Witkit Inc & Launch Academy Partner to Power Lean Entrepreneur Program

Witkit’s sponsored scholarship will support 6 emerging entrepreneurs

We’re excited to announce that we’ve adopted Witkit’s secure business collaboration platform as  software of choice for their Lean Entrepreneur Program (LEP).

Witkit’s software houses all of the indispensable productivity and communication apps, used for business and innovation, on one platform. Entrepreneurs can safely access their files, post discussions, create calendars, add tasks, chat or conduct a video conference with the protection of WitCrypt, Witkit’s powerful encryption technology.

“In the wake of last year’s data breaches, it’s more important than ever to keep your ideas and hard work out of the wrong hands,” says Sean Merat, Witkit’s CEO and co-founder.

WitCrypt enables end-to-end encryption for all of the data created and stored on the Witkit platform. The technology creates a zero-knowledge environment with all data being encrypted before it ever leaves the person’s computer.

Our LEP facilitators John Gray and Alex Chuang will use the Witkit platform to manage the program’s curriculum, file sharing, and communication with their students.

“Launch Academy is excited to be partnering up with Witkit to deliver the best startup education in Vancouver,” says Alex Chuang, Managing Director for Launch Academy and Program Facilitator for Lean Entrepreneur Program.

“Collaboration is at the heart of the recent startup movement, and there is no better partner than Witkit to demonstrate the importance of collaboration and efficiency. Teams in the Lean Entrepreneur Program will be using Witkit to communicate, collaborate and create high potential business ideas.”

Witkit is excited to support new entrepreneurs as they learn how to turn their ideas into a reality with the support of Launch Academy’s network of experts. 

“By joining forces with startup accelerators and incubators,” says Merat, “Witkit can power the work of entrepreneurs to ensure a steady stream of innovative ideas.”

Witkit is offering the first 50,000 people who sign up for the platform 50GB of free data-encrypted storage and all available applications for free. Sign up today: www.witkit.com

Cascadia Summit Closes Startup Week with a Bang

Vancouver, BC, Nov 24, 2014 –  On Friday, November 21st Launch Academy, Plug and Play Canada and Boast Capital drew a crowd of over 500 investors, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, government representatives, media, and more to Cascadia Summit, the official closing event of Startup Week Vancouver.

After receiving more than 100 applications from startups around Canada and the USA, 16 finalists presented to an esteemed panel of judges, including Dafina Toncheva from US Venture Partners, Sumeet Jain from Intel Capital, Bill Bryant from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Alireza Masrour from Plug and Play Ventures, Mahendra Ramsinghani from Mod N Labs, and Frederic Lardinois from TechCrunch.

The top three selected startups will receive a term sheet for $25,000 investment from Plug and Play Canada; an opportunity to spend time in Silicon Valley at the Plug and Play Tech Center to gain exposure, build their business and network with influential players in the technology industry. The three selected finalists were:

• Optigo Networks is a connectivity solutions for intelligent buildings. It allows building owners/operators to securely and reliably connect thousands of smart devices in the building Internet of Things (IoT).

• Control is a complete transaction reporting, analytics and management application for web and mobile. It enables merchants to view data from various payment platforms and act on specific & time sensitive transactions. Control supports payment platforms such as Stripe in North America and Paymill in Europe.

• Magicflix is a safe, curated video service for kids. MagicFlix is a video subscription service/app that is available across leading mobile and tablet platforms. Videos are classified and curated for ages 3-6, 6-8 and 9-12 and enables parents to set time limits, content preferences as well as view reports of usage.

Both Optigo Networks and Control are Vancouver-based companies and Magicflix is based in Seattle.

Special guests included the Minister of Technology Innovation and Citizens’ Services Andrew Wilkinson and Ian McKay, CEO of Vancouver Economic Commission, with Minister Wilkinson delivering the opening keynote address.

