StartupNorth

Category: News

  • StandoutJobs raises $2m from iNovia Capital

    The news is finally public that StandoutJobs, a Montreal, Quebec company who we mentioned in our earlier post about DEMO08, has raised $2million from iNovia Capital.

    standout.pngWith this announcement and their launch at DEMO, StandoutJobs is taking back the veil on their business model. When we first saw them almost a year ago, StandoutJobs looked like a recruiting company that did videos, and we didn’t find it very compelling. I got to hear more a few months ago however over supper with Ben Yoskovitz, and it started to make a lot more sense. StandoutJobs will be providing a SaaS solution to companies that essentially lets them build a complete hiring page that is much more rich and user-focused than the normal “email [email protected]”. The pages are fully customizable and seem to be focused on helping the company display much more current and directly useful information to the potential hires. For a more detailed overview, check out this post on Mashable.

    inovia.pngiNovia Capital bills itself as a “seed and early-stage venture capital fund” with offices in Alberta (Edmonton and Calgary) as well as Montreal. They seem to be increasingly active with their investments and I am impressed that they took the entire $2million round to themselves, which likely speaks to the solid team that StandoutJobs has in place as well as iNovia’s willingness to get out there and shoulder some risk.

    In case you think you are being hit with a case of Deja Vu, you are right: StandoutJobs did previously announce that they had raised funding from Garage Ventures Canada, but this seems to have fallen apart. On the StandoutJobs blog:

    “As well, it?s time to announce a bit of news with respect to our financing. Although we announced some time ago that we raised money with Garage Technology Ventures Canada, that did not in fact come to pass. As we got deeper into the process with Garage, it was clear that it was not the best fit for us. We wish Garage the best of luck.”

    It seems that whatever came to pass with Garage did not take away from the credibility of StandoutJobs or the team there, as iNovia seems to have quickly seen the opportunity.

    Congratulations to everyone at iNovia and StandoutJobs.

  • Founders and Funders is a sellout, then on to Montreal

    fftag.gifFounders and Funders Toronto is just about sold out and we have a waiting list of 60+ people. It is shaping up to be a great evening. I can’t believe it came together so quickly. It was just a few weeks ago that David and I were talking about it. I also want to thank David for his hard work on this, we have both been pretty busy with other things and David has definitely been the leader on getting F&F together.

    People are coming in from all over the country for the dinner it seems, and there is a great core of Toronto funders and entrepreneurs who will be there. Keep an eye on the Founders and Funders website for more announcements. Also, a big thank you to our sponsors: Microsoft Mix and JLA Ventures.

    Then, we hop in the car, plane or train and head to Montreal:

    StartupCamp Montreal – January 23rd

    startupcamp-montreal-logo.gif


    StartupCampMontréal is scheduled next Wednesday 23rd at la SAT, from 6pm to 10pm. This is really coming together. I can’t get over how many great startups have applied to present. Montreal is absolutely buzzing these days. The event is totally sold out except for a few service provider tickets.

    I am looking forward to meeting as many people as possible while I am in town.

    5 startups were selected from the votes of 27 gurus:

    • Tungle: Easy appointment scheduling for groups
    • Cozimo: Real Time collaboration for designers
    • Streametrics: Provides metrics on the use of video on the web for publishers
    • yourteledoctor: Virtual visits with a doctor via the internet.

  • AideRSS announces funding

    aider.pngI just got word from the guys at AideRSS to let me know that they have closed their first round of funding. AideRSS has grown from 2 guys with an idea to 8 employees now, and the hiring is still going on. I first profiled the Waterloo, Ont. company in July of last year when things were just getting off the ground, so I am really excited to get word that they now have some money to really build on their momentum.

    When I spoke with them earlier in the week, Kevin and Ilya said that this will give them 1 year of operating time in order to experiment with some of the nuances of their business plan, and to focus on building the product. They also indicated that they are in the final stages of putting together some partnerships which are worth waiting to hear about.

