MTL NewTech

MTL NewTech is excited to announce the hosting of the "International Edition" on Tuesday, July 7th at Lightspeed's offices. This time, we are collaborating with the US Consulate to gather the whole startup community and welcome 4 amazing Montreal startups and the American businesswoman Ingrid Vanderveldt to be our special guest. You don't want to miss her presentation !

/ / Meet Cofounders & Talent

The evening will commence with a chance to meet programmers, mobile & web entrepreneurs as well as professionals. If you're looking for an engineer, investors, or a professional for a new startup project, this is your chance! Use #mtlnewtech #cofounder or #mtlnewtech #talent to share who you are looking for.

/ / Inspiring startups on stage

Startups will then pitch to the crowd. Presentations will be exactly 5 minutes each including the demo, followed by a Q&A. MTL NewTech has selected startups bringing original ideas to the market. They are disrupting different existing technologies including wearables and software. We aim to benefit, challenge and inspire the community by featuring these startups. We will have for the demos: - GetPRKD - Seamless Planet - Smart Halo Keynote speaker: Ingrid Vanderveldt (iV) is the Chairman and CEO of Empowering a Billion Women by 2020 (EBW2020). Previously, she was the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence (“EIR”) for Dell Inc. where she oversaw entrepreneurial initiatives worldwide helping to build a $250 million business segment and founded the $125M Dell Innovators Credit Fund, Dell Founders Club, and the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs during her 3-year term. iV sits on the United Nations Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council, is a Managing Partner of Belle Capital, founding organizer of the GLASS Forum (Global Leadership & Sustainable Success), and co-founder of The Billionaire Girls Club. She also created and hosted CNBC’s first original primetime series, “American Made,” reaching over 1M viewers around the globe and serves on the Advisory boards of Springboard Enterprises, Current Motor, and is a Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) Member.

/ / Schedule

5:45pm: Doors open. Networking, #mtlnewtech #cofounder and #mtlnewtech #talent moment. If you are looking for a cofounder and/or talent, come early! Complimentary drinks and appetizers will be served.

6:30pm: Startups demos. Each startup has 5 minutes to pitch, including a demo followed by a 5 mins Q&A session

7:15pm: Interactive Keynote: Scaling & Internationalization of Your Startup

7:45pm: Stay for networking. Complimentary drinks and appetizers will be served.

/ / Partners We would like to thank our partners without whom this monthly gathering wouldn't be possible. If you are an entrepreneur, go check their entrepreneurs and startups programs!

Get ready for some butt-kicking entrepreneurship lessons. MTL New Tech here with an update on some fantastic upcoming events. Whether you’re building a start-up or just learning how to do it, these are great places to come up with ideas, get feedback and network with other like-minded smart creatives. To get more information about each of the events below click each title for more information. Sunday 14 June Last day of the Global Sharing Week OuiShare, MTLShare, and Gabriel Saba from SharingKit have teamed up to highlight sharing and collaboration in our beautiful city! 11AM-6PM Sensorica is opening its doors to the public and showcasing hardware demo! Sensorica is the pioneer of the Open Value Network model. This model relies on a commons-based “peer to peer” style of production, organization and property. To simplify things as much as possible: affiliating oneself comes down to a willingness for creative contribution, and the adaptability to work spontaneously with others without causing anyone’s disadvantage. New affiliates gain access to common assets, tools, and work spaces for their projects. 1PM-6PM Troc-Tes-Trucs, hosts a swap event. Tuesday 16 June Startup Breakfast Club 7:30AM-8:30AM @ CEIM Cyber Café 20 rue Queen, 3rd floor, Montreal, Quebec H3C 2M7 The Startup Breakfast Club is a monthly community event where everyone gets to practice their Pitch and get immediate feedback from their peers. It’s like crowdsourced wisdwom.\

Montreal.rb (Montreal Ruby) 6:30PM-8:30PM @ Notman House 51 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, QC Montreal.rb is a community group of Montreal-based Ruby and Ruby on Rails developers. It’s aim is to help support local developers by creating a thriving forum for learning and discussion. If you’re a learning animal, this is a good place to learn code. Foulab Open House 8PM-10PM @ Suite 33B, 999 du Collège Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H4C 2S3 The goal of foulab is to provide its members an environment and resources that allow them to exchange knowledge, ideas and explore new technologies. To that end, the organization will arrange a space which allows its users to collaborate. Check out past projects here.

Wednesday 17 June Rust Meetup 6:30PM – 9:00PM @ Notman House 51 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, QC Rust is a systems programming language that runs blazingly fast, prevents nearly all segfaults, and guarantees thread safety. Not sure what these words mean? Come learn! The Quebec Video Game Developers Guild 7PM – 9PM @ Notman House, 51 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal, QC H2X 1X2

Are you an indie game dev? A start-up studio? Need to rally a team for that crazy idea? Join the developers guild! Thursday 18 June Meteor Meetup 5:30PM – 8:30PM @ Notman House, 51 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal, QC H2X 1X2, Meteor is an free/open-source Javascript platform for building top-quality web apps in a fraction of the time, whether you're an expert developer or just getting started.

