Montreal Tech Watch

Standoutjobs has won the SEOmoz web2.0 award in the employement and jobs category. Nominees in the category were judged on usability, usefulness, social aspects, user interface & design, and content quality. In all of these criterias, Standoutjobs was ranked ahead of careerbuilder.com and monster, which is a feat, since these last two are 2 heavyweights compared to Standoutjobs, which has just launched earlier this year.

The SEOmoz web2.0 awards is an annual (virtual) event, where nominees are submitted on SEOmoz’s website, with winners chosen by a shortlist of bloggers, entrepreneurs and “business people”. SEOmoz in itself is a search engine optimization consulting company, which may raise potential conflict interests and the question of the impartiality. However, SEOmoz has been a leader in innovation and has during the past years giving back a lot to their “community”, with their actions having impact far beyond seo circles. I credit for instance the company of having validated SEO as a respected profession & trade that will make a difference for your website, through their works, articles and evangelization.

Furthermore, unlike other Internet awards, this award focuses on web2.0 and websites that are trying specifically to leverage user-generated content and new technologies such as using the web as a platform. I think Standoutjobs deserves 100% the award and this should encourage them to make an even better job – i.e. revolutionize the job & online recruiting space :)

Recently, Standoutjobs was also seen as Canada’s Top 20 most innovative company at the CIX. They have also announced new innovative features such as the use of iPaper to handle documents directly in the browser.

Congrats then to Standoutjobs! Great job!

I am the Canadian Venture Capitalists and Private Equity Association 2008 conference, held here in Montreal at the Fairmount Queen Elizabeth.

The conference started yesterday with a golf event and a welcoming cocktail. As in most conferences, it’s easy to see that networking and discussions in hotel lobbies are a big part of the conference, with investors discussing tips and current deals, and partners wooing institutional investors. The sessions in themselves began this morning, with fund partners and industry experts exposing stats and figures on the state of the industry, revealing challenges and difficulties but also improvements.

Many of the conference attendees had a different perspective of the industry and their current trade, but I saw 2 main trends.

First, private equity firms are doing good business. They have focused on buyouts and have had good returns. As a matter of fact, they have published an extensive report stating their good performance, much higher than returns found on stock markets (e.g. TSX), and how buyouts have benefited the Canadian economy, by helping companies flourish.

However, the picture is less clear for Venture Capital firms. Industry experts stated that VC firms are in crisis and that a few of them are bound to withdraw. While they are now closer to U.S. figures, Canadian VC firms are reportedly still doing too many early stage investments with even smaller rounds. Dr. Gilles Duruflé, one of the industry expert, also revelead that 10 year returns was on average just 1.8% for Canadian VC funds, compared to 18% in the U.S., raising the question on why institutional investors would invest in VC firms in the first place. Another expert from McKinsey stated that since there are less early stage investments, the dealflow is broken, and we might have now a broken ecosystem. Andrew Waitman, managing partner form a Ottawa VC firm, also mentionned the problem of geographic proximity and also structural problems in Canada.

There are some good news though. Exit values for IPOs and M&As have surged, and many funds are now looking to work with foreign funds, be it in the US or in Israel.

I have been with Jevon MacDonald from startupnorth, who said Venture Capitalists need to mingle with entrepreneurs, at a grassroots level, and participate with the exisiting startup community, in the regions they are geographically active, or even nation-wide. I would like to see for instance more VCs presenting to entrepreneurs what kind of startups they are looking to invest in, and also have more entrepreneurs getting more feedback on the validity of their ideas, be it in an event like StartupCamps, or by going an online space. Rick Segal who’s got a great blog and who is meeting entrepreneurs all over the country, is a perfect example, and we could use more of his kind.

Of course, what we’d need is also more major successes, and highlight them. ClubPenguin, a BC-based startup which has built an online world for kids, was acquired for $700 million by Disney almost one year ago, and I am not sure this has been given enough press. We also need more entrepreneurs, more boldness, and reach a critical mass of startups in Québec and in Canada in order to get a healthy startup ecosystem, with its share of failures but also successes. Most agreed we haven’t yet reached yet this critical mass, and there are lots of work ahead, for VCs and entrepreneurs alike to reach that point.

