This is the sixth article in a continuing series that examines the state of the ecosystem necessary to successfully bring technology to market. Based on dozens of interviews with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, business leaders, academics, tech-transfer experts and policy makers, this series looks at what is working and what can be improved in the go-to-market ecosystem in the United States, Canada and Britain. We invite your feedback.
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
“Government doesn’t start companies,” Iain Klugman, CEO of Communitech, told us a little while back. “Individuals do.”
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By Francis Moran
The Capital Angel Network, a new angel organization whose launch we covered about a year ago, is stepping up its activity levels in support of what organizer Laurie Davis said this morning is an effort “to make Ottawa a more vibrant (investment) community and a better place to start a company.” The first step in that process was this morning’s first of what the network intends to be regular monthly meetings of people who are, or who are interested in becoming, angel investors.
Intended primarily as a networking event to allow angels and prospective angels to get to know each other better, the breakfast meetings, scheduled for the first Thursday of every month, will also include a presentation by a company or two. This morning’s presenting companies were What Wins, an online tool that helps horse racing bettors pick their bets both more easily and, the company claims, with better odds of winning, and JetstreamHD, a consumer appliance from Ottawa’s Nuvyyo that can stream to an iPad any media — movies, photos, music files, home videos and more — from wherever you keep it in your home network. (JetstreamHD executives have just returned from launching their product at Demo Spring 2011 conference that wrapped up yesterday. They were quite chuffed by the response they got, including some boffo media coverage.)
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This is the fifth article in a continuing series that examines the state of the ecosystem necessary to successfully bring technology to market. Based on dozens of interviews with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, business leaders, academics, tech-transfer experts and policy makers, this series looks at what is working and what can be improved in the go-to-market ecosystem in the United States, Canada and Britain. We invite your feedback.
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
In his book, The Way Ahead: Meeting Canada’s Productivity Challenge, Tom Brzustowski, RBC professor for the commercialization of innovation at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management, talks about the “social contract between science and society in the U.S.” that arose in the late 1940s and gave rise to that unique ecosystem we know today as Silicon Valley.
The basis of this contract is found in Science: The Endless Frontier, a 1945 report to U.S. President Harry Truman by visionary Vannevar Bush that outlined a U.S. post-war science and technology policy that would ultimately result in the creation of the National Science Foundation. In the years that followed, military-funded unclassified R&D in the private sector, driven by the pressures of the Cold War and the space race, laid the foundation for Silicon Valley and made Bush’s vision a reality.
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Thank you for being with us for the first month of our new blog. In case you missed any posts, here is a recap, beginning with, in chronological order, our special report on getting technology to market, The Commercialization Ecosystem, which continues this month.
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As part of our continuing series about the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, we asked entrepreneur and long-time angel investor Frank Peters to share some insights from his lengthy experience investing in startups.
By Frank Peters
With a nod to Garage Venture’s Guy Kawasaki and his Top 10 Lies of Venture Capitalists, I offer my Top 12 Lies Angels Tell. When I showed a draft to my angel friend Malcolm, he turned to me and said, “wow, this is really cynical!” So let me acknowledge that first.
1. “That was a good presentation!”
I have to say something positive, but you’re not getting me to write a cheque. The fact is, most funding pitches are terrible; they’re more product pitches with an appeal for money tacked on at the end. Passion, yes; every entrepreneur has heard by now they must show great enthusiasm for their endeavor, but show me how I can get my money back someday, too. Who will acquire you? Are you going to raise venture capital that will keep me in the deal for six, seven, eight, nine years? Or are you aware of the new trend towards early exits? Show me how I can get my money back in three to five years and even I’ll be saying, “That was a good presentation!”
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This is the sixth article in a continuing series that examines the state of the ecosystem necessary to successfully bring technology to market. Based on dozens of interviews with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, business leaders, academics, tech-transfer experts and policy makers, this series looks at what is working and what can be improved in the go-to-market ecosystem in the United States, Canada and Britain. We invite your feedback.
