NextMontreal.com is going live today. It is the result of a push by Ben Yoskovitz to create a new source of information for the Montreal community after MontrealTechWatch went dormant over a year ago.

Why now?
When first thinking about this project, Ben wrote:

When the site was active it provided a great deal of exposure to Montreal, and helped build a stronger community. There’s a lot going on in Montreal for tech startups and entrepreneurs, but without adequate reporting, too much of it doesn’t get the attention deserved.

At that time, MontrealTechWatch had been more or less dead for over a year and the tech community was very quickly gathering momentum again.

What about MontrealTechWatch?
In the time since Ben began working on NextMontreal.com, Heri started blogging regularly on MontrealTechWatch again. I advocated for the community to restart MontrealTechWatch, so I was glad to see that. The existence of two community sites in Montreal will cause some confusion, but I think it is fine. Both sites compliment eachother, have very different operating models, and will most likely each find specific audiences within the Montreal tech and startup community.

The role of community sites
There is a broader discussion that we need to have about the role of community blogs in Canada’s tech hubs. We need blogs which aggregate people, ideas and events in order to showcase the activity in places like Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Quebec City and Atlantic Canada. There are cool things happening in all of these places, you just have to scratch the surface to see what is going on.

Running a community site is hard though, and it takes dedication. NextMontreal will be testing a new model, which will hopefully bring scale to this concept and a broader set of voices to the community.

No matter what, Montreal should count itself lucky to have so many people who are so passionate about making the startup community in the city thrive. Most do it for little or no direct reward, and those are exactly the people you want behind the wheel.

Congratulations to the team at Vanilla Forums. In the past year they’ve attended TechStars in Boulder, moved to Montreal, and released version 2 of Vanilla Forums. What is Vanilla?

“Vanilla is an open-source, standards-compliant, multi-lingual, theme-able, pluggable community forum.

Over 350,000 sites use Vanilla Forums to manage feedback, spark discussion, and make customers smile.”

There are competitors ranging from bbPress, phpBB, and punBB (like others we’re torn between bbPress and Vanilla – the proxyConnect plugin allows us to integrate Vanilla with WordPress). But Vanilla is a leading solution offering a great user experience, simple customization and hosting with a large user community. Plus they’re funded by our friends at Montreal Startup which makes them an easy choice.

MontrealStartup is reporting that their portfolio company, Beyond the Rack, has secured a new round of financing with BDC Venture Capital and Highland Capital Partners.

I have been watching Beyond the Rack since Montreal Startup’s initial investment, but I had no idea they were getting so much traction. The company is just under two years old and is led by Yona Shtern, who was an employee at My Virtual Model, one of the bubble-era startups that swept through Montreal. More recently Yona was the Chief Marketing Officer at Ice.com.

The Montreal Startup team recently secured the first commitments for Founder Fuel, which will be a larger sister-fund to Montreal Startup. Their early stage investment in Beyond the Rack will hopefully make it easier to secure the remaining commitments for the new fund, and this puts the team squarely in the top-tier of early and seed stage investors in Canada along with Extreme Ventures and Scott Pelton at Growthworks.

This also represents one of the most significant follow-on rounds for a Canadian micro-fund. The fact that BDC Venture Capital was able to participate and keep some of that action in-country is nice.

Friendly neighbourhood reminder that tomorrow, June 30, 2010, is StartupDrinks (well tonight in Saskatoon & Regina). On June 30, 2010 you can join entrepretreneurs in:

• Montreal,
• Toronto,
• St. John,
• Calgary,
• Halifax,
• Fredericton,
• Saint John,
• and Moncton.

Jevon is going to be hanging out in Halifax. Ray is going to be in Montreal. Jonas, Bryan and I are planning on being at Grace O’Malleys (aka Granuaile), 14 Duncan St, Toronto, ON.

It’s a great opportunity to get out of the office. To be social. To connect with others that are struggling building companies like you. What will we be talking about? We’ll be talking about “How to grow your traffic from 1k to 35k on $0” and other things. What do you want to talk about?

Here’s

A 2nd win in as many days for angel investor Austin Hill, StandoutJobs has been acquired. From Ben Yoskovitz’s blog:

Around 3 years ago I started Standout Jobs with two great guys – Fred Ngo and Austin Hill. We raised money, built a great product, hired an incredible team and worked to build a business. Today I’m very pleased to announce that we’ve sold Standout Jobs.

