StartupNorth

  • Akoha – $1.9million for gaming that does good

    Akoha is going public today with details on their financing to date. The $1.9million in investment, which has come in over two rounds, will go towards expanding the development of their game which is targeted for a Fall 2008 release.

    The investment comes from a slew of angel investors, including David Chamandy, John Bromley, Jean-Sebastien Cournoyer, Ron Dembo, Jake Eberts, Alan Gershenfeld, John Meeks, Reg Weiser, Jonathan Wener, Robert Montgomery, Chris Emergui and Montreal Start Up.

    Details on what Akoha is are sparse, but here is what we have been able to pick up: Akoha is producing a game which is focused on creating positive spin off from the game play.

    Akoha is developing a new type of social game inspired by elements of social entrepreneurship, massively multiplayer and reality-based games.

    CEO Austin Hill recently posted a video to the Akoha blog that paints a broad picture of their goals.

  • communitynorth.ca – Welcome to the family

    Our CEO and mascot, David Crow, is going live today with CommunityNorth.ca, the latest addition to our little family of blogs alongside Wirelessnorth. David will be profiling what is working, and what isn’t, in Canada’s communities both online and off.

    CommunityNorth is a project to profile Canadian communities and the best examples of community marketing, social capital, building meaningful relationships and evangelism practices.

    File PhotoFor all of the people out there who call themselves “Community Marketers”, “Social Media Consultants” and everything else, David is the one guy who has really done it in Canada. There simply aren’t any other people who have built sustainable online/offline hybrid communities the way he has managed to do.

    So, here is your chance to learn from the best. I know I took notes from David for years and I owe him credit for equipping me to get StartupNorth off the ground.

    Oh, and apologies for how ugly all these blogs are. We are working on that.

  • Weekend Reading – April 26, 2008

    We have an exciting week ahead! LoyaltyMatch, Brainpark, Natural Semantic Modules, SocialDeck, and AskKinjo will be pitching at StartupCamp Toronto. And the amazing whip-cracking Leila Boujnane, CEO of Idee, will be kicking off the night. If that wasn’t enough, another 20 startups will be pitching at CIX. We look forward to catching up with everyone at the events. If you couldn’t get a ticket, don’t despair, join us at the SummerCamp Afterparty Tuesday night from 10pm – 3am at Circa (126 John Street).

    How to avoid the pitfalls that are happening to the .coms right now… just ask Ali Asaria of Well.ca.

    Check out this nifty Brainpark video.

    More than AAA Beef coming out of Alberta… iNovia Capital has set up shop in Edmonton with local partners.

    How did we miss this one right in our own backyard? Toronto based Adcentricity raised $3M from Propulsion Ventures.

    Idee’s image search engine TinEye, in private beta, is now officially searching 487,000,000 images. It is scary cool.

    Gigpark Founder Pema Hegan’s notes from the Rick Segal Roadshow.

    Open (Irish) Coffee 2.0… StartupDrinks Montreal next Wednesday, April 30.

    Many thanks to the StartupCamp Toronto Sponsors:

    Arshad Merali | Daniel Shapiro, Microsoft | Mike Middleton & Frances Fast, Q1 Capital Partners | John MacRitchie, OCE | Jacob Senderski, Benefact Consulting

  • Thanks for coming out!



    Thanks to everyone who came out last night to celebrate a year of StartupNorth. Putting names to faces is always nice. We got to meet some new startups, some VCs were working the room and the Imperial worked its usual charm.

  • Tripharbor.com – community, cruising and a real business!

    Here is an industry that you don’t see a lot of startups jumping in to. There is something about starting a travel website that scares people off. It is a huge industry, and one where customers actually spend a lot of money and the commissions, especially on something like cruises, can be massive. So, I was excited when I first started hearing rumblings about what Stuart was up to.

    Enter TripHarbour, a startup led by former Chief Marketing Officer of Expedia.com and Founder of Expedia Canada, Stuart MacDonald. TripHarbour went live this morning and is probably one of the most polished launches I have seen in the last year.

    Stuart and the team didn’t go in to “beta”, instead they tested the site internally as much as they could and only launched when they had a site that was shipshape. This approach makes a lot of sense when your target market is the general public (not early adopters) and if they encounter a single error or get confused even once, they may never come back.

    The thing that sets TripHarbour apart from other travel sites is that it is focused exclusively on cruising. There are surprisingly few decent cruising websites and none that combine community features and cruise buying all in one. Segmenting the travel market is bound to pay off, cruising is a $21 billion dollar market, that’s enough treasure for any sailor.

    Congrats to the entire TripHarbour team. Now the real hard work starts: Getting people to the site. Luckily Stuart has some experience with that, and I am going to watch closely and learn as much as I can as they get TripHarbour out there.

    Contact Stuart MacDonald

  • indochino.com takes new round of financing from Burda Digital

    Shanghai (by way of Victoria) based startup, Indochino.com, who we first profiled in September, and who I finally got around to ordering from a few weeks ago, has announced that they have taken a new round of financing from Burda Digital Ventures, a German Venture Capital group who have been very active in Western Canada, getting a lot of deals that Canadian VCs are missing including TeamPages, Suite101.com and Nexopia

    Indochino.com is a unique online retailer that specializes in custom-tailored suits, shirts and other apparel based on measurements done by the customer. I ordered a jacket and shirt from them a few weeks ago and I think I got a taste of both ends of the spectrum of ordering online.

