Startup Camp Toronto
30 April 2008, early morning
Shima and I sorted out wedding rings in the afternoon. She left for Karate, and I left for the Carlu. I was out with some of the Well.ca boys and girls yesterday night. Ali, Alex, and Chris were in town for Startup Camp North. They chose the event to launch Startup Index, a project they are working on along with the guys from Startup North. And I use the term ‘they’ loosely, since as far as I can tell, Chris does all the work. (Oh Snap!) I always feel a bit out of place when I go to events like this. At the Rails Pubnite, people always gave me this look of both disappointment and sympathy when I told them: a) I had a job b) writing C++ code c) for a company that hasn’t been a startup for a very long time. At this event, people assumed I worked at Well.ca, since that is who I was sitting with … and then I would correct them, and you could see that glimmer of disappointment. Of course, that didn’t last long, because Ali would inform them that I’m a Ruby guru, or a Rails master. I suppose that’s not a total lie, but it’s pretty close. That said, I’m going to have to start introducing myself as, “Ramanan: Ruby Master,” from now on. I think you just need to say stuff like that enough and it becomes true. Well.ca is the biggest online pharmacy in the world. Or it will be anyway.
so what actually happened at the meetup?
by tyler on April 30 2008, 1:39 pm #
There was a keynote from the CEO of Idee. 5 start-ups pitched to the audience: Brainpark, Loyalty Match (which is already up and running), SocialDeck (whose first game should already be live on Facebook), nSM, and AskKinjo. It was a strange space for an event like this: the Carlu is a bit too fancy, you know? The Brainpark pitch was something else, I really liked it. There were a few moments where I was laughing at jokes, but thinking to myself, “Wait — is that offensive?” (Also, I got a free t-shirt that looks really cool.) nSM had this dude that I totally picture being a hardcore programmer from the former Soviet Union pitch. I love those guys. His pitch was a bit rocky, but they seem to have some crazy software in the works.
by Ramanan on April 30 2008, 3:10 pm #
The Carlu’s so fancy shmancy. I enjoyed the gourmet pizza and satay chicken skewers (still have no idea what the white balls were), but it sucked how they ushered us out right away when it was done.
Anyway, the highlight for me was getting to meet you finally! I’ve always wondered what a Ruby Master looked like.
by Alex on April 30 2008, 11:49 pm #