(English version below)

Notre PDG, Martin-Luc Archambault, a récemment été à la une du journal Les Affaires aux côtés de 3 autres entrepreneurs en série du Québec dans l’article Profession : créateur d’entreprises en série par Suzanne Dansereau. Vous pouvez consulter la partie de l’article sur Martin-Luc, mais je vous encourage également à lire les histoires stimulantes de : Garner Bornstein, Daniel Robichaud & Jean Castonguay.

Il est aussi intéressant de noter que malgré certains obstacles liés au démarrage d’entreprises au Québec, plusieurs entrepreneurs ne sont pas seulement motivés par des intérêts financiers, mais visent aussi à ce que leur succès les aide à bâtir un monde meilleur. En espérant que cette tendance se poursuive…

—

Our CEO, Martin-Luc Archambault, was recently featured in Les Affaires along with 3 other successful serial entrepreneurs of Quebec in an article entitled Profession: créateur d’entreprises en série by Suzanne Dansereau. You can go directly to Martin-Luc’s part of the article, but I also encourage you to read the very inspiring stories of Garner Bornstein, Daniel Robichaud & Jean Castonguay who are also featured in the article.

Although it’s not easy to start a business in Quebec, it’s very impressing to see that today’s entrepreneurs are not only motivated by money but also strive to use their success to help make the world a better place. Let’s hope this trend continues.

Keeping a blog updated with good and relevant content is not easy and I am aware that we haven’t fully delivered on this recently.

The reason is that we’ve been spending a lot of time working on some great new opportunities and we haven’t had enough time to spend on the blog.

This summer, we are also planning to launch a couple products which we have been incubating for some time: Artfox & Wajam and if we are lucky a third one which still only has a “code name”.

We will definitely do more blogging in the near future and when we do, the blog will most likely be part of our new website which will better describe our offering and highlight the products we are working on. In the mean time, you can also follow us on twitter @bolidea to keep in touch with us.

Looking for that star partner to join your budding technology project or looking for that key project to contribute to? Make your way down to our offices this upcoming Monday May 25^th at 6:30pm and meet and mingle with entrepreneurs, investors, students and coaches–all interested in participating and gaining awareness of new tech projects.

Join us! Register for the event on Meetup.

Attending for the first time? Read the recap of the January or February edition.

At each technology, entrepreneur-heavy event, someone consistently comments on the number (and customarily the lack of) women present. Having marginally attended some of these tech happenings, it’s true that the female presence –whether in the role of a founder, entrepreneur or even participant –figures in the minority.

A few years back, Business Week showcased the best young entrepreneurs in tech, all aged 30 and under and considered ” on the cutting edge” of the tech world. Of the 45 entrepreneurs presented, only 3 were women. Dismal numbers some might say.

Yet, according to the National Association for the Self-Employed , women are strongly represented among entrepreneurs, as women-owned businesses outnumbered new men-owned businesses by nearly a 2-1 ratio in 2003.

Instead of delving into the causes behind this noticeable absence, this series will focus on the beneficial reasons why women should consider jumping into a tech startup environment. Part One of the two-part series will explore the natural abilities that women possess which make them a valuable asset in a startup while Part Two will focus on outlining potential career paths in the startup space and an overview of the resources and support groups geared towards women in the tech landscape.

Basing myself on conversations with both male and female startup junkies and on the meritocracy-based culture of startups, there seems to be no clear reason why there shouldn’t be more women in tech startups.

In fact, here are some of the reasons why women should consider joining their ranks:

Startups require some of those womanly attributes

Digging into the cognitive differences between men and women, there are certain gender-specific characteristics that women possess which mirror a startup’s requirements. Notably,

