December 23, 2011

2011 showed us what Canadian startups are really made of

Christine Wong

There were some incredible highs and lows for tech entrepreneurs this year.   

On the positive side, there were numerous (34 according to an informal count by Techvibes.com) that made successful exits through being acquired: , Radian6 (both by Salesforce.com), Flock, Five Mobile (both by Zynga), PostRank (by Google) and Back Type (by Twitter).  

One of those deals even involved a resurrection of sorts (okay, now I’m leaving the Christmas motif and veering into Easter territory) as , just weeks after declaring it was shutting down due to lack of capital, was snapped up by Postmedia Network Inc.



What Google’s Eric Schmidt thinks of other tech CEOs

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December 22, 2011

Toasters hit with tariff to reflect bread’s value

Toasters hit with tariff to reflect bread’s value

By Brian Jackson

Editor’s note: This is a satirical take on today’s news article () about a request by the Canadian Private Copying Collective to the Copyright Board of Canada to place a tariff on microSD cards, to reflect the value of the songs copied to them by users. It was suggested that a loaf of bread could serve as analogy for a song, as a product that consumers regularly purchase…

The Lunching Rights Board of Canada has made a decision that a tariff request made by the Canadian Bread Creator’s Collective (CBCC) will be allowed, and a tariff will be charged on various tools that allow consumers to eat their bread in different forms starting in 2012.

Consumers can expect to pay an additional fee on sandwich presses and toasters starting in the New Year, as the Lunching Rights Board agreed that such instruments derive value from bread, and bread makers should be paid for that value. Toasters that only fit bread slices will carry an extra fee of $0.50 per toaster, while toasters that are wide enough to fit bagels will have a $1 fee. Deluxe toasters that fit four slices or more will carry an extra $3 fee, as will sandwich presses.

Brian Jackson, Associate Editor, ITBusiness.ca

“Everyone is making money from bread except for the bakers,” says Daniel Pikeson, a board member with the CBCC. “The people selling the toasters are getting paid, the people selling sandwich grills are getting paid, but the bakers aren’t seeing compensation for the value they’re creating.”

Without bread, there’d be little point to using a toaster, Pikeson says.

While importers of toasters will cut the cheque for the CBCC, the costs will likely be passed on to consumers. Asked whether most consumers feel they have the right to eat bread however they’d damn well like after purchasing a loaf of it, Pikeson responded that it’s a value for value proposition.

“People pressing some pastrami between two slices of rye on their grill obviously value the bread,” he says. “You can’t really argue there is no value to the bread in this form, because without it, that would be a really sad sandwich.”

Collecting the levy makes bread modification legal, Pikeson argues. Until the tariff was in place, Canadians making toasted sandwiches with no care for the rights of bakers were breaking the law, he says.

How Canadians are consuming their bread became a minor election issue earlier this year when the Conservative Party came out against a proposed levy on microwaves. Calling the tariff a “Microwave tax,” the party campaigned on the promise that Canadians would not have to pay an additional fee on microwaves they buy, just because they will probably use it to warm up bread at some point.

The Federal Court has also previously determined microwaves don’t meet the definition of a bread modification system. People are more likely to microwave things like popcorn, cold coffee, and other crap like that, a judge said. Butter knives also avoided a tariff, despite their use to sever crust from bread, and slather it with condiments such as fruit jams or peanut butter.

But the CBCC argued toasters met the Lunching Right Board’s definitions after conducting market research asking Canadians how they usually use their toasters.

“The overwhelming majority of it was for bread,” Pikeson says. “There was some use for Pop Tarts and frozen waffles, but not a lot.”

The tariff goes into effect Jan. 1. The CBCC is responsible for collecting the funds and distributing it to bakers that have had their bread altered before consumption.

 

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How to preserve your cash flow

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December 21, 2011

Challenging the status quo

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December 20, 2011

Countering artificial commoditization and poor pricing

Countering artificial commoditization and poor pricing

by Stewart Crawford

 

I stumbled upon awesome white paper from my friend Larry Walsh and the teams from N-Able and Netenrich.

As an experienced or who has built a very successful IT Support firm, I often stop and think about how my MSP coaching clients are pricing themselves in the marketplace today.

Stewart Crawford

There is a pricing challenge in our industry. It starts with how we see our value as an IT Professional” or “IT Consultant” versus just the regular “joe computer fix it guy”. 

Larry’s teaser says it all:

A plague has befallen the managed services marketplace. Once the bastion of predictable revenue and sustained profitability, MSPs are watching their average sale prices and margins erode precipitously under competitive and economic pressures. As services become more prevalent, end users have more choice in whom they buy from and what price they’ll pay for various managed services.

I have my own theories on why today’s IT service providers, I can’t call them MSPs anywhere are struggling on price and in some situations making up competition in their head.

Yes, we have competition out there but do we really? I think many of us make up the competitive threat because we see a new competitor pop up on the horizon or we hear an industry leader such as Arnie Bellini mention at IT Nation that DELL or Microsoft have their sights on our business model and we have to “unite” to combat it.

Get the report from the 2112 Group and read it…let me know what you think?

Download the

Here is my last thought from the article and then I will let you check it out. Stop talking CUSTOMERS and focus on CLIENTS who get IT.

Many of struggle to generate the right revenue for our business because we don’t know who our ideal CLIENT is! There are only two bad “C” words in my vocabulary and CUSTOMER is one of them. Stop worrying about competition and focus on attracting CLIENTS who get the value you deliver! Do this now!

Stuart Crawford, president and chief marketing officers, Ulistic Inc. After a 9 year military career which saw Stuart rapidly accelerate through the ranks finishing as a Master Corporal in the Canadian Signal Corp Stuart went to work putting into practice the leadership and character traits he learned through his time with the Canadian Forces. He is a member of Editorial Advisory Board of ITBusiness.ca

 

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Biker embarks on social media-driven trek across Canada

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December 19, 2011

Why do startups hate agreements?

by Monica Goyal

I recently considered entering a business relationship with a startup. These conversations always seem to end with the same awkwardness around signing an agreement. My response, as always, was: I’ll certainly look it over; sometimes I might suggest a revision, and then I may sign it.

Monica Goyal

For some reason, this attention to contracts surprises some. It’s as if contracts are seen as a necessary evil, a nice to have, rather than an important part of solid business partnerships. I totally understand. Most new businesses are most concerned with becoming profitable as quickly as possible, not spending a lot time revising contracts.



Why ‘Small Business Saturday’ would make no sense

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December 16, 2011

Is it time to do away with email?

by Nestor E. Arellano

I’ll be off this Friday and two more days next week. My editor, Brian, will be taking a few days off this week as well and I imagine a few other writers at IT World Canada will be taking some staggered days off during the holiday season just as most workers in other companies will be this month and the next.

A good way to catch up on rest, spend some quality time with family and hopefully get away from work email.

But maybe that last thought on email isn’t quite right. Could you imagine how much mail your inbox would accumulate if it went unattended for even just a couple of days?

Nestor Arellano

has been a constant complaint ever since the technology was introduced to corporate communication. I seriously think that whatever amount of paper mail email might have done away with, it has returned a hundred fold in digital correspondence – to the point that the typical workforce is now weighed down by the daily churn of online messages pinging back and fort at the office.

say that if a worker receives an average of 15 emails a day, reading through them could take up at least an hour of interrupted work. If that worker is part of a 20-person workplace that could amount to 20 hours of work time lost each day or a loss of $2000 per week based on $20//hour salary. A survey by Salesforce.com also found that 70 per cent of emails sent at work were had no relevance to work at all.

We have become so attached (like PDF files) to the email process. Emailing, it seems has replaced other practices even those that we did without paper. We email colleagues just to find out if they’re in, email jokes and photos, we email to create an audit trail. To cut down on the data deluge, some workplaces have instituted in an effort to cut down on the online exchange. But I fear that such efforts at corporate intervention against our would only backfire – no email Thursdays morphing into email tsunami Fridays for instance.

Perhaps this is why the recent announcement by French IT services company, that it intends to becomes a is making a lot of waves.

Thierry Breton, the company’s chief executive, says the volume of emails Atos sends and receives has become “unsustainable for business.” According to Thierry, managers are spending five to 20 hours a week reading and writing emails.

“We are taking action now to reverse this trend, just as organizations took measures to reduce environmental pollution after the industrial revolution,” he said.

Atos is turning to collaboration tools and social networking platforms instead to help workers share ideas and keep track of projects and reduce needless data exchanges and searches along the way. Thierry said its Office Communicator collaboration tool can reduce email volumes by as much as 10 to 20 per cent.

Could this be the end of email? Probably not. Email and the Internet were supposed to usher us into a paperless society. Despite declining postal numbers our mailboxes and desks are still awash in paper.

I think it will take some time for social networks and collaboration tools to supplant email. For one thing adoption rates for these new tools are still low. According to Forrester research only three to four per cent of workers use microblogging technologies and eight to 15 per cent are on social networks.

By contrast, email is used as a communication platform by over 95 per cent of workers. I think this is so because in its short lifespan, email has managed to embed itself securely in the workplace structure. It is already installed when people are hired, it is easy to use (and misuse unfortunately), it can accommodate office practices and is an accepted process and it can be used to communicate outside the office.

