I'm at the Under the Radar (UTR) conference at the Microsoft Campus in Mountainview this morning, watching lotsa presentations of really smart Mobile startups present their companies to the local VC and Angel Community, as well as mobile carrier reps and other developers. You can watch it stream live all day from CNET, if you're so inclined.
One of the companies presenting is Calgary's Mob4Hire, who announced it's new contract with the U.K. O2 Litmus Developer Network this morning at the conference. Mob4Hire is also newly listed on Motorolla's Fast Track Partner Page.
I first blogged about Mob4Hire crowd sourced mobile application testing business model last January, and it looks like the business is well on the way. Since then they've reached 1,300 registered handsets on 139 carriers in 58 countries worldwide, in addition to their developer network contracts.
Ok, coffee break ... my caffeine level is on 1/8th empty ... time to fill up and schmooze with the other UTR attendees!
Mob4hire is crowdsourced mobile application testing. [more]
We are living in a virtual world. Able to connect with more information and more people on a daily basis than ever before. I can sit in my home office in the early morning, Skype with someone in New Zealand, scan ten twitters, check out my friends' Facebook status, write a blog post, load up my customized iGoogle page with RSS feeds ... all before I've put my shirt on and had my second cup of coffee.
But something is missing in that existence. The physical presence of other humans. As we walk through our increasingly digital days, it's so important to make time for ol' fashioned analog relationships. That's why grassroots events like the Banff Venture Forum are so important.
To be clear, I didn't attend the whole event last week (October 2 and 3) at the Fairmont Banff Springs. We (the guys at CurveDental.com, where I'm CMO) booked a table to hear Terry Matthews, founder of Mitel, Newbridge Networks, and a boatload of other companies, pontificate about being a billionaire on Friday night. Luckily, that's not what he did ... Terry had some great pragmatic advice for being successful (in both his speech and the 15 minutes I spent with him afterwards):
Anyway, the stories of the companies hooking up with the VC's lining up to invest are important, but more fascinating are the people behind them. It was great to see the winners of the Banff Venture Forum awards get so excited as they went up to the stage ... you could tell they were proud of the hard work that brought them there. For the record, here's the companies who won the "Best in Track" awards:
After the main event, I attended the "unwind" after party put on by CTI (Calgary Technologies Inc.) in another room of the Banff Springs. This was a collection of "who's who" and "who's new" of the local entrepreneur community, and it was a great time. This is an important role that CTI plays ... being a community hub ... and everyone appreciated it. Kudos to CTI for "getting it."
I finally met Rob Lewis, editor of Techvibes. Talk about your virtual relationship (and the importance of these grassroots events) ... I've been blogging for Techvibes for almost a year, and we've never seem able to cross paths. Speaking of media types, I also met David Cree of the newly launched Propel Magazine that's a print version (with web accompaniment) of the Alberta scene. That's the three of us standing in the picture at the CTI afterparty (David, me, Rob).
Finally, before the night moved on to the Rose and Crown in Banff (of which there are many stories to tell, but none that will be told), we had a discussion about the nice autumn gourds placed around the room (a nice touch, I might add). Since CTI is a publicly funded organization, I assumed Premier Ed Stelmach payed $3.98 for the 7 gourds. Then, I got a little lesson in how CTI works. I was surprised to learn that ~65% of CTI's funding comes from industry ... for example, the revenue they make from leasing their building. 20% comes from federal funding. Only 15% comes from the Alberta government. Which essentially means that a single gourd cost Premier Stelmach 8.5 cents. Even the smallest conversations can have insightful moments!
Based on the people attending, I know that there were lots of conversations and insightful moments. I'd love if anybody that attended the forum would add some additional comments below.
In just a decade the Internet’s advances have made the world a better place. At Akoha, we want to take that a step further. With six billion... [more]
ASAT Solutions specializes in substation server platforms, automation applications and system integration for electric utilities. We have the... [more]
At TheraCarb, we believe it is our responsibility to pursue technologies that can benefit human disease prevention. TheraCarb is developing a... [more]
I should have googled the Commonwealth Hall and Conference Centre on 52nd Ave NE in Calgary before I went downtown to find it ... anyway ... I took in the latter part of the AVAC 10 year anniversary today at the Commonwealth Hall and Conference Centre. There were several hundred people in attendance, with a good broad representation of entrepreneurs, investors, political types and public service ... good energy. And, a nice autumn day, I might add.
While I'm as happy as the next guy to celebrate milestones (and congratulations!), it's not the 10th year anniversary of AVAC that was of interest. I went to see the Mini-Trade Show of 20 AVAC-supported companies, networking and refreshments.
