Badges, we need stinkin’ badges

Founders Badge - Founders & FundersFunders Badge - Founders & FundersThe Founders & Funders event is a social event . Our goal is to help connect the people who fund web and emerging technology companies with those that start them. The first part of these efforts is to host an event. Well the first Founders & Funders - Toronto event is happening January 21, 2008. The next part is to help the attendees connect to each other at the event.

Here is the first attempt to design a name tag to improve the connections between attendees at the event. These badges are based on the badge design concepts by Mike Davidson. The goals of the initial design are:

  1. Name - As Dan Saffer says “First Name. BIG! I don’t want to have to stare at people’s badges any longer than I need to. A rapid glance should boldly display the wearer’s first name, often to just refresh my memory or as a cue if I’m looking for someone I haven’t met but want to.”
  2. Company - I want to know who you work for, but this is secondary to who you are.
  3. Founder or Funder - As designated by both the icon and the color. The color (for those of us that aren’t colour blind) should allow you to identify the basic composition from a distance. The icon is a secondary method for identifying the role.

We want to make it easier for attendees to connect with each other. Other things I’m thinking about for the badges:

One thing I host that all Founders provide us is a 2 page summary sheet. The team at StumbleUpon provides a Fact Sheet which summarizes the business. We could then distribute this information to each of the Funders attending so they’d have a great way to follow up with the attendees they meet and more relevant details than provided by a business card.

  1. Problem solved - “help people discover interesting or informative web content that they wouldn’t have thought to search for.”
  2. Company history - “Originally launched in Calgary in 2002″
  3. Why it works - “Stumbling is so easy that through word-of-mouth alone, nearly one million people have installed the StumbleUpon toolbar extension, stumbling an average of 20 times per day”
  4. Revenue model - “Free membership is supported by a unique, targeted advertising model which guarantees relevant audiences and elicits community feedback. Members who opt to pay an annual fee never have to see an ad.”
  5. Founders - “StumbleUpon was founded by three Canadians: Garrett Camp, Geoff Smith, and Justin LaFrance. The three recently relocated to San Francisco.”
  6. Funding - “Until March 2006, StumbleUpon was completely self-funded and fully bootstrapped. Growth was achieved solely via word of mouth. To accelerate growth, the Company has attracted private investment from leading technology investors and entrepreneurs”
  7. Board of Advisors
  8. Contact Information

If you can’t summarize your business using a format like this, you’d better be Microsoft or General Electric.

First round of Founders

Founders & Funders is about helping to connect the founders of early-stage, venture fundable web and technology companies with the funding community in Canada. We’ve asked all founders to describe their company and the stage they are current at using a short format.

Name, Company
Please describe your Company if explained in a single twitter post (140 characters max)
If asked to describe what “stage” your startup is at in 10 words or less

You can follow the Tweets at http://twitter.com/foundersfunders

We’re assembling a great group of founders.

Sponsored

Apparently, this might be why my last couple of ventures failed. The price for tickets for Founders & Funder$ is $75/person. Unfortunately, the costs per person are greater tahn $75, just the meal at Monsoon is $83/person plus taxes and gratuities. This means that on the surface, I’m really, really bad at simple math. It also means that we need sponsors to help cover the costs with hosting the Founders & Funders event.

Microsoft LogoMicrosoft Canada has agreed to help sponsor the event on one condition - that I take remedial mathematics help.We’re really excited to have Microsoft participating.

The Microsoft Canada team is working hard to bring the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program to Canada. The program is focused on startups in the US, UK, France and India. However we’re lucky to have Lynda Ting, from the Emerging Business Team in Silicon Valley (and a former early-stage Toronto VC) flying up to join us for the evening. Microsoft is committed to working with industry leaders, academic institutions, local policy makers, the venture capital community and others to build strong local commercial software industries. There are Partner Programs like the Empower, where you are building a product, you get free (or very close to free) access to almost every Microsoft tool and product.

MIX08 - Visit MixMicrosoft continues to host MIX, an intimate conference for cutting-edge technical, creative and business strategists to engage Microsoft in a conversation about the future of the web. MIX is a 72 hours conversation exploring the latest wave of opportunities and help redefine the boundaries between: content and commerce, PC and TV, Windows and the Web.

I was lucky enough to get invited to MIX07 and I’ll be at MIX08 where I know there will be a lot of very interesting technologies.

Founders and Funders - Toronto

Founders and Funders Jevon MacDonald and David Crow are pleased to be hosting the first Founders & Funders dinner in Toronto. We heard about the success in Montreal with the first dinner hosted by Austin Hill and Patrick Lauzon, and figured that this needs to happen in Toronto.

Founders & Funders - Toronto
A evening of socializing and dinner for entrepreneurs, angel investors and venture capitalists
January 21, 2008
$75/person - Limited to 75 attendees
Private 3 course dinner at Monsoon Restaurant

There has been a lot of discussion about the needs of entrepreneurs in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Canada. It has been summarized very well, as,

“you only need two kinds of people to create a technology hub: rich people and nerds” – Paul Graham

This is our community-driven attempt to bring together the people who start tech companies and the people who fund tech companies in Toronto in a engaging, social environment.

There has been a buzz of activity in the web 2.0 community in Toronto. DemoCamp. StartupCamp. CaseCamp. TransitCamp. We often hear about a successful entrepreneur or an interesting startup, but it is incredibly difficult to find time to attend all the events and meet all the interesting people. The inaugural Founders & Funders Dinner Toronto is an effort to bring together the nerds and people with money in Toronto.

Interested in attending?

We’re looking for founders, entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists and others.

Contact us for an invitation - space pending, of course.