StartupNorth

Author: Jonas Brandon

  • groovle.com – Customized Google Search Pages

    picture-2-21-01-42.pngYou may have heard before: Google pays big money to people who send searchers their way. In the case of Mozilla, the search bar in the top right-hand corner of their webbrowser makes them something on the order of $40million a year. That’s a lot of money for searches. I don’t even want to know how much Apple makes off the Google search they have embedded in Safari.

    Goovle, a Oakville, Ontario startup, is trying to take advantage of Google’s generous kickbacks with their custom search tool.

    Groovle allows you to create a customized search page of your own, which most users would typically set as their homepage. Groovle’s unique feature is the huge library of images you can access to create your own page. You can also upload your own images.

    trans.pngThe comments on their September review on Techcrunch predicted that Groovle would be shut down quickly. It is now the middle of November and they are still around. While I share some of the concerns of those commentors – it is not clear whether groovle actually has any rights to use these images – that doesn’t seem to be stopping them.

    As of October 2007 they were clocking 250,000 visitors a month, but it is unclear how they have been doing since (compete.com is suggesting a 70%+ drop in traffic but I don’t trust compete all that much).

    Groovle is a great example of a simple service with a potentially large audience that just takes a little elbow grease. All the components are there, Google is providing search and a kickback to sites who send searches their way, and there is (apparently) a wealth of art and images out there that you can make available to users.

    Groovle is self funded by its founders, Ryan Fitzgibbon, Jacob Fuller and Nico Angka, and they are not currently seeking investment, but are perusing partnerships.

    Contact Jacob Fuller
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  • Coast to Coast: Amateur Sports Teams 2.0

    One of the first startups we profiled on StartupNorth was New Brunswick based Yourteamonline. Since then Yourteamonline has launched version 2.0 of their sports team management suite and added a slew of new features. In the meanwhile, Victoria based TeamPages has also risen in prominence.

    Both TeamPages and YourTeamOnline provide player pages, statistics, team pages and league interaction. It seems like we have a coast to coast fight for the amateur sports team demographic.

    clash.gif

    The market for amateur sports related spending in North America alone is $111 billion. More than enough room for two leaders, and even better if they are both from Canada. The amount of targeted advertising dollars up for grabs is staggering. Add on the amount of money that changes hands for local team sponsorships every year, and things are looking up!

    The first similarity I noticed was the abundant use of blue on both companies’ websites. The choice of colors is not where the similarities end however. And this is where I start to wonder a little.

    Both YourTeamOnline and TeamPages are marketing themselves as a generalized sports team management toolkit. If I were calling the shots here (which I am not!), I would approach each sport differently. YourTeamOnline is starting down this path, they have customized versions for Hockey and Soccer, but their marketing is still focused at a general market, which is going to be tougher to capture. This is the same strategy that every other competitor in the marketplace is using and it is going to be tough to stand out, even with a much better than average offering.

    YourTeamOnline and Teampages both focus on letting individuals, teams and leagues build social networks, and each have unique characteristics that, in my opinion, make them the two best team/league platforms out there. Where most competitive packages focus on the minutiae of managing a team, YourTeamOnline and TeamPages focus on the individual users, whether they are coaches, parents or players.

    I am also impressed with the roadmaps that both companies allude to on their sites. YourTeamOnline has plans to launch youtube-like video uploading and a feature called “SportsWire” that helps get team statistics out to the public, newspapers, and other consumers of team data.

    Is this a clash of the titans? A fight to the death? Jackie Chan vs. Chow Yun Fat? I think it is probably more the result of an overdue idea and a huge market, with scalable revenue opportunities. Will there be one winner, or two? We’ll be watching to find out.

    YourTeamOnline and Teampages have each taken early-stage funding.

  • New Brunswick Startup Competition Finalists (Breakthru)

    breakthru.gifThe finalists have been announced for the New Brunswick startup competition we covered a few months ago.

