Bootup Entrepreneurial Society
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- UNITY 3D: “The Future of Web and Mobile Gaming” (July 24th, 2009)
- Intro to Unity 3D Workshop (July, 25th, 2009)
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- Mentor Mixer with Paul Kedrosky (November 19, 2009)
- How to Build a Web App Business (November 25, 2009)
- One-on-Ones with Sumit Mahawar, Bus. Relationship Mgr at Plug & Play (November 25th, 09)
- Conversation with Jonathan Ehrlich (December 4th, 2009)
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Posts Tagged Bootup Labs
Launch Party Vancouver 9 Wrap Up
Posted by Maura Rodgers in Launch Party on June 22nd, 2010
When we started LPV in September 2007, our goal was to shine a big bright light on the startup community and help connect entrepreneurs with investors, potential partners and their peers. Looking at photos from the last 9 events, it is clear that our community is growing and that the best of Canadian tech has consistently showed up to support and celebrate the latest crop of Internet startups in the great Northwest. It’s our hope that the startups you have seen demo at Launch Parties 1-9 will grow into the next generation of Canadian super angels.
Martin Ertl of Contractually, LPV9 Startup Competition People’s Choice Winner
Photo credit: Jeremy Lim
Our ninth edition of Launch Party Vancouver on June 17th was definitely our biggest event yet. As Debbie Landa tweeted, LPV9 was definitely a “who’s who of Canadian tech.” We were thrilled to have Chris Albinson, Katherine Barr, Dan Martell, Debbie Landa, and Anthony Lee from the C100 fly up from Silicon Valley as well as Chris Arsenault and Shawn Abbott from iNovia Capital in the house. A great big thank you to all of our out of town guests for making the trek to Vancouver. Go Canada!
Chris Albinson of the C100 Organization and Panorama Capital
Photo Credit: Jeremy Lim
Put your hands together for…
We rely on public and private donations and a whole lot of sweat and sometimes tears to make this all possible. Many thanks to Sonia Ryan and volunteers Melissa Joaquin, Angela Baldonero, Tarlan Klo, Tina Hoang, and Laurent Munier for working the door and helping us set-up.
We could not do any of this without the backing of our LPV9 Partners:
- BCIC – the lead organization charged with advancing innovation and commercialization in British Columbia.
- Canpages - fastest growing local search company in Canada with a nationwide API for smart phone application developers.
- Clark Wilson - BC’s Law Firm for Business. Mark Longo & Brock Smith are the go to guys.
- HSBC - the world’s local bank with startup banking packages.
- Fasken Martineau - a leading international business law and litigation firm. Keith Spencer and Shahrooz Navabi are the real deal.
- Strutta - the platform for creating online contests and the brains behind the LPV9 Startup Competition.
- Lonsdale Rentals – the place to go for all of your corporate and private party rental needs. From bar rentals to glasses, they have it all.
- Pixstar - Pixstar Photo booths provide the perfect memento to remember any party.
- Mission Hill – Mission Hill has an amazing selection of Okanagan wines. They featured Rigamorole red and white at LPV9.
- Russell Brewing - committed to brewing 100% natural, real Canadian beer. And it shows!
- Jeremy Lim - Check out Jeremy’s awesome LPV9 photo set on Flickr and contact him for your event.
Our Media Sponsors rock:
Techvibes - our favorite technology blog does an amazing job highlighting all of the LPV9 startups and covering daily tech news in cities across Canada and the United States. And best of all, Techvibe’s President & Editor, Rob Lewis always shows up as promised ——->- Startup Digest - All you have to do is enter your email address and choose your favorite hubs to receive the best startup events in your inbox every week. Jon Chui runs the weekly Vancouver newsletter.
Thank you all for making LPV9 so great!
Metabridge 2010 or Bust
Posted by Maura Rodgers in Events, Uncategorized on June 15th, 2010
After having a successful exit, I look back and found that in the early days the biggest challenge wasn’t the great idea we had, it was getting people worth talking too, to listen to what we had. – Steve Wandler, Founder of Metabridge
Last Thursday afternoon, Danny Robinson of Bootup Labs drove a big blue Suburban filled with 6 other entrepreneurs from Vancouver to Kelowna for the 2nd annual Metabridge event. After a late start and a pitstop in Hope, BC to refuel at the iconic Hope Drive in & Restaurant, we were on our way!
Photo Credit : @dshanahan of Foodtree.com
Derek Shanahan of Foodtree, Lyal Avery of Outcome 3, Mack Flavelle of Compass Engine, Cristian Strat of Summify and Dean Prelazzi of BCIC were all brave enough to make the trip with Danny at the helm. Both Derek and Cristian are from out of town so I was really happy they could join us and take in the beautiful scenery on the Coquahalla. No companies were formed but many ideas were shared and my belly hurt from laughing so hard on the road to K-town.
Photo Credit : @dshanahan of Foodtree.com
Day 1
We arrived in Kelowna just in time to catch the bus to the Quails Gate Winery for the Welcome reception. It was great to see so many old friends from Metabridge 1 including Ethan Anderson, Founder of Red Beacon, Peter Haubrich, Founder of ORIC, Jason Richards of Vineyard Networks and Gary Symons, Founder of Vericoder. Unlike the first Metabridge, the room was full with many attendees from Vancouver and I was not the only female entrepreneur in the room.
Photo Credit : @dshanahan of Foodtree.com
Day 2
A pitch breakfast for attending startups kicked off Day 2 before a day of Golf or a Sparkling Hill Spa tour. There were only 8 companies in attendance last year and over 30 startups at Metabridge 2. Since I spent the day catching up on work, I did not get to experience either afternoon adventure personally but I heard that a full round of golf at the Okanagan Golf course was hands down the better choice!
Photo Credit : @stevewandler of Metabridge
Metabridge ended with a networking dinner at Earl’s Restaurant on the water. Various visiting VIPS were assigned seating throughout the venue and acted as hosts for each table. I was paired up with Lars Lekkie from Hummer Winblad and Amy Leger of HuStream and Brent Bolleman from Axel Partners joined us. I can’t sit still for very long so, as soon as dinner was over I was table hopping and mingling. Without naming names, I made many great connections, who I intend to keep in touch with in the future.
Photo Credit : @dannyrobinson of Bootup Labs
Thanks
Many people were thanking Steve Wandler, the Founder and organizer of Metabridge throughout the evening and he deserved all the props he was getting. It takes a lot of hard work to pull an event like this off successfully. Luckily, he had the help of Chantelle Kshyk, Event Manager from Ostec, who is absolutely fantastic to ensure everything ran smoothly and left attendees raving.
Bring Back the Boat!
When I caught up with Steve at the end of Day 2 to thank him as well, he turned to me and said “I don’t want to just hear how great the event was. I want to hear how I can make it better and better.” To which, I replied – “well, I have a couple of ideas…”, which includes a boat, Dale Fuller 
and a few other suggestions I will share with Steve the next time he is in town.
Photo Credit : @stevewandler from Metabridge 1
All and all it was a great event! Kelowna has a growing and very supportive tech community.
Thank you Steve, Robert Fine, Chantelle and the entire Kelowna Tech Community for being such great hosts. You are welcome at casa Bootup anytime.
F5 Expo: The Secret to Success: Avoiding Start-up Pitfalls
If you fail, fail in style – Michael Fergusson on starting your own company.
On April 7th, I was amongst thousands who attended the F5 Expo, which was full of familiar faces, gadgets and mascots and buzzing with talks on innovation.
Cybele, Founder of Webnames.ca and me.
I sat in on the The Secret to Success: Avoiding Start-up Pitfalls panel with Bootup Labs’ Danny Robinson, HootSuite’s Ryan Holmes and Ayogo Games’ Michael Fergusson, and moderated by SoMedios’ Carisa Miklusak.
These startup stars shared their stories and opinions on passion vs. experience to funding and finding that work/life balance we all strive for.
Passion VS. Experience – What’s more important?
When looking for a Co-Founder or expanding your team, Ryan said he prefers passion over experience. “Passion cannot be taught or bought. When you are passionate, you will hustle hard and work through the hard knocks.”
Danny believes that passion and experience deliver the same result: “the ability to rely on your intuition to make the right decision.” Danny explains his thoughts on passion vs experience in more detail here.