Of course all of these can be done with social media and collaboration tools too ITBusiness.ca stories like , and to tell you all about it..

For many functions and purposes, email still cuts it. But if a business wants to avoid email overload today more than ever the options abound.

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Windows Mango – Nokia Lumia 800 and 710

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December 15, 2011

HP makes Web OS open source

HP makes Web OS open source

by Kye Husbands

 

You read that right and the first question probably going through your mind is, well, why the heck not?

Three months ago HP’s Touchpad, Web OS and their whole computer business were in the garbage, but HP’s recent  move could resurrect Web OS and spur a whole new level of interest and traction for HP down the road.

HP Toucpad

Let’s be clear about this.  This is a gamble by HP but they really don’t have anything to lose by doing it and rather, everything to gain.  However, this move has the potential to be very disruptive to what was quickly becoming a two horse race between Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.

So what does open sourcing Web OS mean for the smartphone industry?

  1. Developer interest in WebOS could push RIM one step further down the totem pole and also have some impact on Google’s traction as manufacturers like Samsung and HTC look to diversify a bit, instead of having all of their apples in Google’s basket.
  2. We all worry about the two horse race having to much control and for months now, since the Nokia & Microsoft partnership, we have anticipated that Microsoft would step into that #3 spot, but with little to show to date and HP’s decision today they may have to work a little harder again to garner some respect going forward.
  3. WebOS has long been touted as a solid mobile operating system and HP’s Touchpad had a lot of promise when it was first announced, so reviving WebOS through a vibrant open source developer community is a good bet.

Time will tell how this one unfolds but it’s definitely worth the gamble.

Kudos to HP for making a potentially very disruptive and innovative decision at the same time.

 





Dexim twin usb car charger for all phones “GORDON’S ALIIVVEEEEEE????!!!” A Plea for a Brian Blessed GPS

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December 14, 2011

How HoHoTO turned crowdsourcing into a cause

How HoHoTO turned crowdsourcing into a cause

By Shane Schick

Startups know what it means to be hungry. They tend to be launched by people who work extremely hard for what are sometimes small dividends, at least initially. They have to be very efficient with their expenses and other resources. They know they need to lean on each other for support occasionally, just to survive. They still have it a lot better than the many people in Toronto who go hungry every day — not hungry for success but for actual food. That’s probably why so many of them contribute to HohoTO.

Although it’s a holiday fundraiser rather than an actual company, after three years already looks like more of a well-oiled machine than many other young Toronto tech firms vying for investors and customers. Launched by a group of friends in the local IT scene to help the through the Christmas season, the project grew large part through word-of-Web, with the efforts of bloggers, Twitter and Facebook users tapping into their networks to solicit donations, team members or both. This year’s event will take place on Thursday, Dec. 15 at the Mod Club on College Street. ITBusiness.ca is proud to be among the many sponsors.

Shane Schick, editor-in-chief, IT World Canada

What’s interesting about the HoHoTO concept is the way it’s managed to harness the idea of “” and pull together the time, talent and energy of people from tech, the media and other sectors in not only a dynamic but consistent way. The first tweets about the party started well in advance of the holiday season. As though obeying some mutually agreed-upon policy those involved have been regular in their online messaging but careful not to spam or oversell the party and its purpose. This is the kind of social media marketing that many SMBs still need to learn.

Then there’s the Website, a six-tab navigation so simple it’s nearly impossible not to learn everything you need to know about HoHoTO in seconds, and in particular how to get involved. This is an often-overlooked component of what it takes to make something viral: once you’ve been effective in communicating about your product or service it should be easy to obtain and use it.

Plenty of startups also fail to keep growing their product and service offering once they hit the ground running. Not HoHoTO, which has introduced a number of new elements this year, including promo codes from sponsors that lead to even larger donations; a song-request system and, perhaps most importantly, a “quick start” guide for those who might like to launch a similar fundraising event.

You could argue that it’s a lot easier to manage an annual party than it is to launch a company, but look at what HoHoTO has raised over three years, the people it’s brought into the mix and the profile it’s achieved. Finally, look at its impact on Toronto’s hungry. The sense of mission here is focused and real. If it ever raised enough money that no one needed the Daily Bread Food Bank again, the party wouldn’t be over. There would simply be greater reason to celebrate.





9 nifty apps for the BlackBerry Bold 9900

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December 13, 2011

Targeted attacks and how they’re happening now

Paul Wood

Though the term has been overused and occasionally misused, it is undeniable that APTs represent a significant threat to some companies and industries.  Symantec.cloud found that the number of APTs detected worldwide increased fourfold from January to November of this year.  So as 2011 comes to a close, we thought it would be a good idea to use our to take a closer look at what have been dubbed “advanced persistent threats”. 



