StartupNorth

Category: Quebec

  • StandoutJobs acquired

    A 2nd win in as many days for angel investor Austin Hill, StandoutJobs has been acquired. From Ben Yoskovitz’s blog:

    Around 3 years ago I started Standout Jobs with two great guys – Fred Ngo and Austin Hill. We raised money, built a great product, hired an incredible team and worked to build a business. Today I’m very pleased to announce that we’ve sold Standout Jobs.

    I can’t name the acquirer at this point in time. I can tell you that I’m very excited to see what they do with Standout Jobs, because I fundamentally believe what we built and the vision we pushed will be standards in the recruitment industry for years to come. Companies that ignore their employer brands and don’t create a quality, interactive, candidate-centric hub on the Web for recruitment will lose.

    StandoutJobs has also previously raised capital from iNovia and Montreal Startup.

  • StartupSquare Montreal and MTL NewTech

    Montreal is a happening place. There’s StartupDrinks. There’s the launch of a new seed fund, Founder Fuel. The announcement of another StartupCamp. There comes two new players: StartupSquare and MontrealNewTech.

    StartupSquare

    StartupSquare Montreal

    StartupSquare is hosting their kick off event on April 13, 2010. The group is made up students at McGill University, Concordia University, HEC Montreal, and other local universities. The goal of the group is to help promote entrepreneurship and commercialization to create growth companies. It is roughly modeled on Aalto Entrepreneurship Society which was started by StartupSquare co-organizer Riku Seppala.

    Montreal New Tech

    Montreal New Tech

    Montreal New Tech is headed by Felipe Coimbra aka TwtFelipe who got some coverage this week by Mark Suster around US immigration policy and the Founder Visa. MTLNewTech is a great example of the evolution of community. It has taken the best part of DemoCamp, Web Innovators Group, TECHCocktail and other events over the past formative years. And it has evolved to help enable, educate and connect local tech entrepreneurs, i.e., it’s Felipe doing the things that help him with 63 Squares and YowTrip!

    It is great to see entrepreneurs take responsibility for ensuring that the events and activities they need and want are created. Make sure you check out both of these groups, they are doing great things.

  • StartupCampMontreal – May 6, 2010

    It’s time againg for a road trip to Montreal. Phil Telio and his crew of supporters (John Stokes, Austin Hill and Sylvain Carle) are hosting another must attend startup event in Montreal. The event is shaping up to have 2 components:

    1. Participant-driven Conference – starting at 1pm
    2. Keynote & Pitches – starting at 6pm

    Unconference

    The participant-driven event, aka the “unconference”, is one of the best parts. The idea is that the schedule is determined by the attendees. There will be technologists, lawyers, funders, marketers, designers and others. The question is what do you want to talk about? NoSQL technologies. Mobile implications for social gaming mechanics. Legals of fund raising in Canada without Section 116. I’ve heard that Dave McClure is planning on doing “an exercise in entrepreneurial improv theatre”. I first saw Half-Baked dot com at ETech’07. It’s an incredibly fun engaging way to learn how to quickly build companies, business models and pitches without the constraints usually imposed by making it your own business.

    Keynote & Pitches

    The evening event is essential cocktails and pitches. Highlighting the event is Dave McClure’s keynote.

    Dave McClure Dave McClure has been geeking out in Silicon Valley for over twenty years as a software developer, entrepreneur, startup advisor, angel investor, blogger, & internet marketing nerd.  Dave currently runs a seed-stage investment program for Founders Fund, and also manages the fbFund REV social incubator.  His passion is helping startups with marketing, product strategy, and startup metrics, and he has been an advisor or investor in more than 40 companies including: Mint.com (acquired by Intuit), SlideShare, Mashery, TeachStreet, KISSmetrics, Simply Hired, Twilio, Bit.ly, UserVoice, and CreditKarma, among others.

