StartupNorth

Tag: Toronto

  • The Paradox of Choice

    Meagphone

    Crowd at AccelerateMTL photo by Chris Arsenault
    Photo by © 2011 Chris Arsenault

    I love what is going on in Montreal.

    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.

    Turning up the volume

    Volume goes to 11 by John Watson
    Photo by © John Watson

    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.

    I realize that the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI) has added to the entities designed to enable entrepreneurs. They are trying to “spread innovation” through out the province via the university commercialization networks.  The  ONE network that has centres in Waterloo, Kingston, Guelph, Halton Region, Durham Region, Hamilton, Toronto, St. Catherines, North Bay, Sudbury, Ottawa, Mississauga, London, Markham and Windsor. The program is separate but deeply tied to the collaboration between business and academia.

    • 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?

  • DFAIT Technology Growth Initiative Business Bootcamps

    Departement of Foreign Affairs and International TradeDFAIT is sponsoring the Technology Growth Initiative (TGI) Business Bootcamps Spring 2011 to help Canadian companies go-to-market in specific US markets (Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, San Diego, San Francisco/Silicon Valley and others). The program provides startups with access to webinars, a one day bootcamp session and direct connections with VCs and local entrepreneurs to share experiences and find funding.

    The one day bootcamps are being help in April and May 2011 from Halifax to London. The bootcamps are interesting, they provide entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch and get feedback from trusted experts (yeah right I think I served as an “expert” in 2009 ;-). But it is a great opportunity to get a different set of eyes on your pitch. And it plays to the old adage, “how do you know when an entrepreneur is dead? he stops pitching”.

    Registration for One Day Business Bootcamp

    • Halifax: April 27th, 2011 – Cleantech and ICT
    • Quebec City: April 28th, 2011 – ICT
    • London: April 29th, 2011 – Cleantech, ICT, Life Sciences
    • Toronto: May 2nd, 2011 – Cleantech, ICT, Life Sciences
    • Ottawa: May 3rd, 2011 – Cleantech, ICT, Life Sciences

    There is also the upcoming April 6th, 2011 11:30EST seminar with Mike Grandinetti (he’s also a TechStars mentor) focusing on “Lean and Mean Startups”.

    April 6th: 11:30 EST (Upcoming Webinar – Soon)

    1. Lean and Mean Start-ups – Presented by: Mike Grandinetti, Managing Director, Southboro Capital, Boston.
    2. So you think you are ready? – 10 things you need to know before presentation day – A candid talk on presentations gone horribly wrong and how you avoid that – Presented by: Coby Schneider – Miller Thomson & Others.

    These are great opportunities to learn about expanding into specific US markets. The DFAIT team brings key players to local markets and makes it easy to establish relationships that allow companies to grow. There are lots of opportunity to criticize some of the efforts, but the team at DFAIT have run this program for the past few years with varied success. It’s worth the time of startups actively looking to expand their customer base (this means that you’re beyond seed stage, you probably have customers, you have a product, you’re looking for a scalable business model) to explore how DFAIT can help.

    The event is co-hosted by our sponsors and friends at KPMG are corporate partners helping DFAIT and startups. There are a lot of cross-border issues concerning corporate structure, financing, taxation and other where KPMG can leverage their experience to help early and growth stage companies.

  • Reminder: DEMO + VentureBeat in Toronto on Jan 13

    DEMO Launchpad for Emerging Tech

    Rogers VenturesOur friends at Rogers Ventures are hosting a DEMO day with VentureBeat on January 13, 2011. This is part of a east coast swing that includes New York and Toronto. They are looking to finalize the presenting companies. If you are interested in being one (1) of the ten (10) companies make sure you apply to present.

    The great news is that even if you don’t/can’t pitch for the full day session there are still lots of opportunities. You can join the social happening at the Century Room on King St W starting at 7:30pm. You need to register to attend.

    It’s great that we’ve built a strong community of entrepreneurs, marketers, designers and developers in Toronto. It’s attracting world-class folks like Matt Marshall (@mmarshall) and Nate Werlin to brave the cold and snow (though still way less than NYC) and find great startups in Toronto. We even have DEMO alumni and DEMOgods like Scott Annan and Alec Saunders (though both are from Ottawa, hmmmm). It’s got me thinking we need to host another DemoCamp at some point in the near future. Stay tuned and I’ll see you on Jan 13th.

