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VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone

Written by

Jonas Brandon

in

,

After a day of posting great news from three startups, I hate to end things on a sad note.

The Canadian VC community is getting hit hard again, this time it looks like VenturesWest is on its heels. The Ottawa office has been shuttered several key folks have left.

Departures appear to include Chris Laird, David Mcintyre, Maha Katabi as well as Robin Axon, who has been a supporter of the startup community here in Toronto.

There is no official word yet as to what is going on and whether this is a reshuffling or whether the fund is being wound down. There have been persistent rumors lately indicating the latter. We will try to get some word tomorrow when someone is picking up the phone.

The Canadian VC industry in general seems to be paying the price for poor returns in the last few years with more and more of the talk on the street focusing on funds being unable to raise new rounds from LPs and the mood was decidedly bleak at the recent CVCA National Convention. Is this the beginning of a trend, or just a bad blip in the Canadian VC story?

Comments

33 responses to “VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone”

  1. Paul Marshall Avatar
    Paul Marshall

    Really interested to find out more on this one. Why? What does this mean? Are VW investments performing worse than other VC’s causing them unique problems (highly doubt it). More questions than answers from this one.

    Reply
  2. Paul Marshall Avatar
    Paul Marshall

    Really interested to find out more on this one. Why? What does this mean? Are VW investments performing worse than other VC’s causing them unique problems (highly doubt it). More questions than answers from this one.

    Reply
  3. John Philip Green Avatar
    John Philip Green

    Damn! I liked those guys. Robin bought be a beer at the first Founder’s & Funders dinner.

    Reply
  4. John Philip Green Avatar
    John Philip Green

    Damn! I liked those guys. Robin bought be a beer at the first Founder’s & Funders dinner.

    Reply
  5. Sandy Ward Avatar
    Sandy Ward

    David McIntyre is a great guy as well… he left VW a while ago but had a really good outlook and was very supportive on us founders.

    Reply
  6. Sandy Ward Avatar
    Sandy Ward

    David McIntyre is a great guy as well… he left VW a while ago but had a really good outlook and was very supportive on us founders.

    Reply
  7. Jevon MacDonald Avatar
    Jevon MacDonald

    I agree, everyone I have met from VW has been great.

    Reply
  8. Jevon MacDonald Avatar
    Jevon MacDonald

    I agree, everyone I have met from VW has been great.

    Reply
  9. Ted Terak Avatar
    Ted Terak

    They also deleted Paul Kedrosky’s name from their “team” page.

    Reply
  10. Ted Terak Avatar
    Ted Terak

    They also deleted Paul Kedrosky’s name from their “team” page.

    Reply
  11. Paul Marshall Avatar
    Paul Marshall

    Interesting piece on the continued VC downturn I thought was germane to this conversation.(http://www.dangletech.com/talentjungle/theupsideo#last)

    Reply
  12. Paul Marshall Avatar
    Paul Marshall

    Interesting piece on the continued VC downturn I thought was germane to this conversation.(http://www.dangletech.com/talentjungle/theupsideo#last)

    Reply
  13. David Gratton Avatar
    David Gratton

    David Mcintyre left quite awhile ago. He’s been working at DTS.

    Reply
  14. David Gratton Avatar
    David Gratton

    David Mcintyre left quite awhile ago. He’s been working at DTS.

    Reply
  15. Viigo launches at WPC | DavidCrow.ca

    […] It’s a great application, the user experience is one of the best I’ve had on Windows Mobile. The Viigo team is building a cool platform that allows them to add new services that can be enabled and deployed for clients. Hopefully, announcements and partnerships with companies like Microsoft and Blackberry will help them raise additional rounds of funding, now that it looks like Ventures West is having some difficulty raising another fund. […]

    Reply
  16. Viigo launches at WPC | DavidCrow.ca

    […] It?s a great application, the user experience is one of the best I?ve had on Windows Mobile. The Viigo team is building a cool platform that allows them to add new services that can be enabled and deployed for clients. Hopefully, announcements and partnerships with companies like Microsoft and Blackberry will help them raise additional rounds of funding, now that it looks like Ventures West is having some difficulty raising another fund. […]

    Reply
  17. Michael Cayley Avatar
    Michael Cayley

    This is bad news for Ontario.

    My take here:

    http://socialcapitalvalueadd.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/ontario-government-please-invest-in-global-links/

    Reply
  18. Michael Cayley Avatar
    Michael Cayley

    This is bad news for Ontario.

    My take here:

    http://socialcapitalvalueadd.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/ontario-government-please-invest-in-global-links/

    Reply
  19. Yaletown Closes $80 Million Round | Techvibes Blog

    […] the heels of news of a reshuffling at VenturesWest, there’s some good news coming out of the West Coast Venture Capital scene. Word on the […]

    Reply
  20. Yaletown Closes $80 Million Round | Techvibes Blog

    […] the heels of news of a reshuffling at VenturesWest, there’s some good news coming out of the West Coast Venture Capital scene. Word on the […]

    Reply
  21. StartupNorth » Blog Archive » How Startups will save Venture Capital in Canada

    […] entrepreneurs have heard that things aren’t great for VCs right now. LPs are shaky, some funds are crashing, others are just throwing their hands up, and for a lot of startups it seems like no matter how […]

    Reply
  22. StartupNorth » Blog Archive » How Startups will save Venture Capital in Canada

    […] entrepreneurs have heard that things aren’t great for VCs right now. LPs are shaky, some funds are crashing, others are just throwing their hands up, and for a lot of startups it seems like no matter how […]

    Reply
  23. Denis Sanson Avatar
    Denis Sanson

    Well, the chickens have come home to roost. This is what you get when you have a VC industry that has no idea what the word “venture” means, doesn’t embrace risk and innovation and demands terms that throttle entrepreneurs. Let’s face it, Canada doesn’t have a venture capital industry. We should all be ashamed but not surprised by this outcome. Next up: JL Albright? There would be many applause and high fives in the tech sector if Rick Segal and his smug mug was forced to post his CV on Monster.ca. They don’t call him Rick the Prick for nothin’ you know.