Picture taken by Alistair Croll

A Net Neutrality Rally was organized yesterday midday in Ottawa, where customers of Internet provider Bell Canada and sympathizers gathered to protest traffic throttling by large ISPs.

The rally is a consequence of Bell Canada admitting that they were throttling P2P traffic, even if the traffic was in fact managed by third-party resellers. These companies, and customers alike, felt abused by Bell Canada. Their position is that ISPs should not monitor or throttle Internet traffic; or in other words, that it should be “neutral”.

The Net Neutrality movement was in fact started in the US when cable companies and other ISPs voiced that Internet companies like Google, and applications that consumes a lot of traffic, like Bittorrent, should pay a fee to ISPs for the heavy use of their telecom infrastructure. Companies like Google argued that it threatened everything on how we view the Internet.

Bell Canada’s case is exacerbated by the fact that they are the dominant telecom company in Canada, and also they advertise their Internet service as “unlimited” and “consistently fast”.

Furthermore, P2P is 100% legal in Canada; and that’s why p2p throttling looks like a complete arbritrary move. Come to think of it, it also doesn’t make sense to throttle plans when you offer plans with download speeds of 16mbps. Of course people are going to use it to view and download videos and bandwidth-intensive apps, otherwise they would have taken the slower plans.

More photos of the event

We’re all happy to see that Poly9, RollAName, immeria, Eureka Science News, RateMyGroup all moved from Montreal and Quebec city to somewhere up north, near Labrador City… or is this Fermont?

On a more serious note, the map displayed above comes from startupindex, which is a database of Canadian startups, and displays those companies in the middle of the province, since their entry didn’t have the address info. So if you belong to those companies, or know someone there, tell them to update startupindex.

Also, if you haven’t added your startup in the database, it’s the time to do it.

Thanks for the reminder from montrealstartup

I am reading a post on Techcrunch about Mediascrape, a local media startup, that made news recently. Michael Arrington reveals that Tyler Cavell, founder of the company, is threatning him of a lawsuit, since the latter found the post and comments about his company incorrect.

I am not really sure what to think about the case. Threatning a blogger of a lawsuit is frivolous and reveals a big misunderstanding of blogs. Roberto Rocha once called Tyler “one of the most refreshingly candid company chiefs I know”; and it seems he still plays the same character. On the other hand, Techcrunch bloggers are making quick and easy assumptions based on what they see on the website’s homepage, while they are thousands of miles away from the company; fact is that there were reasons behind every criticism they threw at Mediascrape.

One thing is for sure, this is all very stupid; and diverts everyone from what Mediascrape really does. I guess I could try to defend Tyler Cavell in the comments sections (which bash Québec and Canada by the way); but the guy has never participated or went in any tech/network event around here. It’s the sort of person you have no clue what they are doing or thinking, and finish concluding that maybe they think they are better on their own. Heck, I am not even sure he’ll appreciate the support.

So, to any aspiring entrepreneur out there: network, connect, share, learn. Then iterate. Don’t do like the Capazoo or the Mediascrape by staying in your corner. Meet other entrepreneurs in the same space as yours. Go to the 5 à 7. Share what you are doing, and get to know what works out there. Go to the techbreakfasts. Go to conferences. It’s such a business 101 principle that I can’t even believe I am writing it here.

Last week, two contenders dropped out of the Canadian wireless spectrum auction. MTS Allstream, a Manitoba-based telecom company, announced that its partnership with private equity firms Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Blackstone Capital Partners was dissolved, making its chances to win the wanted spectrum unlikely. Just a few days ago, a joint venture which was initially led by Novacap, a Montreal-based private equity firm, also withdrew from the race. It was announced that the proposal didn’t meet federal laws concerning foreign ownership in a holding, capped at 46% in Canada.

The story behind the last flop is of course much more complicated than that; Novacap teamed up originally with US VC firms Columbia Equity Partners and M/C Venture Partners. One month later though, the venture’s capitalization changed, with 3 other investors magically appearing, Rho Canada Partners, Cyntech Holdings Ltd., and BMO Capital Corp; and this is where they didn’t comply anymore with federal regulatory laws.

