What Canada is lacking are the big inspirational role models – the Bill Gates, Paul Allens, Steve Jobs, Larry Pages, Mark Cubans, Peter Thiel, Mark Andreesens etc. These guys have had so much media coverage and have inspired so many new entrepreneurs – they have become stars of capitalism. Some of them have had multiple successes and continue to reinvest in new entrepreneurs as VCs or Angels.

And I think that's where Canada is different. Our media coverage seems to highlight more 'old-money' and their movements- Thomsons, Westons, Rogers etc. We haven't celebrated the successes of our technology companies in the same degree as the U.S. Ask the average Canadian if they know Mike Lazaridis is – I even wonder how familiar Silicon Valley is with the name Mike Lazaridis.

That leads me to my next point – our biggest successes don't reinvest enough in new local entrepreneurs. I feel as if we need more of a presence from our few success stories – this lack of presence could be because a) the media doesn't do enough to highlight their success or b) they aren't interested in the Canadian start-up space.

I feel as there's something fundamentally flawed in our startup system – and part of it could be that our government may be playing too much of a role in supporting the technology start-up space. I think they may be inadvertently leaving little room for VCs and Angels to come in early. I say critical because the difference in VC returns in Canada and the U.S. are staggering.

What Canada is lacking are the big inspirational role models – the Bill Gates, Paul Allens, Steve Jobs, Larry Pages, Mark Cubans, Peter Thiel, Mark Andreesens etc. These guys have had so much media coverage and have inspired so many new entrepreneurs – they have become stars of capitalism. Some of them have had multiple successes and continue to reinvest in new entrepreneurs as VCs or Angels.

And I think that's where Canada is different. Our media coverage seems to highlight more 'old-money' and their movements- Thomsons, Westons, Rogers etc. We haven't celebrated the successes of our technology companies in the same degree as the U.S. Ask the average Canadian if they know Mike Lazaridis is – I even wonder how familiar Silicon Valley is with the name Mike Lazaridis.

That leads me to my next point – our biggest successes don't reinvest enough in new local entrepreneurs. I feel as if we need more of a presence from our few success stories – this lack of presence could be because a) the media doesn't do enough to highlight their success or b) they aren't interested in the Canadian start-up space.

I feel as there's something fundamentally flawed in our startup system – and part of it could be that our government may be playing too much of a role in supporting the technology start-up space. I think they may be inadvertently leaving little room for VCs and Angels to come in early. I say critical because the difference in VC returns in Canada and the U.S. are staggering.

Luckily for me I had another project in the back of my mind that I wanted to do, civiside.com, which allowed me to continue innovating without skipping a beat. However, the fact that we couldn't find any investors for a big idea really forced us to move onto a smaller idea that was achievable with less resources, therefore once again essentially making us unfundable by VC and most Angel standards.

So, in my view, if other startups essentially go through what we went through with our big idea, and settle for smaller ideas that can be self funded, the VCs are the author of their own demise. The problem is not that there are no interesting businesses, it is that there are no gutsy VCs.

As a sidenote, you can still make lemonade out of lemons. Our startup now would probably never have happened had we been funded earlier, and ultimately I will feel far prouder of what we have accomplished in serving Canada's soldiers than probably anything else I will do in my life, so overall I am pretty happy with how things have turned out.

Luckily for me I had another project in the back of my mind that I wanted to do, civiside.com, which allowed me to continue innovating without skipping a beat. However, the fact that we couldn't find any investors for a big idea really forced us to move onto a smaller idea that was achievable with less resources, therefore once again essentially making us unfundable by VC and most Angel standards.

So, in my view, if other startups essentially go through what we went through with our big idea, and settle for smaller ideas that can be self funded, the VCs are the author of their own demise. The problem is not that there are no interesting businesses, it is that there are no gutsy VCs.

As a sidenote, you can still make lemonade out of lemons. Our startup now would probably never have happened had we been funded earlier, and ultimately I will feel far prouder of what we have accomplished in serving Canada's soldiers than probably anything else I will do in my life, so overall I am pretty happy with how things have turned out.

http://localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wi…

Without such an ecosystem in place, like USA and Israel, entrepreneurs will not take a chance of starting a new company when the odds are clearly stacked against them. As a first step, we need to attract some talented Canadian expats that are successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. There are lots of Canucks down in the USA. Canada has lots of talented people but we can't start at ground zero if we hope to succeed. Recruit people that have the background to train the next generation. Most Canadian entrepreneurs and venture firms are doing the job for the first time……the blind leading the blind.

http://localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wi…

Without such an ecosystem in place, like USA and Israel, entrepreneurs will not take a chance of starting a new company when the odds are clearly stacked against them. As a first step, we need to attract some talented Canadian expats that are successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. There are lots of Canucks down in the USA. Canada has lots of talented people but we can't start at ground zero if we hope to succeed. Recruit people that have the background to train the next generation. Most Canadian entrepreneurs and venture firms are doing the job for the first time……the blind leading the blind.

Let's all work our best (not that I need to tell you!) to really knock a few out the park. I think the way out of this mess is to have a bunch of big, shinning successes. When is Well.ca going to IPO???

Let's all work our best (not that I need to tell you!) to really knock a few out the park. I think the way out of this mess is to have a bunch of big, shinning successes. When is Well.ca going to IPO???

Good for them to be doing service work…time for them to eat crow.

Good for them to be doing service work…time for them to eat crow.