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Everyone has their own opinion and here is where you can read what they are. These are blog posts, not necessarily endorsed by anyone – except the team member who wrote them!

Nouveau fonds pour le démarrage d’entreprises en technologie

Filed under Austin Hill, Events, Marketing Dept, Press, Reseau Anges Quebec, angel investing, role models

11 03.08

Le fonds bénéficiera de l’appui d’une vingtaine d’anges financiers et d’entrepreneurs montréalais qui ont réussi dans le domaine.

MONTREAL, Québec, 10 mars 2008 – Montreal Start Up, un spécialiste du capital de démarrage, dont la mission est d’appuyer les entrepreneurs montréalais qui bâtissent les succès de demain, a aujourd’hui annoncé le lancement d’un premier fonds de capital de risque de $3 millions, le Fonds-Soutien Montréal s.e.c. Parmi les investisseurs, on dénombre une vingtaine d’entrepreneurs et investisseurs montréalais qui ont connu du succès en affaires et l’appui considérable d’Investissement Québec.

Depuis 2005, près de $3 milliards de nouveaux capitaux ont été injectés dans l’industrie du capital de risque québécois; cependant, très peu de ressources sont allouées au financement et mentorat des jeunes entreprises. Le résultat final est que très peu de compagnies sont prêtes à recevoir du capital de risque et la plupart de ces nouveaux fonds ne sont toujours pas investis.

Démarrage Montréal investira temps et argent exclusivement auprès des jeunes entreprises. Elle mettra l’expertise que ses investisseurs ont accumulé en technologies de l’information, communications et medias au service des entrepreneurs qui bâtissent les succès de demain sur Internet, dans le sans-fil ou en multimédia.

“Bien que le Québec ne manque pas de capital de risque, Montreal Start Up se démarque en intervenant exclusivement à la phase de démarrage des entreprises. C’est une période où l’entrepreneur a autant besoin de conseillers de confiance que d’argent”, dit René Bousquet, associé chez Trio Capital et investisseur dans le fonds. “L’encadrement et l’appui financier initial du fonds permettront aux entrepreneurs de lancer leur compagnie et de valider son potentiel commercial. Ils seront ainsi en meilleure position pour obtenir du financement des fonds de capitaux de risque traditionnels.”

Austin Hill, un entrepreneur et ange financier qui siège sur le comité d’investissement de Démarrage Montréal, ajoute “Le logiciel libre, l’informatique sur demande et les outils de développement modernes font que beaucoup de jeunes entreprises sont capables de démontrer la viabilité de leur offre de service à partir d’un investissement initial modeste ».

“Si l’on veut collaborer étroitement avec des entreprises en démarrage, il est important de bien comprendre leur réalité” a dit John Stokes, associé principal chez Montreal Start Up, “Notre équipe de gestion et notre comité consultatif sont composés d’entrepreneurs chevronnés. C’est cette expérience que nous désirons mettre au service des entrepreneurs afin de les aider à bâtir la prochaine génération de compagnies montréalaises qui rayonneront mondialement. »

Jean-Sébastien Cournoyer, de Vantage Point Venture Partners et membre du conseil d’administration de Démarrage Montréal explique l’importance de la structure du fonds : « Dans les pôles technologiques les plus innovants, une partie importante du financement et du mentorat provient d’entrepreneurs devenus anges financiers suite à leur réussite en affaires. Historiquement, cette culture de réinvestissement a été faible à Montréal; la ville n’a donc pas profité des bienfaits qu’un pont entre les générations pouvait offrir. Cependant, le fait que des entrepreneurs appuient ce fonds de Démarrage Montréal montre que la culture d’investissement de notre ville évolue ».

Démarrage Montréal entend former des partenariats avec d’autres intervenants du milieu, tels les anges financiers, afin de former des consortium d’investissement et pour accompagner les jeunes compagnies jusqu’à ce qu’elles puissent être financées par les autres fonds de capitaux de risque québécois, créant ainsi des opportunités pour les capitaux non investis.

Les associés et conseillers de Montreal Start Up ont fondé ou occupé des rôles clés chez Terrascale, Microcell, Télésystème, AskMen.com, Génération Flash, RadialPoint, Canoë.ca, BCE, Nortel FremantleMedia, Rogers et Hewlett Packard entre autres. Les associés sont John Stokes, Alan MacIntosh, Jean-Sebastien Cournoyer, Austin Hill et Daniel Drouet.

À propos de Montreal Start Up
Fondé en 2007, Montreal Start Up est un spécialiste du capital de démarrage dont la mission est d’appuyer les entrepreneurs montréalais lors du lancement de leurs entreprises. Les investissements privilégieront les services innovants à base de logiciel dans les secteurs d’Internet, du sans-fil et du multimédia.

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2008 – The Year of the Individual !

