One thing I did notice amongst everything being presented is that with the exception of CakeMail that many of them obviously didn’t invest too much time in their graphic design department. Freshbooks wasn’t anything special to look at, Investmate to its credit was more of a technical demo, and SlashID was nothing to really write home about. Defensio wasn’t bad, though they’re going for a more understated feel. CakeMail had an original looking logo, and their website follows suit. Maybe I just wasn’t looking hard enough, but it seemed all the presentations seemed to be more focused on the technical side then they were the aesthetics.

I’ll admit that yes, it was a StartupCamp so there were a lot of fellow techies there but there were also a lot of people who were obviously from investment groups. If you’re going to demo a product to anyone other that a Developer, Project Manager, or an otherwise tech-savvy individual, you gotta make it pretty. It doesn’t matter if you’ve programmed Skynet or a program that actually calculates Pi. If it’s ugly, you’re going to have way more of an uphill struggle with your audience.

I was a little let down on this point, because I was really hoping to glean some information on how new startups are presenting themselves to an increasingly-diverse populous. Globalization has sunk its claws into everything, and these startups are having to compete on a global scale, right from launch. They need to make sure that they stand out to the crowd. What’s the difference between them and their competitors? Why should we, the internet population, spend our dollars on you? What’s going to make us remember you more than anyone else? These were things I was hoping to see, and sadly I was a bit let down.

I was impressed with some of the ideas that I saw though. Investmate had the most of my attention, and most of the crowds as well. Their product was basically “stock market for stupid people”. Yeah they didn’t say those exact words, but the meaning was there. Their idea was sound, and they got a lot of good feedback on how to improve the presentation. They also got a lot of advice from people who have been in the investing industry for a while, and as such had much in the way of helpful comments. In the end I don’t see their idea being feasible as is, but if they changed their approach to working with a brokerage instead of against them, they’d probably have solid end product.

Another observation is that everyone in the startup community seems to be really, truly helpful. As long as you are not in direct competition with them, they seem more than willing to help you succeed. As the presentations went through, and comments made, I noticed that though blunt as the questions they were never meant in malice. Granted watching the FreshBooks guys catch fire, get ripped to shreds, and then basically got the red light was painful to watch. They got ripped into, but again not out of any sense of meanness merely just based from observations. I hope they learned something from it in the end.

It was a very educational experience and I am looking forward to attending more of them in the future. Thankfully there’s one happening in Montreal in January and another in February so I haven’t got to wait too long!

P.S. Did I mention that I was approached by a man who mentioned that he was the creator of Expedia.ca? Well I did. He’s a stunningly smart man, and really easy to talk to. He apparently sold it and helps startups now. That must be a fun life.