StartupNorth

Category: Toronto

  • Startup Weekend Toronto & GEW

    Startup Weekend Toronto is coming back for it’s third event in just over year. The city is making a name for itself amongst the global Startup Weekend community, having held some of the highest quality events, including last June’s which turned out to be the largest North American event held to date.

    The city has lots of great events but that’s not what gets me excited. It’s the quality, innovation and momentum that Toronto’s entrepreneurs have that is inspiring. Personally, I never had any interest in running events but I liked the idea of Startup Weekend and was inspired by Startup Weekend’s CEO, Marc Nager and his the team… at least enough to agree to run a single event. Once you’ve been involved in one, it’s hard not to keep it going. The energy, enthusiasm and drive of everyone who’s attended the last two Startup Weekend Toronto events is infectious.

    Last June’s event was a raging success with over half the teams still taking their projects forward and gaining some real traction 6 months later. Vizualize.me is the perfect story of the possibility of a single weekend. A brand new idea gets pitched for the first time. A group of strangers come together as a new team. In under 54hrs, the team iterates, refines, pounds the pavement for customer feedback, signs up over 10,000 registered emails and puts an awesome final presentation together to take first prize. What’s more impressive is what comes next! The Vizualize.me team decided to commit full-time and see where they can take this. As of today, they have over 300,000 registered users, have been covered in Mashable, Fast Company, TechCrunch to name a few, and have gone through a full private and now public beta program. Eugene Woo is actively speaking to investors as they run this startup out of the Ryerson Digital Media Zone.

    November’s Startup Weekend will officially close Global Entrepreneurship Week Canada (GEW) and will be part of the Global Startup Battle with over 65 Startup Weekend events happening around the world during GEW. The winning team from each city event will compete against all 65 cities with a chance to win a trip to DEMO in Singapore. Toronto is going to impress the global startup community once again with a world class event. Check out the event details from the site and by following the action on twitter using #swtoronto .

    There are still a few tickets left and StartupNorth readers can have them at a discount. See you there!

  • Wave Accounting closes $5MM from CRV & OMERS

    Wave AccountingLooks like US VCs are continuing to look at deals in Canada. Wave Accounting announced a $5MM Series A led by Charles River Ventures (CRV) with follow on participation from OMERS Ventures. It is great to see Devdutt Yellurkar (LinkedIn) looking north of the border. Devdutt has an amazing track record at CRV and previously at Rho Ventures, Sterling Commerce and Yantra Corporation. Guessing based on the press release that Devdutt will join Peter Carrescia (LinkedIn, @pcarrescia) from OMERS Ventures on the Wave Accounting board.

    Great news for startups, we’ve now seen Matrix Partners (TribeHR), Union Square Ventures (Kik & Wattpad), CRV (Wave Accounting), Bessemer (Shopify), Freestyle/Greylock/Embracardo (GoInstant) and one other Sand Hill Road firm all make active early investments in Canada. This doesn’t include the Canadians that have raised during stays in the Valley during YCombinator and 500Startups – Vidyard, Upverter (True Ventures), BackType (True Ventures), Kiip (True Ventures), Rewardli (500Startups) and others.

    This is great for Canadian entrepreneurs.

  • Another Monster Raise – Paymentus Closes Big Round From Accel-KKR

    Yesterday we posted about iLoveRewards closing a big growth round from Sequoia. Well today, another JLA Ventures company did a big round of growth money as well. Paymentus raised a big round from Accel-KKR, rumoured to be at $20mm. That’s $45mm in capital to two Canadian companies in a very short period of time. I imagine John Albright, @johnalbright, has enjoyed a celebratory cocktail or two after seeing two portfolio co’s do big growth rounds. Lets also not forget the story of Dushyant Sharma who looks well on his way to yet another entrepreneurial highlight reel entry. And of course big hats off to GrowthWorks for being the initial funders of this company and providing funds to Canadian companies when many others were not. PR post is here.

    Paymentus Corporation, a leading electronic bill payment, presentment and customer communication technology and services company, today announced that it has received an equity investment provided by Accel-KKR, a technology-focused private equity investment firm. The investment will be used by Paymentus to accelerate development, drive growth, and enhance the footprint of its real-time payment network.

    Paymentus’ unified, SaaS platform delivers enterprise bill payment, presentment and revenue management technology through a self-service model, simplifying, automating and streamlining the bill payment process.

    I found an old post from Rick Segal, @ricksegal, about the initial investment JLA did in Paymentus, which I think is a valuable repetitive lesson for all entrepreneurs about how to build a big successful company (something Dushyant has done a few times now):

    We invested in Paymentus for a number of reasons. Our basic business thesis was that there are a number of places where (surprisingly) automation of paying certain types of bills is still in an evolving state. Paymentus has identified a number of these market segments and came to us with some great traction, proprietary technology, tons of industry knowledge, and an impressive plan for growth.

    Dushyant did all the right things as a start up. Self-funded until he hit milestones that started to prove out the business stood out to the investors as well as a very clear and deep understanding of the bill payment and presentment business.

    We’ve done the list of acquisitions and celebrated, I think next up its time to tally the list of big raises, as I think there are more companies “going big” than we give credit.

  • Kanetix acquired by Monitor Clipper Partners

    Kanetix, Canada’s first online insurance marketplace provides over a million quotes per year to consumers looking for insurance, yesterday announced it has been acquired by Monitor Clipper Partners, a Cambridge based private equity firm that manages $2B in capital.

    Co-founded in 1999 by George Small and Gregory Ellis (who will retain significant stakes in Kanetix), the Toronto based company will now be led by Yousry Bissada who has joined on as CEO and Andrew Lo who has joined as Chief Information Officer.

    Yousry and Andrew previously grew Filogix from $3M to $60M in revenue. Monitor Clipper Partners leveraged recapitalized of Filogix in 2004 successfully exited for $212M to Davis & Henderson in 2006. It is encouraging to see experienced repeat teams growing Canadian companies.

    Here’s to a repeat performance.

     

     

  • Nina Sodhi returns and BluTrumpet launches

    One of the great things about the number of exits (be they big or small) since 2010, is that they are enabling a new class of veteran, serial entrepreneurs. The knowledge, the contacts, the street cred, the capital – the second time around can be easier than the first. And it should be good for investors, hopefully some of the returning class will go for building big companies with $100mm+ exits instead of “getting paid” with a $20-$30mm exit.

    Take for instance Blu Trumpet, who launched a few days back. Led by Nina Sodhi, former COO of Bumptop – who were acquired by Google in 2010, Blu Trumpet is the first company to launch out of IAC’s Hatch Labs mobile incubator.

    Hatch Labs, a joint venture with IAC and Xtreme Labs, today introduce Blu Trumpet, an app discovery wall that lets advertisers reach millions of devices with clean, user-friendly ads. Blu Trumpet uses sophisticated design to provide publishers a non-intrusive app discovery tool that users actually enjoy, an alternative to banners, and a more creative way to monetize any app.
    “At Hatch Labs, we know the mobile space and we really saw a need for a new type of mobile ad platform that caters to the new app economy,” said Nina Sodhi, CEO at Blu Trumpet. “That’s why we aren’t focusing on display or pop ups. Blu Trumpet gets integrated into an app’s tab bar, allowing users to find us when they are curious and interested. The consumer is happy — and the publishers and advertisers benefit from that.”

    Blu Trumpet offers consumers a new, non-intrusive way to find cool apps without searching through lists of a million apps through Blu Trumpet’s in-app ad platform, “the app wall.” While in a favorite app, consumers can view the Blu Trumpet app wall to discover new recommended apps based on those they’re currently using.

    “It’s like getting a tip from a friend,” said Karthik Ramakrishnan, Blu Trumpet Product Director. “Consumers avoid intrusive pop up and banner ads, and get to discover recommended apps they’d probably never find otherwise.”

    I think Nina Sodhi becoming a GM at IAC and CEO of BluTrumpet, along with her amazing bio (UW Elec Eng, Harvard MBA, VP at Merril Lynch, COO Bumptop, etc, etc), puts her up there in the elite rank of Canadian entrepreneurs. And hopefully her results at IAC and with BluTrumpet will push some of the other recent “exitees” to come back and fight the entrepreneurial good fight. For instance, Jeson Patel, Anish Acharya, Anand Agarawala – aren’t you guys all coming up to 1 or 2 years at Google.. isn’t that enough time to claim your prize and start something new??

