With all the talk of Canadian brain drain to the United States and the lack of a strong tech startup ecosystem in Canada, it's great to hear about companies like San Francisco-born A Thinking Ape moving the opposite way.
Founded by three twenty-something Canadians who met in the Bay Area, A Thinking Ape relocated to Vancouver in January with the blessing of their three Silicon Valley Angels. A Thinking Ape is "creating the future of social gaming experiences online" and their first title is the popular Kingdoms at War massively multiplayer online game.
Co-founders Kenshi Arasaki, Wilkins Chung, and Eric Diep are excellent examples of what happens when you don't make it easy for talented entrepreneurs to move to a country, start new businesses, and ultimately create jobs.
Arasaki and Chung originally arrived in the Bay Area to work together on Y Combinator-funded Chatterous and met Diep along the way - it's amazing how Canadians always seem to find their fellow countrymen when working abroad.
While Diep's claim to fame is creating the first Facebook App (Quizzes), his recent hassles in trying to remain in the United States are well documented. He was profiled in a video called GeeksOnaPlane: A Tale of Two Erics along with Eric Ries talking about the Startup Founders' Movement.
So what's next for Vancouver's newest social gaming company?
A Thinking Ape is working with Mochi Media and their new social gaming platform that will allow them to build social features into Kingdoms at War and future gaming properties.
Arasaki sees Vancouver as the ideal place to start-up in the social gaming space. He believes that while Vancouver is deep in engineering and programming talent, the convergence of games and social platforms has yet to heat up competition locally for that talent.
And, of course, they're very eager to take advantage of all the government programs that Canada has to offer.
If you're passionate about creating amazing software and working on a team of like-minded visionaries at an early stage startup, A Thinking Ape is currently hiring Engineers.
A Thinking Ape, creators of the popular Kingdoms at War massively multiplayer online game, is a company of young technology entrepreneurs based in... [more]
It's trivia - with a twist. This Calgary Twestival, come test your trivia knowledge in competition with your local tweeps for prizes - or just come and cheer them on. Some of these trivia contest questions will be general knowledge, some will be about Calgary social media and Calgary social media users.
Calgary Twestival is on Thursday, March 25th at 6:00pm at the Firewater Grill - 222 7th Street SW.
Get your tickets for $14.00, two for $28.00. Why $28.00? $28.00 is what it would cost to supply a child with what they need for one year's education in a country where Concern Worldwide operates. Concern Worldwide is the charity chosen by Twestival (Int'l) for this year's event.
Everyone who purchases their ticket online will be eligible for a draw prize that involves a limo to and from the event, and dinner for two at the Firewater Grill.
As a professional in the technology or social media space, chances are that you are an independent contractor or are considered a small business owner.
A new online business solution is now available to those of you whose most dreaded job is accounting and bookkeeping: Wave Accounting.
Kirk Simpson is the President and Co-Founder of Wave Accounting:
There are 1.8 million small business owners in Canada with less than five employees. We’ve designed an accounting tool that will help them understand and take control of their financial management in an easy and straightforward way. Wave Accounting is specifically designed for the business owner and not for an accountant or bookkeeper. We want to encourage business owners to give up their spreadsheets and really take charge of their business.
Unlike many desktop applications, Wave Accounting is web-based. As a result, Wave Accounting offers the benefit of being able to enter data from anywhere and at any time from any computer. An added feature allows multiple users to collaborate on the same account, entering figures and conferring on reports.
For a free 30-day test drive of Wave Accounting please visit their site at www.waveaccounting.com.
Wave Accounting is aimed at small business owners who hate doing accounting. It’s been designed to be easy and to give business owners a view of... [more]
Dylan Brown, the creative director of Pixar Canada, will make a special appearance at Emily Carr University on March 18th at 11:30 a.m. to present a session called "Pixar's Film Making Process". The lecture will emphasize the importance of applying traditional fine art skills to digital work.
Brown has worked on Toy Story 2, Ratatouile, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc and The Incredibles, and took on his new role as Creative Director for Pixar Canada in August 2009.
Now for the great news...it's free! Check out all the details and make sure to attend this sure to be interesting lecture tomorrow.
During introductory remarks for Cloudcamp Vancouver this past Saturday one of the organizers asked the group, ‘how many of you are technical people and how many are “from the business side”?’. The split was about 70/30 for the technical side. The witty rejoinder to this result was something about why having it on a Saturday is a good idea – ‘only the technical guys would think this is a good way to spend a Saturday’. I saw one guy wearing a shirt that said, “I’d rather be surfing”, but the picture was of an open laptop. Okay, so I’m joking about that last bit. But, as a non-techie attending on behalf of Indicee, I was definitely in the minority. Hence the “tourist” designation.
Here’s my thoughts on the day.
For the uninitiated, Cloudcamps are workshop-based events where the participants decide the curriculum at the beginning of the day. Then, they spend the rest of the day talking about their main areas of interest with respect to “Cloud Computing“. This can even include spirited, in fact heated, debate about how one defines Cloud Computing.
For our purposes, we can define Cloud Computing as what Indicee does! We deliver our software online through your browser. And, our back office exists pretty much entirely on Amazon Web Services (EC2). The Cloud. As a side note, I was delighted to hear that EC2 generously donates computing time to University of British Columbia (UBC) students to help build for the future.
That said, like a cloud, the definition is definitely nebulous and within the tech community it’s a moving target (to say the least). On Saturday, Dave Nielsen (Clouderati), stated a good working definition, I think. Cloud is 1) managed, 2) self-serve and 3) on demand. Dave is one of the founders of Cloudcamp.
Cloud is the essence of Software as a service, and we, Indicee, are the quintessential Saas provider. We get all of our computing power and data storage metered like you get electricity from your local utility.
Destination Cloudcamp
So far over 15,000 people have participated in Cloudcamps worldwide. The events are organized as an “unconference” which means, in short, Embrace The Chaos. The organizers basically provide a blank canvas (within the context of Cloud) and with the help of an impromptu panel some topics are generated to fill up the breakout sessions later in the day.
Everyone involved brought their A-game so we were able to have a lot of fun collaborating on what the day would end up looking like. The list of “official” organizers is here, but the cool thing about an unconference is that we ALL became organizers.
In the end seven sessions were defined:
If I can, I’d just like to pick out one thing from each of the sessions I attended to give you the flavour of the day. Looking at my word count, I’m already pushing the bounds of net-friendly postings. For more info, you can check out the Flip Notes from the day here.
Session #1: Cloud Management & Interoperability
Troy Angrignon kept a blistering pace through this lively roundtable in order to get through the points in good time. The question of Vendor Lock-in was the overriding concern by a wide margin. IT-guys are uber-paranoid of being held hostage and having their data held hostage. It makes sense. Once bitten, twice shy. IT has a ton of baggage from the last generation of computing. I don’t have the hubris to say “it’s different this time”, but I would say the issue is less difficult in a Cloud world than it was in the client/server world. I hadn’t realized how intense these concerns were. Good to know.
Session #2: Designing for the Cloud & Best Practices
Without being too facetious, my main takeaway is probably that I was in the wrong session. This one was more of a how-to with respect to understanding the technology layers that make up a Cloud App; when to expect bottlenecks, and what to do about them. Looking at the Flip Notes I think the Large Enterprises session would have held more value for me. Know for next time. Trevor O and Dave did a good job, it just wasn’t my bag.
Session #3: Scaleable Data Management – SQL or noSQL
I was really looking forward to this session because it had the potential to turn into an epic nerdfight. All it would have taken is the presence of one militant, dogmatic ideologue on either side of the debate. Unfortunately, our group was exceedingly rational and brought nuanced and balanced views. My friend and colleague, Ryan Prociuk, really showed his chops on the subject bringing a ton of knowledge and experience to the group.
I won’t burden you with the gory details of this one. Suffice to say, database are not one size fits all.
For now, just know the complexities of SQL (Structured Query Language) could be compared to writing macros in Excel. Tricky. Here at Indicee, we prefer to let users ask questions using plain English. It cuts down on the angst.
