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Spring 2010 at a Glance
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Bloq Software and the Crowie
With the spring 2010 semester coming to a close, VeloCity is getting ready to say goodbye to our hardworking entrepreneurs. With the Bootcamp as well as our regular VeloCity program ending off Monday evening at our end of term project exhibition, it is time to recap all of the fun we have had this semester.
A big part of the VeloCity community is having the opportunity to learn and grow from mentors and fellow entrepreneurs who have been there, done that and this semester has been no different. VeloCity students have had the pleasure of listening to mentors such as:
- Ali Azaria, CEO Well.ca
- Mike McDerment, CEO Freshbooks
- Ron Neumann, CEO Dejero
- Kevin Hood, President Market Access Corporation
- Brandon Nussey, CFO Desire2Learn
- Tim Jackson, CEO Accelerator Centre
- Carol Leaman, CEO PostRank
- John Baker, CEO Desire2Learn
- Jim Estill, CEO at Large
- Marc Castel, Regional Commercialization Director Ontario Centres of Excellence
Besides our regular speaker sessions held every Monday at the Accelerator Centre, VeloCity has also attended a regular lineup of conferences, which have proven to be instrumental in helping to spur entrepreneurship and innovation in and around the Waterloo community. VeloCity’s commitment in helping to build a strong sense of entrepreneurship in the students of today, leaders of tomorrow, is evident in our participation in the following conferences: Canada 3.0, OCE Discovery, G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit, and the Communitech Tech Leadership Conference.
This semester has also brought about a sense of entrepreneurship with the beginning of our Bootcamp program where VeloCity, partnered with the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Communitech and the Accelerator Centre, were able to give focus to the visions of three groups of entrepreneurs. If you have been keeping up with our blogs on the velocity homepage then you know all about: Bloq Software, Aetas Solutions and GroupVestor. These students have come a very long way since their journey at VeloCity began, making headline news in such places as: The Financial Post and the Montreal Gazette, UW’s very own Daily Bulletin and CTV news. For a look at the journey these 8 students have had over the past three months, check out the most recent updates for: Bloq Software, Aetas Solutions and GroupVestor.
Monday evening marked the end of our spring 2010 semester with the students of VeloCity presenting their projects and celebrating a great term here at VeloCity, closing off with a BBQ. The evening was a great success with approximately 100 attendees packed into the Accelerator Centre. The projects we have seen this semester have been innovative and highly geared towards the student market- students helping students. This night helped to provide our student entrepreneurs with confirmation, guidance and a sense of gratification of a job well done this semester.
VeloCity, along with our Bootcamp students attended DemoCamp Guelph this past Wednesday evening. The crowd was tough but Bootcamp team, Bloq Software, walked away with the ultimate DemoCamp Guelph prize that night- a broken Guitar Hero guitar named: The Crowie. This was a huge success for Mark, Avi and David who have now brought the Crowie home to VeloCity for the first time ever. If you are interested in attending or presenting at the next DemoCamp Guelph or DemoCamp Waterloo, be sure to stay tuned for the dates of these two events!
Overall, this semester has been a huge success and one unlike any other! In looking to the future and in preparation for our fall 2010 semester, we are currently looking for mentors in the Waterloo community who can speak to any of the following topics:
The program:
If you are interested in speaking to one of these topics please email VeloCity at: velocity@uwaterloo.ca to sign up! 
Thank you,
The VeloCity team
Posted in Bootcamp, News, Updates | No Comments »
Here’s Looking at You VEB: GroupVestor Update
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Here is what VeloCity Bootcamp team, GroupVestor have been up to over the past couple of months:
A lot has happened since our last update. We have been able to tweak our business model, sign a customer, and launch a product. We have taken a route that sees us helping small businesses raise capital for expansion. Recent economic reports from the ECB and stats Canada show that there is a definite growing need in this sector, and we are very excited to be part of the change.
We were able to sign a local business names “Mel’s Diner” as a launch partner. The diner was an icon in the community, and was tragically destroyed in a fire in April of this year. We are happy to be helping the diner raise funds for expansion. In return for funds, community members are being offered the opportunity to have their message engraved in a tile, that will be placed in the diner when it re-opens.
The campaign has been going great. We have received a lot of support from the community as well as the media. We were recently featured on CTV news. We are well on our way of raising 10,000$, and encourage everyone to visit www.groupvestor.com and check us out.
As a whole, the BootCamp program has been great. We have been given opportunities and built relationships through this program that would have taken years otherwise. We have learned from the best, and are confident we can keep up our pace and grow the business.
Moe Adham,
GroupVestor Inc.