“Congratulations to all the companies who were shortlisted to be part of the Cascadia pitch competition, including 12 from B.C.,” said Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services Andrew Wilkinson. “The Cascadia Summit draws hundreds of people from across Western Canada and the U.S. and showcases our province as a great place for tech companies to grow and for industry leaders to invest.”

This Summit was the fifth Cascadia event for Launch Academy. Previous Cascadia winners have included Farm at Hand, Nanu Interactive, and BitLit, whom have all continued on to raise millions of dollars in funding.

 

“I am extremely proud of the Launch Academy and Boast Capital teams for delivering such a high-caliber event here in Vancouver.” says Launch Academy Executive Director, Ray Walia.

“Not only is Cascadia an opportunity to really showcase the kinds of high-quality startups and talent coming out of Vancouver and our partner cities in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Washington, but it’s also a demonstration of Launch Academy’s ability to connect the Cascadia region to Silicon Valley.”

 

In just two and a half years, Launch Academy has incubated over 200 companies who have created over 400 jobs in the economy and collectively raised over $27,000,000 in seed funding.

Cascadia Summit concluded Vancouver Startup Week, a weeklong series of events around the city to celebrate the tech community and startup ecosystem. The recap video is available here: http://vimeo.com/112605971

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About Launch Academy

Launch Academy is a pre-accelerator program that helps entrepreneurs execute on their startups through education, mentorship, lean metrics and networking opportunities. Launch Academy has established an environment where ideas are vetted, business models are tested and successes are celebrated. For more information visit: http://launchacademy.ca.

About Boast Capital

Boast Capital is a team of engineers and finance professionals with over 20 years experience

helping companies in Canada and the U.S. successfully claim and maximize R&D tax credits. For more information visit: http://boastcapital.com.

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is a global startup incubator and seed-stage investor with a network that includes over 300 tech startups, 180 investors, and a community of leading Universities and Corporate partners. Since its inception in January 2006, Plug and Play has helped the startup community raise over $1 billion in venture funding, and has invested in 100+ companies including PayPal, Dropbox, Lending Club and Zoosk. For more information visit: http://plugandplaytechcenter.com.

The Lean Entrepreneur Program: A Student’s Perspective

One of our latest LEP graduates Jessica Baratta shares her experience in the program, if you’re thinking about joining us for November, you’ll want to check this out:

This fall, I had the pleasure of participating in the Launch Academy Lean Entrepreneur program, partnered with Emily Carr University and conducted through the Scotiabank PLATFORM Program for Young Entrepreneurs. The intensive four-week program, taught by the brilliant John Gray, had a focus on Lean Methodology and its importance in building a start-up company. With a range of talents and skills in the cohort, every class was a pleasurable experience and inspired new perspectives that fostered innovation. From the initial class, the cohort was separated into smaller groups to work in over the four-week period. Each group had to create a product that would ultimately be pitched in a mock presentation to ‘The Angels,’ as John often referred to investors.

It was within my first class, that I met Michael Majeski (Emily Carr student, Industrial Designer) and Matthew Yeung. The two were completely different; both with wonderful passions and range in experience. With excitement, I listened to Michael describe his love for bicycles and Matthew his current business within the realm of computer science. I eagerly described my passion for communication in all forms and the love I had for design. Utilizing all of these skills sets, together we formed the Find My Bike team.

Find My Bike, an idea originally envisioned by Michael, proposed a GPS tracking device that would fit inside the stem of any bicycle. The device would be able to locate the bike if stolen and keep it safely within the owner’s reach. During the first two weeks of the program, we eagerly used the Lean methodology as a framework to build the components of our start-up. Within each class, there were many team-building activities and presentations from guest lecturers. The third week was spent collecting research from our potential demographic and the Vancouver Police Department. Ultimately, these statistics led to a final presentation within our last class of the term. This pitch allowed the passion and work of each group to echo through their presentation.

The Launch Academy Lean Entrepreneur Program experience was invaluable in many ways. Firstly, the style and framework of the program speaks to the volume of innovation that can derive from it. The collaboration of many different industries was exciting within the classroom and sparked many new challenges in work styles. These challenges surfaced into opportunities, which benefited the entire cohort. Secondly, the speakers brought a range of experience and stories that referenced personal triumphs and struggles. This allowed each student to find similarities and contrasts within their own lives and practice. Furthermore, John brought obvious passion and excitement to each class, which motivated each individual to put forth their best efforts.

I am forever thankful for this wonderful opportunity and would highly recommend the Launch Academy program experience to anyone interested in pursuing a start-up venture. The program structure, amazing people, and facility created the perfect foundation, with only hopes of further innovation to come.

Thank you Jessica for the love! If you’re ready to join our November LEP cohort, get your tickets here today

No Whimper Here. LEP Cohort #2 Ends with a Bang

Our own John Gray’s latest recap of our Lean Entrepreneur Program, check it below!

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper. – (The Hollow Men) T.S Eliot

With a mix of insatiable curiosity, imagination, and determination the entrepreneurial endeavour promises never to be boring. It also doesn’t guarantee success. In fact many startups end with barely a whimper. This wasn’t the story with the recent cohort of our Lean Entrepreneur Program. Cohort #2 of the LEP ended with a definitive bang.

The final week started with DataHero founder Chris Neumann dropping in. Neumann’s a strong Launch Academy supporter, and squeezed time out of a family visit to share some of his entrepreneurial experiences. With the last class focusing on metrics, having a data-focused guy answer the many questions floating around the room was valuable. One never knows who will make a guest appearance on any given LEP evening.  It’s an added bonus that we bake into the program.

Teamwork is a key component of the program. Most startups are small teams. Five teams of three total strangers working through this experience together is a big part of turning a classroom into real life. Our final night of LEP had the spotlight focused brightly on the five teams. In fifteen minutes they each shared what was learned, where they are, and the future vision.

In barely four weeks seeing how far they’d pushed ideas from a flicker, onto paper, and right out of the building is wondrous. There’s something powerful about customer discovery. It’s discovering that this is a process of real learning, not an exercise in pitch validation.

With Kate, Haig, and Rebecca from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, some of our past LEP participants, and a few interested extra guests joining us, “pitch night” was extra vibrant.

While the night was about the teams, it’s important remembering that the purpose of this program isn’t about attempting to incubate five ideas into startups. The LEP is about helping to develop 15 better potential entrepreneurs.

Team #1 – TidyDojo (Alan, Ashley, and Jean) – was looking into the viability of a new productivity or communication application for the world of martial art dojos.

Team # 2 – Find My Bike (Mike, Jessica, and Matthew) are working to combine hardware with software and creating a device that messages your phone when your bike is being stolen.

Team #3  – An Interactive Story (Eileen, Bob, and Eubene) want young children to create digital interactive stories and then enjoy the sense of a physical connection coming in the form of a 3D-printed superhero.

Team #4 – One Place to Work Together (Dina, Raffi, and Anthony) wanted to see if there’s a market for a BaseCamp-like tool for small business.

Team #5 – Cotuto (Lee, Laba, and Jon) is creating a new marketplace to connect independent art and music teachers with students looking for more instructional options.

There was a small boatload of Ferrero Roche up for grabs. As sweet as that is, the team with the most votes from their peers, and the “judges”, (Ray, Alex, Rebecca, Haig, and myself) are earning the opportunity to join Launch Academy as full members for three months.

The vote was close, with Cotuto claiming 3rd, Find My Bike as runner-up, and team TidyDojo claiming the top spot. We’re looking forward to seeing more of Alan, Ashley and Jean working with us in the months to come.

We were also fortunate having Gordon Goldsmith (Business Advisor Youth Mean Business & Self Employment – YMCA of Greater Vancouver) join us for the four weeks, observing, contributing, and getting a flavour of what we’re working to accomplish specifically with LEP, and Launch Academy in general. He generously shares –

“Launch Academy is an amazing place for startups. They have created an environment where people can learn from Launch Academy’s experienced and talented team, as well as connect to fellow startups which is essential to growth. The Lean Entrepreneur Program is a must-attend for any tech business serious about success.”  

