Disqus - Latest Comments for Austin Hill

Re: Founders & Funders – It’s a wrap

Austin Hill — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:18:46 -0000

It was great to see you last night David. I always enjoying catching up.

Congratulations to you, Jevon and the Toronto Founders & Funders group on what looks like a great event.

When Patrick Lauzon and I organized the Montreal Founders & Funders event our goal was very similar which was to bring together Founders and Funders (Angels & VCs) in a social setting.

In Montreal we had the added goal of uniting and encouraging networking among both the French and English entrepreneurs & CEOs who along with the Montreal angel community often do not network.

After the work we had done in Montreal to get Barcamp and Democamp's going we noticed that while it was popular with the technology, Web startup and engineering; design & social media crowd we weren't getting the involvement of key members of our community who could act as mentors to the new emerging community of startups.

By keeping our invite list hand selected for the first event we hoped to reach out to many of our 2nd & 3rd time entrepreneurs and angel investors who weren't coming out to other community events.

It was a great success for us, but with a different twist. We had more VCs and Angels then we did 'Founders' in the sense we were looking for. We had a turn out of approx 75 (out of 110 invites) which was at capacity. The breakdown was about 40% Founders and 60% VC's and Angel investors.

We are planning the next event soon and look forward to sharing our experience and continuing this trend.

David & Jevon, you've already given me some great ideas to incorporate into our next event.

Congrats again.

Re: Teaching Kids To Make Games

Austin Hill — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:15:15 -0000

Hi Fred,

The best example I've seen in this area which was also highlighted at the Games4Change conference (which was great BTW) was GameStar Mechanic which is an MMOG that is based on learning to build new games. You can join guilds, gain experience and contribute to the community by designing games.

http://www.gamestarmechanic.com

It's designed by GameLabs and won a McArthur grant. What is great about Games is they teach children how to think critically about systems, logic and complexity.

There was a lot of good data at the conference about kids learning through games, but this was the best example of how it might actually go mainstream.

Re: Teaching Kids To Make Games

Austin Hill — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:33:49 -0000

It's a great concept. Here is a follow interview with one of the designers.

http://spotlight.macfound.org/main/entry/salen_...

Re: » Game On Finance - Browser going to wallop Super Mario | StartupNorth

Austin Hill — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:26:54 -0000

I think some of the most interesting innovations in gaming are going to be coming from the emergence of new boutique MMOG's that require small, web-based development teams and approach game design much more like social networks or social websites.

By allowing for an iterative, and small scale development budget we begin to see more innovation in gaming coming outside of the traditional game studio distribution model and the advertiser supported free Flash game model.

WebKinz, Club Penguin, Dofus and many others under development have each in their own way innovated on the game studio & advertiser models.

More recently we have seen ConduitLabs, Area.net and other social MMOG companies receive funding that place them in the Internet Social Website budget - yet they are developing rich social playgrounds that merge game environments and social media.

Certainly it is an interesting time for the game industry (much like the film industry) as the old distribution models and cost structures are being replaced by more creative concepts delivered outside of areas that they have been traditionally strong in.

Here is a great article on Boutique MMOG's with some numbers and examples.

Re: » April Fools: We are funded! StartupNorth takes a $3.2 million series A financing | StartupNorth

Austin Hill — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:49:56 -0000

Well I'm glad for you guys, but have to say I'm pissed I got outbid on the valuation for the deal. I thought my term sheet was extremely fair, but I guess you just had to go for the big bucks.

Win some, loose some I guess. Next time come to me before your valuation reaches high $30 million pre-money and we can talk :)

Re: » Akoha - $1.9million for gaming that does good | StartupNorth

Austin Hill — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:50:18 -0000

Thanks for the pick up Jevon. It was great seeing you this week in Toronto and at CIX.

We're looking forward to sharing more details publicly soon.

Re: » How Startups will save Venture Capital in Canada | StartupNorth

Austin Hill — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:10:07 -0000

Great article Jevon. I couldn't agree more.

Re: Getting social software more human

Austin Hill — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:41:59 -0000

Great post Loic.

There is a big difference between not understanding why something may work supporting the passion & ambition required to make it work.

Seesmic is doing really interesting things and it shows that you and your team love what you do.

Re: Game On Finance - Browser going to wallop Super Mario

Austin Hill — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:26:54 -0000

Re: April Fools: We are funded! StartupNorth takes a $3.2 million series A financing

Austin Hill — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:49:56 -0000

Re: Akoha - $1.9million for gaming that does good

Austin Hill — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:50:18 -0000

Thanks for the pick up Jevon. It was great seeing you this week in Toronto and at CIX.

We're looking forward to sharing more details publicly soon.

Re: How Startups will save Venture Capital in Canada

Austin Hill — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:10:07 -0000

Great article Jevon. I couldn't agree more.

Re: It’s A Boy!

Austin Hill — Wed, 30 May 2007 19:20:33 -0000

Congratulations to you and Jess, my friend. The pictures are adorable.

Can't wait to meet him when we get back from Mesh.

Re: One of the Coolest Jobs Around - Community Manager at Akoha

Austin Hill — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:35:46 -0000

Thanks Ben.

Anyone interested in the position, please feel free to introduce yourselves.

The Akoha team would love to meet you.

Re: One of the Coolest Jobs Around - Community Manager at Akoha

Austin Hill — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:15:50 -0000

Hi Bill,

The project is still in 'private' mode where we aren't disclosing the full details.

What we are able to say right now is that it is a social game that involves both online & offline game play.

There is a strong social & cause related aspect to our project as well.

Hope this helps.

Re: One of the Coolest Jobs Around - Community Manager at Akoha

Austin Hill — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:18:06 -0000

Hi RPO & Teamwork,

The company itself is working on the question "What if playing a game could actually make the world a better place?"

It's a big idea, with a lot of room for different types of games & approaches to building a product.

The specific role for this person would be to help us build a happy, healthy and growing community of players. Part evangelist, part community support & part community/social media marketing.

Akoha will be successful based on accomplishing financial goals (revenue & profits), market growth (number of players, player activity & viral adoption rates) and social goals (can we demonstrate that our players & game are creating real world benefit that is making the world a better place).

Hope this helps.

Re: PitchEngine Launches- I Might Have a Plan

Austin Hill — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:05:42 -0000

This reminds me of Newsvetter http://newsvetter.com/ which is similar.

The social media release is one aspect of the problem, but the social filtering & vetting of aspects of pitches is another interest solution.

Re: Another Stanford University Startup coming September 2007

Austin Hill — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 05:23:28 -0000

Congratulations to both you and Maryam.

+Austin