With so much happening within the startup landscape, I’ve decided to do a weekly recap featuring Canadian startup news, as well as interesting startup-related blog posts. If you have any suggestions or items you’d like to add, let me know.
1. Ian Sigalow had an interesting post – “A New Approach to Series A” – looking at Greycroft’s investment approach.
2. Polar Mobile raises $6-million from a group led by Georgian Partners “to expand globally and launch MediaEverywhere, a new product line that will transform the media industry”.
3. IGLOO Software raises $5-million from RBC Venture Partners and the Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund to expand its enterprise social software business.
4. From Mark Evans Tech, which is mostly focused on startups these days, I had a couple of posts you may want to check out:
– Startups: What’s Your Wow Factor? What captivates new users or, at least, gives them a reason to come back for another look?
– Getting Acquired and Then Getting Shut Down: A look at startups that get acquired for the people, while the product gets shut down.
5. On StartupNorth, Brydon Gillis looks at the need for incubators for adults. While incubators are popping up here, there and everywhere these days, I think they are also going to attract a lot more scrutiny about the value they provide.
6. Mark MacLeod (aka Startup CEO) on the need to focus, although, like him, I’m curious about the Code Academy.
7. In my Globe & Mail “Start” column, I took a look at Fantastical (software to make your calendars easier to use) and Sortable, which recently launched a pretty cool “decision engine” currently focused on consumer electronics.
8. A video in which John Ruffolo talks with the Globe & Mail’s Katherine Scarrow about OMERS’ decision to make direct investments. His tip to startups is “get to know us before you’re looking for money”.
9. KISSMetrics’ Neil Patel had an interesting blog post on how to create a demo video for less than $100. I’m a huge believer in demo videos but $100 seems extremely cheap.
