Montreal Start Up

One of the questions I’m most often asked at Startup networking events is “What’s going on with Montreal Start Up?” so I thought I give the community a little update.

John and I first started thinking about MSU less than 18 months ago. As it took about nine months to close the first fund, we’ve only really been in a position to invest since January of this year. So, what have we done in the last six months? Well, we’ve looked at 94 companies for starters. The vast majority of which, we met with face-to-face to discuss their business and get to know their Founders. We do our best to meet with Founders, because (a) they work hard at their businesses and, even if it turns out that the deal if not for us, the least we can do is take a little time to provide feedback and advice, (b) on several occasions, the business plan which we’d received ahead of time didn’t do justice to the opportunity, and (c) some of the most interesting meetings have been brainstorming sessions with entrepreneurs about the opportunities in a given sector.

Out of those 94 proposals, five got us excited enough that we wanted to invest. What gets us excited? The exact mix varies from company to company but generally it includes a strong team, big market opportunity, a real opportunity for us to add value beyond our cash and some disruptive element. Of the five, we’ve invested in three. One obtained funding elsewhere before we were able to offer them a term sheet. The fifth company decided it needed to re-structure itself first and so has placed its fundraising activities on hold for the immediate future.

Looking back on it, we learned quite a bit in the last six months about the types of deals that make sense for our fund. We also learned a lot about local entrepreneurs. Anyone want to try and guess what I’ll be blogging about next? ☺