Nokia bl 4c battery bulk packaging CDs, DVDs top iPads as favourite Christmas gift choice

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December 12, 2011

Giving a fair shake to the eyes in the sky

Genevolve’
s ultimate goal is to create a global colour vision standard for all occupations.



Should your business buy a .XXX domain?

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December 09, 2011

Companies exposing Canadians’ personal information face no penalty

Companies exposing Canadians’ personal information face no penalty

By Brian Jackson

As social networking becomes more popular and online advertisers seek more effective ways to target their messages, our society is trying to cope with how to protect our privacy while sharing more details about ourselves than ever before via the Web.

If you doubt that the collection of personal details online is the top privacy concern, just look to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s work over the last several years. It has been preoccupied with Facebook, protecting children’s’ online privacy, fighting spam, and Google Streetview, just to name a few. Now we hear that commissioner Jennifer Stoddart will be turning a watchful eye towards companies engaging in .

Brian Jackson, Associate Editor, ITBusiness.ca

Appearing at a conference hosted by the Association of Canadian Advertisers, Stoddart said advertisers can’t use tracking technology that users are unaware of or unable to decline. If they do, they could face disciplinary measures such as an audit by the office, or being taken to Federal Court and publicly shamed. But we’ve heard this watchdog bark before, and rarely have we seen it bite.

After turned what had been private personal information into publicly accessible information in April 2010, Stoddart sent a stern letter to Google CEO (at the time) Eric Schmidt and intonated with other international privacy commissioners that this was the last straw. Yet when Google admitted its Streetview cars had from unprotected WiFi hotspots and stored it in a database, the Commissioner’s only response was to send an engineer and request the data be deleted, then make recommendations on how Google could improve its privacy practices.

After spending a year  due to a complaint from the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) at the University of Ottawa, Stoddart was able to pressure Facebook into committing to many privacy changes for the better. But CIPPIC was that all problems were addressed.

This week, it looks like Facebook will once again escape penalty for breaching user privacy as a class-action lawsuit representing Canadian members of the social network is halted in its tracks with a . To escape any liability for changing its default privacy settings to expose more user information around the beginning of 2010, Facebook only had to agree to pay a paltry $76,000 and commit to keeping its current privacy policy “substantially the same” for three years.

One main reason the law firm opted to settle with Facebook is because a Quebec judge deemed that the main plaintiff must have to bring his case to court in Santa Clara, Calif. That is what he agreed to, after all, when he accepted Facebook’s ridiculously long terms of service contract that is required to create an account.

Canadians who had their information exposed are left with nothing and unless they opt out of the settlement, will have no option for recourse in the future. Facebook wouldn’t comment on the settlement of this lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the Privacy Commissioner remains mum on that status of a into Facebook focusing on user invitations, the implementation of the “Like” button and other issues.

Stoddart’s office is doing the best job it can to tackle the online challenges to privacy faced by Canadians. Observers say the office is too underfunded to actually take offenders to court, and it doesn’t have the power to fine firms directly. Considering its lack of teeth, it has won some serious privacy improvements from major players.

Until the Privacy Commissioner is armed with more powers to deal out damage to those breaching the privacy of Canadians, and our courts consider it a serious offence to leak personal information no matter what is in the “terms of service” agreement, Canadians can expect their personal data to fall prey to further breaches. If it’s not from a big player like Facebook or Google, then it will be a small business that makes the flub.

If we value our privacy, then we should demand more action when it is violated – even online.

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Samsung s3653 Top 10 Bestselling iPhone Cases

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December 08, 2011

There are more losers than winners with software patents

Today, it seems to be common rhetoric that if you are a successful software startup, you will eventually be sued. If you have conducted business in this industry for any length of time, you likely know of a company that has become the target of a software patent suit.

Monica Goyal

At times, the persons who come knocking on the door are those, whose only business assets are patents, where they don’t actually make any products. They usually seek some form of royalty from a legitimate business enterprise.

Another example can be seen with interactive television programme guides. Gemstar, acquired by Macrovision (now Rovi Corporation), holds the intellectual property rights for numerous interactive television programme guides, effectively controlling how millions of people find their favourite television shows.



Accelerated: Springboard takes a ‘people centric’ approach

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BlackBerry gets it right with Curve 9360

BlackBerry gets it right with Curve 9360

by Yale Holder

For fans of the model gets a decent grade for its purpose -  a value based messaging cell phone. Its affordable at $50 on a 3 year contract or $350 without any contract or tab discount. Let’s review some of the key features of this phone as compared to its predecessor.

What I like?

