Small Businesses : In The News

The Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX) has released this year's list of "Canada's top 20 most innovative technology companies." As reported by the Globe & Mail, eight Toronto companies are among this year's top 20, making Toronto (by far) the highest ranking innovation city on the list. The winners of the CIX competition—a competition that received hundreds of applications from across the country—will present their innovative concepts to venture capital firms and corporate investors at an event on Dec. 1, at Toronto's MaRS Centre. 

"The CIX Top 20 is split into two groups of 10: Information and communications technologies (ICT) and digital media."

The Next 36"--a competition that challenged four person teams of Canadian university students to create a new mobile app--culminated last week in a pitch session by the top nine competitors to wealthy Toronto investors. BlogTO writes on the pitch session (called "Venture Day") and what Toronto's most promising up-and-coming app entrepreneurs have to offer.

"Last Monday nine Toronto start-ups gathered on the lower level of MaRS to persuade wealthy investors to fork over some money - lots of it."

"As I stood at the back of the packed room listening to pitch after pitch I couldn't help but admire these guys. Almost all of the start-ups were pre-revenue (and in many cases still pre-launch with zero users/customers) yet valuations were being floated in the million dollar range. Some had already raised money. Others had plugged-in advisors ranging from the Managing Director of Facebook Canada to the founder of ATI Technologies. Some will succeed but many will likely fail."

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original source BlogTO

Toronto is home to over half-a-dozen successful mascot companies, the largest concentration of mascot companies in the world. A Macleans feature looks at how Toronto became the global leader in this niche, but highly profitable, industry.

"Toronto is the mascot mecca of the world," says Christina Simmons, president of Loonie Times Inc., one of the half-dozen mascot companies in the city."

"Why Toronto? "I think we just put more TLC into them," says Simmons. Unlike mass-produced mascots made overseas, Toronto's mascots are conceived by bona-fide artisans. Take Sugar's Costumes Studio, founded in 1980 by Peter deVinta, an Italian immigrant who comes from a long line of tailors. (His father, Joseph, now 91, was a master tailor in Italy who worked for top military generals.) A medium-sized firm, Sugar's makes upwards of 400 mascots a year. Some are famous, like the Blue Jays' Ace, and others obscure, like the Calvary Chapel's California Nuts for Jesus: PJ, Al, Wally and Hazel. DeVita just shipped Nahkool, a date palm tree and mascot of a town in Bahrain."

"The companies hire from nearby schools, like OCAD University and Seneca College, who pump out sculptors, designers and sewers. "When you're making a custom character like the Honey Nut Bee, you need a fashion design graduate so they can do the pattern drafting and do the math to look like the design," says Mike Chudleigh, president of 1-800-Mascots, another local firm."

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original source Macleans

The Toronto Star writes on the Record Jacket Corp., a record-sleeve manufacturing business founded  last spring by Torontonians Paul Miller and Alex Durlak. The Bloor St. and Lansdowne Ave. shop (one of only two record- jacket companies in Canada), has sold 15,000 sleeves since its launch last April.

"Co-owners Paul Miller and Alex Durlak, both 30, and sole employee Jason Cousineau, have tattoos and facial hair. Giant Mac screens sit on the office desks. Close friends, Miller and Durlak bonded over a mutual love of art, music and record collecting."

"In 2010, a chance to buy the machine arose, and they decided to combine talents and clients to tap into a vinyl production market that, in Canada, had all but disappeared."

"The new venture is one of only two record jacket companies in the country. There are just five vinyl manufacturing plants in North America. Record Jacket sells to music distributors and record labels as well as to individual independent bands. They've sold 15,000 sleeves since April."

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original source Toronto Star

A Globe & Mail slideshow features Toronto's "hottest young entrepreneurs". All under 30, the 15 featured entrepreneurs--from computer program designers to jewelry manufacturers--form the core of Toronto's young small business community.

"Young, talented and brimming with entrepreneurial zeal: The Report on Small Business presents some of the most exciting, fresh-faced business owners in the T-Dot. "

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original source Globe & Mail

The Toronto Star features Toronto-based Vintage One Wines, a year-old Dundas West winery that creates custom, private order vintages. The work of Argentina-born siblings Alejandra and Jeronimo de Miguel, Vintage One is unique micro-brewery in that it invites its customers to be as little or as much involved as they like in the wine-making process.

"The slim, black entrance on Dundas St. W., just west of Islington Ave., gives no clue as to what you will find inside Vintage One Wines. A steady stream of black-clad city folk pours down a flight of stairs into an anteroom swollen with the strains of Argentine tango guitar. Its grip seduces them into the large caves beyond, filled with rows of gleaming stainless tanks and a half a football field of wooden barrels. This is a real, working urban winery."

"The pair import frozen grapes from their homeland and a half-dozen more countries, and work with customers here on Dundas St. to create custom, private-order vintages. You can buy into a share of a barrel as an individual, or go in with a group or a club. You can be involved from concept through bottling, from aging and blending down to bottle design. Corporations use the place for retreats and team-building exercises; restaurants arrange their own private-label supplies."

"The siblings are riding a great trend wave: Toronto is in love with malbec � just try to find a menu without the varietal. According to the Consulate General of Argentina, Ontarians downed 8.1 million litres of Argentine wine in 2010, about 5 million litres of that malbec."

"And they have hit another trend, says loyal customer Don Tapscott, best-selling Toronto author of marketing and information technology books. "Their business model is about creating experiences, highly customized experiences, as opposed to selling product."

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original source Toronto Star

A recent research study by Pixel to Product attempts to quantify Canada's burgeoning digital media economy. As reported by the National Post, the survey, which polled more than 200 Canadian companies and 1,050 individuals, found that Canada's tech industry consists mainly of small, relatively new businesses, with under 50 employees.

"The face of Silicon Valley North is a 28-year-old male graduate of a Canadian university, who makes between $40,000 and $80,000 per year and has been employed by a digital, advertising or marketing agency for between one and three years."

"Canada's digital industries are mainly small businesses, most of which are less than eight years old, have eschewed government financing and expect revenue to increase in the next year, according to the Pixel to Product research study, a new survey that attempts to paint an accurate portrait of Canada's digital media industry."

"Fuelled by the growth of the mobile application, digital marketing and social media industries, Canada has quickly evolved into a hotbed of technology innovation, and the report represents the most complete snapshot to date of the country's emerging digital economy."

"We learned that the Canadian digital media economy is strong," Justin Kozuch, lead researcher on the study, said in an interview."

"A lot of companies are looking to hire over the next year and there's a growing confidence in digital media. People are spending a lot more money in digital media and that kind of growth is very reassuring. Digital media is a much more stable industry than it was 10 years ago when it bombed out."

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original source National Post

Blog TO writes on the first Kensington Market Pedestrian Sunday of the season. The car-free street festival--a festival that takes place on the last Sunday of every month from June 26th to October 30th--features musicians, buskers and a variety of sidewalk fare.

"So Kensington Market for another season yesterday, and unsurprisingly streets in the area were jam-packed throughout the afternoon. More than just an occasion to walk around the market without the presence of vehicular traffic, Pedestrian Sundays feature performances by artists, musicians and store owners. Oh, and there's sidewalk fare, too � but some of the food lineups seemed to rival those at the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant for Doors Open."

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original source Blog TO