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Startup Camp Montréal Brings Together “The Suits and T-Shirts”

May 28, 2009

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By Ane Howard, Editor-in-Chief

MONTREAL (RPRN) 5/28/2009--Startup Camp Montréal, whose tagline is Ready, Set, Pitch, held its fourth edition at the Société des Arts Technologiques on May 7. Its success with its over 400 attendees attests to the entrepreneurial spirit that lives in North America, even in this downturn economy. Entrepreneurs and Investors came to hear keynote speakers and companies from as far away as Silicon Valley, Boston, Toronto and Montreal generously shared their stories.

As with its three previous events, Startup Camp Montreal attracted an ever growing crowd of savvy and enthusiastic entrepreneurs and investors who came together for a “transfer of knowledge between successfully funded startups and novices,” said Philippe Telio, President of Embrase and event organizer. The event had five presenting companies, exchanging tales of dos and don’ts followed with a Q&A from the audience.

“The mission of these start-ups camp is the pitch,” Telio told RushPRNews, furthermore adding, “the essence of being able to communicate what your business is about— whether to investors and, or customers is crucial to success.”

Twitter, with its phenomenal 752 Percent Growth in 2008, was on many minds, as proven by presenters and group discussions. As expected, major concerns for startups were financing during a downturn economy, and finding the right resources. Nevertheless, as Tom Permatteo from Izzitgreen.com told this reporter, "there's never been a better time to launch your own business, especially one that responds to the consumers' desire to buy green."

The companies present were diverse and at varied stages of funding. Of interest to all avid twitters, Twtapps (twtapps.com), launched by Felipe Coimbra, an entrepreneur originally from Brazil who currently lives in Montréal, is a self-funded company that develops, according to their website “fun and useful free apps to enhance the ever-so-successful Twitter experience,” and accepts PayPal donations.

Evan Prodromou, who was a guest speaker, presented the “pitches” of his companies Identi.ca and Control Yourself and their open source microblogging. During his presentation, he reiterated “we are not twitter, and that’s okay.” As differentiators from Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Plurk and others, Prodromou’s companies use the freeware tool Laconica. This freeware also implements the OpenMicroBlogging protocol, meaning that users can have “friends” on other microblogging services and receive their notices. Prodromou also presented the audience with the best line of the event when he said, “100%of the money made on the web is from companies other than Twitter.”

The fist event took place in January 2008, responding to a need from the business community to bring together, according to Telio, “the Suits and T-shirts.”

The fifth event will take place in September 2009, bringing back the first five start-ups presented, who will share their successes and failures as a “transfer of knowledge.”

Keynote speakers at the fourth event included Michael Montano from Silicon Valley (co-founder of BackType with Christopher Golda) and Carl Mercier (founder of Defensio and a serial technology entrepreneur).

Sponsors: BCF, BDO, Sun, inmedia Public Relations, BDC, AQT, R&D Partners, Joyent and Embrase.

Presenting Startups

Slot 1 - Control Yourself

Slot 2 - Sitezoogle

Slot 3 - Praized Media

Slot 4 - Klaxa

Slot 5 - Twtapps

www.startupcampmontreal.org

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