    Full details at VentureBeat.

  • Coffee, Co-working and Crash Pads in Toronto

    Editors Note: This is the first post by Andrew Peek at Jet Cooper. I love the concept of shared spaces for the collisions of ideas. Albert and I talked about this back at Bubbleshare. I know that it is part of the ethos at the Kontagent offices in SF. And I know it’s part of the culture at Extreme Ventures, where I’m camping while starting up. It reminds me of the “Responsible use of Shared Resources” philosophy from SCS at CMU, basically you’re responsible for not ruining it for everyone else don’t abuse the privilege. The open door policy is a great way to allow for new collisions whether that’s new ideas, new employees, or just new connections. @davidcrow

    Chalks

    If you are an entrepreneur in Toronto, you are probably familiar with the various coffee shops, co-working spaces and wi-fi zones available to you as pseudo-offices. You might even have a pattern of Foursquare check-ins that run like clockwork throughout the week.Steven Johnson refers to spaces like these (noting England’s transition from pubs to coffee houses) as environments where ideas can have sex. At Jet Cooper, we like that.

    While it takes a serious commitment to invent and scale something the size of a CSI (Centre for Social Innovation), it isn’t all that hard to contribute something – even if it’s just a few desks – to the people who might be one good conversation away from a big idea. It’s for that reason that we’ve kept a handful of desks available in our office since day one. Even now, as we plan for our next office furniture re-arrangement, we try to keep in mind the people we haven’t met yet.

    Thinking back on it, it has been a wonderful way of attracting a lot of bright people, which on it’s own is a great way to expose any team to a city’s creative pulse. And realistically, all it cost was a few extra desks and chairs.

    There are no restrictions on who can drop in. You don’t need to be a client, or a partner, or even have a twitter handle. Just stop by and maybe let us know your coming so we can put a beer on your desk.

    Consider this a ringing endorsement for this kind of simple contribution. If you have an office, open the door. The correlation between environments and innovation isn’t a secret and as per usual, more good is gooder.

  • Demos announced for DCT27

    DemoCamp lineup has been announced:

    This is a great set of early stage Toronto and region (Waterloo) based startups. Some of the folks are getting their second shot at a demo. It will be interesting to see how far they’ve come from their launch. I hope that everyone takes the time to understand the need for “wow” in the demo. And remember the goal is not to heckle but to give entrepreneurs a chance to show what they’ve been working on, how they’ve improved and to get feedback.


    DemoCamp Surprises

    Anand Agarawala has stepped up with an EPIC DemoCamp sponsorship as a thank you for all of the support from the Toronto community and DemoCamp for helping promote and inspire Bumptop. We’ll take none of the credit for Anand and the Bumptop team’s hustle in getting acquired by Google, but we’ll enjoy the rewards at the next DemoCamp.

    Sponsors

    I know and appreciate everyone paying for a ticket. We don’t run DemoCamp as a business. We run it as a cost recovery event, that is, our goal is not to generate a profit (often we run at a loss). We couldn’t do this with out the support of our sponsors. There are some great local companies including:

    • Anand Agarawala and Bumptop! You have to be at DemoCamp from 4pm-6pm to find out what it is.
    • Eqentia builds the a semantic publishing platform for knowledge tracking & competitive analysis
    • XtremeLabs is hiring agile engineers and ui designers for the hottest mobile development company on the planet.
    • Microsoft BizSpark jumpstart your startup and speed up your time to market.
    • FreshBooks is the fastest way to track time and invoice your clients.
    • Mercanix develops tools that enable organizations and their people to do good work.
    • Rob Hyndman is the bee’s knees & the cat’s pajama. Startups looking for a lawyer. Start here.
    • Rypple builds social software that makes workplace feedback easy and fun.
    • Dayforce is the an enterprise software company in Toronto. Hiring dev, qa, ui and sales ninjas.
    • Kontagent is a Facebook Fund funded startup that is hiring rockstar developers in Toronto.
    • OCE helping commercialize the next generation technologies like Bumptop & Sysomos.
    • KPMG Information, Communications & Entertainment (ICE) practice helps startups to succeed in turbulent markets.

