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As a founder, have you ever been curious about this whole angel investing thing? This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on an investor who's an expert in it you simply have to know: Matt Wilson, MBA from Allied Venture Partners. He: 🇨🇦 Is Calgary based 😇 Manages one of Canada's largest angle investor syndicates (now at 1,800+ members!) 🏒 Worked as a professional ice hockey referee, which he says shares remarkable similarities with investing Amongst founders, Matt Wilson, is known for bringing empathy and perspective as a former founder himself. Aside from financial support, his goal is to be the 'right' investor - one that aligns with a founder's vision, shares his network, and provides strategic insights when asked. ✉️ Make sure to pitch him, invest, scout, advise and more at https://linktr.ee/alliedvc For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Allied Venture Partners' profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

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🚨 Special News Rundown 🚨 Federal Budget Review now live with John Ruffolo and myself discussing how the new capital gains taxes are sending a clear message to entrepreneurs and investors: “We Don’t Want You!” Check out the full episode below ⬇️

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Founders in Toronto and Bentonville, are you ready to pitch your startup? BatterUp! is an opportunity for founders to pitch their startups to a panel of angel investors. It's all about direct feedback and connection. The details: - Bentonville: 10/21 - Toronto: 11/5 What to expect: - A free event where you pitch with no slides or decks, just 2 minutes on stage. - After your pitch, a panel of experienced investors will give tips on how to improve Even if you're not pitching, this event is a fantastic resource. You'll be surrounded by 150+ founders, gaining insights on how investors think, and building connections to make the journey a little less lonely. And while this is not an episode of Shark Tank (no money is being promised onstage) I'll say this: a number of startups have received funding as a direct result of participating in BatterUp!. Investors are welcome! You’ll likely meet some Angel Squad members and discover some of the most innovative new companies in these cities. No charge to join, just reserve your spot: https://lu.ma/hustlefund

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Check out this epic interview.

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The durable competitive advantage I feel most confident in is community. Network effects and brand are right up there as well.

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💡 Why Every New Founder Needs to Hear This: Real Talk About the Highs and Lows of Entrepreneurship I had an amazing time on the latest episode of Collisions YYC with Jade Alberts and Tyler Chisholm! There’s something truly special about having real conversations with these two—discussing both the highs and the lows of being an entrepreneur. 🎢 In this episode, we dive deep into what it really takes to navigate the rollercoaster of startup life—how to manage those big wins, like landing a new client, and how to push through the tough moments, like missing payroll. We shared some hard-earned lessons on avoiding the common mistakes founders make, staying grounded through the chaos, and most importantly, knowing when to keep going and when it’s time to pivot. 🌱 For all the new founders out there: This journey isn’t easy, but it’s totally worth it. Prepare yourself for the challenges, and keep in mind that the highs and lows are all part of the adventure. 🚀 🎧 Tune in to hear these raw, real, and invaluable insights from Team Awesome: https://lnkd.in/e6CKrASG 💬 I’d love to hear your thoughts—what challenges have you faced as a founder? And how did you know when it was time to pivot or keep pushing through? #TeamAwesome #KeepBeingAwesome #Koridor #Entrepreneurship #FoundersJourney #CollisionsYYC #StartupLife #YYCFounders

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🚀 Incredibly happy to officially announce the close of Emerge's oversubscribed $73m fund - the first cheque for founders building the future of work and learning. I’ve always believed we can use technology to democratise access to opportunity to help everyone fulfil their potential, regardless of where or who they are born to. I’ve never believed in this more than now. If we play things right it’s not about AI taking away our jobs, it’s about empowering humans to fulfil their potential through AI with more effective and meaningful learning, career navigation and work. We are only 1% there in this journey, but we’ve made a huge jump from 0 to 1 in the last few years. ⭐️ Incredibly grateful to my amazing team for their unwavering commitment to our mission: Jan, Nic, Zara, Sami and Charlotte ❤️ It’s been a huge honour supporting our missionary portfolio founders and having the backing from our exceptional LPs. 🙏 My huge appreciation goes to our 100+ Venture Partners, founders and leaders from the likes of Udemy, Coursera, Degreed, Busuu, Kahoot!, Andela and Docebo. You have been my role models and inspirations for pursuing a career in this space. The future is here and it’s looking bright. Founders - thank you for what you do. 🦄 Please get in touch if you are:  - innovating in the categories of learning, education, HR, recruitment, talent, training, skills or knowledge management - a pre-seed and seed stage founder looking for $500k-$2.5m investments - looking for support from proven operators and titans of the industry 👇More about our new fund in press release link in the comments! #futureoflearning #futureofwork #edtech #hrtech #workforcedevelopement #skills 

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A lot of Canadian founders are getting robbed. Yup, you read that right. If you’re a founder that: 1️⃣ Generates revenue in USD 2️⃣ Or, has raised USD funds and if you’re operating in Canada, chances are you need to convert some of those USD funds to CAD to pay your operating expenses or if you’re lucky, maybe you have a cash balance that you want to put away in a GIC for some nice interest. Founders: how are you currently converting your currency? I love our Canadian banks, don’t get me wrong, but they take a massive bite out of your profits when it comes to foreign exchange. DO NOT TRADE CURRENCY WITH YOUR BANKS. Sorry to all my bankers reading this! I know so many founders who learned this lesson the hard way and hopefully this post will save a few of you from making that mistake. Moral of the story? Go find yourself an awesome FX trader. Of course, happy to introduce you to ours (no benefit to us, I just want to help our start-up ecosystem in Canada WIN!)

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A few years ago, I went to a Red Cross CPR training class. Funnily enough, the biggest lesson I learned that day wasn’t about CPR… Instead, it brought up some thoughts on educational philosophies. The methodology of teaching for the CPR class was very much based on memorization.  The entire class was taught in the following pattern: → If X happens, then do Y.   → After you do Y, then do Z.   → After Z, check for A – if A exists, then do B.  By the end of the class, after sufficient repetition, you pretty much had it drilled into your memory. But, interestingly, the teacher made a passing comment at the end: That EVERYONE would forget most of the training after a few months. Having taken the class before, I can attest to that fact. It did occur to me on the way home that while we were taught the steps of administering CPR, we were never taught WHY we were doing the steps. I really believe that had the latter happened, more people would remember the steps months later. To oversimplify, in my experience, memorization tends to more consistently deposit information in short-term memory, but understanding transfers that information into long-term memory. In addition to recall, I think the utility of understanding something is generally superior to the utility of just memorizing something. For example, any undergraduate finance student has learned a basic equation like: “revenues – cost of goods = gross margin.”  But, few seem to understand what gross margin tells you about a business. → What does a high gross margin mean? → What does a low gross margin mean? → What does it say about a business when the gross margin is growing or declining over time? This is not just a critique of memorization as an educational philosophy. I just don’t think memorization should be applied in such a way as to exclude or trump the teaching of understanding. Both working together are key components to building knowledge. P.S. With that said, I still highly recommend that people take a CPR training class. After all, remembering anything from the class is better than not having any idea what to do.

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Are you a B2B software startup founder at the very start? Then you have to meet this early-stage investor! This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Dominic Lau from Ripple Ventures. He: 🇨🇦 Is Vancouver and Toronto based 🎣 Loves to fish 🎶 Founded the RippleX Fellowship - a platform to help underrepresented founders access mentorship, intros, and the tools to get from idea to revenue to funding Amongst founders, Dominic and his team at Ripple Ventures, including Matt Cohen, are known for being hands-on partners who open valuable networks, navigate challenges together, and assist in closing crucial revenue and funding deals. Make sure to: ✉️ Pitch him at [email protected] 👀 Look into the RippleX Fellowship - they take 10 companies 2x a year through the Founder Fellowship program and also back companies through the Fellow Fund For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Ripple Ventures' profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

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Sidewalk Labs (Part of Google), another showcase of Canadian politicians bending over for a big US corp, with ZERO tangible results 💩 Roxana and I attended a "private investor demo" session in 2019. A block of wood was passed among the audience, supposedly the NEXT BIG BREAKTHROUGH in urban development! Demo concluded, by observing a piece of wood! Building blocks of future skyscrapers! The promise? With this, Google will build a "Smart City" for us, the peasants of Toronto, in Queens Quay 🏖️🏢 Sidewalk Labs' website now points to a newer Google scam, it reads: "Build Sustainably with Google Earth"! Bait and switch, but let enough time pass so no one remembers 🤢 https://lnkd.in/gd3B-a6m Guess now the investors and Ontario Government | Gouvernement de l’Ontario have shit loads of these wooden blocks, ready to shove up somewhere, to find a use for! All because the name "Bloomberg" sounds authoritative enough to our ears? Surely that's capital well spent, instead of investing in local talent! 🤔 Will Canada's tech ecosystem ever crawl out of Silicon Valley's shadow, and stand on its own? ⌚👀⛔

