Hello!

Mathew Ingram has been covering business and technology for The Globe and Mail since CERN spawned the World Wide Web. Some Cambrian House community members have been asking about funding outside of Silicon Valley and he was nice enough to share his thoughts.

Mathew Ingram person,

Beyond Silicon Valley, the American startup hub shortlist starts with New York, Boston and Seattle. What would a Canadian list look like?

From what I can tell — and I can’t claim to have done an exhaustive survey by any means — Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal have fairly active startup communities, judging by the number of DemoCamps and StartupCamps and so on.

Obviously the West has some activity as well, as StumbleUpon and others (including Cambrian House of course) prove, but I think it’s more fragmented in places like Calgary and Edmonton and Regina and so on. And one of the benefits of Web-based businesses is that they can pop up just about anywhere, with teams of people who may not even live in the same physical area working on them.

Thank you for listing Regina after Calgary! So how can someone launch outside of a startup hub?

Although it’s true that Web businesses can start and effectively be run from just about anywhere, it’s also true that people are people, and they need human contact — and startups in particular thrive on the energy of other entrepreneurs, people who are also struggling with launching a company, or have done so in the past; that’s why
StartupCamp and DemoCamp and other social events are so powerful, and I think that’s one of the main benefits of something like mesh or meshU — just the chance to bump into or hear from smart people who are trying to save some of the same problems that you are.

The American recession (officially described by the White House as “tough times”) is looking rather ominous. Do you have any survival tips?

I think the best advice is just to be as lean as possible. Focus on the things that matter, not the Aeron chairs and foosball tables and so on, and if you don’t have to get financing then don’t — the best way to get financing is to not need it. And I think it is true that the economy has had less impact on startup activity in this cycle than the last, if only because companies can do so much more with so much less now, thanks to Web services such as Amazon’s S3 and EC2 and Simple DB and so on.

Sounds like someone isn’t very good at Foosball.

Mathew Ingram will be attending the MeshU startup workshop on May 20th in Toronto. Ontarian members of Cambrian House community check it out!

Hot on the heels of Cambrian House community member EpiPenner’s “BeeGone” (the beehive mismanagement software suite) comes Scoobie’s proposal for yet another beekeeping app. But the goal of this software is to keep the bees healthy.

Crazy?
 
I thought so too, until I discovered a whole subculture of “beekeepers”. Instead of screaming and running at the sight of a honeybee, these fools actually allow bees to form “colonies” in hives. Why? Well it is their belief that under the proper conditions, bees will produce the golden substance which we all know as honey.

Well you and I both know honey comes from a supermarket, not a magical “beehive”. But before you completely shut the door on this madness, consider these facts:

• Hobbyist beekeeping is becoming more and more popular. By the year 2037, it is predicted to have more practicing members than Scientology!
   
• Beekeepers must keep their hive healthy, or the hive will attack in anger! In the worst case, the queen itself will emerge from the hive and battle the beekeeper to the death.
   
• The cost of supporting software sold to a stung-to-death beekeeper is zero dollars.

Scoobie says the existing beekeeping software doesn’t meet his expectations. Existing software is either too expensive, out of date, or no longer supported. This is an opportunity created by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a recent phenomenon where bee colonies suddenly disappear.

Unpollenated crops and unmet demand for honey are the immediate impact of CCD. Because beehives (on average) operate less efficiently due to CCD, there is a need for more hives and so more beekeepers.

Tom Cruise, take note!

If you’re interested in helping identify or prioritize features, assist writing a design document or get your hands dirty doing good old software development, then offer to join Scoobie’s Beekeeping Software project!

Scoobie Skypes In

Scoobie was extremely helpful in the creation of this week’s IdeaWarz video, going so far as to shoot footage of his hives!

Until next week: Share your ideas. Give us your precious, precious feedback… Take a look through Cambrian House Bazaar and Forums for projects to participate in…

And… May the Best Idea… WIN!

“Why are you holding my hand?”

    “Where’s your other hand?”

“Between your term sheets.”

    “Those aren’t term sheets!”

When it comes to venture capital, how close is too close?

On one hand, VCs can offer invaluable support to your startup. Beyond financial, they’re trying to leverage their experience so you don’t repeat the same mistakes they’ve either made themselves or bore witness to.

But on the other hand, do you really want someone nosing about your business while you’re trying to get some real work done?

< awkward pause />

Yes you do. There are only upsides to tight investor proximity. If the thought of your potential VC popping by unexpectedly to see how things are going gives you pause, then either you should find another investor, or share that concern with them to make sure you’re both on the same page.

Proximity is less important as your business becomes self sustainable, but while nascent the (often quoted) rule of thumb is still one hour’s walking distance.

“In the beginning of your firm, it’s all risk. It’s this baby in the emergency room. You don’t want your doctor talking through a screen, asking people what is going on.” - MJ

So unless you live in a town filled with venture capital, what are your options? Look for angel funding, move, or bootstrap it yourself. If you’re bootstrapping, look to leverage modern trends like crowdsourcing, open source software and public APIs to keep your costs down.

“Silicon Valley dominates, then Boston, then Seattle, Austin, Denver, and New York. After that there’s not much. Even in New York the number of startups per capita is probably a 20th of what it is in Silicon Valley. In towns like Houston and Chicago and Detroit it’s too small to measure.” -Paul Graham