StartupNorth

Author: Jonas Brandon

  • StartupCamp Toronto 2 – What we expect from you

    Pitching is never easy, and every pitch is different, but there are a few basic pieces of information that every audience would like to hear, so I decided to throw together an outline of the critical components that your pitch should cover.

    This is not an outline of your entire pitch, but a starting point to help you make sure that you have the most important parts in there.

    This is based on the audience feedback from StartupCampToronto 1.

    Market Analysis

    The audience needs to have some context. The easiest way to answer the majority of the audience?s questions is to define as tightly as possible who you plan to sell to.

    Relevant data includes

    • Estimated Market Size
    • Rough demographic information
    • Geographic limitations or focus
    • An idea of how your market will grow and change during the time you are targeting them

    Marketing Plan

    How will you communicate with your customers? ?We will get written about in blogs? is a popular but ultimately bad answer.

    If you have done the ?Market Analysis? work and have an idea of who you will be selling to, then the best way to get a decent first marketing plan is to look at the ways in which you can communicate with that market.

    Sales

    Not everyone will need this, but if your customers go through any sort of ?purchasing process? (ie: Enterprise customers, or small businesses), then it is a good idea to demonstrate how you will handle that sales process. What are your points of contact?

    How will you find a lead, test it and then follow through on communicating with them? Think about showing how you go from cold leads to getting the sales rolling in.

    Product Development Vision

    A lot of startups get so caught up in demoing what they have built so far that they forget to get people excited about what?s coming next. Telling people your vision for the product says a lot, but more than anything it shows that you aren?t going to sit still. People have trouble getting excited about a startup that has built something great but might not do much of interest going forward.

    • How will your product change?
    • How will the market change?
    • How will the product address that change?

    Don?t be that guy

    Occasionally there is a really smart group of people who have the product nailed, but are weak on the marketing and biz dev side of the startup. If you fit that profile, the audience is going to be hard on you about this, so you have to prepare to be as open as possible to the advice you will get.

    What you don?t want to do is to become defensive and start relying on the product as your savior in each case ?it will sell itself?, etc.

    Don?t be ?that guy? who won?t admit his shortcomings. Knowing your weaknesses is a critical part of being a great entrepreneur. So get real about where you fall down and get ready to be grilled about it.

    Relax

    Relax. Startupcamp could be the opportunity of a lifetime for your startup. Mentors, investors and other entrepreneurs (who may be your most valuable connection) are all there to help you build something great. So relax, you are among friends.

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  • StartupNorth is a year old! How did that happen?

    It is hard to believe that its been a year since we started writing StartupNorth. It was a hairbrained idea that has grown bigger and has given us more opportunities to connect with other startups than we could have imagined. It really has been a great ride so far.

    More than anything, we wanted to start building a startup community. We didn’t try to create a “startup culture”, or “prime the ecosystem”,. we don’t try to create synergistic deals or jumpstart any fancy commercialization of innovation. We just write about what’s happening and try to stir the pot ourselves every so often. The truth is though, we take our cues and inspiration from every comment you make and every email you send us. I can’t tell you how many bad days have turned around because of an email from someone with a great idea and a truckload of enthusiasm.

    To celebrate, Jonas and I are going to go grab a drink on Thursday. We will be upstairs at the Imperial Pub on Dundas street. It’s not the most glamourous location, but you can bet the beer will be cold, the people friendly, and it never does get too busy.

    So, if you are in town, let’s say 7:30 or 8pm. Come by for a beer and say hello. Here is the Facebook Event Page

  • I would like to thank . . . – ITWorldCanada names us in the Top 10

    ITWorldCanada named their list of the 10 best technology blog(gers) last week. We are honored to have been named in this list and can only hope we are still doing a good enough job next year to stay on it.

    Here is the list:

  • Founders and Funders Montreal – May 14th 2008

    The second Founders and Funders Dinner has been announced for Montreal. Tickets are $100

    This dinner, like the last one and the Toronto event is still by invitation only, but some changes have been made to make sure that everyone has a chance to participate.