The highlight of the session, and indeed the DAY, was clearly Dave’s anecdote about running 50 million users on only 1 Oracle database. It takes a fair bit of “wizardry” to pull something like that off.
Like the saying goes: “Plan for failure”
Aloha
It was a great day. To everyone who came out, good on ya. To everyone I was able to connect with, good times. And to the sponsors, thanks. Leave a comment!
Last September The Social Agency hosted Appy Hour to great fanfare and they've decided to bring it back with Appy Hour 2 coming up on March 26th.
Appy Hour is a new event series that combines mobile applications and a whole lotta networking. Join us for presentations by innovative application developers alongside noshing and mingling at one of Gastown's hippest spots.
Appy Hour is all about web apps, everything from development and design to marketing. The event is focused on case studies of successful apps in order to provide a behind-the-scenes look at what has worked (and hasn't worked) in app development.
The presenters for Appy Hour 2 are:
Jesse MacFadyen, Developer, Nitobi - Jesse MacFadyen is a software developer at Nitobi. His work has focused on building Flash, Flex and Air applications in ActionScript 3.0 for clients. Recently Jesse has focused on mobile development for clients using PhoneGap to target multiple devices. In his spare time Jesse has developed YuTuplr, a simple, easy to use Air application for uploading videos to YouTube.
Ian Bell, Founder/CEO, AppSocial - Vancouver tech entrepreneur Ian Bell has spent time in Silicon Valley with Cisco and has worked on some really cool services over the years including BuzMe, GeekMail, RingCentral, Internet Call Director, and EQO.
Appy Hour 2 is on Friday, March 26th at the Revel Room at 238 Abbott Street from 4:00pm to 6:00pm with the presentation starting at 4:30pm. The $15 admission includes appies and one complimentary cocktail - register online.
Since 1997, Nitobi (formerly eBusiness Applications) has been providing Enterprise Solutions and web-based software components. With a focus on... [more]
We are a team of seasoned technology marketers, engineers, and entrepreneurs based in Vancouver, Canada. Our company was formed in July, 2009 based... [more]
Coming soon... [more]
Every week Techvibes republishes an article from Business in Vancouver.
This article was originally published in issue #1064 - March 16-28, 2010.
The Internet is typically seen as a tool to connect people at the global level.
Many retailers in Vancouver, however, are boosting efforts to grab the online attention of the local rather than the international community. A number of online applications and search tools are sprouting up in Vancouver to help retailers ensure that when a local is looking for a little nightlife or a nearby place to grab a bite, their location stands out online.
For example, Capones Restaurant & Live Jazz Club in Yaletown saw web traffic increase five-fold and traffic to its reservations page triple after it boosted its online presence through Google Local, which is Google’s online local mapping search engine.
Rick Momsen, Capones’ owner, estimated that the restaurant has experienced a 300% increase in customers as a result of its boosted local online presence.
6S Marketing Inc., a Vancouver-based online marketing firm, has helped approximately 80 Vancouver businesses, including Capones, increase their local online business in the last year though Google Local. Roughly 10 of those businesses boosted their online search presence in January, to ensure that their location would be among the first spotted online by Olympic-goers looking for things to do aside from attending sporting events while in Vancouver.
Chris Breikss, 6S’s director, said businesses don’t necessarily need to hire a marketing company to tweak their Google Local account, although 6S and other online marketers know the nuances of search-engine optimization.
If your business has an existing Google account, you simply have to sign up for Google Local and enter relevant information about its location. This can include the address, hours of operation and optimal transit routes for getting there. As well, customers can provide reviews of your business on Google Local. It’s important to ensure that your business classification is also included.
For example, most of Capones’ new customers found the restaurant and jazz venue by searching for “Vancouver jazz.” Capone’s address and information is the first listed in that search, and its location is among the most prominent, marked by a map-pin, on Google’s map of Vancouver.
Breikss noted that many businesses aren’t aware of Google Local. If your competitors aren’t updating their account, it’s more likely that updating your account will boost your online presence in local online maps and searches.
“Basically, the top 20% of businesses are using Google Local,” said Breikss. “So there is still a huge opportunity for businesses to capitalize on this.” Breikss noted that “going local” is also increasingly important as more people adopt smartphones. A strong local online presence can help retailers grab more spontaneous business from smartphone users who search for nearby places to eat, drink or shop while walking the streets.