  • Red flags

    Red Flag Warning - Some rights reserved by Bob AuBuchon CC-NC-BY-SA
    AttributionNoncommercialNo Derivative Works     Some rights reserved by Bob AuBuchon

    This is an unfortunate story that entrepreneurs should read and understand.

    We start companies for a number of different reasons. We want to change the world. We want to solve problems. We are unemployable. We are crazy. And we stay up at night worrying about taking care of our employees, our customers, our investors.

    So it is hard to understand how well regarded funds wind down companies without providing information to employees.

    Investor immorality: The strange case of Blue Noodle

    Start-ups fail all the time. But there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. This is an example of the wrong way.

    On Monday, most employees of social media startup Blue Noodle didn’t get paid. They called their lead venture capital firm, which wouldn’t discuss the situation with them. They called their former CEO, who refused to pick up the phone. They called their lender, who said to call the venture capital firm. And thus the circle began anew.

    “In my more than 20 years of working in Silicon Valley, I’ve been involved on more failed companies than I’d like to admit, but there is always an orderly win-down process,” says John Montgomery, chairman of law firm Montgomery & Hansen. “It sounds like the VCs in this case are treating the company like a car they abandon in a parking lot with the keys in the ignition.”

    Read on…

  • Can’t make it to GrowConf? Try TechTalksTO

    Tech Talks TOWe’re big fans of all of the technical community efforts going on across the country. I have the privilege of going to Vancouver next week for GrowConf, but we want to return the favor to local entrepreneurs and students in the GTA. We have 5 tickets for TechTalksTO.

    The effort to encourage participation by local students was led by the team at Uken Games.

    Uken is planning on sponsoring tickets for 3-4 students to attend http://underground.techtalksto.com/. We’ll also be sponsoring the event in general. I was wondering if we could promote this giveaway through an article on StartUpNorth. We haven’t figured out the criteria for selection but we’re thinking either a short paragraph of why we should choose you and a short code puzzle.

    I have purchased my ticket for the event, but I am unable to attend. We will give away one ticket per day starting today until all 5 tickets are gone. Someone else can figure out when that is.

    Uken Games

    How to win a ticket TechTalksTO?

    To win these passes tweet the following until Thursday:

    RT to enter! “Hey @startupnorth @ukengames – Please send me to the @techtalksTO Underground ($INSERT_LINK_TO_YOUR_BLOG/COMPANY).”

    This is a great local event. For developers by developers. Must attend, like the venerable events like FutureRuby and RubyFringe. It is great to see Toronto Ruby Brigade, TechTalksTO, TechnologicTO, AndroidTO, HTML5 Web App Developers and others engaging and supporting the community.

  • TechTalksTO Underground

    Tech Talks TOAlong with the team at FreshBooks, StartupNorth is proud to support TechTalksTO. TechTalksTO previous put together a series of speakers at the Gladstone Hotel on West Queen West that feature some great talks about technology for Toronto developer community. We’re very happy to be a Sponsor and Media Sponsor of their upcoming conference event on August 13, 2011. It’s a great group of front-end, back-end and devops focused entrepreneurial technologists.

    What a great way to spend a Saturday before flying out to GrowConf later in the week.

    The Details

    When: Saturday, August 13, 2011
    Where:  Toronto Underground Cinema, Spadina Avenue.
    What:  All-day conference + After-Party

    Speaker Lineup

    After Party

    One of the best parts about our previous TechTalksTO events were the unofficial gatherings afterward. They were always a great opportunity to network and have some great conversations. We enjoy it so much, we figured for this event, we’d make it an official part of the day so your ticket will include admission, food, and drinks at the exclusive after-party Saturday evening to be held at a nearby establishment.

    Tickets

    Tickets are available NOW!.  Alas, due to the size and scope of this undertaking, we have to charge actual money for tickets for this one but we think you’ll totally get your money’s worth. Tickets will be priced at $150, including admission to the after-party, which will also get you a couple of drinks and some food. We also plan to have some food and drinks available throughout the day at the conference venue.

