StartupNorth

Author: Jevon MacDonald

  • GigPark partners with Metro Canada

    gigpark-win-an-eee-pc_1243GigPark has partnered with Metro, Canada’s #1 free daily newspaper, to power local service recommendations. This is exciting news for Gigpark, getting their incredibly compelling service in front of over 1 million Metro readers.

    I have used GigPark quite a bit over the last year to find all sorts of businesses: cross country ski rentals, a barbershop, a mechanic. All have been great recommendations that I can trust because they are from my friends.

    I’ve also recommended over a dozen businesses on GigPark and have received a number of personal thank you notes as a result, business owners really love the new customers GigPark drives. This partnership with Metro will offer business owners an even bigger stage, increasing the value proposition for participating, upgrading, and advertising across the integrated network.

    GigPark has social recommendations nailed. So it is a great deal for Metro, being able to easily drop in the GigPark engine and turn readers into community members and business owners into advertisers. “Integrating GigPark’s unique social tool into the Metro experience makes perfect sense. With this partnership, we’re continuing to redefine the role of traditional newspapers,” said Jodi Brown, Marketing and Interactive Director of Metro Canada.

    This partnership covers both online and print. To accompany the online component, Metro print editions in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Halifax will feature the most recommended businesses in that city on a weekly basis.

    GigPark launches are always fun cause there is a giveaway involved: join the Metro community by July 31 for great recommendations you can trust and a chance to win a 10″ Eee PC.

  • Weekend Reading

    • Toronto based TweetBucks launches tool to make money on twitter with URL shorteners – http://bit.ly/87ijW #

  • Weekend Reading

    • RT @davidcrow: Interesting point about Teralys – 50% in Quebec; 25% in Canada; 25% anywhere in the galaxy http://tr.im/liTo #

  • I Love Rewards raises $6.9M Series B

    i-love-rewardsI Love Rewards, based in Toronto, has secured $6.9M in Series B funding from JLA Ventures, Laurence Capital, and GrandBanks Capital to fuel continued growth. This brings the total raised to $11.7M.

    The company, founded by Razor Suleman, offers a web based rewards program used by businesses to motivate their employees. Rewards are tied to performance metrics, everything from sales quotas to reduced absenteeism. Revenue has doubled year over year with keynote customers adopting the solution including: Microsoft, Marriott, ConAgra, and Bell.

    Ryan Moore, General Partner of GrandBanks Capital had this to say: “The I Love Rewards vision of becoming the global leader aligns with our desire to invest in the best growth companies in Canada. I Love Rewards offers a compelling value proposition with its innovative proprietary Software-as-a-Service technology that provides immense value to human resource and sales professionals across North America.”

    GrandBanks Capital’s participation is notable. You might recall that this Boston based fund sent out an open letter soliciting pitches from Canadian startups. It would be fair to say GrandBanks is putting their money where their mouth is, which is great to see!

    Congrats to Razor and the I Love Rewards team.

  • Weekend Reading

  • Weekend Reading

    • Quebec $700M fund of funds created, Teralys Capital, to be run by Jacques Bernier – http://bit.ly/16qX2V #
    • CoolIT who recently raised $6M from @iNovia acquires Delphi Thermal Liquid Cooling IP and equipment – http://bit.ly/tEn0V #

  • Weekend Reading

  • Weekend Reading

    • RT @johnelton iNovia’s latest investment: Collective Media $20 million in Series B led by Accel Partners http://bit.ly/l78LV (corrected) #
    • RT @stoweboyd:Open Enterprise 2009: Jeremiah Owyang Inteview http://bit.ly/gfTBi 53% of marketers increased social media investment #oe09 #
    • RT @TechCrunch:Venture Capital Fundraising Is Down Nearly 40 Percent In First Quarter of 2009 http://bit.ly/Frpbx by @erickschonfeld #
    • Canada’s StumbleUpon a startup again, having been divested by eBay – http://tinyurl.com/c8v26a #
    • Check out projects from Ryerson’s Web 2.0 Competition (aka CPS630). We need more of these classes across Canada – http://tinyurl.com/dmyn8z #
    • RT @davidcrow:Room booked Apr 23 for TO entrepreneur community convo. cpcty is 24. DM me why you want to particpate & what you bring to … #
    • Learn more about the meaningless paperwork choking off foreign direct investment in Canada: http://www.vcrants.com/?p=76 #
    • having server issues. Should be resolved soon #

  • Weekend Reading

  • Let the Sparks Fly

    Earlier this week, Brightspark’s Mark Skapinker got “quoted saying some harsh things” in the Wall Street Journal. The gist of the post was that “the venture capital model was broken in Canada” and that “there are no significant repeat entrepreneurs here.” Understandably, passions were inflamed…

    nero

    Wellington’s Mark McQueen took issue with several points in the article. JLA’s Rick Segal likened the WSJ post to friendly fire or getting hit from behind. Mark Skapinker has since posted a clarification of sorts.

    While the WSJ post was off message, there really is a problem up here. It is not a lack of good ideas or backable founders. The pool of available financing is drying up. A global problem, sure. But our pond is smaller, so we’ll feel the pain sooner.

    There are those who will argue the rules are changing, that to start something less funding is needed than ever before. Maybe so. But there is a difference between running lean… and starving. We are simply not feeding our young. It is beyond short sighted, it is economic suicide.

    Provincial governments seem to know this is happening, that there is a risk of losing a generation of entrepreneurs, companies, jobs, growth. They are announcing programs left and right (albeit with seemingly little industry consultation), but letting meaningless paperwork kill cross border deals.

    Financiers definitely know something is amiss, funds are not or can not raise another round. Instead of closing on a fresh $100M, they are closing up shop. But if they didn’t deliver returns, can you blame LPs? Typical venture funds need to deploy large amounts of capital to move the needle. They aren’t in the seed stage investing business, their business model does not allow it. It is possible that there just weren’t enough seed stage opportunities to choose from… maybe.

    So more early stage financing for more companies, it is easy to like the sound of that. Unfortunately, it is just not that easy. There really is not much money to be made doing this. Run the numbers for yourself, we have, it is not a particularly scalable venture so to speak. And still it needs doing.

    One thing is for sure: this problem isn’t going to solve itself…