Edmonton-based PureInBox is gambling that push and cloud computing will prove to be a hit amongst web and mobile users who aren't already grafted to their Blackberries and iPhones. By utilizing a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, the company pledges to enable mobile synchronization. And the application is primed to interact with services like Flickr, Twitter, and other Web 2.0 apps, as well as SalesForce.com.
But as with many once-esoteric services, PureInBox seems like a middle-stage innovation that will evntually be swept up at the operating system level. It's only a matter of time before Google and Microsoft offer a similar product that extends its reach far beyond what's possible with PureInBox, and in fact Apple is already attempting a similar service (with somewhat limited success, it must be said) with MobileMe. It remains to be determined if PureInBox has any tricks up its sleeve beyond synchroization to differentiate it from the corporate goliathslloming in its future.
At PureInbox™ Inc., we provide an email security solution which will "purify" your email inboxes. If you are tired of wasting time checking and... [more]
ByteClub is a new web show profiling tech companies and their culture. New episodes launch every Wednesday at 10am and we'll be highlighting them on Techvibes. This week's show, the 9th episode, showcases Toronto's Zerofootprint - check it out to learn more about their carbon offsetting initiatives and strategic office layout.
The Zerofootprint group of companies empowers communities, businesses, and organizations to live ingeniously in a low carbon world. We do green.... [more]
Next year's Canadian Financing Forum takes place on January 29, 2009 at the Hyatt Hotel in Vancouver and with the first Selection Committee meeting scheduled for December 2nd, now is the time to apply. Presenting companies are split into two streams - Cleantech & Advanced Technology and Information Technology - and will have an opportunity to get to know the Venture Capital Community and promote their company at this premiere event.
The Canadian Financing Forum is one of the most respected resources for North American investors who seek to recognize, gain exposure to, and facilitate partnerships with the best and most promising Technology entrepreneurs and companies that are based in Canada.
Past presenters have raised over $1,080 Million and 47% of the presenting companies attending the Canadian Financing Forum have successfully raised funds over the last 7 years (2001-2008).
Visit the Canadian Financing Forum website for more information.
The novaNAIT Centre for Applied Research and Technology Transfer is running a new competition for local entrepreneurs. The novaNAIT Technology Commercialization Challenge aims to introduce and generate interest around applied research. Any Edmonton-area resident 18 years of age and older can submit a business idea for the chance to win up to $10,000 worth of services.
NovaNAIT is the new technology transfer arm of NAIT, much like TEC Edmonton is the technology transfer arm of the U of A. The goal is to help inventors and entrepreneurs get their ideas into the marketplace. The challenge is novaNAIT’s way of introducing itself to the community, and was inspired by an internal challenge held for NAIT staff in December 2006.
When I first came across the challenge, I noted that it seemed similar to TEC Edmonton’s VenturePrize. I asked David Burry, Coordinator of novaNAIT’s Prototype Development Program, about the similarity and he told me that he feels the competition compliments VenturePrize. The prizes for the novaNAIT Challenge aren’t quite as big, but they are tailored to the specific needs of the winner. Also, the competition is open to everyone whereas VenturePrize focuses on high-tech and fast-growth sectors. Burry said both competitions share the goal of “assisting in small business development and enhancing the entrepreneurial culture” in Edmonton.
If you’d like to participate in the novaNAIT Challenge, you need to submit an entry form (pdf) no later than 4pm MST on November 21st, 2008 (a week from today). Those entries will be judged and successful entrants will be invited to give a five minute presentation on their idea to a panel of judges on December 11th, 2008. The winner will be chosen and announced the following day.
The judges will evaluate entries on how innovative they are, the commercial and technical viability of the idea, the marketability of the solution, and the potential for economic impact in Alberta. The initial submission should not contain confidential details, but the presentations in phase two can (judges will sign a non-disclosure agreement). Entrepreneurs who choose to participate retain full ownership of their ideas.
I think we could use more competitions such as this one. Having participated in VenturePrize myself, I know how much work goes into a submission, and I think it turns many people away. The novaNAIT Challenge seems more accessible, and is a good way for local entrepreneurs to get some practice articulating their ideas to others in the community.
For more information on the novaNAIT Challenge, visit the website or contact David Burry via email or at 780.378.6187. If you’re planning to participate, I’d love to hear about it!
The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology is a leader in technical training and applied education designed to meet the demands of Alberta's... [more]
Big news earlier this week when Canwest Global Communications Corp announced initiatives to reduce their annualized operating costs by approximately $61 Million. The move translated into 560 layoffs - about five per cent of the company's workforce through voluntary buyouts, attrition and reductions. Canwest management pointed to the current economic environment as well as the structural challenges in the conventional television model as the reasons why.
