Category: Ontario

BackType acquired by Twitter

Congratulations Christopher Golda (@golda) and Michael Montano (@michaelmontano) on Twitter acquiring BackType. We’ve written about BackType since their acceptance in YCombinator (fortunate that we didn’t give iPartee their previous startup too much attention). This is another amazing acquisition of Canadian startups by a Silicon Valley company (make it 16 acquisitions since Jan 2011 see TechVibes). I think Dan was right, this could be a $1B year for Canadian startup acquisitions.

The BackType team had already relocated from Toronto to San Francisco. And it looks like the relocation to the Twitter offices should be much easier:

Our team’s relocating to the Twitter office. We’re very excited to not only join an amazing company that’s changing the world, but to continue building products in pursuit of our shared vision with Twitter.

Finally, I’d like to thank all our investors and advisors, especially Y Combinator, Toni Schneider and True Ventures, Josh Felser and David Samuel from Freestyle Capital, Manu Kumar, Chris Sacca, Raymond Tonsing and Seth Berman.

What is amazing/disappointing is that there are no Canadian investors along side the group of amazing investors assembled by Chris and Michael.

July 5, 2011
Founder Fuel Jam Session in TO
Nothing like the last minute planning around here. Ian Jeffrey (LinkedIn, @ianmtl) from FounderFuel is planning on being in Toronto today (June 27, 2011) and tomorrow (June 28, 2011). He is planning on meeting with startups and founders to share his experiences launching FounderFuel, the mentorship and incubation/acceleration plan for participating startups and to talk about tech startups generally. If you are interested in talking with one of the emerging technology company incubators/accelerators you should come and talk to Ian and learn about what is being offered in Montreal. There is a lot of choice in the marketplace for entrepreneurs, and the best way to see the differences are to connect with the people behind the scenes like Ian and the FounderFuel team. This is a great way to evaluate the program, get introduced to the people, and connect.

FounderFuel Jam Session
Date:

June 28, 2011

Time:

7 PM EDT – Presentation & Overview
8 PM EDT – Startup 1-on-1s and discussion

Location:

Camaraderie Coworking, 102 Adelaide Street East, Toronto, ON, Canada [map]

Register to attend:
Count me in on Plancast

Register Now »
From the looks of Alexa Clark’s (@alexaclark) photo exposition at Camaraderie, it is a great space to host a startup. I know that Matt (@mattskilly) and Aron (@defrex) at Hipsell have their startup offices there. It is a great space for startups requiring a great work space, a central location, and the benefits of an enabled coworking culture.

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June 27, 2011
The Gravedancer Fund

It’s painfully obvious and we should stop ignoring the facts: RIM is cratering and there is nothing that can be done to save them, short of firing the confused people who are running the show these days.

I won’t comment on what exactly is happening at RIM, there are more than enough people doing that these days, but instead I think it is time for Canada to think about how to mitigate our losses here as the attrition continues. I am more interested in how we go in to damage mitigation mode. I think there is an obvious thesis developing for one or two new funds to camp out in Waterloo and focus on extracting the value locked up in RIM.

A gravedancer fund would focus specifically on leveraging the talent and IP as it spins out of RIM in Waterloo. It would hasten the gutting, no doubt, but somebody has to do it and it may as well be someone based in Waterloo.

So, who is going to raise the Gravedancer Fund and where do I sign? Waterloo is on it’s way to becoming the center of startup activity in Canada and the death spiral of RIM needs to be seen as an opportunity, not a threat.

June 22, 2011
WaveAccounting raises from INKEF Capital

Our friends at WaveAccounting announced yesterday that they had raised a $1.5MM seed investment from INKEF Captial. We’re big fans of WaveAccounting, in fact, it’s what we use to manage the receipts and books for StartupNorth. It means that others see the huge potential with this application. And we’re happy that our accounting provider continues to grow and demonstrate traction. I like stability 😉

Wave also announced the addition of 2 new senior managers: Scott Zandbergen (LinkedIn) formerly of Sage Software and Stephen Dixon (LinkedIn, @sdixonhalloween) formerly of Deloitte & Touche. Looks like to great additions to the senior management team.

This is the first investment from Peter Carrescia (LinkedIn, @pcarrescia) who is one of the two new Managing Directors at the INKEF Capital fund which is a ~$200MM fund from OMERS and ABP pension funds. This is really interesting for a variety of reasons. It means that INKEF is now capable of actively deploying funds, they have set up the necessary funding vehicles and mechanisms to be live. This is fantastic news. It also means that John Ruffolo (LinkedIn, @ruffoloj) has hired a team and is actively seeking out Canadian deals. This is great news to for entrepreneurs. John and Peter are well respected and very entrepreneur friendly, this is a plus for entrepreneurs. And simply additional growth capital is a good thing.

Congratulations Kirk, Jame, and the WaveAccounting team.