It was an odd mixture for me. I'm immersed in the high-tech sector, so agriculture companies (like Sinoveda that uses pharmaceutical techniques to realize the full potential of herbal supplements) and medical companies (like BioLipids that commercializes therapeutics that treat and prevent intestinal disease) are usually outside my scope. Facsinating deep science going on here in Calgary. And, of course, there were technology companies (like Intelliview who provides Video Analytics products and solutions, and Userful who provides green computing to large enterprises).
It was neat to talk to some of the agriculture guys. I asked one guy "how long have you been receiving funding?" "8 years." "What has AVAC contributed to your company besides money?" "They keep me honest."
While money has been flowing into Agriculture technology for awhile (the "A" in AVAC), the IVAC ("I"nnovation) arm of AVAC is the recent distributor of a large chunk of the $100M technology fund that Premier Stelmach setup in the most recent provincial election.
It was EXTREMELY refreshing to meet the great innovators that founded the companies which employ thousands of people in the Alberta technology sector. People doing great things is what it's all about after all!
Shown in the picture is Derek Ball from Tynt (In the background, Michael Raymont, former President and VP of NRC, speaks about "Energy, Environment and Innovation.").
(see some of you next week at the Banff Venture Forum!)
I had breakfast again yesterday at Inglewood's Eat Eat's in Calgary with my friend, Derek Ball, CEO and Founder of Tynt. Tynt's been mentioned in the Calgary Techvibes blog for some time as the newest, latest, greatest and kewlest technology up and coming, but "we can't talk about it yet." Until today.
Derek was kind enough to give me first blogging dibs on Tynt's public unveiling, so without further ado, announcing www.Tynt.com.
So, what is it? Tynt allows you to draw on web pages, graffiti style... on a layer laid on top of a web page. Kind of like old school Hockey Night in Canada when the guy draws on the screen in the video replay's between periods. Anybody you've shared your Tynt with will (optionally) see what you've drawn on the web page.
Example:
www.opticfrog.com as seen normally.
www.opticfrog.com as seen with a Tynt layer I put on it. "Tynt'd" as they say.
(yah, that's my music site... self-promotion never goes out of style!).
Back to the Tynt story. In essence, Tynt allows you to share your thoughts/perceptions/highlights with your closest friends.
And, in that thought, lies the power of Tynt. In this wired world of expanding and limitless information, we rely more and more on people we know and trust to give us the straight dope. We pay attention to recommendations and thoughts from our friends. For those that have read "The Tipping Point," Tynt is evangelism on steroids.
For example, Guy Kawasaki, noted technology evangelist, Twitters to 18,000 followers. Guy is going to start using Tynt to put some thoughts on a web page and then send out a tweet with a link to his Tynt. That's part of Tynt's release yesterday; Tynt for Twitter ... Tynt gives Twitter context. Another big name that's going to start using Tynt for Twitter is Mark Silva from Realbranding.com.
Think of the power of Tynt for social networks, where you already connect with many of your friends ... being able to give each other context with your surfing would be, like, way awesome (Or, maybe you just want to put funny glasses and a bowtie on your buddy's Facebook page picture for giggles). Tynt for bloggers (yes, you'll see Tynt's in my future blogs). For people doing market and industry research. Digg users could really use Tynt. Google's new Chrome browser's weak bookmarking could adopt Tynt for contextual bookmarks.
Communication from a corporate website to a surfer is usually controlled and one-way. You read the words that the marketer or the public relations person want you to read. Now all that stuff you find in blogs, forums and communities about a company can be read directly on the website, in the context it's meant to be in. Click here to see what I think of the Canon FS 100 Camcorder:
(if that doesn't make CMO's shake in their boots, I don't know what will!)
Tynt is officially in public Beta as Derek and his team continue to press forward on this ground breaking technology. There's still some glitches, for sure (especially on my Mac Firefox browser), and I can imagine they're going to have some scaling issues as they become more popular, but it's already a great "Wow" experience. Tynt comes as a browser plug-in, or as a web browser app ... to find out more, check out their blog: http://tynt.wordpress.com/.
Or, better yet ... try it for yourself. Go to www.tynt.com, Tynt a website and share it with your friends. And tell them about your experience.
Share the web as YOU see it! You can add notes, drop speech bubbles, place stickers and more on top of any web page and share your Tynt with... [more]
Not having blogged for awhile, when our Techvibes leader, Rob Lewis, suggested I post a blog on BlogDay, I thought it would be a good opportunity to put my rusty digitalpen to paper, as well as do a shout out to some fascinating minds I've had the fortune to come across in my travels.
I came up with six blogs that I read from time to time ... and, interestingly, they are as varied as the people that write them:
And, finally, a shout out to my fellow Techvibes bloggers, who are doing great and necessary work in building grassroots high-tech awareness of their own cities. Finding passion/purpose in one's work and life is a meandering road at times. We use the thoughts and perceptions of those we admire to help forge our own, and for that, I thank all the above people.
