I distinctly remember Mike Ball’s (CTO of Loyalty Match) words of wisdom from our session on Boot Strapping for success “Celebrate your victories”. I am pleased and excited to announce that TheCodeFactory had a small victory on Friday March 27th with a record number of members in the space at the same time and the most new members in a single week.

Therefore after having time to decompress and relax on Friday evening on Saturday morning as I write this I am with one of my best friends (Spencer our Miniature Schnauzer) and my 20 year old bottle of Graham’s tawny port.  The three of us are having a grand time enjoying the sunshine on this glorious day and slowly sipping away on our glass of port (me not Spencer) enjoying the moment.

I encourage all of the bootstrapping start-ups out there to celebrate your victories small and large.  Here is a toast to start-up victories small and large may you have many more in the year ahead.

Ian Graham

PS, Allan Isfan I have a glass of port with your name on it to celebrate your customer win next time you drop by.

Filed under: Camp Culture, Entrepreneurship, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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We are having our first Mash-up at TheCodeFactory this Thursday evening from 6pm – 9pm. The natural question is: “What is a mash-up?” the answer is when you put a whole bunch of stuff together and mix it around.

When: 26-March-2009

When: 6pm – 9pm

Where: @ TheCodeFactory

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The idea came from a conversation with Adam McNamara (Carleton University) and Chris Saunders (University of Ottawa) about what they would like to see happening at TheCodeFactory. Adam and Chris wanted to know “What’s happening at TheCodeFactory” so we thought it would be a good idea to get the family together and have some pizza and show n tell. So the event is essentially the users groups and organizations that use the space having some pizza then a 1 – 2 minute elevator pitch from each group followed by some networking. We have about 30 students signed up so far with room for about 20 more.

If you would like to attend the registration is here: TheCodeFactory Mash-UP

Who knows this may turn into a monthly event.

Ian Graham

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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Chris has been working really hard at putting together a very cool structure for team camp and I am super impressed.

Check out this post: A Great lineup of up and coming events  

As I said to someone today a parent can’t pick favorites and I consider the groups using the space as family, however, TeamCamp has a very special place in TheCodeFactory evening events. TeamCamp actually touches on every category I blog about … sweet. If you are thinking about taking the start-up plunge but not quite ready to leap this is a great forum. A most awesome mix of random technology stuff, candid discussions about start-upishy stuff and now guest speakers to help on various topics. Our guest this week is one of TheCodeFactory’s favorite start-up founders “Jason Kealey” from LavaBlast.

 Should be lots of fun, if you haven’t checked it out please do (sign the teamcamp agreement first though) and if you have been hope to see you again.

Ian Graham

Filed under: Camp Culture, Commercialization, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Open Source, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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If the city is looking for some shovel ready projects I’d like to put forward TheCodeFactory. I mean hey, the intent of the space is to facilitate turning ideas into successful businesses. Sounds very much like what is needed in the current economic climate. So if the city wants to shovel a little stimulus this way that would perhaps we can turn it into a start-up or two or three or …

Ian Graham

Filed under: Commercialization, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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 11-March-09 Tobi, Chris, Misha

This is our third in the bootstrapping for success series by sponsor, The Ottawa Network. On Wednesday March 11th our three speakers were; Tobi Lutke, Shopify; Chris Ovens, SpotOn Systems and Misha Nossik from Simtone.

One theme common to all three presenters was keeping the day job if you can or at least supplementing the business revenue early on with consulting revenue. Cash is king and cash flow is the emperor.

Tobi Lutke was up first and he suggested a number of key bits, at least from my perspective. If you are going to go about building a business make sure you solve a problem. The Shopify idea was born from the challenges Toby and his co-founder had making their online store for SnowDevil.ca. Second key bit is learn to say no to your customers or as Tobi said, you risk turning a colourful rainbow you into a muddy rainbow that is kind of a browny colour. Be true to the product rather than act on every customer request you get, this is a difficult balance.

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Chris Ovens Company also grew out of a different first business and tended to evolve as they went along. Chris likened starting a business to a poker game and every once in a while you have to go “all in” or roll the dice. If it was to easy anyone could do it. Another important point Chris raised is that you have to ask yourself “Why are you doing this?” all the time to do what is important and stay focused. Finally if you are planning on taking any money know why you are taking it.

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Misha Nossik mentioned that bootstrapping takes too much time and if you can get VC money go for it. However, out of necessity many people have to do it these days. Misha and many before him have mentioned that having a partner is an extremely valuable resource when you are bootstrapping and starting up. If one of you is down the other isn’t and vice versa. Getting going is tough, make sure you have a buddy system.

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I would like to thank our three speakers it was an enjoyable and educational evening.

Ian Graham

Filed under: Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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If the city is looking for some shovel ready projects I’d like to put forward TheCodeFactory. I mean hey, the intent of the space is to facilitate turning ideas into successful businesses. Sounds very much like what is needed in the current economic climate. So if the city wants to shovel a little stimulus this way that would perhaps we can turn it into a start-up or two.

Ian Graham

Filed under: Uncategorized by Ian
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After John Wilkinson mentioned that the Scottish was doing some innovative stuff around angel funding at our lunch, I thought to myself gotta check this out. Anyway, on the weekend I had the opportunity to do a bit of searching on the subject and I really like what I have discovered. In Scotland they have something called a “Scottish Co-Investment Fund”.

Here is the skinny on the co-investment fund concept:
- Government matches Angel contributions
- Funds are administered by private sector angel groups
- Start-ups looking for funding deal directly with the Angel Investors
- There is no interaction between the start-up and government

This almost sounds too good to be true and in TheCodeFactory world is the ideal mix of government sector support for entrepreneurship and early stage knowledge based companies. Wait … it gets even better. Scotland has been using this model for many years to great effect and they have in fact gone from 2 identifiable angel syndicates in 1996 to 18 angel syndicates in 2007 according to nelsongray.com.  In 2007 the Scottish Co-investment fund invested in 61 companies with an average deal size of £231. On average 5 companies are getting funded per month, awesome.

Let’s put a bit of perspective around those Scottish Co-Investment Fund numbers in comparison to what we are doing in Ontario for seed funding. Since its announcement in 2005 the Ontario Investment Accelerator Fund IAF (Ontario equivalent of Angel funding) has invested in 8 companies.  Therefore, on average the IAF has invested in 1 company every three or four months. In terms of award efficiency the Co-Investment Fund model is 15-20 times more efficient than the IAF. In terms of economic efficiency (award/overhead) a Co-Investment Fund model should be ~90% efficient while the IAF is roughly 30% efficient. Finally there is the intangible factor of culture. Angels usually have their roots in start-ups or entrepreneurship and understand early stage investment while people working for the government well … they work for the government and things move at government speed.

I am now officially an advocate for the Co-Investment fund concept as it applies to Angel Financing. In terms of efficiency there is little doubt in my mind that the Co-Investment fund is a great model. This model maximizes the contributions of both the private and public sector. I have downloaded a number of reports on the Scottish Co-Investment Fund and will be digging into this topic in great detail over the coming weeks and months. Very cool stuff!

Ian Graham
 

Filed under: Commercialization, Innovation, Start-up by Ian
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