Our next cohort starts soon. Don’t miss out! There are only a few tickets left. Get yours today – right here.

A special note of thanks to Emily Carr for arranging the evening photography, and sharing all of these great shots!

We’re Approved! Join us and you could receive $100k and more from Google Cloud Platform For Startups!

Something big just happened…

We’re SUPER excited to announce that we’ll be joining our accelerator friends Y Combinator, 500Startups, TechStars, Communitech, and more as a trusted partner of Google Cloud Platform For Startups!

Cool, tell me more! 

Now, select Launch Academy startups will be able to join fellow Cloud users like Snapchat, Khan Academy, and Udacity and take advantage of $100,000 in Google Cloud Platform credits, special office hours, and 24/7 Google support to help them build and scale their businesses!

What does this mean?

Our members will have the resources and to scale to millions of users and easily develop their products using Google tools available for storage, development, big data management, and beyond.

…Basically, now they can focus on building their products and not have to worry about managing complex infrastructure!

How can I be approved?

We’ll be offering this super awesome perk to the top startups in our portfolio. To be eligible:

• You must be a Launch Academy company (apply here!)
• Your startup must:
  • Be less than 5 years old
  • Have less than $5M US in funding
  • Have less than $500K US in annual revenue
  • Have never received Google Cloud promotional credits before

Sound like a pretty sweet deal? Apply to Launch Academy today!

LEP Winds Down, but the Journey Continues

As our October LEP comes to a close, our Program Instructor John Gray recaps the inspirational moments from this month’s class. Check it out below!

I didn’t die!

the end of a journey

is autumn nightfall

-Bashō

As cohort #2 of the LEP winds into the final week, Bashō’s words are it’s ideal punctuation. For Anthony, Bob, Laba, Dina, Raffi, Alan, Jean, Eileen, Jessica, Jon, Eubene, Ashley, Lee, Matthew, and Mike, they’ve all lived to talk about it. It’s not really an end though, it’s only a beginning.

Five teams of three complete strangers coalesced from night one. They’ve all taken off from that moment. They’ve proven in three weeks that an idea is the furthest thing from a startup imaginable. Appreciating Steve Blank for suggesting that “a startup is not a smaller version of a larger company” was a great start.  The journey is revealing that it’s a search to discover if an idea can be a scalable business model.

One team is exploring a marketplace idea. In this specific business case they’re realizing the need to focus on populating the supply side first. The benefit of “getting out of the building” (our core mantra), is helping them realize where to focus energy and effort. If you’re kicking around an Multi-sided Marketplace idea, Ash Maurya shares some great insight in this recent post.

Customer conversations are also proving valuable for a team trying to create a new productivity or communication application for the world of martial art dojos. There appears to be the need for something, but right now it’s unclear what the true need is. What an initial MVP might look like is shrouded in mystery.

Another team came to the realization that a BaseCamp-like tool for small business was an interesting idea, but in reality not worth pursuing.  It was refreshing to hear someone say with 100% conviction “we’ve got nothing.” This is learning in action. Is it fair to ask if they’ve discovered enough to consider repositioning? We’ll see.

Two other teams are testing ideas where the digital world and physical world intersect. It will be exciting to see how an interactive story for young children plays out. The physical connection comes in the form of a 3D-printed superhero that’s conjured up from the child’s  imagination. There’s potential for a creative, engaging, and educational application here.

For anyone who’s had a bike stolen or stripped down, another team has the first hardware components in hand and is creating a device that messages your phone when your bike is under duress. This could be a next generation bike security device.

It doesn’t hurt to be living in such a great test bed city for this idea either. There’s no lack of validation. It’s now all about the technical discovery process. Can they make it work? Stay tuned.

Seeing the Lean Entrepreneur Program take great theory, and having it translated into real-world experiences like what all of our teams are doing gets the Launch Academy team stoked. How many of these ideas actually leave the classroom is the great unknown. What we do know, is that all of these lessons will carry on for everyone who participates.