    Following the keynote there will 5 pitch/presentation/demo spots. Traditionally StartupCampMontreal presentations have been very pitch focused. I think there is an opportunity for a presenter to really rock this venue. Thing about this as a chance to build demand and generate excitement about your startup. It’s a chance to get feedback about a part of your business. Whether that is your fund raising pitch, your product demo, or other. I’d start by looking at TechCrunch50, Demo, and others for inspiration. You want to win the giveway. Trust me you want to win the giveaway.

    Giveaway

    Geeks on a PlaneThe StartupCampMontreal organizers are giving away a ticket for Geeks on a Plane Asia. What the hell is geeks on a plane? It sounds like a bad movie that stars Samuel Jackson. Playing the role of Samuel Jackson is Dave McClure.  The goal of Geeks on a Plane is a great one. It’s to get you out of your comfort zone. To force entrpreneurs to travel to meet investors, customers, entrepreneurs in other countries, and gain insight and connections that can be used to further your business. It’s a great event in the safety of the company of other geeks like you.

    • Meet startups, geeks, & investors in cities around the world.
    • Learn about trends in internet, mobile, and other tech platforms.
    • Gain insight into local markets, demographics, business models.
    • Meet cool people, new ventures, have fun on planes, trains, buses.

    I’m an entreprenur and this sounds AWESOME! How do I win? You need to apply to present at StartupCampMontreal6. One of the presenting companies will be selected to get some mentoring from Dave McClure and a ticket to travel with Geeks on a Plane.

  • More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment

    I first met John Stokes a few years ago when he landed on to the Canadian startup scene and started talking about his new fund Montreal Start-up. In March 2008 they raised a small initial fund which they quickly deployed in to some nice deals in Montreal including Status.net and Whatsnexx.

    John and the team, which includes Austin Hill, announced today that they will be taking commitments from the Quebec Government (through Investissement Quebec) at $50 milion, Solidarity Fund QFL, which is investing $33 million, and by FIER Partners, which plans to invest $17 million.

    The fund still needs to raise over $8million directly from LPs, which Investissement Quebec seems to think will be a snap and done in 4 months, but I am not so sure. I hope I am proven wrong.

    In case any potential LPs are reading this right now, here is my advice: Do this one. Do it because this team is going to do more than just pass the time humming over deals — you will get hustle, an aggressive attitude and a group that understands that Canada needs more hustle and less of the same old.

    John and the team are connected and tuned in to the community. Early stage entrepreneurs trust this team and they are the kind of guys who can get your money in to some great opportunities.

    Congrats and good luck.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • Backbone Magazine’s Top 20 Web 2.0

    Backbone Magazine announced their “PICK 20 round of Canada’s leading Web 2.0 pioneers” that includes 4 companies form our list of web startups to watch, it’s a great list of Canadian technology companies and startups.

    The List

    1. FreshBooks, Toronto
    2. Myca Health, Quebec City
    3. CoveritLive, Toronto
    4. Viigo, Toronto
    5. Radian6, Fredericton
    6. Filemobile, Toronto
    7. BoardSuite, Toronto
    8. NowPublic, Vancouver
    9. Tungle, Montreal
    10. HootSuite, Vancouver
    11. ThoughtFarmer, Vancouver
    12. AfterCAD Online, Vancouver
    13. TeamPages, Vancouver
    14. The Manufacturing Innovation Network, Kitchener
    15. Well.ca, Guelph
    16. Clarity Accounting, Vancouver
    17. Voices.com, London
    18. Taglocity, Vancouver
    19. PollStream, Toronto
    20. Pixton, Vancouver

    The majority of the startups on the PICK20 list are in Vancouver (8) and Toronto (5). It’s a great list of Canadian startups.

  • MeshU speakers announced – April 6 2009

    The Canadian media conference, Mesh, started a spinoff conference last year focused on startups, designers and developers and they have just announced some of the speakers who will be there this year.

