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Government: 'We Strongly Support the Innovation and Ambitious Entrepreneurship of Canadians'

According to Statistics Canada, 2.7 million Canadians were self-employed in 2010. That's about 8% of the country's total population.

Canada’s entrepreneurs will get a federal nod of support tonight as Member of Parliament from Ottawa West-Nepean and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird joins other Members of Parliament, industry leaders, and entrepreneurs from across the country for the official launch of Startup Canada taking place at the University of Ottawa. Already one month into its six-month National Tour, Startup Canada team members are travelling coast to coast to celebrate entrepreneurship, identify key challenges facing Canadian seed-, early- and growth-stage businesses, and inspire new community-led solutions.  

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Crowdfanatic's DEMO Pitch Puts Dragons' Den in Perspective

Despite getting demolished by the Dragons, Yaron Baraz and his startup Crowdfanatic are still at it.

Two weeks ago Baraz pitched Crowdfanatic's new "group connectivity layer for Facebook" at DEMO in Santa Clara and the reception was much more positive.

Crowdfanatic’s new social app acts as layer over Facebook, so that fans of of our group on facebook can go head-to-head with another group (think Twilight versus Huger Games).

Users can create "arenas" in which these fans will suggest debate topics, play games, vote in polls, and perform other Facebook-oriented actions such as liking and commenting. On either side, fans can become “top supporters” depending on how often they engage with the arena.

The end goal is to win your debates and spread your side of the story on the biggest social network in the world.

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Toronto's RentCompass Adds Facebook App to Roster of Mobile Apps; Makes Renting in Canada Easy

Toronto's RentCompass has added a Facebook app to its portfolio.

Self-touted as Canada’s first renters’ mobile App available on iOS and Android devices, web startup RentCompass has been dedicated to making renting easy and accessible for Canadians.

The Facebook app is naturally social: it allows you to get your friends' opinions on neighbourhoods and building and share listings friends who are hunting for their next space.

RentCompass says its goal is to create "a streamlined rental property solution that is always up to date, on the web and mobile." The RentCompass iPhone app is th most downloaded Canadian rentals search app in the iTunes store and is rated four out of five stars.

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Go Paperless, and Calgary’s eSchedule Will Plants Trees for You

With the growing popularity of hand-held devices, Calgary’s eSchedule is on a mission to completely eliminate paper-based schedules by providing multiple options for people to check and manage their schedules online. They recently celebrated Earth Day by announcing a new program in partnership with Tree Canada where each customer will have one tree planted annually for every print-free schedule managed online.

“Tree Canada has planted and is caring for over 77 million trees,” said Cale White, VP of Sales, eSchedule. “We’re already managing millions of scheduling changes online, so this initiative fits right in with our core values.”

Trees make communities livable for people – they add beauty and create an environment beneficial to our mental health, replenish the atmosphere with oxygen, fight the greenhouse effect, conserve water and save energy. However, the amount of trees Canada has lost over the past decade due to various reasons constitutes a serious problem for our ecosystem, so it is great to see tech startups incorporating green initiatives into their day-to-day business to support the environment.

Montreal Startup Festival to Award Top Startup $50K

The organizers of the International Startup Festival announced this morning that at this year’s event one deserving startup will leave with an investment of at least $50K.

And the award won’t be limited to one of the startups selected to pitch on a main stage; any startup present and badged for the event will be eligible to win.

A group of angels and VC investors, including the Festival’s Founders Phil Telio and Alistair Croll, Anna Goodson, Rory Olson, and Danny Knafo have banded together as equal partners to create the prize.

The prize will be an investment in a startup, in the form of an entrepreneur-friendly convertible debenture (reasonable interest rate with no cap on valuation). Terms and conditions with details of the prize will be posted online soon.

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TechStars Founder: 'One Accelerator is Launching Per Day'

Just yesterday, we took a lot at the differences between incubators and accelerators. In the article, we noted that incubators were declining in popularity, while the accelerator space was growing rapidly.

Now, an industry veteran has put some numbers to this trend. David Cohen, the founder of TechStars - one of America's most prominent and longstanding accelerators - told Forbes that about one accelerator launches per day now. Stop and think about that for a moment.

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Where Have All the Coders Gone?

I'm constantly talking to technology companies and they're echoing a similar refrain: there's a war for good technical skills that shows no signs of abating. Even more of a challenge is the ability to find people with a combination of engineering talent and strong people skills.

Since this talent is at the heart of the technology sector, it behooves us to understand the trends that are affecting the industry and to look at ways of  trying to improve the situation. Here's what's going on.

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Record Shattering: Pebble Now Doubles the Second Most Funded Kickstarter Campaign Ever

With nearly three weeks left to go, Pebble keeps on rolling. Now with an incredible 48,000 backers, the Canadian-born Pebble smartwatch has raised a staggering $7.2 million—more than double the previous record for a Kickstarter campaign. Can Waterloo's Allerta raise a legendary $10 million from an online crowdsourcing site? If it can, the Canadian startup will set a new precedent for how companies generate funds.

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