StartupNorth

Category: Competitions

  • 2008 ACE Exposition

    acecanadaAdvancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) held their showcase of entrepreneurs at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.  ACE is a charitable organization that delivers programming to higher education students to inspire them to make meaningful contribution to words their community by building real world businesses and entrepreneurial ventures.

    ACE submissions are from major Canadian schools including BCIT, University of Calgary, Ryerson University, University of Toronto, University of Waterloo amongst others. The Student Entrepreneur Competition requires that students be a founder (or 50% owner of a business) and are selected based on financials and subjective judging criteria. The goal is to submit an operating venture that is ready for growth.

    ACE announces 2008 National Student Entrepreneur Competition Champion – Joseph Moncada, Sweet Tooth Candy Emporium

    Since 2006 Joseph, a Business student, has owned and operated Sweet Tooth Candy Emporium, a network of stores and kiosks offering rare, unique, retro, and imported sweets from around the world. What started as a summer project through the Ontario Government “Summer Company” program has grown exponentially into a successful franchise.

    Now in operation for only two years, Sweet Tooth Candy Emporium employs over 25 people and has grown into three stores based in prominent locations around the Greater Toronto Area and Wasaga Beach.

    The focus of the ACE programs is on economic impact on local communities. The submissions are diverse ranging from software to franchises. The 2008 regional winners included software companies, an online retailer, a French language publishing company and a walking stick manufacturer.

    • Ryne Flood, 6am Software – Online Parent-Teacher Interview Scheduler
    • Grahm Watts, Nature Trails – A company that manufactures walking sticks, twig pencils, bird hourses, etc.
    • Brad LeBlanc, Engaging Entertainment – Event mangement, event production and strategic marketing
    • André Wilson, Editions Court-Circuit – A French language publishing company
    • Jill Lennox, Stuffitbag – Custom designed laptop bags with online retailing
    • Brett Patrontasch, Scholars At Your Service Inc. – a student organization offering residential and commercial painting, window washing, and on site automotive detailing to their customers

    While most of these ventures probably aren’t venture fundable, the opportunity for students to see entrepreneurship as a career path is needed in Canadian post secondary educational institutions. ACE offers a great structured set of programs for students to get involved and inspired by entrepreneurs in their communities.

  • 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!:

  • CIX – Canadian Venture Capital Meetup

    cix.pngBack in June, StartupNorth was one of the first places to break the story of the death of the Toronto Venture Group. Every year the TVG had an event called the “Venture Forum”, which died when the TVG was shut down.

    It didn’t take long for the gap to get filled in however, and soon enough the CIX was announced. The premise is largely the same: Companies are pre-selected to pitch a room full of VCs who will presumably think about funding some of them. You need to apply to present, and then your company will be vetted by a selection committee. The cost to attend and present (if you are chosen) is about $1,000 in total, or $495 if you are just attending.

    Is CIX worth attending?

    This conversation got kicked off today on David Crow’s blog after David posted about CIX, Ali Asaria, the guy behind Well.ca, suggested that $500-$1,000 was actually a lot of money for a startup, no matter what stage they are at.

    It is true, $1,000 is a lot of cash, but the truth is: it isn’t too much. The question here isn’t about money, it is about value. Will you get anything out of 2 days in a conference full of other people who are trying to make this ship sail in Canada? I think you will. The thing is: It is completely up to you. You can find the agenda for the two days here.

    To make the best of this event you need to come at it with the right frame of mind: Make as many connections as possible, tell as many people as possible about your startup as you can, and finally, get as much advice as possible.

    In the run up to CIX we will have a few posts about kicking butt at CIX, for both the VCs and the Entrepreneurs.

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    StartupCamp

    There is also StartupCamp, which we are putting on for free during CIX. We decided to do this because it will give a chance for the startups presenting at StartupCamp to get exposure to a crowd that doesn’t always come out to these events.

    Where companies that present at CIX will be somewhat established and will have already figured out their pitch, StartupCamp is for companies who are still trying to work out the details of their business plan.

    You can fill out this form to apply to pitch at StartupCamp. We’d love to have some unknown but awesome startups to show off!

    You can register for CIX here.

  • Canadian Companies at DEMO08

    demo08logo2.jpgThere are 5+1 Canadian companies on the slate at DEMO08 today and for the next 2 days.

    DEMO is a sort of launch pad for companies who want to make a big splash with a launch or an announcement. It boils down to 2 days of pitches.

    Up front, DEMO has never made a lot of sense to me. You pay ~$18,000 just to get up on stage, and spend at least another $10,000 getting yourself ready. So, $20,000 to get up and pitch to a room full of people there to see a few dozen other presentations as well, all from difference industries and disciplines. The place probably isn’t crawling with customers, and my guess is that most of the presenting companies are funded already to some degree.

    That said, have spoken to a few people who have presented, or will be presenting this week, it is more obvious what DEMO is selling.

    Polish – To demo at DEMO, you have to have a polished and perfected pitch. You have 6 minutes to make a huge auditorium more excited about YOUR launch than all the others who will take the same stage.

    Exposure – Everything at DEMO is recorded and available on the web. I can personally admit to watching almost ALL the DEMO pitches every year. Some of them are just incredibly terrible while others inspire and impress.