Don’t miss out on our November cohort. Early bird tickets are still available. and the class will sell out. Enroll today.

If this hasn’t yet convinced you to join us this November, see what our alumni and admin have to say in our brand new Lean Entrepreneur Program video!

Apply to Pitch at Cascadia Summit 2014!

On Friday, November 21 we’ll be working alongside Plug and Play and Boast Capital to host Cascadia Summit as the Official Closing Event of Vancouver Startup Week!

Cascadia is a premiere startup event where the most promising startups from Western Canada and the US showcase to an audience of over 500 investors, entrepreneurs, corporations, media and more. Cascadia alumni have collectively raised millions in funding and have helped create over 400 jobs in the economy

Special guests Sumeet Jain, Director at Intel Capital; Mahendra Ramsinghani, Author of Business of Venture Capital and Co-author of Startup Boards; Alireza Masrour, Managing Partner at Plug and Play Ventures; and Frederic Lardinois of TechCrunch will share their insights on the future of startup investing. Additionally, Plug and Play Ventures has offered to invest in the top startups from the pitch contest.

Want to Pitch?

The pitching startups, selected by a committee of investors and successful entrepreneurs, will be publicly announced on Nov 1; apply here by Friday, Oct 15.

Get Your Tickets.

Super Early Bird tickets are on sale for $30 each until Oct 15! Grab yours before they’re all gone: www.cascadiasummit.com.

Already registered? Send us a tweet with #Cascadia2014 and help us spread the word.

See you there!

The Lean Entrepreneur Program (Oct 2014): Week #1 Recap

Check out instructor extraordinaire John Gray’s recap of the opening week of our Fall 2014 Lean Entrepreneur Program!

With justifiable excitement we kicked off week #1 of our second cohort for the Lean Entrepreneur Program on September 16th. We’re calling it version 2.0 because we consider Launch Academy itself a startup. If we aren’t learning from experience, calling ourselves entrepreneurs rings hollow.

The feedback and reviews from our first cohort offered up very positive validation. In many ways it’s humbling to roll through the process of testing, measuring, and iterating. Challenging ourselves to be better, setting the bar high and delivering world class programming is the goal for LEP. Individual entrepreneurial potentiality needs the opportunity to be realized.

Our participants get a heaping dose of reality. As a few members of the last cohort shared, “doing a startup is hard.” There’s no “startup porn” in this program. After an overview and introduction to Launch Academy and what’s in store for the next four weeks, our five three-person teams came together.

Teams have chosen to work through business model concepts around a two-sided marketplace, SaaS, eCommerce platform, or a mobile application. It will be interesting to see the evolution of each Lean Canvas as they go through 3 weeks of customer discovery and validation.

The Launch Academy team also owes Emily Carr University of Art + Design a huge thank you  for supporting the program. With five design students enrolled in this cohort, the creative spark in the room is making quite the impression.

While we’ve made a number of subtle (or in some cases not so subtle) changes to the syllabus, one new addition to the class proved to be a real hit. There’s no doubt that the Marshmallow Challenge will be a keeper. Two teams managed to build a freestanding structure, and suffice to say everyone learned a few lessons.

It’s exciting to envision what 15 really motivated participants will discover about themselves this next three weeks. It’s equally exciting to see how the five teams will come together, coalesce around an idea and discover if there’s a potential scalable business model in the making. Stay tuned!

 

The Lean Entrepreneur Program: Week Four Recap

“It does not take much to make us realize what fools we are, but the little it takes is long in coming.” ― Flannery O’Connor

Someone recognizing the folly of an idea sooner than later means the LEP is doing its job. Wrapping up our four week fundamentals program there was a collective appreciation for the fact that an idea alone doesn’t mean you’ve got a business.

