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PolyGaze, welcome to the team.
February 21st, 2012 by meangeme
A huge congrats to PolyGaze for winning 1 of 4 prizes of $25,000, mentorship, incorporation and workspace at this term’s VeloCity Venture Fund! They gave a great pitch that included a jaw-dropping demo. Check it out:
We got to sit down with PolyGaze to hear all about their startup. They’ve created eye-tracking and voice recognition software that makes using a computer much easier (and way cooler).
Here’s what Vlad & Emad had to say:
We are excited to work with PolyGaze in the VeloCity Garage!
Tags: PolyGaze, VeloCity Venture Fund
Posted in News, Startups, Updates, VeloCity Startups, VeloCity Venture Fund
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Startup Questions Answered
February 17th, 2012 by meangeme
When starting a company, you are bound to have hundreds of questions, wondering if you’re doing it right or if you could be doing it better. Being a startup is hard, especially when you don’t have a mentor or a team with widespread business knowledge. And more often than not, you’ll feel like you have no one reliable to ask your most important startup questions to.
Luckily, Dan Martell, a Canadian entrepreneur and the co-founder of Flowtown, as well as a mentor at 500 Startups and GrowLab compiled a list of his best questions and answers on Sprouter. He gave a lot of great advice, ranging from startup mistakes to how to turn things around after failure.
Here’s what we took away from his insight, our favourite questions and answers:
5. What is the best advice you can give for finding a business partner? Especially if you need to quickly choose someone.
Don’t quickly choose any business partner. That’s like quickly choosing a wife. Instead, find someone and work with them for a month. Do something together .. figure out a project with a goal and end date and see how that goes. Date before you get married. Just like finding a girlfriend, go to where the all the hot girls are (the best club in the city). If you’re looking for business talent – go to the business meetups. If you’re looking for technical talent – go to the dev meetups.
13. How do I stay motivated?
Surround yourself with motivating people. Help others stay motivated. Read great books / especially business biographies. Talk to your customers. Exercise every day – even if it’s for 20 minutes .. walk, bike, run – anything but everyday.
15. What are 3 things that make a startup team successful?
- Crazy passion for the solution
- Ability to hire top talent (A+ talent)
- Persistence
The specific skillz don’t matter… you can hire for those.
18. What is your advice for dealing with criticism when starting/launching a new business or coming up with an idea? Should the idea or business be kept secret?
No, never keep it secret. The key is to ask the right people what they think – not your friends, parents or partner. The right people are potential customers – ask them if they have the problem. Don’t sell your solution, first validate that they feel the pain of the problem you’re solving. Once you’ve confirmed there is a pain, then discuss the way you think it could be solved and judge their reaction. #1 thing, don’t keep it a secret – tell the world.
34. How can we reward our top users without money and without appearing too big brotherish?
You can start by personally emailing them and saying thanks. Doing something public without their permission isn’t cool. I send DM’s, emails, all day thanking people.
37. What advice can you give us to avoid the fear of start our own company and not stay working for someone else?
I don’t know … you might not be entrepreneurs – and I would hate to tell you to quit your jobs, have you end up depressed in a hospital because you couldn’t handle it. That being said, if you really think you can handle it (failing) then quit your job tomorrow – there isn’t a right time. Today is that day.
ESPECIALLY if it’s just you (no family you’re supporting) – you have no excuse what so ever.
Trust me .. even if you fail, and have to get another job, you’ll have had a lot of fun, learned a bunch and be ready for the next one.
I “failed” at the first 2 companies I tried. I just didn’t stop 
49. What mistakes do you see companies make when trying to use Twitter?
They don’t think about the customers problem. You should find and share content (and engage with others who do the same) that talks about your customers problems.
Don’t talk about you and your company, talk about the problem. If I ran an airline, I wouldn’t talk about flights, I’d talk about vacations & travel.
58. What are the top 5 reasons entrepreneurs fail?
They give up
They don’t talk to their customers
They hire B players
They can’t sell
They get shitty advice
73. Whats the best startup advice you’ve ever received?
Wow. Just one piece of advice? Can’t pick just one. A few nuggets. 1) Hire A’s. A’s hire B’s, B’s hire C’s. So build a strong base. 2) Co-Founders are the largest form of dilution (if you’re raising) 3) Everything around LeanStartup / Customer Development 4) Understand the micro economics of your business early. Acquisition / Lifetime Value, etc. 5) Competition is good. 6) Always ask for money when you don’t need it. 7) If you don’t speak you won’t be heard. If you don’t write, you won’t be read. 
The bigger the “Why”, the easier the “How”. 9) Think big, HUGE! You won’t work anymore per se, and it’s just more fun. 10) Metrics. “What you measure, you manage).
Most of that advice come from others (Authors, Entrepreneurs, etc) .. google the originator, they aren’t my originals.