  • Contest: The Art of Management tickets

    The Art of Management - Nov 15, 2010 - Toronto, ONOur friends at The Art of Productions have given us 2 tickets to give away. There are tickets to:

    You can buy a ticket right away and get $50 off the regular price (you’ll pay $349) — just use the discount code SK23 and visit http://www.theartofmarketing.ca/promo/SK23 or http://www.theartofmanagement.ca/promo/SK23.

    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]

    November 15, 2010 – The Art of Management

    Management lineup includes:

    Both events look like great networking and learning events. As a startup, we like the chance for “free” tickets.

  • Toronto community mourns passing of angel investor

    Paul Maasland from CBC
    Paul Maasland source: CBC & OPP

    Local angel investor Paul Maasland was murdered, his body was found north of Toronto at a public boat launch. We extend our deepest condolences to Mr. Maasland’s family. And our sincerest concerns go out to his friends and colleagues at Maple Leaf Angels and his investments (according to Mr. Maasland’s LinkedIn profile) including:

    The conversations with his investees shed some light on Mr. Maasland as an investor. From one of the portfolio companies CEOs:

    “I’d just say he was very generous with his time and resources and provided great input into how we ran [company removed]. He always was positive and excited about the initiatives were were doing.”

    These comments were repeated throughout Mr. Maasland’s portfolio. He was a knowledgeable, generous investor that provided useful guidance and support for his companies.

    This is an unexpected situation for anyone including many startups. It opens questions for startups about succession planning for Board Directors, questions around the Shareholders Agreement and the shares of a deceased investor. Hopefully most Boards are experienced in succession planning. As the shareholders change over time with new investment, replacing board members is a fairly straightforward and common practice (albeit usually under very different circumstances). Regarding what happens to a deceased investors shares this is decided between the deceased’s estate and the shareholders agreement. If an estate needs or chooses to liquidate the investment, many shareholders agreements have a clause that allows the company or other shareholders to purchase the investment at Fair Market Value. There are tax and legal considerations, so this should not be considered tax or legal advice, please consult a professional.

    It’s unfortunate for our small close knit community to suffer such a sudden, tragic loss. We are deeply saddened to hear about the loss of a member of our community.

  • DemoCamp with Fred Wilson

    Mark your calendars.

    Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures will be keynoting DemoCamp Toronto # 27 on October 6, 2010.

    EquentiaHow did we pull this off? Well the big shout out goes to William Mougayar at Eqentia, this would not have happened without the support and efforts of William. In case you haven’t seen Eqentia, they power custom portals for media monitoring, competitive intelligence, knowledge tracking and more. They power two sites that I use daily to track the Canadian emerging technology scene: CVCA and NextMontreal news widget.  We’ll be launching a full Eqentia powered news portal in the next couple of weeks.

    The full details about DCT27 are still being locked down. The venue is still to be determined. The venue is the bulk of the ticket price. The goal with ticketing has always been cost recovery and we’ll aim to keep tickets inexpensive (current model show about $25/person less for students). Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures

    DemoCamp Toronto 27 Details

    • Date: October 6, 2010 [Hold the Date – iCal]
    • Time: 11:30am – 3:30pm
    • Location: To be determined
    • Notify me when tickets are available

    I want to demo! Pick me, pick me!

    We’re also looking for up to 5 local demos that match the investment thesis at Union Square Ventures. If you think your company has the right stuff then you should apply to demo.


  • Mentoring Virtually in Toronto

    C100 is hitting the road (virtually) and will be bringing the next C100 mentoring session to Toronto. We’re working with our partners Extreme Venture Partners and are looking for three companies to participate.

    Interested? Please apply via our application process.

    Finalists will be notified week of July 12.

  • Be the next Bumptop

    Too bad Bumptop wasn’t actually an ExtremeU company. However, the recent acquisition of Bumptop should help raise the profile of the 2010 Extreme University.

    If you’re a student, a founder or just thinking about starting something you should apply to Extreme University. This is a world-class program, from an up-and-coming venture capital firm in Canada. They have a track record of selling companies to big players (Bumptop to Google, J2Play to EA). The Extreme Ventures, XtremeLabs, and Extreme University programs are building into a fantastic training and breading ground for a new generation of mobile and Internet startups. It feels like something big is happening inside the walls of Extreme Ventures.