The curve always seems to be short changed compared with the BlackBerry Bold models and always seems to have something missing – a camera with no flash – 3G with no Wi-Fi or vice versa, and the design wasn’t too slim or sleek looking. Well RIM fixes most of these issues with the Curve 9360, here are the key features that I do like:

  • Design – the phone looks sleak and is razor thin at 11mm and weights only 99grams.  Overall design is solid and the phone looks nicely designed for the blackberry.  The keys give a nice click when you push them, giving blackberry users the nice keyboard feel. The screen comes standard with a 480 x 360 resolution, nothing to write home here but its a curve but the screen does look better than the previous models.
  • Operating system – The curve comes with OS 7 and includes a voice enabled search which would have been great amazing hadn’t the iPhone 4S not introduced Siri.
  • Specs – The Curve has been upgraded from the lowly 624 MHz processor to 800 MHz giving more power under the hood and it also comes with 512 MB of RAM
  • Messaging – BlackBerry is big on messaging and the Curve doesn’t dissappoint here – email, , Twitter and Facebook messages can all be integrated into one inbox or separated if you want.
  • Browser – the Curve before was a nightmare to surf the web on, but this edition of the Curve is a much better experience and its what you can expect from a Smartphone today
  • Camera – Finally a camera worthy of the Curve line has been installed, this version of the curve has a 5MP camera up from the previous 2MP and it also includes a flash which was missing in the 9300 model
  • Connectivity – As I mentioned before this model has the most connectivity of any of the previous curve models, it includes 3G AND Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, HSDPA/HSUPA and NFC (near field communication) which today still has limited uses, but the fact that its all there makes this an impressive curve version.

 

 What didn’t I like?

While I would admit that this is one of the better BlackBerry Curves produced,  it still falls behind in a few areas especially when you compare it with competitors in the space. Having said that here are some key points to note:

  1.  Browsing experience – while the browser has been upgraded and you can actually browse on this phone and enjoy the product, its takes way too long to render pages, waiting as long as 30 seconds for one page to load (albeit a heavy page) which you won’t expect on Wi-Fi.
  2. Slow Processor – Again the Curve upgraded its process to 800 MHz but today I want 1 GHz and higher and its probably the reason for the slow rendering of webpages experienced above
  3. Poor Video and Camera – The camera does not have auto focus, it has poor illumination in dark areas,  no image stabilization, and you can’t take moving pictures of objects moving. No HD video either which you can get on the  video is limited to SD
  4. Limited Storage – this phone doesn’t come with an SD card and with only 512MB of internal memory you will need to get storage to add here
  5. Battery– this Curve has a 1000mAh battery which is down from 1,150mAh and this may limit the battery life of the phone despite the better efficiency of OS 7.

Conclusion

The curve is a very good messaging device for the budget conscious smartphone user.  Blackberry is getting closer  but still has a ways to go. The Curve 9360 comes with almost all the typically features you would need for messaging, playing media and taking simple pictures. This model of the curve is the best I’ve seen in the non touch screen editions of the Curve. For the smart shopper check out  on this device.





Online dispute resolution saves firms time and money

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December 07, 2011

BlackBerry get’s it right with Curve 9360

BlackBerry gets it right with Curve 9360

by Yale Holder

For fans of the model gets a decent grade for its purpose -  a value based messaging cell phone. Its affordable at $50 on a 3 year contract or $350 without any contract or tab discount. Let’s review some of the key features of this phone as compared to its predecessor.

What I like?

The curve always seems to be short changed compared with the BlackBerry Bold models and always seems to have something missing – a camera with no flash – 3G with no Wi-Fi or vice versa, and the design wasn’t too slim or sleek looking. Well RIM fixes most of these issues with the Curve 9360, here are the key features that I do like:

  • Design – the phone looks sleak and is razor thin at 11mm and weights only 99grams.  Overall design is solid and the phone looks nicely designed for the blackberry.  The keys give a nice click when you push them, giving blackberry users the nice keyboard feel. The screen comes standard with a 480 x 360 resolution, nothing to write home here but its a curve but the screen does look better than the previous models.
  • Operating system – The curve comes with OS 7 and includes a voice enabled search which would have been great amazing hadn’t the iPhone 4S not introduced Siri.
  • Specs – The Curve has been upgraded from the lowly 624 MHz processor to 800 MHz giving more power under the hood and it also comes with 512 MB of RAM
  • Messaging – BlackBerry is big on messaging and the Curve doesn’t dissappoint here – email, , Twitter and Facebook messages can all be integrated into one inbox or separated if you want.
  • Browser – the Curve before was a nightmare to surf the web on, but this edition of the Curve is a much better experience and its what you can expect from a Smartphone today
  • Camera – Finally a camera worthy of the Curve line has been installed, this version of the curve has a 5MP camera up from the previous 2MP and it also includes a flash which was missing in the 9300 model
  • Connectivity – As I mentioned before this model has the most connectivity of any of the previous curve models, it includes 3G AND Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, HSDPA/HSUPA and NFC (near field communication) which today still has limited uses, but the fact that its all there makes this an impressive curve version.