I have no comments about all this backstage action; but I hate to see the direction where the auctions are going. The only serious companies left are Shaw Communication, Québecor, and Globalive Wireless. [see initial list]

When you go through the list, the amount of deposit required just to participate in the auctions are staggering. Contenders to nation-wide licenses are putting in hundreds of millions of dollars, and we haven’t started the auctions yet.

It occurs to me that these auctions are going to worsen the state of the Canadian mobile telecom industry. We are currently in a state of oligopoly, with 3 big carriers running the market and charging the highest prices in the world to their customers. As a result, Canada is lagging behind every other developed country now [except broadband Internet avalaibility]. With these auctions, where the price of entry is well beyond the means of most firms in this country, new players, if we’ll have any, are going to protect that investment; with even higher prices.

This isn’t any good for anybody. We reached the point where mobile phone and mobile data accessibility is essential to any developed country, as essential to economic developmnent as basic infrastructure such as roads or higher education.

As such, I think all barriers to entry to entry should be removed; by beginning with these auctions. Of course, there is the argument that frequencies are scarce, and to decide who is going to own it, the most natural thing to do is auction them off. But the Canadian telecom space is not the US’s, or Japan’s, and does not have the luxury of behaving the same way. If it wants to get back in the race, it must:

• kill off the wireless auctions,
• in exchange, add a clause that any new mobile company must allow open access to their network; so that any other company can become an operator very easily,
• find a way to let small players in, even if they do not have the resources to launch a nation or province-wide mobile network,
• enable quick & total number portability for users, between different companies,
• forbid early termination fees,
• also separate network services from content, and prevent carriers from locking their users to a pre-constrained set of applications and websites on their handsets.

The model will essentially free the current mobile market; will stop a telco to lock down a customer for years; remove all barriers of entry; ultimately driving prices down but also driving mobile usage up, making it a win for everybody, customers and companies alike. And in my opinion, that’t the only way we’ll close the gap.

Picture: Freedom by Almighty_Fotografie

Company: Ubisoft Entertainment

Position: 3D programmer

Responsibilites and Tasks:
Prototyping
Produce clean, well-documented code that pushes the machine to its limit and rivals reality
Assume technical direction of 3D rendering on next-gen consoles.
Research cutting-edge rendering techniques.

Required Knoweledge:
Motivated, with a passion for video games.
Strong problem solving and communication skills
Ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Math or demonstrated applicable equivalent experience.
6+ years of programming experience(Strong knowledge of C++)
3+ years in 3D rendering algorithms (Strong 3D math skills)
Direct X and/or OpenGL
Console development experience
At least one major game title published as principal 3D programmer.
Fluent in English

Compensation:
Competitive + excellent benefits

Additional info:

How to apply:
jeffrey.goldstein@ubisoft.com

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Company: Espace Canoe

Position: Product Manager / Directeur de Produit

Under the supervision of the product line director, in collaboration with the functional analyst, the PMO and the marketing team, the incumbent must use a consumer-focused, product-market approach. The incumbent is responsible for the development, growth and performance of the product-market. He/she must work in a B2C/C2C environment focused on social networking + social media and online dating.

Responsibilites and Tasks:
Bilingual (a plus)
• Undergraduate or graduate degree in marketing, , e-commerce, computer science or multimedia
• Good background on online product management and/or product line management
• Expert on WEB 2.0; social networks platform an familiar with dating sites,
• Expert of Web technology and the “participatory Web”
• Great leader and communicator
• Good understanding of the Internet and basic concepts
• Familiarity with e-marketing and with concepts in viral marketing and relationship marketing
• Understanding of UML analysis a plus

Required Knoweledge:
1. Producing a product – business plan including:
· Market demand analysis and segmentation
· Validating market demand (primary and secondary research)
· Competition watch (familiarity with dating and social networking sites is a plus)
· Developing and recommending strategic directions: annual product-market audit
· Business model and cost-benefit analysis
2. Producing detailed business needs analyses and interacting with the functional analyst (BRD)
3. Supporting and following up on product delivery
4. Forming and managing partnerships for content and related applications
5. Developing the outlines of a basic marketing plan (including marketing mix)
6. Monitoring implementation of marketing action plan, in collaboration with MRK team
7. Monitoring financial performance
8. Making preparations, producing analyses, making recommendations respecting product-market performance
9. Be a leader on the online Canadian market

Compensation:

Additional info:
This is a dream job for expert in web 2.0

We wan the cream of the cream to manage Canoespace.ca product development and evolution + managing the commercialisation and necessary partnership to launch the Quebecor (Canoe, Sun…) SOCIAL MEDIA platform.