    The round, the size of which is undisclosed as of now, was lead by Tech Capital Partners in Waterloo along with a group angel investors. AideRSS is also working with the University of Waterloo on a few research projects that will help enhance their filtering engine and will bring improvements to their end-user tools. Taking advantage of a local resource like the university a smart move, especially in a place with a great university like UOW.

    AideRSS is now a significant player in a healthy industry. Feedburner.com was acquired by Google for $100million last year and AideRSS continues to offer a completely unique and useful service. Another big difference since last July is that PostRank, the secret sauce that gives a score based on external links and social uses of the RSS content, is now Patent Pending.

  • 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.

  • Holiday Update

    StartupNorth has now been around for 8 months or so, which I have to admit is longer than it feels. We have been working hard to do good things for Canadian Startups, and it seems like more and more cool stuff is happening every week. We have been lucky to have seen startups from the very beginning right through to their first round of funding, we also had a blast putting on StartupCamp Toronto and we’ve been fortunate enough to help get StartupCamp Montreal started, and hopefully a few others soon.

    We have also had a chance to talk with dozens of Angel Investors and smart VCs who “get” what it’s like to be a startup. They all want to help startups and want to know how. It’s great to see their open minded approach and their excitement for Canadian Startups.

    Postings will be slow for another few days at least and then we will be back to a normal schedule. We are incredibly excited about the rest of January, which will see a few big announcements from us about some things we have been working on. These projects are going to be a direct benefit to startups, and I am barely managing to keep myself from blurting out the good news.

    If you want to drop us a line about anything at all, you can contact us through the form on our about page, or you can post a comment here.

  • WirelessNorth.ca – Canadian Wireless News and Opinion

    I thought I would remind everyone that wirelessnorth.ca is now alive and you will soon start seeing updates and information on Canada’s emerging wireless industry (some terms used lightly!).

    The approach with WirelessNorth will be the same that we have used to grow StartupNorth: Slowly but surely. We have tried to bring you high quality fact/news/opinion here as regularly as possible, and you have all responded by commenting, emailing and just talking about what we are up to.

    The guys at WirelessNorth will be doing the same. So head over, subscribe to the RSS feed and start digging in. Wireless in Canada is possibly going to change more quickly in the next 18-24 months than any other industry, and wirelessnorth.ca will be the best place to stay on top of it all.

  • StartupCamp Montreal – January 23 2008

    Update: Wow! All of the first-release tickets (except for Service Providers, who can still get tickets) are now sold out! It looks like the Montreal event is going to be a huge hit.

    startupcamp-montreal-logo.gif

    StartupCamp Montreal was announced at StartupCamp Toronto, and it is set for January 23rd at the SAT – Société des arts technologiques. The format will be similar to the Toronto and Waterloo events, but not exactly the same. Startups will have 10 minutes to present, and there will only be 5 minutes of questions (not 15 minutes of skewering this time!).

    Montreal is a wonderful city, and some of the best startups in Canada are calling it home these days. Both CakeMail and Defensio were well received in Toronto and I am hoping that we will see some startups from Toronto and Ottawa on the slate for Montreal.

    I just got an email from Philippe and he let me know that you can get more information on the web site and a first release of tickets is now available. The first batch are now up for grabs at startupcampmontreal.eventbrite.com, get one while you can!

  • StartupCampToronto is tomorrow – open to all (8:30pm)

    So, StartupCampToronto is tomorrow. Jonas and I are pretty sure we have taken care of everything we possibly can. Don’t forget for those who have tickets: Things start at 6pm

    As you probably know, we have tried to keep the numbers for this event at a reasonable level. Our hope is that the presenting startups will get valuable feedback that can help their business. We have felt bad about turning down a lot of people who have requested tickets after the fact.

    If you don’t have a ticket, we still want you to come hang out. We have made arrangements to take over No Regrets at about 8:30pm to hang out and get to know all the cool startups who will be there. If you get there on time, you will be there just in time to hear a slew of really great announcements.

    What? StartupCamp After Party

    Where? No Regrets, 42 Mowat Ave, Toronto

    When? 8:30pm

    What else? Demos tables manned by a handful of fantastic startups

    You will also have a chance to hang out with the presenting companies.

    And finally, the people who put up the money to make this happen: