The Globe and Mail recently published a story that included a Q&A with 9 serial entrepreneurs about their views on business and life.

The article includes interviews with the likes of Austin Hill and Terry Matthews. One of the common things that was addressed in the article that really grabbed my attention was the concept of "work life balance" and what these entrepreneurs thought about it in general…

Here are some interesting quotes from the article:

"Work-life balance is a crock. Be ready to throw up from stress every morning."

"There is no balance. It drives me nuts listening to people at seminars talking about achieving balance. That’s BS."

"I find the concept out-and-out, utter nonsense. If you don’t like what you do, then you need balance. But there is nothing I’d rather do than structure a deal. And, no, I don’t prefer a movie and, no, I don’t prefer a walk in the park."

So, what do you guys think?

You are cordially welcomed to attend the next Technology Innovation Management Series Lecture on Wednesday August 27th featuring Professor Dwight Deugo, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science, Carleton University.

Abstract of Presentation:
OSGi technology provides a service-oriented, component-based environment for developers offering them standardized ways to manage the software lifecycle. The Eclipse Equinox project, from a code point of view, provides an implementation of the OSGi R4 core framework specification, a set of bundles that implement various optional OSGi services and other infrastructure for running OSGi-based systems. Eclipse’s Plug-ins and Extension Points are based on Equinox’s OSGi runtime, providing solid architectural building blocks for the Eclipse platform. After already receiving great success using OSGi on the client-side, Eclipse is now poised to achieve the same success with Server-side Eclipse

In this lecture, we introduce the fundamental concepts of OSGi and how the Equinox project has incorporated it into the Eclipse platform. We also provide an overview of Server-Side Eclipse and the impact that OSGI has had on it.

For more details about the presentation, please visit:
http://www.talentfirstnetwork.org/wiki/index.php?title=TIM_Lecture_Series

or download flyer here:
http://www.talentfirstnetwork.org/wiki/images/2/2c/August_27_TIM_Deugo.pdf

If you plan on attending, we would appreciate if you would add your name to the wiki.

Thank you.

Andy Camper continues its media push today with a great story in Metro News.  Since launching earlier this month, the company has got some great media coverage in the following news outlets:

• CBC Radio
• CBC Radio International
• CTV News
• Canada AM
• Rogers
• A-Channel

I’m going to get Derek from Andy Camper to send over links to all these apperances and post them here.  In the mean time, here  is a link to Andy Camper’s Social Media News Release which has generated tons of traffic.  I’m really happy to say that I was involved with this launch and am glad that they are doing so well.  Next up, the Andy Camper community…

PS: Is that not a great pic of Andy Camper CEO Andrew Milne!

Ok, Craig Fitzpatrick is a media darling. I have never known anyone who could edit a video of his own presentations faster that Craig can. Here is a video of his last "performance" at the Ramius Corp. Lunch and Learn last wednesday.  Enjoy…

TravelPod ( A TripAdvisor/Expedia company ) is looking for a talented Web Engineer with LAMP (Perl) experience eager to work on fast growing and exciting travel websites and social networking apps ( ie: Facebook / MySpace / Friendster / OpenSocial / etc ). 

As a Web Engineer, your main responsibility will be developing innovative consumer travel web apps like TravelPod.com. You’ll also preferably be a jack of all trades and be able to work on other projects ranging from design to infrastructure. Ideally, you’ve run your own website / business as a passion on the side or full time for years and enjoy working in many areas of technology and being challenged by the fast paced changes of the Web.

We are looking for entrepreneurial developers who have shown leadership, creativity and expertise in participating with the creation of new web applications from concept to deployment in a fast-moving company environment. 

You will be working with a small but passionate team at TravelPod & TripAdvisor. TravelPod is a fun and exciting place to work at and we’re looking for someone to share their energy with us. 

Please send your resumes to lucl [at] travelpod [dot] com

In this role you can look forward to…

• Taking a leadership role in the design and the development of various consumer travel Web projects for TravelPod.com and related web sites.
• Promoting best practices and ensuring a standard of code.
• Optimizing the code for performance and stability.
• Working with the team to support TravelPod web applications.
• Participating in quality assurance testing.

 
What you can bring to the team…

• A minimum of 10 years of experience with web development.
• A minimum of 5 years working with Perl.
• A minimum of 5 years experience with Linux, Apache and MySql (LAMP).
• Experience developing on Facebook and other social networks is a plus.
• UI Design experience is a definite plus.
• Good knowledge of web related programming and web security.
• Experience working on large, high traffic sites will be considered assets.
• Experience working with Ajax and other leading edge web technologies is a plus.
• A passion for writing quality code.
• An ability to work well in a fast moving and highly collaborative team environment.

ITWorld Canada just wrote a nice piece on Devshop’s approach to building risk factors into software schedules.  I just spoke with Craig about it and he said, "…for the record, I never said that people lie, cheat, and are lazy - lol"  You can read it all here.

I was just in contact with Dave Vicary (CEO of Wise Eyes) and he is looking for a candidate that he can hire through the Ontario First Job program.  To qualify the candidate must be a recent (within the last year or so) graduate of an Ontario university, preferably with a masters or PhD. If chosen this person would become Wise Eyes’ first designer responsible for the development of a variety of intelligent video applications. The person would ultimately need to move to the Ottawa area as he would be working closely with students at both local universities, Ottawa and Carleton, although this is not necessary immediately.  The timeframe for this is now. So if you are interested here is the full description:

Software designer:

Wise Eyes is looking for a motivated Software Designer to be part of an Ottawa-based startup company and work on new innovative applications in the field of automated intelligent video processing. The successful candidate will be responsible for the development of a variety of intelligent video applications. We value strong analytical skills and strong skills in computer science and programming. Successful candidates get to work with experienced software engineers and research team from local universities while applying their skills to immediate use.

