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PEER 1 Victoria Startup Index - March 2010

Mar 10, 2010

Rank	Company	TTR
1	Viviti	22,441
2	Skyscraper Source Media	22,855
3(1)	Oprius	23,047
4(-1)	Terapeak	25,832
5(1)	Beanstream	97,135
6(2)	Indochino	103,700
7(-2)	Metamend Search Engine Optimization	113,898
8(-1)	Enquisite	116,163
9(1)	Backstage Technologies Inc.	156,846
10(-1)	YubNub	202,263
11	DailySplice	433,088
12	Udutu	466,211
13	Advanced E-commerce Research Systems	520,899
14	Neverblue Media	528,890
15(3)	YikeSite	1,545,918
16(-1)	Projjex Software Coporation	1,788,250
17(-1)	Grocery Alerts Canada	1,868,216
18(-1)	Sprout	1,908,200
19	Zumer	3,317,145
20(1)	Apricado	7,886,311
21(-1)	Utilium	17,080,497

PEER 1 Seattle Startup Index - March 2010

Mar 10, 2010

Rank	Company	TTR
1	Zillow	655
2	Picnik	972
3	Wetpaint	1,973
4	Pet Holdings, Inc	2,156
5(11)	Buddy TV	2,220
6	Urbanspoon	2,240
7	FEEDJIT	2,354
8(-3)	SEOmoz Inc.	2,641
9(1)	43 Things (Robot Co-op)	2,660
10(5)	Newsvine	2,793
11(-3)	ActiveRain	2,941
12(-1)	Redfin	3,096
13(-4)	Smilebox	3,592
14(-1)	PayScale	3,770
15(-3)	Faves.com	3,855
16(1)	eNotes.com, Inc.	4,663
17(3)	Bonanzle	4,776
18	Avvo inc.	5,883
19	Jamglue	6,991
20(3)	nuTsie	7,340
21(1)	I Has a Hotdog	7,940
22(5)	BigOven	8,066
23(7)	RealSelf	10,450
24	QuestionPro	10,752
25(-4)	Ohloh	11,470
26(-1)	Pundit Kitchen	13,054
27(16)	Cozi Group	14,362
28(-14)	LiveMocha	14,468
29(3)	Shelfari	14,619
30(-4)	Imagekind	14,681
31(4)	Jobster	15,457
32(4)	Judy's Book	15,946
33(-2)	PopShops	16,690
34(3)	Menuism	16,717
35(-7)	SWiK inc.	16,903
36(-7)	Entertonement	17,628
37(-3)	ProgrammableWeb	22,369
38(-5)	AdReady	23,359
39(-1)	Walk Score	24,658
40(25)	RescueTime	30,585
41(19)	Delve Networks	30,775
42(-1)	Trailfire	30,928
43(-1)	Foodista	32,065
44(-5)	AppStoreHQ	32,510
45(-5)	WidgetBucks	36,147
46(3)	Wishpot	36,854
47(-2)	Whrrl	37,986
48	BlueKai	40,441
49(-2)	Groundspeak, Inc.	42,441
50(12)	Inkd	42,878
51(5)	IdeaScale	43,125
52(-1)	Common Craft	44,502
53(-1)	EyeFetch	46,158
54(25)	MerchantOS	51,102
55(11)	Jott	53,953
56(7)	Smartsheet	54,019
57(1)	Bag Borrow or Steal	54,558
58(-4)	GarageBand.com	55,056
59(-6)	Gist, Inc.	55,389
60(4)	TeachStreet	57,296
61(15)	Healia	58,128
62(-3)	Tableau Software	59,318
63(-2)	Yapta	60,990
64(-14)	Jambool	66,392
65(2)	Localism	68,962
66(5)	Micropoll	71,025
67(-21)	Trumba Corporation	71,118
68(-24)	Daptiv, Inc.	90,025
69(5)	Estately	94,123
70(2)	CultureMob	97,368
71(-2)	VholdR	98,998
72(8)	Visible Technologies	103,415
73(17)	Thriftbooks	105,105
74(3)	Diffen	105,406
75(-2)	Sandlot Games	106,017
76(8)	Survey Console (Survey Analytics)	107,331
77(-9)	LiquidPlanner	110,073
78(-21)	EVRI (Beta)	112,863
79(4)	Swype Inc.	118,980
80(-10)	YouJustGetMe	119,931
81(-3)	Pikaba	129,506
82(-7)	Peepcode Screencasts	143,237
83(27)	BrandVerity	143,840
84(11)	DreamBox Learning	144,619
85(1)	Raveable	145,229
86(-1)	Mercent	146,931
87	Peppers and Pollywogs	146,943
88(-6)	MPIRE Corporation	154,295
89(5)	Tatango	155,998
90(-1)	Frugal Mechanic	160,498
91(-10)	Konnects, Inc.	176,242
92	Inner Fence	188,412
93(-5)	All Consuming	189,580
94(-3)	ContactPro	194,718
95(5)	Jobvana	206,994
96(17)	eTalkup	212,320
97(15)	DataSphere Technologies, Inc.	212,430
98(-5)	Crush or Flush	216,303
99(20)	Wifi.com	246,619
100(-1)	Sweat365	247,633
101(-5)	nPost	250,853
102(9)	Nearlyweds!	251,498
103(-1)	WhitePages, Inc.	267,604
104(-6)	GoTime	272,297
105(-8)	Just Cause	288,499
106(-3)	CarDomain	291,207
107(-1)	Treemo	302,246
108(13)	SimplifyThis	305,266
109(-4)	Atomic Moguls	322,945
110(-9)	TuneyFish	328,474
111(18)	ClearStay.com	346,431
112(6)	Pathable	349,161
113(-4)	Mixpo	364,458
114(2)	Alerts.com	371,597
115(8)	ZipWhip	378,209
116(-8)	NewsCloud	384,862
117(-10)	Instacalc	391,381
118(2)	SNAPforSeniors	396,429
119(17)	Pilot Outlook	437,116
120(2)	Count Me In Sports, Inc	453,790
121(19)	GotVoice	454,320
122(-8)	HomeSavvi	495,957
123(-19)	MyGameBuilder	501,645
124(-9)	Vittana	523,487
125(-1)	Dashwire	529,395
126(-9)	BigDoor Media	532,418
127(-1)	Rails Kits	565,777
128(-73)	InvestmentYogi	566,619
129(3)	FlowPlay	600,198
130(5)	Shiftboard	601,936
131(-6)	Lilipip Studios	616,280
132(-5)	Cumul.us	637,435
133(5)	Slideshow.com	651,775
134(-1)	Medio	684,246
135(10)	YourSports	699,127
136(-5)	Decho	732,322
137	Wishlisting	751,790
138(3)	Askablogr	808,665
139(11)	INRIX	821,028
140(12)	Apptio	867,317
141(17)	Poker Players Social Network	868,655
142(4)	Jackson Fish Market	907,275
143(13)	InsideTrip	937,256
144(-10)	Eggsprout	974,945
145(-17)	Consupo	1,056,799
146(-2)	Valu Valu	1,063,040
147(12)	mPoria	1,087,567
148(7)	Linebuzz	1,125,459
149(-7)	Skytap	1,126,707
150(-7)	Identity.net	1,136,417
151(-12)	Zoji Inc.	1,182,950
152(10)	Divvy	1,227,761
153(1)	InfiniteHoops	1,240,001
154(-5)	phonemyphone	1,355,662
155	ExtraHop Networks	1,395,100
156(5)	Movaya	1,463,671
157(33)	BigScreenLive	1,489,911
158(18)	Luminotes	1,528,658
159(1)	Swaggle	1,531,848
160(5)	Openomy	1,534,759
161(10)	CalendarData.com	1,543,835
162(4)	PixPulse	1,551,111
163(40)	CueSense	1,585,151
164(9)	Napera	1,609,578
165(-2)	Trusera	1,626,789
166(27)	Eyealike	1,664,315
167(-10)	Widevine Technologies	1,695,154
168(-17)	iMedExchange	1,698,388
169(19)	TalentSpring, Inc.	1,748,440
