Last Friday I was notified that Network Hippo was selected as one of twenty top Canadian startups to spend two days in Silicon Valley receiving mentorship from successful local (but Canadian) VC’s and entrepreneurs, pitching executives at Microsoft, Cisco, and EA, and the opportunity to pitch at the famous Plug & Play Expo. The event is sponsored by the C100 and the Canadian Consulate General in Silicon Valley.
We’re looking forward to spreading some Network Hippo love to the Valley.
About the C100
The C100 is comprised of a select group of Canadians based primarily in Silicon Valley, including executives of leading technology companies, experienced startup entrepreneurs and venture capital investors. C100 members are passionate about leveraging their collective experience, expertise and relationships to help mentor and grow a new generation of successful Canadian-led technology companies.
Last week we were in Philadelphia at Indy Hall – a fantastic co-working space in the historic district of the city. We met a lot of great people there including Alex Hillman, Johnny Nines, Bill Jones, and had a great conversation about personal CRM, how to track “introductions”, and the importance of transparency for companies with their customer databases.
Indy Hall really embodies the spirit of the growing business lifestyle of coworking: the people there are outgoing, engaged, open to new ideas, and hard-core DIY. It was great to have the opportunity to meet everyone and be able to demo dex.
Last week we were in New York City meeting with the gang at New Work City – a great co-working facility in Manhattan. We had a great time and Dex was well received by the whole gang. We tried to broadcast the meeting over the web, but the sound was pretty poor, which was unfortunate.
Thursday night we were in Montreal at Station C for the Dex roadtrip. Station C is a beautiful co-working facility in Montreal with a really nice vibe. Patrick Tanguay was an awesome host and we had a great group of people from the local startup scene including Tien Nguyen, Matthew Stotland from the Yellow Bird Project (pretty cool!), and Adrian Ghizaru.
We had a great discussion about how “creepy” some companies can be with CRM systems and how we hope that a more social and “open” network would prevent companies from using CRM systems to creep out customers. It was a great discussion that I hope to continue in future cities with other startups.
Thanks for the great reception in Montreal, and I hope to see Patrick and the gang back in Ottawa sometime soon!
Wednesday night we were in Ottawa presenting Dex to local startups and we had a great discussion about opportunities in the CRM space. The room at the Code Factory was fantastic, and I really appreciated having Andrew Milne – the Dex designer – out to hear some of the feedback and participate in the discusion.
We were in Toronto on Tuesday for the first stop in our cross-country Dex roadtrip. It was a great time getting to meet the local startup scene, and the venue at the Centre for Social Innovation was just amazing!
I’m really glad that we’re doing this roadtrip and getting the opportunity to connect with local startups and small businesses to talk to them about their challenges in the CRM space and show them a completely different way to approach relationship management.
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