Wednesday January 30th 5:00-7:00 pm
at LaBarge Weinstein, 515 Legget Drive, Suite 800, Kanata

Start Up, Drop-In

Featured contacts:

Jeff Blattman, Royal Bank
Bryan Allsop, KPMG Corporate Finance

Words of Wisdom provided by:

Cormac O’Connell, TSMC

Featured startup:

Mark Lafreniere, Jetdirect Canada

Wednesday January 23th 5:30-7:00pm
at the Nepean Sailing Club, 3259 Carling Ave

Meet and Connect

Come out and enjoy an after work drink with others from our hitech community.

The Venture Review Panel Becomes

The Business Review Panel

Submission date extended to February 15, 2008

A recent assessment of The Ottawa Network’s (TON) constituency of entrepreneurs has indicated there has been a shift in their focus. They are no longer counting on scarce venture funding to get their business off the ground, but are focused on bootstrapping and organically growing their business via internal cash flow and other sources of funding.

In light of the community’s changing needs the Venture Review Panel (VRP), which was previously focused on preparing entrepreneurs for venture funding, has evolved into the Business Review Panel (BRP) to address the broader needs of today’s Ottawa entrepreneur. The group will provide impartial third-party review and feedback of your company’s next key business presentation whether your aim is to secure a first customer or to find funding. It can be invaluable to have a full set of experienced advisors available to provide feedback on how well they perceive that a target audience’s needs have been met. Bootstrapping, securing beta trials, getting that first customer, and getting that first BIG customer are some examples of crucial phases and stages of moving your idea/company forward that would benefit from external review.

The Business Review Panel is a diverse group composed of experienced, entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals. Appearing in front of the BRP is meant to be a natural extension to the knowledge gained in the Ottawa Network’s series of weekly information sessions www.theottawanetwork.com . The BRP schedules quarterly calls for submissions. Those groups selected will present to the panel and receive feedback afterwards. Presenters can expect to receive verbal feedback to help management to focus on operational issues they may encounter, suggestions on product, channel and partnering strategies, ideas on sources of funding and general audience perceptions.

Individuals and/or companies now have an opportunity to submit for selection to appear before the BRP. The first call for submissions has been extended to February 15, 2008. All applicants will receive responses within two weeks thereafter. Selected applicants’ presentations will then be scheduled within two weeks of being notified.

For more information and the submission and presentation format suggestions please visit: www.theottawanetwork.com/?page_id=48 or contact: brp@theottawanetwork.com.

Wednesday January 9th 5:30-7:00pm
at the Nepean Sailing Club, 3259 Carling Ave

Easy Financing Partnership

with the Government

Dr. Bob Reichert, Industry Technology Advisor for IRAP of National Research Canada;

Jean-Michel Voltant, Technical Advisor for the SR&ED program of Canada Revenue Service;

and Sylvain de Margerie, VP engineering of 434Wireless

We will examine what IRAP and SR&ED can provide in terms of financial assistance to technology startups and then look at a very practical and tangible way these can be leveraged in a technology startup. You will have an opportunity to hear from, ask questions and discuss issues with the grass roots, from those who deliver these government program as well as from an experienced corporate user of these programs.

This free event is kindly made possible by our sponsors.