170(-22)	Feedwhip	1,796,607
171(-3)	Ontela	1,862,600
172(-25)	Paperspine	1,869,145
173(-43)	Survey Analytics	1,875,578
174(-4)	Necodo	1,880,361
175(14)	TagCow	1,888,967
176(7)	Invitastic	1,899,385
177(-5)	Joint Contact	1,900,099
178(13)	Carbon Grove	1,980,182
179(-10)	ReelTime	1,992,682
180(16)	Timu Corp.	2,000,260
181(1)	Cocktail Builder	2,064,718
182(-1)	OtherPage	2,112,226
183(1)	Buzzeromatic	2,218,933
184(-20)	Reality Gap, Inc.	2,359,989
185(-32)	ZoeCity	2,518,428
186	Audiosocket	2,549,719
187(12)	The Secret Ingredients	2,684,784
188(-1)	PageForest	2,798,178
189(15)	Ameritocracy	2,851,678
190(46)	Formotus	2,877,169
191(-24)	Bus Monster	2,899,046
192(-18)	Spoken	2,933,485
193(1)	Mob Incentive	3,055,275
194(-19)	Pixsy	3,069,881
195(5)	OwnYourPhone	3,078,030
196(38)	Tesly	3,131,116
197(36)	Crowdify	3,312,855
198(-18)	AudioFuse	3,312,892
199(-14)	iCultur	3,426,591
200(-3)	Cdigix	3,439,823
201(17)	YouBeQB	3,582,551
202(-25)	They're Beautiful	3,649,789
203(-1)	Versionate	3,655,731
204(22)	ForAnu	3,662,995
205(3)	SiteScout	3,810,971
206(-11)	RIPL (Beta)	3,894,767
207(-9)	Knouen	3,946,504
208(1)	ClickEats	3,947,611
209(-30)	SecondSpace	4,176,797
210(1)	Mindsite	4,283,332
211(5)	Geojoey	4,622,930
212(3)	Noonhat	4,659,200
213(-21)	PhotoSleeve	4,817,621
214(18)	Scriptovia	4,979,112
215(-9)	SynerG Software	5,214,150
216(1)	Beet, Inc.	5,292,225
217(22)	Waggle Labs	5,520,922
218(19)	GoSleepGo	6,354,761
219(-6)	Social Compass	6,376,835
220(21)	freeIDENTITYprotect	6,662,570
221(7)	Overcast Media	6,852,997
222(-3)	Exbiblio	6,874,825
223(2)	ClearSky Systems	6,940,192
224(-23)	Digini	7,195,690
225(2)	Jakoba Software	7,373,594
226(4)	Icebreaker	7,519,524
227(-7)	Trendi	7,585,058
228	UberSquare	7,605,496
229(-7)	HyBlue	7,623,080
230(-23)	VANTOS, Inc.	7,671,114
231(11)	Trusted Word	8,021,227
232(3)	EVDense	8,083,064
233(-9)	KeenScreen Inc.	8,247,849
234(-22)	Style du Jour	8,714,950
235(-14)	Zoodango	8,731,826
236(11)	i-booze.com	9,013,856
237(-8)	N2uitive	9,336,896
238(-28)	Elmore City Dance Club	9,457,074
239(-16)	Silverlight Nuggets	10,313,391
240(13)	Positive Motion	10,846,408
241	CampusChai	10,908,665
242(10)	Fyreball	10,962,947
243	Kantrak	12,069,411
244(-13)	Goose Networks	12,580,568
245	Likewise	13,079,507
246(-1)	Entering Startup	13,540,364
247(-1)	Chromed	14,357,527
248	Blist	14,378,461
249(-44)	Songslide	14,632,068
250(-36)	Spottago	15,173,436
251(-11)	AdUup	15,905,048
252	Bioscreencast	19,988,595
253(-5)	Gimme Gimme Now	20,376,266
254(-5)	Symcell	20,490,788
255(-4)	Scrapwalls	21,527,535
256(-6)	CellTell	26,209,529
257(-13)	EfuRa	27,186,488