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Here’s Looking at You VEB: Bloq Software Update
Friday, July 16th, 2010
Here’s what VeloCity Bootcamp team, Bloq Software has been up to this past month:
It’s been a while since the last update, and boy has it been a whirlwind of a ride.
Thanks to VEB, we’ve had the chance to network and demo at the Young Entrepreneur’s G20 Summit and Startup Camp Waterloo, making some great connections and getting a lot of feedback and advice.
With our apps, recently we bit the bullet and found ourselves a graphic artist. We call the result “King’s Cup HD: Party Edition”, which is now in the App Store. Our framework is going strong, too. In a recent stress-test, we developed and submitted “Ride the Bus” — all in a day. But the thing we’re most excited about these days is our poker app, “Poker Table: Texas Hold’em”.
Our goal was to get rid of the mess without compromising how many people can play. Our app lets up to six players in on the game. Actions on the iPad mimic real life: players hide and peek at their cards, and can push their chips in or throw away their cards. They can even connect their iPhone or iPod Touch to act as their hand.
The game is progressing really well, and we’re excited to see what people think of it. We’re heading into a closed beta, so if you have an iPad and would like to give our app a try, follow us on Twitter (@bloqsoftware) and get ready for the call!
Mark Ally,
Bloq Software
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Jim Estill talks Entrepreneurship
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
This past Monday VeloCity Bootcamp ended off its spring program with Jim Estill, CEO at Large, speaking about the habits that will gear every entrepreneur down the road to success.
While quoting Aristotle: “We are the product of what we repeatedly do”, Jim highlighted 8 key habits that every entrepreneur should live their lives by:
Habit Number 1: Discipline is a limited resource, know it is all about habits and understand that habits make it easy.
Habit Number 2- Fail often, fail fast, fail cheap.
Habit Number 3- Know yourself and use your unique strengths.
Habit Number 4- Set a pace that you can maintain forever. After all, life and business are like a marathon.
Habit Number 5- Be frugal.
Habit Number 6- Nurture a network and stay in touch.
Habit Number 7- Engage in lifelong learning- the adaptable survive, not the strong.
Habit Number 8- Learn strong time management habits.
An excellent activity to help guide you along a path that truly reflects your interests, passions and goals for the future, Jim suggests writing a list of answers to the following questions:
“If you spend your life polishing your weaknesses you will die with a lot of strong weaknesses” Jim Estill
VeloCity would like to end off this series of Bootcamp program summaries by thanking all of our speakers, mentors and partners such as: Communitech, the Accelerator Centre and the Ontario Centres of Excellence, who all helped to make this program such a huge success! We will be hosting a farewell BBQ next Monday July 19th at the Accelerator Centre from 4-8pm- be sure to come and check out what the Bootcamp as well as VeloCity students have been working on this summer!
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Start-up Stories with Ali Asaria and John Baker
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
The Spring 2010 Bootcamp program is fast approaching its final farewell. This past Monday students had the opportunity to listen to the stories of Ali Asaria, CEO Well.ca and John Baker, CEO Desire2Learn. The information and experiences shared by these two Waterloo graduates was invaluable and very much appreciated by all of the young entrepreneurs who had the opportunity to learn from their stories.
Ali started off the session with his experiences and lessons learned from building Canada’s first online pharmacy, Well.ca. Ali posed questions that every young entrepreneur should think about when looking to build a successful business:
- How do you get people to listen before you have any traction?
- What kind of culture do you need to build to succeed at a 2 person, 20 person, 200 person company?
- What is your long term vision and how do you build it?
The answers to these questions will help guide you along the path of building and maintaining a successful business that lives and breathes a strong corporate culture. Ali is motivated by people and is working hard to build a 2000 person company that shares the same kind of culture, friendship and unity that a small 20 person company holds.
Investors care about culture, so be sure to find what your company stands for and help spread that message throughout your partnership, start-up or organization!
John Baker then went on to talk about the trials and lessons learned thus far while building his company, Desire2Learn. John spoke about his desire to tackle big problems while transforming the learning and teaching experience for students and teachers around the world. John has built his business on the platform of meeting the various needs and desires of students:
- Meeting unrecognized needs
- Meeting learner desires through personalizations
- Meeting standards, competencies and expectations
The Bootcamp session finale is taking place next week with more “Start-up Stories” from Jim Estill, CEO at Large and Mate Prgin, President and CEO Avvasi. The following Monday July 19th we will be hosting a fond farewell to our Bootcamp teams, as well as a project exhibition of our current VeloCity student projects held at the Accelerator Centre. This event is open to all UW students and will run from 4-8 pm. Food and drinks will be provided so be sure to come check out what has been happening this term in VeloCity!
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