Feb
21
My first startup was a B2B Enterprise software vendor. In those days enterprise software companies went to market by building a really expensive direct sales force with sales reps and sales engineers out in the field in key cities. We had little visibility into which deals would close when. And we routinely had to replace [...]
Often when I meet new SaaS startups they tell me proudly that they have grown their user base without “spending a dime on marketing”. While that is a great accomplishment and a testament to the quality of the product (product = marketing for great web services), it does lead me to ask why! Did the [...]
Feb
10
I’m sure this post has been written by someone before, but here goes. A few weeks back we had an intense speed-dating week at the fund interviewing the finalist candidates for the next Founderfuel cohort. We met some great people and out of all those interviews selected a group of amazing teams that begin their [...]
Feb
01
Recently a CEO in our portfolio asked me a question that I get often: As a startup with limited capital is it better to be cautious and stretch runway or should you be aggressive and reduce runway? The answer of course is “it depends”.
I have long lamented my lack of coding ability and have stated that for this reason alone I will never be a founder. So, I was pretty excited when I heard about Code Academy last year. I was even more excited when they launched their Code Year program promising to teach you how to code [...]
Jan
10
One of the least favourite things about raising money from VCs is having to deal with board meetings once you’re funded. Most board meetings suck. I’ve sat through my fair share on the company side. To date, as an investor, I’ve tried to avoid them favouring regular informal interactions. But since board meetings are inevitable [...]
Dec
21
As a seed investor our fund likes to invest early: first money in between concept and validation. At that stage and for a considerable amount of time after that, the only things that matter to a startup are product and technology. As a result I have a strong bias towards technical founders. And it is [...]
Dec
13
Hearing pitches for a living I get to hear from entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes and all manner of pitching styles. Every investor has their own preferred style that resonates with them. And there is no one “correct” way to pitch. You have to be yourself. But, as I reflect back on the pitches [...]
Dec
07
I see lots of posts on the interwebs about SaaS metrics but rarely see the same for e-commerce. Both are data driven and so capturing the right metrics in a dashboard is a key success factor. So without further ado, here is the dashboard we built at Modasuite. If you don’t know this company, they [...]
Nov
18
It took me several years in the Startup World to fully appreciate the importance of a good product manager. In the Web World especially, product and user experience drive distribution. It’s not about marketing a crap product that no one uses (that was the old PC, desktop software era). Today, if you build an amazing [...]
When we think of startups, we usually picture a core group of (mostly) guys coding in a room with cans of coke or Red Bull lined up. That room might be smelly. No frills. Just getting it done. That’s the stereotype anyway. As a seed investor I certainly like to see no waste in spending [...]
I’m guessing that most everyone who reads this blog uses Dropbox. The four year old company has over 50M users and adds a new user every second! It can be dangerous to use such run away successes as lessons when building your own startup. After all, most startups never achieve this level of success. Still, [...]
I was out for drinks with some startup types in Halifax last night when I was hit with a simple question: “What’s the biggest mistake a SaaS company can make?” Have to say, I thought it about for a couple of minutes. One of the beauties of this business model is that you usually have [...]
Oct
07
So let’s face it: the reason we all start companies is to deal with the paperwork and admin that comes from owning your own business, right? Not. Still, it is a necessary evil and the truth is that running a tight back office goes a long towards helping you build a better business. With that [...]
Oct
03
Short post today with an interesting legal judgment for Canadian startups shared with me by the folks at Labarge Weinstein (aka Canada’s most startup friendly law firm). This case involves Zoocasa, a Toronto startup. Like many startups, Zoocasa scrapes a variety of web sites to collect its data. Turns out some of those sites took [...]
