Ode to Startup Fest
My journey over the years hanging at Montreal’s most important annual startup event
When Phil Telio reached out recently asking to share a few thoughts and memories about the International Startup Festival, the answer was “yes, absolutely”.
Since its foundation in 2011, Startup Fest has grown into the unmissable startup community event of the year in Montreal. The event pulls in about 2,000 founders, investors and other members of the startup community, both from Montreal and internationally.
Anchored in the Bar Camp & Startup Camp roots that fostered the early Montreal startup community 10 years ago, it is probably one of the most salient examples of the vibrancy of Montreal’s grassroots startup ecosystem. It’s also been one of its essential drivers.
Startup Fest comes from a good place. Bootstrapped using personal funds, it’s a startup in its own right. It’s a labour of love for its team of crazy passionate organizers. Through persistence and dedication, the event has grown organically and through the support of the community over the years.
The organizing team’s innovativeness and originality has generated awesome highlights like the grandmother judge panel and the elevator pitch competition (yes, in an actual elevator!). The latter has led to the offshoot Elevator World Tour, which is evangelizing entrepreneurship in places like Tel Aviv, Toronto and Paris (in the elevator of the Eiffel Tower no less!). It’s always great to see Montreal export its creative concepts to the four corners of the world.
A yardstick for growth
Personally, Startup Fest has started to feel like a yardstick to measure my personal growth as an entrepreneur where I ask myself “Where am I relative to where I was at last year’s festival?”. Here is my story:
- Year two (2012): I attended the event as a visitor, taking in many talks, meeting new people, checking out the startups boots and generally learning about startups. At that time, I was just starting my entrepreneurial venture. My eyes were wide open and I left convinced there was a supportive community to launch startups in Montreal.
- Year three (2013): I pitched my startup Busbud at the Startup Festival in the international contest, pitting us against 12 finalist startups hailing from San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Vancouver, Waterloo, Dubai, England, Vietnam and India. It was a great chance to see how we stacked up against international talent. I also got to meet great investors from outside Montreal like Fred Destin and others. It would probably be hard to get time on Fred’s calendar outside of the festival, especially for a casual chat. Moreover, a fellow Montreal entrepreneur also attending was kind enough to make a direct intro during the BBQ networking event. Only at Startup Fest.
- Year four (2014): I attended as an emerging entrepreneur. The timing of the festival coincided with Busbud’s $9M Series A funding announcement. What a fantastic and busy week that was! The press coverage for the festival amplified the news of our round, giving us additional reach in Montreal and beyond. I also got to participate in the judging of the $100K top prize pitch competition with great entrepreneurs and investors like Alexandre Taillefer, Steven Abrams and David Nault. Finally, I got to hang out more with the awesome Bruno Morency, and get to know him on a more personal level while taking in the soothing views of the St-Lawrence River from the festival’s waterfront site. Bruno and I ended up co-founding and announcing almost six months later an angel fund called Interaction Ventures with some friends to support the next generation of entrepreneurs.
In that last instance, it’s easy to see that some of the benefits of attending Startup Fest were not immediate. Here, a future venture would take root in some of the informal discussions had while hanging out in the tent village. As everyone knows, business is built first and foremost on personal relationships. I’m glad there is a venue like Startup Fest that fosters these types of transformational moments in the startup community every year.
This is my story. Many friends and fellow entrepreneurs have had similar Startup Fest stories or moments involving some amount of growth on their entrepreneurial path. With over 2,000 or so participants, that’s a lot of moments. At its best, the Startup Fest has become a sort of summertime growth factory.
Community man
Last week, I got the chance to catch a bit of Life is Wonderful, the classic 1946 Frank Capra movie that has become a staple of the Holidays. As Wikipedia neatly sums up, “the film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel who shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would be had he never been born.”
It seems interesting to think what our ecosystem would be like had Startup Fest never happened, and how many lives Phil and his wonderful Startup Fest have touched and/or changed over the years. Like George Bailey, Phil has had a deep impact around him because he puts people and community at the heart of everything he does.
The Startup Fest is a gem that our Montreal startup community has rallied around, and that the broader Montreal business community should continue to help make grow (in much the same way the festival has made many of us grow).
I’d like to finish with a suggestion. When Phil Telio comes knocking on your door for support, your best answer should probably also be “yes, absolutely”!
