* Dan Martell http://www.danmartell.com/
* Ali Asaria http://aliasaria.ca/blog/ and http://well.ca/
* Daniel Debow http://rypple.com/
* Jay Goldman http://jaygoldman.com/
* The teams at Communitech http://communitech.com/ and MaRS http://marsdd.com/ and PropelICT http://propelict.ca/
* Mark Evans http://markevanstech.com/
* Ryan & Derek at RedFlagDeals http://redflagdeals.com/
* Rob Lewis at TechVibes http://techvibes.com/
* Kunal http://polarmobile.ca/

There is a lot of great stuff going on. Stand up, be proud. Fill out a profile on http://startupindex.ca/

* Dan Martell http://www.danmartell.com/
* Ali Asaria http://aliasaria.ca/blog/ and http://well.ca/
* Daniel Debow http://rypple.com/
* Jay Goldman http://jaygoldman.com/
* The teams at Communitech http://communitech.com/ and MaRS http://marsdd.com/ and PropelICT http://propelict.ca/
* Mark Evans http://markevanstech.com/
* Ryan & Derek at RedFlagDeals http://redflagdeals.com/
* Rob Lewis at TechVibes http://techvibes.com/
* Kunal http://polarmobile.ca/

There is a lot of great stuff going on. Stand up, be proud. Fill out a profile on http://startupindex.ca/

The gap that exists (as you pointed out) is in the early stage cycle. The list of 6 deals in that bracket is a paltry accomplishment compared to what it should be.

I agree that “It would be great if there were more investments”, so what can we do as a community to help make that happen, and to help VC's become less conservative? We can't accept the status quo, and we have to keep expressing our disatisfaction with it and make it a major agenda item, and not a passing commentary.
I like to see this conversation expand further to the community at large. A bit of it was started here: http://www.robhyndman.com/2009/09/29/help-us-cr…

The gap that exists (as you pointed out) is in the early stage cycle. The list of 6 deals in that bracket is a paltry accomplishment compared to what it should be.

I agree that “It would be great if there were more investments”, so what can we do as a community to help make that happen, and to help VC's become less conservative? We can't accept the status quo, and we have to keep expressing our disatisfaction with it and make it a major agenda item, and not a passing commentary.
I like to see this conversation expand further to the community at large. A bit of it was started here: http://www.robhyndman.com/2009/09/29/help-us-cr…

Rather than focus on why we're not like the US, we should be looking at the advantages that are uniquely Canadian. We have an incredible educational system. We have an incredible diversity of population. We have (at least for now) consumer friendly copyright. We have relatively strong intellectual property protections.

We have a gap in available moneys, i.e., there is $0-$100k; there is $100-$500k; there is $5M+. It feels like there is a gap in the $500k-$5M in funding. However, when I look at the Thomson Reuters data http://www.canadavc.com/ most of the deals that are reported are in the $500k-$5M. Just in reported Q1FY2009 reported deals included:

* Better The World http://www.bettertheworld.com/home – $251k
* Kibboko http://kibboko.com/ – $500k
* Morega http://www.morega.com – $4.51M
* Prinova http://www.prinova.com – $500k
* Tynt Multimedia http://tynt.com/ $5M
* Hotel Communication Network http://www.hcn-inc.com $4.5M

It would be great if there were more investments. This would mean that there is either more money that needs to get invested. Or just better ideas/companies/founders that need to get funded. I think the limited nature of available funding might speak to the conservative nature of our venture capitalists, it might also speak to a number of other factors including non fundable ideas/companies/entrepreneurs; a general downturn in the economy; a 10 year IRR that is resulting in a shake out by the LPs in the VC partner layer.

Rather than focus on why we're not like the US, we should be looking at the advantages that are uniquely Canadian. We have an incredible educational system. We have an incredible diversity of population. We have (at least for now) consumer friendly copyright. We have relatively strong intellectual property protections.

We have a gap in available moneys, i.e., there is $0-$100k; there is $100-$500k; there is $5M+. It feels like there is a gap in the $500k-$5M in funding. However, when I look at the Thomson Reuters data http://www.canadavc.com/ most of the deals that are reported are in the $500k-$5M. Just in reported Q1FY2009 reported deals included:

* Better The World http://www.bettertheworld.com/home – $251k
* Kibboko http://kibboko.com/ – $500k
* Morega http://www.morega.com – $4.51M
* Prinova http://www.prinova.com – $500k
* Tynt Multimedia http://tynt.com/ $5M
* Hotel Communication Network http://www.hcn-inc.com $4.5M

It would be great if there were more investments. This would mean that there is either more money that needs to get invested. Or just better ideas/companies/founders that need to get funded. I think the limited nature of available funding might speak to the conservative nature of our venture capitalists, it might also speak to a number of other factors including non fundable ideas/companies/entrepreneurs; a general downturn in the economy; a 10 year IRR that is resulting in a shake out by the LPs in the VC partner layer.