Disqus - Latest Comments for ceben

Re: Apresentando o Dealbot para Slack do Pipedrive

ceben — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 20:07:58 -0000

Would love to be able to trigger new tasks in Trello (or any task management software) when new Activities are created.

Re: Unpacking Toronto’s Tech Startup Events

ceben — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 08:54:46 -0000

Thanks for the very helpful post! I'm always acutely aware of the fact that people just don't know where to look.

Thanks for listing The Working Group. It would be good to add Startup Weekend as another series of great events throughout the GTA and globally. UP.co (the new parent org of SW) also owns Startup Digest and Startup Next which, coincidentally we run out of TWG.

Thanks again!

Re: The Canadian Startup Financing Landscape (2014)

ceben — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 22:27:20 -0000

If you define us by investment size than Accelerator is correct. Our investments typically range from $25k - $150k. But we consider ourselves Angels who sometimes Incubate the companies we invest in. Tough to pick one specific category.

Re: The Canadian Startup Financing Landscape (2014)

ceben — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 23:21:29 -0000

Hey Mark

TWG should be in the Incubator and/or Angel section. We do both pretty actively.

Re: Is @AngelList Syndicates Really Such a Big Deal?

ceben — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 19:58:18 -0000

Great post and thanks for pointing to and referencing other great contributors to the discussion. As a small angel myself, I look forward to participating in bigger seed rounds with some other great investors to see what kind of positive impact this can have for founders (and subsequently, the angels of course).

To Jason's point, I'd like to think that the lower tier VCs would ultimately disappear due to poor performance, with or without AngelList but perhaps the power of syndicates will weed these VCs out sooner.

Re: SXSW PanelPicker

ceben — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 19:36:45 -0000

I'd really love the opportunity to speak on this topic to the SXSW crowd. I believe this is important and timely for many who face the challenges of working in/with or creating integrated teams to build great digital products. Interaction Design has so often been left outside the agile process and that's a big mistake.

Re: @TylrMobile announces new mobile email inbox for salespeople connected to @Salesforce | LAUNCH

ceben — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 23:55:21 -0000

This could be powerful stuff. Remember that mobile mail clients need complimentary desktop/web companions for a complete workflow. Ideally in the form of a chrome extension to integrate with gmail.

Re: What Toronto’s Startup Community Must do to Thrive

ceben — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 17:39:12 -0000

I agree. The changes over the last few years are immense across the board. With the exits and successes that we've seen from many startups, I expect this to help feed the startup ecosystem as second time entrepreneurs/angels (with money and experience!) will give back and/or start their next company.

Re: Win a Special Edition The Dark Knight Rises Nokia Lumia 900

ceben — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 21:54:34 -0000

Because he's got money, gadgets and most of all, he fights for those who need fighting for.

Re: My current tools

ceben — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 23:06:25 -0000

One more thing... Check out streak for CRM in your Google inbox. It's in beta but I like where it's headed.

Re: My current tools

ceben — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 23:04:46 -0000

How do you get by without a true task management tool? I've wasted so much time and money on these and have landed, for the moment, with Wunderlist. Thinking of switching to any.do only for the nicer UI.

And just wait until the next version of Rocketr is out!

Re: iPad for dummies

ceben — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:54:33 -0000

I've just accepted this as an inevitable way of life at this point. I can't turn off the technology so just have to optimize it's use as much as possible. Using an iPad for all my reading has it's pros and cons but for now I'm sticking with the digital approach.

Re: Hustle & Flow

ceben — Fri, 20 May 2011 16:53:03 -0000

Check out the stories behind Fun Technologies (now part of Liberty Media) and watch MoodMedia now. The hustle and deal making abilities of Lorne Abony, Andrew Rivkin and James Lanthier show a very different side of entrepreneurship that doesn't get a lot of attention or focus. Both these stories involve very early IPOs for small companies with little to no revenues with the use of IPO proceeds going towards aggressive M&A. Through many many deals, Fun Technologies grew quickly and significantly until it was ultimately sold to Liberty Media for over $400m. If you watch MoodMedia today, it started as Fluid Music, a small company who put together creative, debt and stock based deals to acquire 3 significantly larger companies and become the largest player in their industry with a market cap of over $350m.

This type of activity and skill set needs more attention in startup circles.

Thanks for the post!

Re: ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, April 2 2011

ceben — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:10:47 -0000

Startup Weekend Toronto 2.0 taking place June 3-5, 2011 at the Burroughes Building in Toronto.

