Mobile Start-ups Pitch for $$$ to Venture Capital Dragons

Mobile Start-ups Pitch for $$$ to Venture Capital Dragons

Want to pitch? Follow the instructions below for a chance to be selected to pitch your idea for $$$.

Are you an individual or company with an interesting idea, intellectual property, service or application? If so, please submit your two-page extract to pitch@mobilemondaytoronto.com with the following information:

1. Executive Team Bio
2. Product / Service Overview
3. Business and Marketing Plan
4. $$$ desired (min $1M – $5M ) Recent Press / News (summary paragraph)
5. Confirmation that actively seeking funding
6. Initial confirmation that you will allow your presentation to be recorded (video/audio) and distributed by MobileMonday Toronto and MaRS to its channel and distribution partners

Submission Deadline: February 25

Note: You must be actively seeking funds and disclose this during your submission. If you are not actively in search of funding, your submission will be disqualified. Successful entrants will be contacted by MobileMonday Toronto to confirm their selection. Additional requirements include a PowerPoint presentation to be used during your pitch presentation which is limited to 5 minutes. Please also note that this entire event will be recorded and requires speaker sign-off for the distribution of your presentation and related video/audio.

Moderator

Tom Purves
Thomas Purves is a Toronto based digital product designer, blogger and arm-chair tech pundit. Tom is a founding partner of the WirelessNorth.ca and StartupNorth.ca “media empire”. Tom is also a fixture and familiar event organizer within Toronto’s Democamp and startup community.

Tom is an outspoken advocate mobile innovation and competitiveness in Canada. His commentary and advocacy on issues surrounding the Canadian tech and wireless industries have appeared on television and in publications including: The National Post, The Globe & Mail, Ottawa Citizen, IT World Canada, SXSW magazine, Hamilton spectator among others.

Tom holds a degree in electrical and computer engineering from Queen’s university and an MBA in finance and strategy from the Rotman School of Management at UofT.

Venture Capital Panel Dragons

Edward G. Anderson, Managing General Partner, Ventures West Management Inc.
Mr. Anderson is the Managing General Partner of Ventures West Management Inc. a Canadian venture capital management firm. Founded in 1968, and having offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, Ventures West is Canada’s largest institutional venture fund management company with over $700 million of capital under management. The focus of Ventures West’s business is the management and investment of venture funds which are targeted at early stage technology companies. At Ventures West Mr. Anderson is responsible for the identification and evaluation of potential investment opportunities, the structuring and negotiating of investments and the post investment management of portfolio companies as well as the overall day to day management of Ventures West organization.

Mr. Anderson is well known in the venture capital and investment communities in Canada and internationally. Mr. Anderson is a past President and Director of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (the trade association representing the interests of Canada’s venture capital and private equity industries) and has served on the Board of Directors of a number of public and private companies in Canada and the United States. Mr. Anderson is also a member of the Board of Advisors of the Aureos Southern Africa Fund and the Aureos Western Africa Fund – two investment funds focusing on small and medium sized business investments in Africa – and also sits on the Investment Committee of Bank of Montreal Capital Corporation.

Mr. Anderson earned a BA (Economics) from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and a MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University.

Matt Golden, Partner, BlackBerry Partners Fund
As a Partner in the BlackBerry Partners Fund, Matt Golden is responsible for investments in companies focused on breakthrough innovations in the mobile and smartphone ecosystem. With his extensive operational, investing and legal experience, Matt plays an integral role in supporting the overall growth of investment companies.

Prior to joining BlackBerry Partners Fund, Matt was a founding member of Tira Wireless, a mobile content deployment technology and services provider. During his time there as SVP Sales, Business and Corporate Development, Tira became a recognized industry leader, consistently delivering strong year over year revenue growth and receiving multiple awards.

Matt came to Tira from Brightspark Ventures LP, one of Canada’s leading early stage venture capital firms. As Director of New Ventures, he applied his entrepreneurial skills to building financial networks, raising capital, striking alliances and forming partnerships for the Brightspark group of companies.

Prior to Brightspark, Matt practiced law at Oslers, one of Canada’s premier law firms specializing in business technology, general corporate, financial services and mergers and acquisitions.

Matt is a frequent speaker at mobile and venture capital events, where he shares his expertise on mobile applications, content deployment, distribution and business development. He is a graduate of the University of Ottawa’s LLB/MBA program.

Randall Howard, Founding General Partner, Verdexus
Randall Howard is an active technology investor, serial CEO and technology guru. A founding General Partner of VERDEXUS, Randall brings a global network based on deep executive experience particularly in the US, Europe and Canada to build world leading, high growth technology organizations. Using a Venture 2.0 fusion of investment, strategy and executive execution, VERDEXUS is focused on mobile and web based startups. Portfolio investments include:

* iotum whose Calliflower collaborative conferencing service was among first applications to use 3G voice and data capabilities. Randall is currently hands-on Chairman.
* Coreworx, a leading enterprise provider of project information control for megaprojects acquired by VERDEXUS in 2004. Randall served as CEO from 2004 to 2006, and on the Board until the August 2008 acquisition by Acorn Energy.

In 1984, he founded MKS (TSX: MKX) one of Canada’s leading enterprise software vendors and whose products optimize internal software development within large corporations. As Chairman and CEO he led growth to $45 million revenue and 375 employees worldwide, including seven acquisitions. Prior to that, Randall was a senior architect of Chicago-based Coherent.

Randall is a seasoned board member/advisor with current and past service to a large array of firms including Gore Mutual Insurance Company, Iotum, Coreworx, Necho Systems Corp, GoodContacts, Whitehill Technologies, Waterloo Maple Software, Arise Technologies and Nanodesign. He has been active in helping to strengthen business and investment ecosystems for technology by serving on boards of Golden Triangle AngelNet, Communitech, UniForum, Dean’s Advisory Council of Laurier Business School as well as being a member of the MaRS Wireless Mobile Advisory Panel.

Randall holds an Honors B.Math from University of Waterloo and was the 1997 High Technology Entrepreneur of the Year and the 2005 recipient of the Impact Award from Communitech.

When: March 1, 2010  6:00 PM  to 9:00 PM
Where: MaRS Centre Auditorium
101 College Street, Toronto

Event Itinerary

6:00 pm Registration, Networking
7:00 pm Sponsor Mention
Introduction: Moderator and Venture Capital Panel
7:15pm     Five mobile companies pitch for five minutes
Q&A from the Venture Capital Panel
8:00 pm Moderator and Audience Q&A for Venture Capital Panel
8:45 Closing Remarks

This is a free event, but registration is required.