**Register before Workshop prices go up on June 25th and you’ll have the chance to be selected as one of 3 case studies that will be covered in the Q&A!

Here’s our short interview with two of the four co-hosts, Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits, co-authors of The Lean Entrepreneur. See below for their bios!

Business Canvases are great for documenting assumptions for various business model components, but how do you actually create your business model assumptions? First, since a startup isn’t a small version of a big company, you should probably start with a Startup Model.  What are the components you need to concentrate on at the beginning? Second, Lean is about eliminating waste in your Value Stream, where your value stream is everything you do to create and deliver value to your customer.  So, you should probably be creating assumptions around what your Value Stream might be.

Brant and Patrick’s workshop uses the Value Stream Discovery exercise to create assumptions that populate your proposed Startup model.  These assumptions form the basis for your Customer Development, dictate the experiments to be run, and tell you what to measure on your path toward finding product-market fit.

Can you pitch the Lean Startup Method for those who aren’t familiar with it?

Lean Startup is about eliminating the waste in learning what value you are providing (your product) and to whom your providing it (your market). In other words, you don’t build products nobody wants. Whereas in the past, those pursuing innovative endeavors in startups or large enterprises simply bet on what they believed, the Lean Startup uses customer interaction, purpose-built experiments and actionable data to validate their business model.

You’ll be co-hosting the Startupfest Lean Workshop of with Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz, what kind of experience should workshop-goers expect from this collaboration?

Workshop-goers will be blown away.  Patrick and I might just take a seat in the audience for awhile so we can take notes.

What can old and newcomers expect to gain from this workshop and the Lean philosophy?

A fundamental aspect to Lean is continuous improvement, continuous learning.  But old and newcomers will emerge thinking differently.  Our objective is to teach the principles, provide real world examples, and the set free the creative aspects of attendees such that they can ‘make lean startup their own.’ In other words, discover the specific tactics necessary to lead their team in learning and then executing the change they’d like to see in the world.

Any special treats in store for your Startupfest audience?

While all this sounds pretty intense, the special treat will be the fun.

Excited yet? Tickets for the Lean Workshop are going fast so reserve your spot while there’s still room!

Click here to view the embedded video.

About Brant and Patrick

BRANT COOPER	PATRICK VLASKOVITS
Brant Cooper helps startups get started. As a Lean Startup thought leader, he travels the world speaking to entrepreneurs at conferences, hackathons and workshops. Recent speaking events include the Kuala Lumpur Venture Capital Symposium, Lean Startup conferences in Vancouver and Michigan, the Forward Technology Conference in Wisconsin, the Lean Startup Challenge in Boston, and Lean Startup Machines in London, New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. Brant also consults for and advises startups on Lean Startups and Customer Development, with clients in Silicon Valley, New York, San Diego, France, Australia and Singapore. Clients include Qualcomm, MOGL, HubKick, MotherKnows, i.TV, Lean Startup Machine, Discovr and many others. Brant Cooper is passionate about growing the San Diego tech community.He runs the San Diego Tech Founders monthly meetup that consistently draws between 100 and 200 startup people. Speakers have included Eric Ries, Steve Blank, KISSmetrics CEO Hiten Shah, CatchFree CEO Sean Ellis and Venture Capitalist Mark Suster. He is the curator for the San Diego edition of the Startup Digest. Brant mentored at CONNECT for four years and holds open office hours at a weekly coffee meetup that draws 10-20 people a week. Prior to becoming involved in the Lean Startup community, Brant was involved with startups in a more traditional way. He has over 20 years experience in IT and a long track record of bringing high tech products to market. As a leader in Professional Services, Product Management and Marketing, he has directed strategy, design, marketing and implementation of numerous products for a variety of startups including Tumbleweed, Timestamp, WildPackets, Incode and InfoBright. Brant Cooper has published articles for Venture Beat and Business Insider, blogs at Market By Numbers and tweets@brantcooper.	Patrick Vlaskovits is an entrepreneur, mentor and author. He has founded two startups, serves as CMO at Drumbi and co-wrote The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development: A Cheat Sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany.His writing on debunking the origin of Henry Ford’s “faster horses” has been featured on Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal blog and The Browser.Patrick has spoken at tech conferences nationally, including SXSW Interactive (Austin, Texas), Michigan Lean Startup Conference, Lean Startup Machine San Francisco/Chicago/New York as well as internationally, The Turing Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland), Leancamp (multiple), SVC2LX (Lisbon, Portugal). He tweets at@pv and blogs vlaskovits.com. Patrick enjoys advising (Drumbi, Chromatik) and mentoring and serves as a mentor for the 500 Startups and for The Lean Startup Machine.He organizes the Los Angeles Lean Startup Meetup which boasts almost 2,000 members. Previous speakers include Hiten Shah, Steve Blank, Eric Ries, Dave McClure, Jason Calacanis, Janice Fraser, Dave Binetti and Dan Martell. In past years, he also organized Twiistup, a well-attended tech/startup conference that celebrates the entrepreneurial and investment talent of the Los Angeles startup ecosystem.Patrick holds a Master’s in Economics (emphases in finance and econometrics) from University of California, Santa Barbara. When he has spare time, he can be found with his family usually on the beach or in the ocean either fishing, surfing or stand-up paddle surfing.

Like last year, a group of angel and VC investors are coming together as equal partners to create Startupfest’s biggest investment prize. Festival Founder Phil Telio will once again be alongside Anna Goodson, Rory Olson, Danny Knafo and new judges Jamie O’Hara and Howard Stotland, to award one deserving startup a $60,000 prize in the form of an entrepreneur-friendly convertible debenture (details below).

In addition to the $60k investment, the winner will be awarded:

- $5,000 in services from design and branding specialist: Daniel Arsenault

Please note that the prize is not closed and may grow in value between now and the Festival. Any angel on institutional investor interested in participating in the value should contact us at info@startupfestival.com.

Check out our judges below!

INVESTORS

These Investor Judges each pooled $10k for the $60k Investment Prize, and will ultimately determine the winner.

ANNA GOODSON

CEO & Founder of Anna Goodson Illustration Agency (AGIA)

Anna Goodson is the CEO & Founder of the Anna Goodson Illustration Agency, a contemporary creative boutique representing some of the most prominent illustrators from around the world. Founded in 1996, AGIA has a proven track record of expertise that has served the visual market well. AGIA works with leading advertising agencies, design firms, magazines, publishing and newspapers from around the globe. In the spring of 2010, Anna launched The MEATMARKET™, a place to hook up with the very best in the International Photography Industry.

Prior to launching AGIA, Anna worked 5 years in Advertising.  She started her business career at the tender age of 19 while doing her BFA at Concordia University and working part time at her father’s printing agency company. Anna’s father and grandfather were both entrepreneurs and her grandmother was in sales in 1925. Anna thinks that being an entrepreneur is in her blood and looks forward to founding and investing in other business in the future.

PHILIPPE TELIO

Founder and Producer of the International Startup Festival

President Embrase

Phil may have an engineering background, but this seasoned entrepreneur got a taste of the startup world fresh out of university. His journey started in the early 90s pre-internet era when he joined Public Technologies Multimedia—a startup that grew from a handful of people, to hundreds of people in just a few short years. Although he launched his career as a programmer, Phil was quickly drawn into the business side of startups and has pursued this vocation ever since. From PTM he joined Locus Dialogue, who was eventually bought by InfoSpace (another startup that grew quickly). In 2003 Phil decided to start his own chapter with Embrase, a business-consulting firm centered on bringing innovation to the enterprise market. Despite his 20+ years of executive experience driving strategic business development, his heart was always in startups so he created a series of events that have now come to be the largest events in Canada for entrepreneurs. Phil is also a board member of the Osmo Foundation and is the President and Chairman of the Montreal Startup Foundation.

