From 2009-2014 StartupNorth had an index of Canadian emerging technology companies and service providers. We have removed this feature.
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It’s not like it’s rocket science
Oh wait, it is! NASA and the European Space Agency are hosting a hackathon in 75 cities around the world. It includes Canadian events in Toronto Follow @SpaceApps_TO and Winnipeg. “The International Space Apps Challenge is a technology development…
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Finding next at the University of Toronto
I’m guilty. I’ve been pandering to my alma mater, the University of Waterloo. I love Waterloo and UWaterloo startups. There is so much to love. There are Vidyard, Thalmic Labs, TribeHR, Desire2Learn, PostRank (acquired by Google), . There is even…
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Should you pay to pitch an angel group? What the data says
We have seen a pretty amazing wealth of information about financing models and structures come to light in the last 10 years. It wasn’t that long ago that VC and Angel financing were dark arts which few entrepreneurs understood. We have always…
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On Values
A friend of mine, who just finished his time after helping grow a startup very quickly, said this to me tonight: A company has 3 sets of values: the ones they want people to think (what a corporation…
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What you need to know about starting a startup in Atlantic Canada
Building a product and growing a startup is a different experience no matter where you live. In many ways every startup experience is completely unique and totally predictable all at the same time. The goals, struggles, opportunities and…
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An Apology to Laura Fitton
Last week, I hosted GrowTalks in Toronto, a conference for entrepreneurs focused on metrics, marketing and growth. The conference brought an amazing set of speakers to Toronto. And personally I was excited to finally get a chance to hang out…
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The only model that matters: Founders First
There are a lot of models that people throw around for how to build a strong startup community. There are a handful of types of players in each community, so there are many permutations of “who gets what”…
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If not an Angel Network, then what?
David posted a pretty in-depth piece on the First Angel Network this week. This followed an awesome discussion on TechVibes about angel groups over the weekend. The structure and funding model for First Angel Network were a pretty…
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Atlantic Canadian Founders Deserve Better Than FAN (First Angel Network)
Some rights reserved by Stephen Poff Recently, I have had the pleasure of travelling to the East Coast and working with founders. I have seen the amazing companies and the founders across the region. Moncton, Halifax, Saint John, St. John’s…
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Hamilton’s software industry in the years ahead
[Editor’s note: This is a guest post originally by Kevin Browne Follow @hamiltonkb. The post was originally published on Software Hamilton. It provides an incredible overview of the softeware culture and scene in Hamilton and how it is…
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The things an entrepreneur will never tell you
We always glorify the struggle of the entrepreneur. Late nights, poor diet and little contact with friends. It’s cliche because it is real but we gloss over just how big of a toll it really takes. Last week I…
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Aim for your next valuation
Some rights reserved by Alex Schwab “Ain’t no need to watch where I’m goin’; just need to know where I’ve been.” Mater in Pixar’s Cars This is wrong. But it is the behaviour that a lot of founders execute on…
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If You Have More Than Three Priorities, You Have No Priorities
Some rights reserved by hockadilly One of my favorite sayings (with apologies to Jim Collins, author of From Good to Great) is: “If you have more than three priorities, you have no priorities.” I literally use this to run my…
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Don’t blame the system
Some rights reserved by mdanys Mark Evans has started an interesting conversation around my tweet (part 1 aim for success, part 2 the VCs respond). I am sick of hearing there is no money for #startups in Canada. BULLSHIT! It…
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Growing successful companies
I am sick of hearing there is no money for #startups in Canada. BULLSHIT! It might be there is no money for YOUR startup in Canada. — David Crow (@davidcrow) January 30, 2013 Mark Evans (LinkedIn) wrote a…
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Build It
There is this idea you keep telling friends about… you know it is promising because a day or two after you mention it, they circle back via email “I’ve been thinking about X and it would be pretty…
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The companies I should have paid more
Building a startup is hard and managing ops is really hard. Devops are hard and expensive. Luckily these days there are some amazing companies making it way easier to build the startup of your dreams. Frankly, I don’t…
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Mission Accomplished – StartupVisa Canada
Some rights reserved by Marion Doss Remember back in 2011 when I was xenophobic and wasn’t supporting Startup Visa? To the credit fo the incredible StartupVisa Canada Initiativea team, which I was lucky enough to join and support, the Federal…
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The first rule of real estate
Before you read this, go read Mark MacLeod’s Follow @startupCFO post on Who not to take money from…. It’s not related to this post, but a great post for entrepreneurs to read when talking about investors. If geography…
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The White North – It’s Great for Seed-Stage Startups
Some rights reserved by meddygarnet Sit down with any Canadian entrepreneur and you’ll often hear similar grievances about the Canadian startup community. The consensus seems to be, “It’s getting significantly better, but we’re risk-averse, funding is hard to come by,…