Is It Harder To Raise VC Money in Canada? by Christian Lassonde or Impression Ventures (TechTO June...

Is it harder to raise VC money in Canada?

• You have to play by the rules

• In the valley there is one set of rule

• In Canada there are two

• The two sets don’t mix

• Answer: Yes, it’s harder

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Raising Capital

But first, about me for context

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Lead Programmer & Head of Production

Founder/CEO

Clients / Customers

Venture Capital

Christian Lassonde

And many more..

Bad Ass Programmer

Bad Ass Entrepreneur

Bad Ass VC? (Too soon to tell)

(sold to Iconicfuture)

1st Job in Financial – continue to self manage portfolio

Some caveats• There are other reasons it’s

harder

• Technology companies only

• Some gross simplifications

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History Lesson• Public markets open in Canada since 1861• Vancouver – now - Venture Exchange since 1906 • VSX focus is raising capital for natural resource

exploration stocks (mining, metals, gas, & oil) • They got really good at it (Billions $/year good)• So that’s how it’s done

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Capital SourcePublic markets Flow-through

sharesvia

Broker/Agent

Typical* Canadian Co.

• $2M• Shell (no

assets)• $5M• Asset

found

IPO• $10M• Still

exploring

2nd Issuance

• $20M• NI 43-

101

3rd Issuance • $40M

4th Issuance

* No such thing as typical

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Capital SourceLimited Partnerships

Typical* Valley/Tech Co.

• $1M on ?• Post

<$10M

Seed

• $6M on $13M

Series A • $15M on

$38M

Series B

• $26M on $66M

Series C • $40M on

$98M

Series D

* No such thing as typicalCooley Venture Financing Report and CB Insights

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Two different modelsCanadian US Tech

Investors All Pension funds, foundations and corporations

Market Public Private

Duration No limitations 10 Years

Pricing & Liquidity Daily

Agents Extensive None

Expertise in tech Limited Extensive

The two couldn’t be more different

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US VC’s won’t invest in public companies

They would be Hedge Fund if they did

And they don’t mix

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If you ever want to raise money from a

US VC:

You need to make sure you play by

their rules

Is it harder to raise VC money in

Canada?

It doesn’t have to be.

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So what do you do?• Educate investors/entrepreneurs• Turn down the “we’ll take you public” pitch• Do you research – get to know the key

individualso Google “startupnorth one post to rule them all”

• Get introduced by a portfolio CEO (Best)• Get introduced by a mentor (Alt)• Get real help

o yes, there are a lot of pretenders out there – try to avoid

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That’s it

Thanks everyone for coming out

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