This is the first article in a continuing monthly series that will chronicle the growth path of CommentAir Technologies, a startup based in Ottawa, Canada. CommentAir is developing a wireless technology fans can use at sports venues to receive the same real-time commentary as fans watching from their televisions, a wireless technology that also creates a platform for targeted consumer interaction. We invite your feedback.
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
Siblings Katie and Luke Hrycak are in that category of entrepreneurs who could be called reluctant innovators. They found themselves in the midst of a problem they felt compelled to solve.
That problem was the quality of the experience in attending a major sporting event live versus watching it on television. They both found themselves dissatisfied with the experience of attending NHL games and UFC matches. Why? Because fans at the event can’t hear the live commentary.
“The question became ‘Why don’t fans have the commentary at the game?’” said Luke. “Can’t we combine both the audio and visual experience of sports? We believed that fans want and need a special feature that will enhance whichever sport they enjoy most.”
But neither Katie nor Luke had an engineering background. They were starting at zero in terms of having a product design, startup capital and any kind of market validation beyond their own fan experience and that of their friends.
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By Linda Forrest 
It’s been a busy week, with Francis Moran and me visiting Waterloo and region for a number of events, client and business development meetings. We kicked off our trip by attending the Girl Geek Dinner, which took place Tuesday evening at Waterloo restaurant Oliver & Bonacini.
One of these things was not like the others in that Francis was the only male in attendance; the inverse was just about true the following night at Demo Camp Guelph where I was one of a handful of women in the crowd. But the intimate room at O&B was filled to the brim with interesting, welcoming and friendly women who work in technology. The brainchild of Cate Huston, a software programmer at Google, who upon moving to KW from Ottawa started up a local version of this international concept, Tuesday’s dinner marked the third local iteration of the event, which is also organized by PJ Lowe, and Michelle Kostya.
The speaker for the evening was Carol Leaman, a serial leader of startups, who recently sold PostRank, an aggregator of social engagement data, to Google. Almost as soon as we were seated, it became apparent that many of the women in the dynamic crowd knew one another, thanks to the tight-knit and supportive tech community in the region. But they welcomed Francis and myself with open arms, and it took us just several minutes to establish the (very few) degrees of separation from everyone at our table. We had the great pleasure of sitting with a variety of women, all of whom are working or studying in different and fascinating aspects of the technology ecosystem.
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This is the first article in a continuing monthly series that will chronicle the growth path of Screenreach Interactive, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
We first encountered Screenreach Interactive and its founder, Paul Rawlings, several months ago when we featured Jon Bradford, the man behind U.K. startup accelerators The Difference Engine and Springboard.
Rawlings and Screenreach completed the first cycle of The Difference Engine’s 13-week program in 2010. When we asked Bradford for an example of a successful graduate from that program, he was quick to sing Rawlings’ praises.
“He was not proprietary about his ideas, he was very open to new suggestions, new directions and wasn’t wedded to, ‘Look, this is what I’m doing and I’m not going to listen to anybody else,’” Bradford said.
“I think having an open mind, being able to listen, to react in a positive fashion was probably the making of him. He was also not very selfish about bringing in other team members, making sure he had a good team around him beyond the program itself. One of his mentors (Sam Morton, pictured right in the photo below with Rawlings) became one of his members of staff.”
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By Alexandra Reid
I have discussed thought leadership here before, but never laid out just how important it is and the critical social media steps entrepreneurs can take to establish themselves as, and tap into the minds of, thought leaders in their industries.
In a study conducted for The Society for New Communications Research called New Symbiosis of Professional Networks, 44 percent of respondents said the primary reason they visit online networks and communities is to access thought leadership and information they couldn’t get elsewhere, while 43 percent said the primary reason is to showcase themselves or their companies.
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By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
Over the past six months since we launched our new blog, our Commercialization Ecosystem series explored what works, what doesn’t and what must change to get technology to market. We featured the perspectives of dozens of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, business leaders, academics, tech-transfer experts and policy makers from across North America and the U.K. Your feedback was outstanding and your support of this approach drove us to easily beat almost every traffic objective we set for the blog.
So, what’s next?
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By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
