Lover.ly Founder, Kellee Khalil was featured on Techcrunch TV today discussing recent brand partnerships like Nordstrom and Kwiat and how they are working closely with top bloggers to curate the best wedding content for brides and their friends.
Check out the video to learn more about the site and Kelle’s big plans:
When Mike Edwards received an email forwarded from Clint Nelsen, Co-Founder of Startup Labs and Startup Weekend with the Subject, “today is the happiest day in my life,” he couldn’t help but grin. An entrepreneur named Mohamed Alborno, who lived halfway around the world in Egypt, had just been approved to receive his Canadian Permanent Residency and according to Nelsen was “one of the hardest working guys” Mike would ever meet. To Mohamed, this life-changing milestone was over 10 hard years in the making and Mike was more than happy to provide him with the soft landing he needed to set up shop in Canada.
Mike & Mohamed in the GrowLab Office in Vancouver
I caught up with Mohamed recently to find out more about his entrepreneurial journey and why he set his sights on starting a company in Canada.
Maura: Welcome to Canada! Tell me a little bit about your entrepreneurial background:
Mohamed: In 2001, I was a telecom and computer engineering student in Egypt and fell in love with Bluetooth and wireless technologies. That same year, I entered the Computer Society International Design Competition with a Bluetooth-based system I created to aid the visually impaired. Shortly after that, I started my first company, Design Valley, a one-stop shop for design-based applications and websites. I applied for a Canadian Visa to bring Design Valley to Canada in 2004 but was denied access.
You are not only an entrepreneur, you are also a filmmaker. Tell me about your latest startup, Crowdsway.
Crowdsway is a crowdsourcing platform for film, video and media. It connects filmmakers and artists looking for projects with SMEs and NFPs wanting to create promotional videos, commercials and films. It started after I attended a Kino filmmaking workshop in Manchester, named Filmonik. I met and worked with amazing talents that produce quality films and videos but who can’t make a living from what they love doing. Hence, Crowdsway was incorporated 2 years later. After attending the workshop in 2010, I decided to become a filmmaker.
How did you get connected to Mike Edwards?
Clint Nelsen, co-founder of Startup Weekend and Startup Labs introduced me to Mike Edwards. Startup Labs is also an investor in Crowdsway Inc.
Why Canada?
I wanted to come to Canada because it’s a place I knew I could call home. It’s also a technologically advanced, friendly country that welcomes immigrants. I knew I’d have a much better chance for me and my startup if I moved to Canada.
What was it like where you were before you came to Canada?
In February 2012, I was accepted into Flat6labs, which is one of the best Startup incubators in Egypt. Flat6Labs was the first step towards making Crowdsway a reality. Startup Labs also joined Crowdsway and gave it another great step forward by introducing me to Mike Edwards of Initio. Since Crowdsway is a company and movement that has a global reach it was a necessity to find a good place to reach the world, which is why I chose Canada.
What was the process like to get a Canadian visa?
8 years of preparation and dreaming and 2 years of applying and waiting. Bottom line, it’s not easy but definitely worth it!
Did you receive outside investment for your startup and how big is your team?
I received seed investment from Flat6labs and Startup Labs and have 2 full-time employees and 4 part-time freelancers. In the Crowdsway network we have hundreds of filmmakers and artists that we hope to help make a living doing what they love doing.
What are your plans now that you are in Canada?
Find my next investor, build a network of Canadian filmmakers and artists and take Crowdsway to the next level.
Mohamed landed in Vancouver, BC on May 23. He will be working out of the GrowLab office and couch surfing with Mike until he gets his bearings. If you would like to learn more about Mohamed, check out his website and follow his adventures on Twitter.
GrowLab announced it’s second cohort today and is set to officially welcome them into their accelerator program next week. GrowLab Executive Director and Initio’s own, Mike Edwards has been busy interviewing and meeting with talented entrepreneurs from around the world since he joined the accelerator last March. Just glancing through the list of startups in the Spring Cohort, one can tell that this batch is a little further along in the startup cycle compared to the inaugural 5 companies that went through the program last Fall.
“It is much cheaper than ever to bootstrap and test an idea,” said Edwards. “This time around we identified and selected companies that were past the ideation stage and ready to grow and commercialize their idea.”
Big Congrats to the following companies and founders on being selected into the GrowLab program:
Now that these founders have access to a great group of mentors, including Mike and the GrowLab founders, I can’t wait to see them grow over the next 3 months and pitch their companies on Demo Day, August 22, 2012.
Accelerator Symposium
During Grow Conference week, Edwards will also be bringing together other Executive Directors from around the world to participate in an Accelerator Symposium, where they will share stories, best practices and lessons learned.
Managing Partner, Mike Edwards will be hosting Office Hours from 4-6pm on Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at the Initio Group Offices in Gastown.
Sign Up
We are looking to meet talented, early stage entrepreneurs with big ideas and a #GSD attitude. Bring your passion, a short presentation or a live demo with you to the meeting to showoff what you are working on. If you are out of town, we are also open to Skype meetings and demos.
There are six,15 minute pitch slots available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are interested in signing up, please take a moment to fill out this form and tell us a bit about your startup. We will email you back with your confirmed time slot before May 9.
Interested in Joining a Startup?
Our portfolio companies are hiring! If you are interested in joining a startup, send Maura at InitioGroup an email and we will try and match you up with the right opportunity.
Forty-five early stage investments in less than two years is one way for an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur to put his money where his mouth is. Mike Edward’s did just that, and now he’s going further, enthusiastically joining the GrowLab incubator in Vancouver as their new Executive Director.
The best accelerators are incredibly selective and can make a world of difference in the connections, mentorship and access to funding they provide startups. If GrowLab was around when Mike started his companies, he would have applied in a heartbeat.
“I think of all the costly mistakes I made when I was starting my first company,” said Edwards. “Those lessons that I paid for and learned from, I can now share with other entrepreneurs so they can benefit from my experiences.”
As an investor in both Dave McClure’s 500 Startups in Mountain View and Vancouver’s GrowLab, Mike encourages other entrepreneurs he meets with to consider an accelerator program.
“About 25-30% of my investments are in startups that have completed an accelerator program,” said Mike Edwards. “It’s much easier to write a cheque on the spot to a company that has been vetted and put through the paces by people like Dave McClure or Boris Wertz than it is to bet on an unknown.”
Having been involved in the Vancouver startup ecosystem for many years now, I think Mike is a natural choice for this role. As ED, he will definitely have a chance to roll up his sleeves and make a difference to the startups in GrowLab, as well as have an opportunity to positively impact the entire Vancouver startup community. Mike is humble and loves working with entrepreneurs. If he asks you, “how can I help,” you can trust that he means it!
GrowLab is about to see first hand what Massive Action really means! Good luck, Mike!
When Mike Edwards returned to Vancouver in the fall of 2010, the first event he attended was Bootup Labs Demo Day. Summify, which creates a summary of your social news feeds and delivers it to you via a daily digest, was one of the companies pitching at the event that day. Impressed by founders Cristian Strat and Mircea Pasoi, who came all the way from Romania to build their startup, and their traction coming out of the Bootup Labs program, Mike decided to invest on the spot. It was the very first cheque Mike wrote for Initio and kicked off a year of massive action including over 40 investments in the fund.
Today, Summify announced they will be joining the flock at Twitter and we couldn’t be happier for the team. We think this is a great partnership that will help them achieve their long term vision.
Good luck boys!
Our new Initio office is an open concept space in the Gastown area of Vancouver. It’s fairly quiet in the office right now but to cancel out some of the noise and help us focus, we usually have Console.fm playing in the background.
Founded in the Spring of 2011, Console is a social music streaming service that uses its own algorithm to find and serve up cool tracks, which are displayed in various music channels such as Deep House, Chill Out or Dubstep. Console automatically organizes and plays music via Soundcloud. Think Pandora meets Turntable.fm, which are both restricted to service in the US due to licensing constraints.
Mike Edwards met the Console team last spring when they were going through Dave McClure’s 500 Startups accelerator program and decided to invest shortly after that.
I personally like Console’s Mashup Channel, which serves up a bunch of fun mixes like Moves Like a DeadMau, Where Dem Levels At, and Womanizer on Fire. If you are coding and prefer less dance and fewer lyrics, check out their Trance Channel. Then go #GSD!