PEER 1 Portland Startup Index - March 2010

Mar 10, 2010

Rank	Company	TTR
1	AboutUs	1,084
2	Kongregate	1,743
3(2)	Clicky	1,955
4	MetaFilter	2,028
5(-2)	Discogs	4,248
6	COLOURlovers	6,875
7	Digital Trends	7,484
8(1)	Jive Software	25,228
9(1)	Strands	30,071
10(-2)	myOpenID	40,224
11	Lexcycle	54,443
12(1)	Pheedo	63,079
13(-1)	Earth Class Mail	72,393
14(2)	Frappr!	81,448
15	eROI, Inc.	95,580
16(5)	iovation	107,136
17	Gone Raw	135,749
18	JanRain	191,870
19(5)	LetsEat.at	194,857
20(2)	GadgetTrak	255,475
21(-2)	Giftango	258,755
22(-2)	Vidoop	278,806
23	FMYI, Inc.	279,859
24(9)	Attensa	302,815
25(2)	UrbanDrinks.com	327,216
26(2)	Avatron Software	375,358
27(-1)	Neighborhood Notes	392,667
28(2)	Bac'n	420,456
29(3)	GreenPrint	441,623
30(4)	CitySpeek.com	482,159
31(-2)	FreeRange	522,406
32(4)	Walker Tracker	544,818
33(-2)	ZingDing	545,488
34(1)	NetWorthIQ	552,817
35(2)	Nozzl Media	570,458
36(-11)	SplashCast Media	602,896
37(5)	Zapproved	664,068
38(2)	Jama Software	686,794
39(6)	KnitMap	847,292
40(-1)	MomHub	1,013,704
41(5)	Black Tonic	1,062,826
42(9)	Public Press	1,067,776
43(-2)	Sandy	1,124,713
44(4)	Avnera	1,375,455
45(-1)	Active Reload	1,379,754
46(4)	WeoGeo	1,530,164
47(6)	Rocketbook	1,637,661
48(-5)	GoSeeTell	1,671,782
49(-2)	Imindi	1,745,302
50(12)	GreenRenter	1,904,557
51(17)	Ontier, Inc.	1,975,359
52(20)	Lightfleet	1,989,944
53(1)	Cendix	1,995,651
54(-2)	Pibb	2,216,719
55(-6)	Kryptiq	2,375,038
56(1)	Matradee, Inc	2,527,777
57(-1)	LUNARR	2,757,537
58(-20)	Toonlet	3,288,517
59(-4)	Collaborative Software Initiative	3,341,285
60	Grabb.it	4,698,451
61(-2)	Picktastic	4,869,445
62(-4)	FastFigures	5,114,971
63(1)	Box Populi	6,041,623
64(9)	Iterasi	7,535,588
65(-2)	Art Face Off	8,354,721
66(-1)	YourList	9,914,355
67(-1)	Trubee.com	10,163,479
68(1)	Vocal Nation	12,830,351
69(-8)	Kumquat	13,840,474
70	Goboz	15,229,119

Budget 2010 - Op Ed

Mar 10, 2010

Last Thursday, in his speech accompanying the country’s 2010 budget, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said: “We are building Canada’s reputation as an investment-friendly country.” And to well-deserved accolades, Budget 2010 did indeed finally remove the arcane “Section 116” taxes that have been a perennial thorn in the side of Canadian entrepreneurs trying to entice venture capitalists and other investors from outside Canada to invest in their businesses.

