrown off by the laugh an avatar makes when you type ‘LOL’, touching another person’s avatar is also a touchy matter. The avatar experience is still a little rough around the edges; that said, I think the team will iterate quickly and continue to improve the already good design.
    – OmniDate has a room builder in the works, I would like to see an avatar builder also. You wouldn’t want your date thinking you are a super model would you…

    OmniDate was founded by Igor Kotlyar, a serial entrepreneur who has already successfully built and sold a startup. OmniDate is a 6 person team and growing fast; they are interested in meeting with avatar designers and licensing partners.

    Contact: Igor Kotlyar, Founder