    MeshU is a very distinct conference from the larger Mesh Conference. Where Mesh is focused on networking, media and web, MeshU is all about the nuts and bolts of building for the web and running a dev shop.

    Mike Mcderment is the driving force behind MeshU and he brings all the street cred you could ask for. As the founder of Freshbooks he has grown the company from 2 people to well over 20 and they have become one of the biggest players in online finance applications, let alone Online Invoicing which is a market they helped define.

    The feedback from MeshU was great last year and I am glad to see it moving ahead this year.

  • Defensio.com acquired by Websense

    Defensio.com, who we first wrote about in November 2007, are announcing today that they have been acquired by Websense. The Montreal based company also presented at StartupCamp Toronto in December 2007.

    This acquisition, the size of which is undisclosed but I am assured it is “significant”, send a few signals to the startup community. The biggest one is that things are still happening even in this “nuclear winter” as some are calling it, and more importantly: Good products and businesses are still worth something.

    When Defensio launched, I took some flak for endorsing them. A lot of people said that “akismet does that”, and it was true, Akismet did do a lot of the same things. In using the service it was noticibly better. I am planning on going back to them.

    Carl also assures me that the Defensio anti-spam service for comments on non-commercial blogs will remain free under their new parent company.

    Websense remains committed to the Defensio developer community and plans to support and enhance the platform for personal users, as well as for commercial use.  The company also plans to continue to offer the comment spam filter at no charge for personal use, while offering a new six month commercial trial at no cost. “The combination of Defensio and Websense is a coup for Web 2.0 developers looking for strong anti-spam and security capabilities,” said Carl Mercier, who founded Defensio and has joined Websense as director of software development. “Imagine if Web 2.0 developers could access an API so their applications could determine if user-generated content is malicious or unwanted – without having to embed anything in their applications or products. We see strong potential to partner with social networking platforms, enterprises and hosting providers to enable advanced  Web 2.0 security with the Defensio solution.”

    When I profiled defensio in 2007 I said that while they might take a run at Akismet’s main business (blog comments), their real opportunity is to find new markets for these collaborative anti-spam tools. That is just what they have done and it is where Websense sees the future of the tool. Websense offers a suite of security and content related tools and Defensio looks like a perfect fit.

    If Defensio can provide a higher level of integration support and a better protection product, then they will be able to win some customers over from Akismet, but it is absolutely going to be a hard-fought battle, with everyone trying to row the boat a little harder in order to win.

    The real opportunity for Defensio however is to raid the markets that Akismet has left untouched. Where Akismet has proven the technology, and opened an initial market which Defensio can sell to, they are also leaving peripheral markets completely alone. – 2007

    The team at Defensio deserve credit for a win and a good start to 2009 for the Montreal community and Canada in general.

    There are rumors of more great announcements to come, pehaps 2009 won’t be so bad afterall?

  • identi.ca gets funding, and a case of bad timing

    I learned through GigaOM this morning that Montreal-based Identi.ca has taken a round of funding from Montreal Startup. I was, and remain, a big supporter of Identi.ca and first covered it back in July, 2008.

    It appears that Montreal Startup is the sole funder in this round so I will assume that GigaOM is right and the amount of funding is probably in the $200,000 to $400,000 range.

    This is exciting news for the Canadian startup community, but just after hearing it this morning I came across this announcement from Google. In November 2007, Google acquired Jaiku, a “lifestreaming” service that resembles Twitter and which preceeded services such as Friendfeed which largely copy its functionality, and it was founded even before Twitter.

    Google is announcing today that they are going open-source and will be making Jaiku freely available. On top of that, you will be able to easily deploy it to the Google App Engine.

    I am not sure of the exact impact of Jaiku going open-source, but it no doubt has some impact on Identi.ca’s plans. I am confident that Evan and Montreal Startup will take this development in to account, and I certainly believe that there is more than enough room for a few open source applications to thrive.