Launch Party Vancouver

Launch Party Vancouver 9 Wrap Up

LP Admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 07:02:26 +0000

When we started LPV in September 2007, our goal was to shine a big bright light on the startup community and help connect entrepreneurs with investors, potential partners and their peers. Looking at photos from the last 9 events, it is clear that our community is growing and that the best of Canadian tech has consistently showed up to support and celebrate the latest crop of Internet startups in the great Northwest. It’s our hope that the startups you have seen demo at Launch Parties 1-9 will grow into the next generation of Canadian super angels.

Martin Ertl of Contractually, LPV9 Startup Competition People’s Choice Winner
Photo credit: Jeremy Lim

Our ninth edition of Launch Party Vancouver on June 17th was definitely our biggest event yet. As Debbie Landa tweeted, LPV9 was definitely a “who’s who of Canadian tech.” We were thrilled to have Chris Albinson, Katherine Barr, Dan Martell, Debbie Landa, and Anthony Lee from the C100 fly up from Silicon Valley as well as Chris Arsenault and Shawn Abbott from iNovia Capital in the house. A great big thank you to all of our out of town guests for making the trek to Vancouver. Go Canada!

Chris Albinson of the C100 Organization and Panorama Capital
Photo Credit: Jeremy Lim

Put your hands together for…
We rely on public and private donations and a whole lot of sweat and sometimes tears to make this all possible. Many thanks to Sonia Ryan and volunteers Melissa Joaquin, Angela Baldonero, Tarlan Klo, Tina Hoang, and Laurent Munier for working the door and helping us set-up.

We could not do any of this without the backing of our LPV9 Partners:

BCIC – the lead organization charged with advancing innovation and commercialization in British Columbia.
Canpages - fastest growing local search company in Canada with a nationwide API for smart phone application developers.
Clark Wilson - BC’s Law Firm for Business. Mark Longo & Brock Smith are the go to guys.
HSBC - the world’s local bank with startup banking packages.
Fasken Martineau - a leading international business law and litigation firm. Keith Spencer and Shahrooz Navabi are the real deal.
Strutta - the platform for creating online contests and the brains behind the LPV9 Startup Competition.
Lonsdale Rentals – the place to go for all of your corporate and private party rental needs. From bar rentals to glasses, they have it all.
Pixstar - Pixstar Photo booths provide the perfect memento to remember any party.
Mission Hill – Mission Hill has an amazing selection of Okanagan wines. They featured Rigamorole red and white at LPV9.
Russell Brewing - committed to brewing 100% natural, real Canadian beer. And it shows!
Jeremy Lim - Check out Jeremy’s awesome LPV9 photo set on Flickr and contact him for your event.

Our Media Sponsors rock:

Techvibes - our favorite technology blog does an amazing job highlighting all of the LPV9 startups and covering daily tech news in cities across Canada and the United States. And best of all, Techvibe’s President & Editor, Rob Lewis always shows up as promised ——->
Startup Digest - All you have to do is enter your email address and choose your favorite hubs to receive the best startup events in your inbox every week. Jon Chui runs the weekly Vancouver newsletter.

Thank you all for making LPV9 so great!

Launch Party Vancouver 1-9 in Photos

LP Admin — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:50:11 +0000

At our first LPV in September 2007, we had 120 attendees and a handful of startups and at LPV9, we had 9 amazing companies and over 500 people in the room. To me, this just proves Vancouver is for Startups and our community is growing. Here’s a snapshot of LPV over the years.

LPV 1 – September 27, 2007
Section 3, Vancouver
120 attendees, 6 Startups

Photo Credit: Phillip Jeffrey

LPV 2 – Launch Party with a Twist
December 5, 2007
The Republic
Special Guests – Mike Macadaan, Shira Lazar, Bill Wetherell, David Robinson & Heather Vescent from Twiistup in Los Angeles.
200 attendees, 6 startups. Check out the Video here

