Angel investing often comes down to the gut feeling of the person with the money, and the impression the founder left on said investor. Sure, the addressable market, the novelty of offering, etc. is vital, but early-stage investing comes down to personal and emotional connections …
It May Be Time for a Business Pivot
Startups excel or die based on their ability to innovate and occasionally pivot. Today’s writing is about the business pivot or adaptation. To show entrepreneurs out there that some of the most brilliant innovators and companies in recent years had no idea, at least initially, …
This is How Startup Entrepreneurs Take Over Industries
As an early-stage/seed investor in dozens of startups, I’ve seen, and reaped the rewards, of betting on some incredible entrepreneurs with bold visions for their technologies and companies. There are a few commonalities among the hugely successful investments in startups I’ve made over the years. …
Awesome Interview with Elon Musk at South by Southwest 2018
Elon Musk may be the greatest technologist and visionary of our time. He has guts, intelligence and a great sense of humor (which is often on display on Twitter when his many trolls attack him). And these characteristics of Musk’s were demonstrated this past weekend …
UFC Heavyweight Title Fight Teaches Entrepreneurs Valuable Lesson
Last night, I watched two incredibly large and talented UFC fighters square off for the Heavyweight Title. There’s something about the heavyweight division, in all combat sports, that draws the attention of any hardcore or fairweather fight fan. It’s likely the sheer force these giant …
How to Pitch Fortune 100 Companies
No matter how good your tech or service may be, if you can’t pitch it extremely well — in a simple yet powerful way — your business will fail. Selling your idea is as important as the idea itself… Founders everywhere, from all types of …
Why SPIE Photonics is Better for Investors than CES
Meeting the management of startups is THE way to gauge the worthiness of a possible investment, particularly with technology-related companies… Last week, along with my company which is working on a lens technology that has real game-changing potential in the imaging space, I headed to …
Why Your Startup Needs Investors
Far too often, after they have struck it big, entrepreneurs complain about the burden of investors and the stressful phone calls with key funders during the ‘early days’. It’s funny how quickly the tide turns. In 2008/2009 every founder in Silicon Valley was desperate for …
What’s Wrong With Canada’s Venture Capital Market
Despite an epic 5-year bull run for America’s venture capital and small-cap market, Canada’s has been butchered in recent years. Starting 4 years ago, almost to the day, Canada’s small-cap market began a historical and frustrating decline. For some context on just how bad it …
Go Mobile or Go Broke
In 2005 we discovered an innovative way to generate newsletter subscribers using press releases. We were early adopters of this strategy and it worked incredibly well. In fact, the cost to generate a lead was about $0.06 per. And we were generating subscribers by the …