  • Teaching Software Engineering and Startups at UofT


    AttributionNoncommercialNo Derivative Works Some rights reserved by SteveGarfield

    About 5 years ago I was asked to teach a 4th year undergrad software engineering course at the University of Toronto. The course had been previously cancelled due to low enrollment; in an era dubbed the “Software Gold Rush” a cancelled course indicated something was wrong…

    Software engineering is difficult to teach
    Students are expected to learn how to avoid mistakes they never made. A great divide results from the instructor talking about concepts suitable for a mature organization when students are all about working their ass off and getting things done the night before. We borrowed several lessons from startups, having been personally involved with two startups over a dozen years. The way startups work are much closer to students ways of doing things. Since launch, course enrolment has tripled and two Y Combinator applications have been submitted based on class projects. Here is what we have learned so far:

    1. Use a startup software process
    Students are all about getting things done the night before; similar to how startups work. Teaching a heavyweight process feels foreign because students haven’t made the mistakes to understand reasons for the overhead!

    2. Change the project every year
    There is nothing more of a turnoff than a make-work project with antiquated technology. Instructors that use the same project over and over are sleepwalking. A new project each year puts the instructor and students on equal footing, solving problems together. Make the class goal to have someone apply to Y Combinator. Discuss the non-technical issues of software such has how people are going to use the product, how are you going to sell it, what is the competition like, what is the business plan. One big class project brings issues into the classroom better resembling the real world. This also allows non-trivial projects to be developed and students to test-out roles (e.g. project management) that would not otherwise exist.

    3. Allow controlled crashes
    Let the students make mistakes. For example, let them avoid source control. A student who looses code because of clobbered checkins will be a lesson learned for the entire class. However, when crashes occur, it is the instructor’s responsibility to manage and fix it. After the mistakes have been made, teach them about process. Keep things light and give them references for their future travels. During lectures on process, tie them into the mistakes that were made. Make process real.

    4. Demo early and often
    Create a culture where the principal deliverable is working software rather than documentation. Use early demos to correct mistakes and give guidance rather than having them worry about their grades.

    5. Instructors should code
    The instructor-student relationship changes dramatically if the instructor contributes code. Everyone becomes a peer instantly. This improve communication and follows the startup philosophy that even managers should write code.

    Next steps
    The course has been well received by the students at UofT. I have much more regular contract with students from this class than the other courses I have taught at UofT and UofW. I am interested in hearing from anyone who is interested in providing continuity to the students; a partner that would provide input on the project at the beginning, stay involved with it during the course, and offer a path forward for interested students ready to commit to a startup.

  • Why Wasn’t BackType Funded in Canada?

    This is a cross post from Mark Evans Tech written by Mark Evans of ME Consulting.

    BacktypeFor those of us who work in the Canadian social media and startup circles, there was some celebrating earlier this week when BackType announced it had been sold to Twitter.

    Lots of credit goes to founders Christopher Golda and Mike Montano, who have made BackType one of the leading services to track and analyze social media activity.

    Without raining on the BackType parade, a question that begs to be asked is whether BackType should have been funded in Canada as opposed to the U.S.

    To provide some background, Golda and Montano were electrical engineering graduates from the University of Toronto, who showed their entrepreneurial chops by starting a service called iPartee. While the business didn’t succeed, Golda and Montano proceeded to start BackType in 2008 as a way to search for blog comments.

    To jump-start the business, they applied and were accepted into Paul Graham’s YCombinator startup program in Silicon Valley, which coughed up $15,000 for a 6% in BackType. This let Golda and Montano create a prototype they could pitch to investors. Over the next three years, BackType raised $1.3-million and expanded into Twitter search.

    In hindsight, BackType is a big fish that got away from Canadian investors. I would hazard to guess that in 2008 getting seed capital from Canadian investors was a remote possibility for Golda and Montano, which is likely one of the reasons they applied for the YCombinator program.

    The question is whether BackType would get funded today in Canada. It appears the seed and startup investment landscape has changed with the emergence of new funds such as Real Ventures. Meanwhile, there has been a growing number of startup acquisitions, which should bolster the confidence of investors and entrepreneurs.

    Do Canadian investors now have the ability and willingness to finance smart entrepreneurs with ideas? Or do Canadian investors still need to see traction such as a finished product, customers or revenue?

    For more on the BackType story, check out this TechVibes story.