Feb
15
We are looking to hire a Chief of Staff at Real Ventures. As the title suggests, we are looking for an autonomous individual who can be both internally and externally focused and be involved in many aspects of our business.
Jan
18
I’ve always felt that if you can’t learn from your business partners, then you should not be in business with them. With 3 very experienced partners at the fund, every day is a school day. And yesterday’s lessons came courtesy of John Stokes. Yesterday was our 1st official day working out of Notman House. If you’re not from [...]
Jan
05
As a long-time software guy watching everything become more game-like these days, I am very pleased to be spending more time working directly in the gaming sector itself. This January 20 and 21 in Toronto, the 4th annual Gameon Finance conference is taking place. GameON: Finance connects the games industry’s leading players to new business opportunities [...]
Jan
03
2010 was a big year for me. The whole year was busy but the last few months saw the most action with over $ 24M in financings getting done and of course with the fund closing! With so much going on, my blogging was a bit spotty this past year. Somehow squeaked out 90+ posts. [...]
When I first got into the startup World, the bubble was in full swing and every lawyer and accountant around wanted to work with us. And they were all willing to take discounts in exchange for equity. When the bubble burst, most of these firms went scurrying back to their fancy offices and focused on [...]
Nov
20
During a partners’ meeting yesterday, we all got in trouble with each other for checking e-mail, etc during our meeting. I am bad at this. And it has only gotten worse since we closed the fund and started meeting companies a lot. E-mails/ work keep coming in. It is all too tempting to try and [...]
Nov
02
We all have a love-hate relationship with e-mail. It bogs us down, yet many of us secretly are proud of the volume of e-mails we get. And despite the emergence of microblogging as well the continued popularity of instant messaging and other communication tools, e-mail is still a huge part of our lives and that [...]
Oct
26
When I first got into the startup World 11 years ago, I said to myself that in 10 years, I would become an investor. I had no idea how that would happen. There was no project plan. But I was pretty sure I was serious when I said it. Well, I’m a year overdue, but [...]
Last month I spoke at Sproutup on common finance mistakes. Here are some video highlights.
It took me a while to warm up to it but I am loving Quora more and more. There is a wealth of information and connections on it. I can’t believe how much time people devote to answering questions on it. I wanted to draw your attention to one post from Antone Johnson a startup [...]
The Canadian New Media Awards event is happening December 1st in Toronto. This is the 10th edition of the CNMA and it promises to be another amazing year of celebrating the best in Canadian digital media. I will be a juror for this event and am putting the call out for nominations for Digital Media [...]
Sep
03
When entrepreneurs talk about dilution to their share ownership, most of the time they’re talking about dilution from outside investors. Yet, more dilution, especially early on, can come from adding co-founders which is something no one seems to talk about. I am in favour of having a co-founder. It gives you someone to bounce ideas [...]
Aug
23
I just got back from the inaugural Grow Conference in beautiful Vancouver. It was a great event. Congrats to Debbie and her team. This event was very much geared towards web entrepreneurs. As a result, probably 1/2 of my clients and portfolio were there along with every investor I know that invests in web startups. [...]
Aug
18
I met someone this weekend who just moved back to Canada after several years in the U.S. He works in technology at a big company and noticed a huge difference in work pace and intensity now that he’s back in Canada. He can’t believe that people leave at 5pm. And he’s had to get used [...]
Aug
17
I am pleased to announce my participation in two great community projects that launch today Sprouter Answers Sprouter, the network for global collaboration and networking for entrepreneurs launches its Sprouter Answers feature, Ask.Sprouter.com. As an entrepreneur when you have a question about running your business it can be difficult to know where to get knowledgeable answers, and our [...]
