Monthly Newsletter
July 2015
Exciting Fall Line-Up

As our members are hopefully enjoying some downtime this summer, we wanted you to know that AceTech Ontario is hard at work lining up great programming for this fall.  Take a look below for information on an upcoming Sales Workshop and our next Quarterly Dinner.


 

We also want to encourage you to contact some Friends of AceTech to visit your roundtables this fall.  The purpose of the Friends of AceTech program is to allow senior members of the Tech Ecosystem who aren't CEOs to get involved in the organization. They are a "Super Elite Swat Team of Experts" that our members can draw on for advice and ideas.  Be sure to take advantage of their knowledge in your business today!

 

In This Issue
Developing Your Salespeople - A Proven Process to Take Them To The Next Level
Sales Workshop on September 17th

We all have detailed plans on how to grow our customers but how many of us have detailed plans on how to grow our salespeople?  A sales manager's job is not to grow sales but rather, to grow salespeople.  This workshop applies a proven model to people development and will allow you to create a customized and effective plan for each of your people.

 

Please join Michael Caron as he teaches sales leaders the 4 different categories of salesperson development, the unique leadership styles each requires and how to develop a plan to grow their own team members.

Invitations will be coming out shortly.  Please register online to attend!


September 29th Quarterly Dinner with:
Howard Gwin  
  1. Mentor Monday" Session hosted by Howard Gwin
  2. Presentation by Mark MacLeod, Founder, SurePath Capital Partners
We will start off our dinner with a "Mentor Monday" format, where two of our AceTech members will present to the audience a little about their business, and then a business problem they are struggling with, or an idea they are thinking of trying, or an issue that is keeping them up at night. The audience will then provide advice, ideas and mentorship to the member to assist.
 
Following this, Mark MacLeod will be speaking to the group.  Since 1999 Mark MacLeod has been helping fund, grow and exit venture-backed startups.  He has over 14 years experience as a CFO for leading companies such as FreshBooks, Shopify, Tungle and many others.  He also spent 3 years as a General Partner at Real Ventures, Canada's largest and most active seed stage venture fund, where he led investments in a number of SaaS and e-commerce companies including Unbounce and Frank & Oak.

Mark has raised hundreds of millions in capital from investors in Canada, the US and Asia.  In addition he has sold companies to Airbnb, Blackberry, Rackable Systems , Return Path and others.

His deep experience and passion for starups led Mark to found  SurePath Capital Partners in order to guide and advise founders on how to fund, grow and ultimately exit their companies.
 
Mark is a frequent blogger on startup finance.  You can follow him at www.startupcfo.ca or @startupcfo
 
Invitations will be coming out in August so be sure to register online to attend.  You won't want to miss this dinner!
Opportunity for Members to become Directors or Advisors at IAF

The Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF) is looking for experienced entrepreneurs with product, SaaS, scale-up and domain expertise to accelerate the growth of their portfolio as mentors/advisors or board members. 

 

The IAF is an early-stage seed fund that works closely with Ontario-based technology founders in ICT, Health and Cleantech.  They are positioned as a commercialization fund and invest in rounds that are typically between the "friends and family" and Series A stage.  The IAF is typically the first institutional investor for a new venture and they strive to ensure that their portfolio companies are poised for Series A fundraising success.  They work closely with the founding team establishing the financing strategy, setting the Series A milestones and recruiting strong advisors and independent board members to support the venture.  IAF typically has the right to nominate board members and as well as suggest strong mentors and advisors for the portfolio companies.  

 

If you're interested in finding out more or getting involved please contact either Michelle McBane at 647.255.1241 or [email protected] or Barry Gekiere at 416.673.4291 or [email protected].  A full listing of their portfolio companies can be found here: 

http://iaf.marsdd.com/portfolio/.

 

Welcome New Members

Paul Bhatti, CEO of Sowingo

Lucas Skoczkowsky, CEO of Redknee

Rob MacLean, CEO of Points International

Mark Fowlie, CEO of AudienceView

Jennifer Bouyoukos, VP of Talent Management at Argus Software

Toni Skokovic, VP of Sales at interfaceware

Art Harrison, VP of Marketing at interfaceware

Jason King, Marketing Manager at 360incentives

Carl Hume, Technology Director at 360incentives

Travis Dutka, Culture Curator at 360incentives

Bijan Vaez, CTO at eventmobi

Warren Gedge, CTO at Resolver/PPM

Dennis Bring, VP Professional Services at Doxim

Grant Gervais, Director of Finance at 360incentives

Dave Findlay, Director of Professional Services at 360incentives

Laurie Norris, Human Resources Manager at eventmobi
Executive Memberships

At our Annual Retreat in June, Jason Atkins made a very convincing argument about why Executives should join their respective AceTech Roundtables. As you can see above 11 new Executives have joined since then! All the descriptions can be found here. Executives memberships are $1,500 each (only $840 to join for the remainder of 2015). Please feel free to connect Leah with any Executives who want more information or if they are ready to join they can fill in their contact information on our application.

Private & Confidential Member Only Facebook Group

With 75 members now in the Facebook group, we have implemented some structure.

Each post should start with one of the following things: ASK, PRAISE, SHARE, GIVE, RESUME, JOB ALERT (see definitions below). A hashtag should be used as well so that each type of post is searchable.

 

Instead of receiving a weekly email about resumes and job postings, Jo Ann will be sending a weekly update letting you know how many posts in each category are in the Facebook group. Starting this summer we will also be doing a weekly member spotlight.

 

Our members only group will keep you up-to date and connected on everything AceTech in addition to facilitating member to member communications. If you need help getting set up, please contact Leah.

 

 

#ASK: You're asking for something such as advice, feedback, an intro, etc

 

#PRAISE: You want to give someone from the group praise

 

#SHARE: You found something you would like to share with the group

 

#GIVE: You have something to give to the group - free - tickets, expertise, etc or you have a deal or something you would like to offer to the group

 

#RESUME: You have an available candidate to share with the group

 

#JOBALERT: You are seeking referrals to fill a certain role

In the Community

AceTech members can receive a discount at SecTor
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