    I have to say, without having seen the actual products, that this list of startups really surprised me. Things are happening in New Brunswick! The mix is as creative, smart, useful and even as frivolous as any mixup of startups I have seen in other regions. Congrats to NBIF for running this contest and getting these startups some exposure.

    I am looking forward to seeing how this shakes out and who comes out the winner. Read on for the full list of finalists.
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  • Defensio – Anti-Spam Startup

    picture-1-9.pngOk, this takes guts: entering a market with a niche product where the incumbent is not only a darling of the industry, but owns the primary platform on which you are going to have to compete for users. Akismet really changed everything for bloggers. We used to spend hours a week deleting comment spam, but Akismet made that all go away.

    Enter Defensio.

    Defensio is coming after the same market as Akismet (going as far as to provide only a WordPress plugin so far). We are late to the game in profiling them, and while the reviews have all been really positive so far, most end with the idea that the author will probably just stick with Akismet.

    It would be really easy to write off Defensio at this point. This is the part where the VC tells Carl, Mathieu and the other guys at Defensio that they aren’t differentiated, that the market is too small and that the incumbent has way too much penetration, especially with early adopters. (don’t let the door hit you on the way out)

    I see it differently. The second mover has a serious chance to make it big here. Defensio’s current strategy is to charge high-volume bloggers and commercial bloggers a small fee for using Defensio’s anti-spam technology. This is potentially lucrative on its own. If Defensio can provide a higher level of integration support and a better protection product, then they will be able to win some customers over from Akismet, but it is absolutely going to be a hard-fought battle, with everyone trying to row the boat a little harder in order to win.

    The real opportunity for Defensio however is to raid the markets that Akismet has left untouched. Where Akismet has proven the technology, and opened an initial market which Defensio can sell to, they are also leaving peripheral markets completely alone.

    dartboard.pngIf you believe, like I do, that user generated content is, and will be even more of, a big deal, then you have to accept that SPAM is going to be an even bigger problem down the road. Where Norton and McAfee made millions selling anti-spam products for your Outlook client, Defensio has an opportunity to become the enterprise-strength anti-spam solution for user-generated content.

    Review websites, corporate homepages, public wikis, all deal with serious spam problems. Considering the anti-spam market, which is speculated to be in the $2billion or higher range, still hasn’t started providing the sort of lightweight but bulletproof solutions that bloggers have grown accustomed to means that there is probably an entirely new market sitting there waiting for someone to come to the rescue.

    To do this, Defensio will have to work hard on building some early partnerships, which is admittently a tough job. I am looking forward to checking in with Defensio in 6 months to see how things are going.

    Contact Carl Mercier

  • StartupCamp Toronto – Second Release of Tickets

    The second release of tickets are now available for entrepreneurs. We will also be opening up new slots for service providers.

    Things are really coming together for StartupCamp, a big thanks to everyone who has offered support so far, especially our service providers who have purchased tickets to support the event.

    Even more importantly, we have had some fantastic startups step up to the plate. Here is the list so far.

    Your last chance to submit your startup is Sunday, November 11th Submission Form

    InvestMate
    Investmate creates customized CAPM model portfolios based on personal interests for those with little to medium amounts of money who desire to invest in the stock market.
         		Workspace
    We are building an online IDE to help developers create web applications faster and easier while following best software engineering practices.

    Metatom Enterprises
    Software takes a long time to build costing companies millions in longer development, debugging, and time to market. Our software speeds up build times by distributing the job of compiling across the LAN.
    Issues Done, LLC
    Eliminate procrastination stress by introducing an effective approach to track issues, plan, get reminded and collaborate.
    litterary
    litterary is a social network for reviewing documents. After a document is published other users can highlight portions of it to make comments.
    OfficeZilla.com
    OfficeZilla consists of a core set of features which can be put together in different ways to create new collaboration experiences

    Ogrant
    Ogrant is a social media platform that allows students to get grants for school using videos and other forms of creativity. All grants are funded by schools and corporations.
    MadWhips.com
    A state of the art exotic and modified car classification and display gallery storage system.