In an article a few months ago, a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation survey stated that 15% of Canadians would rather vote for the President than the Prime Minister. After all, being a U.S. neighbor, the decisions of the U.S. leader have a lot of impact on our country and lifestyle.
So, it seemed fitting after the weekend that Hillary Clinton announced the end of her campaign for democratic leader that I post about a new site - www.worldvotesforthepresident.com.
The creators of the site say that after they saw the CBC poll, they thought, in fact, the decisions made for the next U.S. leader will affect everyone in the WORLD in one way or another, not just Canada. So, wouldn't it be great if everyone could vote for the President in some way? A world poll, so to speak. Thus was born www.worldvotesforthepresident.com.
The site is a political statement as much as it is a web viral experiment. They've created pages on both Facebook and Myspace, created a Google group so the world can discuss, and have added the ability to share the site with 32 viral methods such as StumbleUon, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, etc... (using www.addthis.com).
... OK ... Ok ... ok.
I'll admit it. You've caught me doing a narcissistic post. The "creators" of WorldVotesForThePresident are none other than myself and my Ph.D. statistical friend, Bob Hayes, in Seattle.
Needless to say, I'd greatly appreciate if you took the 4.2 seconds to vote, and an additional 15.6 seconds to recommend / share it through whatever social network / email system floats your boat! (thanks!). Oh, and absolutely forward it to friends in other countries, ok?
Material Insight has built an amazing reputation in Calgary as a "high-tech hub" over the last few years. I posted about them a little while ago ... they've done a great job at raising the profile of the Calgary technology scene by themselves and in cahoots with several public partners, especially as co-ordinators of some of the best local high tech events in recent memory.
On June 30, 2008, the Material Insight that we know (and many of the people that are there) will be making some significant changes. Call it corporate liposuction if you will ... as far as I can tell, they are simply removing the parts of the business that are no longer viable.
This strategy is much like Cambrian House's recent restructuring announcement; the current path is no longer viable, so spin some stuff off and retain the parts that work. By the way, after speaking with several insiders, the deal was not nearly as terrible as an earlier Techvibes blog describes ... they got some cash from a New York V.C., the spin-offs all have great potential, and the rumours of the death of crowdsourcing are greatly exaggerated. (that's a Paul McCartney quote-in-cheek just in case you missed it)
Speaking of Cambrian (and getting back to the Material Insight story), Gwynn Kirk from Material Insight has joined Gwabs, one of the opportunities developed by the crowd sourcing pioneer.
Claudia is joining the persistently secretive Tynt to help build out their brand and marketing (which is a great gig for her). I've noticed they've changed their web page look, although the site is still in teaser mode.
Jennifer Aubin is leading the newly formed Techbent recruiting company, continuing Material Insight's success as a premium high-tech recruiter. This makes sense as it could have been the only thing that was making real money at Material Insight (they do a great job ... I can't recommend Jennifer enough for recruiting (either as a prospective employer, or someone that's look for a job).
Finally, Material Insight will continue as the high-tech hub we've come to know and love ... it will be interesting to see how the hub adapts to it's new environment going forward.
Applause for all their past efforts, and bon voyage as they set sail for new shores!
In a province swimming in oil and gas, it's tough for the high-tech scene in Calgary to get noticed. But it happened this week.
Last spring, an industry task force led by David Martin, the fellow in the Executive Chairman chair at Calgary based Smart Technologies. As co-founder of a great $400M startup story in Calgary, he understands what is needed to incent industry. Thanks and kudos to everyone that participated in the task force!
The Alberta Government was smart enough to listen ... in Tuesday's 2008 Alberta Budget, Premier Stelmach said "Alberta prospers through innovation and lifelong learning." High-Tech in Alberta is one of the main benefactors of budget increases ... up 9.3% from 2007. I thought the whole thing is pretty well thought out.
And, representative of the boom we're experiencing: Alberta will spend a total budget record of $37 billion vs. $33 billion last year.
To broaden the base of our economy, a new Alberta Enterprise Corporation will receive $100 million, and boost access to capital for early-stage, knowledge-based companies. A new Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Credit will provide incentives for businesses to invest in research and development, starting at $60 million and growing over time.
Honourable Iris Evens, Minister of Finance and Enterprise
In addition to the $100M investment and a 10% (max. $400K) refundable tax credit for businesses, Alberta has also matched the Fed's accelerated CCA depreciation on computers, software, green energy equipment and other such things.
