I couldn’t resist the urge to have my very own URL any longer! So, this blog now lives at http://pe.ma

Please head on over for ramblings about starting tech companies (it’s hard!), what’s happening in Toronto, and inside info on GigPark.

If you’ve been subscribed to this RSS feed for a very long time you might need to update that too (sorry). The new feed is here.

Just a short post to let you all know that Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch has just written a great article about our baby, GigPark. A fantastic way to finish a fun week at work!

Noah and I, along with Malgosia and John from LearnHub are hosting a little get together this Saturday for founders of local tech startups. This is the second Founders Lunch in Toronto and I’m hoping these turn into regular events. They’re a great place for founders to share lessons learned, get a different perspective on challenges they’re facing and simply hang out with other people going through the madness of starting and running a tech business.

If you are a founder and haven’t been sent an invite yet, please drop me a line - pema AT gigpark DOT com.

The Mesh Conference is coming up in a couple of weeks and, in my humble opinion, there is likely to be some clever people saying smart things. If you are in the music, media, marketing or tech startup worlds, and if Toronto isn’t too far away, I highly recommend you come along. The keynote lineup looks good and there will be plenty of interesting people to meet over the 3 days.

Some of the sessions I’m looking forward to:

• Keynote discussion with Ethan Kaplan, head of technology at Warner Music
• Michael Geist’s presentation on Digital Activism
• Founders Stories, moderated by Paul Kedrosky
• My friend Mike Masnick from TechDirt talking about the “economic opportunities of abundance“

I was also lucky enough to be invited to participate in a panel. Candice Faktor (toronto.com/OurFaves.com), Daniel Burka (Digg.com) and I will be chatting with Mathew Ingram about The New Font Page…

In the past, the front page of the newspaper or the TV news was our main source of information. Now, as media becomes social, we are just as likely to see a link on Digg or StumbleUpon, or get sent one through Pownce, or see one on a friend’s blog. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Some feel this is making us more narrow in our interests, as we see only the content our friends agree is important, but others see these “recommendation engines” as a positive thing. Join Daniel Burka of Digg and Pema Hegan of GigPark in a discussion about how the Web is the new front page, moderated by Mathew Ingram.

I’m sure Candice, Daniel and Mathew will put on a good show. I’ll muddle along in my funny accent and try to keep up ;)

See you at Mesh!

I’m a paying WordPress customer. A few weeks ago I registered a new domain for this blog inspired by the WordPress founder (Matt’s blog address is ma.tt). Unfortunately I couldn’t get domain mapping working so I emailed WordPress support. Five days later and… nothing.

I love WordPress software. I love everything I read about the company and their principals. I just wish they’d reply to support emails. Grrrrr.

UPDATE: Andy from WordPress support emailed me on April 22nd to say that the issue is fixed and domain mapping now works perfectly for .ma domains. Yay! Thanks Andy.

Photo by New Tony.

In mid April Rick Segal is setting out across Canada to help educate us tech entrepreneurs about funding our companies. I’ve booked my ticket. Have you?

If you’ve met Rick (or read his great blog) you’ll know he calls a spade a spade, despises bullshit, and knows a great deal about the mechanics of funding (and running) a startup.  He is a partner at JLA Ventures so going to one of these sessions might turn into more than just an education.

Even if you’re not looking for funding right now (as is the case with GigPark) these will be great sessions to grow your knowledge in an important area of entrepreneurship.

Photo by Pieter Baert.

Quote from Robert Stephens, founder of the Geek Squad - via Carsonified.

I’ve read this quote before, but it hit home this morning having just gone through a big PR push for GigPark.

I chose to interpret the quote like this: Rather than spending a lot of money on marketing, it’s always better to spend your time and money building a remarkable product/company that people want to talk about and journalists want to write about.

I still believe that PR/marketing/advertising experts can be an incredible resource to help you spread the word, but they shouldn’t be used to drum up interest in a product or company that isn’t, in some way, remarkable.

Of course I think GigPark is a big deal, but it’s nice when others agree ;). This afternoon Noah, my biz partner in GigPark, is being interviewed on CKNW in Vancouver, and on Monday he’s live on Breakfast Television Calgary.

CKNW has a live stream that you can check if you like - Noah is on just after 4pm Pacific Time. I’ll also try to get a clip of the appearance on BT posted as soon as possible. For those in Calgary, he is scheduled to appear just after the 7am news.

After a fantastic invite only period, GigPark is now open to the public. No more invites - everyone is free to join.

Those of you who have been following this blog for a while know that I’ve been working on GigPark since early 2007. Today the whole team and I were incredibly proud to let our baby leave the nest ;).

Were were also lucky enough to have our friends Jevon and Mathew blog about the launch, and for Mashable to review the site today.

We’ve got a long way to go, but today was a great milestone for GigPark.