RORY OLSON

CEO and Founder of Wall Street Survivor

Rory Olson is the Founder and CEO of Wall Street Survivor, among the largest, Interactive, financial education sites, online. Launched in 2007 and with over 420000 users, Wall Street Survivor is the CodeAcademy for Investing, using its real-time stock market simulator coupled with content, to educate beginner investors in a mentored handheld way.

Prior to founding Wall Street Survivor, Rory was Founder and CEO of several highly regarded companies such as; Total.Net, Canada’s largest independent dial-up Internet Service Provider. He was COO of MPACT Immedia, a pioneer in the provision of electronic commerce solutions (which eventually merged with Bell Canada’s business unit, Emergis, to form BCE Emergis where he assumed the role of EVP Business Development). He then became a partner and COO of Airborne Mobile, which sold to Cybrid a Japanese mobile entertainment company. He was also the Co-Founder and CEO of SureFire Commerce, one of the leading card-not present payment processing companies.

Rory is passionate about technology startups, his family and friends, entrepreneurship, U2 and his dog Casey.

DANIEL KNAFO

Angel Investor

Danny spends his days working for a private institutional lender which provides bridge-financing to distressed companies. He has over 20 years of business experience, including 8 as a senior manager for one of Montreal’s top insolvency and restructuring firms. In addition, he has held senior financial management posts with both privately-held and public corporations operating across diverse sectors. For the last 6 years, he was responsible for sourcing mid-market business opportunities, asset appraisals and asset dispositions in Eastern Canada for an Ontario based distressed ABL lender.
Danny holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Concordia University, an MBA from McGill University and was granted a Bankruptcy Trustee License from Industry Canada in 1995.

HOWARD STOTLAND

Founder STS Systems

Howard Stotland founded STS Systems in 1973, a leading provider of information systems to the petroleum and retail industries. The firm grew from a start-up in Montreal to an organization with more than 900 employees in Canada, the US and the UK, with revenues of $135 million. The company was acquired by NSB Retail Systems PLC in December 2000. STS Systems serviced more than 300 retail businesses and its client list read like a Who’s Who in retailing: Barneys NY, DKNY, Escada, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Chicos, Gymboree, Dicks, Bobs, Holt Renfrew, Reitmans, Roots and Danier Leather. In the petroleum industry, STS clients included Shell Canada, Imperial Oil, Texaco, Petro-Canada, and many top US petroleum distributors.

Howard currently sits on the Board of Directors of Reitmans Canada Ltd. and is a former board member of Danier Leather, Canada Health Infoway ─ a federally funded organization responsible for developing infostructure for the proliferation of Canadians’ electronic health records ─ and Blueslice Networks, a small start-up with whom he was associated as an investor. He is also an investor and director for two other technology companies in the Montreal area (Momentis Systems and Oceanwide Inc).

JAMIE O’HARA

Managing partner, Grise Global Group

Jamie Founded Gris Global Groupe, LLC in 2009. G3 has a wide investment mandate and looks to commit capital directly with solid companies/management. Gris has also worked with Family Offices to direct investments as well as offered consulting services. Prior to Founding Gris Global Groupe, Jamie was a key architect in driving the growth strategy of a US$1BB Investment Fund. In his tenure, he has been involved with fund raising, workout group re-structurings, structuring public and private deals, domestic and international, including the energy, alternative energy and technology sectors. Prior to earning his MBA at Cornell University, Jamie earned an undergraduate degree in Economics from The College of the Holy Cross. He has served on Advisory Boards for Boys and Girls Hope, the Mount Sinai Hospital Benefit Committee and the Holy Cross Alumni Organization.

ADVISORS

CONVERTIBLE LOAN AGREEMENT

View The preliminary International Startup Festival 2013 Convertible Loan Agreement HERE.