Getting feedback from our participants like “startups are difficult!” or, “there’s a lot of moving parts that are hard to line up” and, “everyone can teach you everything about entrepreneurship but same with school, its useless if you don’t apply your learnings,” tells us the program is on track. Our goal is to deliver a world class learning experience, and jumpstart the process of helping entrepreneurs become accelerator-ready.

Our last week again was highlighted with a couple of guests. Growlab’s Program Director Charlyne Fothergill brought her trademark high energy to the room. She shared a first-hand insight about the accelerator and incubator landscape. Her list of application process do’s and don’ts caught everyone’s attention. Suffice to say knowing your stuff is vital. Yet, the full of hubris know it all types are likely to earn the usually fatal label of being “uncoachable.” Tempering your ego with a healthy dose of humility is a winning quality.

Speaking of winning, hearing about the startup journey and accelerator experience lit up the room. Launch Academy alum and recent 500 Startups graduate Jerome Ng delivered a massive dose of reality. As founder of VenueSpot he delivered an unvarnished account of the sacrifice, the fight, the frustration, and the uncertainty that goes with founding a startup. The wins are often tempered by those unexpected body blows. No basking in glory here. It’s well worth reading the chronicle of Jerome’s journey, so far.

The final night for the LEP fundamentals put our five teams in the spotlight. It was pitch night, and the stakes were high. The winning team and their investors (peers who cast a secret ballot) shared in a booty of Ferrero Rocher, and most importantly an opportunity to represent the LEP at Launch Academy’s Pitch Day on August 28th (stay tuned for ticket sales details coming soon… it will sell out fast).

The five ideas hunting for a product/market fit are –

Swiish – A basketball social game helping you to better track your game performance and skill levels.

Home Sweet Home – delivered an honest and refreshing pitch, sharing they are still in the discovery phase of how to make finding a new rental home a more delightful experience, for both renters and landlords.

CrewCovery – is a platform to connect freelance TV & Film creatives with projects looking for a great crew.

ShopAssist – is combining beacon technology with an app that sends promotional offers and deals to a smartphone when customers are within proximity to a physical location.

The winning pitch came from Erny and Anna who were nearly a unanimous choice with their idea, JobSpell.  They focused on eliminating time wasted screening initial resumes by delivering a personal 7 second introductory video.

For our 12 participants in this first cohort of the Lean Entrepreneur Program there is resounding support that they’d recommend the experience to a friend. Tickets are now on sale for our next cohort September 16th to October 9th. There are only 9 spots left! Don’t miss out, get yours here. Early bird pricing is valid until August 22nd.

Latest Perks! 50% off Typeform’s Pro Plan!

Customer validation is essential in the early stages of life for a startup. A well-crafted survey can make a world of difference when it comes to the number of responses you’ll receive from potential consumers.

But, how do you create that “WOW” factor when you’re a one-man show?

We’ve become big fans of Typeform around the office, a cloud-based application providing user-friendly and engaging surveys for both the creator and end user.

Typeform has allowed us here at Launch Academy to create attractive, easy-to-navigate surveys for our members and community alike.

Cool features

Awesome UI/UX design– The user experience is one of the best we’ve seen to date for both the survey-creator AND end-user. Surveys look great on both web and mobile, and design of questionnaires is pretty much effortless.

Analytics– Typeform also lets you take a peek inside the behaviours of your audience. Their integrated analysis tools allow you to learn about user and device response time, and create equally as attractive reports to better understand how your clientele is responding to your surveys.

Identity-friendly– Tweak your survey to make it look like your own in-house designers crafted it for you! You can add your own branding materials and create the unique feel of your company to all of your forms–super helpful when you’re trying to acquaint your clientele with your brand.

Great User Response– Typeform creates intriguing, eye-catching, and stimulating surveys that actually make people want to complete them. Our survey engagement increased significantly when we used Typeform, often followed by emails from our members asking where we found this cool survey tool!

The  Typeform family found out how much we loved using them, and now they’ve kindly offered all Launch Academy members 50% off their Pro plan for 12 months.

A big thank you to Typeform for the love, we can’t wait to share with the rest of our LA family!