Who You Calling a Jesse?

Looking at Startups and tech in the Waterloo area for 2012

Over the last few weeks I have had a number of people approach me asking about what is going on in Waterloo’s startup scene and who they should be watching. It is a bit of a complicated question to answer and I am sure to leave some folks off the list but here are the startups I think are going to shine in 2012 and have a presence in the Waterloo Region.

The 100+ employee company that is going to blow everyone away:

• Desire2Learn (D2L) – If you heard the story of D2L from John Baker you would have heard the howto in creating a great company. Lots of hard work, a little luck, and some bold moves gives this company the position it has today. Technology in education is a hot market and these folks are poised to take the leadership spot in a space where the leader, Blackboard, sold for $1.64 Billion in July of this year. D2L’s customer base growing by the day, they are poised to take over the leadership role with some great technology.

The 30-100 person company that is ready to take off:

• Well.ca – Guelph based ecommerce shop, Ali Asaria has built an amazing company with leading ecommerce technology behind it. These folks are going to drive ecommerce in Canada for some time to come but for 2012 they seem ready to make a big move.
• Enflick – Millions of users, really smart team, know how to grow revenue, and a $1Million raise.

The obvious ones that recently raised capital:

• Kik Interactive – Ted Livingston raised $8Million with Fred Wilson as one of the big investors… need I say much else?
• VidYard – Freshly back from Y-Combinator these folks announced a $1.65Million raise from Softech VC, YouTube Co-Founder Jawed Karim, YCombinator, SV Angel, Andreessen Horowitz, iNovia Capital, Gmail creator and FriendFeed founder Paul Buchheit, NV Investments’ Vivi Nevo, former RIM COO Dennis Kavelman, David Nikzad and others. Nicely done.
• TribeHR – Announced a $1 Million raise form Matrix partners in Boston with David Skok. This team will be making some serious waves in the HR space in 2012. Disclosure: I am a co-founder.
• Qwalify – Not sure they have raised anything outside of Angels yet but this is one of the smartest teams on this list with some awesome technology.

The lessor known but great companies in my mind:

• esentire - the coolest security company I know of.
• Miovision – they automate a lot of things around traffic monitoring building both the hardware and the software.
• 17 muscles – recently added Carol Leaman as CEO, fresh off the success at PostRank.

Scrappy upstarts with amazing teams:

• MappedIn - they have their stuff deployed at malls and a growing customer list, so much awesome here.
• Bookneto - the education technology space is hot, these folks are building amazing software to make the education experience better.
• BufferBox - annoyed with standing in the 1 hr + line at FedEx this holiday season? These folks fix that.
• TitanFile - keep stuff secure. Smart team from Halifax that are currently set up at the Communitech Hub.
• Willet - I have a soft spot for this team. They were one of the first companies to enter the VeloCity workspace and they are awesome people. Fresh off a term at FounderFuel, expect to hear lots from them in 2012.
• Lumos - Metrics and insights for your games. Watch for this team to find their place in 2012.
• Others?

This is by no means an exhaustive list for Waterloo but it is the list of the folks that are really stepping up their game going into 2012 as StartupNorth suggest we must. Who do you think belongs on here? Who did I miss?

Also, if you are just getting started or have been working for a bit and have something to show off… StartupCampWaterloo12 is January 18th, you should come out.

Understanding burnout

Something I believe all entrepreneurs must face every day as they push to build something from nothing is the spectre of burnout. Put simply, burnout is physical and/or/as-a-result of mental exhaustion. Everyone can suffer from it from athletes to stay at home parents to big company executives. People want to do the best they can at whatever they are doing but at some point they hit a wall.

The idea of burnout is not something far from people’s minds as we enter the final push before the holidays. This is a stressful time of year where people joke about shopping or family fatigue. That makes burnout particularly newsworthy this month as well. For example:

• High levels of burnout in drone pilots
• Burnout in athletes mentioned more than once.
• Canadian Mounties in BC are burning themselves out
• Nurses and other medical professionals are showing signs of burnout
• Researcher takes on ‘empathy fatigue’ in the workplace

What makes the problem a very complicated one is that Doctors don’t think they can diagnose burnout. It could be the diversity in how burnout shows itself that leads to the inability to recognize it in themselves or others. Upon some self-reflection I believe I might have some personal experience to offer that may help others.

Recognizing burnout in myself

Over the last 4 months I have struggled to come to terms with why I was so unhappy given I have so many positive things in my life. In general I could see some odd things that I didn’t like about myself:

• I didn’t remember the last time I had a dream that I could remember. I was sleeping so badly that I don’t think I did dream.
• Short tempered.
• I didn’t take care of my house – I really use to enjoy working around the house, keeping the back yard clean, growing tomatoes, etc.
• I didn’t go fishing hardly at all last summer, I haven’t been snowboarding in years!
• I never felt like I was getting anything done even though I managed to attract some significant capital to the two projects close to my heart and see steady growth in both.
• I didn’t believe anyone thought what I was doing mattered or that anyone cared.
• Overall I was a grump.

I knew something was up in August of this year but I struggled to find a way to deal with it. My first thought was to just step back a little, look forward to bringing on some amazing new staff, and try to start a new term with a new attitude. What I failed to realize was that I was circling around the total burnout toilet bowl.

The first self-realization moment of things needing to change was when my son started hockey; he couldn’t skate and he didn’t want to learn. As a Canadian and a parent I felt like I failed my son as I didn’t take the time to teach him how to skate and have fun while doing it. I decided there and then to buy skates, helmet, and a stick. I then found any open ice time I could and took him out. My kids had to be more important than any work I felt I needed to do. The boy now loves hockey and the fun we have on Saturday mornings at the rink is something I truly cherish.

Around the same time something happened to a good friend and my co-founder (startup spouse): his wife gave birth to his son at 26 weeks in San Jose while on a business trip. At first it had an impact but then in mid-October I went down to see how they were doing and see if I could help. At that point nothing else mattered but the health of that tiny baby that was fighting to some day face burnout himself. He is doing really well now.

Those situations, along with my family and a number of conversations with people I deeply respect helped me start to realign my priorities and thinking. It wasn’t an instant fix. It is something I need to work on. I am lucky though, I didn’t collapse and hit a debilitating stage of burnout.

Looking back and times of high stress

In the last 10 years I can think of three different occasions when I was in a similar situation. The first time I started doing my Msc to find value and purpose in my work. The second time I had a very different kind of manager that recognized the signs early and did something about it. I also had a ton of positive re-enforcement from my family and the community to bounce back. This third time though, I let myself be isolated from coworkers and others for close to the last year. I thought that if I stopped doing the things I enjoyed but were time-consuming (like participating in the community) it would help, it didn’t. It made it far worse.

Next time (and there could be a next time although I am going to put more effort in to avoid it), I need to keep my perspective and make sure I find joy in what I am doing. I also need to take more time for the people in both my personal and professional life. Throwing myself at my work does result in achieving amazing things but at the same time, balance is needed in order to enjoy those accomplishments.

In trying to understand burnout my message to entrepreneurs is that you need to recognize when your behaviour or attitude changes. No one is immune to it and just because you haven’t hit physical exhaustion yet you might be reaching the point of mental exhaustion. Encourage feedback from your friends and family just like you would from customers or advisors on your startup. Listen, adjust based on the feedback, and grow.

Further reading

How to avoid or deal with burnout, collection of articles that are worth a read.