Photo Credit: Duane Storey

LPV 3 – January 28, 2008
The Lamplighter
250 attendees, 6 startups

Photo Credit: Philip Jeffrey

LPV4 - May 21, 2008
The Republic
300 attendees, 7 Startups

Photo Credit: Ianiv & Arieanna

LPV5 - September 18, 2008
Unwine’d
300 attendees, 6 Startups

Photo Credits: Tris Hussey, Raul Pacheco

LPV6 - February 26, 2009
Uber Lounge
350 attendees, 6 Startups

Photo Credit: Bobby Dassler, Ianiv & Arieanna

LPV 7 – June 2, 2009
Uber Lounge
400 attendees, 7 Startups

Photo Credit: Jason Brown

LPV8 – Under the Launch Party with Dealmaker Media
September 16, 2009
Circa Resto Lounge
400+ people, 8 Startups

Photo Credit: Bootup Labs

LPV9 – June 17, 2010
The Roundhouse
Special Guests: C100 Organization, iNovia Capital, Dealmaker Media
500+ attendees, 9 Startups

Photo Credit: Jeremy Lim

Thanks for all the fun and support over the years.

To view more LPV photos or share some that you have taken, please add them to our Launch Party Photo Group on Flickr and tag them with LPV#.

And the LPV9 winners are…

LP Admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:42:30 +0000

The judge’s and community have spoken and it’s time to announce the winners in the LPV9 Startup Contest. A panel of 8 Judges casted their votes for the “Startup Most Likely to Succeed” and awarded Unbounce. From Judge Amar Varma’s comments: “Love that they are focusing on simplicity, and the creation of landing pages and not web pages in general. Identified a target niche market and are attacking it. Neat solution to bridge the gap between marketers and IT.” Kudos to Unbounce.

All of you have spoken and your votes went to Bootup Labs company Contractually.

Big shout out to the 9 demo companies who were hustling the entire evening and talking up the crowd. Great job! Thank you for making another Launch Party a fun and successful event. Stay tuned for our announcement of our next Launch Party Vancouver event.

Contractual.ly and DimeRocker to demo at LPV9 June 17th

LP Admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:52:42 +0000

Launch Party Vancouver 9 will kick off tomorrow night, June 17th at 6pm. 9 companies will be demoing their latest and greatest digital media and internet creations to 500 of our closest friends. We’re proud to say that two of these companies, 8.5×14 Media Inc’s Contractually and OverInteractive’s DimeRocker, have completed the Bootup Labs program and we wish them luck in the competition portion of the event.

Who’s Coming to Launch Party 9

LP Admin — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:05:59 +0000

One week to go until Launch Party Vancouver 9 is here! As you know, we have a great line-up of startups for you to check out as well as an amazing list of attendees for you to mix and mingle with on Thursday, June 17th.

If you don’t have your ticket yet, what are you waiting for?? Get your tickets now before we sell out! It’s going to be a great evening. Hope to see you then.

Here’s just a glimpse of some of the people you can look forward to meeting and catching up with next week at LPV9:

Anthony Lee – Altos Venture Partners & the C100 Organization
Katherine Barr - Mohr Davidow Ventures & the C100 Organization
Michael Arrington – Techcrunch
Debbie Landa – Dealmaker Media, the C100 Organization & Grow 2010
Dan Martell – Flowtown & Lean Product Development
Stewart Butterfield – Tiny Speck
Mike Macadaan – MySpace
Marcus Frind – Plenty of Fish
Danny Robinson – Bootup Labs
Jason Bailey – Super Rewards
J. Joly – Dimerocker
Ryan Holmes – Hootsuite
Rebecca Bollwitt – Miss604.com, Sixty4Media
Rob Lewis – Techvibes.com
Kris Krug – Static Photography
Dennis Pilarinos – Microsoft
Steve Wandler – Individual & Metabridge
Mark Cunningham – Indicee.com
Amielle Lake – Tagga
Chris Arsenault – iNovia Capital
Darren Barefoot – Capulet Communications
Ben Pickering – Strutta.com
Leonard Brody – NowPublic.com
Angela Baldonero – Return Path
Lyal Avery – Outcome 3
Igor Faletski – Mobify.com
Cristian Strat – Summify.com
Michael Fergusson – Ayogo Games
Martin Ertl – Contractually & Lexpubli.ca
Boris Mann – B Mann Consulting
Dave Olson – Hootsuite
Dario Meli – Invoke
Jonathan Bixby – Strangeloop Networks
Mack Flavelle – Compass Engine
Patrick Lor – Fotolia
Mike Kirk – Blastramp
Paul Lee – Van Edge Capital
Cindy Pearson – BCTIA
Natalie Sisson – WomanzWorld
Cinci Csere – Eat Communications
Fred Ngo – Standout Jobs
Chris Breikks – 6S Marketing
Derek Shanahan – Foodtree.com
Brock Whitton – Joyent
Rick Perrault – Unbounce.com
Daniel Chu- Silkstart.com
Jim Fletcher – Northwest Ventures
Jesse Heaslip – Noomi.com
Michael Cole – Fitbrains.com
Michael Chelico – Opskwan.com
Dave Chapman – Yellowpoint Capital Partners
Daniel Wolfe – Zedmo
Peter Berger – Suite 101
Chris Coldeway – RedRovr
Curt Cherawayko – Business in Vancouver
Ben Neville – Mainsocial
Theazel Lee – Rocket Builders
Aaron Hilton – Cell Touch
Len Layton – Mingleverse
Mark Binns – Mobio
Mandy Chan – Vidigami Media, Inc.
Pam Brain – Brain Communications
Jenny Yang – Metafor
Jackson Sayers – Healthchoices.ca
Jenn Lowther – 6S Marketing
Daryl Hatton – Connection Point Systems
Raul Pacheco – Hummingbird 604
Troy Angrignon, TA Consulting Inc.
Remy Kozak - Purpose Wireless Ltd.
Kalle Radage – BDC
Brent Holliday – Capital West Partners
Judy Bishop – Avocular Systems
Roland Tanglao – Mozilla
Jon Chui – Startup Digest
Karen Henrich - Chicwalks Media Inc.
Winnie Lai – Clinicbook
Florence Leung – PeerFX Inc.
Kerem Karatal CTO, iQmetrix
Nicholas Molnar – Thirdi Software
Amy Rae – Canpages
Patrick Payne – Quick Mobile
Brendon Wilson – Eirnin Co
James Sherrett -AdHack
Sarah Bancroft – Daily Dose Media
Maria Pacella – Growthworks
Cam Cavers – Reaction Labs
Shannon Yeland – Active State
Judy Hamilton – Terratap Technologies
Dimitri Sirota – Layer 7
Chris Sel, Radiusly
Mark Kaufmann, COO, LingQ
Glenn Hilton – Image X Media
Graham Sibley – Collabware
Weston Trimestra – netSign Communications
Dawn Bowles – DreamBank
Vik Khanna - Faronics
Cameron Scott – Matygo
Amy Lennon – Knowledge Network
Josh Nilson – DES Games
Ashish Anand – Moksha

Bootup Roommates: TinySpeck, Mozilla, & Joyent

LP Admin — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:21:38 +0000

There are a lot of great technologies being developed in Vancouver that we’re proud of, and personally I think we could do a better job telling our story. For example, not many people know of these three world class organizations being developed right in our city, and Bootup Labs is lucky enough to be call them “Roomies”… at least for a little while.

Stewart Butterfield’s TinySpeck has temporarily set up shop in the old DimeRocker office while they wait for their new office to be renovated. Stewart is best known for creating Flickr here in Vancouver, and now splits his time between here and San Francisco. TinySpeck’s first project is called Glitch. It’s pretty amazing to watch Stewart and his rock-star team of artists and developers create something from thin air at break neck speed.

Mozilla Messaging’s Thunderbird 3 email client, developed by David Ascher and his team. David was formerly with ActiveState, which is another Vancouver success story. Everyone is familiar with the FireFox web browser developed and maintained by Mozilla. The same organization develops Thunderbird. I’ve been using the beta version for the past few weeks and I have to tell you, these guys know what they’re doing. David and his team will be here for the indefinite future, and look forward to lots of go-cart battles between team Thunderbird and team Bootup.

Joyent’s cutting edge cloud computing technology lead by VP of Engineering, Mark Mayo right here in Vancouver. Joyent is also waiting for their new office to be built and we were more than honoured to put them up at Bootup until then. Joyent makes the bold statement: “Putting the same old OS “in the cloud” isn’t cloud computing. It’s dumb computing.” I believe there will be a day when all web applications can scale linearly regardless of hardware or special coding. Joyent is the leader among the best of the best in the world trying to make that a reality.

We look forward working with these with each of these local tech anchors to help tell the story of the quality of company we build here in Vancouver. And hope to see you at LPV9 on June 17th and GrowConf Aug 19th-21st.

Launch Party Vancouver 9 Tickets on Sale

LP Admin — Fri, 14 May 2010 23:49:45 +0000

Tickets are now on sale for Launch Party Vancouver 9 on June 17, 2010. We are really looking forward to celebrating summer’s arrival and the best new digital media startups of 2010 with all of you.

We have some special guests lined up for LPV9 including:

Members of The C100, a non-profit organization comprised of a select group of Canadians based primarily in Silicon Valley, including executives of leading technology companies, experienced startup entrepreneurs and venture capital investors.
Techcrunch Founder, Michael Arrington just moved to Seattle and will be a startup Judge for the LPV9 Startup Competition. He will also be in town for the big event. Vancouver, get ready to be Techcrunched!

Ticket Prices
Since LPV started we have quadrupled in size. To accommodate our growing tech community, we will be holding LPV9 at the Roundhouse in Yaletown. We are told that we can fit 500+ of our closest friends in there, so hopefully we will have enough room for all of us. A Bigger venue + growing community = bigger costs. We have tried to keep the ticket prices low, still cover our costs and offer lots of value and fun at every event. Ticket prices include appies and a drink.

Cash Bar
Currently, there is no credit card service on site at the Roundhouse, so bring cash or feel free to pre-purchase drink tickets. We are looking into mobile payment options and securing a credit card service and will update this post if we can accept CC payments.

DJ Jeremy Lim
Jeremy wears many hats – marketer, photographer, musician and wicked DJ. After the startup demos are done, you can rock out and dance to the music of DJ Lim.

Pixstar
Pixstar is a Vancouver photo booth company that has lots of great booth options for corporate events, weddings and Launch Parties! Be sure to drop by the LPV9 Pixstar booth before you leave to take home a special memento from the evening.

Save the date, June 17 – Launch Party Vancouver 9

LP Admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:46:55 +0000

Are you ready for the next Launch Party!?
We had hoped to do LPV9 in January but with the Olympics, we had a hard time locking down a venue that was central and could accommodate all of us without breaking the bank. BUT we are excited to announce that we FINALLY found one! The Roundhouse in Yaletown has approved our application to hold the next Launch Party there on Thursday, June 17th, 2010. It will be a great way to kick off the summer season and celebrate the best new startups of 2010.

Superheroes Wanted!
We are looking for the best Internet startups around to apply to show-off their wares at LPV9. If accepted, there is no cost at all for you to demo and participate in the event. Startups get a table, some signage, wifi, promotion, and lots of love from the BC technology community. **Warning: You may sound a little hoarse or lose your voice altogether when the night is done.**

Tickets
As always, we will try to keep ticket prices low but because of the size of the event, our costs have gone up too. Ticket prices may rise a bit as a result but will include a drink, and appys in the price. And since we won’t be getting kicked out of the venue early, the celebration will go late.

Once we finalize the details, you will be able to register to attend. Startups feel free to apply now. We will be accepting applications until May 14, 2010.

Venue Recommendations

LP Admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:35:37 +0000

Hello Vancouver! We’ve been getting a lot of emails and calls asking when our next Launch Party event will be. And now that the Olympics are over <sigh>, and venues are freed up, we are working on finalizing the details for LPV9.

But I need your help…
I’ve been sourcing out venue after venue after venue but can’t seem to find a space that will fit all of us. I feel like I have looked at every venue from Gastown to Yaletown but it is hard to find a big enough space within our non-profit budget. So, I was hoping that you might have some venue recommendations for me.

This is what we need:
At our last event, we had over 400 attendees. And if you recall, it was pretty hot and cramped in Circa. This time around, we would like to have a bit more breathing room.

Capacity 500
Natural Lighting (preferred)
Bar and on-site kitchen
Wifi
Screens
Air Conditioning / Ventilation
Fantastic speaker system & working mic.

We are shooting to have our next Launch Party in mid May, early June.

If you are a Venue and would like to us to host our next LPV at your venue, please contact me at – sonia (at) bootup (dot) ca or if you have any recommendations, please leave a comment on this post.

Under the Launch Party – our hottest event yet!

LP Admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:01:16 +0000

by Maura Rodgers (@Maurar)

Another Launch Party is under our belt. Our 8th Launch Party to be exact. Aside from finding a venue with a PA system that doesn’t make us sound like Charlie Brown’s Teacher or has sufficient AC to keep all 400+ of us a little cooler, I would call it a success. I enjoyed seeing many familiar faces as well as meeting visitors from Seattle, Ontario, Kelowna, California and abroad. We hope you left with a smile on your face and a pocket overflowing with new business cards that lead to meaningful relationships.

If the PA system had actually worked at the event, there were a few things we really wanted to say:

First of all – thank you very much for coming out to celebrate and support the entrepreneurs in our digital media community. As Danny has said many times before, we believe Entrepreneurs are the Superheroes for our economy. Entrepreneurs are the ones, who will lead us out of the tough times. The ones who understand that in order to solve a problem and change the world, you need to take a risk and go where no one else has gone before. (hence, the Superhero Trophies!) And that is why LPV exists – to salute entrepreneurs for their innovation and surround them with the right people, who can help them take their idea to the next level.

Speaking of the right people…
Many thanks to Debbie Landa from Dealmaker Media for flying up from San Francisco to co-host our 8th event. Debbie founded Dealmaker Media in 2000 and organizes a number of high quality conferences and events in the Valley, LA and NY each year. When it comes to the digital media and VC landscape in the States, Debbie is plugged in. 49% of the companies that have been selected to pitch at her events have gone on to raise funding or be acquired. Not only is she an experienced entrepreneur, who knows how to spot a winner, she’s also Canadian! Debbie is @deblanda on Twitter.

Check out Dealmaker’s next event Under the Radar on November 19 in Mountain View, CA

And if it wasn’t for…
Sun has always been a big supporter of our Launch Party events and the Vancouver technology community. We hope that you had a chance to meet with Jeremiah from Sun Start-up Essentials, who flew in from San Francisco for the event. As many of you already know, for your startup to succeed, you need more than a good business plan–you need a way to implement it quickly and cost-effectively. If the mic actually worked on Wednesday, Jeremiah would have told you that the Sun Start-up Essential Program provides you with discounted hardware and services, free support and training, and access to a network of investors and startups around the globe. If you are interested in learning more, you can Apply online or follow-up with Jeremiah directly. You can also find him on Twitter @jshack.

Big Thanks to:
Our media sponsor, Techvibes, Layer 7 and all the crew at Strutta, who designed and managed the LPV8 Start-up Competition. Thanks to Sonia, Jordan, Tina, and all of the volunteers, who worked the door. Your support and enthusiasm are what make each and every event so wicked awesome (that’s Bostonian for really good!).

Just Bootup
You may have heard that Strutta hired Ben Pickering as their new CEO, which means I am now working as the Executive Director of the Bootup Entrepreneurial Society with Sonia Ryan as my wingman.

The Bootup Entrepreneurial Society (BES) may share the Bootup in the Bootup Labs name (and their coffee maker) but it is NOT part of Bootup Labs. While they help early stage companies too, BL is all about turning a profit. BES is a non-profit that exists to build a solid infrastructure to help all entrepreneurs (not just BL companies) take a brilliant idea and turn it into a real business. BES is thrilled to have Leonard Brody, Boris Wertz, Danny Robinson and Boris Mann on our Board. All of these Superheroes want to see more digital media companies take root and flourish in BC and are investing their time and passion to make this happen.

Launch Party, which was founded by Danny, Dimitri and I and will now be managed by BES. In addition, BES will be organizing a number of events and workshops on a monthly basis to help digital media entrepreneurs start, build and grow their business. Stay tuned for more.

Thanks again for coming!