• the innate characteristic of planning: research from the female business network Everywomen underlined that 55% of female entrepreneurs work with a business plan, compared with only 34% of male entrepreneurs. Thinking in advance of essential steps such as the startup’s roadmap, the development of critical key milestones , time and resource allocation, or deciding on the future strategic growth all fall under the crucial success fundamentals of a startup. As the co-founder and director of Everywoman Karen Gill says: ” In order to grow, you need to have good planning in place, and as the survey shows, it us the female entrepreneurs who are more likely to be doing that”.
• the ease in wielding transformational leadership: women’s past socialization may have given them the competence to lead by teaching–through developing and nurturing worker’s abilities and inspiring them to be exceptional contributors. Studies have shown that transformational leadership comes naturally to women. In an early stage startup, adopting a transformational leadership mentality, which emphasizes empowering workers, encouraging innovation, and challenging traditional assumptions, is the strategy to building a passionate and committed team. In contrast, other kind of leaders include transactional leaders, who lead by rewarding and punishing , and laissez-faire leaders, who take a hands-off approach.  In a startup, both styles would be deterrents to mobilizing your employees in creating the next big tech discovery.
• a long-term dedication to the business: the process of transforming a remarkable idea into an actual product/ service with a business model is quite an ardous task and not for the faint of heart. There is a strong element of risk and uncertainty joined with an opportunity to create. As Austin Hill describes in his post Emotional Rollercoster are only fun when riding with friends: ” Sometimes the coveted road to riches stetches out infinitely and contains many contravening valleys and exhilarating peaks that entpreneurs need to navigate deteminately”. Thankfully, women are more committed to sticking to their startups than men, even if more attractive opportunities came along. According to a NASE study, over 26% of women surveyed would not consider closing their businesses even if a desirable job appeared. Only 17% percent of men they would remain so committed.
• an emotional receptiveness to ups and downs: ” there’s a difference in how women respond and handle the emotional roller coaster of lauching a business”, says the co-author of Birthing an Elephant, Karin Abarbanel, in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She states that women might be better equiped to recognize the fear, stress and anxiety that comes along with a new venture and to seek help in handling those feelings. Beneficial? Absolutely–considering that how a startup entrepreneur/employee deals with stress directly correlated to the success of the venture.

Of course a women’s natural instinct and common sense are given abilities that that they could leverage in a startup environment. Add education, mentoring and a motivated personality and you have all the key ingredients for women to bloom in a startup environment.

This concludes the first part of a two- part series on women in the tech landscape in which we pinpointed the natural abilities women could leverage in a startup. Join us next week for an overview of job positions in the startup environment as well as a guide of support groups and resources for women in the tech space. As always, we would love to hear your point of view in the comment section below.

Ada Lovelace. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

Whether you have a great project idea and wish to recruit partners or the desire to join an interesting project, come, meet and mingle with like-minded individuals. Looking forward to seeing you!

Register now at Montreal Newtech !

The key to going greener is of course thinking greener. In light of Earth Hour‘s recent occurence and Canada’s celebration of Earth Day happening in a few weeks, we have been paying closer attention than usual to our office’s green practices.

Although we still have a way to go, here are some of the green basics we have appropriated within the Bolidea office:

With 42% of household garbage recyclable¹, we encourage materials to be reprocessed:

• Electronics and office supplies are reclaimed: while we all declare a profound love for tech gadgets and electronics, team members usually bring in their old cell phones and other outdated electronic devices to be dropped off at a local eco-centre, along with our office’s used ink cartridges.
• Recycling receptacles throughout the office: if it falls under the city’s recycling norms, in the blue basket it goes. The Ville de Montreal recycling dutifully picks it up weekly.
  

With 38% of household garbage compostable², we allow materials to rot:

• In-office composting: fairly inexpensive to implement within a start-up, all it takes is a little bit of team awareness, participation and diligence to carry out. Our kitchen waste ( fruit and vegetable peels/rinds, tea bags, coffee grounds, eggshells) finds new use through the process. Some Montreal-based compost services: Compost Montreal, Centre Environnemental Tourne-Sol or check with your city borough.

Finally, we focus on encouraging earth-friendly practices:

• Use of green cleaning products and biodegradable garbage bags: just because we wish to maintain our office spic and span does not mean we want to dirty the environment. Special attention is payed to purchasing office supplies with high biodegradability, low toxicity, and reduced packaging.  Inform yourself of your cleaner’s green quotient or find alternatives at Good Guide.
• Advocating bikes over cars: strong encouragement is directed towards alternate forms of transport. The office’s great location near public transport and Mt. Royal’s bike path is an incentive in itself, while carpooling and flex hours options take care of reducing our carbon and greenhouses gases imprint.

