May 2009
1 post
Moderating a panel discussion today on "Saving...
I’m headed to the Massive Tech Show today afternoon at the Hilton to moderate a panel discussion on “Saving Time & Money Using Mobile and Online Applications”, which would feature executives from Microsoft, Telus and Canpages. The panel would discuss what are some of the applications small businesses can use to boost their productivity and where to spend and where NOT to...
April 2009
7 posts
My video interview with a German startup in...
Read the full post and comments on Techvibes.
Powerflasher, a Germany-based startup is exhibiting at the FITC design and technology conference happening in Toronto currently. Their core product, FDT, is an Eclipse-based development tool for Flash developers which seemed to be getting a lot of buzz at the conference. I caught up with the Powerflasher team (Carlo Blatz, CEO; Frank Piotraschke,...
Venture Capital Funding in Canada (Techvibes)
My post on Techvibes about the VC funding environment in Canada:
Stephen Hurwitz, a partner at Choate Hall & Stewart LLP in Boston, recently wrote a great article on why venture funding outlook for Canadian startups is bleak and what needs to be done to improve the situation. Read the full article here (via Mike Middleton of Q1 Capital Partners). Stephen’s key points include:
Venture...
How / why not to use consultants for your startup
Came across an interesting article on why you shouldn’t use consultants for your startup, and if you must, how to effectively use them. Excerpt:
“To fully appreciate why consultants often do not fulfill a startup’s needs, it is important to understand the typical consulting engagement sales cycle.
When a consulting firm tries to get their hand in your pocket, they usually lead with...
Improving the performance of your AJAX web...
Various compression and other techniques can make your AJAX-based web application extremely fast for the user:
1. Concatenate your JS and CSS files. Don’t send out several files over the wire to the browser - the browser can only make 2 connections at a time. Be careful about JS dependencies - order is imp. in JS.
2. Minify and then compress the JS and CSS. Use Dojo’s Shrinksafe or...
ProductPlanner.com - Great new product for Product...
Great new product for Product Managers to visualize and communicate the flow of various workflows in software applications. Here is an example of Facebook’s sign up loop:
Sign Up LoopView more Facebook user flows.
My interview with BackType (YC '08) founders for...
Read more: The BackType Story: From Toronto to Silicon Valley - Techvibes Blog - http://www.techvibes.com/blog/the-backtype-story-from-toronto-to-silicon-valley#ixzz0CEpWYqDj
My Mesh coverage on Techvibes
Mesh, the largest Web conference in Canada, ended yesterday in Toronto after three exciting days of great presentations, discussions and workshops. Here is the complete Techvibes coverage:
Mesh ‘09: Bootstrapping Your Web Startup
Mesh ‘09: Gabe Rivera (Founder, Techmeme) on ‘Future of News’
Mesh ‘09: More Keynotes: Mike Masnick, Howard Lindzon and Paul Kedrosky
...
March 2009
9 posts
Joel Spolsky: How to be a program manager
Excerpts from Joel’s latest essay (link):
Having a good program manager is one of the secret formulas to making really great software.
What does a program manager do?
Henceforth, a program manager would:
Design UIs
Write functional specs
Coordinate teams
Serve as the customer advocate, and
Wear Banana Republic chinos
divide up the product according to user activities. For example,...
WSJ: Rocket Scientists Shoot Down Mosquitoes With...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123680870885500701.html
In a lab in this Seattle suburb, researchers in long white coats recently stood watching a small glass box of bugs. Every few seconds, a contraption 100 feet away shot a beam that hit the buzzing mosquitoes, one by one, with a spot of red light…The scientists’ actual target is malaria, which is caused by a parasite transmitted...
WatchJon Stewart taking on CNBC
TechCrunch: Facebook’s Real-Time Homepage Goes... →
Facebook’s homepage is increasingly “LIVE”, and I think thats how all web-based software apps should be. AJAX isn’t just nice-to-have, its essential for a seamless user experience for web apps. Almost LIVE-enabled Alertle - hope to showcase it someday.
Alertle - current status
2 mt. demo of Alertle’s version 1.0
Full demo of Alertle’s version 1.0 (with sound)
Press
Toronto firm scopes out enterprise RSS space - ComputerWorld Canada
Alertle - Simplified and Customizable RSS reading - StartupNorth
Alertle Wants to Make RSS Mainstream - ReadWriteWeb
Find New Feeds and Browse Favorites with Alertle - Lifehacker
Feed Reader Alertle - Google...
Web 2.0 Startup Lessons
(Cross-post from Techvibes: http://www.techvibes.com/blog/web-2.0-startup-lessons)
I gave a presentation at the DemoCamp 19 in Toronto on my experience in founding/running a Web 2.0 startup over the past few years, and what I think we did right and where we screwed up. My idea was to share some experiences which other entrepreneurs in the consumer web space might find useful, especially those not...