But a little-noticed provision in Budget 2010 completely overwhelms the benefits of eliminating Section 116 taxes. Budget 2010 proposes to instantaneously tax any employee that exercises stock options – at the moment of exercise – and to require the employer to “withhold” the associated taxes, even though the employer has no direct funds to withhold or pay such taxes – all of which are being levied on “deemed” – but unrealized – income. There is no cash being received anywhere in the process of exercising options, but a whopping tax bill is being levied on the “nothing”.

Next step: Annual taxation of unrealized appreciation in everyone’s investment portfolio? Seems inconceivable. Yet this is the slippery slope that Canada has embarked upon, as this is precisely what these proposed rules do to employees.

In fairness, Budget 2010 also addressed some of the past inequities in the taxation of stock options in Canada with retroactive relief to harmed employees, and it closed a loophole in the Income Tax Act that permitted double dipping by employees and employers – as well it should have.

But make no mistake, Budget 2010 makes us wildly less “investment-friendly”, to use Mr. Flaherty’s words.

As an illustration of the dire consequences of the proposed new changes in stock option taxation, we have had to halt the IPO process for a very successful Canadian technology company. Under the proposed new rules, if all 300+ employees exercised all of their vested options at once, post-IPO, the company would have an immediate withholding tax liability of about $20 million. This is a new, open-ended and completely uncontrollable contingent liability. If we happened to get “irrationally exuberant” technology markets again, the liability could be multiples of $20 million.

All of this flows from a fundamentally flawed and misguided philosophy around the taxation of stock options in Canada. There is no recognition that employee ownership is a proven Good Thing in the motivation of employees and the development of early-stage companies. Employees are deemed to have windfall – and taxable – profits when they exercise stock options, when in fact, all they are doing is preserving their existing ownership stake in the business, rather than selling anything. And most perverse of all, these deemed profits are taxed as “employment income”, while any subsequent losses in the event of a decline intheir employer’s share price are treated as capital losses, so that employees can and often are effectively taxed at rates of 100% or even infinite rates on “profits” or sales of shares that they never see.

Budget 2010 exacerbates these perverse rules by demanding a withholding tax from the employer when an employee exercises his options. It is silent on how an employer is supposed to come up with these non-existent funds, or on how or why an employee – that may be subject to lock-ups or blackouts – is supposed to sell enough shares to cover the tax on these mythical profits.

As in the past, we can avoid all of these tax policy problems of tax on unrealized income if we do the ‘typical Canadian thing’, and just stay private for a while longer, and then sell out to a foreign multinational. But then Canada would lose yet another opportunity to have a global company with Canadian headquarters. It is high time that this Government fixes the problem – at its roots – once and for all.

The root of the problems (and of the past acknowledged inequities that Budget 2010 had to address retroactively) is that the tax treatment of stock option “gains” needs to be symmetrical with the treatment of subsequent share price losses, and taxes need to be levied only on realized net gains. This is not seeking special treatment; rather, this is no different than every other asset class from art to real estate to stock purchase warrants or other securities – or even founding shareholders of the company, or partners in professional firms – none of whom are taxed on the unrealized appreciation in the value of their ownership positions. Nowhere else in the tax system do people get taxed differently on gains and losses with no ability to offset losses against gains – let alone taxed on unrealized income in the first place. Why do “employees” deserve to be singled out for this draconian and patently unfair treatment?

Stock options – and the associated employee ownership – are an absolutely fundamental, powerful economic tool for driving innovation and prosperity in this country. Start-up technology company employees work extraordinarily long hours – for the thrill of creating something special and “game-changing” – but also to share in the economic rewards.

But for option programs to achieve their motivational benefits and potential, they must be fair, they must be simple for all employees to understand (even if you don’t have a degree in accounting), they must not arbitrarily force employees to reduce their ownership in the business simply to pay taxes on unrealized income and they must be reasonably easy for the employer to administer.

Here’s the employee’s perspective, as per Budget 2010: Jane, with an option to purchase 50,000 shares at $2.00 that was granted 5 years ago and is now about to expire, has to go to the bank, family or wherever they can to scrape together $100,000. After exercise, she owns 50,000 shares with precisely the same economic value of the options the day before, plus the $100,000 that she has now invested. Where is the realized “income” or “gain” in that? Yet, under the new proposals, if the share value at the time of exercise is (say) $12, she ALSO immediately owes CRA about $110,000. So the cost of exercising her options – just to maintain her existing ownership stake in the business – has more than doubled! And that is supposed to be motivational?

