In a banter-filled role reversal, we hosted the Angels as they pitched themselves to our community. And they embraced it!
Idan sold his company to Hitachi and has been mountain biking, skiing, and investing in local tech entrepreneurs ever since (some of whom he meets at TNT)
Jon, a fractional CFO from Toronto specializing in taking mid-market firms public, is joining us for his 3rd summit! He loves Alberta deal flow and recently co-founded Awaken Life Sciences, which uses psychedelics for psychotherapy.
Kyle is just the type of highly successful local business operator that we want to meet more of at TNT. He told us how he went down to Atlanta with his business partner to win the rights to run all the Popeye’s in northern Alberta.
Neil prepared a proper pitch! In 3 minutes flat, he explained how he’s a former oil and gas professional building a new career in the technology space. I keep meeting entrepreneurs that tell me Neil is now mentoring them. Those are the types of surprises that make my day! So send him a note if you want Neil on your team.
Werner, who has built a globally recognized Ed-Tech firm right here in downtown Edmonton, left us with 3 words of wisdom any entrepreneur should take to heart:
- Passion
- Speed
- Domain Expertise
A winning trifecta if I’ve ever heard one – and explained so succinctly it sounds poetic.
And then finally, for the big news:
We’ve got ourselves a rabble-rousing, party-hungry, entrepreneur-loving, angel-investing, energetic Startup TNT Chief Organizer for TNT Saskatoon!
Meet Jesse Wiebe. This guy is already planning creative events, networking with the SK community, and building a detailed new city launch strategy for our friends in the S’toon. Stay tuned, SK; it looks like you may be having more fun than us pretty soon!
The happy hour was pretty good, too.
We evaluated the best place to launch a new diagnostics startup in Canada with Abbas and Alex.
We got some feedback on our website (there's a lot of room for improvement, we know) and learned that laser tag facilities make great dog training facilities with the team at Codo.
Speaking of animals, TNT After Dark got pet-friendly.
Can you spy the budgie, the poodle and a bearded Jade in this image?
TNT Alumni Angels in the news!
Congratulations to Ryan and the team at Pacylex Pharmaceuticals for closing a Series A Round last week! Ryan was the lead investor for our very first Startup TNT Investment Summit and if you're reading this, Ryan, we want you back in the fall.
Missed the action? Catch the entire pitch night on our YouTube channel and join us this week for Angel Pitch Night II!
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TNTISIII Program Sneak Peak
Spring 2021
4-8 pm. June 17th.
Have Fun. Make Friends. Build Companies.
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The team at Polar Park is whipping us up another tasty batch of our favourite Pitch Night IPA. The City of Champs Apparel Co is designing us a new round TNT T-shirts. 52 investors are chomping at the bit to put their hard-earned cash to work in the local tech community. 10 companies are rearing to raise their rounds and make magic happen. And we have already sold 117 tickets!!
Join this awesome party before we are out of all beer.
4:00 PM - Welcome Address with Zack and Tim
4:05 PM - Startup TNT Jeopardy! Meet some characters. Learn something new. Get pumped for pitches!
4:30 PM - A Casual after-work chat with........whose name should go here?
5:00 PM - Let the Pitches Begin!!!! There aren't enough exclamation points to emphasize this!!! 10 energetic pitches from our YEG and YYC finalists. Pitching to our community. Pitching to raise real investment dollars. Pitching to challenge all of us to up our game as entrepreneurs and humans.
7:00 PM - VC Pitch Night. Who else wants to invest in great Alberta tech companies? We want at least 20 VCs participating in this - send us a note if you're not already on the list.
7:40 PM - Mix, Mingle and Music with entrepreneurs, investors, and musicians from Better Music Education.
8:00 PM - Investment Announcements!
8:15 PM - Discord after-party with music channels, Jackbox games, laughs, love, and good times late into the night. All are welcome.
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Meet your Top 5 Finalists for the Spring Summit!
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We'll be investing in at least 2 of the finalists on June 17th, live at the Startup TNT Investment Summit III! Join us for fun panels, pitches, and even music this year! The full schedule will be released next week.
Meanwhile, congratulate these 10 companies!
YEG Top 5
- AlignVR enables HR departments to make the right hiring decisions by generating genuine behaviours among job applicants.
- Birdie Break provides access to agency-quality Childcare Professionals through the ease of an app that makes finding a babysitter simple, efficient, and safe.
