StartupNorth

Category: Startups

  • The Communitech Hub

    Communitech is getting $26.4m from the Ontario Government towards the creation of The Communitech Hub: Digital Media & Mobile Accelerator.

    “Located in Waterloo Region and serving technology companies provincewide, The Hub will help hardware and software entrepreneurs bring new tools, technologies and applications to market. The Hub will focus on commercialization, business development, access to financing and connecting clients with other digital media hubs across Ontario and Canada.”

    It looks like it is a physical space with resources to help entrepreneurs.

    “The Hub [is] a new centre that will help emerging digital media companies grow and succeed in the global market. In particular, The Hub will look beyond the entertainment sector to focus on companies creating hardware and software for industries, including advanced manufacturing, healthcare and finance.”

    It’s great news for Waterloo Region. Further support of a great organization with Communitech as a leader. Additional attention and awareness to a growing tech sector with companies like OpenText and RIM. And additional real estate development and construction jobs.

    What I am curious about is the relationship of the Accelerator Centre to The Hub? And what is the relationship to nGen? to MaRS? to RIC Centre? to OCRI? to Innovation Synergy Centre? Ontario Centres for Excellence? Is there a plan for where each of these pieces fit together? How about where these programs fit relative to local Economic Development Corporations? Is this really about creating an innovation and entrepreneurship based economy? Or is it about investing in third-party, arms length, pseudo-government agencies without looking like big government?

    So it’s a mixed bag. This announcement continues to show technology entrepreneurship is a focus of the Ontario Government’s plan to help seed a new economy by bring new companies to market. But there seems to be a focus on real estate as the first step in enablement. Any thoughts?

  • Interview with John Green of Savvica

    jumbotests I had an opportunity to catch up recently with John Green, cofounder of Savvica, and over an early morning breakfast got schooled on what’s new at LearnHub and JumboTests.

    StartupNorth: What is JumboTests.com? What’s the relationship to LearnHub.com?

    John Green: JumboTests is an extraction of core test preparation technology and content from LearnHub, and factored for a different audience and user acquisition model. Both sites are run by the same content, engineering, and community management teams here at Savvica Inc.

    SN: So what is the change in target audience with JumboTests?

    JG: LearnHub, although useful to English speakers everywhere, is targeted at the Indian student market. More than half of Savvica’s employees are in fact in our marketing team, which is based in Delhi, India.

    JumboTests, on the other hand, is not focused on any particularly geography; it is equally useful to anyone studying for the standardized tests covered on the site (including GMAT, GRE, SAT, TOEFL, and others). This makes JumboTests especially relevant in the US and other Western countries which have the majority of the test takers every year.

    SN: How are the user acquisition models different?

    JG: Visitors to LearnHub mostly come through search engines. LearnHub has several hundred thousand pages indexed by Google and other search engines, and we rank at the top for hundreds of popular search terms. The site has a mix of user generated content and content made by our expert staff. For instance, LearnHub has the world’s largest free GMAT question bank, which has thousands of questions developed by us and our community. It is very popular.

    Search engine traffic is less of a factor for JumboTests. Instead we are growing through strategic partnerships. Sites with existing, large, and relevant user bases (such as job sites, education sites, or portals) essentially embed JumboTests into their site using our partner platform. Our partners get hundreds of high quality practice tests that drive engagement, page views, and a split of the revenue.

    Since the JumboTests launch 3 months ago, we have entered into long term relationships with 3 partners, all top in their categories: TalentEgg, India.com, and The Globe & Mail. All of these integrations are already deployed and online.

    SN: So what’s next?

    JG: We feel both properties have a bright future. Between the 2 sites, we help over 350,000 students a month with test prep, university applications, and career advice. That’s a lot, but there are many more students that aren’t on our sites but should be.

    LearnHub is the largest education website in India, excluding reference sites like Wikipedia. But India has a long way to go in terms of Internet penetration. It has about 2x the Internet users as Canada, but it also has over 1 billion people. The number of Internet users in India doubled last year to 50-60 million. We are pegging our growth to outpace the Indian Internet penetration rate over the next 5 years.

    JumboTests is tackling a more mature market. That is why we are growing it primarily through partnerships. There are a lot of established online channels whose audiences would benefit from our unique content and delivery technology.

  • Impact National Conference & Impact Ventures

    Impact Entrepreneurship GroupImpact_blog_redlogo started life as a student group designed to help promote entrepreneurship as a career path. It was started by Kunal Gupta, now the founder & CEO of Polar Mobile. It started as a conference for students, “a one-day event in Kitchener, Ontario attracting 150 delegates”. It is still primarily a conference/event machine for student entrepreneurs. However, with the creation of Impact Consulting and now Impact Ventures (see below) this is changing very quickly.

    The next INC_logoImpact National Conference is happening November 20-21, 2009 at the Westin Harbour Castle on Queens Quay in Toronto. The conference features some interesting speakers including some familiar faces: Andy Nulman, Sunjay Nath, Ali Asaria, Jordan Banks, Saul Colt, Austin Hill, Mike McDerment and others. It looks to be a great conference with a great list of speakers in Toronto.

     

    What is most interesting to me is the announcement of the Impact 2010 Programs, including Impact Ventures.

    Many talented youth with innovative ideas steer away from an entrepreneurial path due to the numerous challenges, including funding and guidance, which they inevitably face; Impact Ventures was created to remove these obstacles. Impact Ventures strives to provide youth entrepreneurs with the seed funding, advisory services, workspace tools, and strategic resources they need at the crucial idea stage to create a successful business. Based on the successful Y Combinator model used in Silicon Valley to bring the next generation of ideas to life, Impact Ventures will help propel new startups to achieve their business objectives.

    The selection process consists of an application form and an interview; there is no business plan required. During the pilot, three to four ventures showing the most opportunity for growth and long term sustainability will be chosen for the first batch. This three-month program will bring these budding entrepreneurs to Waterloo, the technology hub of Canada, to present them with all the components each entrepreneur needs to help build their venture.

    Components for each selected Venture:

    • $15,000 in seed funding for an average of 6% stake in the company
    • Mentors available for hands-on help as well as advise
    • Advisory services including Legal, Accounting, Banking and more
    • Office Space in Waterloo to create an environment of collaboration
    • Themed weeks where experts related to starting a business will provide their insights and advice
    • Consultants to help a new company fill gaps in its initial organization

    Impact Ventures is dedicated to the implementation of the entrepreneurial spirit amongst Canadian youth and values the independence of each entrepreneur. We are not interested in controlling the direction of the company as we trust in the entrepreneurs to make the best decision for their company. We believe in a non-regimented and friendly atmosphere where you are allowed to develop your startup with little interference, numerous resources and advice when you need it. Impact Ventures is set to revolutionize the startup industry by giving entrepreneurs an excellent spring board that will launch them to their success.

    I’ve been talking with members of team creating Impact Ventures including Taimur Mohammad and Ray Cao since my post "Incubators, accelerators and ignition” back in April 2009. It looks like the Impact team has taken up the challenge and will be using their network of advisors, past members to help guide and mentor new companies. It also looks like they’ll be providing funding and consulting services to help kick start these early ventures.  There is a Waterloo residency requirement, which potential a detractor for many students actually enables students in the VeloCity program a formalized incubation phase beyond their residence. For many non-University of Waterloo students this provides students access to the ridiculous support network available in Waterloo (I’m looking at you TechCapital and Communitech and BarCampWaterloo). This is something that is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

  • StartupNorth Jobs

    GarageCollageThe hours at a startup might be long and the pay might just cover a six inch sub, but there is nothing more rewarding than being part of a team out to change the world.

    We’ve added a job board on StartupNorth to help Canadian entrepreneurs find great people to bring on.

    Since launching a couple weeks back we’ve had 26 postings, 2667 views, 129 applications, and 16 referrals.

    Companies looking to grow their team include: FreshBooks, Well.ca, Tungle, LearnHub, Fixmo, ThoughtFarmer, iNovia, and Xtreme, obviously some amazing opportunities.

    It is free to search and post, so head on over and check out: StartupNorth Jobs at http://jobs.StartupNorth.ca

  • StartupDrinks – Oct 28, 2009

    startupdrinks1[1]It’s time again!

    " Strong communities are better than weak governments." – Legatum Prosperity Index

    Announcing the arrival of Startup Drinks 4! We’re continuing to keep the spirit of the startup community alive, one pint at a time on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 to be held at Finn McCools, 70 The Esplanade, Toronto, ON M5E1R2.

    It’s a simple concept: a grassroots effort to make sure startup folks get in touch and stay in touch.

    Toronto

    Montreal

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2009 starts at 5:30pm
    • Brutopia, 1215 Crescent St [map]

    Ottawa

    Waterloo

    Remember, it’s about hanging out with other entrepreneurs and startups. Come out, be social and earn some social capital.

  • SmartHippo continues plot for world domination

    logo_smarthippo SmartHippo has named the former LendingTeam GM, Lori Collins, CEO. And they are expanding their European footprint through an exclusive license and partnership with Finacialred in Spain. This is definite traction and a step further down the growth path for George and the team in Montreal. A world-class CEO, a expansion into the European marketplace that allows a local entity to do the sales and marketing allowing the team to continue to work on the software platform. Super cool. 

    “As General Manager of the LendingTree Exchange, Collins was responsible for sales, relationship management, and product management for the LendingTree lender network. She was part of the executive team which increased revenues from $7 million to $476 million over seven years.”

    So what is SmartHippo?

    “SmartHippo.com uses the power of community to help consumers find the best mortgage rates and save money. SmartHippo allows any individual to post information and feedback on the rate they received, and to compare rates with other members of the community with similar profiles. Members of SmartHippo can see real rates reported by real consumers, and sort through banks based on feedback posted by other members of the community. “

    SmartHippo is an open, transparent marketplace where consumers help each other find the best financial products. Basically all of the those hidden gotchas, the little things that are often hidden in the fine print, that you only discover after a difficult situation. It’s about providing a platform that consumers can ask questions, share reviews, compare rates and experiences to make make informed financial decisions. SmartHippo is the underlying software platform that allows these conversations to take place.

    Huge day for SmartHippo. And there is an opportunity for local startups (well local to Montreal) to hear from a Valley veteran running a hot Canadian startup. Lori Collins will be delivering the closing keynote at StartupCamp Montreal on October 15. If you are in the Montreal area, the event takes place at the Society for Arts and Technology, 1195 Saint-Laurent boulevard, Montreal [map] from 6pm to 11pm. Make sure you take the opportunity to participate and meet George, Lori and the team.

  • Uken Games – Caution: highly addictive games

    This is part of a series on Extreme University and the first group of graduates from the Summer 2009 program (part 1: Assetize).

    superheroesalliance Uken Games is a social game developer based in Toronto. They build “highly addictive” social games on large social platforms including Facebook, Myspace, and iPhone. Their first game, Superheroes Alliance, has 50K active monthly users.

    Founders

    Founded by Mark Lampert and Chris Ye (Facebook). They are young developers and business school grads. Mark was one of the developers behind Twisted Trick-or-Treating and Twisted Gifts that are gifting applications that ran promotional campaigns for Nestle through the Halloween and Christmas holiday seasons where users could gift one another mini Kit Kats or a box of Turtles.

    Market

    “In 2009, an estimated $400 million to $600 million will be spent on virtual goods in the United States, and $5.5 billion globally, according to Brian Balfour, founder of Viximo. U.S. virtual goods spending was likely less than half that in 2008, and between $25 million and $50 million in 2007, Balfour said.” – San Francisco Business Times

    The opportunity behind social games and virtual goods is clear and doubling each year. “Mochi Media co-founder Jameson Hsu, reports that the company’s new virtual goods are earning at 10 to 20 times the rate of advertising” as reported by Virtual World News.

    Competition

    The competition in the social gaming space is high but given the extremely high rate of growth in the industry and the number of users who are just beginning to play games on social networks, competition is less of a factor. Because the games are generally free to play, users often play numerous games at a time, which expands the size of the entire market. The top competitors include Zynga, Playdom, Playfish, Serious Business, Hive7, and LOLapps.

    Zynga, Playdom, and Playfish are each very large, having user bases in the tens of millions across numerous games. Even so, they are all growing at tremendous rates. Zynga is rumoured to generate $200M in revenue by the end of the year according to a recent Inside Facebook article.

    Product

    Their first game, Superheroes Alliance, has 50K monthly active users on Facebook. In the game, users create a Superhero alter ego to complete missions, customize their super powers, hire sidekicks, and start rivalries with other superheroes. It’s free to play but for those users who want that slight edge and great customizability, they can purchase compelling virtual items (through a virtual currency) in the form of rare sidekicks/vehicles, special powerups, and bonuses.

    Business Model

    They generate 100% of their revenues through virtual good sales without any reliance on advertising. 80% those virtual good sales are direct, meaning customers pay with their credit cards or PayPal accounts. The remaining 20% comes in the form of CPA (cost-per-action) offers such as filling out a survey or signing up for a service like Netflix.

    Barriers to Entry

    Uken Games is an execution play. They have built a successful gaming platform that leverages key content concepts (superheroes) and social gaming and reputation. The ability to attract, engage and entertain users is core to their business.

    • Intellectual property
      There is nothing that indicates that there is any intellectual property protection for Uken Games. Intellectual property protections are not required to build a successful execution company. The uniqueness of the gaming platform and the ability to quickly adapt the platform for new markets will help Uken Games adjust course and launch new games rapidly.
    • Customer loyalty
      A large 50k monthly audience of players is great. Metrics around user signup, retention, attention and engagement would be very interesting to see. It would also be interesting to understand the conversion rates for users sharing with friends. The “addictive nature” of these games puts customer loyalty at the centre of the design and measures of Uken Games.
    • Network effect
      It’s a social game where you play your friends. Network effect is based on enjoyment and value to include new friends in the interaction. It is key to the success of Uken Games as a platform. SuperheroesAlliance is a great first game, the question of moving existing users to new games and continuing to attract new users will leverage the network effects of social media.
    • Sunk costs
      Traditional games are expensive to build. However, Uken Games has built a skinnable version game engine that has abstracted the interactions between users and allows them to build new games using new metaphors. It will be interesting to see how long the current platform remains relevant with users.
    • Research and development
      Uken Games currently has new games in development, which they plan to launch by early October. They are also working to support other platforms including Myspace and iPhone so that their games can be accessed through more channels. Leveraging existing social networks along with mobility platforms offers an interesting method for longer engagement and new social interactions.

    Summary

    The Uken Games team report that “Superheroes has already officially been banned from 3 offices during work hours due to its highly addictive nature”. As Uken launches more titles, the founders hope to see that number go up. It will be interesting to see more game titles on more platforms.

  • Just Launched: BumpTop Multi-Touch for Windows 7

    BumpTop has just launched Multi-Touch for Windows 7. This is on the heels of forming partnerships with some of the largest graphics card makers in the world including: HIS, PowerColor, and SAPPHIRE, who are now distributing BumpTop by bundling a free copy with their graphics cards.

    Cool, huh! Heck, I’d attend a Windows 7 House Party to give BumpTop Multi-Touch a whirl.

  • StartupDrinks – September 30, 2009

    startupdrinks[1]It’s happening again. It’s great to have a monthly social event for high tech entrepreneurs in Toronto.

    Bryan Watson of NACO and Robin Gittens of CEOFusion have stepped up to help coordinate the next installment of StartupDrinks in Toronto. Heri of Montreal Tech Watch and Robin Ahn & Raymond Luk of Flow Ventures are hosting the Montreal event. Scott Lake of StartupOttawa is hosting the Ottawa event. And Dan Silvestru from Covarity is stepping up to host an Waterloo event (the Waterloo event will be on October 6 to avoid a conflict with DemoCampGuelph).

    The Toronto Startup Drinks followed hot on the heels of DemoCamp with Yossi Vardi, which was a great event.  We are keeping the startup community alive, one pint at a time on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at local fave Fionn MacCool’s on the Esplanade! Waterloo is happening on Tuesday, October 6, 2009.

    It’s a simple concept: a grassroots effort to make sure startup folks get in touch and stay in touch.

    Toronto

    Montreal

    • Wednesday, September 30, 2009 starts at 5:30pm
    • Brutopia, 1215 Crescent St

    Ottawa

    • Wednesday, September 30, 2009 starts at 6pm
    • Cornerstone Grill at 92 Clarence Street (in the Market)
    • Register

    Waterloo

  • Assetize: Adsense for Twitter

    This is part of a series on Extreme University and the first group of graduates from the Summer 2009 program.

    assetize A Toronto-based startup that first went live in May 2009, Assetize has been focused on helping people turn their accounts into assets. The premise is that, similar to domain names, online accounts like email addresses and Twitter accounts also have some fundamental value because of their usernames or audience reach. However, unlike domain names – which are sold and parked in a multi-billion dollar industry – these values haven’t been realized yet.

    I met Saif and the Assetize team recently when I visited the Extreme University program, where they are one of the startups in the incubation program by Extreme Venture Partners. Assetize is trying to be the AdSense for Twitter. Just as people are able to monetize their websites and blogs through AdSense, Assetize lets users include ads in their Twitter accounts effortlessly, and helps advertisers reach their target audiences. They have built a proprietary technology in-house that analyzes each account’s content to ensure that the ads being served are relevant to followers.

    Quick Analysis

    Management Team

    The management team consists of Saif Ajani, Mike Rhemtulla and Minaz Abdulla. Separately, they have worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies as tech consultants, and have also launched 2 previous startups together. This is a young team that has shown that they can deliver in a short time period. Building a strong set of advisors and continued demonstration of traction will help them go a long way. As a side note, I’ve worked with Minaz in the past (at Ambient Vector), he is an incredibly talented engineer that has demonstrated his ability to produce and ship great code.

    Market

    According to the online marketing research firm, eMarketer, companies are expecded to spend upwards of $32B in online advertising by 2011, with almost $2.9B of it going towards social networks. Although MySpace and Facebook have been the most dominant networks thus far in terms of drawing ad dollars, Twitter is exploring advertising. As people spend more of their “media time” on social sites, agencies and brands are seeking new channels and opportunities to create connections and advertise to audiences. This is a growing space that is ripe for innovation and new opportunities.

    Product

    The goal of the product is to help users increase the value of their social media assets. For Twitter users this is a combination of relevant content, reach and connection. Users can use Assetize to find content to attract, retain and engage their connections. The process to setup the Assetize service for a Twitter account seems very simple and straightforward. Users have a one-step process to register their accounts and provide a list of topics that they tweet about. Assetize provides access to over 100,000 feeds that can be used to find and publish value-added content. The idea is that more and better content attracts a larger base of users and inject ads into the Twitter stream that have a higher response rate. Analytics is provided on links and conversations.

    The company is currently working with advertisers to build out the functionality. The core of the Assetize product is an ad matching engine that analyzes previous posts and matches users to available/relevant ads.  AdSense’s value comes from making its ads targeted to the content on web pages, and the Assetize engine aims for contextual, relevant Twitter ads for each author based on posts and conversations.

    Business Model

    Similar to other online ad networks, Assetize earns a commission basis, and share revenue with Twitter account owners. Since this commission is performance-driven, it’s a good incentive for Assetize and its members to optimize accounts so that advertisers receive good returns on their investments. The business model requires scale to have a large enough capacity of users and a large inventory of ads to continue to ensure relevancy to each party.

    Strategic Relationships

    Assetize is a young company. They are starting to build relationships with advertising agencies to help bring their clients to Twitter. As use of social media continues to grow, particularly among the lucrative 18-24 audience, no doubt many brands will look for easy, familiar steps to test advertising on Twitter. The team is eager to explore these relationships, if you are an advertising/marketing/social media agency looking to explore a relationship, they are actively looking at how to partner and work together.

    Competition

    Izea, the company behind PayPerPost for blogs that has a raised a total of $10M in VC funding, recently launched SponsoredTweets, a service that pays Twitter users to write short posts about its clients’ products. It requires more effort from Twitter users than Assetize’s service. The Twitter advertising ecosystem is continuing to develop and evolve, there is most likely room for a variety of models and engagement strategies.

    Other competitors include Be-a-Magpie, a service based out of Germany and Great Britain, and RevTwt. The coverage they received earlier in the year undoubtedly led to a good user base, but their list of advertisers seems to be lacking. If Assetize is able to overcome these two startups, they’ll need to gain better access to advertisers than its competitors were able to.

    There is always existing social media ad networks. Each of these companies has relationships and inventory, though they are not easily translatable into an effective 140 character campaign. 

    Summary

    It’s a very interesting product. There is an opportunity around defining effectiveness of advertising for social media sites, but early the familiarity of CPM and CPC that is brought Assetize may help drive early adoption with agencies and brands. There are challenges in securing a large audience, a large inventory and strong relationships with agencies. Assetize has an interesting value proposition for users looking to monetize their Twitter “assets”. Great start for an ExtremeU company!