** Please note that the following standard convertible note is preliminary and subject to change.

Keep in mind that the Open House is not a part of the three-day festival—it’s a little extra something we want to do for the community. An environment of entrepreneurs inspires entrepreneurship, and since the Startupfest philosophy is to promote community relations, this is our way of giving back and doing our part to foster a rich startup ecosystem. However, if you would like to part-take in the whole Startupfest experience, we encourage you to register!

Want to pick his brain? Looks like you’ll have to wait until Festival-time! In the mean-time, here’s a little tease:

What role do you think stories and anecdotes play in the creation of startup ecosystems?

It has to do with inspiration—as an entrepreneur who is building a startup, there are a lot of ups and a lot of downs and not a lot of people to talk to about those highs and lows. So anecdotally hearing them from people who have been there and done that can be hugely inspiring; particularly when those anecdotes also include the bad days as much as the good days. As an entrepreneur, hearing those stories and having those times of aspirational anecdotes really does help you continue to hustle when things are looking a little bit grim.

Another point I would say is that building a company tends to be a very lonely activity—especially in the early days when its you, and maybe your co-founder, hacking away in a basement trying to break your first sale. Hearing that there are others out there who have gone through that same experience is also a great way to stay connected and stay focused on the big picture: building your company.

For the new companies pitching at the festival, what one piece of advice would you give them?

When pitching, most companies talk about the “what” and the “how” of their business: what are they doing and how will they build it? What I like to understand is the why—why are they doing it? What happened? The first question was all about stories—I want to know the story. Shopify was started when we were trying to build a snowboard shop online. We were frustrated with the software being offered on the market at the time, so we built our own software to sell the snowboards. The why was that we wanted to democratize retail; we wanted to make it available for anyone with a product or service that wanted to build an online store.

It’s very important to tell your story and to talk about the why. The why is what you can reflect when you hit the infamous “trough of sorrow”—the why will keep you going, especially in that place in the startup cycle.

How do you think a company knows they’ve “found it”—the right product for the market—and it’s time to stop experimenting and start scaling?

I don’t think that’s ever the case—Shopify has been around for 8 years now and we still spend much of our time experimenting to make the product better. I don’t believe that any real startup or entrepreneur ever stops experimenting and making decisions based on those experiments. It’s important to consistently re-invent yourself; your market may change, your marketing team may change, the type of people who use your product may change, so it’s important that as a startup, there is never a finish line to say “okay, we’re done now.” The second you say “our product is done now,” I think that you as a company are done.

Do enterprises and governments need to become more like startups? Or is there a role for big/stable/slow enterprises?

The concept of a startup is more than just the a type of business—it’s a mentality. It’s a mentality, that with limited resources, you can optimize to achieve very large objectives. It forces you to be creative and resourceful. That being said, I believe that government companies can operate like a startup—a startup is all about making sure that people have ownership , that they’re doing the right thing at the right time and adding the most value possible—and this attitude isn’t just limited to startup technology businesses.  It’s really a mentality regarding the way that you operate, so I do believe that there are a lot of things that governments and Fortune 500s can learn from startups. Actually, what we’re seeing now is that many Fortune 500 companies have “lab” initiatives (Facebook labs, Google labs), which is just a fancy way of saying that they’re creating a startup within a larger company because they want to do some really interesting things without the red tape. And again, a part of the startup definition is removing the red tape to be creative, to test, to iterate. So yes, I do believe there is room for startups in any company.

Is subversiveness a required quality for founders who want to disrupt a market? Can you make it “playing by the rules” or do you need to write your own rules?

What I believe is meant by subversiveness is challenging the status quo, and there’s a word for that: disruption. Disruption is very important but you can also build a great company and not disrupt an industry (and it’s actually  pretty common). Particularly in the startup technology world, taking something that exists, looking at it, having a real problem with the way it operates and saying “I can do it better”—is very important. It’s important as an entrepreneur to find things and to say, “I can do it better,” and then going forward and actually doing it. And that is very important; challenging the status quo and challenging the way things are typically done is a big part of entrepreneurship and of startup culture. It doesn’t mean that you have to go around picking fights with every big industry, but I do believe that a David and Goliath type of relationship—with Goliath being big industries and David being the startup entrepreneur—helps in the sense that it gives your startup purpose, and gives you a worthy adversary to go after as an entrepreneur. That, in my experience, is how some of the best companies have been built.