June 10, 2011

DEMO Innovation tour returns

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The Demo Innovation is Everywhere tour is coming back to Canada with stops in Toronto & Montreal. The event includes 2 parts, a chance to pitch/present to local VCs (Rogers Ventures) and a social party. Last years event was fantastic.

We invite you to submit an application for a 30 minute private meeting with the DEMO team and leading Venture capitals in a city near you. We have ten spots available per tour stop. Each company selected will also have the opportunity to address a larger audience at the DEMO Tour party in the evening open to the entire DEMO community of VCs, investors, media and PR professionals.

Location	Date	Register
Vancouver, BC Canada	June 23rd, 2011	Present to VCs: Rogers Ventures Evening Party: Republic
Toronto, ON Canada	June 28th, 2011	Present to VCs: Rogers Ventures Evening Party: The Century Room

June 9, 2011

PostRank acquired by Google

Ilya has confirmed today that PostRank has been acquired by Google.

The launch of AideRSS, the precursor to PostRank, was one of the first things we covered here on Startupnorth, so we are happy to see such a great outcome for the team.

We are extremely excited to join Google. We believe there is simply no better company on the web today that both understands the value of the engagement data we have been focusing on, and has the platform and reach to bring its benefits to the untold millions of daily, active Internet users. Stay tuned, we’ll be sure to share details on our progress in the coming months!

Of course, we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for all the help, feedback, and support we’ve received from our community over the past four years—thank you all, you know who you are, and we truly couldn’t have done it without you!

Ilya also notes that the team will be moving to Mountain View as part of this acquisition.

June 3, 2011
DemoCamp with Howard Lindzon – June 9, 2011
Some rights reserved photo by Andrew Louis (@hyfen)

DemoCampToronto # 29 – The Dirty Details #dct
Date:

June 9, 2011

Time:

6:30 – 9 PM EST

Location:

Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, 55 Dundas St W, Toronto, ON

Register to attend:
Count me in on Plancast

Apply to Demo

Register Now »
Keynote Speaker – Howard Lindzon

Howard Lindzon is co-founder and CEO of StockTwits® – a social network for traders and investors to share real-time ideas and information. StockTwits was recently named “one of the top 10 most innovative companies in web” by FastCompany and one of the “50 best websites” by Time magazine.

Mr. Lindzon has more than twenty years experience in the financial community acting in both an entrepreneurial and investing capacity. With a unique vision for starting and successfully managing innovative companies, he is the Managing Partner of Social Leverage, a holding company that invests in early stage web businesses. Howard continues to manage a hedge fund he started in 1998.

He created Wallstrip, and more than 400 original web video shows, which was purchased by CBS Corp. in 2007. He is an active angel with many success angel investments including: Rent.com, (purchased by Ebay in 2005 for $415 million), Golfnow.com (purchased by Comcast in June 2008), and Lifelock (lead investors include Bessemer Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers). Mr. Lindzon’s new media and internet business investments also include: Limos.com, Blogtalkradio.com, Buddy Media, Ticketfly, Assistly, Bit.ly and Tweetdeck.

Mr. Lindzon received an MBA at Arizona State University and an MIM from The American Graduate School of International Management.

We are looking for amazing entrepreneurs & demos

The goal at DemoCamp has been to provide a platform for local companies to launch, get product or pitch feedback, to establish a presence for recruiting, to help with PR and social media awareness. We try to get a group of highly connected and apparently highly cynical entrepreneurs, developers, designers, marketers, investors and others in a room to watch entrepreneurs in a safe environment. It’s something between a graduate seminar and a show. The goal is to demo your product and get feedback about your demo, your design, your market, etc. You decide. (It’s a work in progress, but it’s a social event).

We’re also looking for up to 5 startups or entrepreneurs to demo a new technology. Selected presenters get 5 minutes to show us the best of their application and then ask the audience for feedback, coaching, and insight from a highly connected cynical crowd. You get market advice, technology advice, pitch/presentation advice. Startups seeking advice should apply to demo.

Apply to Demo »

Sponsors

We need a few sponsors to help cover the cost of food and travel. If you are looking for coverage in the newsletter, blog and at the event ping me at david at davidcrow dot ca for details. Sponsorships start at $500.
May 30, 2011
Startup Weekend Toronto

Some rights reserved photo by Seattle Municipal Archives

Startup Weekend Toronto, which kicks off June 3, is almost sold out; if you’re on the fence, don’t wait much longer, StartupNorth readers can save 20% by using discount code: STARTUPNORTHSW

This June’s event will have a strong focus on lean startup principles. A fantastic set of speakers are lined up to provide practical advice so you can take what you learn well beyond the weekend itself. While there is no “right” way to start a company, Startup Weekend is here to help provide you with as many tools and connections as possible to help you succeed.

