StartupNorth

Author: Jonas Brandon

  • Week in Review

  • Bootup 2.0 – Now with less Boris

    We kept pretty mum about the recent mess at Bootup Labs that culminated with a Techcrunch piece and a “I’m Sorry” post from Danny Robinson, one of Bootup’s founders.

    I was ready to get some nails and start sealing the coffin of Bootup. The whole scenario has been a huge credibility killer for Bootup and I am sure it has been tough on the community in Vancouver.

    Before I started hammering away at those nails however, I decided to reach out to Boris Wertz. Boris Wertz is a bit of a sage and I figured he would have a sense of what was going on. It was then that I found out that Boris W would be joining the board of Bootup and would be helping to back it.

    Danny Robinson posted yesterday that the other Boris, one of the original founders, would be leaving Bootup. I’m not going to speculate on what caused this, but it does seem like everyone at Bootup have committed to doing whatever it takes to get this thing back on the rails.

    So here is my endorsement for the new Bootup. Vancouver needs Bootup as much as Bootup needs Vancouver, and with these recent changes I hope that the Vancouver community can get behind Bootup 2.0 as well. I expect that it will take a while, and Bootup will suffer greatly for it, but time will hopefully heal all wounds.

    Vancouver is truly one of the best cities in the world, and I know that the startup community there will continue to live up to that reputation. It is a unique place, with a unique startup community and set apart in Canada. Vancouver is a lynchpin of change and I hope a city that leads the charge in rebuilding the definition of what it means to be a startup in Canada.

  • StandoutJobs acquired

    A 2nd win in as many days for angel investor Austin Hill, StandoutJobs has been acquired. From Ben Yoskovitz’s blog:

    Around 3 years ago I started Standout Jobs with two great guys – Fred Ngo and Austin Hill. We raised money, built a great product, hired an incredible team and worked to build a business. Today I’m very pleased to announce that we’ve sold Standout Jobs.

    I can’t name the acquirer at this point in time. I can tell you that I’m very excited to see what they do with Standout Jobs, because I fundamentally believe what we built and the vision we pushed will be standards in the recruitment industry for years to come. Companies that ignore their employer brands and don’t create a quality, interactive, candidate-centric hub on the Web for recruitment will lose.

    StandoutJobs has also previously raised capital from iNovia and Montreal Startup.

  • 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.

  • What happened to MontrealTechWatch?

    Ben wrote a post about reviving MontrealTechWatch and how the Montreal startup community needs MontrealTechWatch now more than ever.

    Heri started MTW about the same time that we started writing StartupNorth. He has become a good friend of mine over the years and is someone who always has the best intentions of the community at heart in everything he does.

    The main complaint is that there just aren’t any posts on MontrealTechWatch anymore. The blog which was once the center of the Montreal startup community is now more or less dead. The simple reason? Heri just doesn’t have the time to blog anymore. I think there is more to it than just that however.

    StartupNorth might have met the same fate as MontrealTechWatch this year if David Crow hadn’t joined in to bear the brunt of the burden. Since the sale of my company last year I, like Heri, have had practically no time to devote to the blog, and Jonas was similarly stretched for time. In the case of MontrealTechWatch, Heri didn’t have a Dave or Jonas to put their shoulders to the wheel. The community that was once so loving lost its leader and didn’t even realize it.

    So, what’s going on here? Do we need startup communities? Do you want a community? Are people really willing to pitch in and spread around the work? Do communities need community, or do they really need leaders? How do we create more MontrealTechWatch’s and keep them around?

    There is a push in Montreal to make some plans and to get a group together to revive what was MontrealTechWatch. Montreal does not need some coordinate effort, it needs someone to open their email client and send Heri a message “Hey, can I get an account on MTW as a writer? I would like to make some posts, perhaps profile some of the amazing startups we have here in town and cover some events.”. Then, when you have the account: just start posting. Just do it.

    Find what it is about startups, community and your city that you love and then do something about it. Share it. That is what Heri did and that is what we need more of. Nobody else is going to step up. As soon as you start writing about what is happening in the community, you will quickly learn what else the community needs in terms of events and content.

    The problem, as Heri found out, is that this is hard and very unrewarding work. People rarely say thanks, and even less often step up to actually help.

    Heri put his heart in to that blog and he didn’t ask for anything in return. This is your chance to show him that you understood what he was doing and that it meant something to you. Pick up the torch, but please don’t kill MTW by committee.

  • Calling all enterprise startups: Enterprise 2.0 Launchpad

    The Enterprise 2.0 Conference hosts a startup launchpad every year that has proven to be a great way for high quality Enterprise 2.0 focused startups to get in front of a group of potential partners, analysts, press and customers. In return, the Enterprise 2.0 conference audience has a chance to see the most promising and innovative enterprise Social Business software coming to the market. This has always been my favorite part of the Enterprise 2.0 conference.

