Press "Enter" to skip to content

HipMojo 28B: Startup Culture and Tech-Centric Cities


welcome back to part two of hip module
number 28 joining me is Ian Geoffrey
from founder fuel and accelerator based
in Montreal we touched on a lot in the
first half let’s now focus on the first
cohort group so I was involved as a
mentor I probably could have been more
involved admittedly but I have a
business to run but I was involved and I
saw a few companies that I liked a lot
and the problem I had with the issue
with the I mean listen again these are
so subtle small complaints at the ANA
was a great program and it was very nice
but I felt it was hard for me as a
mentor that really has no real firm
connection to any of these companies to
tell them I would do this or that
because you’re basically just an
outsider with an opinion and we know
what they say about guys with opinions
you know everyone’s got one but I there
was a couple companies I liked a lot one
was wave oh yeah and I occasionally ran
into the guys there and I gave them
advice didn’t listen to any of it which
is maybe if they’re successful why
they’re successful and then there was
another one which we talked during the
break so I’ll leave off the suspense and
let you talk about them what was the one
company that i would say at the end of
the covert group had the most sort of
oomph and presence and impressive track
record well I think player eyes
definitely stood out of the pack you
know they came in they had just started
maybe a month before the program by the
end of the program they had you know
revenue into six figures numbers juice
away just what they do yep so player
eyes basically delivers games to social
games sorry players to social game so
that’s the number one challenge as a
social game developers to get new users
on board new players and they built a
network that allows them to deliver
games at game players at scale beyond
just doing it on Facebook which is
usually where it happens right now would
you call them in that Network for the
video game ecosystem I guess you could
probably probably say that but beyond
just acquisition of the players they
have a whole series of tools that helps
helps two games to monetize the players
yes once they come in actually getting
more out of each player
just bringing in two players I mean
that’s the thing that I liked about
player eyes from the get-go is that that
kind of model is built to scale the
challenge it runs into and I mean my
background is more the ad networks and
this is we talked about this just last
week the thing about the mentor program
is it’s not just guys who come and say I
have wisdom it’s a lot of them want to
learn like for me like I learned a lot
like I’m 33 a lot of these guys are I
guess in the early 20s oh they’re like
you know a lot more like technology and
all this is a lot more in their DNA and
for me what was good about player rise
was that I was like okay I could learn a
lot more about the video game ecosystem
but I get the network social social
games every social game so good now
touching on that is I mean the challenge
the good thing is you scale very quickly
but then it does become it is like an
arbitrage intermediation game because
there’s not that much barrier to entry
but by the time you know you could scale
your company before you get competitors
not my question is this you hear about
Zynga when they say we are a fly on
Facebook’s but they use a different word
is this that kind of thing where they’re
leveraging largely facebook zynga and
all that well actually it’s you know a
lot of this social games acquire their
users on facebook and what player eyes
is doing is yes they deliver players on
facebook but they’re going you know
they’re using every marketing tactic
online to deliver players which is not
something that the game students are
doing right now and they’re not well
equipped to do right now so they’re
building that big Network and and that
network network will rival would we play
right as sorry as in his network the
other team that really stood out was was
allowed to go to low low so a load from
a great line from back to the future ooh
la la is his a is a mobile app for to
manager years two min life for students
but it’s also for the Student Union’s a
way to manage and promote their
activities on Kerry impressive I thought
the product was smart I thought the team
seemed very good but that’s the thing
it’s like it’s all boils down to
actually the execution so tell us a bit
about okay player eyes had their stuff
together when they got there how much
did the founder fuel I know your bias
but how much did found if you’ll help
them take it to the next level well i
think you know in their case they came
to founder fuel with with a lot of
experience their older guys
you know I think that the network of
mentors really help them you know turn
their turn their idea into a larger idea
and I think if you spoke to Jeff for
Lyle that they’d support that and and
recognize that we brought a lot of value
to the program but to their to their
business for sure so part of that
obviously is being around all these
investors and mentors and all that and
that’s something that large is perfect
that’s the largest part yeah I think
everybody gets that and I do think it’s
two ways the mentors probably learn a
lot more than you’re gonna admit um but
but the problem with Montreal is that
and and I wrote an article next Montreal
that some people sort of were like oh my
god what the hell are you talking about
but all the entrepreneurs emailed me
saying you’re so right about this but I
think the investor community and it may
be like the typical mentors were like
you know this is unfair ash but
entrepreneurs got that which is there is
a lack of mentors in this city who have
been there done that in our fields like
the guy who built a law firm is going to
have great advice on managing people
egos you know dealing with accounting
and legal issues but he has not built a
new media or technology company and you
I know your background you spent a bit
of time in san fran so tell us a little
bit a about the difference between i
mean it’s sort of obvious but i spent a
lot of time in New York and I learned so
much when I’m there but take us through
like how is Montreal so different than
san fran what are some of the good
things were the bad things were the
things you want to import and where are
the things that you saw in san fran that
made you think you know maybe we don’t
need this right well you know when i
left montreal in 2006 I didn’t know the
startup ecosystem here at all in fact
probably because was mostly non non
existent yeah and when i left san fran
and came back to montreal was really
surprised to see how much activity was
happening here so many I to so many
events you know there’s new funds all
these things happening it’s changed a
lot to be honest you know in san fran oh
you know ninety percent of the people
that I that a that ice that I met or
that I cool too wet and I’m not trying
to say that in English but you’ll have
to learn interact with court yeah
exactly we’re in the startup scene and
in the end to be honest I got a bit a
bit sick of it you know it was like if
if you weren’t in a start-up or if you
weren’t a founder of a start-up be
weren’t cool and it was the cool thing
to do and I’m sorry
enough already I mean we’re all trying
to build it and let’s just try to build
it and have fun but yeah I mean you know
you can’t swing a dead cat over there
without without hitting as the CEO of
some some other company some other
startup which is going to be the biggest
startup you know ever and and that I got
a bit tired of you know I’m doing this
because because I’m I’m having fun doing
it and I want to do it not because it’s
a cool thing to do yeah i mean i
remember Nick Denton of Gawker he used
to say San Fran is a bit of a soulless
city and I used to go to San Fran quite
a bit when i started watchmojo just
because that’s where a lot of the
investors and all this were and ice
aleve there I love San Francisco a city
I love the people there but I would want
to take a shower after I’d leave because
it was a very one-dimensional city when
I go to New York the good thing is as
much as the tech and new media thing has
taken off you know you’ll need artists
you’ll need entertainers you’ll need
bankers if they’re not you know laid off
and it’s just there are so many
successful people that nobody really
cares in the grand scheme of things
about the startup community and that’s
frankly the whole thing of going to
certain coffee shops and you can talk
about your business in that coffee shop
because you’re paranoid at the guy yes
he’s gonna steal your idea all of that
was was enough in the end but like you
said it is you know there’s tons of
activity tons of money tons of people
that can help you out a lot of resources
there for sure I mean nobody can deny
that ok I want to talk about not in the
house but you mentioned the word idea so
let’s play a mini game of lightning
round yeah what’s more important idea or
execution execution for sure what’s more
important team or product team ok what
is more important today 2012 mobile
first or still web because web is still
a bunch bigger that’s a good one I’d
have to say we’re right now ok what is
the number one mistake again you could
wear your final fuel had but the news
could be your own as a disparar mound
what is the number one mistake that
entrepreneurs make when they talk to
investors they don’t listen to the
feedback what is the number one mistake
entrepreneurs make with regards to
hiring
they hire too fast okay do you believe
in the mantra of higher slow fire fast
I’d say to ninety percent of that I
believe do you believe in the whole fail
fast pivot Lean Startup mantra how
important is the revenue model early on
like for the first six months you’re not
that important okay good stuff anything
else to add in the sort of like sound
bite advice for words of wisdom from Ian
Geoffrey beforehand up in house words of
wisdom I put your shoes on one at a time
no execute I mean it’s all about
execution all right so last week we came
and visited you at Nachman house so if
you’re in Montreal okay let’s actually
before diving into notman house I get a
lot of entrepreneurs who email me and
once they found out i’m in montreal
they’re like very Montreal curious
because what happens like when I’m in
New York I’ll often go monday to friday
or like whatever but i’ll come back a
lot on like the thursday or friday
flight your evening from laguardia to to
montreal and there’s all these couples
gay or straight not that it matters who
are coming for like a weekend in
montreal and they love it because for
them it’s like europe and you know an
hour flight it’s dirt cheap so there’s a
lot of and the other thing of course is
everybody assumes we have like stripper
poles in our office because they come
here for their stack of course yeah look
right there there you go we all talk to
the same one it’s not really a stripper
pole the point is everybody likes
Montreal it’s much cheaper to give you
an example like i don’t want to say this
because nobody wants to build a
billion-dollar business by focusing on
the cost it’s obviously on the revenue
but like we have a 2,000 square foot
office if you want to imagine where we
are imagine like a Chelsea or Soho area
in New York and imagine like an open
space likes loft concept we pay for
2,000 square foot office two thousand
bucks a month but yeah has stripper
poles in okay but my point is it’s so
ridiculously cheap that if life is a
marathon and you know it’s a war of
attrition like we can outlast any
company and that’s great so everybody
wants this idea of Montreal do you see
you being in montreal because is it easy
to attract companies in founder fuel or
is it actually hard
how much of that is because you’re in
Montreal because you guys don’t really
only draw from Montreal and real
ventures doesn’t only invest in Montreal
I’m pretty sure they invested everywhere
and no I think there’s definitely a draw
to the city people like you said it
doesn’t matter if you’re new york or if
you’re in the west coast and San
Francisco la you say from Montreal
people usually go oh wow I love Montreal
so there’s definitely that draw of
course I mean you know that the
ecosystem is not the ecosystem of New
York or San Fran but it’s changed a lot
so we do get we do open applications to
anyone in the world so doesn’t matter if
you from the US Europe or or New Zealand
you’re welcome to apply to founder fuel
and will definitely consider your
application but yeah it is a bit more
difficult but that said we get hundreds
of applications every time it’s a
difficult process to select our teams it
takes a lot of time and you know no
matter where you’re from we’re not
looking whether you’re coming from the
US or coming from Canada doesn’t matter
where you’re from okay so now if you’ve
ever been to Montreal the city is the
grid is very straightforward basically
you guys have managed to identify this
building that is very historic that was
there like I’ve been in the city for
since I was like five and you always
spotted this big-ass mansion what is
ghetto mansion it’s an old mansion on
the corner of sherbrooke and st.
Lawrence main which is really two of the
key arturia it was an eyesore because
nobody did anything with it I guess it’s
a heritage building so people couldn’t
just buy it and convert it into like a
club or something let’s say no okay I
guess that was the issue because that it
would be a good amazing club so
basically tell us a little bit about
Notman house and what it is how it fits
in the grand scheme of things so not min
house is a co-working space that is
managed by a foundation called the Osmo
foundation people can rent a desk there
or their offices there so right now real
ventures and found in fuel were tenants
in the building but there’s also you
know at any given time there’s got to be
between at the moment ten twenty teams
working out of that house it’s also in
an area for events that are load that
are related to the tech space so if you
have if you want to organize
you know hackathon of any kind you can
do it admin house we’ve had in the last
year several hundred events already
there so whether it’s Google or Nokia
there’s been a lot of events there from
big big corporations small corporations
wave will had a hackathon there so we’re
located there the founder field teams
are located in the house as well and
this is set to be the largest a tech
co-working space in North America a big
big house another zemke’s I yeah I don’t
think in the 1850s yet and then in the
back there’s this old nuns hospital that
you gave us a tour of which is a bit
creepy but it’s that’s amazing I mean
cuz that hasn’t even been built up yeah
so currently we’re just in the house and
the mansion part and the back part like
you said is an old hospital four stories
high I think if my memory serves me well
30,000 square feet there’s 24 small what
used to be rooms for the patients
there’s only six ghosts living there now
it’s amazing but just 24 of these rooms
perfect for a two three person team so
you can imagine all the activity that
will happen once that opens up and in
between they’re opening up a cafe open
to the public where anyone can come in
buy coffee and meet people and
potentially team up with with with
someone rent a space in the hospital
portion work on the business for for
three months six months get some
traction talk to the investors who are
located in in the mansion portion raise
some seed capital and then you know
really taking it up a notch little
footnote trivia after Arcade Fire
released the suburbs but before their
big world tour and before they won the
Grammy I think they played a mini show
private apartment house but else before
you guys took over yeah probably because
pop montreal every year has their
headquarters there so we’ve seen tons of
man’s good stuff all right Ian thank you
very much for coming by it was very
informative so good luck the second
cohort starts I guess next week yeah it
starts on Monday we’re going with 11
teams and can’t wait strong cohort great
businesses and demo day for the spring
2012 cord is May twenty-third yeah so
we’ll actually be working watch modules
gonna be a bit more involved I figured
this would be
like a lazy but actually smart way of
getting more involved as a mentor so i
get to bring everything together okay
thank you very much it’s great what’s
the URL founder feel calm I don’t feel
calm all right good stuff you this has
been hit Bonjour 28 see you next week
Please follow and like us: