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Women Represent at Startup Camp Montreal5

October 16, 2009

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MONTREAL (RPRN) 10/16/09 — By Jeffrey Jolson

Startup Camp Montreal5, Montreal’s very own startup conference, on Thursday October 15, showcased some of the Canada’s finest new ventures. The evening successfully saw the pitches of five up-and-coming Canadian companies along side inspirational talks by Chris Shipley, of the DEMO Conferences, and Lori Collins, former executive of LendingTree.

Women were represented in full-force on stage, from the night's MC Tara Hunt, to the two keynote speakers, and RushPRnews very own Andrea Archibald, who unveiled the new online white label platform for public relations agencies.  RushPRnews,founded by Anne Howard in 2006 with offices in Montreal and Silicon Valley told Hollywood Today, in typical startup attitude, that she "thinks and dreams big" .  Although the room was ruled by men, as most technology events are, women stole the show, monopolizing much of last night's conversation. Organizer Philippe Telio, of Embrase, told Hollywood Today that he  felt " responsible for bringing women in technology to the center stage."

Chris Shipley opened the evening with a rousing talk on the ten-plus-one mistakes startups make, from loving their product too much to letting your investors run your show. Lori Collins, closing the evening, spoke to the three elements every entrepreneur needs--guts, vision, and bets.

Startups pitching ran the gamut, from RushPRnews to Network Hippo, the first personal CRM tool that consolidates and cleans up contracts from mail addresses, address books, and social networks, and Assetize, the AdSense for Twitter, helping users monetize their social media accounts. Thoora, the online engine gathering and tracking the most popular stories, and Tekinno, a refueling system for the aviation and trucking industries, rounded out the line up to rousing success.

Bookended by networking sessions, local startups of all stages schmoozed, exchanged ideas, and were given the chance to rub elbows with the likes of John Stokes and Vincent Guyaux.

The evening, organized by the Montreal startup consultancy Embrase, had some surprises in store, namely Rogers Communications announcing  Rogers Ventures.

Rogers Ventures is an investment fund for early-stage seed funding for technology-based startups, the company’s first venture into the investment world. Portfolio companies will receive Rogers money, leverage, experience and other strategic contributions.  As well, with the program the telecommunications company is looking to invest in the startup community, helping to push local innovation forward.

"It is refreshing to see big business getting so involved in innovation and the startup community," Phillipe Telio said to Hollywood Today. "There are so many ways a company like Roger’s can affect the success and growth of the Startup community."

If Thursday night’s event is any indication, though, the Montreal startup community is certainly growing and thriving.

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