Interestingly, CEO Leonard Asper stresses in the announcement that Canwest is still eager to transform into a multi-platform media company and build its audience using digital media.
"Having completed an assessment of our Canadian operations and, after careful consideration, we are implementing a number of initiatives that will provide savings that will allow us to better compete in the current economic environment, without compromising our core products and services,” said Leonard Asper, President and CEO, Canwest. “It will not impact our strategy to invest in growth media like digital online, mobile and specialty channels.”
I'm not sure why Asper felt the need to assure shareholders and employees that the operating cost reduction wouldn't impact their digital media strategy... until yesterday.
Word on Vancouver streets is that NowPublic is about to be acquired by Canwest. While a NowPublic acquisition may not seem like a significant transaction, keep in mind that Canwest's current market capitalization is a paltry $80 Million - down from $700 Million only one year ago. NowPublic raised $10 Million in venture capital in July of 2007.
This rumour may have legs. NowPublic Co-founder Len Brody has advised Canwest in the past.
Canwest is Canada's leading international media company. Representing a portfolio of world-class brands, the Company creates and distributes some... [more]
NowPublic is a participatory news network which mobilizes an army of reporters to cover the events that define our world. In twelve short months,... [more]
One way to look at cloud computing is in layers. The lowest layer is the physical infrastructure, the computing power and Internet bandwidth that makes it all possible. An example of this layer is the 4WEB.ca data centre that I wrote about in September. Look one layer up, and you'll find the applications and services that add value to the infrastructure. An example of this layer is Edmonton's Nirix Technology.
Founded in 2001 by Steven and Stanford Hsu, Nirix provides IT utility services to other organizations. They make it possible for a business to completely outsource technology operations. The company has grown significantly since their runner-up finish at the VenturePrize business plan competition in 2007, and they’ve become a little more focused too. Their primary offerings are Managed Backup, which enables businesses to securely store their data on Nirix’s infrastructure, Managed Email (hosted Exchange), and Managed Office (hosted Microsoft Office).
Nirix is the only company in Edmonton providing this kind of service, so it's no surprise that most of their customers are shocked to find that they don't need to look across the border. About half of Nirix's customers are local, with the other half spread across Canada. When they started, Nirix spent a lot of time finding and educating customers. Now, customers increasingly come to Nirix. Steven told me that there are a number of advantages to being located in Edmonton; there's very little chance of natural disasters, but still good access to power and other services. Some organizations have policies that specify their data must be kept in Canada too.
Things have been going well for Nirix. The company is cash-flow positive and grew 40% in the last fiscal year. A few weeks ago, Nirix was named as a finalist in the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Owner of the Year Award for 2008.
Where does Nirix see this going? Steven says that ten years ago, a common question for businesses was “are you online?” but now, the question to ask is, “are you in the cloud?” Nirix thinks it can help businesses answer “yes” easily and cheaply. The company is looking to expand aggressively. They're looking for $2 million in funding to target specific markets and increase their staff from twelve employees to twenty. Nirix also intends to increase the capacity of their storage area network (SAN) to a whopping 800 TB. The SAN is a focus, Steven says, because “everything needs storage.” Isn’t that the truth!
I think a big challenge for Nirix going forward will be convincing customers to choose them over similar services offered by Amazon, Microsoft, or Google. Certainly Nirix has the local advantage and can offer personalized service and support, but it’ll be hard to compete with the prices that the big players should eventually be able to offer. Nirix will have to continue to improve their service offerings, to give customers something they can’t find elsewhere.
You can learn more about Nirix and the services they offer at http://www.nirix.com.
Nirix Technology is the next generation IT utility company or Utility Service Provider (USP). Founded in 2001, located in the heart of Edmonton,... [more]
Via StartupNorth, silverorange of Charlottetown, PEI launches ClusterShot. At first take, it looks like a standard stock photo site, but the difference is in the business model. ClusterShot focuses on simplicity, targeting the long tail of skilled photographers that aren't full time professionals. Anyone can upload photos and instantly offer them for sale. The price can be specified, or potential buyers can make an offer that is sent directly to the photographer.
ClusterShot takes a 12% cut, quite reasonable when you consider hosting and payment processing costs. silverorange CEO Dan James links to a comparison of rates on other stock photo sites, where sites are taking anywhere from 50-80%, or pay only small flat fees back to the original photographer. The site features RSS and Flickr importing, so that pictures posted elsewhere can automatically be added for sale on ClusterShot.
