Dickson and I have been working on a blog specifically for VenturePrize (and Wes Nicol too) and it's finally ready for public consumption! Basically you can read all about our experiences in the two competitions, starting way back in October 2005 when we first decided to take part in VenturePrize. The address is:

http://ventureprize.paramagnus.com

With the exception of the March posts, all entries have been posted after the fact. So a post from November was actually written in the last two weeks, even though the post itself seems like it was written in November. We did our best to go back in time and remember what we were thinking and feeling so that the blog is authentic. I don't think we'll be adding any more "back posts", unless we remember something worth sharing, so the blog is "live" moving forward.

There are two main reasons for this blog. First and foremost, it is for us, so that we can look back and remember the experience. It should also come in handy when asked about timelines in the future, as it is often difficult to remember when things happened. The second reason is that we hope our experience will be useful to future participants of the VenturePrize and Wes Nicol competitions. Learn from our mistakes, and improve upon the things we did!

The blog is entirely comprised of text posts right now, but we're planning to add some media content at some point too, podcasts, pictures, etc. Enjoy!

We've fallen behind lately on updating our website, but we did some work on it today. We posted some press releases, and created a Press Centre page. If things get as busy as the VenturePrize people tell us they will, we figured it would be wise to have a specific page already setup that we can easily modify and update.

Everything is public now, so it's time for an update on our business plan competitions! As you may recall, Dickson and I entered Paramagnus into two business plan competitions - VenturePrize and Wes Nicol. We had back to back presentations in February, and have been waiting patiently to find out how we did. We've known for a couple days now, but it was announced today that we're a finalist in the VenturePrize competition, and we won first place in the local portion of the Wes Nicol! Congratulations especially to our fellow finalists in VenturePrize, and indeed to all of the competitors we've met thus far. We've learned so much already!

We're now preparing for the final VenturePrize showdown which takes place at the annual EEDC luncheon on March 22nd. We'll be among the first people to see the brand new extension to the Shaw Conference Centre. The following day we need to be in Ottawa for the national component of the Wes Nicol competition, so it'll be a very busy two days! We're looking forward to it.

Actually the next few weeks will be busy. We did a brief interview tonight that will air on CBC Radio tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon we're filming our three minute video that will be shown at the luncheon on the 22nd. We're presenting to a class at the University next Friday. Over the next two weeks we'll be putting together an "insider's blog" for our experience in VenturePrize. And of course we've got to update our business plan, prepare our second presentations, and keep our business running (not to mention school, volunteering, etc). And it won't stop there - we've already got interviews and the like lined up into April. Definitely good for the business!

We've met a lot of people lately, and while it was nice to meet all of you, sometimes it's hard to get down contact information or remember everyone. If you'd like to get in touch, you can reach me via email or at 780.619.3864. Or of course you can simply subscribe :)

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We just finished our first ever problem-free infrastructure upgrades! Our server room looks so much nicer and cleaner now. The changes took longer than expected, but that's why we work at night :) We're well on our way to launching our podcasting services now, so stay tuned!