Who says Ottawa is a sleepy government town. I certainly don’t, entrepreneurship is alive and well in the nation’s dapital. Take for instance Monday afternoon at Invest Ottawa, it was madness here, “Mentor Madness” that is. Forty mentors, forty companies and tonnes of great advice and fantastic networking going on. 80 Aberdeen was buzzing with activity. Speaking of buzzing so is Ottawa and its vibrant startup community, and the outside world is starting to take notice. Two Ottawa startups – 360PI and Privacy Analytics – are spending sometime with the C100 at 48hrs in the Valley and representing us well. Two of 20 Companies nationwide that were chosen to participate.

Speaking of noise, how about Diablo landing $28M in venture capital from Battery, BDC, Celtic House and Hasso Plattner earlier this month, just part of the over $82M in venture capital that Ottawa startups have attracted so far in 2012 and the years is far from over. So if you live in Ottawa you better get used to the noise that these awesome start-ups are making as it is only going to get louder and louder.

Kevin Carroll is the Managing Director of Innovation at Invest Ottawa