On July 12th, Startup World will be coming to Notman House on their search for Montreal’s best startup to represent in Silicon Valley at the grand showdown. Here’s what’s up for grabs as the Grand Prize:

• 3 month incubation period worth $30,000 at i/o Ventures
• 1 year of Rackspace hosting worth up to $24,000
• 5 million Echo real-time streams per month for 1 year worth $30,000
• International media coverage of your startup

Montreal is their first stop in North America. The winners of the regional pitch competitions will travel to Silicon Valley for a grand showdown in late 2013. Let’s show them what Montreal is made of!

The event is hosted by Hermione Way and will feature the toughest Montreal judges–lineup to come soon!

Get all the information on the event and apply to pitch here. 

How to hire the best talent out there? OnlineMBA had a few tips on how successful startups hire–check out their short video and start taking notes!

Decorating an office can be pricey, but there are many options for making your startup’s office easy on the eyes and, most of all, something for your whole team to take part in and be proud of.

Mashable came up with some really cool ideas on how to decorate your startup office space (and we added a few of our own!)

Paint a mural. After visiting Shopify’s new office space, we saw how much a mural can vamp up a space. Their events room has several murals in it and in the hallways leading up to it and they really add colour and personality. Find a local artist or art student to paint a mural in your office!

Get your name up. Putting your company’s name in a window where outsiders can see it will increase both your visibility and your street cred. People will walk by and look you up; they might even stop in to ask you what you’re all about. What better way to get to know your customers?

Posters are a great way to add colour to your walls. Buy some at a local art store or print some photos (maybe you have a closet photographer on your team?) and slap ‘em on the walls. Photos of your team are cool too, as they give a sense of being a part of a family.

Wall of fame. Get a handprint on canvas or in clay from your investors or mentors. This will be a constant reminder that people believe in you and that you have an amazing support system. And it’s a fun excuse to hang out with your investors or mentors (make an event out of it if you’d like—like Fu Man Chu’s walk of fame!).

Have an employee art day—and then showcase it! Whether it’s fingerpainting, water balloon painting, or having the team blindly sketch different parts of your building or city, team art can bring lots of laughs and add some character to your offices.

Blackboard paint is a fun alternative to whiteboards—paint a wall with blackboard paint and set up a schedule for team members to craft their masterpieces on it every couple of weeks. This will let them get their creative juices flowing and add a touch of personality to your space!

On Thursday, July 11th, the 9 teams of the Summer 2013 Cohort will pitch at the historic Rialto Theatre. 

Tickets are on sale, but you’d better act fast because they’re selling quickly! Hurry up and register here. 

*Proceeds from ticket sales will go towards buying a new projection system for Notman House.

He looked at all companies he met for a pitch in person or over the phone for just over a year, over 200 companies, and rated them based on traction, market, team, product and term sheet. In a nutshell, this is what he found:

i. 2% of companies pitching me get an agreement for a term sheet for investment. Note that a term sheet does not always result in a closed investment from us. I don’t win them all, sadly.

ii. 50% of companies were pitching mobile-centric or mobile-first offerings, which maps to our core focus area as investors at BlueRun.

iii. 100% of companies pitching me that received an agreement for a term sheet for investment were pitching mobile-centric or mobile-first offerings.

Then he breaks down his criteria:

1. “Team and Market are by far the two most important factors in gaining a term sheet”

2. “Traction speaks louder than words”

3. “Investor fit matters a lot.”

One thing is for sure, even for this glass-half-full investor: fundraising is hard, and so is building a company.

There’s a lot of talk these days about raising rounds, pitching VCs, accelerators, and everything in between, but all of this emphasis is useless if startups aren’t creating valuable businesses–something which many people lose focus on when trying to raise a round. Raising capital is just one step on the longer road towards creating a market-leading company. Here are some of Brian’s top tips:

1. As you grow your company, you’re going to go from being a Co-Founder to an Executive. The way you spend your time will change significantly, and you should be ready for this.

2. Your Board is an integral part of your startup: they are a part of your team, should be kept up to speed, never lied to, and always leveraged for who they are and what they can bring to your business. You’re all in it for the long haul, will become references for one another, and you should never lose sight of the fact that you’re all in the same boat!

3. Hiring will gradually become a process that will take up LOTS of your time, since finding the right people and convincing them to work for you takes time and effort…but don’t forget that this is the most important part of your job! Identify the people you want to work with and get close to them so that when you want to hire them it’s not a headache or wild goose chase.

 4. Culture, culture, culture! It might not be at the forefront of your worries pre-seed, but when your company gets to 50 people, culture becomes something you need to think about and put effort into. Make sure that your views of the company’s culture are in line with the guy who started a few weeks ago. Also, don’t forget that people are coming to your company because you inspired them. They’re there because they believe in you and your vision–if you’re not inspiring them, they’ll leave.

 5. It’s so important to define your market. Articulate your vision for the market space that you are going to dominate, it impacts how customers, analysts, investors, partners and acquirers see you–use the right words so that they understand (and keep in mind that these words might change!).

6. Startups live financing to financing, so be ready for the efforts it will take to raise follow-on capital. Focus on the investors, not the valuations, when you’re raising a round. What an investor brings to the table is much more valuable that what dollar value they give your company. Choosing an investor that can get you to your goal valuation (and beyond!) is much more important than choosing the investor that gives you your goal valuation off the bat but nothing more.

7. Get other people to sell your product and build great references. Then your product will sell itself.

8. Growth is the key valuation driver: the faster you’re growing, the greater multiple of revenue an acquirer can pay for you!

 9. Exits come in all shapes and sizes, from acquahires to defensive moves to get you out of the race. Know where you are in the race to know what to expect in terms of an exit!

10. Finally: always remember to listen, learn and trust your gut!

“To think any designer could be an expert in each of these circles is sheer absurdity, but to recognize that every end user is an expert in each of these circles is highly important. As humans and end users, we might not know what makes an experience right, but we certainly know when it’s wrong.”