Montreal Tech Watch

DEMO 2008 is next monday in Palm Desert, California, and we will have 3 startups from Montréal featured there, with standoutjobs, which wishes to revolutionize the job market, cozimo, which has the first and only real-time collaboration tool for designers, and xtranormal, a super-stealth startup which has the most talented 3D engineers in Montreal, and has a software allowing anyone to tell stories and make movies.

I wish them all the best.

In standoutjobs’ case, we have a lolcater and snowboarder, a swing dance master, a guy who makes great dips at parties, a green nut, a super-twitter user, which leads me to believe they certainly have a fascinating team

…

Seriously, they have an A team and I think they have all the chances for them.

Company: Ubisoft

Position: Network Programmer

Responsibilites and Tasks:
The ideal candidate possesses solid experience in developing client server products with databases. Experience in video game development is greatly appreciated. The candidate must show a great sense of organization and communication.

Responsibilities:

Participate in the product development for the management of Ubisoft’s on-line games
Rapidly develop a quality product for use by clients
Help clients of the product to integrate the technology
Act as an expert in network technology and share their experience with the team as well as with the product clients.
Plan their development tasks and help the team determine the risks and production schedule

Required Knoweledge:
3 to 5 years experience in C/C++
Have a very good knowledge of network technologies (architecture, protocols), real-time systems and databases.
Holds experience in the design of important systems
Highly motivated and communicates easily with others
Able to adapt rapidly to changes
Excellent communication both orally and written in English and French
Holds a Bachelor in Engineering or Computer Engineering or equivalent in work experience

Compensation:
To be discussed

Additional info:
Assets:

Already developed client server architectures
Have participated in the development of on-line video games
Have a good knowledge of the limitations of embedded systems
Have a good knowledge of the limitations of real-time systems
Familiar with customer support
Quality and results oriented in their work and that of their team

How to apply:
Send your CV to Jeffrey.Goldstein@ubisoft.com

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I asked Mark MacLeod, current CFO at MOBIVOX, and also self-proclaimed serial startup CFO, to help me with the startup guide. I was thinking about getting the list of key resources in law and accounting here in Montreal, but instead, he chose to write tips for starting entrepreneurs.

Which was unexpected, but finally, it’s ok with me. His tips are very precise, extensive, and essential to any entrepreneur, like most of his blog posts for that matter.

If you have a chance, go read his blog. It’s eye-opening and revealing on the startup process.

Deloitte Canada has released their predictions for 2008, in Media, Technology and Telecommunications.

A few selected excerpts:

• With eight million Facebook users, Canada leads the world in voting for authenticity over anonymity.
• In 2008, look for even more web content creeping onto our TV screens and into newspapers, as well as the hiring of non-journalist bloggers as writers and computer programmers.
• according to one of the six major North American film studios, over 50% of all pirated movies globally are illegally recorded in Montreal.
• Since 1997, Canadian sales of recorded music in physical form plummeted 50%, with songs often enjoyed in their intangible (digital) and often illegally obtained format.

The report is interesting, but I found it afterwards entertaining, as I thought that they were making a summary of 2007, not predictions for this year.

There is an interesting article by Alain McKenna at Technaute mentionning that high-definition TV might save TQS, a local television station which filed for bankrupcy last month due to “shrunken” advertising revenues.

The theory, which came from its directors, was that high definition will allow pay-per-view, interactive and personalized content. The tv station would then be able to gather additionnal revenues, and also sell them at a higher rate.

It’s amusing to think that changing the physical channel, or medium (here, television), would get them better chances. For me, a media company should focus first and foremost on getting quality content - but cogeco, TQS’s main shareholder, doesn’t seem to make many efforts to get original, innovative, and relevant content. I don’t watch much tv, but everytime I stumble on TQS, they always seem to have old gags or old tv american series, whereas they should have focused on locally-produced, vibrant, even iconoclast shows. I think that as along as you have those, a media company can then focus on the medium to bring this content to as many people as possible.

High-definition TV is a promising technology but it’s no excuse to keep producing lame shows. Even then, when we will reach 2011, iTMS, netflix, amazon and millions of video podcasters would eat TQS’s lunch.

I have just updated the guide “Launching a technology startup in Montreal“, and added MontrealTechWatch, QuebecValley, IDCapital, Anges Quebec, VantagePoint Venture Partners, MontrealOnRails, MontrealPython, 3rd tuesdays.

The guide is still alpha, and will stay so until I fill out the information for each key stage.

On related notes, I met today a guy who told me the guide doesn’t make sense. To clear things out: it is a guide about key resources you can find in Montreal. It assumes you have done your homework and know all about avalaible resources outside Montreal, such as blogs, funds, designers, developers, and events located and happenning outside Montreal.

Well, you’ve all heard about blitzweekend, and we have now the official date: we will be holding the first ever blitzweekend at Université de Sherbrooke’s Longueuil campus, on March 1st and 2nd.

Blitzweekend is very similar in essence to startupweekends, in the sense that we challenge attendees to build a technology in 48 hours. However, this will be radically different, as we will have teams, instead of having all attendees working on the same “startup”. Having teams will spice things up, and we will also see more — more results, more failures, but also more successes, diversity and excitement.

We are very excited about this. It’s a huge opportunity for designers, developers and entrepreneurs to team up together and surpass themselves. It’s a huge opportunity for Montreal. It’s a huge opportunity to create brand-new technology. If you are planning a startup, it’s THE event to go to in March. If you are involved in an existing startup, it’s a great opportunity to meet talent. Think from today about creating a team and finding an idea.

Of course, this is just the beginning. We will be rolling more announcements and updates on the blitzweekend blog soon, but I already want to thank today iNovia Capital, which has been key in making this happen.

If you are:

• contemplating technology entrepreneurship,
• wondering why Canada is lagging in mobile technology,
• wondering how come all technology and innovation news come from the US & Japan, and never from Canada,

then you should read today Will Pate’s post at StartupNorth. It’s a rather long post, on how we must be bolder, on which I agree 200%.

Unlike one might believe after following popular technology blogs, technology is not limited to web applications or the iPhone.

In Montréal for instance, video games is one of the most, if not the most, dynamic sector with companies like Ubisoft, EA, Eidos or A2M pushing world-class titles pretty much every month. It also has the most demanding jobs, both on the creative side and in programming.  As such, this is a field I want to cover. If you are interested in writing about video games (both about the process of making, and also reviews for new titles) on this blog, shout an email at news@montrealtechwatch.com, or leave a comment.

Of course, this is NOT a job, and you shouldn’t really view it as such. I am looking for someone who can write a post every week or so, in french or in english, who is working (or wants to work) in this industry, and who genuinely interested in video games.

Congratulations to David Crow and Jevon MacDonald for putting together this night’s Founders&Funder dinner.

I have looked at the guests list, and it’s impressive, both in the entrepreneurs and investors category.

The first Founders&Funder was started in Montreal by Austin Hill and Patrick Lauzon, and was an instant success. I am sure tonight’s dinner in Toronto will be as successful, if not more.