Santa is from MaRS, Women are from Venus
With acknowledgment and sincere apologies to Clement Clark Moore…
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all throughout MaRS
Not a tenant was stirring, nor were the streetcars.
The stockings were hung by the elevators with care,
In hopes that investors soon would be there;
The entrepreneurs were nestled all snug in their bed sheets,
While visions of profits danced in their spreadsheets.
As business at the MaRS Centre winds down for the holidays, we’re shifting into celebration mode.
Wondering what’s under our Christmas tree? Well, for the twelve days of MaRSmas, an angel investor gave to us…
Canada and France cooperate to give money for innovation
Times are tough and money is always tight for up-starts. What better Christmas present could you think of it not some added cash for an innovative product collaboration?
Canada’s NRC-IRAP and France’s OSÉO are calling for proposals from Canadian and French SMEs aiming to develop jointly a new product, technologically innovative and meeting a market need. The cooperative program is designed to facilitate the creation of technological partnerships between Canadian and French SMEs.
At the December 10th Entrepreneurship 101 lecture, speakers Teresa Snelgrove (of Boyden) and Fred Sweeney (of VenGrowth) discussed effective ways to manage your career.
As scientists and engineers we often think of selling our skills to fill slots in existing companies; we don’t often enough think of selling ourselves to investors, along with an idea that we want backed. Make no mistake – investment decisions are made primarily on the strength of the individuals on a team, less so on the promise of the technology. The world will not beat a path to your door, no matter how good your product is – you have to execute a plan to earn a place in the business world.
Recently, I attended the nextMEDIA conference in Toronto, which brings together the broadcast, content production, agency and advertiser communities with the goal of sharing ideas and insights on monetizing online content. My main reason for attending was to help our Multimedia Producer, Roz Allen interview many of the interesting speakers, but I was lucky enough to find the time to sit in on a couple of the presentations.