MTLVR Meetup 5:30PM – 8:30PM @ Notman House, 51 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal, QC H2X 1X2, In case you missed that, VR stands for Virtual Reality. You can’t miss this event! StartupHoops every Thursday 7PM-9PM @ we won’t tell you unless you sign up here!

(Peter Thiel’s ‘‘Zero to One” is a great read by the way.)

Have you got that entrepreneurial Zeal? That certain something? A project you’re working on? Come meet all of the smart creatives, bright minds and get some startup tips at one of these events!

Click on the titles to go to each of their websites! Wednesday June 3rd

plusMTL Startups Seminar - Brand Positioning 101 5PM-7PM @ 440 Place Jacques Cartier, Top floor, Montreal QC Brand development often takes a back seat to on-the-ground sales tactics because entrepreneurs don't feel they have the time or resources to devote to marketing strategy. However, taking the time to develop a foundation for your brand will save time and resources and will improve the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Hyperlinks - The meeting of giants and startups

1PM-7PM @ 51 Sherbrooke O The event aims to promote meetings between large enterprises and Quebec digital startups. Four major companies in their industry will submit a business case to the community of startups. The latter will have ten minutes to present their solution and answer questions.

Web Programming basics with Apache / PHP / MySQL

5:30PM-7PM @ 460 Sainte-Catherine West, suite 301, H3B 1A7, Montréal For 10$ a pop, this one’s a steal! If you’ve ever built a website from the ground up you know how confusing it can be. This workshop is great for learning what’s what in web development. No, you don’t have to be a pro to attend this workshop.

Discuss Haskell, listen to presentations and learn about Functional Programming

6:30PM-9:30 PM @ RPM startup Center 420 rue Guy, Montréal

What is Functional Programming? It is a style of programming which models computations as the evaluation of math expressions instead of isolated statements such as the ones you have in object-oriented programming. Haskell, among others is a Functional Programming language.

Elasticsearch Montreal Meetup #5

6:30PM-9:30 PM @ RPM startup Center 420 rue Guy, Montréal These guys are all about Big Data : Scale, Storage & Data processing.There will be two talks, from two Elastic core developers. Kurt Hurtado subject will be "Docker and the ELK Stack: Containerizing Operations" , while Pier-Hugues Pellerin will speak about the future of Logstash, v 1.5 & v2.0. Chief Technical Officer Meetup 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM @ Le Réservoir @ 9 DuLuth Est, Montreal, QC. On the second floor. Need  a technical co-founder for your new app/hardware/complex idea that you need help bringing to life? This is the venue for you. Come co-founder-dating!

Thursday June 4th

District3 DEMODAY

5PM-10PM @ SidLee BootCamp, 8 Rue Queen, Montreal

More than 10 of the hottest Montréal startups out of District 3 Innovation Center will come pitch and blow your minds! Don’t miss it!

Crafts & Future Directions / Wood Geeking

6PM-9PM @ Atelier Helios Makerspace, 137 Rue Saint-Ferdinand #270, Montreal, Quebec H4C 2S5, Canada

The goal of these workshops is to introduce the participants to the broad field of woodworking and basic building techniques through a series of workshops. PHP Quebec - Developing web applications with Yii 6:30PM-9:30PM @ Centre cloud.ca, 420 rue Guy, Montréal PHP Quebec is a community for PHP developers in Montreal. This groups is open to anyone who wants to learn more about PHP. 

Thursday’s talk shall cover Yii basics, such as:- MVC components, Layouts, and Routes - Data Access Objects, Query Builder, Active Record, and Database Migrations- Widgets, Components and Behavior Mixins- Unit Testing and Functional Testing- Other features worth mentioning

Friday June 5th

2015 Funding Roadshow: Montreal June

8:30am – 5:00pm Novotel Hotel (Technoparc Montréal (Saint-Laurent Campus)) - Novotel Montréal Aéroport, Boulevard Alfred Nobel, Dorval, QC - Montreal, QC H4S 2G1 - Canada The funding roadshow is an event where creators can learn startup tips and where startups can get funding for their projects. Lean Agile Lunch: From Worst to First - Design Thinking for Better Products 7pm – 10pm @ District 3: Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre Saturday June 6th

AngelHack Montreal 2015

9am – Sun, June 7, 8am @ Pavillon A (principal) 1100

Your Body as an Input is a 'wearable' oriented hackathon. Participants will have access to the latest wearable devices like the Muse sensing headband that measures brain activity (EEG), the Myo armband that measures muscle activity (EMG), the Nod Ring with motion tracking and so much more. The idea is to exploit body signals to create innovative projects & prototypes.  

Here are some of the devices available to hack on : Emotiv EPOC, InteraXon Muse sensing headband, Myo armband, Neurosky Mindwave, Nod Ring, OpenBCI Board, Oculus Rift, Intel Edison, Metawear, Estimotes and more !  Introduction to 3D Design using Solidworks [BYOL]

MTL NewTech is collaborating with Tourismexpress this month and we are excited to announce the hosting of « Tourism and Startups » edition on Monday, May 25th at District 3, starting from 5:30 PM. The event will feature the best startups, minds & cutting-edge innovations.

/ / Meet Cofounders & Talent

The evening will commence with a chance to meet programmers, mobile & web entrepreneurs as well as professionals. If you're looking for an engineer, investors, or a professional for a new startup project, this is your chance! Use #mtlnewtech #cofounder or #mtlnewtech #talent to share who you are looking for.

/ / Inspiring startups on stage

Startups will then pitch to the crowd. Presentations will be exactly 5 minutes each including the demo, followed by a Q&A. MTL NewTech has selected startups bringing original ideas to the market. They are disrupting different existing technologies including wearables and software. We aim to benefit, challenge and inspire the community by featuring these startups. We will have for the demos: - Sharethebus - Hubaway - MuCity - Stay22 - Trovyapp Then two experts presentations: - Andy Nulman (Just for Laughs co-founder) - Technology and Celebrations - Nadine Gelly (La vitrine culturelle co-founder)  - The future of Cultural tourism in Quebec

/ / Schedule 5:30pm: Doors open. Networking, #mtlnewtech #cofounder and #mtlnewtech #talent moment. If you are looking for a cofounder and/or talent, come early! Complimentary drinks and appetizers will be served.

6:15pm: Event Presentation. Due calendar constrains of one of the speakers, we will start with the experts talk first.

6:45pm: Startups demos. Each startup has 5 minutes to pitch, including a demo followed by a 5 mins Q&A session

7:30pm: Presentation of the winners of the Technovation Challenge

7:45pm: Stay for networking. Complimentary drinks and appetizers will be served.

/ / Partners We would like to thank our partners without whom this monthly gathering wouldn't be possible. If you are an entrepreneur, go check their entrepreneurs and startups programs!

MTL NewTech is excited to announce the hosting of « MTL NewTech - From Customer Insight to Foresight » edition on Tuesday, April 7th at Notman House, starting from 5:45 PM. The event will feature the best startups, minds & cutting-edge innovations.

***Ticket sales starts on Tuesday, March 31st at 1 PM***

/ / Meet Cofounders & Talent

The evening will commence with a chance to meet programmers, mobile & web entrepreneurs as well as professionals. If you're looking for an engineer, investors, or a professional for a new startup project, this is your chance! Use #mtlnewtech #cofounder or #mtlnewtech #talent to share who you are looking for.

/ / Inspiring startups on stage

Startups will then pitch to the crowd. Presentations will be exactly 5 minutes each including the demo, followed by a Q&A. MTL NewTech has selected startups bringing original ideas to the market. They are disrupting different existing technologies including wearables and software. We aim to benefit, challenge and inspire the community by featuring these startups.

/ / Schedule

5:30pm: Doors open. Networking, #mtlnewtech #cofounder and #mtlnewtech #talent moment. If you are looking for a cofounder and/or talent, come early! Complimentary wine will be served.

6:15pm: Event Presentation. Each startup has 5 minutes to pitch, including a demo followed by a 5 mins Q&A session

7:05pm: From insights to foresights, know your customers better. The cases of RadialPoint and Nexalogy.

7:25pm: Presentation of the hack of the month

7:35pm: Stay for networking. Complimentary wine and appetizers will be served.

-- Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter on www.mtlnewtech.com & Follow-us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MTLNewTech

Montreal has come a long way from its lovely but sparse monthly events. Today it feels like the community events calendar is more needed than ever to keep pace with exciting events happening throughout the week in the city! If you haven't done yet, go subscribe to the Google calendar, it will stay warm in your pocket and ping you at the right time!

In the meantime, for this week here is a little round-up of what's going on, try to keep up! And yeah these are some tough choices where you wish some ubiquity machine existed...

Tuesday 17th

07:00 - 09:00 PM : Lean Startup in Practice to get to learn from the experiences of two veteran entrepreneurs (CEO of DogSync & CEO Callbox). The kind of events close to an AMA on Reddit, where you can learn, share and drink for a cheap 5-10$. 

05:30 - 09:00 PM : Montreal app Talks on mHealth. UX and patient engagement learnings and networking for a tiny 5$ 

05:30 - 09:00 PM : Confoo.ca invites for a couple drinks thanks to kind generosity (and pockets) of Intuit. Free.

