What a year it’s been!
Things are always busy at MaRS, and 2012 was no exception. We hosted many exciting events, made many exciting announcements and saw our community grow greatly both in real life and online.
One of the important ways that we share with our community is through our daily blog. For your reading pleasure, we’ve captured the most compelling blogs—as noted by you, our dear readers—for each month of the year. The range in subjects, companies profiled, entrepreneurs and programs goes to show just how much goes on at MaRS on any given day, and how much talent and knowledge is availed to our community through our community.
January 2012: Lean Startup Showcase: Price My Ride
The Lean Startup movement has really taken off in 2012. In this blog post, author Nathan Monk highlights MaRS startup Price My Ride, explaining how the company used the Lean methodology in its development.
February 2012: Infographic: Startup City—Take a tour of some of Toronto’s startup ‘hoods
Big data was big news in 2012, and it’s going to be an even bigger story in 2013. The Data Catalyst team started this year focusing on building a map of startups in Toronto, and is working on building even more insights into the new year, especially for startups and supporting the recently announced Clean Energy Institute.
March 2012: Social Media and Business: A partnership between LinkedIn and MaRS
Many of our successes here at MaRS are due to the collaboration and partnerships built with others in the startup eco-system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the world. In this blog post, Krista Jones writes about the relationship between MaRS and LinkedIn, and the power of social media for startups and entrepreneurs.
April 2012: Be a savvy entrepreneur – Follow these 13 key forces to shape your path to 2015
Lists, lists and more lists! We love lists, and this blog post from Sean Moffitt, co-author of Wikibrands, helps our entrepreneur community focus on the elements that will help them be successful well into the new year and beyond.
May 2012: The Business of Aging, live and work longer AND better
The Business of Aging Summit, which was held in May of this year, was a resounding success. We showcased startups in the healthcare space and heard from many amazing speakers, including internationally renowned specialists Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, and Geoff Mulgan, CEO of Nesta UK.
An announcement by the minister of energy in partnership with the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation during the Future of Energy summit in June launched the Clean Energy Institute and new ways to build commercial markets for clean technology for Ontario startups.
July 2012: Collaborating for growth in the K-12 education market
Bringing collaborative partners together to disrupt the education technology market is precisely what Krista Jones, Joseph Wilson and Aron Solomon will be doing as they lead the newly launched EdTech practice at MaRS. This blog post by Howard B. Esbin shares why this is exactly the right industry for us to focus on.
August 2012: Introducing: JOLT’s inaugural summer 2012 cohort
We forayed into the accelerator fold this summer when Susan McGill launched the JOLT Accelerator program. The first cohort has come and graduated and we’re keeping tabs on all of the successes those startups have had so far. The second cohort will be announced soon and we’re expecting more great things—and startups—from this successful program.
September 2012: 48 hours with 500 Startups’ Paul Singh
As part of the JOLT Accelerator program, we hosted Paul Singh of 500 Startups fame, and everyone was excited to meet him and learn from his experiences. Paul was immensely gracious with the time he offered the JOLT entrepreneurs and the MaRS and Toronto startup communities.
October 2012: Seeing data in a whole new light
Neha Khera of the MaRS Market Intelligence team provided us with insights and profiles on the Ontario startups that are changing the way everyone looks at data as part of a greater piece on data visualization.
November 2012: RBC ignites Canadian impact investing market with $1 million gift
We couldn’t do what we do at MaRS without the support of our communities. RBC took the lead this year in supporting the Centre for Impact Investing, the hub in Canada for B Corporations, social financing and changing the way that the whole country will look at impact investing.
December 2012: What does the future of youth entrepreneurship look like?
As the year winds down, the MaRS Education team is still hard at work building on the success of the Future Leaders program, which ran this summer and is planned again for March Break in 2013. At MaRS we know that the future of entrepreneurship and the success of Ontario’s economy means not only focusing in on existing startups, but paving the way to build a pipeline that is full of those yearning to create something new.
So, that’s how 2012 shaped up at MaRS. Of course, there’s more content on our blog that will satisfy just about any question you have about entrepreneurship, learning resources, funding, marketing, social media, startups in life sciences and healthcare, cleantech, social innovation and information technology, communications and entertainment, and now education. All you need to do is… click!
Happy holidays to all of our friends and readers! We can’t wait to see what 2013 brings!