StartupNorth

Category: Toronto

  • MeshU: One day developer mini conference that rocked

    This is a guest post by Chris Long, the lead developer of Well.ca and a partner in the launch of the StartupIndex.

    MeshU, which took place on the day before the Mesh Conference here in Toronto, was a developer focused mini-conference with 3 streams of sessions. Each stream had a distinct focus such as: development, design and management. While the Mesh Conference is in its third year, this was the first ever MeshU, so I was curious to see how well things would go.

    There was a lot of variety in attendees, with people from management, sales, and development and from varying sizes of companies in attendance. One of the biggest reasons people had for coming to MeshU was the unique lineup of speakers, especially for a Canadian conference.

    After much deliberation and coin flipping, I settled on attending: Avi Bryant’s “Turning the Tables: Moving Beyond Relational Storage”, Daniel Burka’s “Iterative Design Strategies”, Alistair Croll?s ?Watch It ? How to Monitor Web Applications?, and Ryan Carson’s “How to Start Your Own Start?up”.

    Avi Bryant really did change my view on relational databases. For most web applications, storing data is done with databases such as MySQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL. Avi challenged this and described how large web companies (Yahoo, Google, Amazon) approach this, and then described what smaller companies can possibly learn from the large companies.

    The “Iterative Design Strategy” session was packed, and I ended up joining more then half the audience on the floor. Daniel Burka did not disappoint his audience, as he explored what iterative design meant to him. The example he used was the iterations of Digg’s comment system.

    Alistair Croll’s powerpoint on monitoring web applications numbered 135 slides, he just had that much information. The slides covered the types of tools available for monitoring web sites and the kind of information they give. He weighed the pros and cons of every type of monitoring tool, and left everyone with an understanding of why and how they should monitor their websites.

    I finished off my day with Ryan Carson?s presentation on starting/running a startup. At the end of it, I think a lot of people had the urge to apply for a job at Carsonified (they give iPhones, 30″ screens and Aeron Chair to all their employees). His ideas and comments, while not revolutionary, were still of use to a lot of people. I can summarize it in two words: “Be Friendly”.

    The MeshU organizers did a good job of getting an awesome lineup of speakers, and promoting a relaxed more workshop feel to the day. I will certainly be there next year.

  • viigo.com – A new round of funding and a cool new app

    Viigo has announced a new round of funding today. They had previously raised a total of $6.4M and this round, at $1.5M now puts them at a total of $7.9M in angel and VC investment.

    The $1.5M, which will go towards developing their latest project, codenamed Tango and which will be launched at WES next week, comes from RBC Venture Partners.

    I hear a lot of great reviews of Viigo from Blackberry users.

    Viigo on StartupIndex.

  • Idée, who we have covered a few times, is slowly going public with their skunkworks project, called TinEye.

    TinEye is a major undertaking, and it is going to bring Idée out of the shadows of the Enterprise product space and right in to your livingroom with a tool that is the equivalent of a Google for images. In fact, I bet Google wishes they had an image search as great as TinEye. I have had a chance to play with it over the last few months and it is hard to describe just how awesome this image search is.

    TineEye, which allows anyone to search the internet for images the are similar to an original image, is a consumer-focused site that offers many of the core image matching capabilities of Idée’s enterprise product PixID, but does not offer the enterprise-level monitoring capabilities.

    In talking about TinEye, Idee has been very explicit in saying “TinEye literally does for images what Google does for text.” That can be hard to believe right until you actually use the tool. The speed and accuracy of TinEye can only be described at uncanny. It is totally refreshing to play with a tool and a technology that is exciting and inspiring to use. In the last few weeks I have played with some competing tools, and none can match TinEye. Idée’s CEO Leila Boujnane, who spoke at the latest StartupCamp here in Toronto, has said that they will begin looking for about $10-million to $12-million in capital funding for a small stake in the company.

    To celebrate the upcoming launch of TinEye, and to spread the word on how great this tool is, we are giving away 20 beta invitations to TinEye.com. To get one, all you have to do is leave a comment below and make sure you fill in your email address. I will send invitations to the first 20 people to leave a comment.

    Idée on StartupIndex.ca

  • CIX – Our chance to create something great?

    I think a lot of people considered CIX, held in Toronto last week, to be a simple extension of the defunct Canadian Venture Forum. The Canadian Venture Forum, which was dealt a fatal blow last year with the death of the Toronto Venture Group, did look very similar in a lot of ways. A slew of companies were all hawking their wares and pitching for financing from Canada’s Venture Capitalists, and while there were at least 20 startups there vying for attention, actual VCs seemed to be hard to come by regularly.

    The CIX is not perfect. The concept of pitching a room full of VCs for money has some serious flaws, not the least of which is the fact that the majority of the VCs who attended CIX in the morning did not stick around to see the pitches in the afternoon. Add on top of that the likelihood of this conference giving birth to a successful deal directly from the pitches, and you are in for a lot of disappointed attendees.

    It is my hope that CIX will look a lot different next year. Normally that would be too much to ask, but in the last few months I have gotten to know Robert Montgomery, the invisible hand behind the CIX conference, and he gives me hope.

    In order to remain relevant, the CIX organizers need to now connect with the community and find out what was relevant, and what wasn’t. The two communities that the CIX touches, Startup Entreprenurs and Angels/VCs, will have different needs, and the trick will be to address both.

    I do not believe that what the two groups need is either pitch sessions with 10 back-to-back pitches, nor does either community want a series of panels that offer little real value. What we need are connections, rapidfire demos and a venue for the best and most aggressive Startups AND VCs to stand out.

    The way I see it, Robert and his staff have a lot of work ahead of them, but they aren’t the only ones. If Robert will step up and listen, we have to be ready to pitch in and do our part.

    In the next few days I will post a few of my experiences at CIX. Some were very positive and some were a lot less encouraging.

    What would you change? Is this a hopeless beauty contest? Should we boycott CIX next year, or should we embrace it?

  • Refresh Analytics – Analytics and Demographics for Facebook developers

    My love for Facebook Applications is no secret.

    There is, however, a shining light in the world of Facebook Applications and that is the smart folks who build custom Facebook applications for other people. The business model is sound: Get paid up front to build a great application and you don’t have to worry about the business model or any of the other nasty stuff that comes along with being stuck inside Facebook.

    Refresh Analytics is being launched today and it on the smart side of the Facebook platform. They provide analytics and reporting tools to the owners of Facebook applications. The tool, which is free for applications with less than 1000 users, provides tracking across 13 demographic and 6 interest categories such as geography, gender, age, martial status, music, books and more. All demographic information is collected in aggregate to protect user privacy and respect the Facebook platform terms of service.

    Products like this have the potential to be very successful inside of a platform like Facebook. As more and more application developers struggle to make their applications successful, they are going to have to turn to rich data about their user base in order to build compelling and relevant features.

    More successful Facebook applications will also want access to better analytics so that they can do a better job of selling ads within their applications, or so that they do a better job of targeting their users with specific messages.

    The guys at Refresh have also partnered with Joyent to mitigate any sort of scaling issues. Joyent provides flexible hosting that can grow and reduce capacity as needed. Hopefully they’ll need it!

    Refresh Analytics on StartupIndex

  • Founders & Funders Toronto – June 4, 2008

    Jevon MacDonald and I are please to announce the second Toronto Founders & Funders dinner on June 4, 2008.

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    What: Founders & Funders Toronto
    Founders & Funders is a private, invite only social event. Founders and Funders is dedicated: to helping Canadian entrepreneurs to meet each other; meet potential funders: angel, VC or other money sources; to have fun; and see how we can help each other create the NEXT BIG successful company.
    When: Wednesday, June 4, 2008 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM

    The inaugural Toronto event sold out. And we’re expecting this event to reach capacity very quickly.

    We are limited to 100 seats. The fee for the dinner is $100 which will include drinks and dinner.  This is a private networking event and we are selecting the audience to ensure a quality group of attendees. And to provide the best chance to network together.

    How do I get an Invite?

    If you would like to attend the dinner, please fill out the following form and let us know who you are.

    We will be contacting those invited with details on the registration and attendance details for the dinner in the coming weeks.