The effects of greening on our team:

As our team’s awareness heightens, our environmentally responsible mind-set becomes further entrenched with each step we undertake. Implementing these changes at the start-up level has been very rewarding and we will continue doing so in our personal mandate to limit our impact on Earth and her resources. While we still have inroads to make on our desire to become fully environmentally-sustainable, the psychological and financial benefits of thinking green are certainly already tangible and so is the ” feel good” feeling that goes along.

¹ Source: Chamard-Criq-Roche, 2000. Caractérisation des matières résiduelles au Québec. Centre de récupération et de tri des matières recyclables de la Ville de Montréal , Alain Leduc, Ville de Montreal.

² ibid

[Image credit: Creative Commons photo by Incase Designs]

]]> http://blog.bolidea.com/2009/04/07/greening-a-startup/feed/ 3 bolidea Image credit: Creative Commons photo by Incase Designs http://blog.bolidea.com/2009/04/01/starting-up-during-a-recession/ http://blog.bolidea.com/2009/04/01/starting-up-during-a-recession/#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:31:01 +0000 Olivier Cabanes http://blog.bolidea.com/?p=590 ]]> by Olivier Cabanes

What are the ideal conditions for an entrepreneur to take the leap and launch his startup? When is the right time to jump in? As far as economic cycles are concerned, I think there is probably no “right time”. In fact, motivated and competent teams/individuals should always be able to draw advantages from the environment they operate in, regardless of the economy.

At last week’s Capital Innovation, it was interesting to hear JLA Venture’s Pierre Donaldson speak along those lines as he drew a picture of the 2009 VC landscape. Here are three things he mentioned that I think every entrepreneur should remember in times when valuations are down and venture funds are scarce:

- Adverse economic conditions will give rise to stronger companies as they force entrepreneurs to run a tighter ship.Consequently, the balance sheets shown to VCs will be healthier and the chances of getting funded are increased.

- While layoffs are generally bad news to most people and the overall economy, they can be a great opportunity for startups. Previously unavailable or unaffordable dream candidate might be looking for a job now, and the perks offered by startups might be more appealing to them than in past times.

-An entrepreneur that has a good business to show (team, product, and business model) should be able to raise funds in order to scale and grow. VCs might have handed out fewer term sheets in the past few months, but companies still got funded.

So when you combine this with the stimulus plan outlined by Quebec in its recent budget (see also Raymond Luk’s post on the subject), I think 2009 should offer a very decent environment for tech startups.

Last week’s post dealt with pre-planning the basic elements that assure your startup’s offsite is successful: who should be there? Talking about what, when, and why?  This week’s focus is on executing the planning and ensuring everything runs smoothly the day of the offsite and onwards.

STEP TWO- Day of the offsite: Executing the planning and guiding your team towards resolution

Ask your team to turn off their cellphones: no distractions allowed! It can even be a good idea to disconnect the internet access during topic sessions, so that participants remain focused on the task at hand. The goal is after all to have everyone participate.

Remind the participants of the agenda items and add missing items ( if needed): to decrease the incidents of tangents and off-topic discussions,  make sure to stick to the proposed agenda items. Think of the agenda items as promises you don’t wish to break.

Appoint a notetaker:he/she should diligently record the major arguments centering around a subject, the strategies approved or disapproved and the decided action items.

Follow a sequenced agenda: set the stage, choose ground rules, set direction, and make decisions. If you’re the offsite’s leader, take charge and lead your team to tangible results.

Provide plenty of time for networking: allow ample time for the team to have snacks, enjoy beverages and just talk about whatever strikes them. Team building starts with building relationships, and building relationships starts with getting to know each other. Allow for networking time to be free and unscripted and let the team enjoy some casual conversation with each other. Better yet, finish the offsite early and do cool activities with your team. Take pictures, play board games, do some outdoor sports –team bonding is one of the key elements an offsite builds, so make an effort to bring its essence back to the office with you.

Make it an overnight event : instead of setting up typical ( and slightly awkward) team-building exercises , add some depth to your startup’s team bonding  by enabling them to eat dinner together, enjoy a couple of drinks, and stay up late discussing major business problems or brainstorming on a radically new strategy. These late night sessions are valuable in that team members put their heads together to address some problem or opportunity. More importantly, team members build relationships which provided a terrific foundation for strong teams.