A great set of speakers for Friday night will kick things off and prepare you for what’s ahead. Throughout the weekend there will be mentors dropping in helping teams with their projects. Saturday night, founders will share war stories. The judging panel includes experienced investors and entrepreneurs who you will have a chance to connect with. Startup Weekend will round up with dinner and awards at an awesome venue to be announced shortly.

The winner of Startup Weekend will enjoy more than just street cred, in addition there will be a cash award to help move the project forward, entry into the Ryerson DMZ for 4 months, video production to help on the marketing front, pro bono legal services, a chance to demo at the next Democamp Toronto (June 9), and more.

May 23, 2011
The VeloCity Venture Fund
Some rights reserved by Thomas Hawk

Remember Ted Livingston’s insanely great donation to UW VeloCity, well it looks like it is being put to good use. The VeloCity team announced The Velocity Venture Fund. The University of Waterloo and the team at VeloCity are working to put that capital to use for students in the VeloCity residence. It looks like they are both testing their ideas (love this) to make sure students are interested before the full launch of a fund. They are running a contest for UWaterloo students that provides a seed grant of $25,000 + office space + incorporation.

It’s pretty cool. I am hoping to learn more about the Fund that is launching in the fall. Jesse Rodgers is a huge asset to UW.
What does this first version of the funding contest look like?
- A hack weekend followed by a pitch night where 5 teams are selected and given $500
- Those 5 teams come back in a month or so and have a chance to compete for $25 000 + incorporation + office space on their next co-op work term or following term (so for spring that will be fall)
- That is all.
To qualify for the competition:
- A current student at the University of Waterloo
- Do you have to live in VeloCity? No. But it would give you an advantage.
May 6, 2011
OCE Discovery + Special DemoCamp + One Day Pass
Editor’s Note: This post is written by Paul Vice. Paul works the OCE team to enable special projects. This includes community outreach with groups like StartupNorth and DemoCamp. OCE has been a proud sponsor of DemoCamp and other StartupNorth events for the last 4 years. We’ve written about OCE Discovery in the past and the support that OCE has offered local startups like Bumptop, Verold, and others is unparalleled. We are excited to be able to offer StartupNorth readers access to OCE Discovery 11 » see below for details about ticketing. – David

The Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) has teamed up with the StartupNorth team to present a special DemoCamp on May 19th at 3:30pm at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre as part of the Discovery 11 conference. It is a chance to put DemoCamp in front of a different audience, drawing all the Discovery attendees. In 2010 we had a standing room only crowd. We have space for 300+ this year.

Discovery is the annual showcase of the best of innovations in Ontario hosted by OCE. Recently named Canada’s Best Trade Show 2010, Discovery has become the premier innovation and commercialization showcase in Canada with over 2500 attendees & over 300 exhibitors.

Some of the highlights of Discovery this year:
- Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and author of Sketching User Experiences is the keynote speaker on the morning of May 19
- A hot panel on the direction of mobile app development in Canada, moderated by Kunal Gupta, CEO and Founder of Polar Mobile.
- A full track on Stereoscopic 3D technology including S3D gaming development
- Indra Laksono from Toronto’s own ViXS Systems on the future of digital technology in the home. (btw, ViXS is a very cool company, check them out.)
- The return of the Elevator Pitch competition – Dejero Labs and Gridcentric were past award winners.
Check out the full agenda.

DemoCamp at Discovery

Moderated by David Crow (@davidcrow), with guest speaker Anand Agarwala from Bumptop (now at Google) kicks things off with a unique “Art of the Hustle” (Street Smarts for the Startup World) presentation, followed by a showcase of 5 unique selected startups to pitch in front of an audience of over 300 participants, including panel members:
- Scott Pelton (@spelton) from GrowthWorks,
- April Dunford, (@aprildunford) Founder and Principal Consultant, Rocket Launch Marketing
- Leila Boujnane (@leilaboujnane), Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Idee
- Anand Agarawala (@anandx), Product Manager, Android System UI, Google
Discovery is not the usual DemoCamp venue. But, we are looking to accomplish 2 goals:
- Put some interesting, exciting new DemoCamp start-ups in front of an new audience; and,
- Put DemoCamp in front of that new audience and inspire some of them to join future DemoCamps
Want to demo?

We are looking for up to 5 startups or entrepreneurs to demo a new technology. Selected presenters get 5 minutes to show us the best of their application and then ask the audience for feedback, coaching, and insight from a highly connected, if occasionally cynical, crowd. You get market advice, technology advice, and pitch advice and the opportunity to deal with the hecklers.

Apply to Demo

Want join the audience, offer advice, heckle and get to explore the full conference floor?

Discovery is a full conference and trade show at the MTCC with all the typical costs and overheads. We run it on a cost recovery basis with a lot of very generous help from sponsors, but costs are a lot more than your typical Democamp.

But, we want you there. You can join us at DemoCamp and visit Discovery with a one day pass May 19 for $250 if you use the promotion code DC250 when you register. (The full price for the 2 days is $895, $75 for students with ID.)
May 5, 2011