    Special Guest  – Dan’l LewinDan'l Lewin

    We’re incredibly lucky to have Dan’l Lewin scheduled to be in attendance (Dan’l is the Corporate Vice-President, Strategic and Emerging Business Development for Microsoft). Check out GigaOM’s interview with Dan’l where he talks candidly about his role in Microsoft and how Microsoft works with other emerging technology companies.

    Dan’l Lewin is corporate vice president of Strategic and Emerging Business Development, responsible for managing worldwide strategic business relationships with venture capitalists and emerging venture-capital-backed businesses, as well as managing the business relationship with leading global industry partners such as SUN, Adobe, Intuit and BEA to ensure their applications interoperate with and run well on the Microsoft platform – for the benefit of the companies’ common customers. Lewin is based at Microsoft’s Mountain View, Calif. campus.

    A 25-year Silicon Valley veteran, Lewin was most recently CEO of Aurigin Systems Inc., an enterprise software company focused on intellectual property asset management. He also spent 18 years as an executive, leading sales and marketing divisions for companies including Apple Computer Corp., NeXT Inc. and GO Corporation. In addition, Lewin has served as a consultant for emerging companies, venture capital firms and corporate joint ventures.

    Lewin holds an A.B. in politics from Princeton University.

    Sponsors

    We’re working with a number of great organizations to sponsor the event.

    If you would like to sponsor this event or other Founders & Funders events across Canada please feel free to contact David Crow or Jevon MacDonald.

  • Tripharbor.com – community, cruising and a real business!

    Here is an industry that you don’t see a lot of startups jumping in to. There is something about starting a travel website that scares people off. It is a huge industry, and one where customers actually spend a lot of money and the commissions, especially on something like cruises, can be massive. So, I was excited when I first started hearing rumblings about what Stuart was up to.

    Enter TripHarbour, a startup led by former Chief Marketing Officer of Expedia.com and Founder of Expedia Canada, Stuart MacDonald. TripHarbour went live this morning and is probably one of the most polished launches I have seen in the last year.

    Stuart and the team didn’t go in to “beta”, instead they tested the site internally as much as they could and only launched when they had a site that was shipshape. This approach makes a lot of sense when your target market is the general public (not early adopters) and if they encounter a single error or get confused even once, they may never come back.

    The thing that sets TripHarbour apart from other travel sites is that it is focused exclusively on cruising. There are surprisingly few decent cruising websites and none that combine community features and cruise buying all in one. Segmenting the travel market is bound to pay off, cruising is a $21 billion dollar market, that’s enough treasure for any sailor.

    Congrats to the entire TripHarbour team. Now the real hard work starts: Getting people to the site. Luckily Stuart has some experience with that, and I am going to watch closely and learn as much as I can as they get TripHarbour out there.

    Contact Stuart MacDonald

  • StartupCamp Toronto 2 – What we expect from you

    Pitching is never easy, and every pitch is different, but there are a few basic pieces of information that every audience would like to hear, so I decided to throw together an outline of the critical components that your pitch should cover.

    This is not an outline of your entire pitch, but a starting point to help you make sure that you have the most important parts in there.

    This is based on the audience feedback from StartupCampToronto 1.

    Market Analysis

    The audience needs to have some context. The easiest way to answer the majority of the audience?s questions is to define as tightly as possible who you plan to sell to.

    Relevant data includes

    • Estimated Market Size
    • Rough demographic information
    • Geographic limitations or focus
    • An idea of how your market will grow and change during the time you are targeting them

    Marketing Plan

    How will you communicate with your customers? ?We will get written about in blogs? is a popular but ultimately bad answer.

    If you have done the ?Market Analysis? work and have an idea of who you will be selling to, then the best way to get a decent first marketing plan is to look at the ways in which you can communicate with that market.

    Sales

    Not everyone will need this, but if your customers go through any sort of ?purchasing process? (ie: Enterprise customers, or small businesses), then it is a good idea to demonstrate how you will handle that sales process. What are your points of contact?

    How will you find a lead, test it and then follow through on communicating with them? Think about showing how you go from cold leads to getting the sales rolling in.

