Bootup Labs Blog

I’m really excited to be on a panel at the Future of Funding event in San Mateo on Feb 18th.  I’ll be joined by Adeo Ressi, CEO of the Founder Institute (and TheFunded.com), David Cohen, CEO, Techstars and Reshma Sohoni, CEO, Seedcamp, and It’ll be moderated by, Matt Marshall, CEO and Editor, VentureBeat.

Incubators and Accelerators

Time: February 18, 2010, 2:30-3:30pm

Description: There is an increasing number of incubators and accelerators appearing around the country. What has been their effect? What models are working? How are they succeeding, and what challenges are they facing? This panel will examine the growing role of incubators.

If have any intrest in learning more about how the funding world is changing, and how fast, I encourage you to attend.  Here’s a 50% off link.

Bootup Labs will inevitably choose companies from outside the country to invest in.  These companies would work for a minimum of 8 months with us in Canada.  In the case of our January cohort, potentially 3 of the 6 founding teams are moving here from outside the country, and all 3 companies have proactively indicated that they have no intention of leaving Vancouver after they have completed their time at Bootup Labs.

Bootup Labs has neither the time nor resources to work through the immigration red-tape every time.  I have to believe that reversing the brain-drain has to be a priority for the government.  So, I am asking for your help.  Let’s make Vancouver (and Canada) an easy place for entrepreneurs to set up shop!

The startup community in the US is rallying behind a way to streamline the immigration of foreign startup founders.  I say, let’s take advantage of Canada’s nimbleness (relatively speaking of course) and beat the Americans to their Startup Visa concept. This is how is could work for us:

1. VC Firms and Investors apply to become “Sponsors”
2. Founders apply to Immigration Canada along with an accepted Term Sheet from the pre-approved VC Firm
3. A temporary work visa is approved for the founders with certain conditions:
   1. They incorporate a canadian company within X days of Landing in Canada and become employees of that company.
   2. They close on the financing.
   3. They cannot work for another company.
   4. They can apply for a more permanent status after a “probationary period” of some amount of time.

<<  –  SIGN THE PETITION —  >>

more links:

• Start-up Visas Can Jump-Start the Economy – Wall St. Journal
• The Founders Visa Movement – Brad Feld
• The Founders Visa – Paul Graham
• The Startup Visa And Why The Xenophobes Need To Go Back Into Their Caves – Techcrunch

Bootup Labs Demo Days

Today we announced our plans for our first Demo Days for Bootup Labs’ first crop of companies. The event will be broken up into two events

Vancouver on January 28th, 2010
Hyatt Regency Vancouver
655 Burrard Street,
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6C 2R7

Silicon Valley on February 3rd, 2010.
Plug And Play Tech Centre
440 North Wolfe Road
Sunnyvale, CA 94085-3869

<< — INVESTORS RSVP HERE – >>

Bootup Entrepreneurial Society

The Bootup Entrepreneurial Society (BES) is an independent non-profit group founded to support founders starting digital media companies in Vancouver.  BES is organizing the Bootup Demo Days event.  In addition to the 5 Bootup Labs companies, BES is inviting 5 additional BC companies to join us, free of charge, travel expenses paid.  Interested companies should apply to be a part of this first-of-it’s kind event.  You can read more about it from their blog post.

Why yes, we have been quiet over here for a while!

2009 was our beta year, and we can’t be happier with the 5 portfolio companies that we worked with throughout the course of the year. We’re going to be making some announcements later in the day about our first official Demo Days, happening first here in Vancouver in January and then down in Silicon Valley in early February.

What’s been keeping us busy (and quiet) is the process of selecting the companies that will be joining us for our January 2010 cohort. I can say that we’ve issued term sheets to 5 companies, and are working through additional interviews with a handful of waitlisted companies.

We had applications from literally all over the world, and I’m hoping to welcome at least one international team.

Our next intake is in May, and if you want to be notified when the application goes live, sign up on the apply page.

Lastly, some people noted from my Linked In edits that I am no longer a director of the Bootup Entrepreneurial Society – not to worry, that’s a great sign: the society is growing a larger board filled with great people, so I stepped down to make room. Maura is doing a great job as Executive Director, BCIC has come on board as a partner, and you’ll see many more great things coming from them.

We’re coming down to Seattle tomorrow, and we’d like to see you!

In particular, we’ll be at the Spitfire Grill from around 12noon to 2pm, having some lunch after the drive down from Vancouver. We’d love it if startups and entrepreneurs from Seattle dropped by and said “hi”. Did we mention that the application for our January 2010 program is open and you can apply here?

We’re actually coming down to hang out with our friends from TechStars, who are having demo days and a mini reunion. I’m also hoping to connect with the Founder’s Co-op team.

There’s an event on Upcoming if you like that sort of thing, and you can reach Boris on his Google Voice number at (916) 341-9528 if you want to get in touch. Come meet us at the Spitfire, tell us about what you’re doing, let us tell you more about Bootup, and let’s connect in the Pac Northwest, as the kids might say.

Thanks to Bryan Zug of Lilipip and Lee Lefever of Common Craft for venue suggestions, and Boo! to Chris Pirillo for having fun in Hawaii so we don’t get to see him.

I know it’s only the first half of August, but the wall of events in September is already staring me in the face.

The week of September 14th is what is making me call it “Pitch-tember” – a ton of opportunities to pitch your company.

• Monday, Sept. 14th: California Market Access Bootcamp Vancouver – (apply to pitch)
• Tuesday, Sept. 15th: Vancouver Enterprise Forum featuring Kevin Ham – (buy a ticket)
• Wednesday, Sept. 16th: Launch Party Vancouver 8 – (apply to launch)
• Friday, Sept. 18th: IRAP Lion’s Den (talk to your IRAP rep)

Thursday looks empty, but I’ve heard that Ventures West is having their annual (private) mixer that evening – so the whole week is full!

To prep for all this pitching, we’ve asked Patrick Lor to fly in from Calgary, to spend some time giving feedback. We’ll be giving preference to the companies accepted to the Sept. 14th Bootcamp – sign up for the event on Upcoming for more information.

September is busy elsewhere as well – TechCrunch 50 is on the 14th and 15th in San Francisco, and the week after is DEMO in San Diego. I know of at least a couple of Canadian companies going down for TechCrunch.

So, even though it’s “only” halfway through August, I already feel the pressure building to work with companies to tune and prep their story. Especially after seeing the Techstars Demo Day, where the teams spend a gruelling 3 weeks straight getting ready for their pitch.

Ed just posted an overview on the BLES website about the first Co Founder Connections event:

Now, it’s relatively easy for a budding entrepreneur in this circumstance to find and hire a contractor to do the work for him. This may seem attractive because it allows the entrepreneur to maintain control of development and complete ownership of the company, but the problem is this: when the contract is done, the entrepreneur may have legal ownership of the idea, but the contractor walks out the door with all the expertise and know how. What the entrepreneur really needs is a technical co-founder, who is as heavily invested in the idea and the enterprise as he is. Such people are much harder to find, but we believe that in this situation, finding a co-founder is critical to the success of the business. Calling all Cofounders

I feel like Steve Balmer sometimes – “cofounders! cofounders! cofounders!” – many of the super smart entrepreneurs that come into our offices really need a partner to make things happen. (Ashish from @muutu linked to this post on what to look for in a cofounder)

Brad Feld talked about three kinds of people at a startup at the Beers with Brad event (I’m paraphrasing):

1. co founder: true partner, big equity stake in the company; has a complimentary skill set
2. lead employee: one of the first people in the door – they take a reduced salary and drive major production of the business
3. employee: they’re happy to be there, but they expect full market wages. A stock option plan is a nice bonus to keep them motivated.

This event is for startup people #1 and #2 – either you want to make the jump and be a cofounder, or you’re someone looking for a job (especially a technical one) and feel you want to try being a lead employee.

I want to stress that last part: if you want to work at a startup, come to this event. It’s a good starting point to figure out whether startups are for you, and it gives you a chance to be heavily involved in the growth and success of a company.

Speaking of lead employees, our friends at Over Interactive Media are looking for a “PHP Ronin” for their DimeRocker gaming portal. So far, they’ve been getting programmers who show up in suits (?!?!) in response to this Craigslist ad. In the words of J. Joly, VP of Awesome at OMI, “no punters or wankers, they must be able to fight”. PHP + community + gaming – check it out, and meet them in person at the cofounder speed dating event or book an interview ahead of time.

In any case, what are you waiting for? Sign up for Launch Party and then follow the steps to fill out your profile. See you June 2nd, 4pm, at the SteamWorks UberLounge.

Launch Party Vancouver 7 (fittingly) features 7 demo companies, and as always you get to cast your vote for the Startup Most Likely to Succeed.

Voting is simple, and with just 7 companies, we encourage you to render judgment on each of them. Once your account is registered and verified, just rate each video between 1 and 5 stars. The overall winner will be awarded a prize.

A list of VIP judges will soon be announced, and they too will choose a winner with their votes. On the evening of the event, we’ll present prizes to the People’s Choice and the Judge’s Choice.

If you haven’t already, get on over to LPV7.Eventbrite.com and get your ticket for the event on June 2.