Billions With Zero Knowledge

I first heard of Barcamp last May right when I was leaving Radialpoint to start my new project. Barcamp and Democamp are some of the fastest growing examples of the unconference tend.

I contacted the primary instigator of the Toronto’s Barcamp/Democamp scene David Crow - who was kind of enough to meet with my partner Alex and I the afternoon before Democamp 6.

During that conversation, David explained how the Barcamp/Democamps started, and operated in Toronto. I was fascinated. He explained how the early events started with 30 or 40 people but within months had grown to hundreds of participants coming out each month.

That evening we headed of to Democamp and I was pretty much decided that I wanted to help kick start the Barcamp movement in Montreal.

I saw within Barcamp Toronto a great example of a community of technologists and entrepreneurs starting to form. These communities are essential to building Canada’s entrepreneurial community and I wanted to be part of helping bring it to Montreal.

Later we would discover that David had a heart attack not 2hrs after our meeting. I’m really glad he’s OK. I hope our excited conversation about Barcamp and cool startups trends didn’t cause it I’ll attempt to avoid being a catalyst for you having a heart attack if we ever meet and have a similar conversation.

As I started to get busy with setting up my new company, I really didn’t do much with my grand scheme of bringing Barcamp to Montreal.

As summer came to a close, I was excited to see that Fred Ngo and a few other others had gone ahead and organized Barcamp - for which they deserve all the credit.

When I met with Fred he told me he wanted to bring Barcamp to Montreal so he had a place with meet and discuss Internet technologies & startups with others. I couldn’t agree more.

This Saturday is the first Montreal Barcamp. Fred and Sylvan Carle have done all the work organizing the event.

I was happy to help the organizers find a few sponsors - I wanted to thank them for their support,

The team at Airborne Entertainment. Airborne is a world leader in mobile entertainement. Airborne was recently named Canada’s 3rd fastest growing technology company and Quebec’s first as part of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50. Airborne is always looking for great people, so if you are in Montreal and looking for career opportunities make sure to contact them.

The team at Garage Technology Ventures Canada. Garage Canada is one of the few early stage technolgoy venture firms in Canada. If you are looking for early stage venture funds - contact them.

The team at Openface Internet. Openface is an Internet infrastructure and services company. From bandwidth & hosting, VOIP, software development to security solutions - Openface is a great partner.

My friends at Radialpoint. Radialpoint is the world’s leading provider of managed consumer Internet services for broadband service providers. Radialpoint was recently named Canada’s 21st fastest growing technology and Quebec’s second as part of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50. I know first hand what a great team the have there - so if you are looking for great career opportunities - check out the jobs they have available.

All four of these sponsors jumped at the opportunity to help support the Barcamp movement and the community in Montreal - so thanks again to all of them.

For me, I’m excited to meet other Barcamp’rs this Saturday. I’ll be presenting a new talk I’ve been working on over the summer - ‘Chasing Billions with Zero Knowledge’ about venture financing & early stage startups. I hope to meet you there.

On Fri 20 Oct 2006.