MaRS

Kenneth M. Kambara blogs about the interesting lessons he learned from Robert Deluce, CEO of Porter Airlines, speaker at CIBC Presents Entrepreneurship 101 event taken on February 17, 2010.

Earl Miller from MaRS shares his thoughts on why young tech companies should treaty privacy as a key business issue.

Vincent Cheung, owner of Shape Collage Inc., a software program has developed a software program that arranges hundreds of photos into custom shapes in seconds. This program is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. The company website (shapecollage.com) boasts of more than eight million members. Shape Collage Inc is a MaRS Client.

Blog regarding a Renewable Energy Seminar that took place at the MaRS Centre. The seminar discussed the major breakthroughs in recent solar panel efficiency advancements.

Blog mentioning the Mobile Monday's event at the MaRS Centre, on March 1, about the venture pitch. WirelessNorth.ca will help to moderate an all-star panel of mobile investors as they judge pitches from Canadian mobile start-ups.

The Small Business and Tourism Branch has produced, in collaboration with professors Eileen Fischer (York University) and Rebecca Reuber (University of Toronto), a report that provides a portrait of the state of entrepreneurship in Canada. It charts entrepreneurial activity in Canada over time and compares it with leading countries. Entrepreneurial performance indicators observed include: birth and death rates, survival rates, high-growth firms and gazelles, and research and development expenditures. Furthermore, the report provides a profile of the owners of Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because important entrepreneurial activity takes place within these firms. Finally, the report identifies areas of strength, areas for improvement, and important areas that cannot currently be addressed.

Shawn Lesser, author and president and founder of Atlanta-based Sustainable World Capital, identified critical characteristics of successful clean-tech clusters, including a region that has a thriving technology base, abundant entrepreneurial and management talent, access to capital, and a proactive environmental public policy. MaRS is listed as one of the other clean-tech organizations.

The $205 million Ontario Venture Capital Fund (OVCF) is a joint initiative between the Government of Ontario and leading institutional investors to invest primarily in Ontario-based and Ontario-focused venture capital and growth equity funds that support innovative, high growth companies. Ontario has committed $90 million to the Fund, with the balance coming from partner institutions. OVCF is structured as a fund of funds with the primary objective of generating attractive returns for its investors. The OVCF is managed by Northleaf Capital.

The OVCF invests primarily in Ontario-based and Ontario-focused venture capital and growth equity funds that support innovative, high growth companies.

AstraZeneca has made its social-media pitch to the FDA. In response to the agency's call for comments on new rules for online marketing and communications, the drugmaker outlined some ways interactions with customers--and potential customers--might be governed. Read more: http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/az-pitches-social-media-rules-fda/2010-03-02?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz0h2feB1qq

The Small Business and Tourism Branch has produced, in collaboration with professors Eileen Fischer (York University) and Rebecca Reuber (University of Toronto), a report that provides a portrait of the state of entrepreneurship in Canada. It charts entrepreneurial activity in Canada over time and compares it with leading countries. Entrepreneurial performance indicators observed include: birth and death rates, survival rates, high-growth firms and gazelles, and research and development expenditures. Furthermore, the report provides a profile of the owners of Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because important entrepreneurial activity takes place within these firms. Finally, the report identifies areas of strength, areas for improvement, and important areas that cannot currently be addressed.

Entrepreneurs aren't born, they're made. Vivek Whadwa discusses the features that his research team found define the majority of entrepreneurs... which may not be what you thought. Education, a great idea and boredom?!

whitepaper on investment sources for medical research

Express Scripts Inc., the big St. Louis pharmacy-benefit manager, is about to test an electronic pill container that issues a series of increasingly insistent reminders, in a national study among patient members. The GlowCap gives electronic reminders and collects data on habits. The container-actually a high-tech top for a standard pill bottle called a "GlowCap"-is equipped with a wireless transmitter that plugs into the wall. When it is time for a dose of medicine, the GlowCap emits a pulsing orange light

On May 17 & 18 the 2010 Annual International Conference on Research Facilities will be held in Toronto. The major issues on the agenda include getting more research results per square foot of space, lowering the costs of building and renovating research facilities, reducing facility operating costs, facilitating the new collaborative multi-disciplinary research models, planning facilities help to promote commercial technology spin-offs, and designing energy-efficient and sustainable laboratories.An important feature of the conference is the opportunity for participants to tour a number of prominent Toronto research facilities including MaRS Discovery District.

Eli Lilly will earn $1 million up front as part of a licensing deal for a series of its preclinical diabetes compounds with Transition Therapeutics.The agreement gives Transition exclusive, worldwide rights to develop and commercialize the compounds.

MaRS and the Ontario Clean Water Initiative both made the cut on a list that ranks the world's "Top 10 cleantech cluster organizations for 2010".

Ben Horowitz writes in Business Insider's War Room about an open source legal project, Series Seed documents from Ted Wang. He says that these are the kinds of legal docs that the new kind of investor needs to invest in the new kind of company, which generally doesn't require the VC funding structures of the past.

In former swamplands teeming with otters and wild hogs, one of the nation's biggest utilities is running an experiment in the future of renewable power.