What are your options? There are a few things you can do as a University graduate looking to break into the Ottawa tech startup scene. Start your own Business: High risk, freedom to work for yourself, limited in job mentoring, limited financial resources. Join an early stage startup (pre-revenue): Limited to no risk, Own your work, learn Continue Reading
ArchivesCategory: Entrepreneurship
07NovStartup giants that make starting a company possible
Sometimes we’re so caught up in our own startup that we forget that 90% of what most startup entrepreneurs do to build, market, promote, sell, and support their companies wasn’t possible 10 years ago. Today we launched a site to help you say thanks to a handful of them for their contributions to the startup Continue Reading
13SepChief Sumo Noah Kagan is coming to Ottawa… Here’s why you should meet him
Chief Sumo Noah Kagan is going to be in Ottawa next week for an AppSumo meetup and you should attend. We’ve been working with Noah and his team at AppSumo over the last year co-promoting the great plays from StartupPlays.com and the relationship has been fantastic. AppSumo has built an amazing and engaged user list Continue Reading
06SepAccel.io: The Kindle + AppStore for Step-by-Step Guides
Today we launch an ambitious new project that is the culmination of what we’ve learned running startupplays.com, building webcollaboration.com, and launching the Mercury Grove accelerator. It’s called Accel.io and its like a kindle + appstore for step-by-step guides. Why we built it Having run several startups and mentoring, advising, and hanging out with many more, Continue Reading
24AugWebCollaboration shuts down. RIP.
Today we shutdown our oldest product, WebCollaboration.com, after 6 years (!) of operation. It survived several business model iterations (corporate, free, freemium), a corporate restructuring, and many partners, employees, and friends who helped it along. It was the first “web app” I ever built outside of a corporate client, and represents one of my deep-rooted Continue Reading
23AugWhy Flow is the New Hustle
We work with A LOT of entrepreneurs at MercuryGrove. I have the privilege of doing a monthly brain drain with the very smart people in all of the MercuryGrove accelerated startups: HealthWave, Openera, Vegancuts and of course the team on StartupPlays. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how laser focused they are when Continue Reading
24JulYour product is irrelevant, pitch VCs a model
Pitching a VC? Here’s some advice: Pitch your business model. Your idea, your product, and your team is the supporting cast. A VC has a bank account of cash. Their job is to find the best return for their investment. They can leave it in the bank, invest in GICs, or bonds and get a Continue Reading
22JunOttawa Startup Accelerator
I’m excited and humbled to announce the re-launch of Mercury Grove as an ambitious, community-led project to grow startups in Ottawa, Canada. Over the last 6 years I have been an active, and sometimes vocal advocate for the Ottawa startup community. Through this community I have launched three products, built a world-class team, witnessed the Continue Reading
01JunKnow when you’re stepping over the line.
Every startup should know about “the line” – its the threshold where you’ve “gone too far” – like kissing a girl in high school, or taking a joke too far. You don’t want to “cross the line” (ethically, brand-wise, etc…) as a startup, but not enough startups push hard enough. In the early stages, you Continue Reading
30AprHow we Bootstrapped Early Revenue for our Startup
This post covers some of the success we’ve had with one of our project’s called StartupPlays. If you have more questions on the iterative learning we went though, or are looking for more details, feel free to ask. In November of 2011 we launched the website http://startuplays.com, a wordpress splash page with the promise of Continue Reading