 

 What didn’t I like?

While I would admit that this is one of the better BlackBerry Curves produced,  it still falls behind in a few areas especially when you compare it with competitors in the space. Having said that here are some key points to note:

  1.  Browsing experience – while the browser has been upgraded and you can actually browse on this phone and enjoy the product, its takes way too long to render pages, waiting as long as 30 seconds for one page to load (albeit a heavy page) which you won’t expect on Wi-Fi.
  2. Slow Processor – Again the Curve upgraded its process to 800 MHz but today I want 1 GHz and higher and its probably the reason for the slow rendering of webpages experienced above
  3. Poor Video and Camera – The camera does not have auto focus, it has poor illumination in dark areas,  no image stabilization, and you can’t take moving pictures of objects moving. No HD video either which you can get on the  video is limited to SD
  4. Limited Storage – this phone doesn’t come with an SD card and with only 512MB of internal memory you will need to get storage to add here
  5. Battery– this Curve has a 1000mAh battery which is down from 1,150mAh and this may limit the battery life of the phone despite the better efficiency of OS 7.

Conclusion

The curve is a very good messaging device for the budget conscious smartphone user.  Blackberry is getting closer  but still has a ways to go. The Curve 9360 comes with almost all the typically features you would need for messaging, playing media and taking simple pictures. This model of the curve is the best I’ve seen in the non touch screen editions of the Curve. For the smart shopper check out  on this device.





Part II: Dissecting the brain of the market pays off for BlueArc

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December 06, 2011

The layman’s guide for bringing tech to market

The layman’s guide for bringing tech to market

 By Francis Moran

When we last spoke with CommentAir co-founders  and Luke Hrycak, the siblings were busy scraping up the cash for Katie to attend the  in Toronto. Unfortunately, she never made it.

In our last post, we talked about how important it was for the . Katie was determined to make the most of the opportunity by having a working prototype in hand.

But even the best laid plans sometimes go astray. Design adjustments and component testing delays put the prototype behind schedule. Katie and Luke decided it wasn’t worth the expense to attend the conference simply to network.

“It isn’t anyone’s fault,” Katie said. “It’s just that sometimes things don’t finish as you expect them to and you have to deal with that. You just have to draft a new timeline and get back to work.”

Understanding and managing the details necessary to research, develop and prototype a piece of wireless technology has been a fundamental part of the learning curve for these young entrepreneurs. Neither of them has a technical or engineering background.

In this instalment, we’ll explore how they have overcome this learning curve and whether or not it has proven to be a handicap.

Katie graduated from  last year with a bachelor of international business. She didn’t have any previous work experience in project management or getting technology to market, though a stint with a software startup did provide her with some insight into working in small teams, meeting product development deadlines and funding challenges.

Luke graduated from  in 2003 with a bachelor of business administration and a stream in technology management. He has worked in call centers and corporate sales, and did have a brief experience trying to launch a logistics startup. He works in trucking and logistics and is also doing his CMA certification.

Katie credits the life experience she gained from two years travelling in South America for developing the necessary people and networking skills to hustle the business along, while Luke is versed at the financial and operational details. Still, neither of them had a sound grounding in technology development.

It always comes back to hustling

That began to change when Katie met , CEO of Nitro IT Business Solutions, at a Carleton U. leadership development seminar called . He provided her with the advice she needed to begin a process of self-taught learning.

“I did a lot of research online about wireless and telecommunications, but found that text books available in the library were most useful,” Katie said. “It wasn’t my intention to become an expert, but to get to the point where I knew what I needed, who I needed to talk to, and could have an intelligent conversation about it all.”

Early in the process, Katie met Zhu Li, a PhD candidate in wireless communication at Carleton.

“He helped enormously to fill in my knowledge gap, and introduced me to his professor Richard Yu,” Katie said. “Between them, we figured out what we needed to create the technology. Other friends of Zhu Li also contributed.”

Katie used this growing base of knowledge to research competing technologies and understand what CommentAir needed to do with its product design and market strategy to set itself apart. As we explored in previous posts, hustling has been a key means for Katie and Luke to build their base of knowledge and to secure support for their venture.

“We pretty much talked to everyone we possibly could within our resources,” Katie said. “At the time, my largest resource was Carleton University so I made full use of that and it all stemmed from there. A lot of my time was spent just talking and learning from individuals who didn’t mind giving up half an hour to brainstorm the idea with me.”