    I will be one of the judges this year and would love to see some Canadian companies in the running. Brainpark was one of the finalists last year.

    To enter the first round of judging, simply tweet about your startup using the #e2conf-lp tag!

    The competition invites all companies and developers, large and small, to enter their application. Their is no fee for entry, nor do do you need to be an exhibitor at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference (although if you are, that’s cool too). The bar for entry is set very low – simply Tweet to #e2conf-lp and tell us in 140 characters or less why you are ‘Launch Pad worthy.

    You have until April 19th to complete your Twitter pitch – we’ll close submissions at the end of the day. Upon Tweeting your entry to #e2conf-lp, the Launch Pad Jury will make note of your entry. Our Jury will then vote to whittle down the Twitter submissions to 8.

  • Jonas Brandon joins Rogers Ventures

    I am happy to let you all know that Jonas Brandon, a co-founder of StartupNorth, has recently taken a position as Director at Rogers Ventures, who we profiled last year. He will be working with Mike Lee and the team to look at new deals and work with existing Rogers Ventures portfolio companies.

    Jonas is a bit of a natural investor, with a consistently good eye for startups that have a shot at making it, he has always impressed me over the years and is a regular source of good advice. We have held court many evenings at the library.

    Jonas also recently got married to his wonderful girlfriend Ana. That’s a big Q1!

    I had dinner with Mike Lee early this year, and the thing that I am most excited about is the desire at Rogers Ventures to be neither a typical corporate VC fund, or a typical fund at all (my words, not theirs). Having Jonas in this role at Rogers is good news for startups all over Canada and I think it speaks to the foresight of the team at Rogers Ventures.

    Founder Fuel, Extreme Ventures, Bootup Labs, Mantella Ventures, iNovia and now Rogers Ventures. Come on. Let’s get this show on the road. Let’s save venture capital in Canada.

  • On hired guns

    Dear Startups,

    Please do not hire PR firms or marketers to contact us (or anyone else for that matter). It gives us a sinking feeling that your priorities are totally out of whack if you are willing to pay someone to send a few emails. That stuff is for big companies. Most of them just use the same form that you can use, because they don’t know our email addresses either.

    Yours,

    The Management

  • More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment

    I first met John Stokes a few years ago when he landed on to the Canadian startup scene and started talking about his new fund Montreal Start-up. In March 2008 they raised a small initial fund which they quickly deployed in to some nice deals in Montreal including Status.net and Whatsnexx.

    John and the team, which includes Austin Hill, announced today that they will be taking commitments from the Quebec Government (through Investissement Quebec) at $50 milion, Solidarity Fund QFL, which is investing $33 million, and by FIER Partners, which plans to invest $17 million.

    The fund still needs to raise over $8million directly from LPs, which Investissement Quebec seems to think will be a snap and done in 4 months, but I am not so sure. I hope I am proven wrong.

    In case any potential LPs are reading this right now, here is my advice: Do this one. Do it because this team is going to do more than just pass the time humming over deals — you will get hustle, an aggressive attitude and a group that understands that Canada needs more hustle and less of the same old.

    John and the team are connected and tuned in to the community. Early stage entrepreneurs trust this team and they are the kind of guys who can get your money in to some great opportunities.

    Congrats and good luck.

  • Acceptance is the last thing you really need

    We’ve made progress as a startup community in Canada. I don’t have to tell you that a lot of things have changed in the last few years and there is now a supportive and powerful set of networks across the country that have made building a startup sexy again. David has chronicled some of it recently.

    It’s nice to feel loved.

    We all like to feel that we are in the company of unjudgemental an accepting friends. Those who take us as we come and don’t ask questions.

    As an entrepreneur, that’s the last thing you need.

    To put it simply: nothing is easy about being a startup. If it was easy, then everyone would be doing it, and more people would be successful at it. It’s hard and it’s like that for a reason. People who try to make it look easy don’t get it. Those who make their stories of success sound easy are hiding some part of the truth.

    The next time that your idea or product is celebrated without reproach or question, then you should be suspicious. Those who celebrate you just because you are a startup, or a smart entrepreneur, have an ulterior motive. Something else is going on. Sometimes that is ok, but you can’t live in that world all the time.

    Put yourself in the company of those who will tell you that you are wrong, foolish, and naive. Make sure that you are sent back to the drawing board and told to come back fighting.

    Make sure that you come back better every time.

    Even if your idea is the best one anyone has heard in years, those who really want you to succeed will help you find the holes and to figure out where to go next.

    I’m not advocating a negative view of startups, but I will promise you that criticism and analysis will get your further in this world than pandering.

    So, the next time you are at a startup event, or having coffee with someone you’ve just met, don’t be afraid to say what needs to be said or ask the questions that need to be asked.

    The art of knowing when, and who, to ask for feedback is a critical skill in building a startup. Like all aspects of building a startup, smart timing is the most important part of getting what you need.