STEP THREE- At the end of offsite and onwards: debrief, critique and create a follow-up roadmap

Take a few minutes to critique the offsite itself: what went well?  What could be improved in subsequent offsites? Was the agenda clearly followed? Is the response of the team favorable? Addressing these questions will allow you ameliorate the future format of the offsite and ensure that everyone’s time was well spent.

Put together a follow-up plan to continue the work from the offsite: One of the most frustrating things to experience with offsites is the lack of a follow-up plan to implement some of the great ideas which came out of the offsite. Put together an actionable follow-up plan with tasks, dates, action items, order of priority and owners and you’ll keep the excitement from going out of the offsite and will get some of the great ideas implemented. Neglect putting together a follow-up plan and you’ll have an offsite that the team sees as a waste of time. Make sure to communicate the follow-up plan to everyone concerned including the individuals who were not present at the offsite.

An offsite dual nature can vastly benefit your startup: it increase your team’s bonding factor and allows you to brainstorm and strategize your startup’s key elements in a fresh setting. If you want an offsite that is energetic and memorable, following the above mentioned directives will certainly push you a step forward in the right direction.

Happy offsite!

A startup’ s offsite is a very helpful means to getting the team focused on defining a strategy, roadmapping, planning a product launch or creating a revolutionary way of doing things.  Far from the daily distractions of the office (lengthy meetings, stressful deadlines, glaring computer screens), the offsite environment is also a great formula for open conversations about subject items you don’t have time to broach in your regular schedule.

Done well, an offsite not only puts your startup’s great minds together to address a business issue but it also builds better teams that work more effectively together and get more things done. However, an offsite planned poorly will be viewed as a waste of time and be dubbed as a dismal failure.

How can you ensure your startup’s offsite is successful at building teams and getting things done at the same time?

 The key: advance preparation. Consider following this efficient 3-step planning sequence. Step one outlined below with step two and three explained in a subsequent post.

STEP ONE Pre-offsite meeting:

Define a concrete purpose for the offsite: what outcomes do you want from the meeting? What are the timelines for those outcomes? Whether it is developing strategic goals for the upcoming year or conceiving creative strategies for your website, make sure to restrict the number of key initiatives to a manageable number–typically four to ten. Clear outcomes will also aid in figuring out the agenda and the list of participants necessary to the event.

Figure out the list of participants: make sure that the list mirrors your offsite’s outcomes. An extensive discussion about broad strategic goals would mostly benefit from a large group of participants, while studies have proven that decisions are usually best accomplished by smaller groups.  You can also have your startup’s official advisors come in to present on a topic relevant to the agenda, but a consultant’s presence should be limited to regular office hours.

Think of strategic tools and frameworks for the discussion: frameworks help organize potentially limitless discussions about big issues like future growth or innovation into manageable categories and focus the conversation on the offsite’s outcomes. Some framework to consider: SWOT analysis, brainstorming, growth matrix, pitch characteristics, etc.

Create an offsite agenda and make it known to the attendees: what will be the sequence of topics? How much time will be devoted to each? A detailed agenda helps participants to see how the offsite’s activities will move their discussions toward the planned outcomes. Keep in mind time limitations. It’s difficult to run an all-day meeting as people tend to run out of steam and ideas if the agenda is too cluttered.

Think of the relevant data needed for the offsite: is there a specific document, website or book chapter your attendees need to read? Is there data or background information they need to absorb? Make sure to distribute or communicate the necessary information beforehand. The offsite is certainly not the place to plod through data.

Find an appropriate off-site site: don’t limit yourself to conventional offsite destinations. A team member’s cottage, a 1800s re-furbished farmhouse, a paintball site in the off-season can all have an atmospheric effect on the offsite’s participants. Find a free site if possible, if not remember to factor in the cost of facility and the ease of reach for your team members during your planning.

Check out the offsite’s amenities: does it have all you need? whiteboards? enough chairs? outlets for laptops? wireless internet access? Take a quick look-over to make sure all the elements are present to accomodate your team.

Don’t forget food and refreshments: as it will be one of the elements your team will remember the most. Try to keep costs to a minimum, while still catering to your team’s tastes.

Even though the essential elements of your startup’s offsite planning have been sorted out and organized, it’s not yet time to breathe a sign of relief. Tune in next week for tips on how to carry out the planning on the day of the offsite.

