StartupNorth

Category: Toronto

  • MaRS Phase II in the Deadpool

    The MaRS Center is seeing the second phase of development go on hold.

    Phase II, which involved the development of a second tower on the west side of the property, has been cancelled, despite having been ahead of schedule so far. The reason given by Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc, the American developer behind the project, is that they just couldn’t secure enough leases to make the project move forward.

    I first heard about this a few days ago when an unsubstantiated rumor was posted on Urban Toronto (a great forum that I lurk in). Then when I was up in the area yesterday I noticed that the site was pretty quiet, but still wasn’t sure. That was until I looked at the National Post this morning and it was right there on the front page.

    The MaRS center is a confusing thing for tech entrepreneurs. There are a few startups in there, and it is home to a Celtic House office and RBC Ventures. They also have some really fantastic people working there, such as Peter Evans and Allen Gelberg, who have reached out to the startup community in a big way and who have provided a venue for things like Mesh and the Facbook Developer Garage.

    My sense is that MaRS has a much bigger impact on the medical research and commercialization community, but I am not connected to that community and have no way of knowing.

    MaRS was never a center for the tech community however. Simple economics make it impossible for such a high-cost building to truly have an impact at a community level. There are three old garment factories at Spadian and Queen that have had more of an impact. This isn’t a new phenomenon either, when I was building some of my first startups in Charlottetown, the provincial and federal government spent almost $35million building something called the Atlantic Technology Center.

    In terms of the size of the city and community, the Atlantic Technology Center was even more ambitious than MaRS, and it was even more disconnected from the community. While some of the best startups were moving in to great historic office spaces, government contractors and service firms piled in to the Tech Center. It was high-cost, anti-septic and too ambitious.

    The truth is, if you want to transform the tech community in a place like Toronto or any other city, you don’t need $20million, or $200million. For all the dreams of trying to turn some city in to the “next valley”, the point gets missed every time. You could put Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Calgary or Vancouver on the world map with almost no money. Put a couple million together and find the right people to deploy it. We need to start loving our cities and the communities that are coming to life in them.

    The problem is that government officials can ascribe value to real estate. We all love to build big things that people can see, touch and talk about. Until those same people can understand the value of a vibrant and productive community, then we will never get the participation that we truly need.

    It is worth pointing out that MaRS has billed itself as a home for academic research and eventual commercialization, not simply a home for the tech community. I believe that the same fundamental principals are in play however, and that the task of building a commercialization engine in this city is not a real estate problem, but a social one.

    I don’t know what this means for MaRS and their efforts in the community, but I hope it is a chance for them to step back and refocus. They have a great team that I believe will still do great things.

  • Clutterme.com is for sale, on ebay

    Clutterme.com a do-it-yourself website builder and domain purchasing site is for sale, on ebay. This isn’t the first startup to put themselves up on Ebay, Toronto based Tucows bought kiko.com in an ebay auction for almost $260,000 a few years ago.

    Will Clutterme get bids well past $200,000? Probably not, but I think the service is worth something, and a registrar such as Tucows, GoDaddy or another could really make good use of it. Clutterme is what they say it is: A really, really, easy way to make a website. It is the kind of really simple website builder that your mom would be happy to use. They also have a really slick domain purchasing system set up that lets people get their own domain and website builder all wrapped in to one.

    I have had a chance to hang out with Mark and Alex and I know they are going to be successful. They are hard working and passionate guys and they have stuck with this project through thick and thin. It is too bad that ClutterMe isn’t going to be their winner, but I will be the first one waiting to see what their next project is.

    So head on over and place your bids. Someone with the right sales channel and a little elbow grease could make this thing work.

    You can try a demo of the tool here.

  • Just Launched: Bizzia – b5media's business news portal

    Earlier today b5media launched Bizzia, making their second foray into the world of blog aggregation. Bizzia is centered on business news, initially pulling together posts from 30 established b5 blogs and videos from content partner Your Business Channel.

    The Wall Street Journal it is not, and many of the questions I posed when Starked (their entertainment portal) launched remain. Namely, will consumers of niche content be interested in aggregation around a generic vertical? Time and traffic will tell… For your consideration two data points: First, in under a month Starked has managed to attract an audience size similar to that of StartupNorth (at least according to Compete). Second, Starked does not yet nearly rival other niche b5 blogs like JuniorCelebs.

