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August 12th, 2008
Syntenic turns up a new face
in: Startups
No more. Their new site just launched, and with it a description of several cloud and managed hosting offerings. It’s great to see this kind of technical acumen in a Montreal company; the city is gradually evolving the kind of ecosystem that can support a thriving startup community. Disclaimer: Rednod and Bitcurrent run on Syntenic’s servers. They’re smart enough that I’d risk seeming partisan by writing about them.
Syntenic, long a quiet force behind many websites, has turned up the noise considerably with the launch of their new website and offerings. I’ve known the guys at Syntenic for some time, and they’re a smart bunch (two of the executives contribute to the Bitcurrent technology blog.) But they’ve been too busy running production sites and building cloud computing solutions to toot their own horn.
View CommentsAugust 4th, 2008
One month to Bitnorth
in: Startups
The interesting part now will be to work with each of the Short Bit presenters and figure out how to cram something interesting into ten lean minutes. Many of the sessions are around the theme of “The Other 99 Percent,” and we have some panels around that too. So if you’re one of them (you know who you are) expect me to start stalking you this week. Time to go order swag, now I know the attendee count. I suppose a T-Shirt is table stakes, but I’d love to find something more appealing/sustainable/durable. If you haven’t signed up and paid for Bitnorth yet, this is your last week to do so.
Bitnorth’s fast approaching. We’re probably going to hit 30 attendees, which is just about the size we wanted, and there’s a wide variety of topics being planned.
August 3rd, 2008
Memo from the past: Don’t fight city hall
in: Competition, Create, Startups
Sometimes, the benefits of a new product are so awesomely, amazingly, tremendously good that people are willing to change their behaviors. It’s not going to happen for you. Most of the time, people won’t work to try and understand a new approach. And no amount of education is going to change that. There’s a great example of this, and it’s not just a small company example. It happened to the word processing industry.
This is a fundamental challenge for entrepreneurs. We’re deep in the product, conjuring up reasons why it will win in order to attract investment and keep our employees motivated. But just because the rank and file is drinking the Kool-Aid doesn’t mean the rest of the world will.
July 29th, 2008
Startupdrinks in Montreal
in: Startups
If you’re in town this week, check out Startupdrinks at the Café des Éclusiers. Heri and the crew at Montrealtechwatch always throw a good bash, and they’re also promoting a Hacker Spaces initiative in the city. It’s great to see some tech entrepreneur buzz going on.
July 28th, 2008
Nailing that presentation: Have one idea
in: Communicate, Standing out
In conjunction with Bitcurrent, Syntenic, IDG, Flow Consulting and others, we’re helping to run a weekend-long conference in Montreal in September. It’s called Bitnorth. It’s an informal take on conferences, where the attendees are expected to provide much of the content. One of the ways they participate is by delivering Short Bits, 10-minute long presentations on a topic they care about. This year’s general theme is The Other 99 Percent, and we’re looking at how technology has changed non-technologists’ lives. Getting an idea across cleanly is always hard, and presenting is a challenge for many people. So for those folks presenting (and anyone else who cares abount communicating) I decided to try and summarize the process of creating and delivering a presentation. I’m constantly humbled by great presenters (and there are some links to noteworthy ones at the bottom of this entry.) It boils down to knowing what your point is, and getting it across memorably. Read more…
July 21st, 2008
The path less travelled by
in: Communicate, Create, Standing out, Startups
What can a bookstore teach Canadians about positioning their companies? Marketing is increasingly about attention, and less about product. Most competent people can build a competent product or service. But in today’s world of instant attention, it’s often more about how to succeed in the market than how to get the product right. I had lunch a couple of weeks ago with Robin Axon, formerly of VenturesWest (and candidate for the coolest cyborg name of a VC ever.) We were chatting, as often happens among Canadian entrepreneurs, about The Canadian Ailment. Despite tremendous competence in product design, we never seem to make it North of the Border in the same way the US does. Even US bookstores, apparently, know this instinctively. But more on that later; back to Robin. He had a pretty clear theory about what ails us, which I’ll paraphrase (badly) here: Canadians try to succeed with a product, but Americans succeed with a market strategy.