Archive for the ‘Start up’ Category
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[...] sometimes we hold up innovation by concentrating on the wrong thing at the start. And sometimes it’s because of the anchors and frames of the way we do things.
- Buck the trend!
Communitech’s Tech Leadership Conference is taking place on Thursday May 14 in Waterloo featuring:
- Seth Godin, author, entrepreneur, agent of change – All Marketers are Liars! , Invisible or Remarkable
- Jeremy Gutsche, founder, Trendhunter
- Paul Kedrosky, author, Infectious Greed, on The New Normal
and a lot of great speakers.
- Googleplex
An interesting little look at the Googleplex (video).
- In or Out?
Meg Cadoux Hirshberg who is a writter married to Gary Hirshberg, co-founder of Stonyfield Farm, writes a regular column about the impact of entrepreneurial businesses on families. Her latest article in Inc Magazine “In or Out” was a riot to read.
- DemoCamp Toronto 20
May is DemoCamp month in Toronto. This will be our 20th edition. This is truly exciting. I still remember the first DemoCamp! Our little community is growing and getting stronger.
DemoCamp is a show and tell for Toronto’s entrepreneurs so mark your calendar and participate!
Important Details
- Monday, May 25, 2009 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
- Apply to present
- Register to attend
- Join the email announcement group
Format
There will be 3 types of presentations.
- Demos – limited to 5 minutes and limited to 2 slides
- Pitches – 15-20 slides limited to 5 minutes must cover 15 slides in Pitch Coach
- Ignite – structured slide format, 20 slides by 15 seconds/slide = 5 minutes
Pitches is a new addition to DemoCamp. Pitches allow local startups to get feedback about their idea and company. Pitches follow a structured format: 5 minutes and 15 slides. Feedback will be provided by a set of Toronto luminaries, followed by questions from the audience.
Looking forward to seeing you all there. And as always: DemoCamp is made possible by the awesome sponsors who have continusouly supported our efforts. Become a sponsor and support DemoCamp Toronto Edition 20. This is an anniversary!
- The long now
Awesome business week article about the Internet Archive and Brewster Kahle.
[...] if you pick a goal far enough out, people can align to it. I am not interested in building an empire. Our idea is to build the future.
- relentlessly resourceful
That’s is the definition of a startup founder, from Paul Graham and I would have to agree.
In any interesting domain, the difficulties will be novel. Which means you can’t simply plow through them, because you don’t know initially how hard they are; you don’t know whether you’re about to plow through a block of foam or granite. So you have to be resourceful. You have to have keep trying new things.
Be relentlessly resourceful.
- DemoCamp Toronto: DC19 March 3, 2009 – Sold out!
I know I missed DemoCamp and I am sure you have too since we get constant inquiries about the next DemoCamp. We are back in the planning bandwagon and will be able to set up a whole series of DemoCamps in Toronto in the coming months. So stay tuned for details.
The next DemoCamp TO is happening March 3, 2009.
There are two sets of tickets, the demo tickets and the networking only tickets. Everyone attending will need a ticket (your registration receipt from Eventbrite is your ticket). The demo tickets allow the ticket holders to view the demos on the second floor of the pub; the networking tickets are limited to the ground floor and will allow ticket holders to networking with attendees.
Since this event is sold out I am not going to bore you with the details of how to register! I am sorry that we are limited by the venue size as it would be awesome to see many of you – we don’t have enough face time in our industry! If you are aware of a large free space downtown that we could use for the next democamp, please get in touch. I can be reached at lboujnane (@) ideeinc.com We are always looking for free space and this is a limitation in organizing DemoCamps.
We are of course looking for awesome presentations – as always. This is an opportunity for you to show your peers what you have been working on, get some feedback and impress!
How to present?
All presentations are 5 minutes. There are 2 types of presentations:
- Demos – 2 slides, if necessary to describe the problem or market, then functioning software that can be demo-ed
- Ignites – 20 slides x 15 seconds/slide, slides advance automatically every 15 seconds
As a presenter, you get 5 minutes to tell us your story and demo your application. To submit your presentation please drop David Crow and email at david (@) davidcrow.ca or simply use the forms at Strutta. If you have any questions, please drop me a line lboujnane (@) ideeinc.com
David has all the DemoCamp details including prizes!
We have a wonderful group of sponsors who stepped up to support DemoCamp Toronto: Hyndman Law, RedFlagDeals, Sun Start Up Essentials, MeshU, AshleyIT Services and Microsoft BizPark.
- Advice? What advice?
A hilarious little article in Inc Magazine about Markus Frind and his firm Plenty of Fish. I met Markus last year in Vancouver and was impressed to learn about his site traffic numbers. Plenty of Fish serves up 1.6 billion webpages each month; yeah 1.6 billion. I mean really? There are that many people looking for dates? What would I know …but this Inc article made me laugh:
Who gives you the best advice about your business?
I don’t get advice from anyone, because there’s no one in a similar situation. Everyone’s advice is to hire a ton of people and spend a ton of money. But that advice usually gets you nowhere.
Priceless!
- 10 Important Startup Lessons
Norm Brodsky’s article in Inc magazine has some great lessons, my favourite:
- Numbers run a business. If you don’t know how to read them, you are flying blind.
- Forget about shortcuts. Run a business as if it’s forever.
- Cash is hard to get and easy to spend. Make it before you spend it.
Work: CEO of 
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