StartupNorth

  • 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.

  • Bumptop acquired by Google. The gPad is coming?

    Something was definitely up with Bumptop in the last few weeks, and the rumours were flying all over the place. Not wanting to kill a deal, we decided not to post anything here on Startupnorth, especially something we couldn’t fully substantiate.

    Enter Chris Arsenault, Mark MacQueen and Techcrunch to confirm that Google has indeed picked up Bumptop in a deal that closed this week. We have covered Bumptop news regularly in the past.

    Bumptop was first funded by Xtreme Venture Partners and Austin Hill and followed by Scott Pelton at the Growthworks Commercialization Fund. Based on what we know about the terms that drive Xtreme Ventures and Growthworks’ Comm fund deals, our guess is that the price of this acquisition is north of $25million.

    What does this mean? I believe it means that Google is working hard to develop an iPad competitor. If you have used Bumptop before you will know that it is one of the most intuitive touch-screen interfaces available, much better than the current iPad “mash your finger everywhere” UI. Bumptop is undoubtably the owner of some pretty nice IP focused on those interactions, and they now give Google a warchest of techniques that will easily rival multi-touch. The three-finger-swipe and two-finger-zoom of the iphone and ipad are easily outclassed by the extensive capabilities of Bumptop, but Bumptop’s gestures are just a little too complicated for the small screen of the Android or iPhone. Bumtop holds a Canadian patent for many of the gestures and features.

    I have to hand it to Anand. For the last 4+ years he has walked around Toronto with his laptop strapped to his back always ready to give anyone a demo of Bumptop. His energy and focus have definitely set him apart from the crowd, and he stuck with his dream longer than many of us thought he would. Eventually the right people stepped up to back him and he seemed to become more determined than ever to make Bumptop a success. This was not handed to Anand, he worked for it.

    This is exactly the kind of story that many a bad VC will tell you can never happen in Canada. A fast, efficient and IRR-pumping exit. There are all sorts of dead and dying VCs here who will tell you that there is not enough of an “entrepreneurial culture” to drive their business, no wonder their LPs are putting them on notice (the sad part is that some good funds are getting dragged down with the bad –more on that later) — they aren’t willing to get down in the dirt (or the Imperial Pub for that matter) to meet the Anands of the world.

    The truth is that it takes financiers with as much hustle and vision as an entrepreneur, and that is what we are getting with XtremeVP, Austin Hill, and Scott Pelton. In my eyes this deal is a confirmation of the need in Canada for a new type of venture fund(s) to get healthy and to get the backing they need.

  • Week in Review

  • C100 – 48 hours in the Valley

    The C100C100 - 48 hours in the Valley

    Our friends at the C100 have issued the reminder that the submission deadline is April 29, 2010 for their 48 hours In the Valley. Did you wonder what entrepreneurs thought about the last mentoring session? Check out the comments from both the entrepreneurs and a mentor below.

    The C100 has an impressive list of members. And continues to participate in events like the DFAIT Entrepreneur Bootcamps and through tele-mentoring sessions which ran most recently in Ottawa (I’m assuming with folks at OCRI).

    Maryam Mahdaviani & Jan Ulrich, Optemo

    Trevor Doerksen, Mobovio

    Sanjay Beri, Juniper Networks – C100 Mentor

  • Digital Puck and Mentor Mondays

    There are bound to be more US-led foreign investment firms making their way across the border with the elimination of the long dreaded Section 116.  There have been a number of US firms that were making investment in Canada prior to the removal of this taxation law including: Rho Ventures, GrandBanks Capital and Bridgescale Partners. Bridgescale is an interesting firm. They are focused on the later stage deals but realize that these deals are part of a larger ecosystem.

    Bridgescale is led by Rob Chaplinsky. Chaplinsky is a Mechanical Engineering grad from the University of Waterloo (with an MBA from Harvard). He cut his chops as a general partner doing early-stage deals at Mohr Davidow Ventures. He’s a little old school, investor in Bluecat Networks, and a little new schook, he’s an investor in lean startup ninja Eric Reis’ IMVU.

    There is also Howard Gwin. Howard’s located in Canada. He’s on the ground helping companies, serving on boards, and generally helping companies grow. Currently he serves on the boards of Coveo, dna13, Kinaxis and others. He’s on the ground and focused on helping Canadian companies. He was on the board of Taleo which has a market cap of >$1B. Not a bad guy to have on your board.

    Digital Puck

    The interesting part is the desire to build connection and community. It’s similar to the efforts that the C100, which aim to help Canadian startups connect with senior level talent and connections in Silicon Valley. The Bridgescale team has created Digital Puck. Apparently all Canadian startup CEOs and founders are hockey fanatics (well, that’s not far off from the truth). Digital Puck is an opportunity for Canadian startup leadership teams to connect with each other and other key players. The goal is to help bootstrap the next generation of companies, and if I’m not a rocket scientist to help educate and grow companies that Bridgescale can invest in. The goal is to build the connections. It is through the connections that value is transferred. It may not always be a direct transfer, and the Bridgescale team seems to understand the need for individuals to be connected across Canada.

    Mentor Monday is a mentoring forum for private company CEOs that will take place in the afternoon of the last Monday of every month. There will be three CEOs at each event – a mix of early and later stage companies. On hand will be several very experienced Digital Puck board members – current or past CEOs, CIOs, COOs, and other VP level technology backgrounds. The CEOs will get a great forum to test your business strategy, explore growth plans, look for contacts, board members, advisory board members or just discuss things on your mind. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP on the “Events” section of DigitalPuck.

    Whether this is a Silicon Valley firm looking for better valuations on mid-to-late stage deals in Canada or a set of Canadian expatriates looking to make investments in their country of origin, it’s all good for Canadian startups. I participated in today’s inaugural Mentor Monday session that saw 3 companies present today including:

    It will be interesting to see this event evolve, but I think the session was incredibly valuable for each of the startups. It was most valuable as an participant when the founder introduced their business and then described the business problem they needed advice solving. It was very similar to a board meeting with a lot of outside connections. Where else do you get feedback from CEOs, technologists, funders, lawyers, accountants, etc. There is some evolution that needs to happen to the format, but it was a great session. Definitely a great forum for companies that are looking for go-to-market strategies, sales channel discussions, and other growth questions.

  • Week in Review

  • Week in Review

  • 48 hours in the Valley

    The C100C100 - 48 hours in the Valley

    Our friends at the C100 are hosting 20 Canadian companies on May 18-20, 2010 in Silicon Valley. Interesting tradeoff, accepted startups will need to weigh participation in the C100 with participation at OCE Discovery, MeshU and Mesh (assuming you don’t win the GOAP ticket from StartupCamp Montreal). It shouldn’t be a huge debate, because the opportunity to engage with Canadian mentors in Silicon Valley should be pretty straightforward for most startups.

    This is a variant of TechStars for Canadians. You get the chance to connect with the most connected Canadians in Silicon Valley. You can the opportunity to pitch, receive mentorship, and gain access to business development resources. This is a great opportunity for local startups to gain access to markets, companies, and decision makers in Silicon Valley.

    “These customers and markets don’t need to be located in Canada. In fact, Canada can often serve as a providing ground, an incubator, for a variety of market segments. We need to leverage the unique attributes of a diverse population of immigrants for the creative tension of differing viewpoints, and to help forge connections with remote markets.” Creating a Venture Culture, The Mark News

    It is an opportunity for a Canadian startup to build locally and market globally.

    Requirements

    To qualify, companies must:

    • Be substantially Canadian in leadership, employees or location
    • Have a product/service with users/customers
    • Be in a position to expand its business in the U.S. and internationally
    • Be willing to cover its own expenses (flights, hotel, some meals)
    • Be endorsed by a C100 Charter Member or a C100 Seed Partner
    • Apply online

  • Week in Review

  • What happened to MontrealTechWatch?

    Ben wrote a post about reviving MontrealTechWatch and how the Montreal startup community needs MontrealTechWatch now more than ever.

    Heri started MTW about the same time that we started writing StartupNorth. He has become a good friend of mine over the years and is someone who always has the best intentions of the community at heart in everything he does.

    The main complaint is that there just aren’t any posts on MontrealTechWatch anymore. The blog which was once the center of the Montreal startup community is now more or less dead. The simple reason? Heri just doesn’t have the time to blog anymore. I think there is more to it than just that however.

    StartupNorth might have met the same fate as MontrealTechWatch this year if David Crow hadn’t joined in to bear the brunt of the burden. Since the sale of my company last year I, like Heri, have had practically no time to devote to the blog, and Jonas was similarly stretched for time. In the case of MontrealTechWatch, Heri didn’t have a Dave or Jonas to put their shoulders to the wheel. The community that was once so loving lost its leader and didn’t even realize it.

    So, what’s going on here? Do we need startup communities? Do you want a community? Are people really willing to pitch in and spread around the work? Do communities need community, or do they really need leaders? How do we create more MontrealTechWatch’s and keep them around?

    There is a push in Montreal to make some plans and to get a group together to revive what was MontrealTechWatch. Montreal does not need some coordinate effort, it needs someone to open their email client and send Heri a message “Hey, can I get an account on MTW as a writer? I would like to make some posts, perhaps profile some of the amazing startups we have here in town and cover some events.”. Then, when you have the account: just start posting. Just do it.

    Find what it is about startups, community and your city that you love and then do something about it. Share it. That is what Heri did and that is what we need more of. Nobody else is going to step up. As soon as you start writing about what is happening in the community, you will quickly learn what else the community needs in terms of events and content.

    The problem, as Heri found out, is that this is hard and very unrewarding work. People rarely say thanks, and even less often step up to actually help.

    Heri put his heart in to that blog and he didn’t ask for anything in return. This is your chance to show him that you understood what he was doing and that it meant something to you. Pick up the torch, but please don’t kill MTW by committee.