    A Deadline – Once you launch at DEMO, you are going to get enough exposure that you have to have something for the public that is worth talking about. It is better to release early, and DEMO seems to drive a lot of startups to do that.

    Good luck to all the Canadian startups. I will post links to their presentations here when they are online.

  • TIEQuest Business Plan Competition – Deadline January 31st

    tietorontologojpeg.jpgIn case you weren’t already aware, TIE Toronto (an entrepreneur support group in Toronto) is holding TIEQuest.

    TIEQuest is a business plan competition which promises that “the winners will receive an ?Expression of Interest? for up to $1 million of investment from sponsoring firms and various cash prizes and incentives exceeding $150,000 in value.” The overall winner gets an immediate $50,000 prize along with the $1,000,000 prize.

    If any of you are going to participate in this, let us know, we’d love to keep an eye on it.

  • vencorps.com – Crowd Sourced VC gets cooking

    vencorp.pngI dropped Sean Wise an email today about Vencorps.com and he said that they would be making some announcements at the end of this month, but it appears that David Crow has beat me to the punch on writing about it.

    VenCorps is a collaboration that includes the software and experience of Cambrian house, but with a focus on providing capital and guidance to entrepreneurs. Cambrian house has been successful using their model, which is crowd-sourced software, and there would absolutely be no better partner out there for building something like this, so that is certainly a good start.

    The model basically involves your idea being vetted by the public for an initial vote, and it then moves on to a sort of due-diligence process and a more formal vote, where an “elite group” will do the decision making. It’ll take a few viewings to decipher their flash animation, but give it whirl.

    VenCorps is a venture capital seed fund leveraging the wisdom and the participation of an elite crowd to build better start-ups. VenCorps enables entrepreneurs and angel investors to act collaboratively using collective knowledge, networks, and experiences.

    Does this make sense for startups? Will it get enough attention? Is this a revolution in how companies are funded? I am going to sit tight and wait to see this thing in the wild before I make my own judgments about it.

    What about you?

    • Would you share your idea with the world in the hopes of getting access to a group of angels?
    • Do you see this as potentially different from current angel groups or VCs?
    • Will this method be better at picking winners?

    Best of luck to Sean and the rest of the team, we will cover this as much as we can as it comes to life. This is innovative and risky – the sort of thing that nobody has tried yet. For that reason alone, I am cheering it on. Somebody has to get out there and give it a shot.

  • 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.
    (more…)

  • BlitzWeekend: Launch a Startup in a Weekend

    We were going to make a post about BlitzWeekend, but what’s better than information straight from the source? Here is a guest post from Heri, a co-organizer of BlitzWeekend, with all the details.

    BlitzWeekend (organized by Heri Rakotomalala, Denis Canuel, and Mehdi Akiki) is coming to Montreal this February. We are inviting teams of designers, developers, and entrepreneurs to build a startup in 2 days, from Saturday morning to Sunday evening. BlitzWeekend is inspired by StartupWeekend, but there are some key differences. Where StartupWeekend attempted to get over 60 people introduced and working together on one project in one weekend, BlitzWeekend teams and projects should be setup before the event. We will be providing the space and other necessities, but it?s up to each team to find a project and to organize themselves.

    For new entrepreneurs, we offer an opportunity to go through all the stages of a startup: finding talented partners to collaborate with on an idea, writing a business plan, building and deploying the product. Teams will have an opportunity to present their final product at the end of the weekend and receive feedback from other participants and a panel of experienced entrepreneurs and investors.

    blitzweekeend-website.jpgIf you are already involved in a startup, it is also an opportunity to build our your existing product. 48 hours is ample time to create a Facebook / Open Social app or a widget to distribute your content to blogs. You can also view it as a challenge to test new technologies you haven?t had time yet to try out. Think of BlitzWeekend as your R&D lab.

    We expect most of the teams to focus on web applications, but BlitzWeekend is also open to teams working on innovative mobile applications, desktop software, games, etc. If all you really want to do is hack some hardware, then so be it!

    We will be limiting attendance for the event to 50 people, which should make for about 10 teams. We?ll open registration as soon as we secure the venue. For now, you can join the Facebook group, and post about your potential ideas and team members. Of course, we will also be updating the blog.

    See you in Montreal this February!

  • BC Startup Competition – Dec. 17 Deadline

    bplanlogo.gifFear not, the east coast is not the only part of the country with a startup competition. Small Business BC is hosting their own business plan competition.

    There are separate categories for startups and for more mature growth businesses. Each category is up for a $40,000 prize (we think, it’s not clear).

    This contest seems pretty well run, and is much more open in terms of the types of businesses that can apply, but it also seems to have a much less attractive prize package. There may be ancillary prizes we just aren’t aware of yet however.

    They are also very prescriptive of how your business plan should look which doesn’t nessecarily mean that they will find the best startups, or the best entrepreneurs, instead they may just find the best darn bunch of business plan writers in BC.

    Business Plans aren’t always where you should be spending your time, instead I think that a competition like this should leave the criteria much more open and should simply judge each entrepreneur and business based on how well the idea is presented.

    Only a few tech startups have won in the past.