We were fortunate to have four of Lumenera’s founders share there “getting started” lessons with us at the October edition of “The Buddy System” courtesy of our partner Fraser Milner Casgrain. Eric Smith acted as MC and did a great job guiding the session.
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The Lumenera team speaking at the event were; Greg Bell (VP Business Development), Huw Leahy (President), Andrew Nelson (VP Engineering) and Kevin Mayer (CTO). Their start-up journey as a team began in 2002 on one of the steepest slopes down after the bubble burst. Getting going was a challenge; however, they had assessed the risks and were willing to make sacrifices to do whatever it takes. Bootstrapping then, as today, was by necessity rather than choice. One of those sacrifices being no salary for a prolonged period of time. Couple that with the uncertainty of the times and a quick check of the corporate bank balance every Monday morning and you have a warm welcome to the start-up roller coaster. The good news is Lumenera successfully bootstrapped from $0 in revenue and 4 employees to close to 100 employees today with $0 in external funding. A great lesson in bootstrapping for success.
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The founders had already known each other before striking out on their own. The idea for Lumenera sprouted when two of the founders did a road trip together and discussed the idea on the trip. They then approached the other three founders with the idea. Lumenera started out as an idea and quickly gained traction with the founders who dreamed about starting their own business.
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The team offered some advice with respect to leaping from being and employee to start-up founder. Be forth right and honest with your employer. Carefully consider potential IP (Intellectual Property) challenges. Line up your ducks and make the break very clean.
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The team carefully considered the risks in going solo before they leapt and felt the risk was worth it. One thing everyone agreed on was that an important success factor was having multiple founders. The topic of a healthy dose of optimism and pessimism came up a couple of times. This balance was an important factor in making decisions and mitigating risk while at the same time embracing opportunities. Another common thread was that the founders “knew what they didn’t know” and worked at shoring up their blind spots. They added external resources as needed with one of the first being a virtual CFO since no one really had a great deal of finance experience. All agreed that this was a good move.
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Next Post we’ll hear from the four founders individually.
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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Interest and investment from numerous contributors has resulted in our seed fund now moving into the 3 digit realm. That’s right the fund is now at a whooping $120 with contributions from; Nick Doelman, Raymond Luk, David Dufresne, Mark MacLeod, Fred Dixon, Chris Schmitt, Tariq Zaid, Daniel Crenna and an assortment of other start-up friendly folk.
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So what is the deal with the fund? Well we are looking for essentially two things; more investors (minimum contribution is $5) and/or an Ottawa based Start-up to invest in. If you are a potential just drop by add your contribution and sign the “TCF seed fund 1” can along with the rest of our illustrious investors. That’s it and you’re in.
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If you are a start-up looking for investment all you have to do is:
- Drop by TheCodeFactory (246 Queen Street 2nd floor)
- Go to the Magic Fridge and look on top of the fridge get the seed fund 1 jar
- Open the jar,
- Read the instructions,
- Collect your loot,
- Send us an email with your logo.
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It really is just that simple. Possibly the best source of funding next to IRAP small projects program. No dilution, no equity given up and some hassle free cash.
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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I had the opportunity to attend the Entrepreneurial Effect book launch event last night at the Marshes. There was a good crowd in attendance and a real cross section of the Ottawa tech scene from; web application start-ups to networking and more traditional telecom plays. I enjoyed listening to Terry Matthews speak and have two key lessons learned that I wanted to share.
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First and foremost; “When life gives you lemons make lemonade”. Terry spent a good chunk of the start of his speech talking about Nortel the company, the culture (difficult beast to partner with), the flame out and probably most importantly the opportunity this train wreck presents to Ottawa. My take is you can spend your time looking and the train wreck and dwelling on how great it once was and how bad it is now staying stuck in the past or you can move on get on with your life and look for new opportunities. With the internet and mobile apps exploding there are plenty of opportunities. If life has dealt you a basket of lemons make lemonade.
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Second key lesson learned. Work smart and provide value to your customers, timing is everything. Terry told an interesting story about $0.23 scissors he had bought that were made in China. The North American equivalent was $1.75. Competing on price only in a global economy is just not feasible and you need to seek out timely opportunities. However, if you; compete smart, deliver on time and target good opportunities you can win. Terry spent a great deal of time talking about why he does business in Canada and a large part of it is the quality of our Engineering talent … World class. Commodities sell based on price and this is a battle most Canadian companies are unlikely to win but, knowledge is both valuable and marketable in a global economy. Compete where there is value and there is an excellent probability of success.
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All in all a good event and a great turn out.
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Congrats to James Bowen on a very successful book launch.
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Featured, Ottawa, Start-up by Ian
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I have been carefully watching, with great interest, the development of two start-ups that use TheCodeFactory; Zeebu Mobile and Twegather. The thing that has impressed me the most about these two start-ups is how fast they need to move to be successful. In my opinion both are up to the challenge and ready to run (in fact have recently blasted out of the starting blocks).
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Dan and Anthony of Zeebu Mobile are successful graduates of the Lead to Win program and running at full throttle. From a standing start about three months ago they have in that time; developed BabyGO! and Super BabyGO!, been approved for RIM App World, become a featured app and generated thousands of downloads to make it to #6 on Top 100 Free apps list in the last two weeks alone. Next stop is revenue generation. If only I had TheCodeFactory seed fund active these guys are a bet I would definitely take. $0 to revenue in 3 or 4 months … remarkable.
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Following fast behind them are the Twegather team of; Chris, Igor, Jean-Claude, Pascal, Teresa and the rest of the team. From idea to beta in 4 months. Next stop: a bullet proof app, then growing the user base with monetization built in. From idea to $ with a budget of under $100 in less than 6 months … most awesome and also a fundable opportunity.
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The key success factors in building a successful web app are IMHO;
• Speed
• Adaptability
• Ability to Scale
• User acceptance
• An innovative and “Kick Ass” application
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Both start-ups are practitioners of throwing spaghetti at the wall seeing what sticks and then capitalizing on the opportunities.
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Stay tuned for future updates on the progress …
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Commercialization, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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I quote Daniel who was visiting TheCodeFactory last week. A very telling statement and at the heart of all successful businesses is sales. A business without sales is nothing.
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So … why say “Selling sh.. is hard”. This depends a great deal on your native skill set. For some selling actually comes naturally for others, usually more technically inclined, the art of selling is shrouded in mystery and darkness.
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If you find yourself saying “xxxx sh.. is hard” then a suggested strategy would be to add someone to your team that says “xxxx is fun”. The best start-ups I see always have a very complimentary pair of founders; one versed in technology, the other in business (sales, biz dev, marketing).
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The great thing about this very interesting statement is that the entrepreneur understands and recognizes his blind spot. All the best entrepreneurs know their blind spots and work at recruiting people with complementary skills. Great entrepreneurs know what they don’t know.
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Commercialization, Entrepreneurship, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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There has been a new guide released by PWGSC on the five steps to doing business with the Government of Canada. Everything you need to know in 5 steps and 50 pages.
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Why should you care? If you are a bootstrapping start-up and looking for ways to generate cash flow government contracts are a great opportunity. It is encouraging to see the government working at ways to simplify the process and remove red tape.
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You can find the guide here: Doing Business with the Government of Canada.
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Ottawa, Start-up by Ian
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