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🚀 Attention aspiring female entrepreneurs: La Visionnaire Business Idea Competition is closing soon! 🚀 Calling all visionary female entrepreneurs! ⏰ The deadline for submitting your innovative business ideas is fast approaching. Make sure to submit your entry by Monday June 3 evening to be part of this exciting opportunity. This competition is your chance to: 🌟 Showcase your groundbreaking business concept 🌟 Receive valuable feedback from industry experts 🌟 Network with like-minded entrepreneurs and potential investors 🌟 Win incredible prizes and support to help bring your idea to life Don't miss out on this chance to take your entrepreneurial journey to the next level. Submit your application now and seize this opportunity to shine! 💡 📅 Competition Deadline: June 3, 2024 @23:59 🙌 Winner Announced: June 7, 2024 🎯 More Info and Link to Participate: https://lnkd.in/eDCkFyxa For any questions or additional information, feel free to reach out. We can't wait to see your innovative ideas! #Entrepreneurship #WomenInBusiness #LaVisionnaireConference #DiversityAndInclusion #StartupSuccess #Innovation #DiversityInBusiness #WomenEntrepreneurs #WomenSupportingWomen #FemaleEntrepreneurs #WomenLeaders #WomenFounders #BecomeAnEntrepreneur #FlexibleCareer #CareerWithPurpose #WomenManagers #LaVisionnaire

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Today at Antler VC Toronto, we had Michael Kravshik, CPA, CA, the founder of LumiQ come speak to us. The cohort is in week 5 of the 10-week residency. We’re still very much in the process of solidifying our cofounders and searching for product market fit. So Michael’s speech was timely, informative, and inspirational. Here were my key take-aways. 𝐎𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐭  🔸 Ideas don’t matter, the iterative test approach does; it’s more painful in the present but saves you lots of time in the future 🔸 Start with really broad assumptions, start validating those broad ideas, and then through the process of speaking to customers to get to the really narrow concepts 🔸 At one point Michael and his co-founder went through invalidating 25 ideas, which would seem discouraging but they grew and developed a lot through this process (even though they didn’t know it at the time) 🔸 At one point they did a mind-boggling 500 one-on-one interviews in the span of 6 weeks 🔸 The only sustainable advantage you can in a startup is knowing your customer better than anyone else 🔸 PMF is a moving target 🔸 PMF is treated as a verb at LumiQ 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 🔸 Be curious, open-minded, and be willing to kill your babies 🔸 If you keep going, you will eventually create your own luck 🔸 Lots of people get stuck in sunk-cost fallacy land, but you should listen to your gut and pivot when it doesn’t feel right 🔸 Founders have a reputation for being like cockroaches, and rightfully so, shamelessness can take one quite far I also asked Michael during the QA on what his emotionally compelling reason was for overcoming so many challenges to get the company to where it is today, and his answer was really insightful and relatable. He said that 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞. Furthermore, if you’re not crazy AND stupid you probably shouldn’t do this! Thanks for bestowing your wisdom on us Michael Kravshik, CPA, CA and I hope I captured your words and sentiments correctly! 😃 #startups

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It's so refreshing to read a personal (and appropriately long form) blog post from someone as curiously persistent as Graham Christensen. Thanks for dreaming big with Determinate Systems, Inc. and taking such a passionate stance on the future of software. Recalling our first meeting on some rooftop deck in Manhattan about 10 years ago with Zachary Smith -- to talk about the Collins project, I think? -- I would expect nothing less! "We’re building that smooth path from 'Nix could solve these problems' to 'Nix is solving these problems.' We’re making it possible to use Nix for critical software, with components that fit together in straightforward ways. We’re helping teams focus on the valuable problems they’re solving. We’re enabling teams to safely take big leaps with confidence and safety." https://lnkd.in/ektvCa9U

