how startups will save venture capital in

canada

Step 1: Cool Idea

Step 2: Get VC

Step 3: ????

Step 4: PROFIT

Here is the problem

Step 2 doesn’t play fair

The funding ecosystem is busted

Early stage venture capital in Ontario

declined from $1.5 billion in 2000

to

$236 million in 2007.

The Downward Spiral

data (c) thomson reuters

The Early Stage is crashing

data (c) thomson reuters

Less startups getting funded

data (c) thomson reuters

Why is the VC business screwed in Canada?

There is NO money for THEM

Poor or No track record

They are too big -- we need more small funds

They lack operational experience

Deal flow looks terrible

Angels and VCs don’t always play nice

VCs aren’t really all that smart either

VCs are being pushed by their LPs

Startups need to be more aggressive

Early stage funding is missing everywhere

Bigger problems

Where is the gap?

$1 Million

$1-3 Million

$3-5 Million

Rounds BCD

Here?

Here?

$1 Million

$1-3 Million

$3-5 Million

Rounds BCD

Here?

Here?

It’s RIGHT HERE

Startups aren’t getting started

and when they do,

there isn’t much funding

and there isn’t much funding because not enough great

startups are getting started which means there are no funds for startups to get

started which means there are no good deals for funds

you get the point

Canada is different

it is decentralized

distributed

gigantic

we are disconnected (from eachother)

there are fewer funds

to cover a big place

and most VCs get queasy investing across town, let alone across

the country

On the other hand,

startups are starting to build communities

(what did I miss?)

and those communities are shaking out the good from the bad

the communities are the deal flow

So, here’s the thing

Funders can stay in their hole,

or they can get out there and hustle

in the meantime, we are going to build

startups

scalable, fundable, high-growth and ambitious

audacious and ridiculous

we will build them all

this time, we are going to build them together

startupcamp

democamp

founders and funders

meetups startupindex

we will take angel money

or perhaps no money at all

and if you still don’t have your act together

in a few years

we’ll go wherever we need to

we are tired of waiting

we are tired of the complaining

so, here is the opportunity

funders must learn to connect to the startup

community

it might be our only hope

smaller funds that can handle early stage deals

micro funds that get startups going on 15k,

20k up to 50k

Entrepreneurs who

blogtwitter

build reputationjoin a community

will not be “unknowns”

before the web,

this was impossible on a large scale

WE have some work to do

we need to

find GREAT startups

blog about them,

talk about them,

add them to startupindex,

drag them out to events

no more hand holding

lead by example

set high expectations

celebrate failure

and celebrate failure again

the great thing about this is

you can do it from right here

no moving

this is moncton

this is toronto

this is halifax

this is sudbury

this is sarnia

saskatoon, surrey, sydney

(that was fun but you get the point)

geography will be meaningless

if we can build strong local communities

and tie them together nationally

then we just might have a chance at doing something great

lets do something great

Jevon MacDonald

twitter.com/jevon startupnorth.ca