Job Qualifications:
•    Education: Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s Degree, or Ph. D in Computer Science, Software Engineering or Computer Engineering from an Ontario university. 
•    Expertise in web programming, device programming or image processing.
•    Fluent in object oriented programming languages, C++ in particular. Good knowledge of PHP, JavaScript.
•    Familiarity with computer vision concepts and video streaming technology is highly desirable.
•    Strong analytical skills and problem solving skills.
•    Good communication skills.
•    Team-oriented individual.

Inquiries should go to Gary Mackay (VP R&D) at gary.mackay (at) weyeseyes.com

Wise Eyes delivers online intelligent video products. Specifically, the company marries telecom technologies with video analytics and web applications to create Video 2.0 products leveraging the latest remote device capabilities. The products target both the consumer and SMBs

Below is the Code Factory Newsletter, it is so packed with info, I decided to repost it here….

We are very excited to announce that more fabulous artwork is on its way. To date, we have received artwork from travelling Israeli students and we have been in touch with Francesco from IPO Gallery. We have since been in touch with Anne-Lise (thank you Lisa Wall), who will be providing her gorgeous black and white photos to be displayed in the front lounge, as well as Maciek, whose beautiful paintings we are hoping to display in the co-working space.
 
Jocelyn Kartes

September Events
 
Lunch and Learn Series of Events (for booking details contact info@thecodefactory.ca)
We are very excited to announce three lunch and learn streams that will run through the fall of 2008. These sessions will be held in the extended meeting room (capacity 15) of theCodeFactory. This is an opportunity to get up close and personal in an intimate setting with many leaders in the Ottawa start-up community. Spaces will be allocated on a first come first served basis, announced first in our newsletter and following shortly afterwards posted to the Start-up Ottawa blog. The three streams are entitled:
 
"Am there doing that"
"Been there done that"
"Monks from Away"
 
The first two streams (“Am there doing that” and “Been there done that”) are dedicated to providing insights and advice to budding entrepreneurs and start-ups. The premise is that the best people to offer thoughts and insights to start-ups in Ottawa today are those that are currently doing it or those that have successfully grown a business in the past three years. As you may have guessed "Am there doing that" are entrepreneurs in the process of building a start-up today and "Been there done that" are entrepreneurs with a history of success.
 
There is an eastern proverb that says “the monk from away knows more than the monk at home.” Ottawa has a very rich pool of talented individuals that speak at conferences and are recognized worldwide for excellence. However, many of these individuals are better known outside the Ottawa area than they are in their hometown. This series of events highlights some of the exceptional talent we have locally.
 
Here are the lunch and learn presenters for September:
 
Tuesday, September 9th, “Am there doing that” Matt Roberts – JohnyVoIP
Thursday, September 11th, “Been there done that” Greg Bell Lumenera
Wednesday, September 17th, “Monks from away” Mark Blevis – Electric Sky
Tuesday, September 23rd, “Am there doing that” Aydin Mirzaee – Chide.it
Thursday, September 25th, “Been there done that” Scott Lake – Shopify, Start-up Ottawa

Students and Start-ups
Date:     September 9, 2008
Time:     6:30pm to 9:00pm.
Location: Common Area
Sign Up:  Invite only
 
Description:
TheCodeFactory and Carleton University are putting on the first, in what will likely become a regular event, known as Students and Start-ups. The event is based on the premise that students and recent graduates want meaningful and relevant employment and start-ups want enthusiastic and motivated employees. Putting the two groups together in a fun and interactive way seems like a no brainer. The first event is invite only, however, stay tuned for the October edition of Students and Start-ups.
  
The Ottawa Network - Real financing for Entrepreneurs - MicroFinancing
Date:     September 10, 2008
Time:     6pm to 8pm.
Location: Common Area
Sign Up:  TBD
 
Description:
The Ottawa Network will be hosting an event at TheCodeFactory on the second Wednesday of each month. The fall season will be dedicated to real financing options for entrepreneurs. The premier editions is microfinancing with George Brown from the Ottawa Community Loan Fund, Paul Lem microAngel and one other microAngel TBD. Perhaps the biggest challenge facing start-ups today is financing operating capital and our presenters each provide small loans to entrepreneurs for oeprating capital.

Stay tuned, our next newsletter will have more details on the rest of the September line up.

Cheers,
 
Ian Graham

On August 20th, Ramius Corporation and Devshop Inc are hosting a lunch and learn event entitled: 

Craig Fitzpatrick, the CEO of Devshop will be presenting and sandwiches and drinks will be provided.  The presentation is part of a larger lunch and learn series called: Periscope - Look | Share | Learn.  The series was originally designed to get people to look up from their cubicles and be aware of the world around them Periscope is a type of open lunch and learn and is geared towards anyone interested in emerging technologies and how they’re being used.

To RSVP for this event click here.

I’m sure many have heard about Y-Combinator (a startup incubation program in the US). Y-Combinator was founded by Paul Graham who has been involved in many early stage financings. Paul has a great post on raising money for startups. In his post, Paul warns about some of the typical problems that can occur during the fundraising process and how it can hurt your business. I strongly recommend this post to anyone who is looking to raise money.

On another note, AsktheVC.com has a great post on approaching VCs you don’t know which is probably worth a look too…