Innovation + Job News

Getting to work at a company whose product was recently named by the Huffington Post as one of the "Most Underrated Innovations of 2010" might be attractive to some people. That the company will soon have doubled its size in the past year may also be a plus. But how about sharing an office with a "giant talking doughnut"?

Freshbooks, the billing software company based in Toronto and taking the world by storm (see our previous articles on them here and here) is looking to add 17 new staff -- from a VP and a Chief Technical Officer right on down to IT support -- and to ensure potential hires get the tone right, they created an unconventional video (scroll down after the link to see it). It features a talking doughnut (who likes the good looking co-workers), a staffer who's under the impression he works for Facebook, and a "Stereotypical Canadian Hockey Guy" chatting up the company's dental plan.

But the company's growth is no joke: when we wrote about them in January 2010, the company had gone from five to 38 employees in four years. Today, according to company "Firestarter" John Coates, they now have about 60 staff and are hiring "pretty much constantly." Coates notes that their number of users has doubled year-over-year pretty much every year since they launched, to a current peak of 2 million people using Freshbooks.

Now, about that talking doughnut? "It's a casual, laid back office -- if someone wears a suit, we ask if they have a job interview. But it's also not," Coates says. "We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we take the product and our users seriously."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: John Coates, Freshbooks; The Huffington Post

The Town of Markham, just outside Toronto, bills itself as "Canada's High-Tech Capital." Already, the town is home to more than 800 technology and life sciences companies, including AMD Microprocessors (whose new processor took the recent CES convention by storm). It's a reputation the municipality is looking to build on with their "Markham 2020" plan, which urbanist Richard Florida called "the tightest, the smartest and the best" such plan he'd ever seen when it was released in 2009.

Late last year, the physical focal point of that plan opened its doors. The Markham Convergence Centre is a 30,000-square-foot home for technology business incubation in the heart of the town. As of its opening, it becomes the new home of York Region's existing technology and life sciences organizations including NCMDD/YORKbiotech, ISCM, Innovation York, Markham Small Business Centre, Markham Board of Trade and York Technology Alliance. The Mayor of Markham, Frank Scarpitti, declined to comment for this story -- his office cited a major announcement regarding the MCC coming at a press conference this week. Last May, Scarpitti said of the MCC, "This facility will allow Canada to compete globally in the medical devices industry while attracting highly skilled jobs to our community."

Since it opened it's doors in October 2010, it has already begun accomplishing that, according to Jeremy Laurin ISCM. "Still early days here, we get a lot of industry traffic already," Laurin writes in a post this month on the MaRS blog. "The MCC offices see some of York Region's top industry and academic people here on a regular basis. That's a good sign." Laurin notes that he expects the incubator concept to come alive at MCC this year.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Office of the Mayor of the Town of Markham; yorkregion.com; Jeremy Laurin, ISCM; Markham Convergence Centre
 

Recently Jon Dogterom, the resident cleantech expert at MaRS, wrote a blog post about the consistent superiority of hydrogen fuel cells as a sustainable energy source, and noted that "Canada has long been regarded as the worldwide leader in hydrogen technology -- a position we will need to maintain as the rest of the world starts to recognize hydrogen as a superior energy carrier." Dogterom singled out Mississauga's Hydrogenics as a likely key company in helping us maintain that position.

The GTA company is a world leader in the hydrogen fuel industry -- they've been at it for over 50 years -- with offices in five countries. In mid-January Hydrogenics announced that they had landed the contract for a hydrogen fuelling station in Instanbul, Turkey, the first in that country. Hydrogenics has landed five such contracts in the past year, and Hydrogenics President and CEO Daryl Wilson says that the number -- such stations are competitive in price with traditional gas stations at $500,000 to $2 million each, plus architecture and construction -- will likely continue to grow. "There's a hype cycle for new technologies," he says, when they become trendy in the press. Wilson notes that when that cycle arrived for hydrogen fuel in the 1990s, the industry was not yet developed enough to deliver on its promise. "Now we've reached the point where the cost side and the performance add up to commercial application that are viable. That's taken the past 10 years." Unlike conventional stations, of course, hydrogen stations, once built, manufacture the hydrogen on the premises from water and electricity.

Wilson points to a European transportation study announced in November 2010 that concluded hydrogen fuel cell technology was a key part of the continent's car production future -- and significantly, predicted that the cost of hydrogen fuel would be equivalent to gasoline and electricity by 2025. Wilson says the industry has already seen the infrastructure being set up for a hydrogen fuelling network in some locations -- Germany plans to construct 1,000 such stations across the country, of which Hydrogenics have built both of the two so far completed, while Hydrogenics has built eight refuelling stations in the Los Angeles area. Of the 220 hydrogen fuel stations in the world, Hydrogenics has build or is building 40 of them.

"This highlights the strength of Hydrogenics," Wilson says, "and the respect we have when it comes to hydrogen generation technology and hydrogen fuelling stations."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Jon Dogterom, MaRS; Daryl Wilson, Hydrogenics

2010 was a banner year for Toronto startup Pushlife -- enough to get it named to IDC's list of 10 Toronto Digital Media Companies to watch. And that momentum continues into 2011 as the company seeks to add two team members, a mobile developer and a software developer, to its staff.

Founded in 2008 by former RIM executive Ray Reddy, Pushlife's mandate is to take on iTunes and the iPod pretty much straight on. Pushlife's software allows any phone or mobile device -- Blackberrys, Androids and plain old cell phones -- to play music, to synch with iTunes or Windows Media Player, and to share playlists and music information on social media. The only catch? You can't get it for the iPhone.

In May 2010, Pushlife pushed its software live, and by the end of the year it had launched a partnership with Virgin Mobile internationally to distribute the app for free. In addition to breaking up the iTunes monopoly, Reddy has said that the application eliminates the need to buy a dedicated music player, since it can turn virtually any phone into one. This holds particular promise for market share in developing countries, where mobile phones are ubiquitous but consumer spending dollars are scarce.

For information about the companies current hiring, click here.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Ray Reddy, Pushlife; IDC; PaidContent; RedCanary

In May last year, Mobilicity launched as one of a couple new wireless carriers in Toronto, aiming to squeeze traditional juggernauts Telus, Bell and Rogers in the mobile market. Mobilicity's pitch was simple: unlimited plans on a 3G network, all pre-paid, with no contracts.

Just over half a year later, the Vaughan-based company is showing significant growth: they are currently hiring seven staff in the GTA on the heels of announcing a new Facebook app that promises to give smartphone capability to regular phones.

After launching in Toronto in May, the company expanded to Vancouver, Edmonton and Ottawa in November. By December of last year, the company claimed that it expected to add more than 50,000 subscribers in one quarter, a roughly 10 per cent share of new business in Canada.

In 2011, Mobilicity is scheduled to expand its service to Calgary. As it builds up to its Alberta launch, the company is hiring in Calgary and continues to hire in Vancouver, in addition to the seven new positions being added at the Vaughan, Ontario headquarters.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Sheryl Steinberg, Mobilicity

The provincial government's Health Technology Exchange -- known as HTX, it was created to fund and encourage healthcare technology innovation in Ontario -- announced last week that it had helped secure Toronto as the location of the first global GE Pathology Imaging Centre of Excellence.

The facility run by GE Healthcare will conduct research and promote best practices. As GE Healthcare VP Peter Robinson says, pathology is largely an area that has "escaped the impact of technology," and the new imaging centre will change that. Robinson expects the centre to fundamentally transform global medical practice. "We have the potential to drive much higher levels of quality ... and really change the way cancer is diagnosed and treated."

Robinson says the project wound up settling in Toronto due to a number of factors, from "a pressing need on the public policy front, a willing partner in the provincial government, especially the Ministry of Reasearch and Innovation, a depth of clinical expertise," that he notes is among top 10 in the world in the field, combined with, "a research community that extends across the entire region that is rich with capacity ... with tremendous imaging expertise. So a number of things came together to convince [GE's startup digital pathology venture] Omnyx that this was the right environment.

The announcement was officially welcomed by representatives of the provincial government, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and the University Health Network, whose members will participate in and benefit from the centre's research. According to Robinson, the centre will employ 15 engineers directly.

HTX provided a $2.25 million grant to the project, which will join a $7.75 million investment from GE Healthcare. According to HTX, an additional $7.2 million in investment has been promised by R&D partners in the project.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Peter Robinson, VP and General Manager, GE Healthcare Canada

It's been a big month for news out of the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD).

First, on January 13, the school announced that famed architect Will Alsop, who designed the university's iconic Sharp Centre for Design, has joined the faculty as an adjunct professor. OCAD's Martha Ladly, chair of the Art, Media and Design masters program, said that Alsop has "proven to the world his commitment to standards of excellence, and to the necessity of design for humanity through sustainable practices, creativity and imagination." Ladly noted that both graduate students and upper-level undergraduates will benefit from Alsop's advice and instruction.

The internationally renowned designer is scheduled to begin teaching an undergraduate course at the school in September. His appointment runs through 2013.

Shortly after that, the school was the recipient of $359,800 in funding from the federal government through the Applied Research and Commercialization Initiative. The funding will see OCAD partner with small- and medium-sized businesses for research, design, development and commercialization projects. MP Paul Calandra, speaking on behalf of the government, said the initiative will both create jobs locally and drive innovation among local businesses.

Sara Diamond, president of OCAD, said that projects under this initiative are "game changers" in their industries, and that the school's history as an incubator of applied research and market-ready innovation means it is well-suited to fulfill the program's hopes. Diamond said that the program will focus on innovations in the mobile, health, environmental and digital sectors.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Sarah Mullholland, OCAD University; Gary Toft, Ministry of State for Economic Development for Southern Ontario

Just over six months ago, in June 2010, Toronto's InGamer Sports launched its fantasy sports application that allows real-time gaming during professional sporting events. At the time CEO Nic Sulsky predicted that the pilot event during the NHL hockey Stanley Cup final was the start of a revolution in sports gaming that would take fantasy players from being "general managers and make them head coaches."

Last week, market analysts IDC added credence to his confidence when it named InGamer one of the 10 Canadian Digital Media Companies to Watch in 2011. The recognition capped a period of intense growth in the final months of 2010 that saw the company launch a weekly partnership with CBC's Hockey Night in Canada and a separate deal with Rogers. The platform now offers gaming for hockey, football and basketball games. Most importantly, Sulsky says, InGamer has signed a global distribution deal with international sports marketing giant IMG that he says will "open up the international market to InGamer in ways we only dreamed possible when we began working on the platform."

In the immediate future, the Canadian sports spectatorship innovators plan to extend their range of sports alongside their extended distribution, to allow gaming during soccer and rugby in 2011, as well as baseball, golf and motor racing.

"It's been pretty exciting," Sulsky says. " with IMG as a partner we will begin growing very quickly internationally."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Nic Sulsky, InGamer Sports

If you are a Facebook member, and you almost certainly are, then you likely saw a lot of Social Graph Studios in your news feed earlier this month -- though you may not have noticed. They're the Thornhill-based application developers behind the "My Year in Status" and "My Year in Photos" apps that, for the second year in a row since their development, attracted millions of seasonal users as the calendar turned from 2010 to 2011.

Founded in 2009 by Oz Solomon, under the motto "The shortest distance between friends is laughter" with the mission of creating applications that bring people together to have fun, the local company has exploded into one of the more successful application developers. They boast the evergreen products "Status Shuffle" and "Status Statistics," as well as "xo Hearts xo" alongside their grand-slam holiday season favourites in their suite of products. They have earned the top satisfaction rating for Status Shuffle of any application on Facebook, which the company claims makes them a trusted venue for advertisers.

In all, the company claims 8 million users ("and we've only just begun," they say), and is growing rapidly. Right now, the company is looking to add two developers to their staff to accommodate that growth.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Oz Solomon, Social Graph Studios

Companies who want to have some influence on the federal government's research and development policy should act fast to submit a survey circulated by the Toronto Region Research Alliance (TRRA), as the deadline for submissions is January 28. The findings will help the TRRA form a submission to an expert panel reviewing government R&D programs.

According to Pat Draper, President and CEO of the TRRA, "In October 2010, the federal government established an independent expert panel to review the government's programs in support of research and development. The panel has requested input from interested parties and the Toronto Region Research Alliance plans to respond. As part of our process, we are seeking feedback from companies in the Toronto Region about their engagement in R&D activities, their awareness and use of federal government programs to support R&D, and barriers to greater innovation."

Currently, the federal government claims to spend over $7 billion per year in support of R&D through companies and educational institutions. Minister of State for Science and technology Gary Goodyear said, in announcing the panel, that the process would help focus the effectiveness of the spending to create jobs and grow businesses.

The TRRA will make its submission to the panel in February. The questionnaire, which takes approximately 10 minutes to complete, is available here.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Pat Draper, TRRA

 

Israeli-born, Vancouver-raised fashion designer Amir Bahar moved to Toronto and founded his label Pink Martini Collection in 2006, a distinctly Canadian label, the company says, that combines its founders love of vintage fashion and his passion for travel.

At home as a child, Bahar learned the business from his father, a textile producer and distributor. When he originally got into fashion, he travelled frequently as an importer, looking for hip-hop inspired fashions from Europe and Asia. Eventually he decided to create his own label.  Four years after its founding, the company's designs are available on retail racks at over 700 locations across North America.

According to Zoe Mills, the PR and Marketing Manager for Pink Martini Collection, the company wants to connect more closely with Toronto consumers, and to do so launched a new logo, website and blog this month to go along with its new Spring 2011 women's wear collection.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Zoe Mills, Pink Martini Collection

Armed with a paper bag full of cash and a love for design, urban planning, art and science, the newly formed Awesome Foundation Toronto is looking to encourage people to improve the city, make it more fun and encourage serious social projects with a decidedly unserious-sounding grants program. They're offering $1,000 to the person who submits the best idea to "do something awesome."

