Thanks to Michael Fergusson and the team at Rude Boy Games for hosting last nights meetup with the team from Wavefront. Wavefront is a non-profit “accelerated commercialization centre” for BC, focusing on wireless and mobile applications and devices.

They came to Gastown to find out more from developers and companies working in mobile here in Vancouver, to tell us more about themselves and the services they offer, and to feed us free beer and pizza.

Michael ran the evening admirably. He had everyone sit in a circle, introduce themselves, their company, their projects, and talk about challenges they were facing around mobile here in BC. We didn’t get very far before some person’s commentary on anything from embracing the web as THE path for mobile development or a discussion on funding realities right now evolved into a discussion by everyone in the room.

I talked a bit about Bootup Labs, a bit about the VCC program (info on BC’s Venture Capital Programs here) that we’re applying for, and a plea for less duplication and more working together on common issues. Things like “HR bootcamp” or a seminar on getting investor ready is not at all specific to mobile startups, and I’d hope that local industry groups work together on co-sponsoring or organizing such events.

Lastly on the funding side of things, I mentioned the JumpStart program from the BlackBerry Partners Fund — this is something to keep an eye on to get started with really early stage. For those that are currently iPhone crazy, getting some investment dollars to focus on BlackBerry might be what it takes for people to look at the platform more closely. I definitely think there are interesting demographics around it, and of course folks are much more guaranteed to have things like data plans.

Back to the discussion, the huge theme was seeing the web as the primary platform for delivery, and anything like device specific applications being a step backwards. There were a handful of Nitobi developers there that in particular esposed this point of view, hence their involvement in the open source Phone Gap project, to make native iPhone apps (and soon, Android) using just web technologies. Parveen Kaler from Smartful Studios – who comes from a game developer / console background where he has dealt with lots of “gatekeeper” companies with much stricter rules and is now building iPhone apps – was the main contrarian: he’s loving Objective C and developing natively for the platform, and his business model fits with the rules in place.

It was great to find out more about Wavefront and the programs they’re currently offering. The item of biggest interest, judging by the crowd, is probably the handset library they are going to build up. They have a couple of G1 Android phones today, and one of them already got lent to the guys from Handi Mobility. I still see a little bit of overlap with, for example, WINBC, but it would be great if Wavefront focused on the developer / technology / direct carrier interactions. I think leading these type of developer-centric gathering events would be a great direction for Wavefront, and hope to see more of them as they get ramped up.

Launch Party Vancouver 5 is hosting a start-up contest sponsored by Bootup Labs and Fasken Martineau. The contest is open to LPV featured companies only and will go live the morning of September 18.

All it takes is an entrepreneur + Macbook/webcam, clearly communicating what their start-up does and how far they will go to make their company succeed in a 90 second or less video clip. The videos will be judged, not for their production value or the quality of their pitch but on whether or not the panel of experts believes the idea has the legs to go the long haul.\

Bootup Labs is putting up a $1000 lunch money (cash) as the grand prize, which will be awarded to the start-up deemed “Most Likely to Succeed” by our esteemed panel of judges including:

• Paul Kedrosky, Investor, Writer, and Entrepreneur
• Andrew Lugsdin, Director, Venture Capital, BDC
• Tanner Philp, CFO & Partner, Lions Capital Fund
• Boris Wertz, W Media Ventures
• Boris Mann, Managing Director, Bootup Labs
• Steve Hnatiuk, General Partner, Yaletown Venture Partners
• Rick Segal, Partner, JLA Ventures

And the People’s Choice, chosen by YOU, will win box seats to a Giants game courtesy of Fasken Martineau.

So, be sure to stop by lpv5.launchpartyhq.com to pick your favorite on the 18th and come by LPV5 at Unwine’d, 1180 Howe Street to meet the founders behind the ideas. The party starts @ 5:30pm.

Photo of Boris Mann by Duane Storey
Photo of Boris Wertz by KK+
Photo of Paul Kedrosky by dfarber
Photo of Andrew Lugsdin by damclean

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.

Rick Segal is a partner in the team at JLA Ventures, a Canadian VC firm with offices in Toronto and Montreal. He’s doing a VC Roundtable to give entrepreneurs across the country a chance to meet with him. Rick does a lot of “no harm, no foul” meetings that are much less like traditional “pitch” meetings, and in general has been doing a great job in supporting the growth of Canadian entrepreneurship.

As part of the VC Roundtable, Rick will be visiting Vancouver (signup) and Victoria (signup) (both in one day, Rick? Come on, stay a little longer….) on April 21st. What is this VC Roundtable all about?

Something’s missing in Canada’s tech community - the chance to informally interact with VCs, learn about what it is exactly that they do and how the funding process works.

The VC Roundtable series aims to fill this gap, by hosting small (free!) get togethers across Canada’s major cities where Rick Segal, JLA Ventures Partner and VC blogger (http://ricksegal.typepad.com) will walk through what getting involved with VCs is all about.

There is a bit of a longer write up on what this is and isn’t on each of the signup pages — see the Vancouver one for an example.

Rick, we can give you space at Bootup Labs if you need it in Vancouver. If you’re a startup in one of those areas, or one of the many other locations across the country that Rick is visiting, I encourage you to sign up and sit down with Rick.