- Goal Zero is a one-stop shop for SMEs to outsource their Health, Safety, and Environment management system.
- HonestDoor is creating the most comprehensive source of commercial and residential real estate information in Canada.
- QuoteToMe has digitized the purchasing workflow for the construction industry and uses a B2B marketplace to connect buyers and sellers efficiently.
YYC Top 5
- Cherry Health is a digital, self-serve staffing platform disrupting Canada's medical recruitment industry that unifies healthcare professionals in one centralized network.
- Fanoramas generates thousands of ‘in-the-moment photos at epic events and enables fans to share them in real-time while providing a way for event sponsors to build relevant and non-intrusive social media campaigns.
- Mycorize grows quality mushrooms and provides world-class mycelium technology.
- Sawback Technologies is a near-sensing company that has developed a proprietary solution to collect, visualize and analyze near-surface data to identify underground utilities, fluid leaks, soil layers, and infrastructure health.
- Spot Dog Walking is an on-demand dog walking app with guaranteed walker arrival in under 90-minutes, or the walk is free.
Register for the event before we run out of free beer to see their final live pitches and cheer at their ideas!
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What's it like working with CPA, CA, CFA and TNT BFF Justin Rousseau of KRP?
It's like working with an actual BFF!
If you email Justin, he generally responds within the hour.
You could ask Justin the most asinine accounting question he's ever heard, and he would respond in a way that somehow still makes you feel smart for asking it.
You could drop off your tax files at Justin's office at 4 pm on April 30th, and he will find a way to get them submitted on time (he strongly advises against testing this talent, but he does have it!)
You can ask Justin and his team for help on personal taxes, US Taxes, Cross-border Taxes, annual financial statement audits, corporate reviews, business valuations, business restructuring, and special projects for all types of businesses.
The team at KRP currently works with many members of the startup community and actively seeks to help more of us!
Reach out directly or ask us for an intro if you'd like to talk to KRP about any accounting or financial matters.
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Getting to Know our Interns!
Part 2 of 2
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This week, we catch up with our newest Deal Screening Intern, Chanchan Wang.
ZS: What was your first interaction with Startup TNT?
CW: I thought it was a joke at first.
ZS: LOL - So did I!
CW: Then, I attended nearly every event for the first few months. I can't believe how fast it has grown.
ZS: What drew you to those early events.
CW: The fact that we knew each other gave me the confidence to attend. I liked that it was casual, relaxing, and talking about fun things that happened in the city.
ZS: Tell us about your background and how you landed in Edmonton.
CW: I got my first Post-Doctoral position at the UofA in Agriculture and Forestry. So I moved here from China to Edmonton. I considered moving to Singapore, but there are many Chinese people there, so it felt less international to me.
ZS: Haha - Tell us about what you like about Edmonton.
CW: I love snow.
ZS: Really! Me too!
CW: Yes, I've lived here 11 years as of May 31st! I'm from a coastal city in Liaoning province, in the northeast, near the border with North Korea and Edmonton has a very similar climate to where I grew up and reminded me of my childhood.
...Continue reading about Chanchan
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Thank you to our Sponsors!
We're renewing all our sponsorship agreements this month.
Want to be part of this awesome group of startup community fortifiers helping us have fun, make friends, and build great companies together?
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June is for Investing @TNT
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June 10: Angel Pitch Night II - Couldn't get enough of last week's God-fearing Angels? Meet another round of investors happy to put their money to work with local entrepreneurs at the second-ever Angel Pitch Night @TNT.
June 17: Startup TNT Investment Summit III 3 times the fun! 4 straight hours of panels, pitches, pitchers, and fun followed by $300k+ in investment announcements into at least 2 Alberta startups. Join us!
June 23: UP All Day, Kiwi All Night. Join our friends in SK at the UP conference and then meet all of Brandon's buddies from NZ at Kiwi Pitch Night
We also joined the Startup Ville podcast last week and discussed the upcoming event.
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The Community is Buying the Beer now!
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Were you among the noble members of our community that donated $145 to the TNT Beer fund this week?
All of you will be honoured at the Summit on June 17th - help us raise more funds. It is going to be a BIG summer!
Here's the updated Beer Sponsorship Leaderboard.
1 Pt = 1 Beer.
Register before we run out of free beer delivered at your door!
Want to make your friends feel welcome? Buy them a beer at TNT.
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Join us this Thursday & contribute to the fun!
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Refer a friend to Startup TNT
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