Whether you are an entrepreneur looking for skilled individuals to join your brilliant project, or an individual searching for a brilliant project to join, you should attend the upcoming Co-Founders Monday.

Come mingle, meet like-minded people and gain awareness of new projects on Monday, March 16th at 6:30pm at the Bolidea offices.

There are just a few spots left, so make sure to register at the Montreal NewTech Meetup.

Who had time this past Saturday to leisurely enjoy the lovely beginnings of spring? Certainly not this dedicated group of knowledgeable entrepreneurs, creators and programmers present at the freshly minted YULHackers event. 

Highlights of the event:

• An unconference format was adopted: Participants were greeted at the door with a giant, blank post-it board and markers and directed toward filling out alloted time slots with their topics of interest.
• Sebastien presented his programming language Sugar: The engaging presentation focused on the origins of Sugar, its practical applications through a journey into its design and syntax, and concluded with a few slides on its admissibility as a good replacement to JavaScript for front-end web development. Presentation slides can be found here.
• A group discussion was initiated about the future format and branding related efforts for YULhackers: So far, thanks to the magical hands of Alok, we have a website, a simple wiki and a tumblr blog. 
• Peter of the Navarra Group presented their micro-finance web app which will be used for an online – lending system.

Thanks again to all the participants for attending, especially Alok and Heri for organizing and Sebastien and Peter for presenting their work. I’m certain that with your continuous enthusiasm, input and participation, the event’s dimensions will quickly grow into one of Montreal Tech community’s “ must attend” events. Keep tab on the next event by checking back here or here .

After a brief reformatting pause, we are once again delighted to be hosting the Free Hackers event this upcoming Saturday, March 7^th 2009 from 1-7 pm. On the hacking menu: a presentation and hands-on workshop on the programming language Sugar– by Sebastien Pierre founder of datalicious– followed by an open hacking session. The full details and the sign-up for the event can be found here , so join us and let’s revel in the new Free Hackers format!

This week, I attended Co-Founders Monday, and I was very pleased to meet a crowd that was composed of passionate individuals with a desire to learn, share, and talk about anything related to tech businesses.

Everyone came to the event with different goals in mind, and it made for a very interesting meeting. I met university students looking for work experience within a dynamic startup environment, developers looking for a project that would light up their interest, entrepreneurs looking for a partner in crime, investors looking for promising ventures, etc. I’m glad to see that this event is helping to create new relationships and new business ideas, as this kind of diversity is something we had hoped for originally .

It is great to see that this gathering emphasizes execution behind great ideas (i.e. finding a partner or a person that has a specific skill set, gather advice, etc.) rather than promoting secrecy. It shows that members of the community realize that ideas are important but that efforts also need to be directed toward the development and execution. Otherwise, amazing ideas will never even have a chance of becoming reality.

I’m sure the Co-Founders Monday meeting format will evolve over time, and I hope the positive things I noted above will keep on being part of the event’s formula.

Thanks to everyone for their involvement and I hope to see you next time!

The logo is often the main visual element of the business, and it’s the first item people spot when they land on your website. For these reasons, your company’s logo is one of the fundamentals you can’t disregard when building a startup.

The logo itself can fall into a much greater scheme of brand and marketing, but often in a startup, there’s no time to think of the entire business marketing plan before having your logo designed. But what is the right time to spend on this? When does it become too much? How can you make sure you do the right steps and end up with a logo you find great? These are some of the questions I will cover in this post.

At Bolidea, we follow a specific process when we need a logo for a new startup. As startups usually do not have an in-house designer, we obviously need to outsource the making of the logo. When we outsource, we want to spend the necessary time to end up with the best result, but not too much time that it becomes the main activity and delays other priorities. Here are the 3 main steps we suggest you follow to end up with the best possible logo:

1. Prepare a creative brief:

The creative brief covers what you need and what you want; it holds the information the designer will need to be aware of in order to make you the best logo. Writing a Creative Brief will reduce the time spent giving feedback, and all the back and forth that this can lead to. This is what we include in our creative brief:

• Product Details: Mention your company name and your tagline and specify if you wish the latter to be included in your logo. Also, explain the product by writing your pitch(es), describing your industry and indicating how you are different from your competitors.
• Audience Information: Describe the different audiences you serve, particularly your target audience. Explain what it does on a daily basis and why it needs your product.
• Concept Guidelines: Mention if you want a symbol (like Apple), a logotype (like Facebook), or a mix (like MySpace). Point out the colors and shapes you want or don’t want to include in your logo as well as characteristics you want it to portray, such as: serious, young, innovative…
• Logo Preferences: Spend time finding logos you are fond of and describe what you like and dislike about them.
• Competitor Logos: Look over your competitor’s logos to see how yours will eventually fit in and include those logos in the brief.

