Some things in life can’t be learned in textbooks, and being a company director or accredited investor is one of them. These things can best be learned through experience and communication with peers. The upcoming Angel Forum workshop “Being a Director in the 21st Century” promises to let you channel the experience of experienced investors Basil Peters, Mike Volker (both New Ventures BC speakers from this season), and Bob Chaworth-Musters. It will take place September 29, 2008, 8am to 4pm, at SFU Harbour Centre, Room #7000, 515 West Hastings St. The format will be a blend of presentitions, stories, and panel discussions, with time for Q&A and networks. The workshop will be confidential so that real world examples can be discussed, and participants will be required to sign a non-disclosure/confidentiality agreement.

For more information, or to register, visit Angel Forum.

2007 Finalist and 2008 competitor Razor Technology has gained the attention of not only clients, but of the market strategy firm and NVBC presenter Rocket Builders, making their 2008 “Emerging Rockets” list. Their FireTonic platform offers a unique distribution method for mobile content such as ringtones, wallpaper, games, video, songs, and applications. Distributing content to a phone over the internet or through a cellular provider can be expensive, slow, and cumbersome. FireTonic provides kiosks that transfer content to phones via Bluetooth for free or fee, bypassing high mobile data rates. Their target clients are stores, coffee shops, restaurants, theatres, conventions, and street promotions.

Razor’s direct distribution model has attracted big name clients such as Nintendo, Microsoft, and Dairy Queen, in addition to Vancouver game companies like Playful Entertainment, Nerd Corps, and Hothead Games. The platform saw use at this year’s Vancouver International Game Summit and Vancouver International Digital Festival. Razor claims that the amount of content they distributed during these two events would have cost over $40,000 in mobile data charges.

Watch Razor’s CEO Ray Walia give his pitch on Fundfindr:
 

It’s three founders were fresh out of the University of Victoria when they entered the 2007 New Ventures BC competition, but such was no limitation for Mike Tan, Jonathan Kerr and Adam Palmblad of TeamPages. Beating out over 80 competitors, TeamPages snatched the Enbridge second place prize of $38,000. In the less than a year since their win, they’ve built on that momentum.

TeamPages provides online community sites for coaches, parents, and players that serve as a central point for team communication and scheduling. Last November, they completed a Series A round of financing, and last month, they moved to Vancouver into new office space and brought on three new employees. Today, they launched a significant upgrade to the site, improving the interface, adding customization options, and simplifying the sign-up process. A premium version of the service is planned for the near future.

New Ventures BC Finalist Adhack has been named one of the top 10 Canadian Web 2.0 Companies to Watch by IDC Canada. Companies were judged on vision, partnership opportunity, sustainability and growth, and strategy. 

“To succeed in the long term, companies will need to transition from providing ‘cool’ Web-based solutions that users want to try, to ‘critical’ tools they need to have… Adhack has the potential to offer unique, affordable advertising through its community of creators to big brands and advertisers, including media companies that see AdHack as an on-demand outsourced service they can use to facilitate services requested by their customers (advertisers)” said Krista Collins, Analyst, Canadian ICT Innovation Export at IDC Canada.

AdHack’s James Sherrett was a runner up in the recent Fundfindr Pitchies Warmup competition, clearly those pitch skills have impressed the folks at IDC as well. I remember watching Sherrett’s pitch at the first DemoCamp Vancouver over a year ago and being impressed by the novelty and potential of the idea. At the same time, the implementation of the concept has evolved since that early pitch.

You can give pre-release AdHack a try at the Adhack beta site. (Note that to use the site, you may have to turn off any ad blocking software =)

Current New Ventures BC finalist DreamBank has had their web app in beta for just a short time, but today has sent out the emails announcing they are launching. Their tagline is “Give dreams, not gifts”, suggesting that contributing funds for peoples’ dreams is preferable to gift giving. DreamBank allows users to create a “dream” and they’ll handle accepting money for it. Dream progress is tracked on their site, with donors credited. The site uses PayPal for funds transfer, but have arranged their own fee structure. Cashing in your “dream” is subject to a 2.5% fee.

To promote their launch, DreamBank has done some social media outreach to local bloggers, giving $20 “dream certificates” to Miss604 Rebecca Bollwitt and Beth Snow, among others. Further, they are holding a “Win Your Dream” contest to fulfill 5 dreams of $1500, randomly selected from the first 5000 dreams submitted. There are still a ways from 5000 dreams on the site, so there’s still time to get yours on. Perhaps your dream is “fund my company”?

Congratulations DreamBank and good luck on your launch.

AirZone, of Kelowna, was a finalist in the first New Ventures competition in 2001. While they didn’t win that year, they’re still around and doing well. AirZone manufacturers tents with pneumatic inflatable poles. This makes them easier to set up, in “less than 12 seconds” with an air compressor, bike pump, or CO2 cartridge. They’re also very durable and suitable for extreme weather where traditional tents would fail.

After competing in New Ventures BC, AirZone received good coverage from the likes of Popular Science, Wired, and Western Living magazines, to name a few. They have also expanded the technology to other uses, included a Golfnet practice tent, and other construction and entertainment tents. They have also established a UK office.

Everyone loathes spam email, and while the quantity of it continues to increase over the years, it has become less of a problem due to continued innovation by companies like MailChannels, based out of downtown Vancouver. A New Ventures BC competitor in 2004, MailChannels has quickly become a world leader in email spam filtering. Their software is designed for enterprise level customers: ISPs, large companies, governments and educational institutions.

Selling anti-spam software to large enterprise customers can be tricky, since the open source Apache SpamAssassin software is free, effective, and widely used. Rather than compete directly, MailChannels’ Traffic Control software works with SpamAssassin to provide an extra layer of filtering. When receiving email from a questionable source, the software deliberately stalls the connection; legitimate mail servers will be patient and wait to finish sending, but spam bots will usually give up and move on. This technique alone blocks 90% of spammers.

Company CEO Ken Simpson says MailChannels is in its second profitable year with annual growth of 500 percent. This level of success has allowed them to give back to the community. They recently donated infrastructure to support the SpamAssassin project, and the Traffic Control software is free for non-commercial users that receive less than 10,000 connections per day.