StartupNorth

Category: Montreal

  • Ontario Startups…On A Train

    [Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Brydon Gilliss. Brydon has held a number of roles but most recently he is the driving force behind lots of awesome in Guelph including a coworking space, ThreeFortyNine; a personal accelerator, Startupify.me; events, DemoCampGuelph; and a startup, 20Skaters.] 

    Have you ever wished for just another minute or two for that elevator pitch you delivered? What if, instead of an elevator ride, you were locked on a train with that investor?

    Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide!

    For the third year running, the Ontario Startup Train is back on July 9th. We will have several private, chartered cars on a VIA train with first class service and our own bar car where we’ll host our on-train events. We pack the train with startups, investors, and various players in our startup community and travel together to attend The International Startup Festival in Montreal.

    “The concentration of the opportunities and discussions on the train blew me away. By the time we got to Montreal, referrals were flying.” Lloyd Longfield

    Tickets include first class travel to Montreal from Toronto, our on-train activities, full conference access, and time in our Ontario Startup Tent at the festival to showcase your startup. If you already have your festival ticket, we do have train-only tickets.

    Get your ticket now before the train sells out, again.

  • Growing successful companies

    Mark Evans (LinkedIn) wrote a blog post about my tweet. The blog post captures much of my sentiment and frustration around entrepreneurs. I commented about entrepreneurs learning about how to build a successful, high growth emerging technology companies. And there are lots of ways to learn what is considered a successful company. And a great way to learn is to learn from others that have been in the trenches. Debbie Landa (LinkedIn) and her team at Dealmaker Media have done most of the hard work for you.

    GROWtalks

    They have brought together a great event. Attending the event won’t bring you investment. It won’t make you a successful company. But it might increase the odds. They are bringing together an amazing set of entrepreneurs. And they are bringing them to Toronto and Montreal to share their experiences, stories about what worked and didn’t work for their companies.

    Local Events Matter

    You can and should get your ass on plane and head to New York City and San Francisco to attend events. But you don’t always have to. There are advantages to attending these events locally.

    1. Local connections can help you see The First Rule of Real Estate – you can find and connect with local talent. Whether that is for funding, moral support, hiring, etc. There will be people you do not know yet. Easy way to find them out.
    2. Travel costs are less for regional travel. If you live in Ottawa or Montreal or Halifax, you can make it to Toronto or Montreal by plane, train or automobile for a lot less than travelling elsewhere.
    3. Travel time is lessened. You can spend a day.

    This all assumes that the event is providing amazing content that you would travel to consume.

    World Class Content

    The content that Debbie and team have assembled is unbelievable. If you don’t know who these people are, my advice is take a little bit of time and use the GOOG. These are entrepreneurs that have seen the ups and downs, the ins and outs of successful businesses.

    Every single person is worthy of a keynote presentation at a larger conference. This is not a vanity presentation. They are on stage sharing information about their specific expertises in building successful businesses. It’s not Mark Organ talking about random things, which is fun, but Mark Organ talking about leveraging disruptive technology in fund raising. Holy crap! You want to learn how Mark used AngelList, LinkedIn and other tools to raise 2 of the most impressive rounds of capital in Canada…quickly.

    Every single person speaking, every one, will be providing expertise about what they did to build a successful company.  Here is the list of presenters in Toronto:

    You want more details, check out my first post. Do your homework. But this is an amazing opportunity.  The lineup is different in Montreal. It includes 2 of my close friends, but they are 2 of the best people in helping startups become successful. Mark MacLeod and Alistair Croll . Unbelievably kind and intelligent people, who beyond that know WTF it is startups need to do to become successful. They like the others are the best of the best.

    Our Commitment to Successful Companies

    There are initiatives like Startup Visa Canada and the Upside Foundation that we strongly support. And we’re committed to helping provide education to entrepreneurs to help them to build successful companies.

    We’ve committed to provide a limited number of $100 discounts. I am not going to tell you how many. If you are building a successful startup, and you want to hear the tactics and advice of other entrepreneurs that have been massively successful in building their startups, sign up now and save $100 before the discount expires.

    • GrowTalks Montreal – February 19, 2013 – Register use promo code: startupnorth
    • GrowTalks Toronto – February 21, 2013 – Register use promo code: startupnorth

     

  • GROWtalks in Toronto Feb 21

    GROWtalks

    Debbie Landa, Clare Ryan and the Dealmaker Media team are part of the reason that I love GROWConf and GROWtalks. They put on amazing events by putting entrepreneurs first, foremost, and front and centre. They are bringing GROWtalks to Toronto (Feb 21) and Montreal (Feb 19). And we have a discount code at the end of the post.

