Founders and Funders Toronto Kickoff Questions
The Founders and Funders dinner takes place tonight in Toronto. We really wish we could have invited everyone who asked for a ticket, but we have been sold out for a while now.
I really don’t want to miss out on hearing from all of you, even if you can’t make it to Toronto for the dinner tonight, so I thought I would post the questions we will post tonight at the dinner. Please comment below with your thoughts on the state of funding in Canada. Answering these questions isn’t a requirement at the dinner, but we wanted to set the tone of the discussion to focus as much as possible about what we can do to change things in Canada.
- Do Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists get enough recognition for the deals they do in Canada?
- Do Canadian universities inspire and support entrepreneurship? Could a “Startup Co-Op” program help?
- What is the minimum amount of funding a startup should be able to deliver a product with?
- Is the Dragon’s Den the most visible face of Canadian Entrepreneurship right now? What is wrong with that?
Some of these questions may change by tonight depending on the answers we get.
Head over to StartupNorth to respond or to suggest another question.
JLA Ventures is a sponsor
We’re excited to announce that Rick Segal and JLA Ventures are sponsoring Founders & Funders. We’ve need to raise sponsorship money to help cover the costs of holding the event, basically the ticket price does not fully cover the costs of attendence (read: this is why I’m not in charge of finance). And gracious sponsors like Rick understand the impact an event like Founders & Funders can have on enabling this community.
Rick has led the charge calling for disruption in the venture capital community. Rick has provided detailed documentation on the venture funding process and continues to have “No Harm, No Foul” meetings with entrepreneurs to provide feedback on the idea, the revenue model and the customers. The “30 minute no harm, no foul” meetings are a great way to learn about how a VC thinks about your company, the problem space you’ve chosen and your solution.
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.
Our investments range in size from $500,000 to $10 million, with an initial investment normally being between $2 million and $5 million. As active, multi-stage investors, we provide long-term capital for growth purposes.
JLA Ventures portfolio includes
- Iloverewards
- b5media
- PlanetEye
- QuickPlayMedia
- ZipLocal
- SIRIT
- Truition Marketplace Solutions
- Tungle
- Fun Technologies
- and others
Dinner Menu
We finalized the menu for Monday night at Monsoon.
Appetizer, choice of:
- seasonal daily soup
- baby greens in pappadum cup with yuzu vinaigrette and seedlings
Main course, choice of:
- organic “firecracker” chicken supreme with azuki forbidden rice and tiger lilly buds
- beef tenderloin on garlic chive mash and tosa-zu king oyster mushrooms
- arctic char with wild mushrooms and e-fu longevity noodles
- vegetarian option – butternut squash gnocchi
Dessert
- monsoon dessert platter – chefs’ daily creation
Third round of founders
- Chris Sukornyk, Kaboose, Inc.
In between startups
Evaluating ideas. Currently VP Product Development at Kaboose Inc. Formerly founder of BubbleShare (sold in 2007) & founder of Fivelimes (sold in 2007). - Leila Boujnane & Paul Bloore, Idée, Inc.
Expansion
Idée is the first company to introduce an image monitoring service allowing image providers to track where their images appear in print and online. - Steve Hulford & Chris Becker, Filemobile
12 employees, 21 clients and almost a million in revenue
Filemobile is a media management platform, providing tools to enable social media to big brands, media companies and advertising agencies. - David Gratton, Project Opus Technologies
Heritage Canada and Friends & Family funded. Product launch spring 2008.
Project Opus builds non-DRM technologies that enhance the value of recorded music, giving consumers a desire to purchase digital music. - Stuart MacDonald, TripHarbour
Will be in to beta in Q1 2008.
Tripharbour.com connects you to your ideal cruise holiday with the web’s first combined cruise community and cruise planning/booking site. - Robert Dunlop, Flavour Technology
We are embarking upon many exciting projects – all require funding.
We have transitioned our business over the past year to become a BUSINESS INCUBATOR for several start-up organizations. - Jay Goldman, Radiant Core
Angel Seeking
World’s best web shop with great clients, starting to build our own brilliant products. - Scott Murrary, Organization Metrics
We are a classic restart
Our software enables organizations to ensure they have the right talent in the right place at the right time - Albert Lai, StillinStealthMode
- Robin Gambhir, OpenBlue Networks
- Jeremy Wright, b5media
- Mark Ruddock, Viigo
- Derek Szeto, Redflagdeals.com
- Bogdan Chmielewski, SweetCaesar
- Brad Stewart, PayMail
- Tom Purves, WirelessNorth
