Weekend Reading

Impact National Conference & Impact Ventures

Impact Entrepreneurship GroupImpact_blog_redlogo started life as a student group designed to help promote entrepreneurship as a career path. It was started by Kunal Gupta, now the founder & CEO of Polar Mobile. It started as a conference for students, “a one-day event in Kitchener, Ontario attracting 150 delegates”. It is still primarily a conference/event machine for student entrepreneurs. However, with the creation of Impact Consulting and now Impact Ventures (see below) this is changing very quickly.

The next INC_logoImpact National Conference is happening November 20-21, 2009 at the Westin Harbour Castle on Queens Quay in Toronto. The conference features some interesting speakers including some familiar faces: Andy Nulman, Sunjay Nath, Ali Asaria, Jordan Banks, Saul Colt, Austin Hill, Mike McDerment and others. It looks to be a great conference with a great list of speakers in Toronto.

 

What is most interesting to me is the announcement of the Impact 2010 Programs, including Impact Ventures.

Many talented youth with innovative ideas steer away from an entrepreneurial path due to the numerous challenges, including funding and guidance, which they inevitably face; Impact Ventures was created to remove these obstacles. Impact Ventures strives to provide youth entrepreneurs with the seed funding, advisory services, workspace tools, and strategic resources they need at the crucial idea stage to create a successful business. Based on the successful Y Combinator model used in Silicon Valley to bring the next generation of ideas to life, Impact Ventures will help propel new startups to achieve their business objectives.

The selection process consists of an application form and an interview; there is no business plan required. During the pilot, three to four ventures showing the most opportunity for growth and long term sustainability will be chosen for the first batch. This three-month program will bring these budding entrepreneurs to Waterloo, the technology hub of Canada, to present them with all the components each entrepreneur needs to help build their venture.

Components for each selected Venture:

  • $15,000 in seed funding for an average of 6% stake in the company
  • Mentors available for hands-on help as well as advise
  • Advisory services including Legal, Accounting, Banking and more
  • Office Space in Waterloo to create an environment of collaboration
  • Themed weeks where experts related to starting a business will provide their insights and advice
  • Consultants to help a new company fill gaps in its initial organization

Impact Ventures is dedicated to the implementation of the entrepreneurial spirit amongst Canadian youth and values the independence of each entrepreneur. We are not interested in controlling the direction of the company as we trust in the entrepreneurs to make the best decision for their company. We believe in a non-regimented and friendly atmosphere where you are allowed to develop your startup with little interference, numerous resources and advice when you need it. Impact Ventures is set to revolutionize the startup industry by giving entrepreneurs an excellent spring board that will launch them to their success.

I’ve been talking with members of team creating Impact Ventures including Taimur Mohammad and Ray Cao since my post "Incubators, accelerators and ignition” back in April 2009. It looks like the Impact team has taken up the challenge and will be using their network of advisors, past members to help guide and mentor new companies. It also looks like they’ll be providing funding and consulting services to help kick start these early ventures.  There is a Waterloo residency requirement, which potential a detractor for many students actually enables students in the VeloCity program a formalized incubation phase beyond their residence. For many non-University of Waterloo students this provides students access to the ridiculous support network available in Waterloo (I’m looking at you TechCapital and Communitech and BarCampWaterloo). This is something that is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Maple Leaf Angels and RIC Centre Partner to Create a Maple Leaf Angels West chapter

Maple Leaf Angels and the RIC Centre are excited to announce a new partnership initiative.

Maple Leaf Angels is Ontario’s largest and most active angel investor groups having invested close to $6m in financings since its launch in 2007. Maple Leaf Angel’s membership base is largely in the core of Toronto and the partnership with the RIC Centre allows Maple Leaf Angels to establish a chapter to serve the western part of the GTA.

“In order to ensure that we have a large pool of investors who are looking to make deals, we were looking for a way to effectively tap into the Mississauga/Burlington/Oakville areas” says Rob Koturbash, managing director of Maple Leaf Angels. “The RIC Centre is an ideal partner as it allows Maple Leaf Angels to integrate with the start-up ecosystem they have fostered through their early-stage company mentoring and advisory services”.

The RIC Centre is based in Mississauga and is one of the Ontario government’s 12 regional innovation networks. The RIC Centre offers advisory, mentoring, networking, and industry outreach programs to help companies commercialize ideas in the aerospace, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and emerging technology fields. RIC is currently active with more than 60 companies.

“We are excited to team up with the Maple Leaf Angels” says Pam Banks, Commercialization Director of the RIC Centre. “We feel this partnership offers an excellent opportunity for some of our promising clients, who are looking for funding, to have access to Maple Leaf Angels. We are also looking forward to being able to leverage the experience and networks of angels that want to get actively involved with helping and supporting their investee companies”.

The first Maple Leaf Angels – West chapter meeting will be held on November 19th and is open to all current or potential angel investors. The meetings will be held at the RIC Centre and will provide a convenient location for angel investors in the western GTA to access Maple Leaf Angels’ deal flow and leverage the due diligence expertise of the existing 40+ members to help evaluate deals. Maple Leaf Angels has provided its members access to early round investments in some of Canada’s leading start-up companies such as Well.ca, Homestars, Regen Energy and Streamlogics (acquired by Thomson Reuters).

craig at mapleleafangels.com