StartupNorth

  • protagonize.com – Choose, and make, your own adventure

    topnav_r1_c1.jpgProtagonize, a project launched by Vancouver native Nick Bouton is a new collaborative creative writing site that lets a group of people create choose-your-own-adventure stories together.

    There seems to be a lot of activity on the site already, and I can understand that there is probably a large community of CYOA enthusiasts who will flock to something like this. We have already seen another startup in this space, litterary, which has a more general focus on group writing, but has the same core service.

    These services are first and foremost about building up strong user communities. If Protagonize or Litterary are successful in doing that, then there are a lot of opportunities to build revenue, but it doesn’t work the other way around.

    Protagonize is significantly far along as far as social features. Almost everything can be rated, altered and collaborated on by the audience. “Choose your own” options are called branches and the popularity of branches are tracked as well as who created them and there is also the ability to add your own bookmarks along the way when you are reading a story.

    Contact: Nick Bouton

  • Razzle.ca is no more, sort of

    Razzle LogoRazzle.ca, who we covered both when they launched and when they botched their few shipments of products, is now dead.

    I do not know they guy(s) behind Razzle, but I am guessing that they have learned a lot of lessons with this startup. I am guessing it is only a matter of time before they come back with something else, and I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully next time there will be no fake forum posts, questionable explanations or “supplier issues”.

    A family member of mine did order a set of headphones from Razzle and they came brand new, unopened and in perfect condition. The placeholder page says they are “rebooting” the site, but I get a sense that the founder just felt overworked and under-appreciated. A few too many mistakes will sink any startup, and this appears to be an example.

    Update:

    It appears that despite the message on their website yesterday, Razzle is up again and has a pair of refurbished headphones for sale.

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  • AideRSS announces funding

    aider.pngI just got word from the guys at AideRSS to let me know that they have closed their first round of funding. AideRSS has grown from 2 guys with an idea to 8 employees now, and the hiring is still going on. I first profiled the Waterloo, Ont. company in July of last year when things were just getting off the ground, so I am really excited to get word that they now have some money to really build on their momentum.

    When I spoke with them earlier in the week, Kevin and Ilya said that this will give them 1 year of operating time in order to experiment with some of the nuances of their business plan, and to focus on building the product. They also indicated that they are in the final stages of putting together some partnerships which are worth waiting to hear about.

    The round, the size of which is undisclosed as of now, was lead by Tech Capital Partners in Waterloo along with a group angel investors. AideRSS is also working with the University of Waterloo on a few research projects that will help enhance their filtering engine and will bring improvements to their end-user tools. Taking advantage of a local resource like the university a smart move, especially in a place with a great university like UOW.

    AideRSS is now a significant player in a healthy industry. Feedburner.com was acquired by Google for $100million last year and AideRSS continues to offer a completely unique and useful service. Another big difference since last July is that PostRank, the secret sauce that gives a score based on external links and social uses of the RSS content, is now Patent Pending.

  • vencorps.com – Crowd Sourced VC gets cooking

    vencorp.pngI dropped Sean Wise an email today about Vencorps.com and he said that they would be making some announcements at the end of this month, but it appears that David Crow has beat me to the punch on writing about it.

    VenCorps is a collaboration that includes the software and experience of Cambrian house, but with a focus on providing capital and guidance to entrepreneurs. Cambrian house has been successful using their model, which is crowd-sourced software, and there would absolutely be no better partner out there for building something like this, so that is certainly a good start.

    The model basically involves your idea being vetted by the public for an initial vote, and it then moves on to a sort of due-diligence process and a more formal vote, where an “elite group” will do the decision making. It’ll take a few viewings to decipher their flash animation, but give it whirl.

    VenCorps is a venture capital seed fund leveraging the wisdom and the participation of an elite crowd to build better start-ups. VenCorps enables entrepreneurs and angel investors to act collaboratively using collective knowledge, networks, and experiences.

    Does this make sense for startups? Will it get enough attention? Is this a revolution in how companies are funded? I am going to sit tight and wait to see this thing in the wild before I make my own judgments about it.

    What about you?

    • Would you share your idea with the world in the hopes of getting access to a group of angels?
    • Do you see this as potentially different from current angel groups or VCs?
    • Will this method be better at picking winners?

    Best of luck to Sean and the rest of the team, we will cover this as much as we can as it comes to life. This is innovative and risky – the sort of thing that nobody has tried yet. For that reason alone, I am cheering it on. Somebody has to get out there and give it a shot.

  • Founders and Funders Dinner Toronto – January 21st, 2008

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    David Crow and I have been using some of our vacation time to organize a Founders and Funders dinner on January 21st in Toronto. It will be at Monsoon downtown and will bring together 75 Founders, CEOs, Angels and VCs to meet in a quiet setting to discuss the Toronto and Canadian startup and early stage environment.

    Event details are on upcoming.org

    110338403_2c4b1e9527_m.jpgThe Toronto tech and community scenes have exploded over the past couple of years. We often hear about successful entrepreneurs or interesting startups but finding the time to attend all of the events and meet interesting people isn’t easy.

