StartupNorth

Category: Startups

  • I love my city, and so should you

    There are dozens great cities in this country that I love to spend time in, these are cities that are making an impact on the world and which get noticed by the world. Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver are the headliners with Calgary, Victoria, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Waterloo and Halifax all staking their own claims to greatness in unique ways.

    There have been a lot of blog posts lately talking about how someday a Canadian city can be our Silicon Valley. Toronto or Montreal have been the most vocal in trying to be recognized as a great valley equivalent, and even Vancouver seems to have jumped in the fray. The bidding is in comparing the communities of each city, and the prize is the title of being the Startup Hub of Canada.

    The point is being missed completely, and I have a surprise for everyone.

    The way I see it is that our job here in Canada is different, and we should stop wasting time trying to become Silicon Valley (who really uses that term?): Canada will never have a San Francisco. We will never have a Silicon Valley, we won?t even have a Boston or a Seattle. We won?t really even have a Boulder.

    The opportunity for Canada is first to build strong communities individually, and then the job is to build strong connections between those communities. Canadians (who are still here!) are different from those who flock to San Francisco in search of the holy grail. Canadians love their own city, and they aren?t very excited about the idea of all making their way to another city in search of success. Most of us will choose to make a go of it in our own backyard, where we are connected to our great communities and where we feel like we can all have an impact.

    We need to compete fiercely with eachother for the prize of being the top city to build a startup in Canada, but we also need to start creating a larger ecosystem where we can can the egos and start to make connections.

    I regularly impress myself with my own ignorance of what is going on in Vancouver especially. We constantly miss great stories just because the connections are so weak. Hopefully this blog can start to change that, but what is more likely is a tightening connection between BarCamp communities across the country.

    Open, Creative and Connected Communities are the next Silicon Valley. No city will be able to compete.

  • TSOT gets started with Greeks

    TSOT LogoTSOT, based in Toronto, has been working since 2006 on building out a membership management system. Their strategy differs from more generalist solution providers like Ning and Toronto based Wild Apricot in that TSOT started out focusing on Greek organizations.

    Fraternities and Sororities pride themselves on their membership rosters, so it makes sense they might want to migrate from a spreadsheet that could easily be lost when someone spills a beer on their laptop, to a web based solution to manage their chapters and alumni. In pursuing this market TSOT sought the approval of a Greek Licensing body to kick start sales.

    TSOT’s product, Fraternity Live, looks and feels a lot like Facebook. Each member gets a profile page, photo album, and status updates. Each chapter resembles a group with admins, group messaging, and unlike Facebook finance and calendar pages. Fraternity Live even built a Facebook App, which like just about everyone else’s is a disaster (3 daily active users). For all the similarity, Fraternity Live is unlikely to approach stratospheric social networking site valuations. Why? At least for now, TSOT is in the business of selling websites, which significantly slows adoption. While this is certainly something one can make money at, the market is rewarding eyeballs, creative monetization strategies, and horizontal web services.

    Like many startups, TSOT struggled a bit nailing down their business model. The original plan was to charge Fraternities and Sororities a subscription fee. Then TSOT explored offering the service free and monetizing views with banner ads. Unfortunately for TSOT, Facebook rules the roost; it seems despite all the private Greek functions, frat boys and sorority girls want to hang out with everyone else on campus. So TSOT is back to charging a setup fee and annual subscription.

    TSOT plans to take its platform into other verticals later this year. In doing so they will be swimming into deeper more competitive waters. Affinity Labs, a provider of niche social networks organized around jobs like police work and nursing, hit a $61M payday when Monster acquired them. Affinity Circle, with whom TSOT competes directly, is forging down the job listing monetization route. It will be interesting to watch TSOT experiment with their business model and the openness of their system’s social graph.

  • CIX – Canadian Venture Capital Meetup

    cix.pngBack in June, StartupNorth was one of the first places to break the story of the death of the Toronto Venture Group. Every year the TVG had an event called the “Venture Forum”, which died when the TVG was shut down.

    It didn’t take long for the gap to get filled in however, and soon enough the CIX was announced. The premise is largely the same: Companies are pre-selected to pitch a room full of VCs who will presumably think about funding some of them. You need to apply to present, and then your company will be vetted by a selection committee. The cost to attend and present (if you are chosen) is about $1,000 in total, or $495 if you are just attending.

    Is CIX worth attending?

    This conversation got kicked off today on David Crow’s blog after David posted about CIX, Ali Asaria, the guy behind Well.ca, suggested that $500-$1,000 was actually a lot of money for a startup, no matter what stage they are at.

    It is true, $1,000 is a lot of cash, but the truth is: it isn’t too much. The question here isn’t about money, it is about value. Will you get anything out of 2 days in a conference full of other people who are trying to make this ship sail in Canada? I think you will. The thing is: It is completely up to you. You can find the agenda for the two days here.

    To make the best of this event you need to come at it with the right frame of mind: Make as many connections as possible, tell as many people as possible about your startup as you can, and finally, get as much advice as possible.

    In the run up to CIX we will have a few posts about kicking butt at CIX, for both the VCs and the Entrepreneurs.

    startupcamplogo_small1.png

    StartupCamp

    There is also StartupCamp, which we are putting on for free during CIX. We decided to do this because it will give a chance for the startups presenting at StartupCamp to get exposure to a crowd that doesn’t always come out to these events.

    Where companies that present at CIX will be somewhat established and will have already figured out their pitch, StartupCamp is for companies who are still trying to work out the details of their business plan.

    You can fill out this form to apply to pitch at StartupCamp. We’d love to have some unknown but awesome startups to show off!

