Gowlings Monthly TON “Starting your Startup Series” Presents:

Hiring the “A” Team – A “Mel & Mel” Production on Building for Success
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 - 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Please join our expert panel of Mel Polowin and Mel Mulligan for a discussion on how to build a core “A” team.  Topics for discussion will include:

• factors to consider in identifying the required skills, experience and personality for the team you need;
• how the right team can help attract financing;
• how to attract people to a start-up in today’s climate;
• how to ensure you also hire for “fit” (people prepared to work hard for your company’s success);
• how to protect your IP when hiring; and
• factors to consider when choosing consulting vs. temporary employment vs. permanent employment.

Gowlings is very pleased to host Starting Your Start-Up, The Ottawa Network monthly event stream that combines quality networking with practical advice and insights from industry leaders and subject matter experts.   Starting Your Start-Up focuses on the business basics that are the foundation for launching and building a successful start-up in these promising and challenging times including financing, team formation, business & product development, sales, and marketing.

This event is provided at no cost for members of The Ottawa Network. Click here for registration details.

Melanie Polowin, Partner, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP

Melanie Polowin is a partner in Gowlings’ Kanata Technology Office, practising in the Employment and Labour Law National Practice Group.  She advises businesses from start-ups to well established companies, on a wide range of employment issues touching every phase of the employment relationship, with emphasis on the high technology sector.

Melanie assists businesses and investors with the employment aspects of corporate life-cycle events, including starting up, financing, mergers and acquisitions, and IPOs.  She advises on compensation, termination planning, proprietary interest and non-competition protection, and helps implement effective contracts, policies, handbooks, human resources-management and risk-reduction strategies, based on the practical needs of each client’s business.  Melanie also has considerable experience in managing and resolving employment disputes.

Mel Mulligan, President, Mel Mulligan & Associates

Drawing on over twenty years of progressive experience in business & human resources management, program, product and manufacturing management roles, Mel has worked with a variety of organizations in Canada, USA and internationally.  Over the last number of  years, Mel has focused on assisting in the design and rapid build of new companies, re-positioning or turn around of existing businesses, and he has also participated in conducting due diligence, acquisition and/or integration of 45+ companies located around the world.  He has worked in a number of industry verticals including on-line media; on-line financial and traditional brokerage services; high performance computing (hardware & software) solutions; enterprise software products and services; internet related products, services and consulting; telecom; and, aerospace & defence design and manufacturing.  Mel has also worked with clients in the federal and provincial public service, employee health benefits insurance, investment banking, and commercial construction industries.

Mel and his team can assist organizations attain their objectives through the provision of confidential “on demand” HR management services and solutions.

This event is provided at no cost for members of The Ottawa Network. Click here for registration details.

The TON Tuesday session this past week was a huge success with more than 50 attendees at the Kanata Lakes Golf & Country Club to hear the panel of solar and geo-thermal experts speak on Clean Technology Start-ups. In the audience a mix of funders and start-ups and hopefuls, each with their story to tell of transitions, downsizing and innovation – all with a keen interest in green energy possibilities. Here now, a brief summary of remarks by each of the panelists.

Rob Miller, VP of Development, AxioPower - www.axiopower.com
Rob Miller began his talk by pointing to the immense opportunities within the green energy industry for investment in growth. “Capacity,” says Mr. Miller, “Is the issue.” At $4M per megawatt, and 25 megawatts on the grid available…that’s a whole lot of green of a monetary kind! “Step One, Get capacity and get connected. Step Two: Get Financing.” Risks include regulations that come suddenly into play and curb the ability of the company to get into the market quickly, or change the value of the product and your bottom line. “This tends to make investors nervous.” Right now, Axio Power is searching for funding, helped by Marathon, and is finding a lot of interest from foreign (China) investors. European banks too understand the compelling and marketable need for green energy producers relates Mr. Miller. Major power companies are getting involved too – for example Enbridge – because it makes such sense. “Sun is free!” explains Mr. Miller. In Ottawa, the opportunity for wind producers is definitely there – find a clear space where wind races at 7 meters per second that isn’t zoned agricultural.

Dan Orr, Vice President of Green Soldiers - www.greensoldiers.ca/solar-farms/
To get financing for green energy, the banks want to see your project approved with a solid contract. Mr. Orr recommends taking it one project at a time, build your business model and prove it out to gain solid investment banking. Canadian banks are getting interested but are still cautious. “You will spend a lot of time and effort on financing,” says Mr. Orr, “but the money is out there.” For solar panels, the time is ripe now for investing with the cost of panels low, and the financing available.” Just make sure, he cautions, to have a panel supplier with a name behind them.  Ottawa is a great area for solar energy with 5-10% better sun than other parts of Eastern Ontario. Mr. Orr does point out that you may have to prepare yourself to chop down a lot of trees and, if the property has waterways, they will prove a major issue as well. Mr. Orr points out that with wind energy being the more mature of the two options, it has more efficiencies – this explains the higher tariff on solar energy at this time.

Adam Patterson, Independent Green Energy
The beauty of Geothermal energy according to Adam Patterson, is it’s 400% efficiency and the fact that it provides you with cheap energy when it is at it’s most expensive.  The homeowner may find it an expensive investment at $30K for their home, but is more content to reap the payback over a longer time than institutional customers who are looking for a fast yield. Ottawa is an ideal location for applying the benefits of geothermal energy with a large variance between outdoor and indoor temperatures both summer and winter. “With the world population continuing to grow and with limited fossil fuels…we’ll be able to help there and look great (to consumers).” Says Mr. Patterson.

Trevor Strauss, NextEnergy Inc., www.nextenergy.ca
Trevor Struass points out the huge growth potential for geothermal energy by stating, “1/2 of 1% of the energy pie in North America is owned by Geothermal. In Denmark, it’s more like 90%.” One of the key risks in this business is the installer channel, where industry regulations are needed to help protect quality. “Build your dealer network, have enough of the right kind of contractors and installers.” Advises Mr. Strauss.

TON Tuesday event summary provided by: Patricia Heard, patricia@pollackgroup.com, www.pollackgroup.com

TON Tuesday - Focus On: Cleantech Project
Financing Opportunities in Ottawa
February 23, 2010 4-6:30 pm
sponsored by

Bringing local clusters and initiatives together to focus the expertise of experienced management and engineering talents on emerging cleantech opportunities.

We invite you to join the conversation!

Register for the event here.

We are pleased to introduce the panelists for the event:

Rob Miller, VP of Development, AxioPower

Rob joined Axio Power in 2008 from Canadian Hydro Developers, where he was the Project Engineer for CHD’s Ontario wind projects including Wolfe Island (a $475 million and 200 MW project) and Royal Road (18 MW). Rob also worked for Vector Wind Energy as a project manager in Eastern Ontario. Prior to working in the private sector, Rob managed municipal engineering for the municipalities of Whistler and the Greater Vancouver Regional District. Rob has over 15 years of experience with senior-level operations, construction management, and environmental engineering. He is a Professional Engineer with a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario and a MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of British Columbia.

Matt Cinnamon, Green Soldiers

Mr. Cinnamon currently shares profitable partnerships in several corporations in the Ottawa area. He has a solid 15 years of experience in the construction, heating, plumbing, and electrical industries, housing developments and maintenance contracts for multi-national firms and government entities. His executive experience brings a bird’s eye view to the entire operation.

Adam Patterson, Independent Green Energy

Mr Patterson is CEO and co-founder of Indpendent Green Energy, a partner firm of Sutton Renewables and co-founder of the Geothermal initiatives at both groups.  Adam brings 13 years experience in international trade finance, investment banking and analytics.  As a former investment analyst and presently focused on driving capital into long term resource and energy projects within North America he brings experience in analyzing and working on large scale projects.  Mr Patterson became more heavily involved in the alternative energy space when he began to look for solutions for the financial and logistical bottlnecks associated with the industry. Upon reviewing several methods for making alternative energy a more relevant choice for residential consumers he founded Indpendent Green Energy.  Within Independent Green Energy, we are able to draw upon the experience gained from the management of Sutton renewables Kinersis wind projects both in North America and Europe.  Adam has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Guelph, is accredited with the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association and holds numerous trading and financial designations.

Trevor Strauss, NextEnergy Inc.

Register for the event here.

Gowlings Monthly TON “Starting your Startup Series”, Announces a 2 Part Seminar Series on Business Plans.

Part 1 – The Business Plan You DON’T take to the Bank
Tuesday January 12th, 2010 - 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Many new start-ups write a business plan with the sole purpose of raising capital.  However, a good business plan can be very useful for other reasons. It can help your start-up to: bring together your ideas and research into a structured format; to clarify and communicate business purpose to staff; to predict and plan for future scenarios and to set overall business strategy such as marketing strategy; and targets and objectives, including sales and financial targets, so that you can monitor your start-up’s performance.

The first seminar in this 2 part series will focus on how a business plan can be used to help your Company to stay focused on primary business objectives and to operate more efficiently.  The 2nd part of the series (Tuesday, February 9, 2010) will focus on the role of the Business Plan when your start-up is raising Capital.

Gowlings is very pleased to host Starting Your Start-Up, The Ottawa Network monthly event stream that combines quality networking with practical advice and insights from industry leaders and subject matter experts.  Starting Your Start-Up focuses on the business basics that are the foundation for launching and building a successful start-up in these promising and challenging times including financing, team formation, business & product development, sales, and marketing.

This event is provided at no cost for members of The Ottawa Network. Click here for registration details.

Jason Flick - Co-Founder and President at YOUiLabs - Jason Flick is a successful serial entrepreneur, and the product visionary in the company. Jason brings 18 years of technical and business leadership to the role of President. His most recent success was Flick Software, a mobile solutions and products venture whose customers included Intel, Rogers Wireless, U.S. military, and Sybase. Prior to founding Flick Software in 2002, he was co-founder and CTO at N-able Technologies, where he architected one of the most scalable IT systems in the world, built and managed the engineering team. Prior to N-able Technologies, Jason was Director, Systems Integration with Eftia, a leading OSS vendor, where he owned a $23M P&L business unit. His other roles and adventures have included COO, Canadian Health Systems and Vice President Engineering, TouchNet.

Andrew Bailes - VP Finance and Planning at Cryptocard - Andrew has had a strong career in the telecommunications and IT industries - both inside and as a management consultant. He has extensive experience in business and commercial planning, budgeting, modelling and business strategy, holding a wide and varied set of positions. He negotiated the multi million-dollar purchase of a mobile phone operator in Ghana and carried out the business modelling for a £2.5bn PFI bid for road maintenance. He managed the quantitative business case that enabled WorldCom to bid more than £3bn for a 3G mobile license. Andrew holds a MA in Mathematics and Management Studies from Cambridge University and is currently completing his Masters in Business Administration at Queens and Cornell.

Glen Orsak - Glen Orsak is veteran business advisor and coach to business leaders, owners and entrepreneurs.  Glen recently left Deloitte after a 20-year consulting career, 10 as a partner and leader of the firm’s Strategy and Operations practice in Ottawa.   In this role, he sold and delivered projects ranging from small strategic interventions through to multi-year, multi-million dollar business planning and implementation engagements.  He is now working with small businesses in management support and advisory roles where he drives the development of strategies and plans to strengthen business fundamentals and to position companies for rapid growth.  In addition to his consulting heritage at Deloitte, Glen holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at UWO and a certificate in common sense from his days growing up on a farm in Manitoba.

This event is provided at no cost for members of The Ottawa Network.  Click here for registration details.