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Inspired by iStockphoto
University of Calgary Computing Science alumni and students joined with STIRR Canada members on January 21st to exchange start-up stories, advice, and ideas at the most recent TechMixer. Calgary-based iStockphoto’s global success in the microstock photography industry was the topic of the evening. Kelly Thompson (iStockphoto COO) and Patrick Lor (iStockphoto founding team) shared stories [...]
Kelly Thompson, iStockphoto's COO
University of Calgary Computing Science alumni and students joined with STIRR Canada members on January 21st to exchange start-up stories, advice, and ideas at the most recent TechMixer. Calgary-based iStockphoto’s global success in the microstock photography industry was the topic of the evening.
Kelly Thompson (iStockphoto COO) and Patrick Lor (iStockphoto founding team) shared stories about their early years as entrepreneurs, highlighted the company’s peaks and valleys, and fielded questions from the audience of aspiring tech entrepreneurs.
Thanks to Macleod Dixon for their continued sponsorship of Calgary’s tech entrepreneur community!
Brad Sewall welcomes the audience
Adrian Zissos, (left), Merak Projects co-founder
Masterminding the Amazon Exit
As promised, some more details on the upcoming STIRR Canada Tech Mixer in Calgary: How Canada’s AbeBooks engineered its multi-million dollar sale Boris Wertz, CEO at Nexopia & Director at Abebooks (photo courtesy of Kris Krug, via a Creative Commons Licence) On Oct 15th, headliner Boris Wertz, CEO of Edmonton’s Nexopia, will be in Calgary [...]
As promised, some more details on the upcoming STIRR Canada Tech Mixer in Calgary:
How Canada’s AbeBooks engineered its multi-million dollar sale
- Boris Wertz, CEO at Nexopia & Director at Abebooks (photo courtesy of Kris Krug, via a Creative Commons Licence)
On Oct 15th, headliner Boris Wertz, CEO of Edmonton’s Nexopia, will be in Calgary at a STIRR Canada Tech Mixer event to share insights on how his previous venture, AbeBooks, won the attention of Amazon and was recently acquired.
Attendees to this invitation-only event will also be first to hear 60-second elevator pitches from a select group of local “under the radar” tech founders. Get ready to mingle with a great group of seasoned and emerging tech industry players!
YOU MUST BE A MEMBER OF STIRR CANADA TO ATTEND.
Our membership is limited to high-tech startup founders, founding teams, former founders, angel and VC funders, and technology journalists. Please click on the “APPLY” tab above to complete our application form.
General Information: Info [at] stirr.ca
Press Contact: Media [at] stirr.ca
Sponsors: Sponsors [at] stirr.ca
Tech Talks Visibility – Event Wrap-up
We were back at the Tribune Restaurant in Calgary for the August Founders’ Table dinner. Founders and/or funders participating in this STIRR Canada event represented the following organizations: Wireless Dynamics dTech CoolIT Systems x-Tech DirectVoxx VoodooPC Octane Capital iNovia Capital Much talk was around marketing, PR, getting visibility, and tech product management. The importance of [...]
We were back at the Tribune Restaurant in Calgary for the August Founders’ Table dinner. Founders and/or funders participating in this STIRR Canada event represented the following organizations:
Wireless Dynamics
dTech
CoolIT Systems
x-Tech
DirectVoxx
VoodooPC
Octane Capital
iNovia Capital
Much talk was around marketing, PR, getting visibility, and tech product management. The importance of a brand strategy that is implemented with consistency was discussed as an important component of getting noticed. The dinner conversation then turned to the ups and downs of selling into big, multi-national companies (many stories were told!), as well as the differences in marketing enterprise technology vs. consumer devices. Before the evening ended, the topic of “building businesses with an exit strategy in mind” was tabled.
August STIRR Canada Founders’ Table
Invites have gone out for the next Calgary Founders’ Table. This invitation-only dinner for tech-driven entrepreneurs will kick off the conversation with a window on the challenges and opportunities facing hardware-oriented tech startups. HOW TO JOIN: If you’re the founder or funder of a tech startup, and you’re interested in joining STIRR Canada, please click [...]