Canadians make stem-cell breakthrough →
Giving an Ignite presentation at DemoCamp on...
Will be sharing some stuff from what I learnt from founding/running a web 2.0 startup from concept to launch to (…) over the past 2+ yrs at the next DemoCamp in town, on Tuesday March 3rd.
Paul Graham: Can You Buy a Silicon Valley →
February 2009
45 posts
WatchBusinessWeek’s Stephen Baker on the latest location-tracking software, Sense Networks and Google Latitude, and how companies may target advertisements to users of these programs
"Boot Camp for ICT Start-ups: Apply now"
http://blog.marsdd.com/2009/02/20/boot-camp-for-ict-start-ups/
Is your start-up looking for better access to Silicon Valley and US venture capital, angel networks and Fortune 500 ICT companies? Apply now to be one of the companies taking part in the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service’s Regional Boot Camp for ICT Start-Ups being held at MaRS on Thursday, March 19th, 2009.
This one-day boot camp...
WSJ: The Navy Has a Top-Secret Vessel It Wants to... →
Just wrote a post comparing CoverItLive and... →
How to Build a Web App Business workshop at... →
Posted on Techvibes: Notes From FacebookCamp... →
FacebookCampToronto 5 today evening @ MaRS
WSJ: So, You Want to Be an Entrepreneur →
What VCs Want (and why they call it 'Vulture... →
Speaker: Charles Plant, MaRS Advisor — We know what you want: money. Now, you probably think that a VC will give you money and leave you alone. Sorry, it’s not that simple. In this lecture at we look at : (1) How VCs make money (2) What they want in return for their money (3) How they structure deals (4) And why they call it ‘Vulture Capital’ Charles Plant is an entrepreneur...
Venture Capital Activity In Canada At Its Lowest... →
Just finished blogging about this on Techvibes. Pretty depressing VC scene in Canada! BC fared better than Ontario and Quebec. Internet sector is generally a bad place to be in Canada, Cleantech is up slightly. 36% drop in Canada VC vs 8% drop in US VC scene.
WSJ:How Heart Handles Anger Predicts Irregular... →
happiness = good
anger = bad
“…And Thousands of Their Closest Friends” →
discussion on greg wilson’s blog about democamp, etc
New Block Of Networking-Only Tickets For DemoCamp... →
via David Crow
CoverItLive →
globeandmail used coveritlive to live blog the oscars
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090220.woscarliveblog_0222/BNStory/Entertainment/home?cid=al_gam_mostview
toronto-based startup success story…next post on techvibes :)
Xtreme Labs - the closest T.O. has to a product... →
Located in downtown toronto, at yonge/king, Xtreme Labs is one heckuva place. Churning out app after app, and backed by a VC fund…I still haven’t figured out what really is going on there. Whats the reason of existence..
BootupLabs - startup accelerator in Vancouver →
Nothing like that exists here in Toronto..
Slumdog ? How come no one mentioned Gran Torino..
Ok, I skipped the Oscars completely and heard that Slumdog won big, including best picture. And I don’t get the hype.
I saw Slumdog, and found it to be a ‘touching’ movie in parts. Child actors, who actually were from the slum, were great; so was the initial cinematography. After that the movie tapered off. Sure, the script was unique as well, but overall, out of 10, I’d...
Toronto-based FreshBooks' CEO Mike McDerment At... →
A Stimulus Plan For Venture Capital? No Thanks. →
Create 50,000 companies for $1B →
Start Up the Risk-Takers →
My 10 favorite web applications
10 of my favorite web-based software applications (‘web apps’). Simple, elegant, effective and just plain beautiful! Check out the list:
Evernote: Task management. Perfect way to organize your life (if used effectively!). Write small notes, tag them, search through them.
Google Calendar: How online calendars should have been all along. Why did it take so long for someone to get it...
1 tag
Alertle ver2.0 coming soon
Some finishing touches and Alertle’s ver2.0 would be out pretty soon. Looking forward to enjoying the feed reading experience again, and of course, sharing it with others :)
3:15am…time to stop tweeting and tumblring
My review of MasalaART on Yelp Toronto →
http://www.cringely.com/2009/02/wheres-steve/ →
google's toronto office1 →
http://www.early-exits.com/Early_Exits_Chapter_1.pd... →
Stimulus bill requires RSS feeds of how the money... →
http://www.torontocodecamp.net/ →
@AccordionGuy:
A write-up of the first “Coffee and Code” day — coffeeandcode.org/2009/02… Next one: Tuesday at Le Gourmand, Queen & Spadina.
UFO sightings soar across Canada →