    To help expand the community of people we can be invited, we are opening up a registration system for invites allowing anyone who is a founder, angel investor or VC investor to register for an invitation.

    We are limited to 100 seats for the dinner. The fee for the dinner will be $100 which will include drinks and dinner. This is a private networking event and we select the audience to ensure a quality group of attendees have a chance to network together.

    Given the interest we received after the first event and the fact that we won?t be able to invite everyone who has expressed interest to the dinner. As a result we are also going to be hosting an after dinner open cocktail networking (A nice roof top terrace party). The networking event will cost $20 and include two drink tickets.

    Announcements for Toronto and Vancouver dates will be made very soon.

  • MediaScrape – Will Montreal give us another Capazoo?

    TechCrunch is asking some questions about Montreal-Based MediaScrape. I don’t know anything about them, but it seems like they are either stretching the truth or things aren’t as simple as they seem.

    Being an aggregator of video (letting other people pay for all that pesky production and things like reporters) doesn’t seem like a terrible idea on first blush, but the execution in the case of MediaScrape feels little amateurish. That said, things like “Related Videos” and a handful of other features are useful and relevant.

    Anyone know anything about this company? (UPDATE: I think Heri lays it all out well. I look forward to seeing MediaScrape grow)

  • Running a startup blog isn't easy – MontrealTechWatch 2.0

    Heri, the brains behind MontrealTechWatch, is calling an open meeting to discuss the future of the blog, and I think, by implication, the future of the Montreal tech startup community.

    Heri has been writing MontrealTechWatch for just over a year, and in that time it has not only become probably the most popular startup blog in Canada (certainly the most popular city-focused), but he has also managed to really solidify Montreal’s reputation as one of the most exciting cities for startups in this country. For anyone outside Montreal, MTW is the first place to go to find out what is happening and who’s who.

    “What I would like MTW to be is to turn it into an independent, self-sufficient entity, that would cover new technology, entrepreneurship, hackers, video games, events in Montreal and beyond. Also being a media entity is not a viable business model these days, so MTW is going naturally to take the path of working with local entrepreneurs and other members of the community.” – Heri

    Heri is suggesting that MontrealTechWatch become more of an entity which can sustain itself and drive the interests of the Montreal community forward, and it seem he also wants to expand past montreal.

    I can understand where he is coming from. Maintaining focus and continually keeping fresh content on a blog is hard work and over time even something as simple as a blog about startups or a tech community can really start to take up a substantial amount of time. Eventually things have to change and the work needs to get distributed.

    This is an opportunity for the Montreal community to step up. As I see it, this is a moment of truth. Are you willing to put in the work to preserve something as great as MTW? No other city has been blessed with such a focused, active, and quality focal point. (in Toronto we have David Crow, but he is a moving target, and sticky notes never hold well)

    Good luck Heri. I have a feeling this is the beginning of something great.

  • StartupCamp Toronto 2 – Last release of tickets

    startupcamplogo_small1.pngWe have put more Entrepreneur and Guru tickets up for grabs for StartupCampToronto 2.

    It is looking like a great night and it is your chance to hear from some new startups and we also have Leila Boujnane lined up to speak.

    The format for StartupCamp is simple: 5 Startups will have 5 minutes each to pitch themselves. The audience will then have twice as much time to grill them on everything from their marketing plan to the product itself.

    The 5 startups will be selected in advance.

    If you want to get feedback on your business plan, then fill out the form available here by Sunday, April 13th.

    The event will be held on Tuesday April 29th at The Carlu in Toronto. We are putting on this StartupCamp during CIX, which is a new conference with a focus on connecting VC ready startups and VCs.

    Because of the limited venue size and the nature of the event, these tickets are ONLY available to individuals with a startup of their own or “gurus” who are able to contribute from expertise in some domain. See the ticket descriptions for details. Tickets may be revoked when we look over the list. Sorry, but we have to do this.