Hope that helps.
75. What questions should I be asking my customers to learn how I could increase my sales?
Ask them “What do you do 3 minutes before and after you use our product / service?” Then decide if you can build more value on either end of that process to demand a higher premium. The more value you add, the more you can charge.
82. What mistakes do you see people make when pitching their company?
The number one thing (for me) is they don’t start with the Why? Why are they solving this problem. Why do they care? Why are they passionate about it?
It blows my mind how often this happens.
If it’s true that most investors care about the person, then shouldn’t the founder quickly establish why they (the person) is solving this problem, and how I can relate.
Tell me the story.
Everyone loves a good story.
94. Whats the most common mistake you see entrepreneurs make?
Buy an office dog. (kidding) In reality, there’s a few things I see them do. – Don’t measure the amount of time they have left. (i.e. run out of time and/or money) – They don’t hire the best, it’s typically the easiest person. (friends / family). – Don’t have clarity. Specific / measurable goals. Those are the top 3 most common.
97. What are the top three most common rookie mistakes founders make when dealing with VC’s?
1) They don’t make the problem they’re solving the investors problem. Use relevant analogies and questions to accomplish this.
2) They can’t explain why their idea is a big idea
3) They have too many slides
116. What do you look for in companies you may invest in?
It’s never one thing – but here’s what I like to see. – Product, launched with users. – Thoughts on how they’ll make money. – Ability to clearly communicate. – Domain expertise
139. How can I find a good sales person?
Read the book the Ultimate Sales Machine, Chet Holmes goes through the steps and process. It’s what I’ve used to hire any sales person.
Dan gives some really great advice, the whole blog is worth reading – what startup question have you been dying to ask?
Tags: 500 startups, dan martell, flowtown, GrowLab, sprouter, startup questions
Posted in Startups
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So You’re A Startup: How to Pitch
February 16th, 2012 by meangeme
Today marks the first installment of our So You’re A Startup series! We will be posting a blog every week answering your most pressing questions and giving you some insight into how to startup and (hopefully) be successful. This week’s topic: how to pitch.
Pitching is an art – most of the time you’ll only have a few minutes to catch the attention of an investor, VC, or potential customer. It will seem like there are so many things you need to cover and if you don’t have a solid pitch planned, you’re bound to spit out a lot of things that you think are important but that may not make complete sense.
See what you can learn from this candid, super realistic conversation…
Mentor enters the meeting room wearing a plaid shirt and relatively nice shoes (startup uniform). He walks over to Pitcher, who is sitting at a desk, wearing an obviously unwashed t-shirt and flip flops (unfortunately also startup uniform). Mentor sits down, across from Pitcher.
Mentor: Hey Pitcher, how’s it going?
Pitcher: Good, I guess… (said with extreme lack of enthusiasm)
Mentor: What did you do this time?
Pitcher: You know the VeloCity Venture Fund finals?
Mentor: Of course I do, I’m your mentor.
Pitcher: Well we did our 3 minute pitch and it was a piece of crap. We lost.
Mentor: Man that sucks. Too bad your groundbreaking idea of Facebook for Cats isn’t going to get funded. (said with complete sincerity) What did you say?
Pitcher: Well we started off with how our -insert complicated web platform here- was revolutionary and how we combined HTML, javascript and -
Mentor: That was your first mistake.
Pitcher: What do you mean? Our technology is amazing and everyone needs to hear about it right away so that they’ll be super impressed with us.
Mentor: That would be great if anyone actually knew what you were talking about. You need to start your pitch with something gripping. Your audience has to relate to the problem you present in order for them to ever start caring about your solution. Tell your story, it’s usually the most interesting part of your startup. Did you talk to a cat about how it wanted to connect with other cats? Did your idea come from a dream you had about a vampire? If it’s interesting, tell your story!
Pitcher: Ok, that makes sense. When do I get to start actually talking about Whiskerbook ©?
Mentor: After your audience cares about your problem, they’re going to want to hear about your solution right away. How did you explain Whiskerbook?
Pitcher: I just said it was a web-based platform connecting cats with touch screen heat censoring technology.
Mentor: Did you every just say, “It’s Facebook for Cats”?
Pitcher: But it’s not just that, there’s so much more to -
Mentor: But no one understands what you mean. You need to explain your idea in a way that a 10-year-old could understand. If someone is trying to get a handle on what you’re startup actually does the entire time you’re pitching instead of actually listening to your pitch, you’re doing it wrong. What did you say about your market?
Pitcher: So… I said, there are a lot of cats in the world and they probably… maybe have owners with computers.
Mentor: (deeply sighs) You have to be passionate about your product and confident that your idea is going to work. Have a clearly defined market that’s interested and know everything about them. No one wants you to waste their time on something that both you and they do not care about.