    Finally a survey for the peanut gallery: any thoughts on the palindromesque brand / logo?

  • Byte Club launches – Behind the scenes at b5media

    A new web video show has launched. It is called Byte Club and the first episode is a profile of Toronto based b5media.

    Here is the first episode:

  • echoage – evite for the environment (or anything else)

    echoage is a new Toronto, On based startup that is trying to change how we think about throwing the age old birthday party.

    A friend of mine was complaining the other day that people were bringing 150$ gifts to her son’s birthday. “What is with private school parent’s?” she wondered.

    I have no idea what is causing people to buy 150$ gifts for 5 year olds, but if that kind of money is being spent, there is a business to be made.

    Using EchoAge you send out an invitation via email to the friends of your child. When the recieve the invitation, they are asked to, instead of bringing a gift to the party, donate some amount of money to a single charity. EchoAge takes the payment online and confirms everything. The total amount of donations are then pooled and it is split up to buy one gift for the child and then the rest is sent to charity, with EchoAge taking a cut in there somewhere.

    Here?s how: Guests are invited to an ECHOage birthday party online. Instead of bringing a wrapped and packaged present, guests simply RSVP and give a secure online gift of money. Payments are pooled for the purchase of ONE special gift for the birthday child and to support ONE meaningful cause. The site provides online invitations, thank you notes, awards, allergy alerts and even keeps track of RSVPs and the money your child has raised.

    ECHOage arranges everything, so there is no need for guests to drive, shop, wrap or even pick up the phone to make a donation.

    With a recent mention in Vanity Fair co-founders Debbie Zinman and Alison Smith off to a great start.

  • homezilla.com – know your neighborhood when buying a home

    HomeZilla, a real-estate companion site, is launching publicly today. When I first saw the site back in February of this year, it still had a long way to go in terms of usability, and it looks like they have really been working hard in the time since then.

    It is practically impossible to do anything worthwhile online for the real-estate market in Canada. The Multiple Listings Service is a monopoly and the ultimate gatekeeper of listings data. They protect themselves with anti-competitive contracts and stifle any sort of innovation. They regularly shut down websites and startups who come up against them. The most famous of which was the Real Estate Plus project by Bell Canada.

    So, what do you do if you are passionate about this market, but can’t play fair? You go around the bullies and provide value in other ways.

    HomeZilla provides neighborhood information that helps you make a decision about where you want to buy. Where are my local pubs? Schools? Child Care? LCBO? It is all in there.

    The Toronto based company has a lot of work ahead of them to get exposure during a time that has seen real estate purchased drop like a rock in Toronto (down 22% to 30% by some estimates) and other cities. That said, I think HomeZilla will play an even more important role for a new type of buyer who will be a lot more picky about where they are purchasing, and they will have time to browse around, rather than bidding on every house that comes on the market.

    I do not know exactly what HomeZilla’s revenue model is, but I can think of a handful of obvious opportunities to provide add-on value for real estate agents.

    Personally, I think we need more startups like this, who demonstrate the possibilities of what can be done in the real estate space, and who I hope will collectively give a big middle finger to the MLS monopoly.

    HomeZilla was founded by former Yahoo! manager Sandy Ward, who recently returned to Toronto from San Francisco.

  • CVCA – Global Customers, Investors and Acquirers – October 15th, 2008

    I will be speaking at the Canadian Venture Capital Association’s upcoming professional development day on October 15th. I will be on a panel with Rob Lane, from Overlay.TV and Maggie Fox from Social Media Group.

    Our session description is

    ?Going global” is no longer an option for many companies. It is a necessity. This session will examine issues and strategies in building international networks that will lead to business opportunities and enhanced returns. Learn how to link into international networks of customers, partners, acquirers and investors to better position your companies for global success. The role that social technologies can play in fostering these global networks will also be discussed.

    Other sessions include “THE BIG PICTURE ? KEY STRATEGIES FOR CREATING ESSENTIAL INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS” with Jennifer Brooy,Vice President, EDC Equity and Rajiv Pancholy, Chairman and CEO, TenXC Wireless as well as “RELATIONSHIPS WITH GLOBAL SYNDICATE PARTNERS AND ACQUIRERS ? THE VIEW FROM HOME AND ABROAD”

    It looks like a good day and if it is typical of CVCA events, the biggest value will be in having a chance to hang out with some of the other attendees who tend to be other startups (the smart ones go to CVCA events when they can afford them) and funders.

