Montreal Tech Watch

3 business blogs for startup founders

By Heri Jun 23rd 2008 in entrepreneurship

There is a huge array of marketing and tech entrepreneurship blogs on the web (too many to list here in fact); however if you would ever want to start a Montreal-based software company, it’s valuable to also follow Montréal bloggers and get a local take on marketing, product design, business and tech entrepreneurship. In this regard, I thought about showcasing the following blogs:

  • rednod Rednod is written by Alistair Croll, with blog posts covering mostly marketing. There are gems in the blog about product design, strategy and marketing. Alistair Croll is also a great communicator and I find he is gifted in finding just the right medium, angle and words to charm you & the potential user of your product. Alistair Croll also writes at bitcurrent.
  • startupcfo StartupCFO is written by Mark MacLeod, self-described as “serial startup CFO and operator”, and currently CFO at Tungle. You can find great insight in his blog about startups financing, leadership, business plans & execution. He also writes about operations, something that isn’t covered much in other blogs.
  • instigatorblog Instigator Blog is written by Ben Yoskovitz, who is also CEO of standoutjobs. Ben writes a lot about entrepreneurship and gives valuable and practical advice on how to build and grow a startup; with also a personal touch, as a father and a Montrealer. As you may find out thought, the blog is updated less often that it used to be, since he needs to focus on standoutjobs.

This is just a personal  list of startup blogs; but I find them valuable and essential if you are a Montreal tech entrepreneur. And since the list is of course limited and arbitrary, you are also invited to submit your list in the comments.

  • GrowLab Event Coming to Montreal. Let’s talk Start-ups!

    GrowLab Event Coming to Montreal. Let’s talk Start-ups!

    Start-up accelerator GrowLab and Dealmaker Media have put together a tour with a group of great people to talk about the reality of being an entrepreneur. If you have a start-up or you’re thinking about it, you need to be there to join the discussion. Here are some of the questions that will be addressed: [...]

  • Startup Weekend Montréal : 17 Startups lancés en 54 heures, un grand gagnant : im-patient, et 100 000 $ de prix

    #SWMontreal

  • Montreal Startup Weekend Day #2 at HEC Montreal: teams, project validation, and mentors

    SWMontreal day2

Comments

  • Mark MacLeod June 23, 2008

    Heri,

    Thanks for putting me on this list. I really appreciate it.

    Mark

  • Yann June 23, 2008

    Salut Heri

    Je sais que ton blog est de plus en plus en anglais et que le mien est de plus en plus en français… mais http://www.presentprofit.com/PPDirect/ reste le blog le plus documenté sur les aides gouvernementales disponibles…

  • Montreal Tech Watch June 23, 2008

    3 business blogs for startup founders http://tinyurl.com/6xmbx5

  • Mehdi Akiki June 23, 2008

    Yann, je voulais juste te dire que etre professionel c’est d’abord repondre aux emails.
    Je ne sais pas si c’est au sein de Present Profit c’est une technique qui vise a selectionner les candidats les plus desesperes (i.e. ceux qui vont vous envoyer des emails de rappel alors que le rendez-vous est deja fixe et peut etre meme consomme), mais je trouve cela aberrant.
    Je ne pense pas et a juste titre que Present Profit peut etre une alternative viable pour une startup au sens de la Silicon Valley, etant donne qu’une premiere prise de contact avec Present Profit peut prendre jusqu’a 1 mois et nous ne sommes pas assures du suivi qui a ete quasi inexistant dans mon cas!
    C’est bien dommage.

  • Ben Yoskovitz June 23, 2008

    Heri – thank you for including me on the list. I wish I wrote more often than I do – these days I have a combination of overload from Standout and writer’s block. Frustrating, sometimes… :)

    On that note, however, if anyone here would like me to write about something (and I’m able to) I’d be interested in hearing from people on what they’d like to hear about…maybe that will give me some fresh ideas to write about!

  • Yann June 24, 2008

    MEHDI, j’espérais que tu sois toujours vivant ;) je vois donc que c’est le cas. Manifestement, un de nos courriels est tombé dans la boite à spams de l’autre. Le seul contact que j’ai eu venant de toi après ta mystérieuse disparition était sur LinkedIn.
    Je t’ai répondu en te disant que Michael t’avais envoyé un contrat et que nous pouvions nous en parler par téléphone si tu étais disponible. Mais nous n’avons eu aucune réponse. Comme tu n’as pas appelé j’en ai déduis que tu ne voulais plus faire affaire avec nous puisque tu n’avais pas appelé, ni répondu à nos deux rappels par courriel. J’ai également cherché dans ton dossier si j’avais un numéro de téléphone, mais rien … Je suis heureux de voir que ce n’étais qu’un malentendu. Appelle s’il te plait Mercredi au 514 907 0735 x734 pour Michael.

  • Heri June 24, 2008

    bon mehdi et yann apparement il y a un problème de communication entre vous deux, je suis pas sûr que ce blogue soit le bon medium pour regler ce probleme de communication.

  • Jen June 30, 2008

    All great sites you’ve listed. Young startup CEO’s and those that want to be definitely need all of the resources they can get. Another startup up resource site I’d recommend is “Rules for Renegads”, http://www.rulesforrenegades.com. The author, Christine Comaford-Lynch totally rocks.

    Jen Thomas
    Glyphius Software

  • Alistair Croll June 30, 2008

    Thanks, Heri.

    One of the things I love about blogging is the license to write what you want. In many cases, something we see on the street or a chance conversation overheard in an elevator leads to a blog if you’ve got your “entrepreneur lenses” on.

    Montreal’s got a thriving (et bien bilingue) technology base; where it needs help is promotion and visibility on a global scale. I think many of the local entrepreneurs have high hopes that the Internet will level the playing field.

    That said, there are a lot of challenges, culturally, to creating a great tech city. Laika and SAT are pretty much the only places in Montreal where I feel like I’m in the Bay Area, and more of that critical mass — in the form of venues, events, and co-op programs — is needed.

    MTW is definitely carrying that banner; keep up the great work.

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