A lot has happened to Patrick Hankinson’s company Compilr since he took it to SeedCamp New York last summer, and he’s now hoping other Atlantic Canadian tech entrepreneurs can relive that experience.
As I wrote in one of the first blogs in Entrevestor last autumn, the active investor Permjot Valia took Hankinson and Compilr to New York last June to compete in SeedCamp New York. There were 20 competitors from around the globe.
Compilr allows computer programmers to write codes from their browser, or rather to use the cloud for developing programs instead of relying on their own PC. The technology, even in its initial stages, was so impressive that the judges at SeedCamp selected Compilr as one of four companies to move on to the week-long SeedCamp event in London. It brought him a bit of funding and a lot of attention, and Compilr has evolved since then.
Before I describe how it’s evolving, I should say the reason for this post is Hankinson wants to encourage other Atlantic Canadian techies to consider applying to the one-day SeedCamp New York, which will be held July 10. The application deadline is June 17.
The event’s website says it aims “to connect the 20 best web-tech, mobile and software talent with some of the leading entrepreneurs, developers, and experts from all across Europe and all over the world.’’ Hankinson couldn’t agree more.
“It’s based in the Google head office in New York, so you get exposure before the Google team and they’re great acquirers,” he said in a phone interview Friday. “You get to network with great entrepreneurs and New York is home to some of the top venture capital firms. The visibility is unlike anything else.”
That visibility certainly helped Compilr. The company now has a staff of four, has launched several new features and has tripled its customer base in the last year.
“Every day we get three times as many people as before, and people are staying longer,” said Hankinson.
One new feature is called Run In Browser, which allows the customer not only to write code in the browser but also to run the program in the browser without downloading it into his or her PC. It means you could, for example, write iPhone apps using a PC, or even a tablet, rather than doing so on a Mac.
Hankinson and his crew are still working at increasing revenues at the company, and with that in mind they are working (again with Valia) on selling premium applications to universities. They have leads to about 40 institutions, including Harvard and the Dublin Institute of Technology, and intend to pursue the sales in the next four to six months.
Following that, Hankinson hopes to use the increasing revenue picture to raise capital, hoping to close the round early in 2013.