StartupNorth

Category: Ontario

  • Investment Banking for Startups – Q1 Capital launches Private Investor Network

    Raising funds for a startup is a full time job. As Craig Hayashi of Maple Leaf Angels pointed out in his recent posts, it can easily take 6 months to raise an angel round. Fortunately, there are options for entrepreneurs who want to focus more of their attention on building the business and less of their precious time on the next financing.

    Golden KeyMeet Frances Fast of Q1 Capital. She specializes in getting startups funded… fast. There is such a thing as a startup investment banker. Frances recently joined Q1, to lead their Private Investor Network, but she is not new to the industry; Frances has been working with angel groups in Canada for nearly a decade, talk about a golden Rolodex.

    If your startup needs to raise over $750,000, you might want to consider the services of an investment bank. They’ll put together your pitch book and get you in front of an interested audience; of course you’ll still need to sell it.

    Investment banking for startups… sounds fancy, what’s the catch? Well, an investment bank’s services are not free. At the close of financing they get a 7% success fee and along the way charge a retainer to keep everyone’s eye on the ball and moving toward closing a deal.

    Sure you can do it yourself. Put together your own private placement memorandum, hunt down angels and vcs, try and get a meeting, etc. But if this is your first time down the startup financing road or you have more vital things to focus on, bringing on an experienced deal maker can keep everything on track and moving forward… fast.

    Contact: Frances Fast, Q1 Capital
    Tip: Be sure to sign up for the Q1 newsletter, it is chock full of need to know info!

  • 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.

  • Super-enterpreneur: Anthony Carbone, MadWhips

    Anthony Carbone, MadWhipsBy day, Anthony Carbone is an engineer at DuPont Canada. But from 6pm to 2am, he’s his own man. Not only does he travel back to his old university town, Guelph, to grow his property management firm, but he also moonlights as a web designer for hire with his partner Vinay Menon.

    It’s in his soul. He has to be busy. “I?ve always been an entrepreneur, ever since high school; cutting lawns, doing landscaping, selling my time as a web programmer and developer back in university.”

    Sure, there’s the extra money. But it’s more than that. Rattling around the back of his head are a huge number of unexpressed ideas that he feels compelled to act on. In fact, there is one idea in particular Anthony and Vinay have been driving towards since they met in undergrad.

    Mad Whips

    As Anthony tells it, “I met my partner outside of the engineering building at the University of Guelph in my second year and the topic was cars, money and the Internet. It was just at the time when everything was peaking and the Internet bubble was at its prime.” They decided since to moonlight as web designers to raise enough cash to launch their true passion, a car spotting online community called MadWhips.

    Taking photos of whips? Well, I had to ask too…
    Anthony: Obviously the ‘whips’ is referring to the new slang term for your ride.
    Sunir: Is it really?
    Anthony: Yeah, well, like your crib is your house, your whip is your pimped-out ride, right?
    Sunir: I feel old now. Thank you very much.

    Hitting the road

    But isn’t moonlighting a problem for DuPont? Anthony says, “I have a really good relationship with my boss and he knows that I?m not really interested in going anywhere for the next two, three, four years and I still enjoy that corporate education that I?m getting by being at DuPont and interacting with all the different business units. That kind of corporate experience to me is more important than venturing off on my own right now.”

    They’ve been striving to achieve their dream for years, working hard on the side. But it’s on the side, and their day jobs rule their schedule. The question Anthony left me with was: “When do we take on that certain level of clientele and when can we afford to say, ‘Okay, one of us can quit our jobs’?”

    Contact: Anthony Carbone

    This is part of a series of entrepreneur trading cards by Sunir Shah of FreshBooks.

  • Clay Tablet Technologies – Translation Middleware

    Clay Tablet Technologies, a Toronto, Ontario company made a few interesting announcements today. The first is that they are partnering with SDL as a partner to allow SDL clients to glue their translation technologies in to content management systems.

    Clay Tablet has an interesting position in the market. They sit between large content-focused systems, like a document management system or content management platform, and outside providers of translation services. Clay Tablet automatically manages the routing of content by connecting directly with content management systems, allowing for the immediate and automatic sending of content out for translation.

    What I love about this approach is that once they are deployed, Clay Tablet then plays a vital role in the relationship between the two additional vendors. This means that they can continue to build revenues while having to spend an order less of effort in servicing the customer.

    Their client list is growing impressively, and with today’s partnership announcement, we will undoubtedly be seeing a lot of new customers coming on board.