Vancouver’s Chicwalks Media Inc. has created a mobile application that lists more than 1,000 fashion, food, spa treatment, home decor and jewelry retailers in Vancouver. The Chicwalks app helps consumers plan shopping tours in eight different neighbourhoods in Vancouver and one in Whistler. Retailers can boost their prominence on the Chicwalks directory and map through advertising and gift offers.
Karen Heinrich, Chicwalks’ CEO, got the idea for the Chicwalks app after moving to Paris, France, to become a shopping tour guide. When she first arrived there, she couldn’t find any comprehensive websites or information about shopping in Paris’ many neighbourhoods. As of mid-February, more than 3,000 people have downloaded the Chicwalks app since it became available March 2009.
The app’s popularity skyrocketed during the Olympics. It was downloaded as many as 350 times a day during the first days of the Games. “Everybody wants to walk around with [information] on their mobile now – they don’t want to carry maps,” said Heinrich.
Kristie Thomas, owner of Cranberries Spa on Robson Street, said that being listed with Chicwalks has helped boost business from Vancouverites who live beyond the Robson district. “You know how Vancouver is: people stay in their neighbourhood,” said Thomas. “But you download the app and see that there are all these places just outside your neighbourhood.”
6S Marketing Inc. is a leading Vancouver Internet marketing company with hundreds of clients, both large and small, across a wide variety of... [more]
Business in Vancouver is an award-winning weekly newspaper serving Greater Vancouver since 1989. Targeted at business decision-makers, it provides... [more]
We have featured a number of social media players recently. This week, I wanted to feature a major technology personality. The people at Xtreme Labs are not just players in Toronto. Xtreme Labs is well known as a top flight company with some of the smartest minds and hardest workers in the business.
Farhan Thawar has over 11 years experience in the technology sector and is currently the VP Engineering at Xtreme Labs. He is also leading the efforts behind the Extreme Univeristy. Prior to joining Xtreme Labs, Farhan was the Chief Software Architect at I Love Rewards Inc and previously the Head of Search & MSN Platform for Microsoft Canada. Prior to that Farhan spent 7 years at Celestica Co. and Trilogy Software Inc. coding and running development teams. Farhan has a degree in Computer Science with Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the Rotman School of Business.
Now that we're done with the formalities, let's get to our 5 Questions...
What motivates you to do what you do on a daily basis?
Impact. We have a super-smart team of folks in Toronto, making an impact on a global scale. I'm motivated by working with folks smarter than I am.
Do you have any success start-up tips for people wanting to create a name for themselves in your industry?
Stop talking and start doing. I meet loads of folks who Tweet, Facebook, read blogs but they aren't doing anything. Spend more time working on your idea, refining it and most of all releasing it to get feedback. Real feedback.
In your opinion why is Toronto a hotbed for cool tech start-ups?
It's proximity to ultra-smart schools like University of Waterloo and University of Toronto that make Toronto an amazing city to live and work in, with smart people everywhere. I actually have a video about this: www.torontohomecoming.ca/
What's your favourite tech toy and social media site and why?
My favourite tech device is the iPhone. It alows me to watch rich media, play impressive games or triage email on the go. I actually also have a BlackBerry in my bag.
My favourite social media website has to be Techmeme. It allows me to get 95% of all my technology news in 10-15 minutes per day.
Who would you say is one of Toronto's social media/tech stars and why?
Not sure what a social media star is but I know lots of up and coming tech stars. I can name 10 Waterloo interns we've had at Xtreme Labs that would blow your mind (some were born after 1990!), but then you'd recruit them.
I welcome all who want to come by and see our space and meet our team.
We create quality software and achieve success rapidly through our Agile engineering process. Our process produces results that allow rapid... [more]
In the past, Chris Taylor has been mistakenly referred to as Chris Anderson, which although is not a cardinal sin (he suffers fools gladly), it does make the conversation a little bit more awkward for him to relate some of his rich experiences.
