Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Almost one year ago exactly, I listed SnapSort, a website for camera comparisons, as a company to watch. I’m proud to say that my friends Chris & Alex are growing the company fantastically well. This week they launched Sortable.com, a decision engine. The company has raised a fraction of the venture capital that Hunch did [...]
A report in the New York Times last week brought on a wave of emotion in me regarding the 3 years I worked at Savvica and travelled extensively to Gurgaon. I miss it! In India, Dynamism Wrestles With Dysfunction GURGAON, India — In this city that barely existed two decades ago, there are 26 shopping [...]
I got wind of this new e-commerce venture in Canada this morning from my big brother… Background Membership based online shopping sites have been growing in popularity throughout the United States and Europe. Sites like Gilt Groupe, Shopbop and Net-a-Porter have changed the way fashion conscious individuals shop for apparel and accessories. But there are [...]
George Favvas is launching a new startup called Rewardli backed by Dave McClure from 500Startups in San Francisco and Real Ventures in Montreal. Sign up for the beta invite list here: Its a cool product concept and am glad to see it supported by this great group of investors. George’s previous venture, SmartHippo (mortgage community [...]
We had a pretty busy January at CommunityLend: Michael Garrity, CEO, makes a prestigious list: Digital Media People to Watch in 2011. Our FinanceIt.ca launch is covered by News 1130 Radio in Vancouver, New website to help you finance home renovations, and by TechVibes, CommunityLend to finance home improvement loans. CommunityLend sponsors the HomeStars Best [...]
Some quick updates on young startups that you may not yet have on your radar: SnapSort (Chris & Alex), which does camera comparisons, is growing by leaps & bounds as its SEO traffic doubles every month. They just launched their first of many planned sites based on the same underlying platform; LensHero. Ampush Media (Nick, [...]
In 2000, the Privacy Commissioner in Canada passed the Personal Information Protection & Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). It sets out the legal rules for collecting and storing (read: protecting) personal information on Canadians. Separately, in its Department of Homeland Security response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the US government expanded its power to subpoena [...]
Background: Financial services is one of the largest industries in Canada, and 90% of it is controlled by the “Big 5″ Canadian banks. Despite a myriad of products and services, it mostly boils down to taking consumer deposits on one hand, and then lending to consumers on the other. CommunityLend is the most important new [...]
George Favvas posted a couple days ago about how to set up an advisory board for your startup. Good, practical advice. As I am on George’s advisory board, I have little to disagree with in his post. I would dial back his recommendation on the 4 year vesting period; the norm in the industry is [...]
I have accepted an offer to advise Ampush Media, a new online education marketing company. There are many big players in this space (see Ampush’s own research on the QuinStreet IPO), but this is the hottest new entrant. Founders The founding team is Aniket (Nick) Shah and Jesse Pujji, who both have Wall St. backgrounds. [...]