Canoespace.ca is the English version of www.espacecanoe.ca after one year TOP 10 social networks platform in French Canada; 60 000 members +, 4M pv, 400k uv and a lot of fun. We need the best product manager to put in place the strategy in English Canada, starting with Toronto.

How to apply:
martin.aubut@canoe.ca

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This is not exactly news, but I thought I might share a new study published by TechnoCompétences, an organization tracking the IT workforce in Québec.

TechnoCompétences said IT was hit very hard in the beginning of the decade, with companies laying off personel by thousands, while the rest of companies just went busted. However, TechnoCompétences’s new study showed that the IT industry is now expanding at very high rates. Between 2001 and 2007, the IT industry in Québec is growing +29% while it’s just at 16% for other Canadian provinces. More details here [pdf]

The organizations also predicts that the industry will hire 7000+ people each year until 2010.

MontrealTechWatch does not specifically track the IT industry, but it’s still good to know the larger picture. It’s well known for instance that youth are shying away from computer science and other related fields. While cégeps could easily fill each 4/5 classes in 2000, they now have trouble filling one small class. Last year (2006 to 2007), applications to CS degrees (and related) fell by 20%. This year (2007 to 2008), applications fell again by 19%. This impacts everyone, from recruiters at Bell Canada, recruiters at videos games companies like Ubisoft, to new technology startups looking to complete their technology team. It’s still possible today to find talent in Québec, but it looks like it will be a major barrier tomorrow.

I am not sure how the situation is in other provinces, and how they are dealing with it. In Québec, I am expecting salaries to go up; specialized recruiters having great business; at the expense of small & new technology companies who might not have the financial resources to compete with large companies like Videotron or big banks. So if you are starting a company, you should be aware of this problem, and try to come up with a great formula to attract talent (office perks like the guys at standoutjobs; high salaries, like what capazoo did; or try to connect from the very beginning with the developer “community” like what Akoha is doing). Or come up with a new solution to solve the problem of IT talent shortage.

Company: TribalNova

Position: Multiplayer Game Programmer

Responsibilites and Tasks:
Reporting to the technical vice president, you will participate in an innovative development project aimed at adapting a game platform for a new market, as well as integrating new developed games on a regular basis.

You will share the responsibility for developing and maintaining a distribution portal for children’s games, you will develop and program the logic and interactivity of the products, and you will plan the programming in order to guarantee the respecting of delivery dates of the products. As well, you will be responsible for the communication between the distribution portal and the games deployed on it.

Also, you will offer support to the management team regarding planning, budgets, as well as deadlines, and will participate in the definition of the architecture of game and video distribution applications. You will act as a technical consultant during the conception phase of products and will support the programming team in their development.

You will oversee the professional development of the members of your team and facilitate the work in order to favour a positive, mobilised climate.

Required Knowledge:
- You possess a college or university degree in computer science or equivalent;
- You have a minimum of 5 years related experience in developing software;
- You have experience coordinating multidisciplinary teams (programmers, external firms, etc.);
- You have demonstrated skills in object-oriented programming;
- You have good knowledge in programming languages such as C++, C#, Java, Actionscript 3.0 (Adobe Flash or Flex);
- You have an interest for interactive children’s entertainment content;
- You are recognised for you capacity to manage priorities, deadlines, and your planning abilities;
- You are renowned for your analytical spirit and your capacity to work in a rapidly evolving environment;
- You are a dynamic person with good team spirit skills;
- Bilingualism, both oral and written, is essential.

How to apply :
emploi@tribalnova.com

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