The Canada 3.0 conference wrapped up last week in Toronto with the announcement of the four winners of its inaugural CDMN Moonshot awards. The winners are:
One year ago, EidoSearch co-founders Xiao-Ping (Steven) Zhang and David Kedmey took to the stage after being named the first-place winners in the inaugural
Backbone innovation campaign. [Image: Winner John Myers, president of Edsby, with Steve Dietrich,
Backbone's publisher.]
The judges of the second-annual
Backbone Innovation Campaign have spoken. Below are the 10 most-promising tech start-ups in Canada.
EidoSearch, the
winner of last year’s
Start Me Up Innovation Campaign, now has another milestone under its belt with the launch of a new product built out of its flagship financial data search engine technology.
Smartphone and camera makers all talk about how fast and easy it is to record amazing HD videos using their devices. With just a small device—that happens to be your phone as well— you can shoot a video that will amaze the world and make you a viral sensation on YouTube. Or maybe not.
Applications are flowing in from Canadian tech entrepreneurs for the second-annual
Backbone Innovation Campaign, and judges are gearing up for the tough job of narrowing the strong field down to a 10-best list and then, at our live event May 6, choosing one winner and one runner up.
Canada’s federal government recently announced a
Start-Up Visa Program aimed at attracting international entrepreneurs to the country.
To support its goal of expanding into the U.S. legal market, innovation contest runner-up TitanFile has naturally targeted top industry trade shows to attend in 2013. The first of these—LegalTech New York 2013—provided the start-up with “extraordinary” success, and also a number of lessons, according to Emily Barnes, community manager at TitanFile.
Do you run an early-stage tech company with less than $2 million in annual revenue? The second annual Backbone Start-Up Innovation Campaign - $100,000 in prizes - is a great contest for you to enter. Or if you know someone who could be our next winner, please pass the word along.
EidoSearch, winner of last year’s
innovation campaign hosted by Backbone magazine, received news earlier this month that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office allowed the pending claims in one of its patent applications.
The most critical issue for entrepreneurs is choosing the right people to work with.
Lesson #1 - Reduce your personal expenses - Get them down as much as possible. No new car, bigger house or fancy vacation.
Early customers are not just a source of revenue for start-ups, but help hone the company’s development efforts through their feedback and iterative product development.
The past weeks have brought success to Alpha Exchange Innovation Campaign award winner EidoSearch thanks directly to its
recent focus on agile development
1) How did you get involved with iNovia? Through relationships mainly. I have never looked for a "job" in my life. I truly believe that if you are passionate and driven about something, opportunities will arise.
There’s no question that start-ups need a long-term vision to succeed but, as recent efforts at EidoSearch prove, there is also a time to roll-up sleeves and focus on the short-term.
Canada has no shortage of brilliant minds and great ideas, but our innovators sometimes lack the gung-ho capitalist attitude seen south of the border.
Online portal 1DegreeBio connects 85,000 scientists worldwide. Working in a large biotechnology lab, Alex Hodgson noticed a strange duplication of cost and effort. Researchers were purchasing multiple versions of the same antibodies for their studies, because relying on a single source they could never be sure of adequate quality. “And you can’t do great research with crap antibodies,” says Hodgson.
Finding funds to maintain growth is almost always a challenge for start-ups, and that’s the case for EidoSearch, winner of the Alpha Exchange Innovation Campaign. The company works with traditional investors and luckily has been able to tap into public sector grants to help it along.
Congratulations to
Clifton van der Linden of
VoteCompass, a finalist in the Alpha Exchange Innovation Campaign 2012 hosted by
Backbone magazine, who has recently been named a 2012-13 Action Canada Fellow!
TitanFile—the runner up in the Alpha Exchange Innovation Campaign hosted by Backbone this spring—has completed a successful round of financing which it will use to advance its technology and spread to U.S. markets.
Sometimes there's a thin line between a start-up and a slip-up. Andrew Maxwell, PhD., knows this well, since he has helped many aspiring entrepreneurs get past that line without tripping.
There’s little question that recruitment can be a significant challenge and that hiring the right employees can have a huge impact on a small, growing company. Every hire made by any comes with an amount of risk, but for start-ups the risk and reward is much greater.
Creating a thriving business is about more than strategy and finances, business plans and spreadsheets. In most cases, success depends on a blend of hard and soft skills: a mix of solid business savvy with good interpersonal relations. Good corporate culture is difficult to simply implement, but is regularly one of the defining characteristics of what sets apart the best and most profitable ventures from the rest. Particularly for start-ups, establishing a positive workplace culture is essential. Happy, valued employees can often do more for the bottom line than all the business school lectures combined.
It’s been a busy two weeks for EidoSearch since completing its participation in the annual FinTech Innovation Lab, especially since the company has begun raising a new round of funding.
