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June Buzz
Looking to connect more with your fellow canucks in the entrepreneurial community on both sides of the 49th parallel? Well you’ve come to the right place. Included in this C100 newsletter are tips, up and coming entrepreneur profiles, awesome events, and all things C100. Whether you’re still up north catching great hockey games or migrated down to the Silicon Valley hanging out in the sunshine, you have one killer community at your fingertips. Come check out what’s new!
In this edition:
Accelerate Series 2012
C100 Companies in the News
Charter Member Shout Outs - Shaherose Charania, Michelle Zatlyn & Chris Arsenault
Accelerator & Competitions-Calling All Startups!
Challenges for startups - tips from our friends
Recent Success Stories: Acquisitions and Funding
Accelerate Series 2012
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The Accelerate Series took both Alberta and Quebec by storm this May, as AccelerateAB and AccelerateMTL brought together the local tech communities for a few days of celebrating, learning and collaborating as entrepreneurs. In Montreal, the day kicked-off with the FounderFuel Demo Day to show the impressive talent emerging from this eastern tech hub. AccelerateMTL got started after lunch where we got to hear from Charter Members Jonathan Ehrlich, Founder of Copious, and Shawn Price, President of Zuora, about their take on success in the tech world, with Jonathan proving to us that common wisdom is often wrong and Shawn sharing the three metrics that matter: retention rate, recurring profit margin and growth efficiency. We also sat down with Joe Zawadski, CEO of MediaMath, for an insightful fireside chat and listened to the kick ass panel hearing all sorts of entrepreneurial stories with Yona Shtern, CEO/Co-Founder of Beyond the Rack, Alan MacIntosh, Partner at Real Ventures, and Martin Ouellet, Founder of President of Genia.
Martin Ouellet, Founder and President of Genia sharing what he thinks are the keys to a great startup: disruptive innovation, worldwide market and a great team. Picture taken by Eva Blue.
Missed AccelerateMTL and want a recap on all the happenings? Check out the epilogger page, which shows you all the tweets, pics, blog posts, and videos before, during and after the event.
We joined forces with the wonderful A100 to give the Alberta tech community the support, a voice and resources to accelerate their success. With a Startup University Day for students and young entrepreneurs, we heard great advice on all the basics: building software, customer development, branding your startup, building the right team, funding and accelerators. During the AccelerateAB day, experienced Canadian entrepreneurs and investors based in both Alberta and California gave us the true lowdown on what they've learned through their journeys. We learned what mistakes to avoid, what connections to make, and got to meet some of the hottest A100 and C100 members.
Kevin Swan, Partner at iNovia Capital, introducing the "Own the Valley" Panel with Atlee Clark, Director of the C100, Lars Leckie, Partner at Hummer Winblad Ventures, and Robert Simon, Partner at BDC, which was moderated by Sean Collins, Co-Founder of PlanHero.
Lastly, thank you to all of the people responsible for making these two Accelerate events successful! (That means you: Sean Collins, Carey Houston, Danielle Hamstead, JS Cournoyer, Chris Arsenault, Stephanie Zaheb, David Nault, Real Ventures, iNovia Capital and Alberta Enterprise--you all rock!)
C100 Companies in the News
This includes 48hrs Alumni, CEO Tech Forum Alumni and CTA companies.
Our friends at Piston Cloud, including CEO and C100 Charter Member Joshua McKenty, were profiled in an awesome article in Business Insider about why we should all be paying attention to them. The title of the article says it all: “We Love This Startup: They Raided NASA To Build Some Super Important Cloud Tech”
Winner of AccelerateAB 2011 pitch competition and named 2012's most innovative startup on the planet at the Global Technology Symposium, Alberta company eThor has won the award for "Best E-Commerce Solution" at the Digital Alberta Awards. Congratulations to Gary Zeigler, Kevin Dahl, and Lori Stewart!
C100 Charter Member Shout Outs
Charter Member Profile
Name: Shaherose Charania
Canadian Hometown: Calgary and Vancouver
Current City: San Francisco and Vancouver
Current Pursuit: CEO/Co-Founder of Women 2.0 and CEO/Founder of Founder Labs
Past Endeavors: Product Launch Consultant at Ribbit, Director of Product Management at Talenthouse, Director of Product Management and Product Marketing at Jahjah.
Shaherose Charania is one of our Charter Members who recently rocked the stage at AccelerateAB for her speech on “No more excuses”. She was explaining to the entrepreneurs that day that all those excuses you have are preventing you from moving forward and succeeding in the startup world. Saying that there is no money out there, as just one example of these excuses, is so far from the truth. You can find it—so go after it.
Dispelling all these “myth” excuses to the crowd is what this awesome lady does on a regular basis. Originally just her side projects, Women 2.0 and Founder Labs are two successful companies she founded that focus on supporting great entrepreneurs ready to change the world. Founder Labs is a pre incubator for entrepreneurs in the mobile space. You don’t need an idea or a team; it is the place to form those. Plus, they admit an equal amount of men and women, showing the world that women are just as smart and talented as men are in the tech world. Also disrupting the gender divide and supporting entrepreneurs is Shaherose’s other baby: Women 2.0 which is a media company offering content, community and conferences for aspiring and current women innovators in technology. Shaherose says she “[plays] a balancing act between supporting the entrepreneurial environment and participating in it,” and that’s exactly what she’s doing with both companies. This attitude is a lot of what drives the C100 mission too, so picking Shaherose as a valuable Charter Member was a no brainer for the C100.
So, what’s next for Shaherose? She and her team at Women 2.0 are actively looking for a Chief Strategy Officer. They want a smart, high achieving woman, who is passionate about the space and entrepreneurship, and is also media savvy. Is this you? Contact Women 2.0.
*To read the full length version of this Charter Member profile, see the blog post here*
Best Startup of 2012? ...Hot damn!
One of our lovely female Charter Members, Michelle Zatlyn, Co-Founder of CloudFlare, took home the awesome award for Best Startup of 2012 in May at the San Francisco Business Times 2012 Tech & Innovation Awards. Congrats to Michelle and CloudFlare!
The Willingness to Take Action
Partner at iNovia Capital and C100 Charter Member at heart, Chris Arsenault believes entrepreneurs can achieve anything. As one of the core organizers of AccelerateMTL, Chris is a strong supporter of the great startup community in Montreal and sees big things on the horizon. But what is the one thing Chris sees as the #1 factor in entrepreneur success? The willingness to take action. Check out his whole blog post "Entrepreneurs can achieve anything" on StartupNorth.
Accelerators & Competitions-Calling all startups!
FounderFuel
As many of you might know, 11 teams just graduated from the FounderFuel program as part of the Spring 2012 Cohort, and--you guessed it--applications are now open for the Fall 2012 Cohort! FounderFuel is a grueling, intensive 12 week program during which its mentor network helps you gain traction, secure partnerships, and get to revenue faster, all in effort to help you raise follow-on funding.
Several hundred startups from around the world apply for each cohort, and that means getting in ain’t no picnic. Those who do get in get:
- A network of over 120 mentors (Investors, Serial Entrepreneurs and Senior Executives)
- Immediate access to over $100K in perks (Amazon AWS, Rackspace, PayPal, etc.)
- Over 30 inspiring Guest Speaker presentations
- A small seed round of $20K-$25K on Day 1 of the program
- A convertible note of $150K to teams that are considered "Venture-Ready" at end of the program
The program culminates on Demo Day, when teams pitch before an audience of over 700, including investors from the US, Canada, and Europe, as well as members of the press and startup community. Have a look at what people are saying in the press and see what the Spring 2012 cohort had to say about their experience in this short video.
In a nutshell, you get a year’s worth of learning, growth and fundraising in just 3 short months. If you’re serious about making a real business out of your startup and are ready to take it to a whole new level, we have what it takes to give your company a power boost (think Red Bull for startups). Think you have what it takes? What are you waiting for? Apply before June 22nd. For more information, please contact Ian Jeffrey, General Manager of FounderFuel, at ian@founderfuel.com
UKTI Canada Global Adventure
UK Trade and Investment is looking for Canada's most promising innovative technology companies, to introduce to London's vibrant tech hub, Tech City.
- Spend 3 days in London to kickstart your European adventure
- Receive advice and mentoring from Canadians who've helped hundreds of Canadian businesses go global
- Meet & network with world-class investors, incubators, and companies
- Discover the real Tech City, Europe's most vibrant innovation hub.
Got what it takes? To enter: tell or show, in your own unique way, why your company is ready for a UK Global Adventure. Competition ends on June 29th! For more information, click here. Contact information: canada.ukti@fco.gov.uk and @ukti_canada
Challenges for Startups: Tips from our Friends
As entrepreneurs trying to get ideas up and running successfully, you are faced with daily challenges that you don't necessarily know how to tackle. For those seasoned entrepreneurs who know the ins and outs of this process, they jump in to offer their support and sage advice to those seeking. In case you haven't been checking out the online resources, here are some new tips from our friends who want to help you along the way:
-Localmind CEO, Lenny Rachitsky, shares his tips on how to make habit forming products in a video posted on gigaom. His three steps? Plan the cue, routine and reward. Watch the video here.
- Ever heard of an intrapreneur? Well, Our-Knowledge Consulting Services (Asia) lays it out for you in their blog post "Entrepreneur or Intrapreneur...What's the difference?"
-Hey you-You're Mentoring the Wrong Way, so says Hiten Shah. Even though we have amazing Charter Members who are fantastic for mentoring, it's always good to hear a good tip or two on the subject. So, go ahead, brush up before your time mentoring for 48hrs in the Valley!
-Here's a question we've all asked ourselves as entrepreneurs: When should you give up on an idea? Chris Dixon answers that for us in his blog post here.
Recent Success: Acquisitions and Funding
A big part of our focus at the C100 is to celebrate the successes of Canadian startups. We want to give a shout out – Congratulations! - to the following companies who have secured new rounds of funding or got acquired:
·Miranda Technologies, based in Montreal, has been acquired by Belden. See the Techvibes article here.
-RewardLoop secured $1M in a Series A led by Madrona Venture Group. See the TechCrunch article here.
-Wave Accounting raised $12M from Social+Capital Partnership, Charles River Ventures & OMERS Ventures. See the TechCrunch article here.
We'd love your Feedback
Please help us make this newsletter what YOU want. If you have a minute, we'd love your feedback. Email connect@thec100.org.
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