STIRR

As promised, some more details on the upcoming STIRR Canada Tech Mixer in Calgary:

How Canada’s AbeBooks engineered its multi-million dollar sale

Boris Wertz, CEO at Nexopia & Director at Abebooks (photo courtesy of Kris Krug, via a Creative Commons Licence)

On Oct 15th, headliner Boris Wertz, CEO of Edmonton’s Nexopia, will be in Calgary at a STIRR Canada Tech Mixer event to share insights on how his previous venture, AbeBooks, won the attention of Amazon and was recently acquired.

Attendees to this invitation-only event will also be first to hear 60-second elevator pitches from a select group of local “under the radar” tech founders. Get ready to mingle with a great group of seasoned and emerging tech industry players!

YOU MUST BE A MEMBER OF STIRR CANADA TO ATTEND.

Our membership is limited to high-tech startup founders, founding teams, former founders, angel and VC funders, and technology journalists. Please click on the “APPLY” tab above to complete our application form.

General Information: Info [at] stirr.ca

Press Contact: Media [at] stirr.ca

Sponsors: Sponsors [at] stirr.ca

“The challenge in finding and retaining great sales and marketing talent” was one of the hot discussion topics at the STIRR Canada Founders’ Table held on July 3rd, at the Tribune Restaurant in Calgary.

A group of 10 emerging and established tech startup founders and funders were invited to the dinner, hosted by STIRR Canada’s Patrick Lor and Claudia Moore. Among the companies represented were Acceleware, Calgary Scientific, VoodooPC (HP), Userful, and Evoco, as well as the evening’s sponsor Macleod Dixon.

Discussions covered a range of other topics including: best practices in working with international partners and resellers, startup culture, the ins and outs of tax credits and government funding, when to outsource, and more … talk continued on past dessert.

Some of the attendee feedback included:

• “It’s nice to have exposure to raw entrepreneurial spirit/DNA …”
• “I lost track of the time owing to the terrific conversation.”
• “I appreciated the small format discussion – and the ability to ask questions and share experiences.”
• “It was interesting hearing about the common issues all our companies suffer …”

More Founders’ Tables are planned for this summer, with a larger Tech Mixer planned for the fall. Stay tuned for dates, locations and times.

A Founder’s Table dinner is planned for Thursday July 3rd, 5 pm in Calgary [revised date]

Following the success of our kick-off May 2008 STIRR Canada event (which hosted 50 Alberta-based guests) this July 2008 invitation-only dinner will return to the classic STIRR single-table gathering comprised of 10-12 founders of tech-driven companies.

FOR MORE DETAILS, please email: Info{at}stirr{dot}ca

If you’re not already a member of STIRR Canada, please complete the APPLICATION FORM.

*****************************************************************************

A range of Calgary-based events are planned for the coming year:

• A Founder’s Table will be held each month.
• Pitch Labs are planned for August, October, December, January, and February.
• Popular Tech Mixer main events will be held in September and February.
• STIRR Canada will also hold on-campus events for Calgary students this fall, as well as participating in various BarCamp and DemoCamp activities.

BarCamp Calgary breaks for lunch (left) and Nexopia Founder Timo Ewalds (right) chats with BarCamp attendees.

On Thursday evening, Albertan tech startup founders, funders, and emerging young guns filled the main floor of Calgary’s Bonterra Trattoria restaurant at STIRR Canada’s kick-off Founders & Funders Dinner event. Five hours later, after some great networking and facilitated dinner table conversations, people were still buzzing.

Participating companies included: Active Conversion, Broadramp, Calgary Scientific, Cambrian House, Cognera, CoolIT, Coril Holdings, Cornerstone Technologies, Datagardens, DirectVoxx, Dynastream, eSchedule, GamesCafe, iNovia Capital, Intervera, Loa Corporation, Mobovivo, Octane Venture Partners, Ph03nix New Media, Preo Software, Psyko Audio Labs … … Renoworks, Shopster, SpatialQ, StockVantage, StumbleUpon, Techvibes, Tynt, and Xtreme Technologies.

Calgary native, and StumbleUpon (acquired by Ebay) co-founder, Garrett Camp, talked about the ups and downs of his friends-and-family funded early startup days and how he ultimately moved to Silicon Valley to be closer to his advisors. He also revealed that his first investor was a StumbleUpon user from the Valley who simply contacted him by email.

Read the rest of the article and see more photos at STIRR Canada

Women 2.0 Presents: “Beyond the Spark” Conference
May 10, 2008 at the Stanford Grill
Meet entrepreneurs changing the world, investors supporting them AND the 5 finalists from the Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition. Interactive discussions and LIVE Pitches to top-shelf judges — join the fun and vote for your top choice via mobile phone.

Check out the Finalists here: http://women2.org

Limited tickets due to venue constraints. Tickets ARE going fast.

Get 30% off the entrepreneur ticket with coupon code “w2stirr” http://beyondthespark.eventbrite.com

Can’t make it for the entire conference but want to come in the afternoon to check out the pitches? Yes we have a ticket priced just for that too! Get your ticket now for Pitch 2008!


Have yourself an interactive lunch on Saturday.
Arrive a little earlier to the conference this Saturday and reserve your seat with one of our Lunch Leads. Meet Silicon Valley movers and shakers over an intimate lunch on Saturday during the conference!

Hear first-hand stories, have the chance to ask questions, and really dive deep into what you really want to know from these leading ladies (and a few good men).

Who’s coming for lunch?
- Chris Shipley (Founder, DEMO)
- Christine Herron (First Round Capital)
- Katherine Barr (Partner, MDV)
- Sundeep Ahuja (Co-Founder, richrelevance)
- Susas Lucas-Conwell (Executive Director, SD Forum)
- Surya Yalamanchili (Director, Marketing, LinkedIn)
- Will Bunker (Co-Founder and Principal, WhiteSpace Ventures)
- Alka Gupta (Managing Director, Ojas Group)
.…and many, many more

Check out the list of lunch leads http://women2SWIB.wikispaces.com