    The half-day event is $299 for non-CVCA members if you attend in-person in Toronto, and $70 if you watch it from one of the simulcast locations in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Fredricton or Halifax.

  • CollectionBuddy.com – BrightSpark is back to catalog your collection

    Back in January we broke the news that Brightspark, previously one of the most visible VC firms in Canada, was changing how they did business. Instead of looking for deals to invest in, which they complained were too few and far between, they would instead create web-based businesses themselves, or they would partner with other entrepreneurs to start businesses. Which BrightSpark would have an operational role in.

    Tomorrow Toronto based Brightspark 3.0 will be announcing their first new business, Collectionbuddy.com, which is described like this: 

    Collectionbuddy?s ambition is to be the world?s largest living, user generated catalog of collectible items – The definitive encyclopedia of collectibles.

    It is a tool for researching any collection or collectible, from McDonald?s toys, Airport Postcards to Delftware pottery.

    The site?s content is user generated in much the same way as Wikipedia. The categories of collectibles are very similar to that of eBay?s.

    Brightspark is also announcing that they are able to help build web-apps for your startup.

    I have to admit, it is a little bewildering to see one of the most aggressive and interesting VCs in Canada turn in to a web consulting shop in the last 8 months. I am not sure why they didn’t just drop the Brightspark name completely and start fresh.

    When I spoke to Mark Skapinker in January, he lamented that they literally just could not find enough good deals here in Canada and that was the primary reason they had for heading down this path.

    In the last year we have seen this re-creation of Brightspark, turmoil at Celtic House, a gutting at VenturesWest (read the comments for some interesting analysis), and rumors are swirling about several other firms. This is a time of change, and we have to work hard to make sure that it is good that comes from it. You can’t blame Brightspark for not getting creative at least.

    In the coming days I plan to chat with the BrightSpark team to find out how this transition has been going, and if it has been worth it.

     

     

  • Introducing the StartupNorth Event Calendar

    We get emails just about everyday asking for a calendar of startup events across Canada. And it is a damn shame for entrepreneurs to miss a chance to meet up just because there is no event calendar. So without further ado, head on over and check it out. Right now, we just have Toronto events listed, but we’ll be adding Calendars for all the other great regions across Canada as soon as possible.

    We are using Google Calendar so people across the country can collaborate on this project. If you already use Google Calendar and would like to occasionally contribute by posting events, contact us and we?ll provide you with this super power.

    Updates: Edmonton is now onboard (thanks to Cam)! Montreal coming soon (thanks to Heri)! And Waterloo too (thanks to Thom)! Note: If you also live in these cities and are interested in contributing, please contact us as well!

    ___________________________

    Mea Culpa. I pulled the image that originally accompanied this post. Why? Well first off, I wasn’t particularly satisfied with it to begin with. While this Calendar Project is something we?ve been thinking about for a while now, the image to accompany the announcement was just something I rushed out this morning. Yes, of course it was just a joke. No, this was not my finest work with Photoshop. For those of you curious what all the hoopla is about, you can find the image posted here.

    My hope is for this Calendar Project to help get more people (men AND women) out to events and as a result working together building great companies. I?d hate for anyone to feel left out. Two of the many things I love about Canada are its inclusiveness and that people call things how they see them. I wouldn?t change either of these things for the world.

    I hope you find the calendar useful. See you at an upcoming event.

    Jonas

  • backtype – Search blog comments from all over the web

    Comments on blog posts have always been the forgotten son of web content. When you make a comment, you never know how it will be read, where it will end up, and because of spam issues, they rarely show up in search engines. Also, because of NoFollow, your links don’t matter either.

    BackType, a YCombinator funded company started by Toronto’s Christopher Golda and Mike Montano is the first tool that just may solve these problems. Some have gone in this direction before, but have had technically top-heavy models.

    Instead of creating a new standard, or trying to convince blog authors to make changes to their site, BackType scours the web just like other search engines and it scrapes the comments, or they pick up the comments RSS feeds, which tools like WordPress output on request.

    The moment I used BackType for the first time, I had a total “aha!” moment and I knew exactly when and why I would use the service.

    Chris and Mike’s first startup was iPartee, a beautiful but underused (at least in Canada) event tool. Austin Hill also interviewed them here on StartupNorth just over a month ago.