    YowTrip
    A social network for world travelers that connects you to people traveling to the same place and allows you to find people hosting other travelers.
    Wheels Mart TV
    Using video to sell used cars online for private individuals and dealers. Think “YouTube meets AutoTrader”.

    Defensio.com (Karabunga Inc)
    Defensio is a better spam filter for social web apps. We make spam management less of a chore with our spaminess ranking and our open API.     		CakeMail (The Code Kitchen)
    CakeMail is a multilingual white label email marketing platform with an architecture that is open to extension by third parties.

    More startups on the wiki…

  • TimmyOnTime – Time Management via Instant Messenger

    logo.pngI am pretty sure the one tool I would not give up these days would be Instant Messenger. All of my closest business partners and customers are on either GTalk or MSN (with GTalk being far and away a more work-related buddy list). I take IM with me everywhere, on my iPhone, using meebo if I am on another computer, it’s just one of those things that I stay connected to as much as possible.

    When I started using Twitter, it was their instant messenger integration that really got me hooked, and I have always flirted with the business models around instant messenger bots. It seems though, that few useful applications show up for instant messengers, and IM in general is still not seen as a viable platform for applications.

    I think that assumption is flawed, and that’s why I was excited to hear about TimmyOnTime, a work time-tracking application that you use through your instant messenger. You can connect via AIM, MSN or GTalk/Jabber.

    Basically, TimmyOnTime allows you to create, by sending a message, a Project. Each project then has Tasks, which you define, and for each task you can “check in” and “check out”, and TimmyOnTime will then tell you how much time you have spent on a particular Task or Project. You can even tag projects and tasks to keep all sorts of information about them. TimmyOnTime also offers a web-based interface to view reports and manage your projects, tasks and account.

    They have a free version, which limits you to four projects, but they also have very simple paid tiers which not only let you create an unlimited amount of projects, but give you group-tracking capabilities as well.

    Personally, time tracking is not an art that I have mastered. While working on a project, I am usually reduced to keeping notes on paper. This is neither safe or efficient. What I like about TimmyOnTime is that I won’t have to change my workflow in any great way in order to track my time, and I won’t have to install another application, which is the last thing I want.

    One thing I would like to see in TimmyOnTime is an SMS-based option. This would have to be pay-per-use or an option for premium subscribers I am sure, but it would be fantastic to be able to send an SMS while out on the road or in meetings to keep my time tracking up to date. I’m not sure if that is something others would want, or just a heavy SMS user like me.

    Dan Simard and Frank Lamontagne are the two guys behind this startup and they are taking a very pragmatic approach to getting their name out there. They are based in Trois-Rivières, Québec, and they haven’t taken any funding as of yet, but that may change in the future. As they build up their subscriber numbers, and develop their product, I am sure we will hear more from them.

    Contact Dan Simard and Frank Lamontagne

  • Savvica Languify – Don't Sleep, Release!

    We covered the return of Savvica earlier and expected we’d hear from them soon. I was thinking more like 5 or 6 months, but instead today we see that Languify, a crowd-sourced translation service, has gone live.

    Languify InfoIt is a service which not only let’s you manage your own translations for your product, but let’s you benefit from the translation work of others. Languify offers a full REST-style API, which allows other systems to programmatically interact with all of the projects, locales, keys, and translations you have on their service.

    I woke up this morning to a few messages from a well known entrepreneur that he left me on Skype at 3am, and I am sometimes amazed by the number of late night e-mail exchanges I have with other startups as we work through the night. I have a feeling that John and Malgosia pulled a few all-nighters to get Languify done and released (8 days from start to finish).

    While you don’t have to work long nights, and I avoid it most of the time these days, I have to admit that most entrepreneurs I know, who are successful, do it regularly.

  • StartupCampToronto 1 – Now taking submissions

    startupcamplogo_small.pngWe have 3 slots remaining for startups to present at StartupCampToronto and we have decided to let the audience vote on who those companies will be.