2. Seek out your designer or design firm:

Since working toward having a logo designed requires a lot of time and effort on your part, you want the first logo selection you make to be the right one. Changing designers once the process has started, or even worse, changing the logo once it’s been finished will leave you spending more time on something that had been already checked off your task list. Here are the steps we suggest you follow to pick who will be doing your logo:

• Investigate the source of your preferences: Go through the list of logos you have identified as your preferred ones and look into who did them. This exercise can help you decide which designer you may want to select. Logopond is a good site to look at freelance designers and their logos. What’s great about freelance designers is that, compared to logo companies, it’s easier to size the designers’ style and decide whether you like it or not. Odds are that if you like the style figuring in their portfolio, you’ll like the logo they give you!
• Go over different online logo companies: If you do not find any freelance designer or want to look further, you may want to consider logo companies such as Logoworks or Infinity Logo Design. They tend to be a little less expensive than solo designers, but since many designers can contribute to the logo design, it’s harder to predict what style will emerge.
• Review your choices: After looking at your options, take an in-depth look at their prices, timeline and reputation. How many concepts and revisions do you have, how long does the process take, what is the final price? You can dig deeper and search online to see what previous clients think of the service and even how the designer is perceived within the logo designers’community.

3. Collaborate with your designer:

Once you’ve picked your designer or logo company, provide them with your creative brief – but don’t stop there. You should actively participate in the logo creation process if you want things to go faster and if you want to end up with the best possible result.

• Get people’s 2 cents: Throughout the entire process – of drafts and revisions – ask for people’s opinions and feedback. Don’t only ask your friends and family; try to ask your future customers since they are the ones this is being designed for.
• Avoid copyright infringements: Before choosing a concept as your favorite one, look at other logos to verify if yours resembles anything that already exists. To do so, we recommend you go to logo sites such as Logopond , Best Brands of the World, Logosauce, or Google images and do searches using keywords related your product. If you notice your eventual logo is very similar to an existent one – especially in the same industry – you may wish to make sure there is no copyright infringement. If there is an occurence of copyright infringement , or even if there are chances there is, you may have to reconsider your decision and pick a different concept.
• Send clear feedback: Once you have selected your favorite logo concept and are in the revision stage, it isn’t enough to say “nice” or “not nice”. You need to specifically express what you like and don’t like; make sure to communicate clearly what you expect in the next revision. It helps to play around with the image and visually clarify what you mean – MS Paint is a practical, simple, and quick tool for doing that.

The time you choose to spend on the logo creation process can also depend on how things evolve during the development. For example, we recently added a step to our process: Avoid copyright infringements. We added this because one of the companies we work with, ArtFox, recently had to take down its logo as it resembled an already existing fox logo.

You can obviously decide to do more or less than what we propose, but we strongly believe that these steps will put you on the right track to obtaining a great logo. If you think we are missing a crucial step or have any resources to share, we encourage you to leave us your suggestions in the comments section below.

We will be hosting the next Co-Founders Monday, this upcoming Monday, February 16, at 6:30pm. We hosted this event for the first time last month, and it was fun and very productive. In case you missed it, here’s a wrap-up of the last event.

The goal of Co-Founders Monday is to mix people and create partnerships that transform ideas into reality. The event is open to people who:

1) do not have a specific idea in mind and would love to hear about other cool projects and maybe join one and help it succeed;

2) have an idea and are looking for help to make it happen.

At the last event, a great majority of the participants tended to lean toward presenting their projects, so we are certain that if you are interested in joining a startup, you will be in high demand at the Co-Founders Monday.

So, if you are interested in learning about new projects, or if you would like to share your own projects with others, please register here as spacing is limited.