Wednesday 18th

10:00 - 04:00 AM : Whether you are hiring or looking for a startup job, don't miss The Startups Career Fair: it's free for participants, and if you are not a well funded startup, here is a special MTL NewTech discount by our community partner to get a table for 200$

06:00 - 09:00 PM : MTL + eCommerce will take you to the journey to better e-commerce. With speakers from California and Montreal, you will learn and share about killer emailing program and unified marketing. [10$ - 20$]

06:00 - 09:00 PM : come dive into the mind of a serial entrepreneurs, angel and VC whose latest success is with PasswordBox, now Intel. Brought to you by Startup Grind and their very conversational format. They have the "community partner" label, so you better not miss it ;) [10$ - 25$]

06:30 - 09:00 PM : come learn how data can fuel your creativity, from social media to decision making! Really interesting talk brought to you by MTL Girl Geeks. FREE.

06:00 - 07:30 PM : Montreal Embeded invites you to learn about a home-made solution for decoding PWM signal with a customized Arduino Nano. FREE.

Thursday 19th

12:00 - 01:00 PM : D3 Innovation Center invites you to many Lunch'n'Learn every week. Among others, this Thursday, come to learn more about research & Development Tax credits! FREE

06:30 - 09:00 PM : PyLadies invite you to fall in love with Python! Come hear from two amazing veterans from software and hardware. FREE entry, food and drinks thanks to Google Montreal.

04:00 - 09:00 PM : Whether you are attending the Confoo.ca conference or not, you should come mingle with the crowd. FREE & free drinks I've heard thanks to Paypal sponsorship.

06:00 - 09:00 PM : Inspiring talks from young Montreal entrepreneurs with wine and appetizers. Less tech, more chic, but definitely inspiring! 30$.

Friday 20th

07:15 - 10:00 PM : Wanna stay warm at home? Join this [webinar by Founder Institute with Jason Calacanis and learn from the best in story telling. Because every business is worth a story, from Charming to Tesla. So what would be yours?](“If your business is not worth startup storytelling, then you should probably not start one at all.”) FREE (online).

Saturday 21st

10:00 - 04:00 PM : Ladies Learning Code is inviting you to learn Ruby in a lovely environment, with and amazing instructor and mentors, and great food! 50$

Weekend!

05:00 PM Friday to 05:00 (?) PM Sunday : CODE 2015 Hackathon. Everywhere in the city with a hub in Notman. FREE.

08:00 AM Saturday to 05:00 PM Sunday: if you want to build, try, fail, try again, succeed and show it to the community, don't miss McHacks. It brings the best and brightest from all across the East Coast for a 36 hours intense hackathon! Really 1337 AND FREE!!

Alex Rozenblit is a fresh immigrant from Israel. With more than 10 years experience in TV and video production, he is now specialized in producing high-impact videos for tech startups at a reasonable price, incorporating eye-catching effects while making sure the right message is getting across. Video professionals are very few in Montréal and the following article hopes to enlighten the process for tech entrepreneurs and CEOs. NewTech (@heri) : Hi, Alexander, can you present yourself? Why are you interested in videos? Alex : I have been working as a director for various Israeli TV channels for the last 12 years.

I have worked at HOT News, Sport 5, JCS productions and was a Chief Director at Channel 9. When this became annoying to me, I quit and started my own video production company called White Ink Film Productions. Initially we started shooting corporate films for different companies, accepting every project just to get work. But I always wanted to concentrate on IT companies and startups. I'm interested in their products, I like to use them and I like to create videos about them. So eventually I wanted to focus mostly on video production for tech companies. When I moved to Montreal, I took my company with me as well. Here is a video we made:

I have also made a few videos for sports crowdfunding company MAKEACHAMP:

@heri : Can you tell us in what ways can videos be beneficial for technology startups? We live at the Internet age, when people are used to getting information very quickly. Usually they have neither the time nor the desire to read a bunch of text about your company. Today, video is the fastest, most striking, and effective way to get people excited about your product and inspire them to use it. In video, you can show your love for detail and convey the pleasure of using your product. Sometimes, words cannot describe what a video can show.

Besides, everyone knows about all the tests and research that confirm that video significantly increases your website’s conversion rate. @heri : What would you like Montréal startups to do more in the video space? I want to see a lot of Montreal’s startups grow to become big, successful companies. I want them to do what’s good for their businesses. And I have to say that video is a great marketing tool. If you use it the right way, it can bring you excellent results on social networks, websites, blogs, YouTube, landing pages, etc. @heri : What are the top 3 startup videos that you like and that you would like startups to do? My inspiration for startup videos is Adam Lisagor and his company, Sandwich Video. They’re very talented guys. I like almost all of their work. Here are a couple of examples:

I also enjoy the video made by Sway Productions for the company Alicanto. I really respect those video creators for their attention to detail. I always show this video to my customers. Unfortunately, no one has wanted to do something like this yet.