Persistence pays off

That included Zhu Li. At the beginning, he and Katie spoke several times a week on the premise that she was helping him to develop his conversational English, but she kept asking him about his areas of interest and talking about the CommentAir concept until he began to see her as a credible entrepreneur with a viable idea. Today, he still serves as an advisor despite having returned home to Hong Kong.

“In my country, students are eager to have a regular job,” he said. “The high house prices and living expenses have killed young people’s dreams. We don’t have any ambitions such as starting up a company, or inventing something remarkable. When I heard Katie gave up the chance to be a teacher (to pursue CommentAir), I thought I should support her (and) help her in terms of engineering.”

Katie relied on the same dogged persistence and passion that made an ally of Zhu Li to build her network of supporters through Carleton U.’s  program.

“Once I got involved with Lead to Win, I suddenly had a bunch of people who were engineers to talk to,” she said. “I still talk to several people who I went through the course with about the technology, how it is developing, and things that can be done to help speed up the process. That kind of knowledge I could never learn out of a book; it comes from experience in the field.”

Luke and Katie’s involvement with Lead to Win and Carleton professor Tony Bailetti led to an introduction to Ed Strange, coordinator of applied research and investigator of special projects at , who put together a student team with funding through  to work on the prototype.

“Ed saw the benefit of my project for his students, that it directly related to their studies, and that it was a viable business idea as well,” Katie said. “The fact that I had little engineering or technical capability didn’t even factor in when deciding if they were going to pick up the project or not.”

Nonetheless, she acknowledges that CommentAir’s engineering and technical capabilities must be expanded to move the startup forward.

“I feel confident in my ability to explain the technology and what we have built to the average person, but there are still technical questions and concepts that I don’t fully understand,” she said. “For now my Algonquin team fills that gap, but in the future we will need to pick up either a technical cofounder or a paid engineer to help us continue on with newer versions and actually setting up in stadiums.”

Future plans also call for Zhu Li to join the company as its Hong Kong connection for mass production.

Takeaways

What lessons have Luke and Katie learned along the way?

“You will never learn enough, in a short amount of time, to do it all yourself,” Luke said. “You have to find a technical co-founder or at least be able to pay people to help you with the technical aspects.”

“Communication is your best and worst friend,” Katie added. “You have to constantly talk to everyone and anybody about how you are going to build what it is you want to build. The problem is when you are talking, someone technical may be picturing something in their head that is entirely different from what is in your head.”

“It takes a lot longer than you plan,” Luke said. “Despite your best efforts, problems in technology will come up. You may have your business side completely planned and ready to go, but hiccups will happen in the technology and you have to go back to the drawing board. Expect delays and work through them.”

This is the third article in a continuing series chronicling the growth path of , a startup based in Ottawa, Canada. CommentAir is developing a wireless technology fans can use at sports venues to receive the same real-time commentary as fans watching from their televisions, a wireless technology that also creates a platform for targeted consumer interaction. We invite your feedback.

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Driving steady organic growth on a shoestring

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December 05, 2011

NFC the next big thing? Do it right – embed privacy from the start

 

There was a lot of buzz about Near Field Communications (NFC) at this week in Ottawa.  NFC is an emerging short-range wireless technology being built into the latest generation of smartphones, allowing users to bridge the real and virtual worlds with simple “Tap ‘n Go” gestures.   

Ann Cavoukian, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario

NFC holds tremendous potential to change the way we interact with our physical environments, acquire and share information, access facilities, and pay for goods and services (to name just a few interoperabilities), using now-ubiquitous mobile devices. 



Motorola h720 bluetooth headset retail packaging In-flight entertainment might soon include iPads

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December 03, 2011

Alleged PlayBook hack leading RIM to fork in the road?

Will an alle
ged PlayBook jailbreak lead RIM to opening up its operating system?



Sony ericsson isp 90 stylus pack for xperia retail packaging Facebook, not Twitter, is the social network for revolutions

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December 02, 2011

Why ‘Small Business Saturday’ would make no sense

Why ‘Small Business Saturday’ would make no sense

If Canadian small and medium-sized businesses really think that having a day dedicated to them will boost sales, they must worry about competing with Santa Claus for revenue, too.

Shane Schick, editor-in-chief, IT World Canada

The hysteria around Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping periods in the U.S. calendar, has been rivaled only the increased attention paid to so-called Cyber Monday, when online retail also reaches an American Thanksgiving-induced fever pitch. In both cases, it’s the Wal-marts and other giants of the shopping industry that seem to benefit the most. SMBs, often independently operated and unable to compete with the steep margin discounts offered by the big box stores, don’t necessarily see this particular rising tide as lifting all boats. That’s the rationale for “Small Business Saturday,” one of the more desperate marketing ploys I’ve come across in a long time.

