The team behind Startup Festival (which StartupNorth is a Media Sponsor) has started the call for startups looking to pitch and launch at the festival. They are looking for startups in a variety of verticals, at a variety of stages of corporate development, and looking to raise funding or attention for their companies. It’s a great Canadian event that is guarranteed to have local, national and global investors and press attending.
You’ll be attending anyway, might as well get some great PR & exposure with attendees and speakers
StartupFestival is a great bridge between North America and Europe. And you’re considering accelerating your access to European markets
You’re actively raising funding and you want to get in front of the best investors and coaches in North America
You’re funnier than Dave McClure and Will Ferrell should produce a webisode for Funny or Die featuring “Your Startup Life” with Claire Daines having a reoccurring guest starring role
It’s nice. It’s concise. It’s clean. There is choice but it’s not overwhelming. It feels like there is a consolidated effort to make Montreal the hub for startups and technology in Quebec. There are other activities and groups but there seems to be a core group of influencers, activities, and events where high tech entrepreneurs can go to find others like them, potential employees, potential investors, etc.
I look at Ontario and I am concerned. We have what should be the building blocks for a great entrepreneurial soup. And we’ve seen some spectacular successes (Bumptop, Sysomos, Pushlife among others). But there is a lot of noise. Efforts divided between regions.
I’m not suggesting a “one ring to rule them all” strategy. There are grassroots efforts, there are provincial government efforts, there are local economic development efforts like:
It leads to the murky waters that are the entrepreneur community and support infrastructure in Ontario. There is no segmentation. There definitely isn’t self-selection. They use similar words to describe their activities: entrepreneurship, startups, technology, media, growth, etc. As entrepreneurs there is a paradox of choice about who to listen to, where to go for advice, support, mentorship and guidance.
We started StartupNorth as a way to document our experiences finding, using, evaluating other startups in Toronto and across Canada. It was a way to connect with others interested in startups, emerging technologies and business models, and to talk about the things in a context specific to Canada.
Waterloo = University of Waterloo + Wilfred Laurier University
Kingston = Queen’s University + Royal Military College
Guelph = University of Guelph
Halton Region = Sheridan Institute of Technology & Applied Learning
Durham Region = University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Hamilton = McMaster University
Toronto = University of Toronto + Ryerson University + OCAD
St. Catherines = Brock University
Sault St. Marie = Algoma University
North Bay = Nipissing University
Sudbury = Laurentian University
Ottawa = University of Ottawa + Carleton University
Mississauga = University of Toronto Mississauga Campus
London = University of Western Ontario
Markham = York University + University of Toronto Scarborough Campus
Windsor = University of Windsor
It’s interesting that California with an estimated population that is 3.7 times larger [1] than Ontario[2] has less innovation hubs than Ontario (12 in California to 14 in Ontario). (Sure from a per capita GDP calculation, Ontario is higher (Cdn$43,847 vs US$38,956) but it’s probably not entirely a relevant metric unless you’re a politician which I am not).
Photo by postbear eater of worlds – Some rights reserved CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
I’m wondering if rather than satisfising constituents with perceiving innovation benefits for votes, that we need to look toward innovation, education and economic growth programs that benefit citizens. I keep wondering what we are missing because of the existing programs and repackaging of programs for Ontarios entrepreneurs. Look at the job creation from a single venture firm, Union Square Ventures has portfolio companies with over 557 open jobs around the globe (128 are in NYC + Brooklyn). This is job creation. It’s focused on creating new positions, in a variety of rolls, that hopefully will attract new talent to the location.
Everyone loves to hates Toronto
Let’s all hate Toronto. It’s not uncommon for Canadians to dislike Toronto. But I don’t hear the same disdain for Montreal or Vancouver. But maybe that’s because I don’t live with their large gravity well pulling me closer. I choose to live downtown in Toronto because it’s where I want to be. I understand the lifestyle choices that others make to live elsewhere. There are days when the traffic, the people, the crazy, all get to me, but I love the collision of people, cultures, and ideas (go read Richard Florida for more thoughts on the Creative Class).
Are we missing an opportunity to raise the profile of Ontario companies because we don’t want to embrace the fact that Toronto is one of the major technology/media hubs? Are we diluting efforts by spreading the love and effort across 16 regions?
If this sounds familiar, it’s the exact same deal as our friends at NextMontreal.com (so you can increase your odds of winning by entering at both sites ;-). And we’ll just borrow the
How to Enter
Just retweet this post. That will count as 1 entry. Tweeting multiple times won’t help.
For a second chance, help us out by completing this form:
[gravityform id=1 name=Chancefor tickets to The Art of Management title=false description=false ajax=true]
This a team that is deeply steeped in the Montreal software/internet/infrastructure startup scene. They have a combination of deep technical chops plus the necessary hands-on operations with early stage companies looking for a scalable business model with customers.
If this isn’t enough they’ve surrounded themselves with great advisors including Dan “I’m Everywhere Man” Martell, Rails core team member and Shopify founder Tobias Lütke and others.
Congratulations to the team at Vanilla Forums. In the past year they’ve attended TechStars in Boulder, moved to Montreal, and released version 2 of Vanilla Forums. What is Vanilla?
“Vanilla is an open-source, standards-compliant, multi-lingual, theme-able, pluggable community forum.
Over 350,000 sites use Vanilla Forums to manage feedback, spark discussion, and make customers smile.”
There are competitors ranging from bbPress, phpBB, and punBB (like others we’re torn between bbPress and Vanilla – the proxyConnect plugin allows us to integrate Vanilla with WordPress). But Vanilla is a leading solution offering a great user experience, simple customization and hosting with a large user community. Plus they’re funded by our friends at Montreal Startup which makes them an easy choice.
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.
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.
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.
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 faveFionn 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.
![startupdrinks[1]](http://www.startupnorth.ca/wp-content/uploads/startupdrinks1.png "startupdrinks[1]")