This Week in Canadian Startups - Keek: Low Profile, Big Traffic

Mark Evans' This Week in Canadian Startups

	Keek Raises $18-Million to Drive Global Growth You may have not heard of Keek but it is one of Canada's most successful startups. We're talking about a service with 15 million unique visitors and one billion pageviews a month. Here's a Q&A with CEO Issac Raichyk about why Keek has struck a chord with so many people and the $18-million it just raised.

Notman House in Montreal received a huge financial lift this week when Videotron committed $2.5-million, while BDC chipped in $425,000.

Startups that enjoy overnight success are celebrated but Ben Yoskovitz says quiet and boring can also be a formula for success.

Canada's a great place for early-stage startups. Wojciech Gryc, CEO with Canopy Labs, offers up the pros and cons.

Firing someone is never easy but Top Hat Monocle's Mike Silagadze says it is an essential part of running a business. Top Hat also raised another $1.1-million from Felicis Ventures.

For some practical guidance on startup branding, Mark Troiano has some thoughts on what's involved.

The decision and need to pivot can be a huge challenge. Bernard Moon offers up the four signs a startup is ready to pivot.

ContactMonkey launched its new smart email tracking service this week that lets people tell if, when, how often and where an email was opened.

To me, good design and UX are crucial for any Website, particularly startups. Here's some good insight about UX from .Net.

According to Freshbooks CEO Mike McDerment, free is bad. Among his arguments are that free things are never free, and that free services don't serve you.

The Canadian government officially unveiled a $400-million injection into the VC sector over the next seven to 10 years. A big deal or not?

360Incentives.com, which helps large companies manage incentive programs, raised $7.65-million from OMERS Ventures, Klass Capital and Round 13 Capital.

Innovacorp's Thomas Rankin says the chatter about the startup cliff and bubbly valuations is "crap" and "wrong".

For startups looking for insight into the process of developing a business, here's a must-read from Matrix Partners' David Skok on "building the machine".

If you want some advice on how startup's attract press coverage, Buffer's Leo Widrich talks about the seven steps.

April Dunford, a well-known startup marketer, has a new gig as Executive in Residence at Communitech.

What's it like to raise money.... at 17-years old? AppHero's Jordan Satok talks about how he raised $1.8-million in round led by OMERS Ventures.

Vancouver's Jostle, which offers a cloud platform that helps companies engage employees, surface content and align teams, has raised $3.1-million from private investors.

There's no perfect time for a startup to begin marketing, but here are five signs the time is right.

- Early-bird tickets for the mesh conference, which happens May 15/16, are now on sale.
- GrowLab's Demo Day is happening on Feb. 20. Tickets are free.
- On Jan. 23, I'm doing a presentation at MaRS in Toronto about startups and storytelling.
- Startup Weekend is happening in Montreal from Feb. 8 to 10.

Want to connect with the startup community? Drop me a note about sponsoring TWICS.

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

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Keek Raises $18-Million to Drive Global Growth