Bootup Labs

I’ve been getting some heat about my video I did for my friend’s company FundFindr.tv.  Some people believe that I’m a VC hater, but that could be no further from the truth.  Some of my best friends are VCs.  I admire and aspire to be more like them.  I’ve had some really good experiences from VCs.  Rex Golding, formerly MobiusVC, was my most respected role model at the time.  He took the time to understand our overall corporate strategy, and before he made recommendations, he thought about how it effected the big picture.  That said, I’ve had my share of VCs that were not so great, and shall remain nameless.

But all in all, if you’re starting a company, you will most definitely benefit from VC cash, credibility, connections, and a sounding board.  Just make sure that you know when to take it and when to leave it.

Last night I got an email from Steve Wandler, CEO of YourTechOnline.  He told me the deal had closed and I can now finally blog about it.  I had the inside info because I’m an advisor to the company.  I instantly emailed Rob over at Techvibes to fill him in on the scoop, since I couldn’t get to blogging until tonight.

I was introduced to Steve through a mutual friend, Dale Fuller, former CEO of Borland, McAfee, WhoWhere, among other things.  I know how hard Steve has worked for this, and I’m very excited that he has found a home for his baby at SupportSoft.  Funny story about that… I met SupportSoft’s founder, Mark Pincus back in 1999 when my brother’s wife used to work for him there.  Mark and I now keep in touch via facebook from time to time, but I’m pretty sure neither of us had anything to do with the acquisition.  

Great job Steve, and thanks for proving once again that BC is growing hotbed of tech startups.

Quick post to remind everyone to check out Vidfest and The Vancouver International Game Summit.   Looks like it’s going to be a great event this year.  I’ll be there on Saturday to pitch Strutta at the Pitch ‘n’ Play part of the event.

A note to the organizers: We accidentally scheduled Launch Party on the same night as the Opening Reception.  I apologized to Adam, and explained that the reason we chose May 21st to host Launch Party was because of the VCs that would be in town for the VC Road Trip. Maura, Dimitri and I promised to pay more attention in the future….. Hey maybe we should have a unified calendar… err techvibes does I guess, but VIDFEST is not on there.  Besides, I told Boris Wertz that I wont use it until they break up with their 1999 web design?  That said, their blog is a great resource for the city and should be read daily if you want to know anything about the tech scene in Vancouver.

As some of you may know, I co-host Launch Party Vancouver with Maura Rodgers and Dimitri Sirota. Well, the truth is, that Maura does most of the work, all while holding down a day job at Strutta and being the best mother I know. We don’t do it to make money; We do it because we love to bring the Vancouver tech community closer together to exchange ideas and build great stuff. I have no doubt that Vancouver can be a hotbed for tech startups, and Launch Party is just one of the ways that will help get us there.

I’ve asked Gordon to get as many VCs from the VC Road Trip to attend the event as he can, and a few have already confirmed.

For startups who are looking for people, or people who are interested in joining a startup, drop by the Career Fair.

Date: May 21st, 2008
Career Fair: 3pm
VC Preview: 4:15pm
Demos: 5:30-9pm
Party on: 9pm-late
Location: The Republic, 958 Granville Street Vancouver, BC

RSVP on Facebook or on the Launch Party blog

for fun: Previous Launch Party pics on Flickr

See you there!

Dick Hardt asked me to speak at last night’s Vancouver Enterprise Forum on a new segment they just started called Lightning Talks. They’re trying out a new format where the presentations and speakers go first, and then you move on to the networking with dinner and drinks afterwards. Despite the size of the instant line for food that suddenly appears, I prefer the new format. Maybe that’s because Heather let me cut in with her.

Anyway, this is how the Lightning Talks part works: Up to 4 entrepreneurs have 100 seconds to pitch their idea. After the 100 seconds are up, Dick flicks a switch and your screen is off and the next presentation starts. So, It was Jonathan Bixby of Strangeloop Networks and Nikki Layton of Volo Innovations and I was pitching Strutta.

My second slide in my presentations was announcing that we just launched our public beta launch on April 15th. Problem was that “Public” was spelled “Pubic” Needless to say, the place erupted in laughter. It took me a few seconds to figure out what was happening and by the time I was able to get started again, my 100 seconds was pretty much over. The moral of this story, Proof your slides!

Adding salt to my wounds, both Nikki and Jonathan effortlessly nailed their presentations.

Contact Dick info [at] vef.org if you want to pitch your company at the next VEF. I’d love to have a redo, but I don’t think I’d be accepted.

Gordon Smythe of Propel Partners is working with VC Forum to bring a bunch of VCs to Vancouver to see what all the hype is about.  Bootup Labs will be Sponsoring the upcoming VC Road Trip. David Thomas, of Rocket Builders and the Canadian Financing Forum, and I have been asked to help find the top 6-10 startups in Vancouver to present to about 16 VCs representing up to 14 firms. It’s a VC only event, so there will be no press or spys from your competition allowed in. Most of them are from the Valley. If you’re fundable, or soon will be, please let me know. danny [at] bootuplabs.com

(note to self: definition of “fundable” needs it’s own post on this blog)

If you’re starting a consumer internet company, casual game, or consumer mobile app and are at the seed stage, there’s really only ONE source of funding for us in Vancouver: Angels. That’s why Bob’s Angel Forum is so well attended and very much appreciated by us in the tech community. If you’re a founder or funder, you should make sure to drop by next week

In a strategy to spark more early stage innovation in the province, the BC government has set up a fund called the BC Renaissance Capital Fund (BCRCF). This fund is being managed by 6 venture capital funds. Some in the US and some in Canada

• Kearny Venture Partners
• Ventures West
• VantagePoint Venture Partners
• Celtic House Venture Partners
• ARCH Venture Partners
• Walden Venture Capital

I personally think this is a very smart strategic move for the government to do and I think many in the tech startup industry would agree. According to a response from my twitter post this morning by Brent Holliday “Finally, a non-tax driven strategy to attract capital… The US has been doing it this way for 30 years. Hopefully this is a big shot in the arm for BC technology companies.”

Despite Todd Tessier’s secretive selection process, I have to sincerely thank him for all the hard work I know it must have been to drive this to closure. Thanks Todd! And thanks Sam for getting me invited to the announcement this morning. I’m not sure why it was so exclusive; I couldn’t even get Boris or Parveen in past the tight security. What was it again?… something to do with the fire marshal? Anyway, this is all good news and I’m planning on a good portion of this money being funneled into Bootup Labs companies in the future

Time flies when you’re starting companies, and the time has come to bring someone on to help us get Bootup Labs moving faster. We’re happy to announce that Brendon Wilson has joined as us as Bootup Labs’ first employee!

Brendon just returned to Vancouver from four years in Silicon Valley as a Product Manager. He brings a wealth of experience as both a software developer and a business geek, and is generally the kind of “let’s get things done” guy we wanted to have involved with Bootup Labs. He’s also not shy about getting out there to stir things up – see his recent posts on TechVibes to get a flavour for that.

Over the coming months, Brendon will be the attention to detail guy, pushing forward the documentation of Bootup Labs’ investment process, helping to vet potential Bootup Labs recruits, and generally getting things moving. So ladies and gentlemen, start your pitching!

Along with employee #1, we have other announcements to make in the coming weeks about the first recruits to get “booted up”, dates for some planned events, and more.

P.S. Don’t forget that Rick Segal from JLA Ventures is coming to visit this coming Monday, April 21st at 4pm in our offices. You’ll need to signup for Vancouver.

Kudos to Mark Lise for organizing a succesful first DemoCampVictoria. Lots of excited post coverage of the evening: Mark, Yule, Tris, TechVibes – I think this was a great spring board for future meetups. My favourite quote from the evening was from Gels Saby, who said at the beginning of her talk “I wasn’t going to present, but I got excited about my project, so I wanted to share it with you”. Great stuff, this is exactly the kind of reaction that DemoCamps are meant to engender.

I haven’t been back over to Victoria in quite some time, so I was amazed by all the activity. Sure, the University of Victoria is my alma mater, and I know that it spreads co-op students everywhere – much like Waterloo – but after leaving, I certainly wasn’t in touch with the technology industry there. It turns out that tech is the #1 / #2 industry in Victoria, along with tourism.

The Juliet Presentation Center, where the event was hosted, definitely also deserves mention. This is for a new “Vancouver style” condo development in downtown Victoria. In general, there seemed to be consensus that holding the event downtown was a critical factor. Hmmm…a link between property developers and technology workers? Definitely something to explore.

I felt like it was a really successful trip for me: I got to meet a bunch of people doing cool things in Victoria, and then ended up in a couple of longer discussions – one with the crew from Flock (thoughts on the social graph for every website on my personal site) and Yule on Placeblogger-like functionality for Victoria.

Photos of the event can be seen in Tris Hussey’s photostream, and I did a live interview using Utterz.

I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the scene in Victoria, and encouraging cross pollination in both directions with Vancouver. For that matter, Seattle is pretty close as well…

P.S. The next event in Vancouver is this Thursday, April 10th – DemoCampVancouver06: Gaming Edition.