Is It Harder To Raise VC Money in Canada? by Christian Lassonde or Impression Ventures (TechTO June 2015)

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

© Impression Ventures @classonde 2

Raising Capital

But first, about me for context


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


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


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


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


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



US VC’s won’t invest in public companies

They would be Hedge Fund if they did

And they don’t mix


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.


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


That’s it

Thanks everyone for coming out
