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February Buzz
Looking to connect more with your fellow canuks 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:
Launching the C100UK
Startups + Movies
48hrs in the Valley-December Recap
48hrs Alumni in the News
Charter Member Shout Outs - Lars Leckie
The C100 Interns Arrive in Silicon Valley
Accelerators-Calling All Startups!
Challenges for startups - tips from our friends
Recent Success Stories: Acquisitions and Funding
Launching the C100UK
Canadians have been taking the Silicon Valley tech world by storm. But it’s not only Silicon Valley that is a magnet for talented techies. There’s Boston, New York, and even across the Atlantic in the UK. We are very pleased to announce the launching of the C100UK! Stay tuned for details about the official launch which will be in May or June. For immediate questions and comments, please email london@thec100.org
Startups + Movies
Switch Video
If you haven’t seen our killer C100 video yet, you should watch it below right now. Why? Because the guys at Switch Video really put out an awesome product. They were great at walking us through the whole process and making sure we were completely satisfied with the end result. If you’re looking for a great company to make your video, then go with Switch Video. They rock!
Ctrl+Alt+Compete
Join a networking crowd of investors, community startups and entrepreneurial students for the first Canadian screening of Ctrl Alt Compete - a Microsoft movie documentary on what it takes to be a startup: Passion. Fortitude. Insanity. There's even a Canadian company featured in this film: Guard.ly. You'll hear insights from industry executices, starups from the cast and local leaders in the startup community. Come to the screening in Toronto on March 6th and Montreal on March 13th. For more information and to register, click here.
48hrs in the Valley-December Recap
 To end 2011, we put on an awesome 48hrs in the Valley in December. For both those who joined and those unable to make it, we want to recap by giving you highlights on what made this a spectacular event. Out of a very competitive applicant pool of 125 Canadian companies, we selected only the top 24. These 24 tech companies (IT and Cleantech) initially came to the Valley for 48hrs in order to get the lay of the land, connect with the C100 community, make connections with potential investors and receive helpful advice on how to succeed in this competitive market. Well, they told us they achieved all of those goals and more, so that truly makes this 48hrs a success!
Charter Member Dan Martell with Jevon MacDonald, CEO of GoInstant. Photo courtesy of Kris Krug.
So, what were the best parts of this 48hrs you ask? The mentorship sessions were by far the participants’ favorite part of the whole three-day event. This gave the companies the chance to meet with successful C100 Charter Members and get their sage advice on anything from their business model, to marketing, to financing. Secondly, the C100 Showcase at Google is where 18 IT companies got to strut their stuff. After perfecting their pitches, they got on stage one by one to wow Charter Members and investors with what makes their company the best of the best. All rocked the stage, and impressed the whole room. Our prediction for 2012? Several of these great companies will be getting new rounds of funding. Don’t you think?
Sunit Mohindroo and Ahmed Badruddin are Co-founders of WatrHub and participated in the CleanTech portion of 48hrs. Photo courtesy of
Here’s the list of 48hrs in the Valley-December Alumni:
Cleantech companies: Awesense,REV Technologies, Cooledge Lighting Inc, WatrHub, Vive Nano
IT companies: gShift Labs Inc., Futurestate IT Inc., Fabric Engine Inc., TribeHR, eProf
Symtext, Storypanda Enterprises, Digido Interactive Inc., GoInstant, Winston, Inc.,
NodeFly Systems Inc., Moby, Context.IO, Recoset, Kudos Inc., Massive Damage, Caristix, Addictive Mobility
Now even though the last 48hrs just barely ended, we’re already brewing up a killer new lineup for the next one in June. Stay tuned for information!
48hrs Alumni in the News
Looking for a date on the go? Tingle, a mobile dating app company, just launched in the US. Tingle was part of our 48hrs in the Valley back in May 2010. They’re based in Vancouver and after success in Canada, they’re now beginning to make their mark in the states. Check out their release here.
Addictive Mobility, 48hrs in the December ’11 Alum, is now teaming with Celtra to make the best mobile ad campaigns. Addictive Mobility is based in Toronto and has developed a proprietary social-ad targeting solution for mobile applications. By leveraging it's platform, publishers are able to convert their ad inventory to premium inventory while allowing advertisers to achieve greater engagement for the mobile campaigns that they are running. Check out their partnership in their article here.
GoInstant has been hot in the news lately. CEO Jevon MacDonald has been featured in two financial post articles mentioning their big success with funding ($1.7M) from Silicon Valley investors. See Quentin Casey’s Financial Post articles about GoInstant: “GoInstant reels in some big investors” and“How does a startup grow?”.
C100 Charter Member Shout Outs
Charter Member Profile
Name: Lars Leckie
Canadian Hometown: Ajax, Ontario
Current City: San Francisco
Current Pursuit: Working with and investing in early stage software companies as a Partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Past Endeavors: Co-founder of AutoFarm (now Novariant), and the holder of several US patents
When talking about his experience moving down from Canada to California, he hopes that “the next Canadian who moves down here, like I did 15 years ago, gets a great reception from Canadian [ex-pats] who want to help.” And that’s what the C100 is all about: helping other Canadians who are working hard in the tech world. We are now happy to announce that Lars will take on the role of co-chair with Anthony Lee in March. Lars is a founding member of the C100 and currently sits on the board. He has helped with organization and the mentoring programs that we hold, and we look forward to welcoming him on as a co-chair!
