Introducing Starting Something, a conference to get your start up, started

Published by Boris Mann on September 11, 2008 under Events, Starting Something

Today we’re announcing our first conference targeted at founders and “idea stage” startups. One of the missions we feel we need to complete is to “raise the entreprenial IQ” here in Vancouver. Down in Silicon Valley, your downstairs neighbour probably has a drawer full of term sheets, we simply need more exposure to some of these concepts. We want to give a wide range of people some clear “next steps” they can do to keep working on their startup or startup concepts.

The workshop style conference is called Starting Something, and we’ve scheduled it for a full day on November 20th, 2008 (event on Upcoming). There will be a Launch Party that evening that you’ll also be invited to. All this to coincide with Global Entrepreneurship Week. Our August office mates, Impact, are the national Canadian host for this event - find out more at Eweek Canada.

We have 10 session slots across 2 tracks throughout the day (find a cofounder, one of you can be in each track). We have some ideas on session leaders and topics, but we’d like to hear from you! We’re kicking things off by asking you to fill out this survey to help us design the sessions and topics that you want to learn about. Thanks to Basil Peters, James from AdHack, and Trevor from Layerboom for early feedback on the session ideas.

We’re working with Kerry and Na’im from VEF Momentum to organize the conference. We will be putting a call out for speakers and sponsors in the next couple of weeks — if you’re interested in being either already, please contact us. We’re nailing down the venue as we speak and we expect tickets to be in the $50 - $75 range including breakfast, lunch, caffeine, and various “take home” templates and worksheets.

Ideally, you and your startup will be well positioned for the 2009 year to enter the New Ventures BC competition and present at Vantec, Angel Forum, Canadian Financing Forum, etc. etc. etc. What are you waiting for? Let’s get Starting Something!

Any other comments or ideas, please visit our Get Satisfaction section for Starting Something or use the widget below to give us feedback.

5th Vancouver VC Road Trip on May 22nd

Published by Danny Robinson on April 23, 2008 under Events, Venture Capital

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)