After all, not many people can claim to have rubbed shoulders with Seth Godin, or have crushed goals and grapes (in that order) with Gary Vaynerchuk, that too, in personal, private face-to-face interviews. And that's only a start.
As the President and Co-Founder of Toronto's Goose Educational Media, Chris has managed to funnel his love for business literature into building up a company, and a personal brand, that's dedicated to helping businesses accelerate their personal development and tweak business processes towards higher grades of efficiency.
He ploughs through some of the leading business and personal development books released on the market, gleans the core messages from them, and then works on them to turn them into actionable insights for businesses to adopt. Using this knowledge, and his site, he then offers consultancy services to businesses that want to push themselves towards more efficient operational activities.
I recently got in touch with Chris - long enough for me to fire 5 questions at him.
As the President and Co-Founder of Goose EMI, you regularly generate synopses of influential business books, and interview key players and thought leaders in the business and marketing disciplines - how has being in regular contact with these influential figures shaped your worldview?
Speaking and working with some of the big name authors of our time is inspiring, but not in the way I'd originally assumed it would be. Getting to spend some time with these people reminds me constantly how we're all human - we all have fears, concerns and aspirations. The people who rise to the top are those who are crystal clear in their objectives and push through the fear. Since starting "The Goose", I've seen countless examples of Zig Ziglar's quote, "You can have anything in life if you help enough people get what they want." Success truly goes to those who are passionate enough about their cause to help others around them whenever they can. I strive to live that philosophy every day.
Are there any sources of inspiration or key figures who have significantly influenced both your personal and professional lives? How?
Seth Godin has been a hero of mine since I read Tribes 2 years ago. His approach to life is one that I aspire to emulate as much and as often as I can. One of the biggest things I picked up from him during our time together in January {link to interview} was the fact that he spends a solid portion of his day not doing; not responding or developing. Instead, he consciously chooses to disengage from his work and look at it with perspective and an inquisitive mind. His work, as a result, is always poignant and built with laser focus. I have a lot of respect for that ability and willingness to constantly look for ways to improve the effectiveness of his message.
You attended the Art of Marketing conference a few weeks ago, were you introduced to any new insight and thought-processes that were new to you, but were logical and actionable enough to stick with you immediately? How do you plan to proceed with them?
As with all the workshops I attend, books I read and authors I speak with, I find the sheer volume of potentially useful information can be enough to put us in a state of "analysis paralysis". My #1 tip to everyone (myself included) is to takeone message from each encounter and find a way to make it actionable today. It's the small, 1% changes that, over time, can completely rework the way we interact with the world around us. Think about it - if you were to make one small behavioral or attitudinal change every week, you could effectively reinvent the way you interact with the world over the course of a year. I went on that mission in 2008 and it's held me in good stead.
Are there any companies you can cite that have implemented your business insights successfully and rewired their processes for the better?
I get emails regularly from Goose readers who have found ways to increase their enjoyment, performance or confidence in their jobs and lives due to our free weekly articles. It's an honor to be able to take material from leading thinkers, make it actionable (and bite sized) and then hear of real world success from people who have taking the initiative to change their habits.
On your website, you retrace the inspiration that led you to start Goose EMI - what are your future plans for it? Where do you see your business going in the next 3-5 years? Beyond that?
My goal with the Goose has always been to make actionable the core messages from leading business and personal development books. There are some great books out there, but not all of us have time to read them. If I can distill an actionable takeaway that impacts those who might not otherwise have had a chance to find it themselves, I'm satisfied.
I do want to explore new mediums moving into the future. We recently launched the "From the Horse's Mouth" author interview series, where we're travelling around North America and video-interviewing leading authors. I'd like to continue to grow and expand that program. These are some very smart people, and their books - however great - are mere snapshots of their ideas. I'd like to create something less static and more fluid moving forward.
We're also (very soon) introducing a program that will allow team leaders to quickly and easily share (and make actionable) the messages from the Goose articles with their team members. We're calling it InFlight Leadership - employee engagement on the fly, and it will provide people who want to be strong leaders with the tools to do so.
Goose EMI is a company dedicated to simplifying and making actionable the core messages from leading business and personal development books. [more]
