EmmaActive launches at DEMO

EmmaActive, based in Abbotsford BC, is bringing to market an in-image ad unit that consumers will love. The platform turns images across the web into interactive units and enables crowd sourced tagging of photos. Publishers just have to drop a couple lines of javascript on their site to activate the untapped inventory.

In image advertising is heating up with GumGum, Stipple, Luminate, and a few others vying for pole position and racing to deploy with publishers. The other dark horse is Facebook who might syndicate image tagging along with Facebook Connect. Of course, we’re rooting for the home team. Congrats to Nathan Leggatt and the EmmaActive team on the launch.

GoInstant launching tonight at TechCrunch Disrupt

You haven’t seen many posts recently from my StartupNorth Cofounder Jevon MacDonald for a very good reason… he has been working on a startup.

Customers can’t wait to get their hands on it. Robert Scoble had this to say: “It is one of those companies, when you see it, you say wow that is so cool. It should be bought by Facebook or Salesforce.”

GoInstant has raised seed funding from an impressive syndicate including: Josh Felser (Freestyle Capital), Reid Hoffman (Greylock Partners), Howard Lindzon (Social Leverage), Steve Anderson (Baseline Ventures), Chamath Palihapitiya (Embarcadero Ventures), Patrick Keefe (Innovacorp), Boris Wertz (W Media Ventures), Ed Sim (BOLDstart Ventures), Yuri Milner, Matt Wyndowe, Daniel Debow, and myself.

The Halifax based company has been in stealth mode for 9 months. By now you are probably wondering… what is GoInstant?