What are they talking about?

Everyone has their own opinion and here is where you can read what they are. These are blog posts, not necessarily endorsed by anyone – except the team member who wrote them!

Montreal’s startups versus Y-Combinator’s startups … part 1

Filed under Y Combinator, startup

17 08.08

Twenty startup’s were in Y-Combinator’s Summer 2008 funding batch. Here is my take on the first half of them (the rest will be in the next post) and where appropriate a mention of Montreal companies I am aware of that are competitive or complimentary.

Posterous

A hosted blogging platform that allows you to post many different media types via e-mail. Great software, ultimate in simplicity – but perhaps it could have worked even better as a Worpress or Typepad plugin ? Nice software.

Ticket Stumbler

Vertical (sports tickets) search technology with a referrals based revenue model – nothing innovative per se, but there is a chance of success if they can simplify a complex issue that enough people have – it certainly worked for Kayak. Montreal’s TIBConcerts does a similar thing for concert listings.

A N Other Company

A company yet to launch but with a similar concept as Montreal’s BoostCast which already has over 17,000 communities (according to it’s website). These guys (who did seem smart and capable in general) made the mistake of starting their presentation by saying they were the “only one’s able to simple generate video-sharing site”. Anyone making a pitch to investors please remember that we see deals all the time and it’s just too risky to say you’re the only one – because it’s EXTREMELY rare that you are.

A N Other Company

A company yet to launch that may benefit from the progress being made at Montreal based Identi.ca , a company that has developed a version of Twitter that runs on the Laconi.ca open source micro-blogging platform (Our very own Evan Prodromou of Wiki-Travel fame is the driving force behind it’s development). The guys had heard of Identi.ca and were excited by the possibilities that could arise from having many vertically focused, but networked, micro-blogging sites.

People and Pages

Website builder (another one!) with member management. Just screams me2. The most interesting business I’ve seen in this space in Montreal (well the CEO is based here) is Kyube.

A N Other Company

PhD brainpower put to good use. This company yet to launch may have some interingsting synergies with Reasonably Smart, a Montreal based startup that is looking to make a name for itself in the cloud computing space.

PicWing

An integrated hardware and software solution for delivering photos (and in the future other media …. interesting possibilities) directly to an electronic picture frame. I’d be contacting Kodak and Fuji Film to start a bidding war !

MeetCast

Web-based video-conferencing and screen sharing solution. It’s a competitive / crowded space but no solution out there does it all yet. Very similar in functionality to Montreal’s Oneeko (previously Camwii) – whom I hear will soon have some very interesting news on getting their solution more widely distributed!

CO2 Stats

These guys can actually measure the environmental footprint of your website. It seemed like a gimmicky business at first but, once explained, it actually struck me as pretty complex to do accurately. It might actually fly !

More reviews to follow but I’d be happy to hear about any other Montreal based startups that are complementary or competitive to the companies profiled above.

(NOTE: This page has been edited to remove references to companies that have yet to launch)

2 Comments

Montreal Start Up at Y-Combinator demo day

Filed under Y Combinator

15 08.08

I was fortunate enough to be invited down to Cambridge, MA to attend yesterday’s demo day for Y-Combinator’s latest batch of companies.

Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston acted as both the gracious hosts for the event and the concerned parents for the Founders as they exposed their ideas to an external audience for the first time (for the most part).

Paul Graham

(Sorry about the photo quality – but I had just shaken Paul’s hand ;-) )

We decided to send someone down there for a few reasons;

Firstly, there were a couple of companies founded by Canadians that we had been talking to and wanted to catch up with and let them know that their was an alternative to heading to the Valley – Montreal ! Speaking to the guys from BackType,(one of the better company’s there ;-) ) it seems that long term Visa issues are always going to be a problem for Canadian founders of start-up founders in US.

Secondly, we wanted to get a sense for the overall quality of the ideas and entrepreneurs. We have met with many Montreal based start-up’s over the past few months and have a good sense of the calibre of ideas and entrepreneurs on offer. We wanted to be able to compare what we see with what was on show at (if you believe the hype) the Mecca of web-startup’s.

Thirdly, we wanted to understand the size and quality of the VC eco-system that exists for follow-on (Seed or A-Round) investment in companies as they move from Beta 2 Business.

And finally, as we push ahead with developing our own FounderFuel investment program, we wanted to get a better insight into some of the practicalities of running the Y-Combinator program.

So they were the goals – I’ll let you know how I got on in the next post …………

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What have you leveraged today ?

Filed under Ideas Dept, Question

13 08.08

It’s rare that we come a cross a revolutionary idea these days. Most of the ideas we see are part of the ongoing evolution of internet based products and services.

Ev.o.lu.tion – A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form.

The evolutionary process employs significant leverage by building on what has gone before. Similarly ,we find that the most promising internet businesses are those that are most able to leverage what already exists today to give them a leap start towards tomorrow.

So one of the recent questions that we like to ask is " What exisiting products, services or infrastructure are you going to be able to leverage that will have a significant impact on your ability to out maneuver your competitors?".

The development frameworks (Ruby, Jango etc.) are an obvious start but that won’t give you an edge over anyone else – it just keeps you level. What have you worked out that no-one else has ?

Remember that whilst the idea is important, the most successful start-up’s are the ones that out-execute the others.

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How to say “hello” to montrealstartup

Filed under Admin Dept, Finance Dept

11 08.08

On our CONTACT page we invite entrepreneurs to drop us an e-mail if they have any questions or an investment opportunity for us. We get a lot of e-mails and they range from the short and sharp;

"I have a startup with a completed Beta, let’s talk."

to the long winded;

"The idea my father and I have is to locate a financial partner to help us finish building the (xxx) design and put it into production, to sell it to those who enjoy a premium life. As a first impression, it might sound like …………………. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… a beautiful piece of music from Beethoven or a fine Picasso painting."

We try and reply to all the e-mail we receive but given the volume we do tend to prioritize our replies. We make often snap judgements based on your initial approach – with limited time and lots of ideas, we have too – so when you first contact us make the effort to send through something that might capture our attention. So if you want to get a quicker reply I’d suggest that you include as much of the following as possible:

  • A little bit about yourself.
  • What your trying to build and who might want it (if you are concerned about NDA’s – relax, we are too busy to steal your idea and we wouldn’t be as good as you at executing it anyway !)
  • What stage your business is at; concept, beta, live, pre-revenue etc.
  • What you want from us; just meet to talk through an idea, pitch us for an investment etc.
  • Confirm that you are based in Montreal or are seriously interested in growing your business from here.
  • Confirm that you have read our ABOUT page and understand the types of investment we are interested in.

When it comes to raising money for your start-up, from MSU or anyone else, its important to remember that you’re not just up against  your market competitors, but also other un-related start-up’s vying for the same investment dollars.

No Comments

Community Leaders — The Next Generation

Filed under Events

29 07.08

Maybe it’s just the summer, but I get the feeling that things have slowed down in the local start-up community of late. Fred helped get things started by organizing the first BarCamp. Ben launched the Tech Entrepreneur Breakfasts, Sylvain being Sylvain was everywhere and Heri made sure everyone knew what was going on. These guys were some of the early leaders of the emerging Montreal startup scene. As true entrepreneurs, they’ve all gone on to found companies and start new projects, which are great, but it also means they have a lot less time and energy to organize networking events for the community. These events are important as I regularly come across entrepreneurs looking for partners and business types desperately seeking developers to join their start-up.

The guys at Embrase have stepped up with their StartupCamp but there is still plenty of room for anyone who wants to try their hand at organizing a DemoCamp, a BarCamp or just come up with a completely new event. It’s a great way to raise your profile in the community and a chance to give something back. While it may seem like a daunting task initially, I’m pretty sure the start-up community will rally around and support anyone willing to take the lead in organizing an event. And where better to start planning the autumn’s events than at Startup Drinks tomorrow night ;-)

5 Comments

What about the other 89?

Filed under Investments

23 07.08

In my last post I mentioned that MSU looked at 94 potential investments in the last few months but only five got us excited. So, what was wrong with the other 89?

While we don’t expect any company to be perfect, we do expect it to have at least two things going for it. First, the founding team must be smart, passionate and capable. Ideas are a dime a dozen, it’s execution that builds a successful company. Note that I didn’t include experienced as a pre-requisite. It’s a great asset if you have it, but its lack is not usually a showstopper.

Second, we look for an interesting core idea around which the company is to be built: an original, ambitious and potentially lucrative idea. Usually, the opportunity is reasonably well defined. We are also, however, interested in people who can passionately argue that some area, that they know well, is long overdue for some creative disruption. Even if they haven’t quite figured out what form that disruption should take, given a strong enough team, we might be willing to provide support so that they can explore the opportunity further.

Probably half of the 89 clearly failed at one or both of the above. Passing on these deals is an easy call. The others however, were much tougher calls. Several might have made the cut if only they had done a little bit more work on X or had a better understanding of Y. Although we provide feedback on why we won’t invest, I’m sure most entrepreneurs would prefer to learn those lessons prior to pitching investors! This is where I think a Startup School could help the local community. I’m still working on it and hope to have more details soon.

So, to sum up what we’ve seen in the last six months:

  • There is no shortage of bright and creative people in Montreal.
  • We need to be more ambitious. Accept that the Quebec market is small and start thinking in terms of North American or, better still, global markets. As Elvis Gratton would say: “Think big Sti!”
  • In terms of talent, good entrepreneurs –people who can pull together all of the pieces and get things done– are the limiting factor in the local startup ecosystem, not developers.
  • There are still many people who aren’t aware of the local startup scene. We need to do a better job of getting our friends, colleagues and classmates out to networking events and reading the relevant blogs. I’m particularly concerned about how few students are involved.

 

6 Comments

Keep it simple !

Filed under Ideas Dept

18 07.08

We come across many interesting ideas for products and/or businesses but more often than not it requires a lot of digging around to actually to find that gem of an idea.

Maybe that digging is part of the value an investor in start-up’s is expected to add, but as an entrepreneur it pays if you can explain your offering to an investor in a VERY simple manner.

Either it needs to make sense straight away, or you need to explain that it won’t make sense and explain why (simply!).

1 Comment

Six months, 94 proposals, 5 gems, 3 deals.

Filed under Investments

15 07.08

One of the questions I’m most often asked at Startup networking events is “What’s going on with Montreal Start Up?” so I thought I give the community a little update.

John and I first started thinking about MSU less than 18 months ago. As it took about nine months to close the first fund, we’ve only really been in a position to invest since January of this year. So, what have we done in the last six months? Well, we’ve looked at 94 companies for starters. The vast majority of which, we met with face-to-face to discuss their business and get to know their Founders. We do our best to meet with Founders, because (a) they work hard at their businesses and, even if it turns out that the deal if not for us, the least we can do is take a little time to provide feedback and advice, (b) on several occasions, the business plan which we’d received ahead of time didn’t do justice to the opportunity, and (c) some of the most interesting meetings have been brainstorming sessions with entrepreneurs about the opportunities in a given sector.

Out of those 94 proposals, five got us excited enough that we wanted to invest. What gets us excited? The exact mix varies from company to company but generally it includes a strong team, big market opportunity, a real opportunity for us to add value beyond our cash and some disruptive element. Of the five, we’ve invested in three. One obtained funding elsewhere before we were able to offer them a term sheet. The fifth company decided it needed to re-structure itself first and so has placed its fundraising activities on hold for the immediate future.

Looking back on it, we learned quite a bit in the last six months about the types of deals that make sense for our fund. We also learned a lot about local entrepreneurs. Anyone want to try and guess what I’ll be blogging about next? ☺

1 Comment

Bursting Bubbles

Filed under Ideas Dept, startup

30 06.08

Investors love to talk about how they invest in people. For most however, a strong team is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition to fund a start-up. With few exceptions, investors already want the team to be working on a good idea (even though they know it is likely to change along the way). But what makes a good idea? How do you know if it’s any good? Family and friends are usually the first people to hear of your ideas, but they tend to be supportive of pretty much anything you do. Once you get to asking strangers or casual acquaintances for money however, you had better be prepared to answer some hard questions, to have all your assumptions challenged. Such feedback is rarely pleasant, but keep in mind that its purpose is not to discourage you, but rather to help you refine your plans and increase your chances of success. In order to minimise the pain of those first few encounters, here are some things to consider ahead of time.

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Premier pôle d’entrepreneuriat technologique?

Filed under startup

27 05.08

Pour ceux qui n’étaient pas au courrant, le dernier-né de la famille Startup North c’est Startup Index, un répertoire des compagnies Internet / TI / Mobile / Biotech / Environment / Médias en démarrage au Canada. Bien qu’on puisse faire des recherches sur le répertoire, je trouve plus intéressant d’observer le niveau d’activité par ville. Si l’on se fit à la carte, Toronto et Montréal semblent être nez à nez dans la course pour déterminer le premier pôle d’entrepreneuriat technologique au pays. Cependant, en passant au travers du répertoire, je me suis rendu compte que beaucoup de compagnies locales n’y sont pas inscrites. J’invite donc toutes les entreprises en démarrage montréalaises à s’inscrire; d’abord pour augmenter leur visibilité sur la toile et ensuite, parce qu’il est important pour Montréal de démontrer un niveau élevé d’activité et d’innovation si l’on veut attirer des investisseurs étrangers et l’attention de partenaires commerciaux ou acquéreurs potentiels de nos technologies.

2 Comments

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