Here's a quick summary of all the high-tech goodies in the budget:
Value-Added and Innovation
Post-Secondary System
I like that it incorporates both education and technology ... the Dell and Intuit Canada departure from Edmonton had lots to do with a knowledge worker shortage. Not to mention the region no longer enjoys the cost advantage it had 5 years ago. (I personally still think it's a great place to live, if you want my 2 cents worth).
The budget represented only part of the task force recommendations (although they were certainly some of the good parts) ... it'll be interesting if they will adopt the rest in the future.
I'd personally still like to see flow-through shares of high-tech companies for investors. Without this, the private investment community has a hard time not justifying investing oil and gas ventures ... the refundable tax credit provides an immediate return on investment.
An interesting aspect of the spending is that it's based on oil: US$78 / barrel and gas: C$6.75 / gigajuole. Oil prices have reached all time high over $118 barrel, and gas prices have been soaring. The budget also speaks to what the gov't will do with the surplus revenue. A $1 change in the price of oil means a $130 million change to Alberta's profit situation ... that's not chump change!
On a side note about the prices at the pump this summer, as my buddy Jeff Goguen says: "Don't complain about it ... invest in oil and gas companies that are making money. That way you get the upside, too"
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation are worried that high-tech incentives echo the early 1990s, when provincial intervention in the marketplace left taxpayers holding the bag on lotsa unsuccessful failed private-public ventures.
I think the big difference now in high-tech is that there are many experienced second and third generation entrepreneurs running new businesses, in both Edmonton and Calgary. There is also a lot more private money in the game. So, while some investments will still fail, I expect the success rate to increase, thus reducing the risk of investment. Plus, the payouts are getting bigger ... there's been several $50M to $800M success stories in both cities.
I'd like y'all to let me know what you think of it ... please make comments below!
I sat beside Jacques LaPointe last week at a CCAT luncheon in Calgary ... Jacques is a Senior Investment Manager at AVAC and we quickly got to talking about the high-tech community in Alberta. I had heard of AVAC before; essentially investing in "agrivalue" in Alberta. In the last year or so, however, they've expanded their mandate to provide investment and other assistance to Alberta business in the ICT, life sciences and other industrial technology sectors.
AVAC is a private, not-for-profit agency ... which seems like an oxymoron at first blush. However, the way it works is that it receives funding from the Alberta government, and then invests in private organizations, who can be expected to match the funding for as little as dollar-for-dollar (and also repay funds dispersed). As far as I can tell, that's an interest-free loan, and it's a great alternate source of funding that should be investigated by high-tech companies in Alberta.
The IVAC initiative has two parts, the $10M Capacity Builder Program and the $20M Early Stage Venture Fund. Funds are dispersed based on companies achieving important milestones and business hurdles.
IVAC has announced $5.675M of investment within the last month or so going to the following companies:
Antibe Therapeutics Inc., Calgary. A development stage pharmaceutical company developing novel drugs for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease and analgesics with reduced gastrointestinal side effects. Investment: $300,000
Calgary Scientific Inc., Calgary. An early commercial stage diagnostic imaging company with advanced 3-D imaging software for diagnosis and treatment planning. Investment: $1,000,000
DataGardens Inc, Edmonton. An early stage pioneer in wide area virtual resource sharing for datacenters within the multiple offices or branch locations. Investment: $1,000,000
Intelliview Technologies Inc., Calgary. An emerging video analytics software company focusing on the security industry. Investment: $1,000,000
SciMed Technologies Inc., Edmonton. An early commercial stage analytical company launching easy-to-use kits for analyzing vitamin A & D levels in milk. Investment: $375,000
Userful Corp., Calgary. A green computing company that enables up to ten people to share the resources of a single computer. Investment: $1,000,000
Aksys Networks, Calgary. An innovative office telephone system using VOIP that allows small business to have a virtual (and easily configureable) internet PBX vs. the old school hardware big panel in the back room. Investment: $1,000,000
Contact Jacques LaPointe at jlapointe@avacltd.com.
P.S. On a related marketing note for companies wishing to have a better internet presence ... make sure you have a standalone corporate logo / image somewhere on your site so bloggers like us can link to it easily and display it in our posts (see above!)
The Alberta Science and Technology (ASTech) Leadership Foundation identifies and celebrates outstanding achievements in science and technology to inspire future innovation and leadership.
On October 24, 2008, the 19th Annual Awards Gala will be held in Edmonton ... and if you want to go as a winner to hold an "ASTechie" or "Azzie" or "ASTecker" or whatever it is they call their statue, you need to be nominated first.
There are 13 award categories ... click here to review the award categories and get a .PDF of the nomination form. Make sure you do it before May 30th!
ASTech is a private, non-profit society, supported by 21 patrons from private and public sectors ... a wide range of companies coming together to recognize a broad range of Alberta high-tech success stories.