It is even worse in many respects for private companies, because in the example above, if her employer were to subsequently fail, she would not only lose the $100,000 she invested on exercising the options, but she would be permanently on the hook for $110,000 in “taxes” to CRA – without ever having had the opportunity to sell a single share.

So Mr. Flaherty’s claims that we are becoming increasingly “investment-friendly” are bogus, the 116 fix notwithstanding. Investors will see these draconian tax policies and recognize that rather than options being the powerful motivational tool that they were intended to be, Canadian tax policy turns them into the Sword of Damocles over the employees’ heads – most of whom are ill-equipped to understand the nuances of tax jargon and contingent liabilities. All the employees want to do is own – and retain – a stake in their business, just the way the founders and investors get to do – until it is time to sell. Everyone is happy to pay their fair share of taxes – when they sell. But investors with a choice of investing in a properly motivated workforce South of the border, or a demoralized – and even terrorized – one North of the border, will choose accordingly.

Symmetry of treatment up and down, and taxation onlyon realized net gains – like everything else that moves and gets taxed in this country – solves everything. It’s really quite simple. And it’s the only thing that’s even close to fair. And most of all, that is critical to fostering equity capital formation in Canada’s struggling technology sector. As a side benefit, fair tax policy would, like RRSPs, even create a nice legacy of future tax revenues for the country as employee shares continue to grow in value and someday get sold!

Budget 2010 goes the other way, and enhances its pre-existing flawed option tax policies with a withholding tax sledgehammer, in the process shutting down entrepreneurs’ access to equity capital in more ways than can be imagined.

PEER 1 Denver-Boulder Startup Index - March 2010

Mar 10, 2010

Rank	Company	TTR
1(2)	Intense Debate	4,765
2	Kaango	9,477
3(1)	Brightkite	11,530
4(-3)	Lijit	13,326
5(1)	BiggerPockets	16,379
6(-1)	NewsGator	18,854
7(1)	SurveyGizmo	30,755
8(-1)	Printfection	33,695
9(3)	Coupon Sherpa	43,472
10(-1)	LifePics	44,112
11(-1)	Foodzie	67,862
12(-1)	Filtrbox	78,260
13	DigitalGlobe	81,155
14	SimpleGeo	133,452
15	Blogonize	146,217
16(-2)	Trackvia	169,926
17	MosaicGlobe	177,549
18(3)	Kerpoof	252,025
19	EventVue	279,646
20(-2)	BuyMyTronics	321,524
21(-5)	UMapper	338,875
22(4)	hubbuzz	411,127
23(1)	ShipCompliant	541,243
24(-4)	HiveLive	637,019
25(2)	Symplified	711,987
26(-4)	Buybak.com	835,048
27(2)	Yieldex	872,376
28(-5)	SocialThing	895,335
29(-1)	Iggli	1,059,913
30(-5)	HouseFront	1,417,231
31(2)	Format Dynamics	1,482,762
32	Buzzwire	1,526,431
33(-3)	Intelepeer	1,658,357
34(2)	Passitto	1,761,432
35(-1)	i-Stats	1,846,441
36(-5)	Earthscape	1,990,961
37	Plum Amazing	2,022,401
38(1)	Investor Avenue	2,469,136
39(-4)	Jetrecord	2,653,576
40(2)	5o9, Inc.	3,406,450
41(-1)	madKast	4,782,957
42(-4)	Me.dium	5,408,746
43(2)	ION Engineering	6,840,081
44(-1)	Search to Phone	7,865,132
45(-4)	SocialEyes	8,670,740
46(-2)	StudyCurve	10,552,031
47	Medioh!	13,352,046
48(-2)	J Squared Media	18,038,703