I can’t name the acquirer at this point in time. I can tell you that I’m very excited to see what they do with Standout Jobs, because I fundamentally believe what we built and the vision we pushed will be standards in the recruitment industry for years to come. Companies that ignore their employer brands and don’t create a quality, interactive, candidate-centric hub on the Web for recruitment will lose.

StandoutJobs has also previously raised capital from iNovia and Montreal Startup.

Montreal is a happening place. There’s StartupDrinks. There’s the launch of a new seed fund, Founder Fuel. The announcement of another StartupCamp. There comes two new players: StartupSquare and MontrealNewTech.

StartupSquare

StartupSquare is hosting their kick off event on April 13, 2010. The group is made up students at McGill University, Concordia University, HEC Montreal, and other local universities. The goal of the group is to help promote entrepreneurship and commercialization to create growth companies. It is roughly modeled on Aalto Entrepreneurship Society which was started by StartupSquare co-organizer Riku Seppala.

Montreal New Tech

Montreal New Tech is headed by Felipe Coimbra aka TwtFelipe who got some coverage this week by Mark Suster around US immigration policy and the Founder Visa. MTLNewTech is a great example of the evolution of community. It has taken the best part of DemoCamp, Web Innovators Group, TECHCocktail and other events over the past formative years. And it has evolved to help enable, educate and connect local tech entrepreneurs, i.e., it’s Felipe doing the things that help him with 63 Squares and YowTrip!

It is great to see entrepreneurs take responsibility for ensuring that the events and activities they need and want are created. Make sure you check out both of these groups, they are doing great things.

It’s time againg for a road trip to Montreal. Phil Telio and his crew of supporters (John Stokes, Austin Hill and Sylvain Carle) are hosting another must attend startup event in Montreal. The event is shaping up to have 2 components:

1. Participant-driven Conference – starting at 1pm
2. Keynote & Pitches – starting at 6pm

Unconference

The participant-driven event, aka the “unconference”, is one of the best parts. The idea is that the schedule is determined by the attendees. There will be technologists, lawyers, funders, marketers, designers and others. The question is what do you want to talk about? NoSQL technologies. Mobile implications for social gaming mechanics. Legals of fund raising in Canada without Section 116. I’ve heard that Dave McClure is planning on doing “an exercise in entrepreneurial improv theatre”. I first saw Half-Baked dot com at ETech’07. It’s an incredibly fun engaging way to learn how to quickly build companies, business models and pitches without the constraints usually imposed by making it your own business.

Keynote & Pitches

The evening event is essential cocktails and pitches. Highlighting the event is Dave McClure’s keynote.

Dave McClure has been geeking out in Silicon Valley for over twenty years as a software developer, entrepreneur, startup advisor, angel investor, blogger, & internet marketing nerd.  Dave currently runs a seed-stage investment program for Founders Fund, and also manages the fbFund REV social incubator.  His passion is helping startups with marketing, product strategy, and startup metrics, and he has been an advisor or investor in more than 40 companies including: Mint.com (acquired by Intuit), SlideShare, Mashery, TeachStreet, KISSmetrics, Simply Hired, Twilio, Bit.ly, UserVoice, and CreditKarma, among others.

Following the keynote there will 5 pitch/presentation/demo spots. Traditionally StartupCampMontreal presentations have been very pitch focused. I think there is an opportunity for a presenter to really rock this venue. Thing about this as a chance to build demand and generate excitement about your startup. It’s a chance to get feedback about a part of your business. Whether that is your fund raising pitch, your product demo, or other. I’d start by looking at TechCrunch50, Demo, and others for inspiration. You want to win the giveway. Trust me you want to win the giveaway.

Giveaway

The StartupCampMontreal organizers are giving away a ticket for Geeks on a Plane Asia. What the hell is geeks on a plane? It sounds like a bad movie that stars Samuel Jackson. Playing the role of Samuel Jackson is Dave McClure.  The goal of Geeks on a Plane is a great one. It’s to get you out of your comfort zone. To force entrpreneurs to travel to meet investors, customers, entrepreneurs in other countries, and gain insight and connections that can be used to further your business. It’s a great event in the safety of the company of other geeks like you.

