Working with MaRS Commons and the MaRS Mentor Network, we submitted a list of startups who have been referred through the Cdling platform and other channels and Paul made the final selections below. 

We should point out to the rest of the community that Jolt withdrew the startups in their current crop from this selection process since Paul will be meeting exclusively with these Founding teams on September 11th.  Thank you again to the team at Jolt and MaRS Commons for working with us to make this open time available to any startup! 

There are still some spots available to join us for Paul’s pizza lunch “fire side chat”.  You can get your tickets here.

I also have a couple of spots for the closed investors only event with Paul that will be taking place on Monday afternoon at 3 pm.  If you are interested in one of those, please @cdlingHQ or email me at michael at cdling dot com.

If you are connected to any of the Founders from these startups, please send them a link to this post!  We are trying to contact them now to make sure that they are ready for Monday morning!

Thanks also to all of the startups who expressed interest in the opportunity to meet with Paul.  If you were not selected, don’t take it badly there were many inputs and not making this list is not necessarily a reflection on what you are doing.

Congrats to the companies that were selected!  

Paul will be getting started at 9:30 am Monday, September 10 in the MaRS Commons on the second floor at 101 College Street.

The format is 10 mins. Make a bond. Ask a question. Pitch. But you have 10 mins.

Here is the schedule and names of companies selected:

9:30 am
Penyo Pal
Penyo Pal builds fun, engaging experiences for kids and kids at heart to learn Mandarin. Users adopt and customize their own Penyo Pal and explore Penyo World playing mini-games and interacting with their Penyo Pal. Learning a new language opens doors, your eyes, and your mind… and with Penyo Pal you’ll be saying in no time!

9:40 am
NoteSolution
Notesolution is an educational network that delivers the best course resources to university students worldwide by crowdsourcing content.

9:50 am
Hovr
HOVR makes images on social networks clickable for product search. Through a 1-click update of your browser, the magic of HOVR is unlocked on any website. Easily go from the image of what you want, to window shopping comparables, to the best place to buy all within the HOVR Sidebar.

10:00 am - break

10:10 am
Kickvox
Kickvox is a search engine built uniquely for mobile. We do this by introducing a visual search process and deep integration with popular mobile apps giving users a truly mobile friendly experience.

10:20 am
Bunch
Bunch is a mobile platform to share and discuss your passions with like-minded people. The Bunch iPhone app is live in private beta and has had 1.1 million pre-signups via a Facebook marketing app. Bunch will test launch Sept 2012 in Canada, with a US launch to follow.

Special thanks to the nearly 100 new members who have joined Cdling recently. Our community now has 622 members and if you take a look at the cross section of experience, geography and talent sets, we could not be happier with the diversity of players that are coming together.

First of all, we would like to thank again the MaRS Mentor Network and Howard Morgan for working with us on an experiment with the Cdling platform.

It was a big learning curve for everyone.  We observed many insights into the differences between putting startups in front of investors based entirely upon a traditional referral and the referral approach offered by Cdling that captures each cycle of activity for each startup so that each effort contributes to the ongoing profile of the company.

Social media has had an interesting effect for event planning.  You can publish details months and weeks before the event but attention and most of the confirmations around it take place within the last week before. 

Building reputation take times.  So while each event (whether that be an accelerator’s demo day or something that Cdling is more directly involved in organizing) typically operates on short time lines, to get the minimum of 10 opinions around each startup that we are looking for, the startup needs to be proactively engaged, well in advance.  That makes sense.

Nevertheless, we were able to report on the quality of opinions to create our shortlist for Howard and the direct input of the MaRS team, who has an established, vigorous selection process, was a dominant force.

Congrats again to the selected startups.  Keep in mind that First Round made the final selections and they have an existing portfolio of over 150 companies.  So if you did not make the final selection, it can easily have more to do with First Round’s existing interests than anything to do with your startup or team.

On the morning the 26th, immediately after the Office Hours meetings, we sought feedback on Cdling from the startups who demonstrated their interest in meeting with Howard, the team at MaRS and Howard.  In the days and weeks since, we have followed up with each again and completed our own analysis of what worked and what didn’t.

Lots to improve in the process of welcoming new members and startups on to the Cdling platform, screen them (we have a waiting list for alpha members at the moment) and focusing them on what to do.  More to come on that.

To begin with we have responded to the feedback with a simplified UI for collecting opinions on each startup and a straight forward Leaderboard to highlight top startups and players.

We hope that you like this next iteration.  We know it isn’t the end.  Only the beginning.

Thanks again,

Michael

Howard Morgan, ranked #12 in 2011’s Top 30 Most Respected Venture Capitalists, is coming to visit Startup Grind Toronto on July 25^th. Get your tickets here.

Should Ontario based startups be dancing like First Round Capital’s portfolio companies are in this famous Christmas video released by the firm?

If seeing VCs dance is not enough of a culture shock for Ontario, how about the title of Howard’s blog: WayTooEarly where he declares, “I work with companies at two stages, too early and way too early.” 

In our typical “fire-side chat” format, we will be asking Howard to share some inspiring stories from his more than 20 years as an Angel and venture capital investor, how his early academic career impacts him today and what his thoughts are about the shifting landscape of early stage investing.

Then on the morning of July 26, we are pleased to announce that Howard will be in residence at the MaRs Discovery District for First Round’s OFFICE HOURS.  For this opportunity, First Round will select 10 promising startups to meet with Howard for lightening fast 10 minute pitch and feedback sessions designed to showcase the opportunity to invest in Ontario based startups and provide an intimate setting for local Founders to make a connection with one of the best venture capitalists in the world. 

Cdling Capital Services, working with MaRs’ mentor network and across the startup community will be providing screening and selection reporting to First Round and all Founders, Advisors and investors are invited to get involved in the action.