Founders & Funders is a social event. It was conceived by the awesome Austin Hill and the preeminent Patrick Lauzon in Montreal. The goal was to provide a social setting to help bring the people that start companies and the people that fund them together. This is not a pitch event. It is an opportunity to find out who is doing and funding what in your region.

What is Founders & Funders?

Founders & Funders is a social event aimed bringing together the people that start the next big successful company with the people that fund these companies in their earliest stages. The event is social. It is not a pitch fest. It is not a DemoCamp. It is an opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs and funders in your local community. The goal is to help facilitate opportunities for people to meet, share and build relationships that will grow into the NEXT BIG THING.

Founders and Funders is dedicated:

• to helping Canadian entrepreneurs to meet each other;
• meet potential funders: angel, VC or other money sources;
• to have fun;
• and see how we can help each other create the NEXT BIG successful company.

How do I get involved?

The event is "by invitation only’ and is limited in terms of availability. Please send Allan Isfan allan.isfan@favequest.com a note and let him know why you should participate. You will be contacted no later than October 20 with a confirmation, payment details and location.

What is Founders & Funders?

Founders & Funders is a social event aimed bringing together the people that start the next big successful company with the people that fund these companies in their earliest stages. The event is social. It is not a pitch fest. It is not a DemoCamp. It is an opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs and funders in your local community. The goal is to help facilitate opportunities for people to meet, share and build relationships that will grow into the NEXT BIG THING.

Founders and Funders is dedicated:

• to helping Canadian entrepreneurs to meet each other;
• meet potential funders: angel, VC or other money sources;
• to have fun;
• and see how we can help each other create the NEXT BIG successful company.

How do I get involved?

The event is “by invitation only’. The easiest way to get invited is to send Kevin Tuer – kevin@communitech.ca a note explaining why you should participate.

The inaugural Toronto event sold out. And we’re expecting this event to reach capacity very quickly.

We are limited to 100 seats. The fee for the dinner is $100 which will include drinks and dinner.  This is a private networking event and we are selecting the audience to ensure a quality group of attendees. And to provide the best chance to network together.

How do I get an Invite?

If you would like to attend the dinner, please fill out the following form and let us know who you are.

We will be contacting those invited with details on the registration and attendance details for the dinner in the coming weeks.

Special Guest – Dan’l Lewin

We’re incredibly lucky to have Dan’l Lewin scheduled to be in attendance (Dan’l is the Corporate Vice-President, Strategic and Emerging Business Development for Microsoft). Check out GigaOM’s interview with Dan’l where he talks candidly about his role in Microsoft and how Microsoft works with other emerging technology companies.

Dan’l Lewin is corporate vice president of Strategic and Emerging Business Development, responsible for managing worldwide strategic business relationships with venture capitalists and emerging venture-capital-backed businesses, as well as managing the business relationship with leading global industry partners such as SUN, Adobe, Intuit and BEA to ensure their applications interoperate with and run well on the Microsoft platform – for the benefit of the companies’ common customers. Lewin is based at Microsoft’s Mountain View, Calif. campus.

A 25-year Silicon Valley veteran, Lewin was most recently CEO of Aurigin Systems Inc., an enterprise software company focused on intellectual property asset management. He also spent 18 years as an executive, leading sales and marketing divisions for companies including Apple Computer Corp., NeXT Inc. and GO Corporation. In addition, Lewin has served as a consultant for emerging companies, venture capital firms and corporate joint ventures.

Lewin holds an A.B. in politics from Princeton University.

Sponsors

We’re working with a number of great organizations to sponsor the event.

• Microsoft Canada
• Atlas Venture
• General Catalyst Partners

If you would like to sponsor this event or other Founders & Funders events across Canada please feel free to contact David Crow or Jevon MacDonald.

The inaugural Founders & Funders went off without a hitch. It was a fantastic evening. It wouldn’t have been possible without our sponsors, thank you very much Microsoft and JLA Ventures, the event wouldn’t have happened without their support.

Jess and Chris from Istoica snapped a fantastic pictures of the event and the attendees. The gallery from Founders & Funders event is available. Maybe we should do a set of hockey cards of Founders & Funders. On the back of each card it could have stats like amount raised, fund size, number of deals, etc. Until then, check out the pictures from Istoica.

The goal of Founders & Funders is to create a social environment where the people who fund companies and the people who start companies can begin conversations outside of the pitch. As an attendee, I’ll extend an invitation to connect you with any other attendee you might have missed.

Thank you for making the inaugural Toronto Founders & Funders a success. We look forward to hosting another event later in 2008.

Cheers,
David & Jevon

• Rick Segal, JLA Ventures
  JLA Ventures invests in Internet, digital media, e-commerce, communications security, mobile computing, and enterprise software companies. Portfolio candidates typically possess superior technology, a sustainable competitive advantage, and exceptional growth prospects.
• John Marshall, Ministry of Research and Innovation
  MRI has launched $165 Million Ontario Venture Capital Fund. MRI announced Fund in November 2007. Fund will be up and running in 2008.
• Albert Behr & David Berg, Behr & Associates
  Behr & Associates is a boutique investment bank that provide strategic working capital and accelerates revenue generation opportunities.
• Jacqui Murphy & Peter Frisella, Tech Capital Partners
  Tech Capital typically invests $500,000 to $2 million in the seed round, and then continue to support the company through follow-on investments.
• Robin Axon & Duncan Hill, Ventures West
  Ventures West Capital Ltd., a private venture capital investment group, is one of Canada’s leading investors in early stage technology companies.
• Mark Skapinker, Brightspark
  We are funders and founders of startup Internet and software businesses.
• Amar Varma, Extreme Venture Partners
  
• Roger Chabra, GrowthWorks Capital
  GrowthWorks is a recognized leader in the Canadian venture capital industry, specializing in the management and growth of regionally based venture capital funds.
• Colin Webster, Hero Ventures
  “I do early stage investing”
• Craig Hayashi, MapleLeafAngels
  Maple Leaf Angels is a group of private investors with initial investment size ranges from $250,000 to $500,000.
• Richard Reiner, Angel Investor
  Dr. Richard Reiner is the founder and CTO of Assurent Secure Technologies, a TELUS company.
• John MacRitchie, OCE
  Invests in the commercialization of research from Ontario universities and colleges through start-ups and industry – researcher collaborative projects.
• Frances Fast, Q1 Capital Partners
  Q1 Capital is a leading boutique Investment Bank with a primary mandate to serve the unique financing and M&A needs of private Canadian technology companies.
• Mark Organ, Angel Investor
  Mark Organ is the founder of Eloqua.
• Robert Antoniades & David Unsworth, RBC Venture Partners
  Finance Company financing setup of software and technology companies
• Marc Faucher & Brian Kobus, Summerhill Venture Partners
  A Venture Capital Firm focused in the areas of ommunications, digital media and information technology.
• Paul Sorbara, The Sorbara Group
  Angel investments.
• Suzie Dingwall Williams, Venture Law Associates LLP
  I work with a number of US angels looking for Canadian opportunities. We will defer/reduce legal fees for our early stage clients in exchange for equity, although we don’t consider this to be investing.
• Rob Hyndman, Hyndman Law
  From Start to Exit, Business Law for Technology Companies.