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

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

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

I spend a lot of time talking to (many awesome) startups in Ottawa, and occasionally commenting on programs that are offered to entrepreneurs.  Some say that I’m too critical of programs that try to help startups – because every little bit helps.  Right? I don’t think so. In fact, I think many programs distract would-be Continue Reading

When I talk to startup founders, I often subconsciously put them on a spectrum that ranges from what I call Missionary to Mercenary. On the one end there’s the missionaries who will not rest until their idea has been adopted by the whole world. Their startup is a labor of love and their passion comes Continue Reading

I’m excited to announce our most recent team member to the Mercury Grove team, Guido Giordano. Guido has a sharp analytical mind, a passion for startups, and international experience and viewpoint that is a huge asset to all startups in Ottawa. Guido is a young and passionate entrepreneur who just arrived in Canada from Italy. Continue Reading

I don’t watch tv.  The only “shows” I watch are hockey and Sponge Bob Square Pants.  So while everyone else in the world has already seen the Budweiser hockey commercial, I just saw it for the first time last night, and, like most things in my life, I immediately drew a parallel with startups. The Continue Reading

*Disclaimer: Advertising is a tricky game, there are a lot of moving parts, so to keep this post applicable to the majority I’ve included some qualitative review of each advertising medium as well as quantitative stuff like cost and weighted averages based on cost per thousand impressions. Guidelines The Three Prongs of Advertising There are Continue Reading

As many people in Ottawa know, Mercury Grove has been a huge supporter of local startups ever since we moved our “headquarters” here 5 years ago.  Over the last five years we’ve opened our office to local entrepreneurs to hang out for free, hosted several DemoCamps, launched StartupDrinks in Ottawa, contributed and helped found the Continue Reading