Lars has a background in engineering, programming and business. He received a Masters of Science (Engineering) from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of business. He also holds an Engineering Physics degree from Queen’s University (with Honors). Lars has co-founded startups, such as AutoFarm (now Novariant), a company focused on GPS and robotics. Lars was in charge of strategy, product marketing, business development and building the sales team across three continents.
At Hummer Winblad, Lars has played a key role in the firm’s investments in Aria Systems (SaaS billing and customer management), vKernel (Virtualization Infrastructure), Pancetera (Cloud/Virtualization), Karmasphere (BigData / Hadoop) and a EvoStor (storage virtualization). He currently sits on the board of Kiip and Piston Cloud, both started by Canadian founders, and Lars is also actively looking for Canadian companies to add to his portfolio.
Charter Members at the White House?
You heard that right. Our very own C100 Charter Member Rahim Fazal has had the honor of being recognized by the White House: "Rahim Fazal and his company Involver.com was recognized at the White House in November 2011 as one of the top companies by revenue that are run by young entrepreneurs." Even though we're Canadian, it doesn't mean recognition by the White House is no big deal. This is just the type of acknowledgement and exposure that Canadian entrepreneurs should be experiencing, and we here at the C100 want to make sure you hear it. So, congratulations Rahim! To view the whole article on this success, click here.
Hootsuite Success
Social Media Dashboard Hootsuite, with CEO and Charter Member Ryan Holmes, just reached 3 million users this January. Congrats for the big achievement! Check out the cool infographic on Techvibes here.
The C100 Interns Arrive in Silicon Valley
This month, the C100 began its intern program with C100 companies in the Silicon Valley, and we would like to welcome all 4 interns:
Nick Adams from the University of British Columbia is interning at Localmind
Michael Silverwood from the University of British Columbia is interning at Tandem
Anuj Mehta from the University of British Columbia is interning at Joyus
Eric Kau from Simon Fraser University is interning at Playhaven
They just started their positions at their new companies and are so far enjoying all that the San Francisco Bay Area has to offer. They are working hard and learning a ton—stay tuned for updates on their journeys!
A big shout out to CM David Quail who made this all happen - Thank you David! If you are interested in the C100 intern program, whether as an intern or company looking for an intern, please email connect@thec100.org.
Accelerators-Calling All Startups!
GrowLabs will be on tour this week, so check out the events in Toronto (the 13th), Waterloo (the 14th), and Montreal (the 15th). Next week will include Edmonton (the 22nd) and Calgary (the 23rd). Go here to register. Apply to GrowLabs for the Spring 2012 program before March 19th. It will run from May 21st to August 21st. For more information on the program and to apply please visit: http://www.growlab.ca/blog/growlab-on-tour.
Apply to Extreme Startups before March 1st. it will run form March 19th to June 19th. Interested in checking out the Demo Day? It will be June 19th. For more information on the program and to apply please visit: http:www.extremestartups.com/program/
Although the application date ended in January and the spring 2012 session starts on February 27th, stay tuned for the Demo Day on May 23. See the schedule: http://founderfuel.com/en/schedule/
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:
Eric Shurenberg from Inc. shares a definition for entrepreneurship as "the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resouces currently controlled," created 37 years ago by Harvard Business School professor Howard Stevenson. Now, after speaking with Stevenson about his reasoning behind this definition, Shurenberg comes to understand that entrepreneurs can make something out of nothing. Oftentimes bootstrapping or gettin' lean, entreprenrus don't let their original lack of resouces prevent them from success. To get the whole story, check out Shurenberg's article "What's an Entrepreneur? The Best Answer Ever."
Are you running an early stage company and need help with your pitch deck? Here’s a great “how to” slideshow on early stage pitch decks: http://www.slideshare.net/ryanspoon/how-to-create-an-early-stage-pitch-deck
On his blog Maple Butter, Charter Member Dan Martell recently wrote the article “3 Things That All Great Startups Have” where he mentions that 1) they would put their head through a wall, for their idea, if that meant success, 2) they don’t shy away from things that others would be scared to tackle and 3) they are, and continue to be, their biggest user. To read about how Dan explains it all, check out his article here. And for specific startup advice, check out Dan Martell’s newest venture Clarity.fm where you can talk with experienced and successful entrepreneurs.
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:
·Vancouver’s Summify was acquired by Twitter in January and the tech world is all-abuzz on this exciting exit. For more information on this news, check out their blog post and this Techvibes article.
·Montreal’s Anamalous Networks was acquired by Tangoe for $9M in January. Check out Tangoe’s press release and NextMontreal’s article.
·Toronto’s Retailcommon raised $250K. View the Techvibes article.
·Montreal’s Buyosphere has raised a seed round of $325K. Read the Women 2.0 interview here and VentureBeat article.
·In early January, Montreal’s Playerize raised a series A round of $1M from Real Ventures, Rho Ventures and several angel investors. Check out the NextMontreal article.
·Reconinstruments secured $10M in Series A financing. See their blog post about it 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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