    You can register for CIX here.

  • Weekend Reading – March 15th 2008

    Maybe the long winter is to blame… at least the “discussion” in Canada is starting to heat up.

    Albert Lai and the Idiot Gap – Rick Segal
    I Dislike Professional Startup Advisors     – Ali Asaria
    Tech Week in Toronto is NOT for Technologists – David Crow

  • Pitch at StartupCamp Toronto 2

    So you want to pitch your startup at StartupCamp Toronto 2? Application forms don’t get much simpler than this…

    Company:
    Website:
    Email:
    Describe your startup in a single twitter post (140 characters max):

    Please submit your application using the following form available here by Sunday, April 13th. The 5 presenting startups will be selected by popular vote in advance and notified by Friday, April 18th. See you there!

  • StartupCamp Toronto 2 – Tuesday, April 29th

    startupcamplogo_small1.pngStartupCamp Waterloo 2 was another big success, and we had a blast at StartupCamp Montreal, so we thought it was time we had another StartupCamp here in Toronto.

    The format for StartupCamp is simple: 5 Startups will have 5 minutes each to pitch themselves. The audience will then have twice as much time to grill them on everything from their marketing plan to the product itself.

    The 5 startups will be selected in advance.

    The event will be held on Tuesday April 29th at The Carlu in Toronto. We are putting on this StartupCamp during CIX, which is a new conference with a focus on connecting VC ready startups and VCs.

    The first run of tickets are available here. We will post more information as things come together.

    Sponsors

    Our kickoff sponsor is the Canadian Innovation Exchange.  If you are interested in sponsorship options, please get in touch.

    cix.png

  • Transcontinental acquires ThinData

    thindata_logo.gifThinData, a permission-based email marketing company based in Toronto, was acquired by Transcontinental today. The terms of the deal were not disclosed

    ThinData has a business model which is similar in many ways to that of CakeMail, who are based in Montreal, in that they often team up with agencies and other service providers who deliver the final product to the end-user.

    ThinData works with leading marketers and advertising agencies in Canada, and has received numerous awards and accolades for its innovative campaigns and its email marketing and online database management platform. ThinData, with its approximately 60 employees, will become part of the Premedia Group at Transcontinental under Nicky Milner’s responsibility.

    What is most interesting is that this acquisition was born out of previous work that the two companies have done together. I am sure that Transcontinental was more than happy to test the company first as a customer before approaching them about the acquisition. Just one of many reasons to treat all of your customers well.

    This all-Canadian marriage also shows that there are opportunities and potential exits right here in Canada.

  • Founder's Lunch coming to Toronto

    founders_lunch.pngThe details are few and far between, but the invitations have already started going out. Founder’s Lunch is a Toronto take on the famous, but even more exclusive valley event Founder’s Brunch. If you are interested in coming to the next event, drop them an email and get on the list.

    Many will argue that the last thing we need is another Invite-only event, and I can understand your point, but I can say that my participation in some invite-only groups such as StartupSwarm and others has been really beneficial to me personally and my startup. The main benefit comes from everyone’s ability to be open and honest with eachother.

    So, if you are interested in coming to Founder’s Lunch, email them at the address on the website, and if you are feeling a little pissed off that you aren’t getting invited to some events you think you would benefit from, drop me a note. I want to hear from you.

    This event is not organized by StartupNorth.

  • MontrealStartup – A new $3m fund for Montreal startups

    monteral_star_up_logo_small.jpgWe spoke with John Stokes from MontrealStartup last week about an announcement they will be making today. They are announcing a new $3 million fund to invest in early stage startups on the Island of Montreal.

    MontrealStartup is a unique type of VC, they are a consortium of 20 partners, mainly entrepreneurs, based in Montreal who want to do what is best for Montreal. The investors in the fund include John Stokes, Daniel Drouet, JS Cournoyer, Alan MacIntosh, Austin Hill and Mathieu Duffar.

    At $3 million, it is also the smallest fund I am aware of, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing however. Having a small fund is going to force Montreal Startup to act and behave just like a startup. They are going to know exactly what you are going through, because they will be dealing with many similar bumps themselves. It will also force them to learn to adapt quickly in a way that other VCs may not feel the pressure to do.

    This new fund, which is composed of $2 million from The Ministry of Economic Development and a further $1 million directly from MontrealStartup, will be managed completely by MontrealStartup.

    The fund will look at investments between $50,000 and $400,000 to be made in startups who are focused on the Web, Wireless and New Media. MontrealStartup most recently invested in StandoutJobs, and will start investing through this new fund immediately. They are looking for startups who have solid ideas with some market potential but they aren’t necessarily looking for complete business plans. What I like about Montreal Startup, from what I have seen so far, is that they are focused both on providing capital to startups, and using their well established networks through their investors, who are all successful entrepreneurs.

    Due to the size of the fund, there is practically no management fee and the only opportunity for Montreal Startup to profit is to find the best deals that exist in Montreal and then to work hard to make sure that those startups are successful.

    This is good news for Montreal. I am looking forward to hearing about some deals getting done. If successful, Montreal Startup will be one of a new type of VCs in Canada who are far more engaged with local startup communities than ever before. The future success of these funds depends heavily on the amount of local startup activity, and it is in their interest to foster that in a more direct way than the typical VC has done so far.

  • One more reason to StartupNorth: Office Skating Rink

    AideRSS Office Rink

    Here’s a perk you don’t see everyday… an office skating rink. This shot of the rink behind the AideRSS office was taken by their chief marketer Kevin Thomason. Hat tip to Ali Asaria of Well.ca.