• Meet startups, geeks, & investors in cities around the world.
• Learn about trends in internet, mobile, and other tech platforms.
• Gain insight into local markets, demographics, business models.
• Meet cool people, new ventures, have fun on planes, trains, buses.

I’m an entreprenur and this sounds AWESOME! How do I win? You need to apply to present at StartupCampMontreal6. One of the presenting companies will be selected to get some mentoring from Dave McClure and a ticket to travel with Geeks on a Plane.

I first met John Stokes a few years ago when he landed on to the Canadian startup scene and started talking about his new fund Montreal Start-up. In March 2008 they raised a small initial fund which they quickly deployed in to some nice deals in Montreal including Status.net and Whatsnexx.

John and the team, which includes Austin Hill, announced today that they will be taking commitments from the Quebec Government (through Investissement Quebec) at $50 milion, Solidarity Fund QFL, which is investing $33 million, and by FIER Partners, which plans to invest $17 million.

The fund still needs to raise over $8million directly from LPs, which Investissement Quebec seems to think will be a snap and done in 4 months, but I am not so sure. I hope I am proven wrong.

In case any potential LPs are reading this right now, here is my advice: Do this one. Do it because this team is going to do more than just pass the time humming over deals — you will get hustle, an aggressive attitude and a group that understands that Canada needs more hustle and less of the same old.

John and the team are connected and tuned in to the community. Early stage entrepreneurs trust this team and they are the kind of guys who can get your money in to some great opportunities.

Congrats and good luck.

SmartHippo has named the former LendingTeam GM, Lori Collins, CEO. And they are expanding their European footprint through an exclusive license and partnership with Finacialred in Spain. This is definite traction and a step further down the growth path for George and the team in Montreal. A world-class CEO, a expansion into the European marketplace that allows a local entity to do the sales and marketing allowing the team to continue to work on the software platform. Super cool. 

“As General Manager of the LendingTree Exchange, Collins was responsible for sales, relationship management, and product management for the LendingTree lender network. She was part of the executive team which increased revenues from $7 million to $476 million over seven years.”

So what is SmartHippo?

“SmartHippo.com uses the power of community to help consumers find the best mortgage rates and save money. SmartHippo allows any individual to post information and feedback on the rate they received, and to compare rates with other members of the community with similar profiles. Members of SmartHippo can see real rates reported by real consumers, and sort through banks based on feedback posted by other members of the community. “

SmartHippo is an open, transparent marketplace where consumers help each other find the best financial products. Basically all of the those hidden gotchas, the little things that are often hidden in the fine print, that you only discover after a difficult situation. It’s about providing a platform that consumers can ask questions, share reviews, compare rates and experiences to make make informed financial decisions. SmartHippo is the underlying software platform that allows these conversations to take place.

Huge day for SmartHippo. And there is an opportunity for local startups (well local to Montreal) to hear from a Valley veteran running a hot Canadian startup. Lori Collins will be delivering the closing keynote at StartupCamp Montreal on October 15. If you are in the Montreal area, the event takes place at the Society for Arts and Technology, 1195 Saint-Laurent boulevard, Montreal [map] from 6pm to 11pm. Make sure you take the opportunity to participate and meet George, Lori and the team.

Backbone Magazine announced their “PICK 20 round of Canada’s leading Web 2.0 pioneers” that includes 4 companies form our list of web startups to watch, it’s a great list of Canadian technology companies and startups.

The List

1. FreshBooks, Toronto
2. Myca Health, Quebec City
3. CoveritLive, Toronto
4. Viigo, Toronto
5. Radian6, Fredericton
6. Filemobile, Toronto
7. BoardSuite, Toronto
8. NowPublic, Vancouver
9. Tungle, Montreal
10. HootSuite, Vancouver
11. ThoughtFarmer, Vancouver
12. AfterCAD Online, Vancouver
13. TeamPages, Vancouver
14. The Manufacturing Innovation Network, Kitchener
15. Well.ca, Guelph
16. Clarity Accounting, Vancouver
17. Voices.com, London
18. Taglocity, Vancouver
19. PollStream, Toronto
20. Pixton, Vancouver

The majority of the startups on the PICK20 list are in Vancouver (8) and Toronto (5). It’s a great list of Canadian startups.