MaRS

Are kids learning from this?

Last month’s IN09 Interactive Exchange conference highlighted the latest trends and developments in new media. (Last week’s mesh conference here at MaRS did much the same, focussing on the web.)

The lunch break on the second day featured anti-new-media rants, one of which focused on whether we’ll look back 20 years from now and wonder what the heck we were thinking giving our kids cell phones, text messaging, video games and online social networking instead of encouraging them to have actual face to face social interactions and get outside. Right after that, I sat in on some thought provoking presentations by Ontario companies doing innovative work in the interactive media. One in particular really set me to thinking, as it featured an online game designed to help kids develop better social skills. In light of the rant I had just witnessed, the irony was painful.

These boots were made for strapping

“I’m the cheapest bastard alive. I won’t buy you coffee.” So warns Carl Mercier, founder of Defensio and an all-around serial technology entrepreneur. “Frugality rules! I rented our first office space for $270/month – it smelled, but they got the job done.”

It’s the law of bootstrapping, he says. Well, one among ten other gems he dropped for those of us at his meshU session yesterday.

Tired of pandering to the empty-pocketed, demanding VC community? Looks like you’re going to have hoe the hard row that Mercier’s taken. So you might want to read his laws.