You don’t need to have an enemy—in a lot of cases you build something from nothing. The first search engine wasn’t trying to challenge the previous search engine, they just had a really good idea. But it was Google that came along and said: “we can do it better.” E-bay created an e-commerce platform and shopping place that said: “we can do it better.” So there is a bit of a trend here that subversiveness, or challenging the status quo, is important. But I don’t believe it is for the reasons that most people think; I think it’s important because that’s the type of tenacity, confidence and passion that you need in an entrepreneur. You need to be confident that what you’re doing is important and will make peoples’ lives better.

Stay posted with Harley’s updates @hfizzle

She’s also an Adjunct Professor at SVA’s Products of Design, and NYU’s ITP School, where she runs the Venture Pitchfest. A former Wall Street Analyst and Economist, Jen has held executive management roles at Organic and Frog Design, and Dachis Group. At Dachis Group, Jen served as EVP Managing Director, leading client service, strategy consulting, experience design and delivery. Jen has a BA from Trinity College, and an MBA from HEC in France.

Interested in picking her brain? Catch her talk onstage! In the meantime, here’s a little tease:

What role do you think stories and anecdotes play in the creation of startup ecosystems? 

Stories start the ecosystem. Watching the health tech space – it is companies like Asthmopolis and Ginger.io that become totems to other startups, incumbents, investors, and innovators. Especially when you can easily explain their story to non-technical customers (end user consumers and enterprise customers) and paint a picture of what the future will be like when these companies succeed. The stories also work as a call to innovators toiling away in other more established sectors to join an emerging ecosystem – often the best time to formulate your first idea.

How do you know you’ve “found it”—the right product for the market—and it’s time to stop experimenting and start scaling?

You known you’ve found it when you risk being able to fulfill customer orders because you can’t keep up with demand. Despite what people say, that is not the “best problem to have,” but instead a huge risk – startups succeed or fail at that critical moment of transition between customer discovery pilot and full ramp up, and you have the greatest likelihood to run out of runway. So the real answer is do not wait until you have “found it” – set up your early experiments to capture leading indicator data and move to fund your scale ahead of that growth.

Do enterprises and governments need to become more like startups? Or is there a role for big/stable/slow enterprises? 

Luckily no enterprise or government is slow and stable – so the answer is simple. Yes, big enterprises and governments need leaner approaches, and need to become more adaptive to change which is the only constant. Aspects of lean, agile, and the business model canvas can help the stodgiest of companies work through innovation opportunities and prioritize their product and service portfolios. What is interesting is where lean breaks in a big company – when you do have to go through lengthy regulatory processes, or you have to evaluate a large acquisition, or make a decision that affects the existing brand equity. The best adoption of lean methods take this into account, but still encourage a culture of experimentation, risk taking, and learning from failure.

Is subversiveness a required quality for founders who want to disrupt a market? Can you make it “playing by the rules” or do you need to write your own rules?

Subversiveness helped in the early days of the internet, and the waves of e-commerce, social networking. But I’m seeing a different challenge in health and enterprise big data – the need to deeply entrench our understanding in what is currently broken with the health care system, and with organizational decision making. Ultimately innovators are competing for the time and attention of people who make decisions, so deeply understanding existing power structures is a necessary part of customer discovery. If you approach that with too much of a rebel’s attitude, you may not hear the deepest pain points. That said, your solution may end up radically changing the power structure – but it needs to be focused not just on disruption for disruption’s sake – but for better outcomes for society. In healthcare this is a complex formula called the triple aim – better health outcomes, improved patient experience, and reduced cost of care. You can’t be so subversive that you ignore any one of these goals at the expense of market disruption.

