Thursday, September 8, 2011

Lean Coffee: Raising your first round

I think I've been spending a few too many late nights coding PMRobot UI enhancements, as I had some trouble actually finding today's Lean Coffee Meetup.

I was running late due to the TTC, and the Meetup Android app hadn't updated the recently-changed location. So I wandered through an empty building trying to figure out where I had gone wrong.

Luckily somebody (who had obviously had more sleep) pointed me to the open door I had just walked past, and I was able to join in and take down some notes about raising investment:

  • The Canadian Angel investing community is not as established as in the US
  • Tech startups are getting more popular -- getting harder to find developers here
  • Canada is "a couple steps behind" but heading in the right direction
  • Investors are looking to invest immediately and get their returns in 5 years
  • Currently near the end of a 5-year cycle -- little money available
  • Something to check out: Angelist
  • Canadian companies get government matching and SRED, so big financial advantage
  • It's not beneficial to hold back on communicating the details of an idea
  • What is the right time to approach investors? Probably not the idea stage
  • Government grants, funding, etc. can work at the concept stage
    • Having solid market research can help with grants
    • There are grant writing companies who will help you apply for a cut of the cash
  • Board of advisors
    • Not easy to establish
    • What's in it for them?
    • Angels place a large value on your board
  • Angels tend to be on the team more than the idea
Glad I finally found everyone this morning. Next time I may need a pre-LeanCoffee coffee :)

See you then!

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for posting this Jason. Great digest of the meeting! You must have been an excellent note-taker in school.

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