    “A hands-on playbook for creating startup success”

    I like learning by example. It’s a mixture of seeing what worked for someone else, and then trying the appropriate tactics customized for my situation. The challenge is trying to do with more efficiently than 9 or 10 coffee meetings. GROWtalks brings together the best entrepreneurs, who are killing it, and has them present what is working for them. THis is what GROWtalks is, an event for entrepreneurs with entrepreneurs sharing their strategy, tactics, metrics and successes, even the failures. (Full disclosure: I am MCing the GROWtalks event, however, I am not being compensated for this, but I do get the opportunity to participate and learn).

    Check out photos from the 2012 GROWtalks event in Vancouver:

    It’s rare we get this many awesome startup founders all talking about the hard part of their business. I know that all of these folks will be around throughout the day, they’ll be hanging out, answering questions. It’s going to be a fantastic day. Check out the line up:

    I might be biased. My employer is an investor in some of the presenters. My cofounder is one of the presenters. But I’m honestly stoked about the speakers. I’m really looking forward to hearing Beltzner, Rutter, Fitton and Morrill. The mix of product, early customer acquisition and understanding lifetime value are converations I have with almost every founder. I’m very curious to hear the opinons, experiences and thoughts of this group.

    Part of my MCing was to request StartupNorth logo tattoos for all the speakers (we’ll see if that happens), and a discount code. Register before Februrary 1, 2013 and get 10% off (use promotional code: startupnorth). It reduces the ticket price from $195 to $175.50.

    GROWtalks Toronto

    February 21, 2013, 10am-4pm

    Size: 200-300 people
    Speakers: 9 Industry leaders
    Time: 10am-4pm
    Website: www.growtalks.com
    Toronto: http://www.growtalks.com/events/toronto/

    GROWtalks is a one day conference focused on how to create simple, actionable metrics, and use them to make better product and marketing decisions for startup success. Industry experts will share actionable advice to startup teams on how to improve design, product and customer development, acquisition, retention, and more.

    Topics Covered:

    • Customer Development
    • UX/UI Design
    • Growth Hacking
    • Customer Retention
    • Fundraising
    • Customer Engagement
    • Product Development

  • All roads lead to Toronto

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    Regardless of where we fall in arbitrary rankings, Toronto is an amazing city. And it seems that all roads lead to Toronto. With the amazing teams from both StartupFest and GrowConf arriving in the dead of winter.

    StartupFest Elevator Tour

    Check out the crazy awesome pitches and feedback from StartupFestival in Montreal.

    Just look at it this way. Here is an amazing chance to get to hang out with entrepreneurs, founders, investors and other crazies in our ecosystem at the top of the CN Tower. Let me repeat that, at the top of the CN Tower. Before you do the math about how much fun this is going to be, just realize that a ticket to ride up the tower is $23.99 + HST. For essentially the price of the ride up, you get an event focused on entrepreneurs. I do some basic math, you add a drink and some h’orderves  and your at break even. Great chance to have some fun, make some meaningful connections, and potential generation press and relationships that pay off.

    GrowTalks

    GROWtalksGROWtalks is happening in Toronto and Montreal. I know that Clare, Debbie and team are bringing some amazing entrepreneurs to share and educate. Just like they for GROWtalks at GrowConf 2012 in Vancouer.

    GROWtalks is a one day conference focused on how to create actionable metrics, and use them to make better product and marketing decisions for startup success. Industry experts share advice to startup teams on how to improve design, product and customer development, acquisition, retention, and more.

    I hear that the list of speakers is set to include the likes of Brant Cooper, Dan Martell, Rand Fishkin and other amazing speakers. This is a great one day event at a reasonable price point, I’m hearing $199 for entrepreneurs, so get access to entrepreneurs and experiences.

     

    We’ll have more on both of these events. Get your tickets early!

  • Toronto, Vancouver, Waterloo, where is Montreal?

    Startup Genome Ecosystem Ranking

    The state of the Canadian cities in the StartupCompass Startup Ecosystem Report 2012 (Get the Report) is interesting. The Startup Ecosystem Report 2012 lists 3 Canadian cities:

    • Toronto # 8
    • Vancouver # 9
    • Waterloo # 16

    It leaves Montreal out of the top 20, it might very well be # 21. But it is very hard to determine without the full report that is due out later in the year. I also find it very strange, given the strong Montreal supporters in the  “Local startup ecosystem supporters” listed in the document:

    The data reminds me of other analyst driven research companies (think Gartner, Altimeter, etc.). The methodology leaves it open to bias. But it is a great stick in the sand based on our own community survey responses.