    The shirt came and right out of the package it was hands down the nicest shirt I have ever bought. The fit was perfect and it looked and felt great. The jacket looked great as well, but a few of the measurements are off. So I printed off their claim form and will take the jacket to a tailor tomorrow. For the price however, the jacket is great.

    This round of financing is focused on building the operations back-end as well as scaling up to meet growing demand.

    This is a long way from where they were when I first profiled them just 8 months ago and things are looking up. I am looking forward to seeing what they do in the next 8 months with new financing and some more experience behind them.

  • SummerCamp Toronto – *campers can have fun too

    Well, as if the next week+ isn’t packed enough. With StartupCamp Toronto 2, CIX and our slightly more easy going Thursday plans, Mark Kuznicki has taken it upon himself to throw the biggest party of the year yet: Summercamp.

    It will be getting started after StartupCamp and Casecamp on the 29th. Cabs will be leaving The Carlu and heading down to CiRCA for anyone who wants keep the night going.

    CaseCamp along with its sponsors transform CiRCA into ground zero for Toronto’s creative communities: art, design, communications, technology, media, social change and entrepreneurship.

    DJs, interactive art, and the closest friends you haven’t met celebrating their passion for participatory culture, creative practice and society.

    Book off the next morning and celebrate with Toronto’s emerging creative leaders who are remaking the city. Check out the links to just some of the feeder events and groups below!

    NO COVER!

    Performers include:
    – Andrew McConachie (DJ Set)
    – Jimmy Blak (DJ Set)
    – Abdul Smooth (DJ + Visuals)
    – Gabe Sawhney (Interactive Visual Installation)
    – Newmindspace (Cool Stuff)
    – Other Guests…

  • StartupCamp Toronto 2 – What we expect from you

    Pitching is never easy, and every pitch is different, but there are a few basic pieces of information that every audience would like to hear, so I decided to throw together an outline of the critical components that your pitch should cover.

    This is not an outline of your entire pitch, but a starting point to help you make sure that you have the most important parts in there.

    This is based on the audience feedback from StartupCampToronto 1.

    Market Analysis

    The audience needs to have some context. The easiest way to answer the majority of the audience?s questions is to define as tightly as possible who you plan to sell to.

    Relevant data includes

    • Estimated Market Size
    • Rough demographic information
    • Geographic limitations or focus
    • An idea of how your market will grow and change during the time you are targeting them

    Marketing Plan

    How will you communicate with your customers? ?We will get written about in blogs? is a popular but ultimately bad answer.

    If you have done the ?Market Analysis? work and have an idea of who you will be selling to, then the best way to get a decent first marketing plan is to look at the ways in which you can communicate with that market.

    Sales

    Not everyone will need this, but if your customers go through any sort of ?purchasing process? (ie: Enterprise customers, or small businesses), then it is a good idea to demonstrate how you will handle that sales process. What are your points of contact?

    How will you find a lead, test it and then follow through on communicating with them? Think about showing how you go from cold leads to getting the sales rolling in.

    Product Development Vision

    A lot of startups get so caught up in demoing what they have built so far that they forget to get people excited about what?s coming next. Telling people your vision for the product says a lot, but more than anything it shows that you aren?t going to sit still. People have trouble getting excited about a startup that has built something great but might not do much of interest going forward.

    • How will your product change?
    • How will the market change?
    • How will the product address that change?

    Don?t be that guy

    Occasionally there is a really smart group of people who have the product nailed, but are weak on the marketing and biz dev side of the startup. If you fit that profile, the audience is going to be hard on you about this, so you have to prepare to be as open as possible to the advice you will get.

    What you don?t want to do is to become defensive and start relying on the product as your savior in each case ?it will sell itself?, etc.

    Don?t be ?that guy? who won?t admit his shortcomings. Knowing your weaknesses is a critical part of being a great entrepreneur. So get real about where you fall down and get ready to be grilled about it.

    Relax

    Relax. Startupcamp could be the opportunity of a lifetime for your startup. Mentors, investors and other entrepreneurs (who may be your most valuable connection) are all there to help you build something great. So relax, you are among friends.

    Our Sponsors

  • StartupNorth is a year old! How did that happen?

    It is hard to believe that its been a year since we started writing StartupNorth. It was a hairbrained idea that has grown bigger and has given us more opportunities to connect with other startups than we could have imagined. It really has been a great ride so far.

    More than anything, we wanted to start building a startup community. We didn’t try to create a “startup culture”, or “prime the ecosystem”,. we don’t try to create synergistic deals or jumpstart any fancy commercialization of innovation. We just write about what’s happening and try to stir the pot ourselves every so often. The truth is though, we take our cues and inspiration from every comment you make and every email you send us. I can’t tell you how many bad days have turned around because of an email from someone with a great idea and a truckload of enthusiasm.

    To celebrate, Jonas and I are going to go grab a drink on Thursday. We will be upstairs at the Imperial Pub on Dundas street. It’s not the most glamourous location, but you can bet the beer will be cold, the people friendly, and it never does get too busy.

    So, if you are in town, let’s say 7:30 or 8pm. Come by for a beer and say hello. Here is the Facebook Event Page

  • I would like to thank . . . – ITWorldCanada names us in the Top 10

    ITWorldCanada named their list of the 10 best technology blog(gers) last week. We are honored to have been named in this list and can only hope we are still doing a good enough job next year to stay on it.

    Here is the list: