Startup Ottawa is looking for bloggers…

So the one thing thats really hard about working at a startup is finding the time to do everything that needs to be done. More often than not updating Startup Ottawa fall through the cracks. So after almost 600 posts, I think its time to look for some new people who’d like to actively help Scott and I cover the startup / tech scene in Ottawa. Here is what we’re looking for:

-People who are passionate about what’s going on in this city
-People who really want to give something back to startup and tech communities
-People who wont just pimp their own stuff

If you are one of these people, please get in touch and tell me why you’d like to spend your free time writing blog posts for this site. You can email me here: scott.lake {at} gmail {dot} com

Demo Camp is Tomorrow (thrusday) Night

I just wanted to remind everyone that DemoCamp is happening tomorrow night at The Clock Tower on Bank street.  See you there….

Network Hippo makes the front page of Techcrunch

Congrats on an amazing product launch!!

UPDATED: Network Hippo at DEMO

UPDATED:  So judging by the amount of people who emailed me today about the Network Hippo Video at DEMO that I posted, I think its fair to say that I really under-estimated what a big deal this is. 

For those of you that don’t know DEMO is one of the top conferences for a company to launch their products at.  Some organizations spend thousands of dollars and months of preparation getting ready for a DEMO appearance.  For the average startup even getting to appear at DEMO is a huge deal and for who knows what reason the hugeness of this event didn’t really strike me until now. 

To begin, there are a few things that are great about this.  The first is that Scott put up such a great demo in front of a crowd of a couple thousand people. The second is that he is representing Ottawa and our startup scene while he is down there.  The third is that he’s pushing through barriers that hold lots of Ottawa companies back.

All that being said, I’m really glad to see someone like Scott down at DEMO making it happen for his company. For the most part, it is what we all wish we could be doing. 

Congrats again Scott. Great performance.

Comments are encouraged.

DemoCamp 13 is on April 15th…

Jobs: BOLDstreet is looking for a Social Media Strategist

BOLDstreet, the people who bring you your wifi at Starbucks are looking for a full time Social Media Strategist.  I have worked with BOLDstreet before and I can assure you that they are AWESOME. Here is the ad:

As the leading provider of public Wi-Fi solutions in Canada, we are looking for an energetic person to help implement our growing social media strategy.  We’re searching for a smart, creative, independent business savvy person packing tons of common sense and motivation.  The ideal candidate should be very familiar with social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, Foursquare, GetSatisfaction, Gowalla, etc.) and have an eager interest in keeping current with new up and coming social media tools.  The candidate does not require extensive experience, but should understand these tools have some experience using them. 

The Social Media Strategist will be responsible for;  Strategizing with a team to incorporate social media techniques into our products and services, Experimenting with new and alternate ways to utilize social media (Marketing R&D), Managing and reporting on our social media accounts, Defining our matrix of success, and Measuring the impact of social media on the overall marketing efforts.

You can get in touch with them here: recruitme@boldstreet.com

Roadmaps Lecture Series

Luc Lalande just passed this along.  On March 24, 2010 Carleton University students and the general public are invited to the inaugural Roadmaps Lecture — a candid discussion with prominent global leaders and entrepreneurs who will share their advice on the routes that lead a university education towards a fulfilling career.

The first discussion is coming up on March 24th with engineer, entrepreneur and advisor at Charles River Ventures – Hassan Ahmed

As a licensed pilot, Hassan Ahmed knows the importance of filing your flight plan before takeoff. This important document is your roadmap—a reference point to help you get where you’re going and withstand any bad weather you encounter along the way. Ahmed has taken the same approach to his career. Combining his Carleton engineering education and an entrepreneurial drive, he filed his personal flight plan—to become a leader in his field and in business. Driven by his ambitious goals, he brought a number of ground-breaking engineering ideas to market, grew more than one business from startup roots to global success, and served in leadership roles for some of the world’s most innovative telecommunications companies—including a decade as CEO of Sonus Networks, a global leader in VoIP technology solutions.

Date and Location
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Azrieli Theatre 101
4:30 – 6:00 p.m.

Registration
This is a free event
Register at http://alumni.carleton.ca/events.
For more information, contact the Department of University Advancement at 613-520-3636.

Ottawa video blogger launches Mint&Berry online store

Jon Cianciullo is married to a pretty smart women.  Charmaine Leah, already a popular video beauty blogger on YouTube, founder of Glamology.com and twitter big-wig   recently launched an organic shop online: mintandberry.com.   Jon passed on this info:

Charmaine created Mint & Berry to help educate both men and women on the dangers of conventional skin care products and provide alternatives which effective without long-term health risks. Mint & Berry provides organic skin care, hair, body, baby, and men products which are natural, ethical, and free of synthetic ingredients.

The average adult is exposed to over 168 chemicals each day just from conventional personal care products like face wash, soap, shampoo. Almost 3/4s of these chemicals are known carcinogens or suspected toxins that affect the immune, reproductive, and endocrine systems.

Amazing work Charmaine!

Social Mention wins Myspace Developer Challenge

This is great news.  Jon Cianciullo has done it again.  His app Social Mention has just won the prize for "Most innovative use of the Open Search API" at the Myspace Developer Challenge.

Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content into a single stream of information. It allows users to track and measure what people are saying about a topic across the web’s social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention integrates with the MySpace Open Search API to provide photo and video results to be analyzed in its social media search results, emails alerts, and RSS feeds.

The prize is a nice $10K.  Way to go Jon! 

Here is the link to the story.

Showcase: Enhansoft

What is your app?
We have a suite of tools called Enhanced Asset Management (EAM), comprised of:
Warranty Information Reporting (WIR)
Monitor Information Reporting (MIR)
Enhanced Web Reporting (EWR)

Why is it important?
EAM is important to clients to help them better understand their asset management, for example you would think that it would be easy within a Windows environment to know the make, model and serial number of each monitor but there is no easy way to do this. Or how do you determine the warranty status of a group of PCs? This is where Warranty Information Reporting comes into play.

Who are your intended customers
Most of our customers have 1500+ PC/Servers and are using Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 ( ConfigMgr / SCCM ) or System Management Server 2003 ( SMS ), many with over 10k PCs and want to understand more in-depth the assets that they manage.

How many people are you?
Currently we are 4 staff and growing.

What makes you happy?
We like working with our customers to help them understand their environment.