Rackspace Startup

Recently the Rackspace Startup Program had the opportunity to visit the International Startup Festival in Montreal. It was here that we found out Canada is fast becoming an epicenter for the startup community. Let’s continue our Canadian journey and venture from the province of Quebec to Ontario and the University of Toronto’s The Next 36 program. Touted as Canada’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative, the goal of The Next 36 is to help launch the careers of Canada’s most promising and innovative undergraduates.  The program is open to second, third or fourth year students working on their first undergraduate degree. Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada are eligible to apply, and the program accepts students from any university enrolled in any discipline.

Dave McClure brought his startup brood all the way from Mountain View to Manhattan Wednesday night. The 500 Startups team showed off its latest batch at General Assembly (another Rackspace Startup Program partner). The very spacious communal area was standing room only — a standing testament to both the interest in NYC’s growing startup scene and to the continued strength of tech in theSilicon Valley.

The most important day of an up-and-coming startup is Demo Day.  What does that mean?  It means product readiness, business development, and oh yeah, the opportunity to pitch in front of the press and investors.  The Rackspace Startup Program had a chance to witness how they do just that at 500 Startups in Mountain View, CA.  This is the second “Graduating” presented by this unique seed fund accelerator.

We recently had the pleasure of one of our Rackspace Startup Program companies’ visit us here at the Rackspace headquarters in San Antonio.  My Health on the Go based in Phoenix, Arizona, is a self-funded Bootstrap venture offering a free online wellness community, My Healthy Place, promoting personalized, proactive, preventative wellness to small businesses and individuals. The fun and customizable programs allow employees and individuals to take charge of and engage in long-term personal wellness management in a motivating social networking environment. Members of My Healthy Place will be able to enjoy daily wellness content and activities, wellness competitions, the availability of wellness groups and clubs in their geographic area and fun incentive points programs with real financial rewards.

The 2011 class of TechStars Boulder emerged from its bunker last week to do what startups in accelerators do: Rock their demo day.

Forecast is the latest app from Hurricane Party, Inc., formed in May of 2010 in Austin, Texas. Hurricane Party was one of only five companies selected that year from a pool of several hundred for Capital Factory’s prestigious seed accelerator. At SXSW 2011 the Hurricane Party app was launched. It was in that same timeframe that the Rackspace Startup Program was launching as well.

While in Montreal for the International Startup Festival, I got to go on a Dishcrawl. The concept will be familiar to anyone who has ever been on a pub-crawl. Instead of guzzling gallons of booze at multiple bars, you eat copious quantities of food at a number of restaurants.

Jeff is the Rackspace Startup Program Manager. Follow him on Twitter.

En·tre·pre·neur – A person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

The dozen TechStars startups had their big reveal on Wednesday to a packed crowd during a Demo Day at Boston’s Royale Nightclub. Diversity is probably the best word to describe the group. Participating startups included everything from gaming to SaaS to medical services and devices.