    Reply
  24. Denis Sanson Avatar
    Denis Sanson

    Well, the chickens have come home to roost. This is what you get when you have a VC industry that has no idea what the word “venture” means, doesn’t embrace risk and innovation and demands terms that throttle entrepreneurs. Let’s face it, Canada doesn’t have a venture capital industry. We should all be ashamed but not surprised by this outcome. Next up: JL Albright? There would be many applause and high fives in the tech sector if Rick Segal and his smug mug was forced to post his CV on Monster.ca. They don’t call him Rick the Prick for nothin’ you know.

    Reply
  25. Bryson Avatar
    Bryson

    I work in the VC industry in the USA and know the team at Ventures West. It is well known that VW has had their share of problems, like many funds in the USA and Canada. However, it is clear to myself and likely all LPs that VW is making a huge mistake. The senior partners want to continue collecting their lucrative management fee ( 2% of fund) and have released the junior partners. There is no way any LP is going to back the senior team that approved the deals in the last several portfolios; unfortunately, this is the end of VW. The senior partners will collect as much money as possible until the fund dies. Personally, I believe the LPs are correct and market forces need to allocate funding to teams that have a track record or the potential to achieve superior returns. I have talked with several LPs and I am paraphrasing their reaction. I’m afraid that several, if not most of the senior partners should have looked at their personal track record and retired long ago. This would have given the new partners a chance to prove themselves and save the fund. Too late now, greed is a destructive force. The same dynamic occurs in USA funds over and over again. The sad part is that Canada has very few VC funds and every loss cuts deeply.

    Reply
  26. Bryson Avatar
    Bryson

    I work in the VC industry in the USA and know the team at Ventures West. It is well known that VW has had their share of problems, like many funds in the USA and Canada. However, it is clear to myself and likely all LPs that VW is making a huge mistake. The senior partners want to continue collecting their lucrative management fee ( 2% of fund) and have released the junior partners. There is no way any LP is going to back the senior team that approved the deals in the last several portfolios; unfortunately, this is the end of VW. The senior partners will collect as much money as possible until the fund dies. Personally, I believe the LPs are correct and market forces need to allocate funding to teams that have a track record or the potential to achieve superior returns. I have talked with several LPs and I am paraphrasing their reaction. I’m afraid that several, if not most of the senior partners should have looked at their personal track record and retired long ago. This would have given the new partners a chance to prove themselves and save the fund. Too late now, greed is a destructive force. The same dynamic occurs in USA funds over and over again. The sad part is that Canada has very few VC funds and every loss cuts deeply.

    Reply
  27. CVCA – Capital Rants » Blog Archive » How Startups will save Venture Capital in Canada

    […] entrepreneurs have heard that things aren’t great for VCs right now. LPs are shaky, some funds are crashing, others are just throwing their hands up, and for a lot of startups it seems like no matter how […]

    Reply
  28. CVCA – Capital Rants » Blog Archive » How Startups will save Venture Capital in Canada

    […] entrepreneurs have heard that things aren?t great for VCs right now. LPs are shaky, some funds are crashing, others are just throwing their hands up, and for a lot of startups it seems like no matter how […]

    Reply
  29. » CollectioBuddy.com – BrightSpark is back to catalog your collection | StartupNorth

    […] the last year we have seen this re-creation of Brightspark, turmoil at Celtic House, a gutting at VenturesWest (read the comments for some interesting analysis), and rumors are swirling about several other […]

    Reply
  30. » CollectioBuddy.com – BrightSpark is back to catalog your collection | StartupNorth

    […] the last year we have seen this re-creation of Brightspark, turmoil at Celtic House, a gutting at VenturesWest (read the comments for some interesting analysis), and rumors are swirling about several other […]

    Reply
  31. war gold Avatar
    war gold

    After a day of posting great news from three startups, I hate to end things on a sad note. The Canadian VC community is getting hit hard again, this time it looks like VenturesWest is on its heels.

    Reply
  32. scam Avatar
    scam

    After a day of posting great news from three startups, I hate to end things on a sad note. The Canadian VC community is getting hit hard again, this time it looks like VenturesWest is on its heels.

    Reply
  33. UnlockiPhonesoftware Avatar
    UnlockiPhonesoftware

    When the time you have that should be spent doing things that build your company, or put food on your table, etc, are instead spent pondering, wondering, etc,. there is a danger that you won't create things., which is my point. It is rewarding to create. Even the painter has to put his/her brush to the canvas at some point. Or usually does at least.

    I expect everyone to keep close guard of a lot of leisure time and to use it for all sorts of things, like pondering how things might work.

    Reply

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