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  • DemocampGuelph 5 – 4 New Companies!

    Jonas and I went to Guelph yesterday for DemoCamp Guelph 5. When we arrived in Guelph we stopped by the Well.ca offices and picked up some Roti (try the Doubles, delicious!).

    We had a great time and the venue was cozy. We didn’t find out the beer was free until the end though!

    The demoing companies were:

    Doctopus
    Doctopus is a hosted content management solution. So far they have built a nice looking platform that can manage and deploy a large number of sites. The CMS market is big, but also saturated to say the least. I think they will need to focus on a more defined target market/vertical. That said, it really did look nice.

    Liveoffcamp.us
    LiveOffCamp.us is a site that connects students with off campus housing. Right now the interface is a little disconnected. You enter a query and it emails you the results. The crowd thought that they should provide the results right on the site, and I agree, but getting an email should be kept as a second option.

    MyVine
    Myvine.ca was the best looking site of the night. Their tagline “Simple referral management” is confusing. They don’t manage your referral system, they help you manage a list of recommendations for your business. MyVine is sort of a GigPark turned on its head, where instead of putting all of the control in the hands of the users, the merchant gets to control what recommendations get posted and which ones don’t.

    FOSSFactory
    FossFactory is a site that helps manage bounties that are put on features in Open Source Software. For example: If you use a piece of open source software and you want to have a feature added to it, then you can put a value on it, deposit the money, and then developers can claim the money if they develop the feature. Other people who also want to see the feature developed can add to the bounty.

  • Presenting companies announced for CIX 2008

    If you are going to have a beauty contest (or not), the contestants may as well be good looking, and CIX seems to have delivered. I have to admit that I didn’t even think the list would turn out this well. There is a cross section of everything from startups to companies looking for follow-on rounds.

    There has been some debate recently about the value of events like CIX, and I have to admit, I have not been easy on similar events in the past, but I have to say that I think it is time to move on. If you think CIX is all about a bunch of companies getting up and presenting, then you are wrong. I think of CIX more like a DEMO or Techcrunch 50 for the Canadian community, and that is something we need.

    More than that, a lot has changed in the Canadian Startup community in the last year, and this is a chance to start putting more names to faces, and for more shy startups to start coming out of the shadows. It is also a chance for the Venture Capital community to pull back the curtains and start connecting more closely with the community.

    We are using the CIX space to put on a second StartupCamp. So if you didn’t get a chance to get your name out there at CIX itself, make sure you put your name in the hat for StartupCamp.

    The list of presenting companies was released today, you saw it here first!:

  • Conceptshare announces API

    Conceptshare has released details about their API today. This is a big move for the Sudbury, Ontario based company and I think it opens a whole new set of opportunities for them.

    For those who don’t know: An API is a defined way for one piece of software to interface with another. In the case of Conceptshare, their API would allow another tool (for example, Sharepoint, or Basecamp) to remotely use and launch Conceptshare and to send users directly in to the Conceptshare environment.

    We have written about Conceptshare in the past and since then they have continued to iterate both their product and their marketing and partnering strategies.

    “The release of the ConceptShare API signals a new era in our company history. We want to enable our clients large and small to leverage our platform to further improve their projects. The API will allow users to customize the ConceptShare experience for their organizations, teams and clients.” – Scott Brooks

    I have heard Scott and Bernie, two of 3 co-founders of the company, both talk about why they have maintained a very tight focus on what they do best and why they have not been lured in to building broader tools. In a world without an API, that decision might seem shortsighted, but with the release of this API, Conceptshare has made their tool available and ready to plug in to any sort of existing workflow in any toolset. They become a reusable tool that other integrators can make use of.

    This also shows that Conceptshare is going a little more upmarket, and my guess is that there will be similarly enterprise-focused features and tools on the way.