There are a number of people who disagree with me, however. If you look up the “” page on Facebook you’ll see more than two million likes, and the day already launched in the U.S. last year. According to on Thursday, the push is now on to bring this north of the border, and probably with greater urgency since even the biggest Canadian firms probably don’t get much out of Black Friday and Cyber Monday anyway. Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) officials are reportedly considering the concept, but may not tie it directly to the U.S. holiday season.

While there’s nothing wrong with a public relations campaign that encourages consumers to shop local and support their neighbouring SMBs, an initiative like Small Business Saturday obscures the real competitive problems, which have nothing to do with American Thanksgiving and everything to do with scale. People don’t rush to the big box stores on Black Friday because they love Target and its ilk. They go there because there are a lot of sales, which are well marketed to anyone who bothers to pay attention.

The good news is that SMBs are in a better position to compete than ever before, through online marketing and technology investments that can match the capabilities of larger firms. One of the SMBs quoted in the Windsor Star story talks about keeping in touch with customers through social media, a smart approach that isn’t the norm in Canada, based on our report. Farming out some compute infrastructure into the cloud may help speed up transaction processing for e-commerce and even regular orders, and effective use of customer relationship management software could help SMBs better target customers with something they’ll want or need.

This isn’t to say IT will turn every day into Black Friday for the average Canadian SMB, but neither will launching a Small Business Saturday. Instead, the goal should be simple: look at your expenses, make the most of the technology tools available, and aim for increased business 24/7.

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The weird and wonderful world of gathering customer insights

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December 01, 2011

How to preserve your cash flow

How to preserve your cash flow

by Stuart Crawford

Cash is King” was one of the first lessons I learned from a mentor early on in my life as an entrepreneur. “Never underestimate the importance of having a cash reserve in the bank”, he said. What Arlin Sorensen meant when he took me aside was too make sure that we kept a cash reserve on hand for a rainy day — just like Mom always tried to teach me. Did I listen to him or my mother? Sometimes. But I still needed to cut my teeth and learn the hard lesson of having money in the bank for myself.

Stuart Crawford

 

During the economic meltdown in 2009, it was hard, if not impossible, for the small business owner to acquire the needed capital or credit in order to stay afloat. Who survived? Don’t look at me; I struggled throughout the entire financial catastrophe during the tail end of the new millennium. But I did look around to see who continued to run successful businesses, while many of us were simply trying to stop the bleeding.

 

The businesses that survived understood the importance of cash flow and continued to serve their clients, fulfill orders, pay for goods and services and weather the storm while those of us who ignored the warning signs scraped to get by.

 

Going through tough financial times, I look at my business differently now. Like many business owners, I have come to understand the importance of having liquid cash in my bank account or somewhere close by that is readily available, just in case. Credit is helpful too, but healthy cash flow is a must in order for your small business to thrive.

 

Here are some easy ways to help preserve cash flow in your business:

 

  • Invest in assets that appreciate and lease those items that depreciate. As a technology provider, I am always sharing the benefits of leasing IT equipment versus purchasing. There is no sense in investing $50,000 of hard-earned cash into office furniture or any other asset that loses value when it will be worth next to nothing in five or so years. Leasing technology or any other form of equipment offers you a monthly payment instead of paying upfront for the goods and services. Plus, leasing has some very attractive tax benefits. One of the top leasing firms in Canada is London, Ontario’s Catalyst Financial Partners. You can check them out at .
  • Keep your receivables under control. I am shocked to see how many small business owners continue to extend credit in the form of 120-day receivables with their clients. You are not the bank and no small business deserves to be kept at bay for any length of time for monies owed to them. Get a grip on your receivables now.
  • Move to the cloud. The average small business doesn’t need to invest their business savings into a bunch of IT equipment that never gets used to its fullest capacity. My small business is 100% in the cloud — from our email services, telephone systems and even our customer relationship management software. What does that mean? Simply put, that means that all the software and applications we use are accessed and shared over the Internet. The cloud allows you to keep up to date with the latest technology and pay a low monthly fee for it. Many of your IT systems today can be moved online and out of your office.

As a business owner, you can be the most innovative entrepreneur, have the most stellar rolodex and provide a customer experience that’s the talk of the town; but if you don’t know how to manage your cash flow – you don’t have a business.

Stuart Crawford,  president and chief marketing officers, Ulistic Inc. After a 9 year military career which saw Stuart rapidly  accelerate through the ranks finishing as a Master Corporal in the Canadian  Signal Corp Stuart went to work putting into practice the leadership and  character traits he learned through his time with the Canadian Forces. He is a member of Editorial Advisory Board of ITBusiness.ca





Digital sinage: Telling the right story to drive customer acquisition

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