Invites have gone out for the next Calgary Founders’ Table. This invitation-only dinner for tech-driven entrepreneurs will kick off the conversation with a window on the challenges and opportunities facing hardware-oriented tech startups.
HOW TO JOIN: If you’re the founder or funder of a tech startup, and you’re interested in joining STIRR Canada, please click on the Apply tab (above) and complete our Application Form … tell us more about you and your company.
HOW TO SPONSOR: If you’re interested in sponsoring a STIRR Canada event, please click on the Sponsor tab (above) to find out more.
WHAT’S ON FOR FALL?: Invites will go out in September for our big fall Calgary Tech-Mixer event – get ready for some great Hacks, special guests, and networking opportunities!
Values or Value First?
Here’s a wrap-up of the STIRR Canada Founders’ Table dinner held at the Wildwood Grill on Tuesday August 29th in Calgary. The theme was Technology Marketing and the discussion was animated as attendees discussed a broad range of topics including: choosing a business partner (look at the culture/values first or the numbers/value first?); internal blogging [...]
Here’s a wrap-up of the STIRR Canada Founders’ Table dinner held at the Wildwood Grill on Tuesday August 29th in Calgary.
The theme was Technology Marketing and the discussion was animated as attendees discussed a broad range of topics including: choosing a business partner (look at the culture/values first or the numbers/value first?); internal blogging strategies (education, keywords, etc.); SEO (conversion vs. clicks); varying business views of the role of marketing in Calgary (commodities trading, t-shirts, strategic role); finding customer champions (internal influence, heroes, etc.); vibrant communities (taking the good with the bad); and ideas for growing technology marketing know-how and expertise in Calgary.
Representatives of the following companies were at the table: Divestco, Curve Dental, Intuit, Evoco, Tynt, iStockphoto, RenoWorks, Shopster, Cambrian House, Uncommon Innovation, and Mob4Hire.
Feedback from the evening:
“Great contacts, folks I’d been meaning to connect with for some time, interesting discussion.”
“I really enjoyed the event and thought it was useful to get together with fellow technology marketers and talk about functional and current business issues.”
“Thanks very much for organizing the dinner last night – it was one of the best industry events I have been to.”
Clockwise from upper left: Stephen King (Curve Dental), Christine Dougan (Intuit), Peter Koizumi (Shopster), Shekhar Parmar (STIRR Canada), Doug Vickerson (RenoWorks), Carey Houston (Evoco), Yvonne Beyer (iStockphoto), Claudia Moore (STIRR Canada).
Calgary’s Tech Marketers to Meet
A stellar group of Calgary’s tech marketing gurus and mavens will be attending the 3rd STIRR Canada Founders’ Table, to be held on the evening of Tuesday July 29th. Tech marketing expertise is identified as a startup must-have by entrepreneurs, and this dinner will be an opportunity for those Calgary entrepreneurial marketers working in the [...]
A stellar group of Calgary’s tech marketing gurus and mavens will be attending the 3rd STIRR Canada Founders’ Table, to be held on the evening of Tuesday July 29th. Tech marketing expertise is identified as a startup must-have by entrepreneurs, and this dinner will be an opportunity for those Calgary entrepreneurial marketers working in the tech space to connect, share ideas, and discuss current issues.
Finding Great Talent: Event Wrap-up
“The challenge in finding and retaining great sales and marketing talent” was one of the hot discussion topics at the STIRR Canada Founders’ Table held on July 3rd, at the Tribune Restaurant in Calgary. A group of 10 emerging and established tech startup founders and funders were invited to the dinner, hosted by STIRR Canada’s [...]
“The challenge in finding and retaining great sales and marketing talent” was one of the hot discussion topics at the STIRR Canada Founders’ Table held on July 3rd, at the Tribune Restaurant in Calgary.
A group of 10 emerging and established tech startup founders and funders were invited to the dinner, hosted by STIRR Canada’s Patrick Lor and Claudia Moore. Among the companies represented were Acceleware, Calgary Scientific, VoodooPC (HP), Userful, and Evoco, as well as the evening’s sponsor Macleod Dixon.