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Spent a wonderful week in Canada with family! Now back to business.. Here's your weekly AI update: 🔙 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬: 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤 Week 51 | August 5 - August 11 The OpenAI Brain Drain Industry: 🚨OpenAI co-founder John Schulman leaves for Anthropic; President Greg Brockman is taking extended leave through the end of year. What's interesting is that three of their most technical co-founders (Ilya Sutskever, John Schulman, Andrej Karpathy) have all left the company now. This then begs the question - is this a result of natural silicon-valley attrition, or is there something deeper going on here? And moreover, how will this impact the technical moat that OpenAI has built over the years? (https://lnkd.in/gztRKhwV) 🚨Google announced that new Gemini AI-powered features will be incorporated in a variety of home devices, such as Google Home and Nest (https://lnkd.in/gV2QacAQ?). It also announced a significant reduction in token cost of Gemini 1.5 Flash (https://lnkd.in/gbNe6yNU?) 🚨Figure releases Figure 02, it's newest humanoid robot. Figure has been actively testing robots with BMW at a manufacturing plant. Figure last raised $675M Series B in February 2024, valuing the company at $2.6 billion. (https://lnkd.in/gZnPSke4) 🚨Mark Zuckerberg said on Meta's Q2 earning call that to train Llama 4, the company will need 10x more compute than what was needed to train Llama 3. (https://lnkd.in/g5pEPrTw?) 🚨Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, renewing claims that the company is betraying its founding aims of benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. (https://lnkd.in/gAk5grU6) Financing and M&A: 🚨Groq raises $640m in Series D at a $2.8B valuation. The round was led by Blackrock Private Equity Partners with participation from other investors such as Neuberger Berman, Type One Ventures, Cisco, KDDI, and Samsung Catalyst Fund. (https://lnkd.in/gRtKQKvW?) 🚨Hugging Face acquires Seattle data storage startup Xethub. The HF team plans to integrate Xethub's backend storage technology, enabling developers to host more large models and datasets than currently possible. CEO Clem Delangue 🤗 confirmed this was the largest acquisition the company has made thus far. (https://lnkd.in/g8fJ-BjT) 🚨OpenAI is leading a $60m Series B funding round for Opal Camera, a maker of professional-grade webcams(https://lnkd.in/gMT9dkTG) 🚨ProRata.ai a company that has invented an attribution technology to properly compensate content owners, has raised a $25m Series A, led by Prime Movers Lab, Mayfield Fund and Revolution Ventures. (https://lnkd.in/gumjbWmj) R&D: 🚨Alibaba Group releases Qwen2-math, a SOTA model for math-specific tasks. (https://lnkd.in/g8Jh3M7T?) Other Interesting Resources: 🚨 Between May and August, more Humane AI Pins were returned than purchased (https://lnkd.in/gy56qpKm?). 😯

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Good discussion on investing in AI. A good VC needs to be a historian.

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Many founders think finding investors is a challenge. But here’s the truth: the best investors are actively looking for deals—including yours. They’re not hiding; they want to find great opportunities. Whether you're in Canada or the US, there are tons of resources that show you who’s investing in your sector. It’s all about reaching out, starting those conversations, and building the right relationships. You’d be amazed at how well buying someone a coffee can propel your business forward. Looking for guidance on finding investors? Drop a comment or DM me—I’m here to help you scale.

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We are raising $250,000 to fuel the growth of our retail automation startup Afiari Inc. to onboard at least 10,000 paying businesses over the next 18 - 24 months. Firstly, what is Afiari and what are we building? Afiari is enabling retail (physical) businesses to sell online and automate operations from purchasing to point-of-sale. Our long-term goal is to be able to connect data points from points of sale back to manufacturing and this we will do by first, creating a path for digitization by providing the tools that will help retail businesses manage not just their inventory but also purchasing processes, supplier management, receiving invoice payments automatically, and of course selling their products via our marketplace. It’s an ecosystem and we are ready to push the boundaries of the market. So why should you invest in us?  The first is that, we don’t die! We have been in the space for the past three years, learning, experimenting, pivoting, and repivoting. We have also built out the solution that we are beginning to see adoption for, we now want to grow massively while generating real-time revenue from across our products. Today, we have 8 paying businesses and 22 businesses onboarded in total. Our strategy is to get enough businesses to use our solution as ERP for their businesses while we gradually derive the potential of online sales via our marketplace by driving demand to these vetted businesses. The final reason to invest is that we know that this is incredibly hard and that is what gets us excited. We don’t just want to build for the sake of it, we always work from the ground up and attack the problems from the root. It is a more difficult approach but it is also incredibly rewarding. So, if this makes sense to you, then let’s have a chat about it. I am available to meet in person or virtually depending on your location. Reach out to me via DM, email at [email protected], or call +2347062029656

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Canada's Brain Drain is undeniable! 🌍 Why are ambitious Canadian startup founders flocking to the US? 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 The US economy is 12.5x larger but its VC industry is 30x larger. In 2023, US VC deals were $150-200 billion while Canada was ~$6 billion. 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗹𝘆 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 In the US, speed and risk-taking reign supreme. It's a dynamic environment where ideas rapidly transform into reality, unlike the more cautious pace in Canada. 𝗕𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 With an economy 12.5x the size of Canada’s, the US offers unprecedented reach and potential for growth. 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗮𝘅𝗲𝘀 Although not the main factor, higher taxes in Canada add to the challenges. Recent hikes in capital gains taxes have not helped. For Canada to thrive in the innovation economy, it's time to tackle these hurdles head-on. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  Excerpt from a discussion I had with Mark Nashman. Link to the full video in the comments. #startups #venturecapital #investing #Canada #culture

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