Checkout http://toronto.startupweeke... for more information.

Re: Moderizing my television subscription

ceben — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 23:15:49 -0000

I've been back and forth in my head for over a year now about this same decision. It's always the live sports that gets in the way.

I can't speak to the F1 but I can say it sounds like you're missing a good HD antenna (ideally on your roof) to get the NFL. I don't have one but hear they're good and from Toronto, you can pick up 30-35 HD channels. And over the air HD is higher quality than cable.

My issue is soccer and the horror of having to change my current setup. Damn switching costs!

Re: the art of pricing

ceben — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 11:38:26 -0000

Yes, good point. An important addition to the list of things to consider when pricing.

Re: point of diminishing returns

ceben — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 11:36:13 -0000

Thanks for the advice. There are a number of things for me to checkout. Syncing is definitely the core problem because it limits which tools I can effectively use. I plan on talking to Paul at the next #LeanCoffeeTO.

Cheers

Re: point of diminishing returns

ceben — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 11:08:27 -0000

I start by looking at my Outlook calendar which tells me what appointments I have that day and has been sync'd (hopefully) with my Google calendar as well. Then review my tasks in Outlook and reQall and decide which ones need to be completed and when. Sometimes I will schedule this work directly into my calendar, but not always. This all works fairly well. The part I don't think works well is where I have notes from meetings that exist in multiple places and often require actions. I'm pretty good about inputting things that require more immediate actions into reQall or Tasks but I always have a feeling of dread that I haven't done it recently enough and need to dig through Note Taker HD, Evernote or anything else to find new To-Dos.

All-in-all, my system is probably ok but I want it to be perfect. I know it never will be.

Re: Startup Weekend Toronto September 24-26

ceben — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:57:14 -0000

Actually, you can really come out and work on anything you like. It's also a great place to bring an existing project and find new people and ideas to help move it along. Of course there is a level visibility that can be gained at an event like this through the sponsors, speakers, mentors and judges who might find they're interested in your project. At the same time, while everyone can pitch their idea to the entire group at the start, only the top 10 or so will be able to compete in the final presentations. I wish we could accommodate everyone but that would be impossible in this case.

So I wouldn't preclude yourself from this type of event. It all depends on what you want to accomplish and what your needs are.

Hope you can make it out in some form or another!

Re: Startup Weekend Toronto September 24-26

ceben — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:11:03 -0000

Thanks for the post Jonas! We're really looking forward to this event and are excited to see Toronto's startup community signing up to participate.

For full disclosure, one of my co-organizers, Ahmed Badruddin, founder of Simpleafy, wrote the bulk of this article.

Hope to see as many of you as possible at Startup Weekend!

Re: iPad for dummies

ceben — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:02:15 -0000

Absolutely! I'm certainly not blaming the iPad - just describing the effects of the phenomenon on me.

Re: Getting Traction

ceben — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:46:12 -0000

I also look forward to Jevon's future post on this subject as I think it's an important one. Those behind the lean startup movement are full of B2C examples and metrics and there is very little in the way of good sound measurement advice in the B2B space. Of course each startup must determine its own set of metrics to measure traction but there is great value in building best practices through tangible and practical real life examples. As someone who builds software to automate performance management scorecards, I believe that no individual or business can be successful without the right measurement framework. At the same time, I know how hard this can be, especially for those who's skills often have no relationship to the practice of measurement.

Re: Going global from day one

ceben — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:13:14 -0000

Without question Canadian startups must think globally and almost always consider the US their domestic market. At the same time, following certain principles of the lean movement, finding that product market fit quickly and cost effectively can also be done locally with consideration for wider markets. As previous comments have already mentioned, the "domestic" market for Canadian startups is substantial and diverse and it is important not to stretch resources too thin early on. Going global must be well thought out and well timed to be successful. Even if product market fit is developed with a global mindset, the channels to reach global markets are quite different and often require local partners. As Canadians, we are lucky to have such a huge domestic market to gain momentum to go global.

Re: The best laid 15 year plans

ceben — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 22:24:34 -0000

Good news. Might this be a result of the Feds recent changes to filing requirements for foreign investors? Could we see more foreign investors getting involved over the next few years?

Re: alt bootstrapping

ceben — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:29:07 -0000

Great to hear that you have a group attempting to work in this way. I'm not surprised that it's tough to take projects to completion following this method. Still, when/if ideas start to show promise, then it's likely the commitment and willingness to take on new risk will increase amongst the group.

I'd love to hear more about the group that you currently have.