A recap of our first Sprout Up Montreal

We’re constantly impressed by the startup/entrepreneur communities that exist in cities around the world – from obvious locations like NYC, London and San Francisco to vibrant communities in Boston and Toronto. We were lucky enough to meet some of the local entrepreneurs and companies in the flourishing Montreal startup scene at our very first Sprout Up Montreal last night, which took place at Crescent St. pub Brutopia. We held the event as a part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, which is taking

Sprouter connection namebadges

place around the world from November 16^th-22^nd. We also debuted our unique connection namebadges – each attendee received a nametag with a suggested in-person connection and a suggested online connection on Sprouter. The purpose is to get people talking and connecting at the event, but then also taking those connections online to stay connected between events.

The event included guest speaker Saul Colt talking about creating a community for your startup, and local startups sharing their businesses. See below for a summary of the participating startups, and for more info about our Sprout Up events:

KeenKong – Co-founder Frederic Guarino gave a live demo a new startup Keen Kong, which is currently in private beta. Keen Kong manages multiple online conversations – it categorizes conversations according to themes and sentiment, and even has a widget for your blog which allows people to categorize their comment according to whether it’s a question, positive or negative comment. Keen Kong is unique because it doesn’t track all the conversations taking place about your company or blog -  only the ones directed specifically to you. You can join the private beta by signing up on their website.

SmartHippo – North Carolina-based Lori Collins took over as CEO of SmartHippo in October after being on their Board of Advisors – she was so enthusiastic about the company that she had to get involved on a full-time level. She told the crowd about SmartHippo’s community-based mortgage site, which allows consumers to search the web, not just sponsored lenders, to find the best mortgage rate. But SmartHippo knows that buying a mortgage only happens every so often – so they keep members and visitors involved with their just-launched Q&A section, which allows community members to lend their expertise. You can connect with founder George Favvas on Sprouter here.

Thanks to our presenters for the evening, and for everyone who attended Sprout Up Montreal. We had the chance to meet entrepreneurs like Felipe Coimbra, Greg Whiteside of GigDoggy, Alain Theriault, and Peter Deitz of SocialActions. We look forward to returning to Montreal soon to hold another event – and if you couldn’t attend, check out our Flickr set from the event here.

Continuing with our GEW activities, tonight is a special youth entrepreneurship edition of Sprout Up Toronto – join us at The Pilot at 6pm to hear from student entrepreneurs and guest speaker Matthew Corrin, founder of Freshii. We hope to see you there!

The crowd at Sprout Up Montreal