    “The index is based on data from more than 50,000 startups around the world who are using the Startup Genome’s Startup Compass, an automated analyst in the cloud that helps businesses make better decisions via benchmarks and actionable recommendations.”

    It will be interesting to continue to read the report and lessons for Canadian entrepreneurs.

  • Crowdfunding for Notman House


    We’re big fans of Montreal.

    There is a lot of really exciting things going on in Montreal. Founder Fuel. Real Ventures. c2mtl. Rho Ventures. iNovia Capital. MtlNewTech. Next Montreal. Grand Prix du Canada.  And Notman.

    Notman is conceived as a community space for the web community in Montreal. I remember John Stokes talking about his vision for this space in 2006. And how the efforts of Montreal Startup have demonstrated the value and benefits to the city when founders, entrepreneurs, designers, developers and others have something to rally around. Montreal doesn’t have a Communitech or a MaRS. This is the efforts by local entrepreneurs to bootstrap a central place. John, Alan, Mark, JS and Austin have led this vision for over 6 years. And it’s very close.

    Over the last year the Notman House  has hosted over 125 events, including user group meet-ups, hackathons, and learning events, been home to over 50 Startups, and been visited by over 10,000 entrepreneurs, investors, students, and others involved in the growing Montreal tech scene. It’s an incredible place.

    Our top priority is to connect the already existing community. Hundreds of groups, meetups and events are being created and take place every year in Montreal. They are loosely connected and aware of each other, but still essentially fragmented. The Notman House wants to bring them all together.

    We want to bring startups, students, investors, developers and artists all together in the same spirit that characterized the Montreal of the past.

    Notman and OSMO Foundation is looking to raise $100k in private funding. They need to raise this $100k to unlock the a combined $1.7M in grants from the municipal, provincial, and federal government. In addition a $4.3M loan has been committed by Investissement Quebec and the BDC. However, to access these grants we need to raise $1.1M in private contributions. $1M of this is being pledged by corporate entities such as Teralys Capital, Claridge, Telesystem, McCarthy Tetrault, and Fasken Martineau.  We are looking to the community to help close the $100K gap currently faced in the funding process.

  • Toronto Startup Event List Fall 2012

    Getting ready for startup event fatigue? Toronto is an active ecosystem (based on total activity in the Startup Genome database). But there are a lot of upcoming events, here is my inital tracking of Toronto startup events list for fall 2012. The question is which events to attend and which ones to stay heads down and work. An actual guide would breakdown the benefits of each of these events. But I’m being lazy, I’ll add some commentary around each event. Or please feel free to add events and commentary. I’ll update the post.

    And for those of you thinking about attending everything, go read Mark Suster’s Be Careful not to become a Conference Ho.

    September 2012

    October 2012

    November 2012

    December 2012

  • Why YOU Should Be At Next Year’s StartupFest Montreal

    Editor’s note: This is a cross post from Onboardly blog written by Renee Warren (@renee_warren) & Heather Ritchie (@heatheranne) of Onboardly. Follow them on Twitter @onboardly or Onboardly.com. This post was originally published in July 14, 2012.


    @danmartell of @getmoreclarity presenting – Motivation Trumps Knowledge

    Well, it certainly was a memorable event. With no surprise we heard some excellent speakers and saw the likes of Dave McClure flipping the bird. It wouldn’t be a startup event without such a character. And for the other startups we got the chance to talk to and (finally) meet, it was well worth our time, money and bearing the heat!

    Upon arrival we bumped into the fabulous @Brydon who staggeringly spoke to us about the fun times had on the startup train. Then we quickly sat down to a chat with Caitlin and Neil of @CreamHR. We were wow’d by the projects they are working on. Mixing psychology with real-time job talent hiring, their product quickly allows you to determine if a candidate is in the top 15% of people qualified for a particular position.

    Off to the festival we went meeting brilliant startup after startup, and of course reconnecting with some of our favorite people from events past including the always entertaining/stylish @davidcrow, the lovable gang from @bnotions, and a huge cohort from @launch36, et al.)


    East Coast represent! @launch36 and more startups in attendance.

