The National Post published two articles (here and here) this week questioning the role / impact of Canada’s startup accelerator programs. In the first article The Post asks “Is Canada’s Accelerator Model Broken?”. In the next it goes on to say that “accelerators are failing to produce the next Hootsuite or Shopify“.
Having been deeply involved in FounderFuel, one of Canada’s leading accelerator programs, I’ve got some thoughts on this.
Last week I wrote about the interviews and research I did on how founders become great CEOs. Given that I just joined his company, it’s only fitting that I kick off this series of posts with some thoughts from Mike McDerment, co-founder and CEO of FreshBooks.
Mike & FreshBooks don’t need much of an introduction – especially here in Canada. FreshBooks is the leading cloud accounting specialist for small business owners and one of Canada’s premier startups.
Each interview I did followed the same high level, open-ended questions (below). But as you can imagine, each founder took the discussion somewhere special and personal. So, what follows is not an interview transcript, but my notes on key elements, learnings and insights. Enjoy.
When I decided to become a VC in 2010 I had lots of reservations. After all most VC funds don’t succeed. The Canadian VC industry in particular has not historically delivered returns (though there are some great new funds backing great companies – so hopefully that’s changing). In any event, history reveals that my tenure as a VC was short-lived. Still, during my brief time there, I began working on an investment thesis that I still believe can result in superior VC returns.
Some VCs, such as Foundry Group are theme-driven. Union Square also focuses more or less on a singular theme – large networks of engaged users. Other VCs look at markets more broadly and try and predict where they’re headed. Others still look at underlying technologies and invest in those waiting for a market use case to emerge.
Let’s face it every small business owner opens their own business in order to do the accounting, right? That’s a definite “no” but every freelancer and small business owner still needs an easy way to take care of invoicing, expenses and other aspects of running their business.
Enter FreshBooks. We are the # 1 cloud accounting specialist in North America. Since 2003, we have been helping entrepreneurs make it easy to get paid and manage their business finances. To date over five million people have used our service.