Once a Beekeeper

This is probably one of the most common phrases you hear from venture capitalists. It has become the de facto phrase from an investor that really isn’t interested in your startup, but wants to let you down easy. I make a conscious effort to avoid taking this backdoor, but I know that I have been guilty of it as well. Click to continue »

There has been a lot of discussion recently on the changing landscape of venture funding and what it is leading to. I thought that it would be worth digging into this a bit and, as most of the discussion and data is from the United States, put a Canadian spin on it as well. Click to continue »

I recently shared an article on Twitter that I picked up from a friend south of the border. I was surprised to receive a bunch of negative feedback from my tweet! The article was about turning tech off on vacation. This hit home as I just returned from traveling for 10 days with my family. I realize that this is not the sort of topic I normally write about here, but it is near to me as it is probably the topic my wife and I *discuss* more than any other in regards to my work. Click to continue »

You may have already heard the news – Canada is getting a new tech accelerator. I am extremely excited to be working with the team behind GrowLab and the amazing group of mentors, investors and supporters who have committed to building something pretty sweet here in Canada. I have had the opportunity to work with Boris (previously my boss!), Debbie, Jason and Leonard in the past and have a tremendous amount of respect them. But, enough about the news, lets talk accelerators. Click to continue »

I had the extreme privilege to head east last week and join up with my iNovia teammates to lend a hand in hosting Accelerate Montreal with the C100. What a phenomenal couple of days! Many C100 members were up from south of the border and the three headliners – Brad Feld, Howard Lindzon and Dave McClure – did not disappoint. Click to continue »

Why is this song in my head?

Time and time again I get the privilege of meeting very early-stage entrepreneurs who fall victim to the myth that advisors add significant value to their company. Bull. In fact, I would argue that they devalue your company and here is why.

As my colleague at iNovia, Karam, so adeptly quoted Paul Graham:

“An advisor is just somebody who doesn’t believe in you or your idea enough to invest in it.”

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I was deeply moved yesterday when I read Vivek Wadhwa’s post A Better Formula for Economic Growth: Connecting Smart Risk Takers. He directly dispels the theory of clusters, research parks, university tech commercialization programs and every other top-down approach to create innovation and entrepreneurship. I highly recommend you check it out.

I completely agree with this notion and started thinking about what entrepreneurship really is and how to build a striving tech eco-system in a given area. Click to continue »

I originally planned on writing a post titled “Two Weeks as a VC” sharing my early experiences in this new world, but things got a little busy as I was able to hit the ground running. As anyone who has a blog says at this time of year – I hope to make blogging a higher priority this year.

I wanted to share some quick observations and experiences from my first 2 months working as a VC. So far it has been great being on “the other side of the table”, but a lot different than my previous experiences in the angel space and as an operator running a company. Click to continue »

A few days ago Fred Wilson wrote a post about Tumblr claiming that much of its success could be attributed to self expression. I would agree with this and experienced it firsthand at Nexopia.

But, there is a challenge with sites like these and lots of difficulties in building long-term sustainable businesses. The issue stems from sites that experience incredible growth as they are seen as “cool” among the masses, generally young people, that use them. The problem with cool, is that it is not sustainable. This is true both on and off the web. Can anyone name a fad or product that was cool 20 years ago that still is today? On a side note, I am waiting for the day that tattoos are no longer cool. Man, there are going to be some people with a lot of regrets. Anyone know of an innovative tattoo removal company that needs investment? Click to continue »

I have been back in Edmonton for 3 years and dove into the tech scene from the minute I returned. At that time things were pretty quiet. Fast forward 3 years and we now have Startup Edmonton, a strong DemoCamp community and additional community building initiatives driven by both the public and private sectors.  More importantly, we are starting to see more people who appear to “get it”.  ”Getting it” consists of the realization that thriving tech communities are built from the bottom up by individuals and not by throwing money and programs at it from the different levels of governments.  These can be used to accelerator growth, but they will not create it. Click to continue »