Live-action videos always engage a viewer than animation or motion graphics. If your film has a strong main character, a professional presenter or a charming girl, it will definitely attract more attention. Now, it has become fashionable to shoot live-action video and, if necessary, integrate infographics into it. In my opinion, this is really cool. Today, everybody works with animation, and viewers are getting tired of it. Nevertheless, it can be done incredibly well, too. @heri : For most startups, there's a general misunderstanding on how you exactly make a video. A few think you brainstorm one hour and then get a Canon DSLR in the afternoon. Others believe it's just about downloading a template somewhere on the web. Can you share with us the process on how to imagine, produce, shoot a video?

For the last few years an active member of the Montreal startup community, Antoine van Eetvelde recently moved to Belgium where he is now developing J'accorde, an app to help kids tackle French's tricky grammar. Complementing the presentation of a Belgian tech startups delegation at MTL Newtech next wednesday Oct 29th, he shares a brief summary of what he recently learned about the startup ecosystem in his native country.

Belgium is famous for its chocolate and its beers, not so much for its tech startup scene. Belgium has a preference for B2B, a tradition of excellence for technical and industrial innovation in very precise niches, expertise behind the scene hardly noticed by the public. If this is still true, there is however something boiling in the country of Jacques Brel and Tintin, something not entirely different from what Montreal has experienced a few years ago, and we witness the burgeoning of a very dynamic tech startup scene, this time much more B2C.

According to Karen Boers, CEO of startups.be, a one-stop shop for Belgian tech entrepreneurship founded in 2013, things have changed a lot in the last five years. There is now something growing up, although it is still immature in many ways and does not compare to other top scenes in Europe, such as London or Berlin, yet. The community is building up and there are events thriving in all cities of the country on a weekly basis. There is also a shift in mentalities: local entrepreneurs have come to realize they have something original to offer to customers from around the world and should not be ashamed of what they are doing. This kind of speech is not so different from the one advocated in Montreal by respected leaders such as LP Maurice (Busbud) or Sylvain Carle (FounderFuel) to boost up the local startup community and make it get rid of its "impostor syndrom".

Local authorities have also started to adapt to this new state of mind and now offer a variety of programs to help entrepreneurs jump start their business. Whether in Flanders (North, Dutch), in Wallonia (South, French) or in Brussels (center, multilingual), initiatives emerge and funding is more readily available than ever to test drive ideas or bring them to the market, braving Belgium's political landscape complexity (to put it mildly).

Why start a business or open an office in Belgium?

As Karen Boers puts it, Belgium is the "living lab of Europe, on a small scale". The country is so small that you can almost consider it as one big city. At the same time, it offers 3 distinct markets (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels) with their own language, mentalities and consumer behaviors. It's perfect to experiment and iterate. If your product works in Belgium and if you can master the subtleties of its various communities, chances are you are ready to take Europe as a whole. In a nutshell, Belgium can be used as a perfect stepping stone for a continental strategy. Coincidentally, Brussels is home to many European Union institutions. So, having a foot in the city can be very useful in that respect as well.

Travelling from Brussels to London (2 hours by Eurostar), Paris (1.5 hour by Thalys) or Amsterdam (2 hours by Thalys) is as easy as catching a high speed train. Although Brussels is not exactly cheap, office spaces and salaries are miles behind these European hot spots. And if you are ready to get out of the city, prices drop significantly.

Belgium is home for an impressive number of universities and talent pouring out of them is just waiting for an opportunity to express itself. Local governments also provide substantial incentives to hire young workers. Again, this sounds like what Montreal has to offer to companies interested in moving to North America.

Finally, as Claire Munck, the French CEO of Be Angels, Wallonia's business angels organization, puts it, Belgians have a reputation for being open minded and very pragmatic people, which makes the cultural fit with the North American business mentality much easier than in some other European countries. Belgians are also usually low profile, result oriented people and less prone to bureaucracy (at least in the private sector). It is also not uncommon for them to speak two or three languages, especially in Brussels or in Flanders.

Not everything is perfect under the Belgian sun, though (often hidden by rainy clouds, as a matter of fact). Here is a list of itchy elements to deal with.

This may sound like a detail, but visitors might be unpleasantly surprised by the fact that free Wifi can be hard to find in many places in Belgium, even in Brussels. Does it have something to do with the fact that mobile phone plans are cheaper than in Canada or the US? Perhaps, but it does not send a good signal (no pun intended) about Belgium's technology adoption.

