

Canadian Early-Stage Fund with Investment Decisions in 48hrs - mikejarema
http://www.mla48.com

======
jonathannorris
Canadian VC's have a terrible habit of stringing along founders for months to
try and gather more info/data on the companies and never giving a firm answer.
It is one of the most destructive forces possible, it causes Founders to waste
months chasing money when they should be building their product/teams, I've
seen it kill many good companies with great founders who should have been
given a chance to build a team/product, not chase money for months. Hopefully
this fund will force Canadian VC's move faster, as long as there aren't any
landmines in the terms... But with the government money invested I worry about
the terms.

~~~
akg_67
Second this. I had similar experience in 2003-2004. I guess things haven't
changed much in last decade.

Another issue was the Canadian VCs being followers. It was funny when I was
raising money in Canada. A few Canadian VCs I talked didn't return calls until
I sent them email mentioning that I am visiting U.S. VCs tomorrow. The C. VCs
called me at 11pm few minutes after I sent emails. I came back to U.S. by end
of 2005.

It is most probably handout by politicians to their favorites. I had some
interesting experiences trying to get govt funding too in Canada.

------
kitcar
Just a guess here (I'm not affiliated in any way) but the "Ontario Centers of
Excellence" is listed on their partners page - the OCE is a gov't funded body
which provides ~$55K of matching funds in the form of grants to early stage
companies (i.e. you raise $55K from accredited investors, they provide the
other $55K as a grant) - that could be why their max commitment is $110,000.

~~~
alooPotato
Wow. That is shady to say that they provide $110K in cash for equity stake.

------
mikejarema
FWIW, I saw this fund after reading about their first investment [1], I
thought the fund itself was noteworthy in its quick turnaround on funding
decisions.

Edit: also see [2]

[1] [http://betakit.com/orchard-labs-receives-500000-from-the-
mla...](http://betakit.com/orchard-labs-receives-500000-from-the-mla48-angel-
investment-fund/)

[2] [https://mapleleafangels.com/blog/2015/6/10/mla48-angel-
inves...](https://mapleleafangels.com/blog/2015/6/10/mla48-angel-investment-
fund-completes-first-investment)

------
MichaelGG
Are there any VC-type investment groups that aren't chasing huge returns? For
instance, I'm working on some technology that could relatively easily get to
be a several million dollar company - a similar product was sold to Oracle for
$20M. I need about $80K to develop and launch it solidly, though I'm trying to
bootstrap (got a $100K/yr verbal commit from a potential customer -- but I
need the product first).

Or is it simply not worth looking for outside investors and instead should I
just bother family and friends and whatnot?

~~~
lamuerteflaca
Rule of thumb is to not bother family or friends. Not worth it for a lot of
reasons. Also because you will most likely fail.

------
faramarz

      "$110k through investment and government grants 
      in exchange for an equity stake" 
    
      http://www.mla48.com/take-action/
    

For how much equity?

~~~
alooPotato
So they get equity in exchange for gov't supplied money? Sounds shady.

~~~
giarc
See kitcar's answer. Sounds like the govt might pitch half and the investors
the other.

------
currentoor
It's a pretty interesting experiment, trying to recreate something that
happened organically in Silicon Valley.

~~~
olalonde
What do you mean? Investors in the Valley usually give answers within 48
hours?

------
wooyi
Wouldn't touch this with a 10ft pole.

------
Jack000
shame it's only in Ontario, I might have applied.

The site's pretty light on info as well. I guess they want people to contact
them.

