Booting up

Hi, welcome to Bootup Labs!

Who: Boris Mann and Danny Robinson

What: an incubator, a company that helps startups get started (for now, in the Vancouver area). We could say kind of like Y-Combinator or sort of like the Founders Fund, just to start getting your head into the right space. We’re not a fund, but we do want to help you quit your day job. The web, mobile, and casual gaming are three of the main areas we’ll be focusing on.

Where: 350 - 375 Water Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada – right down in Gastown

When: now. This is it. We’re booting up. What’s amazing to us again was that picking the name was the hardest part. Lucky for us “bootup labs” was actually a Google Whack – that kind of sealed the deal. A few hours later, we’ve got Google Apps running everything from email to calendars, and this blog up and running in moments with WordPress.com. Now all we need is a place where we can crowd source a logo.

It feels like we’re getting started at exactly the right time. In just the last couple of weeks, we’ve noticed lots of relevant blog posts come bubbling up that are in line with our thinking. As the last year closed, Mark Evans figures we needs a Peter Thiel in Canada. David Crow batted that back, asking if money was really all we are lacking here in Canada.

David’s been doing lots of relevant blogging, like this one on seed stage financing in Canada – but that should come as no surprise: he and I often seem to share a brain, we just haven’t figured out which one is the evil twin yet. Oh yes, and you should definitely plan to go to the Founders and Funders dinner that David is organizing January 21st in Toronto.

We’ll be talking more about what we see as our value proposition to, well, founders and funders, in upcoming posts. We’re aiming to set up an environment where many more startup companies can flourish in Vancouver.

Welcome to Bootup Labs. Stop by our offices the next time you’re in town – we’d love to talk to you if you’re a founder, a funder, or want to get involved in some other way.