Michael, on the other hand, felt that many startup founders lacked experience, but few lacked passion. Passion is usually what motivates entrepreneurs to start a business in the first place. “You obviously need both to succeed. Having said that, experience is usually what’s missing.”
Funding – When should you start raising money and which VC should you go after?
Ryan, Danny & Michael
Danny explained that it’s not about the firm, it’s about the partner. The partner is the one sitting on your board and is the person you keep updated with company stats and information. It’s really important to establish a good relationship with your partner as they become a vital part of your start-up. He also mentioned that when raising money, you need to know how much money you need to raise, and once you have this number, work backwards.
Ryan believes that raising money is highly dependent on the circumstances. He suggested looking into angel investment and convertible debt earlier on if you can’t generate revenue from day one.
Michael didn’t comment too much on funding but did say that the process of raising money and managing investors should distract you as little as possible from your vision and plan for the company.
Balance – Why it’s important for you and your company.
Michael expressed the importance of work / life balance when starting your own company. You need to be distracted by these things, though, if you’re going to stay healthy (for yourself) and productive (for your business).
Ending Notes
In summary, the panel was insightful, personable and honest. They did a great job in painting a picture on how to avoid certain pitfalls when starting a company. Listening to how passionate they were about starting a company has me itching to start one of my own. Who’s with me?
If you are an entrepreneur, who has been or is currently on the startup roller coaster, what do you think is important? What lessons have you learned?
Missed the show, here are some great shots by Jeremy Lim.
New Year, New Office
As some of you may know the folks at Bootup Labs, Bootup Entrepreneurial Society and Strutta spent last weekend moving to our new digs, quite fine digs if I say so myself.
2010 is starting to smell really good as our new office is equipped with a full kitchen where resident foodie Boris Mann has already started to whip us up some delicious Bacon & Egger sandwiches and pizza!
Here’s a short video Jordan and I created touring our new office.
Come on by and visit us at our new office for a tour. I might even whip you up some butter chicken!
*Post written by Sonia*
Connect ‘09 Ticket Winners
Posted by Maura Rodgers in Events on September 22nd, 2009
During our Under the Launch Party Event (LPV8) on September 16, we held a draw for two free tickets to Connect ‘09, a premier event for technology startups hosted by the BC Innovation Council (BCIC) on October 19, 2009 at the Sheraton Wall Centre in Vancouver, BC.
And the Winners are…
Congratulations to LPV8 attendees, Carly Franklin of Magpie Social Media
and Dan Coburn of Atomic Robot for winning the tickets to Connect ‘09. 
That night, Carly and Dan will enjoy panel sessions with industry experts, a technology expo, awards ceremony and great networking with other innovators in the BC technology community including BES Board members, Leonard Brody and Danny Robinson.
Leonard is the Keynote Speaker this year for Connect ‘09. Among his many achievements, Leonard is an experienced entrepreneur, who co-founded NowPublic, a citizen generated news website that recently sold to local news network, Examiner.com. Having heard Leonard speak before, I believe you will walk away feeling inspired.
Danny has been starting and advising companies for over 15 years. As Managing Director of Bootup Labs, he helps early stage digital media companies go from “concept to proof.” Danny will be sharing his wisdom on the Accelerator Factor panel at 5pm. If you are launching a startup, you will want to attend this session.
Join Carly, Dan, Leonard, Danny and many more innovators and technology professionals at Connect ‘09. If you haven’t got a ticket already, you can learn more about the event and register at http://www.bcic.ca/connect
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Launch Party Posts- Launch Party Vancouver 9 Wrap Up June 22, 2010When we started LPV in September 2007, our goal was to shine a big bright light on the startup community and help connect entrepreneurs with investors, potential partners and their peers. Looking at photos from the last 9 events, it is clear that our community is growing and that the best of Canadian tech has consistently showed up to support and celebrate t […]
- Launch Party Vancouver 1-9 in Photos June 21, 2010At our first LPV in September 2007, we had 120 attendees and a handful of startups and at LPV9, we had 9 amazing companies and over 500 people in the room. To me, this just proves Vancouver is for Startups and our community is growing. Here’s a snapshot of LPV over the years. LPV 1 – September 27, 2007 Section 3, Vancouver 120 attendees, 6 Startups Photo C […]
- Launch Party Vancouver 9 Wrap Up June 22, 2010