    On Thursday night, we hosted a founders dinner at Holder – one of Montreal’s finest restaurants. Thanks to everyone who joined us to make the dinner conversation spectacular. We were outnumbered 16-2 guys/gals so considered ourselves very lucky ladies indeed.


    @startupCFO, @DavidCrow, @heatherAnne, @renee_warren, @kenseto, @mattskilly, @zakhomuth, @andrewsider and many more at dinner.

    Also a ton of fun was the Wavo launch party, where they turned l’Augerge Saint-Gabriel into a booming hotspot, DJ’ed by none other than Real Ventures Mark MacLeod (@StartupCFO) & FounderFuel’s Ian Jeffery (@ianmtl). True (semi-hidden) talent exposed!

    We could go on to mention every single person we met (all amazing!), but this post would go on for years. Instead, we’ll do our best to explain how awesome it was in a few key points in hopes of enticing you to do next year (or go again!).

    Why You Should Attend @StartupFest Montreal:

    1. It’s a mini SXSW without the pressure to attend every open bar party
    2. There is less swag than SXSW, which means you aren’t paying for extra weight for your suitcase with all the new T-shirts you’ve accumulated
    3. You get to see the same people more than once and actually get to know them (smaller groups = more meaningful conversations)
    4. The caliber of attendees is amazing – no fluff; just good people/good ideas
    5. You get the chance to pitch your startup to grandmothers and teenagers
    6. Investors galore throughout the mix of attendees; lots of opportunity for 1-on-1’s
    7. It is in one of Canada’s most amazing cities: Montreal
    8. The speakers are amazing; short 20-minute talks keep things moving swiftly
    9. The organizers ride around on scooters. Catch them if you can
    10. $50k Startup Prize! (Congrats @Jintronix!; and runner-up @openera on the @founderfuel prize.)
    11. Local food vendors in lieu of cafeteria fare; crepes, pasta, international delights
    12. Ice cream truck. Enough said
    13. Mentor tents, live TV interviews, and cold beer

    While we’re just now coming down from our conference high (and catching up on our sleep), we wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely thank organizers for a great time. Philipe Telio, (@ptelio) you have done it again!  You guys killed it. And you can guarantee we’ll be there next year.

    Au revoir Montreal. A bientot!

    Renee & Heather

  • Hot Sh!t List 2012

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    We have been tracking startups and people for a while. In 2011 was the first Hot Sh!t List, but it won’t be the last. There are a number of amazing individuals in the ecosystem like Mark MacLeod (LinkedIn, @startupcfo), Boris Wertz (LinkedIn, @bwertz), Dan Morel (LinkedIn, @dpmorel), Debbie Landa (LinkedIn, @deblanda), Chris Arsenault (LinkedIn, @chrisarsenault), Dan Martell (LinkedIn, @danmartell), Jesse Rodgers (LinkedIn, @jrodgers) and others. Over the past 7 years the community has grown, and connected, and continues to help each other.

    But this list is different.

    It’s not about the people who have raised the most money, or who have the biggest social graphs. It’s about who we expect to talk about over the next 12 months. Be it the ideas, the companies, the impact, etc. My goal was to find a mix of the unsung heroes, the founders, the developers, the doers, the troublemakers and the faces of different companies across Canada that we think are amazing/interesting. What do I mean by “interesting”? Well it depends. But these people are doing the stuff we’ll be talking about over the next 12 months.

    The list is no particular order. But there is no denying it, these folks are the:

    StartupNorth Hot Sh!t 2012 BadgeHot Sh!t List 2012

     

  • Startup Festival’s amazing lineup

    Startup Festival - Startups That Matter - July 11-13, 2012 in MontrealIt’s only 76 days (July 11-13, 2012) until Startup Festival in Montreal (are you planning on a roadtrip?), and the team has announced a spectacular set of speakers for the event.

    If you don’t know who these people are, well you should. There are some like Deborah Schultz and Stowe Boyd that are some of the best thinkers about the role that new technology has on work, culture, experience, marketing and behaviour. Go read Debs’ “Dear Miss Manners: the Social Web – WTF?” or Stowe’s Work Talk Research including Data is the New Oil: From Privacy to Publicy. These individuals are talking about the social and political forces that will create the next generation of startups. They are simply amazing.

    Did you know the Internet is for porn? Cindy Gallop gave a not to be missed talk at TED in 2009, Make Love Not Porn. She has been thinking about the role pornography, advertising and entertainment.

    The rest of the schedule is bound to be equally amazing. I’m looking forward to my trip to Montreal. I hope you’ll join me.