The Belgian market is relatively small and definitely very fragmented, it may thus not be profitable enough on its own. It may be necessary to expand to bigger markets early on. Benelux (Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg trade union) is an easy and natural first step, then come France, the UK and Germany, then the European Union (EU) at large. The European single market makes this expansion easier than it sounds if properly planned.

As said before, Belgium is still building the champions that will pay forward to the community and may not have the same resources or "DNA for success" that some mature markets have. Also mentioned already, the local political structures and laws can be disheartening at times (and not only to newbies). Finally, Belgians have a reputation for being risk-adverse, so startups may need to be more convincing when it comes to hiring, compared to richer larger competitors (but isn't this actually a universal true?).

Are there Belgian success stories that inspire the current generation of entrepreneurs?

There definitely are some successful startups that have exited or grown to a point of becoming global brands.

Clear2Pay was just sold to the worldwide payment provider FIS for 375 m. €. Belgium has long been a leader in payment technology, until the 2008 crisis hurt badly the sector that is now struggling to recover.

TeleAtlas was bought by TomTom a couple of years ago for 2.9 billion € after a bidding war with Garmin, which means Belgian technology now provided the map for the GPS systems worldwide. It was a Dutch based company with a Belgian founder.

Keemotion was selected as speaker for the NAB Show conference central stage (biggest broadcast tradeshow in the world) and beat 500 (many of which US) companies to get there. A year after the launch, Keemotion is already present in 6 countries with its disruptive technology capturing automatic image on sports fields, without human intervention, and allowing for totally customizable usage.

Softkinetic is the leading provider of end-to-end, 3D vision technologies for PCs, portable electronics, cars and machines. With customers like Sony, BMW, Texas Instruments and Intel, they are a world player with 100 people staff already and still growing fast.

Odoo (formerly OpenErp) offers a complete suite of business applications covering all business needs. They have been receiving different awards for the past years, including INSEAD Award (2011), Highest-ranked Belgian company in the Deloitte Technology Fast50 Benelux  (2012), Highest-ranked Belgian company in the Deloitte Technology Fast50 Benelux  (2012-2013) and Trends Gazelles Award (2013).

This list is by no means exhaustive and other names may ring a bell to tech-savvy people, such as the PHP open source CMS Drupal, the calendar app Sunrise or the social media story builder app Storify also have strong connections with Belgium.

Raising money in Belgium

Funding is said to be hard to find in Belgium. It's true to a certain extent, but not as badly as one might think. Obviously, the absence of a major exit or IPO means there is no "Paypal mafia" effect (yet). But, good projects will always find a way to capture the attention of investors, and there is a number of these, both public and private, says Claire Munck. She adds that seed and early stage money is relatively easy to find but indeed later stage funding opportunities may prove more challenging.

On the public side, founders can benefit from a lot of incentives - both financial and non-financial - from regional governments, such as the pre-activity grant in Wallonia. The only caveat is that one should not be afraid of paperwork. And on the private side, organizations such as the above-mentioned Be Angels or its Flemish counterpart Business Angels Netwerk (BAN Vlaanderen) play a role similar to Anges Québec in connecting individual investors with promising startups. BetaInvest is also worth mentioning.

Other ways to get funding is to join one of the many accelerators burgeoning everywhere. NEST'up was one of the early players, and it has been joined overtime by a number of new actors, such as LeanSquare or IdeaLabs. Some provide funding, others don't but all help you refine and accelerate your idea and connect to potential funders (sort of a local FounderFuel). And this is not to mention the flock of public, semi-public or private structures that help grassroots find their way through the early stages of startup development, such as iMinds, CAP Innove or Startathlon, to name a few.

Useful resources to start or expand a startup in Belgium

Federal or regional business development agencies are a good starting point if you want to set foot in Belgium.

Invest in Belgium: http://ib.fgov.be/en/

Flanders Investment & Trade: http://www.investinflanders.be/en/

Brussels Invest & Export: http://www.investinbrussels.com/en

Invest in Wallonia: http://www.investinwallonia.be/. Another useful regional organization in Wallonia is the Agence Wallonne des télécommunications (AWT).

If you are looking for an "unbiased opinion", you can turn to organizations like startups.be or BetaGroup. Respectively run by the ubiquitous Karen Boers and Julie Foulon, they are not only wells of resources themselves, but they also have an extensive network of contacts.

The Belgian startup community is particularly thriving these days and it is definitely worth getting in touch or stopping by if you are in town. For instance, the Cafés numériques are since 2009 "tech events between the Bar and the Conference", now present in 15 cities. There are plenty of startup-related Meetups to join, such as Growth Hacking Belgium, Lean Startup Brussels or Startup Founder 101, hosted by the Founder Institute. And Startup weekends are organized on a regular basis, the latest happening in Antwerp on October 17th.

Coworking is the new rage in Belgium and you can find a spot in nearly every major city these days. Oftentimes, on top of the space itself and the traditional networking opportunities, they will also offer additional benefits such as conferences, workshops or informal get-togethers. Definitely worth a try and a good way to get introduced to the local startup fauna.

Omar Mohout, organizer of Growth Hacking Belgium, has recently put together a very comprehensive list of significant startup resources in Belgium, region per region. For anyone interested in Belgium's startup ecosystem, it's a must-read (in French).

Differences and common points between Montreal and Belgium

This is totally subjective but I have a feeling that Montreal entrepreneurs - Canadian entrepreneurs in general - are more adventurous and daring than their Belgian counterparts. The former dare dream bigger and aim for the world, having consequently bigger payoffs in case of success. The latter on the other hand tend to have more modest ambitions and target niches instead of global markets. Does this have to do with the fact that Canada is huge and Belgium is tiny? Perhaps...

In Belgium, failure as a normal step to success is not as well accepted as it is in Canada. But things are changing and more people come to realize that there is good in failing, up to a certain point. Remembering that failure was not that hot in Canada not so long ago, there are reasons to be optimistic for Belgium in that regard.

Last but not least difference, Montreal's proximity to the US, especially the East Coast hubs such as NY or Boston, is a major asset for local startups, even more so now with the positive vibe surrounding the city and its reputation building up south of the border. Belgium does not have that kind of proximity. But this might change quickly. In a not too distant future, Belgium might become to London, Paris or Berlin what Montreal is today to NY or Boston, i.e. a serious alternative to consider and a place to be. It has what it takes, it's all about finding the right mix of ingredients.

When it comes to common points, it is in particular between Montreal and Brussels that the similarities are striking. Both are a multilingual, multicultural melting pot. Both are places where living feels good and weather conditions (snow in one case, rain in the other) drive people to socialize in bars and party like there is no tomorrow. Both cities host down-to-Earth, easy going people who leave their ego at the front door when entering the office and who value friendly relationships with their colleagues. Albeit a bit more formal than in Montreal, interactions between colleagues in Belgium are way more casual than they can be in France, for instance. 

Being small players sitting next to big neighbors (whether the US or Toronto, or the UK, France or Germany) is a last common trait, as is the sense of solidarity that goes with it. "Tightly knit" is a motto that suits well both communities.

For more info, don't hesitate to drop me a line at [email protected].

For those in Montréal, don't hesitate to come to our feature event "NewTech + Belgique" right around the corner. Don't miss it!

 'Smart City' seems to be on everybody's mind lately, and many startups have been already building the blocks to make Montreal (and other cities!) a little bit smarter! So, come check our curated startups for a smarter Montreal next Tuesday, October 7th.

RSVP

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Please note that the event this time is held at:

McGill - Leacock 26 on 855 Sherbrooke Street West

Due to space constrains we are only able to make 200 tickets available

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/ / Schedule  5.30pm Doors open. Meet cofounders & Talent 6.15pm Startup Demos: Provender, Navut, PotLoc, and TransitApp. 7:15pm Citizens for a smarter city: showcasing hackathons winners and discussion  8.00pm Stay for networking 

/ / Sponsor

Technoparc Montreal is the biggest parc dedicated to innovation in Canada. It is now the home of a business incubator specialized in pharmaceuticals startups and also of a business center of more than 25 new and promising companies in sectors like aerospace, clean techs, health science, and software development.

If you have some questions about Technoparc's campus, their business center or their current development project with the borough of Saint-Laurent and their pilot project for a smarter city, do not hesitate to talk to Cyril Arnaud ([email protected]) that represent Technoparc Montreal for this event.

/ / Partners 

We would like to thank our partners without whom this monthly gathering wouldn't be possible. If you are an entrepreneur, you HAVE to click and go check their entrepreneurs and startups programs!  

                                                   / / Community Partners 

We would like to also thank our community partners that are supporting us and who are helping build our vibrant Montreal community every single day!!

- District 3 Innovation Center

- MTL Girl Geeks

- Startup Grind

- Code-Love

- MTL + eCommerce

- Hacking Health

- SOS Web

// RSVP

Like SDEVM, Fasken or EY, we are now partnering with La Commune, a startup coworking space located in Old Port Montréal. 

Our audience might remember the startup party organized at La Commune during the week of International Startup Festival, which drew in more than 250 people. We have talked since then, and discovered a mutual interest. 

La Commune in itself is a startup, young, dynamic, with its sets of challenges, but also hopeful for the future and improving every day. It's with the promise of making a difference and helping each other that they offered us a space, and NewTech will get the community to work with La Commune. 

We've already begun, and in the past 3 months, all startup meetings, work sessions, as well as informal meetups have been at La Commune, and we hope it's just the beginning.