Discussions covered a range of other topics including: best practices in working with international partners and resellers, startup culture, the ins and outs of tax credits and government funding, when to outsource, and more … talk continued on past dessert.
Some of the attendee feedback included:
- “It’s nice to have exposure to raw entrepreneurial spirit/DNA …”
- “I lost track of the time owing to the terrific conversation.”
- “I appreciated the small format discussion – and the ability to ask questions and share experiences.”
- “It was interesting hearing about the common issues all our companies suffer …”
More Founders’ Tables are planned for this summer, with a larger Tech Mixer planned for the fall. Stay tuned for dates, locations and times.
July Founders’ Table (Calgary)
A Founder’s Table dinner is planned for Thursday July 3rd, 5 pm in Calgary [revised date] Following the success of our kick-off May 2008 STIRR Canada event (which hosted 50 Alberta-based guests) this July 2008 invitation-only dinner will return to the classic STIRR single-table gathering comprised of 10-12 founders of tech-driven companies. FOR MORE DETAILS, [...]
A Founder’s Table dinner is planned for Thursday July 3rd, 5 pm in Calgary [revised date]
Following the success of our kick-off May 2008 STIRR Canada event (which hosted 50 Alberta-based guests) this July 2008 invitation-only dinner will return to the classic STIRR single-table gathering comprised of 10-12 founders of tech-driven companies.
FOR MORE DETAILS, please email: Info{at}stirr{dot}ca
If you’re not already a member of STIRR Canada, please complete the APPLICATION FORM.
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A range of Calgary-based events are planned for the coming year:
- A Founder’s Table will be held each month.
- Pitch Labs are planned for August, October, December, January, and February.
- Popular Tech Mixer main events will be held in September and February.
- STIRR Canada will also hold on-campus events for Calgary students this fall, as well as participating in various BarCamp and DemoCamp activities.
BarCamp Calgary breaks for lunch (left) and Nexopia Founder Timo Ewalds (right) chats with BarCamp attendees.
West Coast F&F event
If you’ll be in the Vancouver area in mid June, there’s a tech entrepreneur community event of interest. Following successful Founders & Funders events in Toronto and Montreal, Vancouver is primed to host the first West Coast Founders & Funders event in Vancouver on June 17th. Vancouver’s Boris Mann (right) from Bootup Labs has been [...]
If you’ll be in the Vancouver area in mid June, there’s a tech entrepreneur community event of interest. Following successful Founders & Funders events in Toronto and Montreal, Vancouver is primed to host the first West Coast Founders & Funders event in Vancouver on June 17th.
Vancouver’s Boris Mann (right) from Bootup Labs has been working with David Crow, Jevon MacDonald and
Austin Hill to get this first West Coast event ramped up. After the June F&F dinner, their next Western Canada event will likely be in October. Stay tuned.
In addition to organizing Vancouver DemoCamp and BarCamp events with the local tech community, Boris also collaborates with Maura Rodgers at Strutta on Vancouver LaunchParty socials. Lots happening on the West Coast to link up the tech community!
Hear all about it!
Kudos to STIRR Canada alumni James Hildebrandt of Psyko Audio Labs Inc. who attended the inaugural STIRR Canada event in May. James appears on the cover of the June 2008 issue of Calgary Inc. Magazine, sporting his innovative surround-sound headphones, targeted at the gaming market. From the Calgary Inc. Magazine article: “Testing the headphones put [...]
Kudos to STIRR Canada alumni James Hildebrandt of Psyko Audio Labs Inc. who attended the inaugural STIRR Canada event in May. James appears on the cover of the June 2008 issue of Calgary Inc. Magazine, sporting his innovative surround-sound headphones, targeted at the gaming market.
From the Calgary Inc. Magazine article:
“Testing the headphones put a wide grin on one avid gamer. “You won’t believe what just happened. I heard this sound,” he exclaimed to friends, ignoring an anxious Hildebrandt . Snapping his fingers [the gamer] added, “And I got him in one shot .” [...] “The hair on the back of my neck went up,” says Hildebrandt.” “And I thought, ‘Now I have something. There is something here to this.’”
The article also profiles other Calgary-based innovative companies in a “celebration of the city’s five latest and greatest bright ideas.”