Catch Jen van der Meer’s talk on stage! In the meantime, stay posted on twitter @jenvandermeer.

Prior to Indiegogo, Danae was a Securities Analyst at Cowen & Co.  where she covered entertainment companies including Pixar, Lionsgate, Disney, and Electronic Arts.  Danae also focused on cable network, NFL, newspaper and hedge fund clientele while at JPMorgan’s Investment Bank and Private Bank.  In the wake of 9/11, Danae co-produced a concert reading of Incident at Vichy, an Arthur Miller play addressing the politically charged topic of racial profiling.

Danae is a CFA charterholder and holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Danae graduated with a B.A. in Humanities from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead Scholar and varsity rower.

Make sure to catch her talk onstage at Startupfest, but in the meantime stay posted with what she’s up to @gogoDanae!

For the new companies pitching at the festival, what one piece of advice would you give them?

My one piece of advice is not to wait on your idea because it’s not perfect yet. It’s important for you to learn and iterate as you go. You have to put your idea into the world and see how people respond in order to see if you’re onto something or not, then you should iterate based on that. If you have a hunch about a problem or a hunch about the solution, just test it, start talking to people and get feedback. You don’t need to wait, because the more quickly you can adapt, the more quickly you can get to something meaningful.

When you were learning to be an entrepreneur, what one story stood out as a critical lesson for you?

It’s not a story, but it was one piece of advice that my father, who was an entrepreneur, gave to me and it has continued to inform my experiences through today. He told me “The world has a way of saying ‘no.’ It likes its inertia, it doesn’t like change, it likes the status quo. It’s your job as an entrepreneur to say ‘yes.’” He meant that change is always possible and how it is currently isn’t necessarily how it should remain. It’s an entrepreneur’s duty to see these changes through and eventually people will thank you for it because the world has changed for the better. My dad’s advice taught me that every time you run into some kind of roadblock, it isn’t really a roadblock; it’s just an inconvenience. It’s your duty to keep saying “yes” and to find a path around it. You need to navigate the choppy waters as par for the course, so when you see an obstacle, embrace it as only a mere inconvenience.

Is subversiveness a required quality for founders who want to disrupt a market? Can you make it “playing by the rules” or do you need to write your own rules?

I wouldn’t say subversiveness is a requirement, but what is required is the ability not to be blinded by the status quo and to be able to see through it to what’s actually possible. Sometimes humanity gets trapped in the status quo because we think that’s the way it should be versus realizing that it’s just the way it is right now because we haven’t developed far enough to where it could be. The job of a founder is not to be blinded by this. As a founder, you must be obsessed with fixing a problem and if you’re not fundamentally motivated to do so, it will be more difficult to succeed because there will be far too many obstacles that will pop up and make you think the current circumstances are good enough. In order to succeed, you must truly believe that it’s your responsibility to find a solution because the world needs you to.

We caught up with the Vancouverite as she prepared to move to Montreal. During our conversation, she gave us the story behind her success, explained why she thinks startups shouldn’t be afraid to be personal and offered some advice for first-time Startupfest participants.

Your startup story begins with Blo – the company you founded with your mom while you were attending the London College of Fashion when you were 21. What’s the story?

My mom and I were on the phone and sparked this peripheral conversation about how all these top women in Canada who were attending business events looked like a hot mess. And after having a compassionate giggle — since we know how much has to get done in a day to reach goals — we asked ‘why?’.

We realized it was because the current market offering in the salon model didn’t agree with their time or expenses. There was no hairstyling service for women who were on the go.  And today, what women aren’t on the go?!

I thought, “You know what? I’ve got this business course coming up…” It was the one thing that was directly related to business three-year degree. We opened our first location six months after I submitted my proposal as a school project.

Your mom’s a businesswoman herself, no?

My mom became an entrepreneur out of necessity to feed her kid, me! She was a single mom at the time when she started her first business. She had already built and sold two businesses by the time we launched Blo.

I had really grown up around my mom’s conversations. There were definitely times when we couldn’t afford a babysitter AND nice dinner. So she would take me along to Il Giardino or whatever restaurant where she had her business meeting and I’d sit in my little Isola-bella tutu and my Doc Marten’s and soak up my mum’s personal and professional energy. I watched her build and grow teams and businesses all my life.

It sounds like you really got your education in the field.

I’m a person who learns by getting my hands dirty. I can’t listen intellectually I listen on a much deeper level. I have to play to learn. Things I think many entrepreneurs have in common.

I think most great ideas are founded from a huge, burning question mark. The best ideas come from those kind of ‘why’s’ — questions that are born out of a need or frustration.

The most interesting Entrepreneurs execute that idea because they don’t think anyone else can do it better. Because they can see the answer. They have a vision.

Now, as a mentor for CYBF, the shoe is on the other foot. What are some of the things you tell your mentees?

It’s quite common that People who haven’t worked for themselves think there’s something very hot and sexy about working for yourself.

The fact is, you will never work for as many people as when you work for yourself. All of a sudden you will need to support and report to a board, or your investors, your team, and most absolutely your co-founders if you have them. There are many members in a business family, and you will be taking care of everyone.

You will never be so accountable.

There is a perception that in working for yourself there is automatic freedom, glory and flexibility — in fact it’s the opposite. Those things are earned just like in anything you do.

A myth-crushing truth. But a really important one.

You’re pretty young – aren’t mentors supposed to be old wise people?

Mentoring is really just supporting. It’s acting as a filter to help others reflect to achieve what they want. By the time I had launched Blo at 21, my co-founders and I had already been reflecting a great deal to evolve through and on the other end of great challenges. So, at this point in my life I feel especially connected to others’ emotions, to the people I support, this kind of reflection is very natural to me.

Sharing is something you’re especially familiar with. You have said in the past that part of that has to do with the personal trauma you’ve experienced. You were assaulted by a man when you were 18, and by another when you were 21. Both ended up pleading guilty.

While you’ve got your pedal to the metal, stuff gets in the way, that’s life. My story was no different. I had a whole shit load of stuff go wrong.

Adversities can do one of two things – they can make you distrust humanity, igniting an intrinsic fear and reclusiveness. OR, they can make you more compassionate, more loving, more prepared to be vulnerable and more deeply connected to people. In our lives, we are responsible for how we behave. So, I always choose compassion and everything it requires.

Sharing was an absolute, intentional choice. Never for a second did I think it wasn’t worth doing.

But sharing is also pretty scary, and in the startup world, it seems like vulnerability is the last thing people are interested in showing.

Sharing humanizes us in the eyes of others. It is what makes us real. I certainly shy away from people who aren’t prepared to be vulnerable. I have compassion for them, and will always create the space for vulnerability, but I am not interested in spending time with, or investing energy in those who aren’t willing to experience the discomfort of honesty for the sake of themselves or others. Evading discomfort stunts growth.

Do you think there is enough empathy in the startup universe?

No. The universe craves it. Teams cannot exist for long without it. At some point it is just required, and you are either capable or incapable of empathy. There is no half-way. Empathy is not a feeling, it is a behavior and it is an admirable skill of the heart.

Today’s startup universe has no room for Mad Men culture. That’s not what people are yearning for. People are yearning to be a part of teams that are connected. Values drive honesty and honesty drives stories, and sometimes those stories are a bit uncomfortable but we have to unearth these things to grow and get better.

I think that by nature entrepreneurialism attracts very committed, passionate people. Most entrepreneurs are quite easily affected or quite thoughtful, reflective people by nature. And very emotional whether they will admit it or not.

You will be MCing at Startupfest this year. What are you looking forward to most?