Filed under Marketing Dept, role models, startup

03 01.08

The start of a new year is often seen as both a time for reflection and for looking to the future.

On reflection I recognise two major movements in Montreal in 2007:

  • The "self activation" of Montreal’s entrepreneurial community – primarily through Barcamps, Democamps and Tech Breakfasts.
  • The closing of the gap between the franchopone and anglophone entrepreneurial communities.

As others have commented we have come a long way in a short amount of time and this progress is both exciting and encouraging for Montreal and also for Canada.

Looking forward, I implore Montreal’s new wave of entrepreneurs, angel investors and VC’s to work hard, work fast and work smart.

There are a few things that I would like us to try and keep in mind as we push on into 2008:

  • We are not the first to face any given problem – but realising that it is a problem means that at least we now have an opportunity to do something about it.
  • We will not achieve great success by working in a vacum:
    • Life is a competitive process – decide if you are training to win the New York marathon or finish a sponsored 5K fun run. Both are worthy goals but each requires a different levels of commitment .
    • Life is a collaborative process – helping other people achieve their goals does not necessarily hinder you achieving yours. Surround yourself with worthy training partners that will push and motivate you to do more.
  • Make decisions ! Some people succeed, some people fail and some people drift along in between. Drifting is the worst option of the three (and it is an option you chose). Be prepared to fail at something so that you then have the time to succeed at something else.
  • Time does not stand still so don’t be fooled into thinking that "quality of life" is a substitute for hard work – it is a product of it !
  • And for those entrepreneurs trying to launch a new business in 2008 – please remember, if everyone says it looks like a dog and sounds like a dog …. but don’t seem to want to pat it … then perhaps its not a dog (and that’s not a good thing)!

On a final note, a city is only as good as its people make it.

When we talk about "Montreal" needing this or that we must remember is that is is individuals who must make decisions and individuals who must take actions in order to  fulfill these needs – and its not "Montreal" who benefits from these individuals actions – its other individuals !

I know many individuals who have contributed to the successes of 2007, but I know many more who have already agreed to contribute more in 2008 – so to all of those individuals and any others that are so inspired to contribute – THIS IS YOUR YEAR !

 

 

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The importance of role models

Filed under Ideas Dept, role models

28 07.07

The latest poll from Montreal Tech Watch (thanks Heri) asked what was Montréal’s best advantage as an innovation center and a permanent place for development.

23% Diversity in Montréal and Montréal’s culture (14 votes)
20% The Universities, student population, and R&D (12 votes)
20% Cost of Living (12 votes)
8% entrepreneurship spirit in Quebec (5 votes)
7% The design community (4 votes)
7% Avalaibility of tech developers (4 votes)
5% government assistance and programs (3 votes)
3% avalaibility of angel funding (2 votes)
2% avalaiblity of venture capital funding (1 vote)
2% presence of successful tech entrepreneurs (1 vote)
2% the technological infrastructure (1 vote)

Bearing in mind that the majority of readers of this blog are from the tech entrepreneur community, with results like this I wonder why on earth anyone is even attempting entrepreneurial activities in Montreal !

I mean, if we believe that our top 3 strategic advantages are cultural diversity, universities and cheap cost of living, then the fact that we actually have a tech community is amazing! So fortunately all is not lost.

It was interesting to see that the “presence of successful tech entrepreneurs” only received 2% of the votes. I see 2 potential reasons for this low vote: a) people don’t believe that the presence of successful tech entrepreneurs is actually an advantage in creating an “entrepreneur-centric environment” or b) people believe that it would be an advantage if we actually had the presence of successful tech entrepreneurs – but we don’t!

I can’t believe that anyone agrees with a) – and so it must be b) ?

As we have said before on MSU’s blog, in addition to smart people and “appropriate” forms of financing (which is an issue that we are working on improving), we need successful role modes to inspire people to stretch themselves.

Now – our digging around has shown that there are more successful tech entrepreneurs in Montreal than we would believe. By successful I mean people who have started companies, financed them and that have now been sold or are generating good cashflows. Has anyone heard of Eric Boyko, Eric Aubertin, Joe Poulin, Chris Royne, Rocky Murza, Faycal Kahloun? and the list can go on.

The best contribution that successful entrepreneurs can do for the community is to start talking about their successes. Most are willing but they just need an appropriate forum to “expose” themselves – one which doesn’t make them subject to what Carl Mercier refers to as “Quebec Jealousy” – or what we call “Tall Poppy Syndrome“.

It would benefit everyone to find the right forum – for example, would a slot at demo camp be appropriate?

The other benefit of raising these entrepreneurs profiles is that is shows to potential Angel investors that it is possible to make money by investing in start-up’s. For every successful entrepreneur there are probably 2 or 3 successful Angel investors !

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