Montreal Start Up

In my last post I mentioned that MSU looked at 94 potential investments in the last few months but only five got us excited. So, what was wrong with the other 89?

While we don’t expect any company to be perfect, we do expect it to have at least two things going for it. First, the founding team must be smart, passionate and capable. Ideas are a dime a dozen, it’s execution that builds a successful company. Note that I didn’t include experienced as a pre-requisite. It’s a great asset if you have it, but its lack is not usually a showstopper.

Second, we look for an interesting core idea around which the company is to be built: an original, ambitious and potentially lucrative idea. Usually, the opportunity is reasonably well defined. We are also, however, interested in people who can passionately argue that some area, that they know well, is long overdue for some creative disruption. Even if they haven’t quite figured out what form that disruption should take, given a strong enough team, we might be willing to provide support so that they can explore the opportunity further.

Probably half of the 89 clearly failed at one or both of the above. Passing on these deals is an easy call. The others however, were much tougher calls. Several might have made the cut if only they had done a little bit more work on X or had a better understanding of Y. Although we provide feedback on why we won’t invest, I’m sure most entrepreneurs would prefer to learn those lessons prior to pitching investors! This is where I think a Startup School could help the local community. I’m still working on it and hope to have more details soon.

So, to sum up what we’ve seen in the last six months:

• There is no shortage of bright and creative people in Montreal.
• We need to be more ambitious. Accept that the Quebec market is small and start thinking in terms of North American or, better still, global markets. As Elvis Gratton would say: “Think big Sti!”
• In terms of talent, good entrepreneurs –people who can pull together all of the pieces and get things done– are the limiting factor in the local startup ecosystem, not developers.
• There are still many people who aren’t aware of the local startup scene. We need to do a better job of getting our friends, colleagues and classmates out to networking events and reading the relevant blogs. I’m particularly concerned about how few students are involved.