I’m hugely excited to see what ideas and what kind of leaders are being born in Montreal.

Any advice for first-time startups heading to the festival?

You can’t be afraid of building relationships.

Whether you are a rookie entrepreneur or a veteran, enter this kind of environment to make friends. Business cards on their own are meaningless. And when someone is sharing a war-story, don’t just listen intellectually, listen with complete openness.

You could leave Startupfest with the lesson or story of another that will shape your purpose forever.

“I wouldn’t be able to function without the Internet,” he says. “Technology is a great thing, but sometimes it’s nice to hear someone’s voice.” He’s looking forward to uncovering how the seed of an idea germinates in the head of a founder. “I like listening to peoples’ ideas.”

Harrison’s real focus is on how today’s ideas can change lives tomorrow. In our interview with him, he references Storypanda—last year’s pick by the Festival’s panel of teen judges, as a startup he wishes had been available to him. “I’d rather watch TV than read a book,” he says, “but if companies like Storypanda had been around, I might enjoy books more.”

A 14-year-old student currently in Grade 8 at Montreal’s Beaconsfield High School, Harrison has his own startup dreams. He wants to launch a home-away-from-home hotel chain, inspired by, of all things, an obsession with doors—since, as a child, he was fascinated by the mechanism used to control hotel room doors.

Look for Harrison and his cameraman at this summer’s Startup Festival, and tell him your story!

As a partner with Atlas Ventures’ Technology group, Fred Destin focuses on software and

technology-enabled services and digital media infrastructure and applications. Simply put, as a seed stage VC: he helps build companies.

Founders he partnered with include top 30 global website DailyMotion (video sharing) or leading online real estate site Zoopla, as well as Seatwave, Cinemagram, TheCurrencyCloud, Integral Ad Science (fka Adsafe) and more! Fred is also a founding investor of Seedcamp and a Techstars mentor.

Here’s a quick peek into his thoughts:

What role do you think stories and anecdotes play in the creation of startup ecosystems?

For most of us, inspiration comes from hearing personal stories of failure and achievement.  Suspending disbelief and taking big jumps into the unknown is always motivated by espousing the tales of other fallible humans.  We are built on our own myths.

For the new companies pitching at the festival, what one piece of advice would you give them?

There’s a lot of you pitching so simplify your message to the extreme, and be extremely clear on the three things you want the audience to remember.  Above all else, be memorable.

How do you think a company knows they’ve “found it”—the right product for the market—and it’s time to stop experimenting and start scaling?

There is no magic moment when a company is ready for scale or elastic systems of organization that can take you all the way – you constantly have to reassess how you are building your company to handle each stage of growth.  Don’t scale before you have repeatability.

Do enterprises and governments need to become more like startups? Or is there a role for big/stable/slow enterprises?

Don’t confuse stable and slow.  Some innovative processes take years to complete, in the same way that most successful Startups take many years to build. But everyone needs to be responsive to what has become a highly chaotic environment.

Is subversiveness a required quality for founders who want to disrupt a market? Can you make it “playing by the rules” or do you need to write your own rules?

It’s hard to disrupt markets without often challenging the boundaries of what is acceptable. Laws and regulations always change last, so, within reason, don’t let that hold you back.  Write your own story.

Don’t miss him on stage at Startupfest! In the meantime, stay posted on Twitter @fdestin

For this year’s Startupfest, we’ve decided to start an Open House initiative on the Saturday after the festival itself. What this means is that we’ll be opening the Startupfest Village to the general public for a day.

Whether you’re a student, thinking about changing career paths, flirting with the idea of entrepreneurship or are just curious to see what we’re all about—Saturday July 13^th is the perfect day to come connect! Join us from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a stroll through our tent-expo, or stop by one of our stages to listen to a few local speakers—but hey, if you want to hear from our keynote speakers, you’ll have to register for the event itself

For Startupfest attendees, the Open House is a great opportunity to hang back, re-visit some tents, follow-up