Pitcher: Okay. I really do love Whiskerbook, I guess I have to start acting like it!
Mentor: Agreed. Now what did you say about yourself?
Pitcher: I’m supposed to talk about myself?
Mentor: Of course you need to talk about yourself! It’s great if you’re confident and act like you believe in your company, but if the investor/VC/audience doesn’t know who you are or why they should be listening to you, they won’t. Talk about your background and why you are the perfect person to get your solution off the ground.
Pitcher: Okay, cool.
Mentor: Did you mention how you make money?
Pitcher: …no.
Mentor: That’s one of the most important parts, especially if you’re asking for investment! If you’re not going to make money, no one is going to give you money. You need to tell investors about your potential users, your actual users, if you’re going to make people pay to use your service, why they’ll pay, and how you’ll use ads or whatever else you can think of if they won’t.
Pitcher: Anything else I should know?
Mentor: (looks Pitcher up and down) First of all, do some laundry. And just be enthusiastic and go for it, have fun with it! This is your product, your million dollar idea, and if you don’t act like you care, no one else will either. Having passion that is contagious is so important – it’s infectious and people will have a hard time ignoring your stalker love for your startup.
Pitcher: We probably should have had this conversation before the Venture Fund finals…
Mentor: Yeah… You can always apply to VVF again, it happens every term.
Pitcher: True, thanks man.
Mentor: I’m off to talk to Startup Guy about his intuitive toilet for birds, see you around!
Pitcher: Peace.
Mentor gets up from the table, thinking about how to innovate the avian excrement process. Pitcher ponders everything he now knows about pitching and also decides not to do laundry.
A huge thanks to @mikekirkup, @bashome and @mmcauley for their pitching protips!
Did we forget anything? Have some insight about pitching you want to add? Comment below!
Tags: How to pitch, So You're A Startup, startup advice
Posted in So You're A Startup, Startups
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BufferBox, welcome to the team.
February 15th, 2012 by meangeme
Congratulations go out to BufferBox for winning our VeloCity Venture Fund this term! Our panel of judges were extremely impressed with their pitch – Mike McCauley convinced them that he and his fantastic team – Aditya Bali, Jay Shah and Bradley Moggach – deserved to win the $25 000, mentorship and free workspace. The BufferBox team has already proven they have what it takes to go far in the startup world with the successful launch of their electronic kiosk in the Student Life Center at the University of Waterloo.
Here’s what Mike had to say about how BufferBox got started,
BufferBox has already moved into the VeloCity Garage and we love working with them every day!
Tags: BufferBox, Mike McCauley, University of Waterloo, VeloCity Venture Fund, Waterloo startups
Posted in Updates, VeloCity Startups, VeloCity Venture Fund
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Tech Entrepreneurship = Huge Opportunities, No More Working for “The Man”
February 13th, 2012 by meangeme
As technology advances in Canada, the most innovative and groundbreaking ideas are turning into realities. We’ve seen it first hand in our residence and workspace with the VeloCity Venture Fund. Products that were unimaginable 10 years ago are being created because of this new school of thought; it’s all about big ideas and risk taking. And this isn’t just happening here in Waterloo, people are beginning to recognize the importance of this new way of thinking all over Canada and beyond.
These incubators and accelerators are supporting a new generation of people who have the courage and skill to try to create something amazing. It’s no longer about settling for a desk job and working for “the man” day in and day out. It’s all about trying & doing something revolutionary that no one has done before. And, it primarily stems from solving an everyday problem that we can all at some point relate to. Not all startups become successful, but the lessons learned while starting these ventures are invaluable: independence, entrepreneurship, business development, financial management, the list goes on.
Working for the man in the end doesn’t look like the be all end all anymore, not for this generation with its own subset of culture & liberty. Startups are creating successful products & services that people want to use and they’re even receiving funding for it, what more can you ask for? The stakes are high but so are the rewards, it is quite an emotional ride.
One of the most exciting areas of entrepreneurship has definitely been what’s going on in the tech space. Entrepreneurs are thinking smart and they’re thinking big – consider Reebee. They’re taking flyers and putting them online – simple concept, right? But with this simple app, analytics about who is looking at what products can be created – making flyers actually useful for the hundreds of thousands of businesses that send them out. They are proposing a simple solution to an everyday problem, while eliminating environmental waste & print costs for a flyer with such a short life span.
Technology like this is going to change the world and it’s extremely exciting how much of it is coming out of Canada. VeloCity is proud to be in a space where there is so much room to innovate and learn.
These new-wave-thinking tech entrepreneurs are here to stay, could you be one of them? Feel free to share your insight and expertise, as this community is consistently evolving and changing.
Tags: accelerator, Canada, entrepreneurship, high-tech, incubator, reebee, Startups, VeloCity Venture Fund, vidyard
Posted in Updates, VeloCity Startups
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