    StartupCamp is almost completely sold out, and in looking over the list of people who have tickets, I can see that it is a really high quality group. The mix of Startups, experienced entrepreneurs, experienced investors (both VC and Angel) as well as eager students, all has me feeling pretty excited and optimistic that there will be a lot of value in presenting at StartupCamp.

    The primary benefit of presenting is that you will get candid feedback on your pitch from a crowd that is made up of both other entrepreneurs, experienced investors and people who have successfully exited their previous startups.

    I know that when I was getting my first few startups off the ground, I would have loved the opportunity to have the core of my business plan assessed by such a great crowd.

  • StartupCamp Toronto – December 6th

    Update #5: All tickets are currently sold out. We plan to release any remaining tickets this coming Friday at 2pm ET.

    Update #4: 4 Service Provider tickets remain. Some people have been asking why we service providers are expected to purchase a sponsorship. The basic reason is that we have a very limited amount of tickets available, and in our experience (and we did ask for advice on this): tickets can be snatched up by service providers pretty quickly. Instead of shutting them out completely, we chose to offer a limited amount of spots to the most serious and dedicated of the group.

    We will not let this event grow to the size of a FaceBookCamp or a DemoCamp. Because of the format and intent of startupcamp, startups will not benefit from a large group. Please feel free to drop us a note if you have any questions.

    Update #3: Student tickets are now sold out.

    Update #2: Guru tickets are now sold out.

    Update: The Entrepreneur Round 1 tickets have sold out. We will be releasing a second round soon as well as doing a re-release of any tickets which were claimed by people not involved in startups. Stay tuned for updates about the second release of tickets.

    If you aren’t able to get a ticket for Startupcamp, please remember that there is Democamp just a few nights before which has less of a startup focus.

    startupcamplogo_small.pngI am extremely happy to announce that we will be holding StartupCampToronto on December 6th.

    After we had such a great time in Waterloo, we knew the time was right to do it right here in Toronto.

    We are simply announcing the event now and intend to fill in a lot of the blanks over the next few weeks. We have put together a small group to work out the details and that has been coming together nicely.

    There are loads of great startups in Toronto and even more future entrepreneurs with great ideas and a great work ethic. Building a startup in Toronto is no picnic, and we think the best thing to do is to create an opportunity for those who are committed to their startups to share with and help each-other.

    The format will be relatively simple. There will be 5 pitches by existing or soon-to-be startups. Each pitch is limited to 5 minutes and it is expected to cover the extent of your existing business plan. This may change, but it is the format right now. It worked extremely well in Waterloo a few weeks ago.

    Entrepreneur, Student and Guru tickets are now available here. And of course, we aren’t charging for admission, but we are limiting the amount of tickets available.

    We will email updates to ticket holders and post updates on the wiki.

    Note: We have created specific ticket types in order to make sure that there is enough space for Students and Entrepenurs. If you are a consultant, web developer, lawyer, accountant or other type of service provider, we have created a special type of sponsorship opportunity for you. Please purchase the type of ticket that describes you accurately. We will be checking tickets and re-releasing any which are invalid.

    We aren’t doing this to be jerks, we realize that a lot of people are excited about startups, but our focus is on helping existing startups who need advice now.

  • JobLoft makes an exit

    JobLoft2JobLoft, the Toronto-based company at the center of the Dragon’s Den soap opera last year has finally been paid their due. In a move that both shows how much you do not want investment from the Dragon’s Den, and which shows how a little hard work pays off, JobLoft is being acquired by OnTargetJobs.

    OnTargetJobs runs a network of job boards including Hcareers, which caters to the hospitality industry. Our guess is that JobLoft’s map functionality will be brought to Hcareers. OnTargetJobs is backed by Warburg Pincus. No word yet on the acquisition details, but we’ll try and scoop TechCrunch.

    Congrats to the JobLoft crew on a successful exit.