by Mark Elliott
This past weekend I was up in my hometown of Elmvale for Thanksgiving and the annual Fall Fair. Elmvale is a small town of just under 2,000 people and has a real sense of community. This got me thinking about the startup tech community through-out Ontario. I don’t think it has ever been a better time to be a startup in terms of the community and support that is available from a number of sources. This will be a 2 part blog featuring the Grass Roots support and Government funded support. Here are the some of the Grassroots options that are available. I don’t think that one is better than the other, seeing as they provide different things to the community.
Democamp
The Democamp formula is fairly consistent, featuring a guest speaker with startup experience, a number of startups presenting their solution, the crowd asking questions, and lots of networking. In Ontario there are regular Demopcamps in Windsor, Guelph, Toronto, Ottawa, and Hamilton. The grandfather of Democamp and Toronto Organizer David Crow spoke recently at the Democamp Hamilton. His talk was about community and supporting growing companies. This event was promoted by the Innovation Factory, a new government funded hub based in Hamilton; Innovation Factory had several of the team members out as well. The event took place at McMaster, showing a level of commitment from the school and bringing out some students. Kevin Browne and Jim Rudnick are organizers and involved with many of the startup events in Hamilton.
I also wanted to highlight Democamp Guelph and one of it’s organizers Brydon Gilliss. I really enjoy the event as it reminds me of the earlier Democamp Toronto events. Democamp Guelph gets between 100 and 200 people and takes place in a bar. It is a lively affair with many local more established tech companies sponsoring and often looking for employees at the event.
Democamps are great for startups to demo their solution and get feedback. It is also an excellent opportunity to network and meet other startups.
Startup Drinks
Startup Drinks occur in many communities across Ontario. Be warned not all the chapters update their events on the site. The best way to get updates on the events is to follow one of the organizers on Twitter. Hamilton will be having their 1st event tonight, the Waterloo team is fairly consistent, and the Toronto Group goes the last Wednesday of the Month. I have been to the Toronto event many times and really enjoy it. There is a good mix of companies just starting up, established tech companies, service providers, investors, people with an idea for a company, and a few people that are looking to join a startup. One of the people I met a few months ago was Heather Payne. She was interested in joining a startup from a more established job and was able to join a company and had her tips on how she did so in the Globe and Mail.
Regional organizations
The VA Partners team have attended and been involved with a couple other Grassroots organizations that are more regionally based. the Golden Horseshoe Venture Forum has been around for over 10 years and connects startups, professional service organizations, and investors. They have events 5 times a year.
Another great regional Grassroots organization is Silicon Halton. They organize monthly events with featured speakers and networking. They have also branched out to provide some really interesting Peer2Peer groups including one for solo entreprenuers. If you are in the Halton region and have a startup I would connect with Silicon Halton and its two main organizers Rick Stomphorst and Chris Herbert.
Even more events
There are many other startup focused events that are available in major Ontario centres including ecommerce camp, Cloudcamp, Lean Coffee Toronto, and many more.
If you are a startup or thinking about creating one I recommend you go to one of the events. They are a great source of support, information, and connections. We try to highlight some of the upcoming events on our blog at the beginning of each month you can also check out the Techvibes events and the events at Startup North.
On Tuesday I will feature some of the Government supported initiatives that can help startups.