    Product Development Vision

    A lot of startups get so caught up in demoing what they have built so far that they forget to get people excited about what?s coming next. Telling people your vision for the product says a lot, but more than anything it shows that you aren?t going to sit still. People have trouble getting excited about a startup that has built something great but might not do much of interest going forward.

    • How will your product change?
    • How will the market change?
    • How will the product address that change?

    Don?t be that guy

    Occasionally there is a really smart group of people who have the product nailed, but are weak on the marketing and biz dev side of the startup. If you fit that profile, the audience is going to be hard on you about this, so you have to prepare to be as open as possible to the advice you will get.

    What you don?t want to do is to become defensive and start relying on the product as your savior in each case ?it will sell itself?, etc.

    Don?t be ?that guy? who won?t admit his shortcomings. Knowing your weaknesses is a critical part of being a great entrepreneur. So get real about where you fall down and get ready to be grilled about it.

    Relax

    Relax. Startupcamp could be the opportunity of a lifetime for your startup. Mentors, investors and other entrepreneurs (who may be your most valuable connection) are all there to help you build something great. So relax, you are among friends.

    Our Sponsors

  • b5media + Technorati merger talks over?

    This morning a slide from a PowerPoint deck outlining a potential merger between JLA-backed blog network b5media and blog search engine Technorati was leaked.

    Techcrunch says that the deal has been called off. Toronto based b5media has been looking to raise a significant series B and seems to been exploring doing the deal as part of a merger, hence the Technorati talks. We have an email out to Blog King Jeremy Wright, CEO of b5, to find out more.

    Till then feel free to play armchair quarterback in the comments.

  • Radiant Core acquired by Zerofootprint

    Radiant CoreRadiant Core has been acquired by Zerofootprint Software. Radiant Core was a Toronto-based web design and development shop led by Jay Goldman and Mike Glenn.  Zerofootprint is a Toronto-based company that “provides information, products and services for the global network of consumers and businesses who wish to reduce their environmental impact”. Radiant Core is best known for the visual design of Firefox 2, and has been recognized by Taschen as a leading web design agency. Jay and I have presented together at Web2Expo, FSOSS and Ignite. We’re also co-conspirators in this whole DemoCamp thing.

    zerofootprintsoftwareZerofootprint has been a client of Radiant Core. Radiant Core designed, built and launched the Zerofootprint Calculator Facebook application (add the application). Zerofootprint has a laudable goal to empower people and change their collective footprint.

    Our goal is to mobilize and empower large groups of individuals and organizations worldwide, to reduce their collective carbon and ecological footprint. We do this by harnessing the power of social networking, the Internet and software.

    Why acquire a consulting firm? It’s a great acquisition method, Ron and the Zerofootprint team really managed their risk by engaging Radiant Core to evaluate capabilities, working styles, and the quality of team deliverables. In Radiant Core they get a world-class design firm with strong experience designing and building accessible web and social media applications. Radiant Core also has deep roots in participating and building vibrant, open creative communities. Jay and Mike have been involved with TorCamp, DemoCamp, TransitCamp, FacebookCamp/Facebook Developer Garage and other activities here in Toronto. The Zerofootprint team had the opportunity to evaluate the Radiant Core team and their ability to deliver on the design and development of the Zerofootprint Calculator Facebook application.  Zerofootprint and Radiant Core have worked together and can begin to have informed conversations about cultural compatibility and employee integration based on real experiences.

    No financial details have been released.

    What does this mean for Toronto?

    • One less world-class web design shop.
    • One more awesome software startup, now with world-class web development team!

    It means that Zerofootprint just acquired one of the best web development shops in Canada to be their product team. Running a consulting business is a tough slog. It’s a linear growth business, i.e., you grow revenues by increasing the number of billable hours, increasing the billable rate, or increasing the number of people. It hopefully gives Jay and Mike an exit. It gives Zerofootprint a huge accelerator to continue to build products and services that will help to change the world.

    Interested in what it really means, try calculating your footprint at http://toronto.zerofootprint.net/ and see how Zerofootprint is working with the City of Toronto to create a greener city.