    The Toronto Founders & Funders Dinner was organized to get the Toronto tech entrepreneurs to meet each other; meet potential funders: angel, VC, government, or other; to have a fun social evening where we see how we can help each other create the next big successful company.

    The first dinner is limited to 75 people

    What is Founders and Funders?

    Founders and Funders is a social event for entrepreneurs and funders conceived by Austin Hill and Patrick Lauzon in Montreal. The Toronto event is using this formula to help connect the community in Toronto. The goal is to provide connections between entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists and others with a direct interest in creating the next big successful company.

    If you are interested in attending, please contact us or David for more information. Updates will be posted on foundersandfunders.org

  • Holiday Update

    StartupNorth has now been around for 8 months or so, which I have to admit is longer than it feels. We have been working hard to do good things for Canadian Startups, and it seems like more and more cool stuff is happening every week. We have been lucky to have seen startups from the very beginning right through to their first round of funding, we also had a blast putting on StartupCamp Toronto and we’ve been fortunate enough to help get StartupCamp Montreal started, and hopefully a few others soon.

    We have also had a chance to talk with dozens of Angel Investors and smart VCs who “get” what it’s like to be a startup. They all want to help startups and want to know how. It’s great to see their open minded approach and their excitement for Canadian Startups.

    Postings will be slow for another few days at least and then we will be back to a normal schedule. We are incredibly excited about the rest of January, which will see a few big announcements from us about some things we have been working on. These projects are going to be a direct benefit to startups, and I am barely managing to keep myself from blurting out the good news.

    If you want to drop us a line about anything at all, you can contact us through the form on our about page, or you can post a comment here.

  • WalkingSpree.com inks pilot deal with Calgary hospital

    WalkingSpree.com, a Calgary, Alberta based startup run by MeshEast editor Lisa has just signed a deal to run a pilot project in a major hospital

    ” . . .selected patients under the care of local Calgary West Central PCN family doctors will be given USB Pocket Pedometers from WalkingSpree.com to track and automatically upload their walking data to the WalkingSpree website. The patients can add other activities such as swimming or cycling to get a full picture of the calories burned. Patients can also track calories consumed with the online food and nutrition tracker to balance their daily “energy in-energy out” equation, thereby assisting with weight loss and weight-loss maintenance. These patients will receive support from WalkingSpree’s online Fitness and Nutritional Coaches.”

    WalkingSpree provides a USB pedometer which can upload data to the WalkingSpree website, which provides coaching and tracking features. It seems to be a lot like NikePlus, but with more value added features (and I assume upsell opportunities).

    Nice work on getting this pilot together, I am looking forward to hearing the results.

  • Angel financing – What angels look for in a company: Execution strategy (Part 6 of 6)

    The previous topics I have covered in this six part article series have largely spoken about where your company is today:

    These areas collectively form the basis of what you are pitching and why you feel your company is a good investment candidate. To round out your investment pitch you now need to provide details on what is the company’s execution strategy to take the company forward. Namely, investors are putting money into the company at a valuation based on the progress the company has made to date and its potential for the future. They will want to know how the new money coming in will be used to grow the company and increase the company’s value.

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  • GameOn: Finance – Startup Passes available

    gameonfinance.png GameOn: Finance is a conference focused on helping gaming companies understand their financing options. The conference takes place in Toronto on January 17th and 18th and is being put on by Interactive Ontario

    “Interactive Ontario is pleased to announce the new Start-Up Pass for GameON: Finance, to assist small games companies “on the rise” in gaining access to this unique opportunity to meet face-to-face with the investment community, as well as to network and become more acquainted with the gaming community.”

    To make sure that startups can all afford to make it, the organizers are providing discounted tickets to qualified companies. In order to be eligible for the Start-Up Pass, you must have:

    • 5 staff members or less;
    • been in operation for less than 3 years; and
    • made, or plan on making games your core business.

    The number of startup passes available is limited and they are being provided on a first-come first-served basis. You can sign up here. The full schedule for the conference is available here.

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  • Calgary's first BarCamp a hit, startup focused

    2112453857_f4859c284a_m.jpgCalgary had its first BarCamp this past week and by all accounts it was a hit. Patrick Lor has the best recap of the day. What struck me was how startup-focused this BarCamp seemed to be. Perhaps that is just how things seem when you only listen to entrepreneurs, but the day involved a “Startup Hacks” session and 2 talks by Guy Kawasaki.

    Guy had the crowd vote on which of his talks they wanted him to do:

    The crowd gave him a resounding yes, and split their vote between a talk on innovation, and “how to start a web 2.0 business with $12,700”. So, he did both. It was twice the work for him, but he tells me he really enjoyed presenting this Calgary crowd.

    It is great that someone like Kawasaki was able to attend the first BarCamp for Calgary, that is such a great way to kick off the movement there. Some love him, some hate him, either way: He has a high profile and I am sure he got the crowd excited.

    I would love to see a StartupCamp take place there. I am mildly obsessed with what is going on in Alberta, the whole thing fascinates me and the opportunities for startups in tech and outside of tech are huge. I think I will just hop on a plane next time there is an event and start meeting some of Calgary’s entrepreneurs. Keep it up!