The Toronto project is spearheaded by Mozilla Foundation consultant and "pitch designer" Geoffrey MacDougall, and joins the growing international Awesome Foundation network. As outlined in the Boston founder's founding post, the project is a sort of "micro-MacArthur Foundation for your flashes of micro-genius": "The idea is simple: create a monthly $1,000 grant awarded to a person doing things to forward the interest of Awesome. The money will be spent on a project, activity, or research, and it will be (intentionally) broadly defined. We don't even really care if it's for fun or for profit. We will never claim your intellectual property or anything like that, and anyone in the world is eligible. So long as you need the money and the idea is awesome, you will receive it with no strings attached. Period. End of story."

The Toronto chapter's first call for submissions asks for videotaped entries explaining the awesome idea, and why it needs $1,000 to be realized. The deadline for submissions is February 15th.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Geoffrey MacDougall, Awesome Foundation Toronto

Roughly 6 per cent of Toronto's population lives in buildings owned by Toronto Community Housing -- that's 164,000 people with low and moderate incomes, making it Canada's largest social housing provider and the GTA's biggest landlord. So when TCH embarks on a large-scale renovation project, it provides an opportunity not just to make the quality of its tenants' lives better, but to make a difference in the jobs and training atmosphere for low-income people across Toronto. That latter mission is a component of a forthcoming announcement from TCH.

According to information provided by TCH communications representative Keesha Abraham, an initiative soon to be announced will see the city invest $21.6 million in renovating and retrofitting 49 social housing buildings across the city. The work will be aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of the buildings, in some cases through the installation of solar panels that will generate revenue for TCH.

Abraham notes that a community economic development component of that project will include guaranteeing jobs and training opportunities for tenants of TCH buildings. Since the installation of solar panels and energy efficient retrofits is one of the fastest-growing employment markets in Ontario since the introduction of the province's Feed-in-Tariff program, the jobs and training provided through this project provide the potential for real employment stability for the residents who participate.

Work is scheduled to begin this year, and will continue through 2012, according to Abraham.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Keesha Abraham, Communications Consultant, Toronto Community Housing
 

Wallace Wireless, a software developer who makes applications for mobile phones that serve businesses in their communications needs, was established in 2001 and has since developed several significant products for Blackberrys and other devices that specifically serve the medical industry.

The WIC Pager, for example, allows Blackberry phones to replace the pagers so beloved by hospitals; it's database, forms and continuity products are also niche targeted at healthcare-industry clients. So the news that US-based healthcare communications giant Vocera has acquired Wallace Wireless makes intuitive sense. "Ineffective, incomplete and inaccurate communication is a daunting challenge for care givers striving to provide the highest possible care," says Vocera CEO Bob Zollars, noting that the acquisition of Wallace Wireless "strengthens our portfolio of products and services that analyze, eliminate or mitigate these communication failure points."

Rob Moffat, president of Wallace Wireless, meanwhile says that "Bringing our companies together creates enormous potential for improving the seamless delivery of alarms, alerts and pages." Moffat says, "We could not have selected a partner with a strategic vision that is better aligned with ours."

For the local Toronto business community, it is reassuring to hear via Mike Middleton of Q1 Capital Partners, who brokered the deal, that Vocera intends to keep the Wallace management team in place here in Toronto, and to establish its office as the Canadian sales division of Vocera, suggesting that increased growth could be on the way for the office near Jarvis and Front.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Victoria Holl, Vocera Communications; Mile Middleton, Q1 Capital Partners

In multicultural Toronto, there's a growing awareness that an ethnically and culturally diverse workforce is a key asset to doing business in the global economy, but as the frequently cited high number of skilled immigrants whose talents are underutilized demonstrates, not every business yet understands how to fully exploit the human resource riches found in Toronto's pool of skilled immigrants.

A study of 168 skilled immigrants and 20 Toronto employers released last week by the Progress Career Planning Institute indicated some keys: for internationally educated professionals, the study concludes, becoming "more Canadian" by focussing on language and communication skills is pivotal; for employers, mentoring new hires on the workplace and Canadian culture is important.

A day-long conference to be held this week (January 20) at the Toronto Board of Trade will explore the subject for the benefit of human resource leaders from corporate Canada. Entitled "Building Workplace 3.0" and presented by CIBC and Skills for Change, the conference features a keynote speech by John Tory and speeches and breakout sessions on subjects such as "Competency based hiring" and " Canadian experience vs. Technical experience."

Registration for the event is $195. See the Diverstiy@Work website for more information.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Amanda Galbraith, on behalf of Progress Career Planning Institute; Judy Csillag, Skills for Change