    Extreme University 2010

    Who?

    We are looking for four smart and fast moving teams to participate. Typically all members of the two-three person team will be deep technically, but at least one of the founders should have a technical background.

    What?

    • Get an initial $5000 + $5,000 (US) per founder in exchange for a 10% ownership stake in your company
    • Move your team to our shared ExtremeU office space at Yonge & King (downtown Toronto)
    • Have weekly mentoring sessions by industry experts in technology, funding, legal, PR, marketing and HR
    • Meet a who’s who of experts at our weekly socials and have an opportunity to practice your pitch and demo your in-progress prototype
    • Have access to local shared resources to accelerate product development (mentors, servers)

    When?

    Applications are due by June 4th, 2010. The program starts Monday June 14th, 2010 to Thursday September 10th, 2010 at the ExtremeU offices in Toronto at Yonge and King. The final demo day will be Tuesday September 16th, 2010 at DemoCamp

    How?

    It’s a great program located in downtown Toronto for early-stage entrepreneurs and founders. The Xtreme Labs has a great track record. If you’re interested, make sure you apply before the June 4, 2010 deadline.

    Alumni – The Class of 2009

    UkenUken Games
    Uken Games makes highly addictive games for social and mobile platforms.

    Uken Games was born in March of 2009 when two normal guys decided they wanted to have super powers. Given real world limitation, they turned to the virtual world to make their dreams a reality. They built Superheroes Alliance, their first game, which eventually grew to over 150,000 monthly active users. Since then, they’ve launched 2 other games: Villains and Twisted Treasure have amassed over 300,000 total users. Going forward, they are committed to building a strong community around each of their games, expanding across other both social (Facebook) and mobile (iPhone, Blackberry) platforms. Uken Games has received a follow on investment and are driving hard towards this goal.

    AssetizeAssetize
    Assetize is a Twitter ad network that enables publishers to monetize their social content. Publishers within the Assetize network range from large news and media organizations to individual users. The company has also partnered with a premiere sports agency to launch FanWaves – a Twitter monetization network exclusively for the sports world. The growing list of FanWaves publishers includes the NHL, NY Knicks, Phoenix Suns, Washington Capitals, as well as several professional athletes.

    Next, the company plans to extend their monetization solution to other social networks, as well as other links stemming from media websites and blogs. Given the nascency of this space and lack of history, one of the challenges Assetize has faced is partnering with advertisers willing to market through social channels – a difficulty that is expected to decrease as brands realize the immense potential of social networks. Following Extreme University, Assetize is generating revenue and has secured a seed round of financing. The company is also currently in the process of syndicating a larger round from local and US-based VCs.

    LocationaryLocationary
    Locationary is changing the way that data on local businesses and other places is collected and verified.

    This data is fundamental to the local search and local advertising markets which have revenues approaching $50 billion a year. Google and other local search engines currently buy the bulk of their local business data from aggregators that have employees copy the printed yellow page directories. The current process can’t scale and results in expensive, stale and outdated information typically 1 to 2 years old. Locationary has created a patent-pending, crowd-sourced solution to collect and verify this information across the globe.

    Locationary is growing quickly and now has users in over 70 countries. They’ve collected data on over 20 million places and are now updating over 100,000 places a day. In this business, the fresher the data, the more valuable it is; and that’s what makes them special. Locationary has raised a Series-A investment through the connections made at ExtremeU.

    Extreme Labs has a history of bringing great mentors and presenters to interact and engage with ExtremeU participants. In 2009, participants met some of the best lawyers, founders, VCs and others in Canada.

    Albert Lai Kontagent Startup Lifecycle
    Ali Asaria Well.ca How to get funding
    Colin Ground Cassels Brock & Blackwell Setting up a VC friendly structure
    Dan Debow Rypple Sales & Marketing
    Leila Boujnane Idee Business Development
    Mike McDerment Freshbooks Product Management
    Rick Segal JLA Why do a startup now?
    Rick Yazwinski Tucows Agile Development
    Sal Rocco Stonewood Group How to hire superstars

    The list of already confirmed speakers in 2010 is amazing: