Canada: More than hockey and maple syrup

Mark Evans' This Week in Canadian Startups

	Canada: Not Just Hockey and Maple Syrup! If you're bullish or optimistic about Canada's startup scene, you'll no doubt like Andrew D'Souza's post on Mashable on five reasons to do a startup in Canada, which includes talent, immigration and government support.

In response to Andrew D'Souza's post, Uberflip CEO Randy Fritsch took issue with the role the federal government is playing. He suggests a flaw is the lack of support for marketing and commercialization.

If you hadn't heard about Kitchener-based Desire2Learn before, that probably ended after it raised $80-million from OMERS Ventures and New Enterprise Associates. Communitech's Anthony Reinhart has a post on the company and its low-profile CEO, John Baker.

Hootsuite's growth took another step forward with the purchase of Seesmic, which has been pivoting on a regular basis.

Along with lean startup, minimum viable product (MVP) has become a big part of the startup venacular. Here's 10 tips on how to build an MVP.

Martin Zwilling highlights 10 keys investors wants to see from startups seeking capital.

Is Ottawa waging a war on the popular SR&ED program? In Profit, Ian Bell suggests changes are taking place behind the scenes making it more difficult for startups to make claims.

The importance of design shouldn't be under-estimated. Behance co-founder Matias Corea outlines the design mistakes startups should avoid.

Where are Canada's startups located? Alexander Bosika and Nick Van Vlymen have launched "portals" for seven cities.

If you're looking for signs of a startup bubble, the Wall St. Journal suggests it might be how professional service providers are taking equity rather than cash.

Since launching its $180-million fund last year, OMERS Ventures has made several large investments. Howard Gwin, managing director with OMERS, talks about the investment in Desire2Learn and the Canadian VC landscape.

Looking for business tools to run your startup? VC Cafe has updated its extensive list.

Why aren't there more women in tech startups? It's an interesting question given almost half of small and mid-sized businesses in Canada are wholly or partly owned by women. The Globe & Mail explores the issue.

April Dunford has been doing a series of posts on startup marketing plans. This week, she put together a startup customer worksheet.

StartupPlays has launched a new service called Accel.io that lets entrepreneurs buy customized best practice step-by-step guides to run their businesses.

In financing news, Montreal-based ooomf, a Founder Fuel graduate, announced it has raised $500,000 from Real Ventures, BDC Canada and a group of angels to develop its mobile discovery platform.

StartupPlays co-founder Mike Mason has a good post on StartupNorth about how startups can build referrals engines.

Let's work Together »

- StartupNorth wants you! It's looking for contributors who want to write "interesting stories", not "puff pieces".
- CIX Top 20 is looking to showcase Canada's hottest and most innovative companies. The deadline to apply is Oct. 12.
- Plug and Play Accelerator Canada will hold its first Startup Showdown on Oct. 9.

Did I miss something? Hit Reply or send me an email at mark@markevans.ca

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Canada: Not Just Hockey and Maple Syrup!