Category: Site News

  • The state of Candian Venture Capital

    Suzie on the state of Canadian Venture Capital

    While there’s been a VC famine here for several quarters, public discussion of the issue has been tepid at best. Thank goodness, some of our most prominent players are finally speaking out. In the last few weeks, Terry Matthews and Pat DiPietro have become the Bono and Angelina Jolie of the venture capital scene, using their celebrity to sound the alarm.

    What’s the nature of the crisis? Here’s a sketch of what’s being said:

    Venture capital is fed by the limited partners (“LPs”) who invest in VC funds. Historically, the pool of Canadian LPs who are attracted to high risk capital has been discrete. To bolster the industry(and the startup community), the Canadian government therefore has from time to time created vehicles such as labour sponsored funds to attract additional capital.

    When there is an irrational market (1998-2000), the usual pool of LPs expands to include new players such as US LPs and institutional equity funds. The number of VCs and the amount of venture capital available to Canadian entrepreneurs skyrockets. When the market cools, those LPS retreat to later stage investing, leaving too many funds competing for fewer LPs. A consolidation of the numebr of venture capital investors results, until the next irrational market heats up the investing cycle all over again.

  • Jeremy Wright – Startup Lessons

    Jeremy Wright, fellow Canadian and startup CEO, wrote a great post about his experience starting b5media over at the Chitika blog bash.

    I remember in early 2005 when the first email that kicked b5media off was written. It was something like ?hey, we?re all making decent money, let?s pool together and sell our blogs as a package!”

    Read it all

  • fortuito.us – getting started online

    fortuitous is written by Matthew Haughey. Matt plans to chronicle is experience in starting his own blogging business online. If you have been thinking about getting more serious about your own blog, or about blogging about your own business, this looks like a great place to start.

    I’m going to be sharing the things I’ve picked up along the way here, with a new essay posted every Monday about some aspect of doing business online. If you’re a freelancer hoping to someday ditch your clients, just starting out with a web business, or already have an established blogging empire.

    Visit

  • Sunday Startup Roundup

    Sundays seem like as good a time as any to round up what’s been happening in the Canadian startup scene in the last week.

    We blogged about Eqo.com getting funded and the sale of R|Mail to NBC Universal. On top of all that, iUpload has decided to move it’s executive and sales operation to the US.

    Mark McQueen interviewed Rick Segal to get his thoughts on Friends and Family rounds, Angels, strong teams and more. While that was going on, Suzie at Venture Law Line broke the iUpload news and has been looking back on funds that have come and gone in Canada’s VC scene.

    To top it all off, Sean Wise has just published his new book WISE WORDS which is described as

    Collecting the best columns from his first years at the Globe, this book cover topics relevant to: founders, funders and those that service the entrepreneuiral ecosystem.

    Including: How to create an Elevator Pitch; How to pick a partner; The Art of Business Jui Jitsou; Networking to Survive and 14 questions every investor asks on the first date This tome provides the inside track on funding and growing your business.

    Jui Jitsou!? Sounds serious. The last time I took Jui Jitsou, I think I was swinging by a rope and trying to kick a guy holding a big bag or something.

    If anyone picks up this book, and wants to write a review, let us know! We’ll be happy to link to it or post it. You can get a preview here.

    I am sure there are a lot of things we missed, but we need your help to keep track of all this stuff, so I am attaching a contact form so you can give us the dirt on what you have been hearing. New venture firm in town?, have you met a new startup, or are you starting a new company? Let us know.
    (more…)

  • Resources

    Our full series on Angel Investors by Craig Hayashi

    Canadian Angels & Venture Funds
    Corporate Angels – Toronto, Ontario
    Maple Leaf Angels – Toronto, ON
    Toronto Industrial Angels – Toronto, ON
    Toronto Life Science Angels – Toronto, ON
    Reseaucapital.com – Montreal, Quebec
    Vancouver Angel Network (VANTEC) – Vancouver, BC
    Angel Forum – Vancouver, BC
    Alberta Deal Generator – Edmonton, AB
    Calgary Enterprise Forum – Calgary, Alberta
    First Angel Network Association – Halifax, Nova Scotia
    Kingston Angel Network – Kingston, Ontario
    Ottawa Angel Alliance – Ottawa, Ontario
    Purple Angels – Ottawa, Ontario
    Saskatchewan Angel Investor Network – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
    Winnipeg Angel Organization – Winnipeg, Manitoba

  • Welcome to StartupNorth

    Startupnorth is a project to profile and promote Canadian startups. Stick around and we’ll bring you the best we can find.

  • Contact

    StartupNorth is a project to review Canadian startups and to build a community of users who are passionate about building great companies in Canada.

    Written by Jevon MacDonald and Jonas Brandon.

    Want to get profiled? Have an idea? Get in touch!