all right welcome to hit module 28 you
can enter hunger strikes I know we were
off last week and we can explain that
but we’re back on this 20th show with a
special guest I’m your host ashcan
Carver solution and joining me is Ian
Geoffrey from founder fuel Ian welcome
to the show thanks for having me so
let’s get right to it um when I started
my career online about 10 12 13 years
ago we would always hear about these
incubators CMG I was one of them that
spawn altavista idea lab is another one
that spawned go to now overture so what
is an incubator and what is an
accelerator there are many differences
the first and most obvious difference is
that in it accelerator program we bring
in teams all on the same day and they
all leave at the same day and if the
program finishes with a large event
which we call demo day so that’s the
first really obvious distinction so in
the accelerator we provide a lot of a
variety of tools and a lot of
opportunities to an ecosystem of mentors
and the teams come in and it’s up to
them to seize those opportunities and
execute on those opportunities as
quickly as possible all in a very
condensed short amount of time those 30
days leading up to them are they so
that’s the first big difference the
other big difference is that in the
accelerator model the teams will come to
us with an existing product usually in
market sometimes with with significant
traction sometimes even with revenue
which is not the case in most incubators
an incubator will be often you know you
and I have complementary experiences or
skill sets we go in there and we sort of
incubate and try to find an idea that a
product to build and we get started
building it this is not the case of the
accelerator now is the incubator model
broken or is this just like the way now
everybody’s excited about pivots and you
know like is this the latest fad or was
the incubator model just broke in and
people thought it made sense to
accelerate stuff no I think in certain
spaces the incubator work still very
well and
our world in the web world where exactly
you mentioned it where you know we’re
launching something that’s not perfect
putting it out in the wild getting
feedback from the users constantly
adjusting and iterating very very
quickly the accelerator accelerator
model makes a lot of sense in that space
so the incubator still has its role but
not so much we feel in in the web and
mobile space okay now we’ve heard of Y
Combinator out in the valley and we’ve
heard of tech stars and I think there’s
a group in boulder colorado which has
become a startup hub over the past few
years founder fuels based in montreal
yep so my question is how is this
different from those is it really just
that this is based in montreal or have
you looked at those models and said some
of these things are broken and some of
these things make sense we’re going to
borrow and inspire from some steel and
and you know duplicate in montreal like
tell us a little bit about what similar
what’s different yeah we’ve had a good
fortune throughout everyone at real
ventures was involved in this to have
been exposed to Y Combinator to text
stars but also in Europe to Seedcamp
springboard and multiple other
accelerators around the world TechStars
and YC are really the I’d say the
pioneers and the leaders in the pack
because there’s got to be at least 30 of
these in the world and so we’ve had the
good fortune to look at these and
participate in these in different
different ways pick and choose things
that we like bring them and adjust them
to you know how we think it should be
done so it’s clearly inspired from those
models but we we all do different things
and you know we think that we’ve
definitely found a formula that makes
this the world-class accelerator okay so
i want to touch more on founder fuel and
ask you specific questions then later on
on on the accelerator model but you
mentioned real ventures so what’s real
ventures tell us a little bit about that
so real ventures is an early stage seed
fund here in montreal canada it’s the
one of the most active funds in canada
and the idea of founder fuel came
originally from real ventures I think
it’s already been you know three years
three years already and we so I joined
real ventures last year of 2010 and my
main role with real ventures
to bring found and fuel to life and to
manage it now Israel ventures the first
round from the principles or was there
like a first fund yeah the before we
adventures it was a fun common trail
startup which then one of the biggest
successes is beyond the rack so real
ventures is a follow-on fun to to
Montreal startup yeah I remember a few
years ago you say three years i remember
i think it was 2007 and I was pitching
at a the audience was all tech investors
right so here I come I’m like
montreal-based video producer media
company and I was like none of these
audiences are going to even give a damn
but anyway and that’s when I actually
met one of the the founders of Montreal
startup and real ventures partners at
John Stokes I remember he came up to me
with his british accent and he’s like
basically yeah I’ve come from Europe he
was like I’ve spent some time in Japan
and he’s like I’m gonna go up to these
largely french canadian investors and
tell him to give me money to invest it
in startups and i was standing there
going like I don’t know who’s crazier
this guy for thinking he can do that or
Lou for thinking I could build a video
content company but I mean I give him
his initial partner Daniel and the team
had real ventures I mean it is
impressive how much things have changed
I remember I don’t know if this was the
post that ultimately led to them hiring
you but i remember when they put up a
job application for like an associate
for real ventures and i remember going
like men if a 99 when i finished from
business school this kind of job did not
exist in montreal you had a few VCS who
are like okay once you had you know 20
million in revenue and five million in
free cash flow will invest in your
company no but there was no such thing
so I think locally you know depending on
who’s watching this locally there’s
going to be some people who are like oh
my god Montreal is still not san fran or
New York but considering if you just
sort of take a step back and go how much
things have changed in the city yeah in
this country over the last 10-15 years
it’s a bit crazy okay so you touched on
real ventures yeah beyond the rack very
successful from Montreal startup real
ventures I follow a few the company’s a
bit of this clip disclosure I’m actually
one of the mentors part of founder fuels
so let’s focus and double click on
founder fuel okay the mentors yep you
add a first batch you call them the
cohort group so tell us
what worked and what didn’t work and
what you improved yeah for the second
match well I think the you know I’m
speaking to probably about all
accelerator programs our biggest
challenge is to get the mentors involved
as much as possible so we have
discharged we have a hundred and twenty
mentors on board so one of my main
responsibility is to make sure that
these people are coming in and seeing
the teams as much as possible so with
this new cohort we were doing a lot of
things to make sure that the mentors
have more opportunities to come in and
it teams more opportunities by default
to connect with the mentors so very
early on in the program as you know we
do this large event where we invite all
mentors to come into my shell and this
is the first time that they get exposed
to the mentors so the team search
interrupts you mentioned that what
percentage are montrell base of the
mentors and what percentage are I would
say the majority of from Montreal maybe
sixty percent but then we have some from
Europe we have some from the valley in
New York all across Canada of course
Waterloo Vancouver so I’d say that you
know we have a really wide reach and
that’s that’s important because when it
teams have challenges they need to be
able to have resources all over the
world so we do have you know and say
about fifty to sixty percent of Montreal
but the rest are international good sup
sorry I interrupted you were talking
about things that you changed yeah from
the person so I always talked about
mentor day which is when the mentors
come in and I’ll meet the teams it’s the
first time that they meet but after that
you know we we scheduled on a weekly
basis which is a bit different from last
time office hours ahead of time so any
week we’ll have between five or six
mentors that are either in Montreal in
person if they’re local or via Skype
available for office hours and we
schedule these with the teams so they’re
meeting mentors all the time we’re doing
the same thing with VCS and angels so we
call them investor office hours so the
teams get very early exposure to the
investors right off the bat we also do
happy hours every other week where all
the mentors are involved so every other
Thursday we all go for a drink
unwind and it’s a good opportunity for
the teams to meet the mentors you know
in a less formal setting even though
we’re not very far you want an investor
to take out his checkbook just get a
moist exactly work so a lot of things a
lot more I guess the general theme is
getting in as many investors as possible
for with less so perhaps how did I say
so actually seeing more mentors less
often and seeing the same mentors more
often okay good stuff we’re gonna take a
short break we’re going to come back on
ask you a few questions about your
background I want you to you know start
naming names of who are the companies in
the cohort the first ones that you’re
most interested in I guess you can’t
talk much about the second one and a few
other things we’ll be right back after
this break
can enter hunger strikes I know we were
off last week and we can explain that
but we’re back on this 20th show with a
special guest I’m your host ashcan
Carver solution and joining me is Ian
Geoffrey from founder fuel Ian welcome
to the show thanks for having me so
let’s get right to it um when I started
my career online about 10 12 13 years
ago we would always hear about these
incubators CMG I was one of them that
spawn altavista idea lab is another one
that spawned go to now overture so what
is an incubator and what is an
accelerator there are many differences
the first and most obvious difference is
that in it accelerator program we bring
in teams all on the same day and they
all leave at the same day and if the
program finishes with a large event
which we call demo day so that’s the
first really obvious distinction so in
the accelerator we provide a lot of a
variety of tools and a lot of
opportunities to an ecosystem of mentors
and the teams come in and it’s up to
them to seize those opportunities and
execute on those opportunities as
quickly as possible all in a very
condensed short amount of time those 30
days leading up to them are they so
that’s the first big difference the
other big difference is that in the
accelerator model the teams will come to
us with an existing product usually in
market sometimes with with significant
traction sometimes even with revenue
which is not the case in most incubators
an incubator will be often you know you
and I have complementary experiences or
skill sets we go in there and we sort of
incubate and try to find an idea that a
product to build and we get started
building it this is not the case of the
accelerator now is the incubator model
broken or is this just like the way now
everybody’s excited about pivots and you
know like is this the latest fad or was
the incubator model just broke in and
people thought it made sense to
accelerate stuff no I think in certain
spaces the incubator work still very
well and
our world in the web world where exactly
you mentioned it where you know we’re
launching something that’s not perfect
putting it out in the wild getting
feedback from the users constantly
adjusting and iterating very very
quickly the accelerator accelerator
model makes a lot of sense in that space
so the incubator still has its role but
not so much we feel in in the web and
mobile space okay now we’ve heard of Y
Combinator out in the valley and we’ve
heard of tech stars and I think there’s
a group in boulder colorado which has
become a startup hub over the past few
years founder fuels based in montreal
yep so my question is how is this
different from those is it really just
that this is based in montreal or have
you looked at those models and said some
of these things are broken and some of
these things make sense we’re going to
borrow and inspire from some steel and
and you know duplicate in montreal like
tell us a little bit about what similar
what’s different yeah we’ve had a good
fortune throughout everyone at real
ventures was involved in this to have
been exposed to Y Combinator to text
stars but also in Europe to Seedcamp
springboard and multiple other
accelerators around the world TechStars
and YC are really the I’d say the
pioneers and the leaders in the pack
because there’s got to be at least 30 of
these in the world and so we’ve had the
good fortune to look at these and
participate in these in different
different ways pick and choose things
that we like bring them and adjust them
to you know how we think it should be
done so it’s clearly inspired from those
models but we we all do different things
and you know we think that we’ve
definitely found a formula that makes
this the world-class accelerator okay so
i want to touch more on founder fuel and
ask you specific questions then later on
on on the accelerator model but you
mentioned real ventures so what’s real
ventures tell us a little bit about that
so real ventures is an early stage seed
fund here in montreal canada it’s the
one of the most active funds in canada
and the idea of founder fuel came
originally from real ventures I think
it’s already been you know three years
three years already and we so I joined
real ventures last year of 2010 and my
main role with real ventures
to bring found and fuel to life and to
manage it now Israel ventures the first
round from the principles or was there
like a first fund yeah the before we
adventures it was a fun common trail
startup which then one of the biggest
successes is beyond the rack so real
ventures is a follow-on fun to to
Montreal startup yeah I remember a few
years ago you say three years i remember
i think it was 2007 and I was pitching
at a the audience was all tech investors
right so here I come I’m like
montreal-based video producer media
company and I was like none of these
audiences are going to even give a damn
but anyway and that’s when I actually
met one of the the founders of Montreal
startup and real ventures partners at
John Stokes I remember he came up to me
with his british accent and he’s like
basically yeah I’ve come from Europe he
was like I’ve spent some time in Japan
and he’s like I’m gonna go up to these
largely french canadian investors and
tell him to give me money to invest it
in startups and i was standing there
going like I don’t know who’s crazier
this guy for thinking he can do that or
Lou for thinking I could build a video
content company but I mean I give him
his initial partner Daniel and the team
had real ventures I mean it is
impressive how much things have changed
I remember I don’t know if this was the
post that ultimately led to them hiring
you but i remember when they put up a
job application for like an associate
for real ventures and i remember going
like men if a 99 when i finished from
business school this kind of job did not
exist in montreal you had a few VCS who
are like okay once you had you know 20
million in revenue and five million in
free cash flow will invest in your
company no but there was no such thing
so I think locally you know depending on
who’s watching this locally there’s
going to be some people who are like oh
my god Montreal is still not san fran or
New York but considering if you just
sort of take a step back and go how much
things have changed in the city yeah in
this country over the last 10-15 years
it’s a bit crazy okay so you touched on
real ventures yeah beyond the rack very
successful from Montreal startup real
ventures I follow a few the company’s a
bit of this clip disclosure I’m actually
one of the mentors part of founder fuels
so let’s focus and double click on
founder fuel okay the mentors yep you
add a first batch you call them the
cohort group so tell us
what worked and what didn’t work and
what you improved yeah for the second
match well I think the you know I’m
speaking to probably about all
accelerator programs our biggest
challenge is to get the mentors involved
as much as possible so we have
discharged we have a hundred and twenty
mentors on board so one of my main
responsibility is to make sure that
these people are coming in and seeing
the teams as much as possible so with
this new cohort we were doing a lot of
things to make sure that the mentors
have more opportunities to come in and
it teams more opportunities by default
to connect with the mentors so very
early on in the program as you know we
do this large event where we invite all
mentors to come into my shell and this
is the first time that they get exposed
to the mentors so the team search
interrupts you mentioned that what
percentage are montrell base of the
mentors and what percentage are I would
say the majority of from Montreal maybe
sixty percent but then we have some from
Europe we have some from the valley in
New York all across Canada of course
Waterloo Vancouver so I’d say that you
know we have a really wide reach and
that’s that’s important because when it
teams have challenges they need to be
able to have resources all over the
world so we do have you know and say
about fifty to sixty percent of Montreal
but the rest are international good sup
sorry I interrupted you were talking
about things that you changed yeah from
the person so I always talked about
mentor day which is when the mentors
come in and I’ll meet the teams it’s the
first time that they meet but after that
you know we we scheduled on a weekly
basis which is a bit different from last
time office hours ahead of time so any
week we’ll have between five or six
mentors that are either in Montreal in
person if they’re local or via Skype
available for office hours and we
schedule these with the teams so they’re
meeting mentors all the time we’re doing
the same thing with VCS and angels so we
call them investor office hours so the
teams get very early exposure to the
investors right off the bat we also do
happy hours every other week where all
the mentors are involved so every other
Thursday we all go for a drink
unwind and it’s a good opportunity for
the teams to meet the mentors you know
in a less formal setting even though
we’re not very far you want an investor
to take out his checkbook just get a
moist exactly work so a lot of things a
lot more I guess the general theme is
getting in as many investors as possible
for with less so perhaps how did I say
so actually seeing more mentors less
often and seeing the same mentors more
often okay good stuff we’re gonna take a
short break we’re going to come back on
ask you a few questions about your
background I want you to you know start
naming names of who are the companies in
the cohort the first ones that you’re
most interested in I guess you can’t
talk much about the second one and a few
other things we’ll be right back after
this break
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