For those interested, La Commune in itself is a cooperative which means every startup or freelancer based at la Commune is a member and a "shareholder" which has a say in where the initiative will go. NewTech's responsibility is to make sure that it will be a startup coworking space for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. The formula has a unique positioning in Montréal, and has its place, along with District3, Notman or other initiatives, contributing to a rich and diverse ecosystem.

Wearables and IoT all the rage. We see both new and experienced entrepreneurs entering the field.

With the affordability of smartphone technologies and the new ubiquity of digitally connected life, the market for wearables has exploded. Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter have allowed fledgling ventures to test consumer interest for their projects and have even launched exciting new hardware startups with some serious capital. Tech’s big players including Google, Amazon and Facebook have jumped in too, investing or buying robotics, home automation, drone and internet infrastructure startups.

Montreal is making great connected hardware too. ReelyActive recently won the World Startup Award, Hexoskin and OmSignal are dominating the biometrics clothing market and local startups are funding campaign after campaign on Kickstarter. We’re here today to talk to Ari Ramdial who wants to get hackers, designers and entrepreneurs excited for Wearhacks, Montréal's first wearable computing hackathon. 

NewTech (@heri) Hi - can you present yourself, and what motivates you in wearable computing?

My name is Ari Ramdial (@AriRamdial) and I am the co-founder of WearHacks, Canada’s largest hackathon focused on wearable and connected computing. I’ve been working on wearable technology for the last 4 years (both as a researcher and a hobbyist) and I’ve always wanted to enter a hackathon where people worked on wearable tech projects but I couldn’t find any happening in Montreal, so I decided to make one. I have always been fascinated by the idea of ubiquitous computing and I think wearable technology will really help us get closer to a world where computers are pervasive, non-intrusive, and most importantly, incredibly useful.

NewTech : Wearable computing is nothing new. Geeks have always tried to add LEDs or sensors on clothing or bracelets. Why work on wearable computing now?

I think that innovation in sensor technology has been a major boon for wearable tech. Today, you can pack a bunch of different sensors onto a chip the size of a coin, with a battery life of a few years! The form factor of hardware has also gotten to the level where it’s now feasible to consider embedding a complex sensor systems into clothing and accessories.

Add to this the fact that nowadays you don’t need to be an expert to build great applications for wearable devices (SDKs and APIs abstract away the hard parts of hardware) and you have a legitimate case for working on wearable technology and I think the industry’s growth in the last decade has reflected that.

NewTech : There are many examples of amazing wearable projects worldwide. What inspires you the most right now? What do you see in the future of wearables?

As a maker, the Intel Edison Module is really exciting to me. I can see so much potential with it and I’m sure before the year is out, there will be more than a few wearable startups who made their prototype with it! As a consumer...there are really too many cool devices for me to pick one!

In my opinion, for wearables to really make an impact, they will have to become a mundane aspect of our daily lives, something that people don’t talk about; Wearables that do their job well won’t stand out in a way that makes you notice them all the time. For example, we might enter a future where a plain white tee will measure your heart rate, temperature, and blood pressure as a standard feature. (We’ll probably be telling stories to incredulous children  about how we just had normal white t-shirts in our day!)

The next step will be context aware devices that fit into a network of other connected devices. For the mass consumer market, standalone devices will not last long, nor should they. Companies like IFTTT are showing how the evolution can take place.

NewTech : Coming back to Montreal, what resources exist for wearable entrepreneurs? Where would one go to start a serious project?

As a new entrepreneur, you can take advantage of multiple resources if you are trying to kickstart your project. You can check out Helios Maker Space in order to have access to tools; they provide the perfect toolkit for wearable startups.

Helios Maker Space

Concordia’s District 3 Innovation Centre can link wearable entrepreneurs with a community that fosters collaboration and innovation. The newly formed Hardware Guild was created with the express purpose of guiding hardware startups from idea to prototype. Finally, Montreal is lucky enough to be home to the great accelerator program, Founder Fuel; they will help teams go from a great prototype to a great business.

editor's note: check out District3 #Letmake campaign. check also foulab (a preview of foulab space can be found here)

NewTech : You're working on WearHacks, a hackathon set at the end of September. What's the BIG idea behind the hackathon?

WearHacks is first and foremost an experiment. We want to give students and amateur enthusiasts the opportunity to play with cutting edge connected devices in a safe and welcoming environment.

The vision is to have an array of smart devices and let the hackers choose and build anything from a tweeting lamp to home automation devices. We don’t necessarily want hackers to feel tied to one platform for the hackathon. In fact, we encourage them to explore, fiddle and mix devices as they please to make new and better products.

We also want to  showcase the potential of the Montreal hardware community. Local companies like Heddoko, Neptune Pine, OMSignal and HexoSkin are all breaking into the wearable industry. We should support them and work hard to build more companies like them!