With the launch of ClusterShot, silverorange in following in the footsteps of dev/design companies such as 37signals in launching side ventures in addition to continuing client work. This is a great way to launch a web app without requiring any outside funding. silverorange already has a respectable portfolio, including ESPN, Mozilla, Bebo, Digg, Ning, GigaOm, Revision3, and Canadian musicians Feist and Sloan.
Over the past few years a few of us have received inquiries about the purchase of our images that potential buyers found online. Unfortunately we... [more]
To date Vancouver has been the Canadian capital of citizen journalism with Orato.com and NowPublic calling the West Coast home. But now there's an upstart from the prairies that wants to change that and according to their research, there's plenty to room.
According to Statistics Canada’s most recent Canadian Internet Use Survey, a full 20 percent of Canadians say they were involved in posting images, writing blogs or participating in online discussion groups using their home Internet connections. While many may not realize it, they are helping contribute to the growing phenomenon of citizen journalism – an all-inclusive form of journalism where anyone with an Internet connection can help disseminate news and information. In a sense, they are helping document history in a new and innovative way.
Winnipeg's Global Reporter wants to take the citizen journalism trend one step further by allowing users to upload video news reports. Unlike other video-sharing sites, Global Reporter will be strictly for news networking with each video report open for discussion.
NowPublic was able to completely erase Orato's six year headstart by being creative in their adoption of new users (some would call it user trolling). So, that begs the question - is Global Reporter considering an appeal to YouTube's most active news videographers a potential user acquistion strategy?
Launched in October 2008, Global Reporter is an interactive Social Networking site Where YOU Report and comment on current events. Global... [more]
As a follow-up to our November Sun Startup Essentials Canada Start-Up Index yesterday, we've arranged with comScore to get some real data behind what our numbers mean. While we agree that Alexa and Compete numbers are not an accurate measurement of website traffic, they are a great way to compare the traffic of multiple online properties as it creates a level playing field for metrics.
In the above chart, the Online % Reach is the percentage of Canadians online that each entity reaches. As an example, Metrolyrics.com reached 8.6% of all Canadians during September 2008, making them the hands-down leader.
Since our last comScore report card two months ago, only three properties have had a significant uptick. Plentyoffish.com rose from 5.2 to 5.8, Weblo.com bumped up from 2.0 to 2.8, and Tagtele.com more than doubled from 0.4 to 0.9.
Thanks to comScore for sharing this valuable data with Techvibes!
Founded in 2004, MetroLeap Media Inc. is leading provider of entertainment content within the music and video game Internet market. Its flagship... [more]
Plentyoffish.com is a 100% FREE online dating site, and is constantly improving based on your feedback. You will notice everything on this online... [more]
Weblo is a parallel universe that is the only virtual world based on the real world. Members own and manage websites that are virtual replicas of... [more]
French video sharing site. [more]
Montreal Entreprenuer Extraordinaire Austin Hill is speaking at SmtartupEmpire later this month in Toronto and he wants Western Canadian startups to make the trek East. So much so that he's sponsoring a contest that will help get 10 entrpreneurs part way there.
In the spirit of creating great opportunities for entrepreneurs I have partnered with my friend Raymond Luk from FlowVentures and the team from AngelSoft to sponsor 10 entrepreneurs to get the following packages.
- A free pass to StartupEmpire.
- A copy of Guy Kawasaki’s brand new book Reality Check which I recently read and is a great collection of essays & practical advice on many of the aspects of running a startup.
- A copy of Randy Komisar’s “The Monk and the Riddle” one of my favourite startup books which is a quick read about startups & finding meaning as an entrepreneur written during the last tech collapse.
- A $100 credit towards any travel costs you incur to attend (To help out of town attendees get to Toronto. If you win & are in Toronto we’ll ask you to donate your travel subsidy to one of the other winners who are travelling farther)
- Angelsoft has donated a number of discounted and free applications to their OpenDeals program where you can submit your company to be viewed by over 10,000 angel groups. These will be given to startups that apply and qualify as companies looking for funding ($100-$250 in value).
The contest is open to any entrepreneur, startup or aspiring entrepreneur who working building a technology startup.
To enter the contest all you need to do is send an email to startupempire [@] brudderventures.com answering the following 3 questions. Submissions must include your contact information, URL & Company contact details (if applicable) and should not exceed 1 page per answer.
All entries should be received by this Saturday November 8th.
