21 Jul Startup Festival Highlights
The fifth edition of the International Startup Festival was one for the books. Check out our full Facebook album here, or scroll down for our highlight reel. Thanks to the Startup Fest team, and to all attendees for making it what it is: a representation of this awesome corner of the world, the MTL tech community.
A countdown of the parts we loved most:
10. The Grandmother Prize and when they announced the wrong winner
They listened to hundreds of pitches over two days – who wouldn’t get mixed up?
9. The Positioning panel with Martin-Luc Archambault, Daniel Robichaud, LP Maurice, Julien Smith and April Dunford
“Your company name needs to be simple enough so you can tell someone what it is on the phone & won’t need to repeat it” @julien
8. The Accelerator Festival
The lesser known but just as awesome part of Startup Fest is Accelerator Fest, held on the day prior. All attendees work behind the scenes at accelerators, and they come together to talk about what they do: the benefits, the difficulties, ways to improve. The day’s moderators, including but not limited to Emma Williams (Program Manager at FF) and Sylvain Carle (General Manager of FF) led discussions on topics ranging from ways to incentivize mentors to whether it’s easier for a Canadian startup to raise a seed round in Canada or in the Valley.
“You can’t fall in love through a computer screen. Mentorship in person is key.” – Overheard at Post Acceleration Panel
7. Ta Pies
Well, if they’re good enough for Hugh Jackman… (seriously though, the butter chicken pie is out of this world).
6. Why you hate VC’s… but maybe shouldn’t panel with John Stokes, Angela Tran Kingyens, Damien Steel and VJ Anma
“Reality: you give up downside protection as an entrepreneur. If you don’t want to, don’t ask for the money.” @damiensteel
5. Gall’s Law and every other cool lesson taught on this stage
“Go global because whatever your market is, it’s not big enough!” – @FredOru
4. The Art Project, put on by Raison d’Art
Each artists eye was documented and displayed here.
3. Tent Village and all of the teams we met there
2.. When Sharethebus won the 100K Prize
Congratulations guys! If you’re interested in reading more, there’s a great article on the prize and the team here.
1. And, of course, the winners of the FounderFuel Prize, a guaranteed spot in our upcoming cohort: Unito.
A special mention to our four finalists: Chic Marie, Flyta, Pacta.io and Storeedoc.
Thanks for the good times! See you next year.
– Ella
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