    Their second announcement today was that they are releasing version 2.0 of their product, which is a significant improvement over their previous versions.

    The long-term opportunity for Clay Tablet is significant. I don’t have to tell you how big the translation business is, or how much it is growing year over year. There is not a company in the world that doesn’t require translation services at some point, and by acting as an easily integrated middle-man, Clay Tablet can profit handsomely from that need.

    Contact Robinson Kelly, CEO

  • SlashID – Federated Identity Management

    Slash ID LogoSlashID launched today. The Toronto, Ontario based company is entering a market that has slain giants such as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and IBM among others. This is also the same general market that Vancouver-based SXIP is competing in, although they have a primarily enterprise-focused business model (where they compete with companies such as Australian Atlassian with its Crowd product).

    The most successful effort to date in the federated-credentials market has been OpenID, which has seen a lot of acceptance in the developer and service provider world, but still flounders in obscurity for the average internet user. So, the big question really is: is there a federated credentials business to be made at all? Or is this just a big dream?

    The benefit to the end user seems obvious: I have one login name and password to remember and no matter which site I go to, I can log in without going through signup hassles or having to reset a long-forgotten password. This has been the promise of every federated credential system to date, and it continues to be a major dream of companies such as Google and Microsoft, who feel that the credential and it’s attached identity are the keys to being the number one destination for web users.

    For website owners, the deal gets a little more complicated. Above all else, site owners feel like they are being asked to give up control for the sake of user convenience. The fact is though, there is very little evidence that tells site owners that users will bypass their site or application in favor of a competitor because they do not allow users to use an external authentication system. While the level of control being given up in reality is minimal, if any at all, perception remains the biggest enemy of federated credential systems.

    Will SlashID make a break for it? A strong endorsement on Mashable is a great start, and their focus on providing up-to-date and useful developer tools is smart. If SlashID can provide incentives to site owners to include them as a login option, then they could emerge as a clear leader.

    Contact: Colin Smillie

  • Savvica is Back – Payoff for holding on!

    savvica-logo.gifJohn and Malgosia Green started Savvica in Toronto three years ago. Savvica was run on a shoestring budget. John and Malgosia were hitting the pavement hard, working on financing deals, partnerships and generally promoting Nuvvo, a do-it-yourself online course community. It was hard, thankless work, and eventually it was time to make a decision. Running a startup out of your basement can be grueling. If you’ve been there, you can empathize, at some point you have to step back and re-asses.

    So, after 2 years, John and Malgosia decided to take jobs in San Francisco. The benefits were obvious: Gain loads of experience, keep working in startups (they didn’t file themselves away in boring jobs), make connections and give themselves some financial breathing room.

    johnandgosia.jpgHere is where their story takes a turn for the better however. Just when we all thought that Savvica was done for, John and Malgosia did the smart thing. They didn’t “go out of business”, or take down the site. They didn’t declare it a failure and start preaching about all the lessons they learned. Instead, they kept burning a little midnight oil, still looking for a deal or an opportunity, and most of all, they kept their dream alive.

    Well, hard work pays off and things have finally turned around for Savvica. They have taken investment from an India-based e-learning company that was happy to have Savvica headquarter itself anywhere in North America. John and Malgosia packed up their things and headed straight back to Toronto.

    If you know John and Malgosia, as most of us here in the Toronto tech scene do, you know they are not only hard working, but also incredibly helpful to other startups. We are all excited to have them back here in Toronto and we can’t wait to see them at DemoCamps, Torcamps and whatever other things are happening.

    Savvica is hiring a handful of Rails engineers and I am sure there will be more hiring soon.

  • b5Media Launching Spekked – The big part of the Long Tail

    picture-1.pngWhat happens when you’ve made a business out of publishing hundreds and hundreds of niche blogs? b5Media, a Toronto based startup that has taken funding in the range of US$2-million co-lead by Brightspark Ventures and J. L. Albright Venture Partners, is the owner of a vast amount of posts and articles on a few dozen subjects and finding new ways to capitalize on that asset can get tough.

    Today, b5 is taking a leap and is launching Spekked. The project is labeled “Beta”, which either means that the technology is young (it’s an aggregator of other b5media blogs, all based on one common subject), or it means the entire business idea is being tested. My guess is that it is a combination of both.

    As any startup begins to accumulate assets, it is critical to put them to good use. Like the guys at AideRSS, who previewed a set of tools at Democamp which uses their existing data, b5 is starting to zero in on larger segments of their market by combining many products (in this case, content) in to one re-focused stream which will have a much broader appeal. Spekked will also act as a funnel in to b5’s deeper offerings in that particular category.

    The challenge for this project will be to avoid losing readers who may stop reading 5 regular b5media blogs and instead just tune in to the one aggregated blog.

    If this works, you can bet there will be a lot of other branded combination blogs from b5 to come.

    We are working on a profile of b5media, which we hope to post soon.

  • ConceptShare – Online Collaboration

    images1.jpgSudbury, Ontario based ConceptShare is one of the best examples of a fast growing, healthy and original startup in Canada. They have gone from idea, to execution and now to business development in a short period of time. They have done it all from Sudbury.

    The idea was simple enough. You have any sort of artwork or video, and you need to bring in other people to help edit and refine your work. The old way of doing things was to email your files around and have people open them locally on their PC. With Conceptshare, your co-workers, partners and others can simply log in and see what you are working on, and they can offer their own suggestions right there on the spot. Collaborators can draw right on the screen, they can make notes and leave messages for eachother.

    I won’t go any further in to just what Conceptshare does, because their name is descriptive enough and their website is even more helpful. They also have one of the best demo movies of any startup out there.

    Differentiating in a muddled market
    “Collaboration” is not a new idea. The market for collaboration tools is endless and highly competitive. Instead of jumping in to that big, endless fight, ConceptShare worked hard to focus on a basic set of needs for what was initially a very defined market (graphic designers). By doing things right and in a smaller puddle, ConceptShare turned in to the perfect tool for a lot of things. They now have customers doing almost every sort of collaboration you can imagine, and they are just getting started at going after these new markets.

    ConceptShare also made one critical smart move up front. They didn’t try to do real-time collaboration. That would have included real-time audio chat, video chat and all sorts of extras that most customers don’t really want. Instead, they built their tool around how people really work: asynchronously. If you want me to review a document, or new graphic design, I don’t want to have to meet you online at a certain time to discuss it: I would rather just pop in and make notes when I have the time.

    A critical mistake that competing companies have made, in my view, is that they focused on real-time. Real-time requires a change in the user’s behavior, and trying to change behavior rather than compliment it is almost always a road to failure.

    Staying Focused
    Bernie, Scott and Chris have spent the last year and a half working on ConceptShare with incredible focus. Right from the beginning, when they were running around the first Mesh conference with their laptops, doing demos for potential investors, they have been role models of how to just do it when it comes to starting your own company. While a lot of would-be entrepenurs will wonder “should I do this”, etc.

    An Angel Round, and on to VC
    To really get off the ground, Conceptshare raised an undisclosed amount of Angel funding. The fact that they were able to get their funding in place so early is a testament not just to their great idea, but the hard work these guys continue to put in.

    The guys are now hitting the road to raise a round of Venture Capital. The decision to go down this road was not an easy choice for them to make. They tell me that they are more concerned with finding the right kind of VC than they are with just taking money from anyone. They are looking for a partner to help them grow the business.

    Overall, I think it is a smart move for a company in their position. They are arguably the market leaders in a space that is only just starting to come in to itself. I would be surprised if Scott, Bernie and Chris didn’t have their pick of VCs, as well as some pretty favorable terms. Let’s cross our fingers that they don’t end up having to go south like StumbleUpon, iUpload (now Awarness), or flickr.

    And now…
    This week ConceptShare has doubled it’s workforce and has brought on Will Pate to help drive the company ahead. Will is an experienced community builder and will be doing that, and I suspect other work, with ConceptShare. Hiring smart is critical and Scott, Bernie and Chris have been careful about who they bring on.

    So what else is next? A search shows that they own the domain conceptnation.com, which looks like a preview of some sort of new crowd-based marketplace or network. So, I am guessing that it won’t be long before the guys have big announcements coming out left and right.

    Contact: Scott Brooks

  • All Eyes on Idee – Visual Search: Part 1

    idee.pngIdee is a Toronto, Ontario based company that has been one of the biggest stars in the Canadian Startup community for years.

    Idee is a profitable and extremely original company. Their ultra-cool office on Queen St in Toronto is home to 22 employees.

    Now, I have to warn you. I am a bit of an Idee fan, so if I gush too much,. well,. gush along.

    Leila Boujnane and Paul Bloore are the two founders and brains behind the company. Paul currently runs the technical side of things and Leila is the CEO and runs the business operation. That said, it’s obvious that they are a tightly knit team. Both of them put in long days as they turn out new products and bring on new customers.

    What’s so great to see is how well this team works together. As far as I know, they have never strangled each other in public before. Considering that you can walk by Idee at midnight many days of the week and see the lights all on tells you enough about how hard these two, and their team, all work.

    What does Idee do? They are the developers of visual search and image/video monitoring technologies. On the visual search front: their visual search software can find similar images in very large image collections. Give their engine an image and it will find all the similar images in an image collection. You can try their visual search technology in the Idee lab.

    As to image and video monitoring: Idee monitors and actively tracks millions of clients images and can identify where their clients images have been used in both print publications and the internet. They are the only company in the world to do this. Their image recognition system analyzes each client’s images and creates a digital fingerprint for each image and compares it to images scanned from publications and crawled from the Internet. The image matches found for their clients can be partial image matches as well. This means that a person appearing in one image, and then reappearing in another image but with a different background, will be found by Idee.

    Their clients receive timely image monitoring reports that basically provide them with a snapshot of where any of their images have appeared. These reports can be used for automating editorial photo sales, competitive analysis, copyright monitoring. As you can imagine if you are an professional photographer this would make sense for you too 🙂

    First Cluser - IdeeThis video provides the best overview of their services. Their first compute cluster was put together in less than a day (see photo to the left). Today their compute cluster includes over 300 processors and more than 40 terabytes of storage and it is continuing to grow (see glamour shot of Paul below).

    Idee has had to deal with all of the classic startup issues and in our next installment we will get them to tell us about some of their adventures. Scaling such a computationally complex business means maintaining (and paying for) a huge technical infrastructure while building an enterprise sales operation. It takes stamina and brains to get that kind of job done. Leila, Paul and their team have done it.

    Paul Bloore - IdeeThey may not have entierly conquered all media searching yet, but they are on their way. I would place a bet any day that they will get there pretty soon. Once you get to know Idee you realize that the sky is the limit.

    Take a look at their client list and you will know what I mean.

    The question for me is: what’s next for Idee? Leila won’t say exactly what’s coming, but we can look forward to something huge soon. I know it.

  • PlanetEye Launch Imminent

    Update #2: 2startup has a review of the beta of Planeteye, confirming that they did launch in to a wider beta. We have no confirm/deny on the specific numbers we posted before, so we will leave the three paragraphs removed and will post the facts as we have them later if they are of any interest at all.

    Check out the review, and please post any more links to reviews in the comments if you have them. Also check out 2Startup, which is a startup blog that seems to be just getting off the ground.

    site_title.gifPlanetEye, possibly the stealthiest startup in Canada in the last 2 years, is finally ready for launch.

    If you aren’t in Toronto, you probably haven’t heard of Planeteye. If you are in Toronto, you may only know of them because they employ some of the coolest developers in town – Slava Sakhnenko and Alan Hietala, along with the newly reshuffled Mark Evans, who used to be at, b5Media.

    What is PlanetEye? Well, you have to do some digging to find out, so that’s what I did. Mum is the word for PlanetEye employees — who couldn’t be convinced to show as much as a screenshot pre-launch.

    “Users upload images on to Planeteye?s servers and geo-tag them or any existing online photos. Visitors can then enter a location or landmark, and see far-off places through a previous traveller?s photo lens.” – blog

    PlanetEye is a site that lets you store Images and allows you to organize them according to their GPS location. I am going to guess that reviews and other annotations are mixed in there. From my understanding, Planeteye has taken investment from Microsoft Research and makes extensive use of the World Wide Media Exchange platform. If you check out that demo, my guess is you get to see the bulk of PlanetEye’s value proposition. Perhaps it is a sort of fancy version of the EarthAlbum.

    Planeteye first came to life out of a course at UofT called Business of Software. Rick Segal, a Venture Capitalist in Toronto, was a judge for the end-of-term business plan competition. Slava Sakhnenko, Elliott Tzaneteas, and Jennifer McCarthy (who has since gone to another of Rick’s portfolio companies, MusicIP) were presenting their business plan and it seems Rick liked it. He liked it so much in fact that he decided to put together a company based on their work, as well as the Microsoft Research patents we mentioned before. (Slava has the best account of it all here).

    So, go grab your camera, and perhaps your GPS, and perhaps your laptop too, and get ready to geotag the hell out of your town. But first, you will have to sit tight. “Coming soooooon!”