NACO Podcast

“The horse is out of the barn on virtual care. Once the horse is out of the barn it can never really be corralled, and I think this is going to become part of our permanent care-delivery landscape.” “The world changed almost overnight when we consider how COVID-19 took on our practices. We were looking at near zero virtual care use in primary care and moved to virtually widespread adoption in this...

Earlier this week, an article that appeared in the Toronto Star stated that “The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program should be broadened to include high growth firms, software-as-a-service firms, firms whose revenues are seasonal or project-based and pre-revenue firms that are heavily invested in research and development.” With economic confidence low, investment capital is drying up. Many of Ca...

Welcome everyone to our Roundtable on Sustaining the Innovation Ecosystem.  Today’s agenda includes Opening Comments by David Skok, CEO & Editor-in-Chief at The Logic, Special Remarks by Anthony Lacavera, Founder and Chairman of Globalive. And an important conversation with The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages –– with angel investors, innovation...

Replay of Part 2 of the NACO Roundtable on Incubators, Accelerators, and Entrepreneurial Activity "The biggest issue companies are facing is liquidity and cashflow. And that cashflow can come in the form of a bridge and then deal with our burn to get to that raise."Iain Klugman, President & CEO at Communitech "Everyone is saying we need to find a way to help these companies brid...

Replay of Part 3 of the NACO Roundtable on Incubators, Accelerators, and Entrepreneurial Activity "The bigger concern we're really seeing is founders that are pre-revenue or at that very early stage of development. They're the ones that are, are at this point, falling through the gap" John MacRitchie, Assistant Vice-President, Zone Learning and Strategic Initiatives at Ryerson...

Replay of Part 3 of the NACO Roundtable on Incubators, Accelerators, and Entrepreneurial Activity "The good part about the BDC program for matching funds is that it might help to speed up the process knowing that the BDC will be able to match some of those funds. But a challenge in the early stage in Canada is to find leads" Emilie Boutros, General Partner at TandemLaunch "Many of t...

Replay of Part 1 of the NACO Roundtable on Incubators, Accelerators, and Entrepreneurial Activity "The Council of Canadian Innovators has determined that the wage subsidy is probably going to help maybe about 25% of their businesses... but the businesses that are being left out right now are all pre-revenue companies" John Ruffolo, Vice Chair at Council of Canadian Innovators Today is th...

Replay of Part 4 the NACO Roundtable on Canadian Angel Activity In relation to how do we keep investment moving and in Atlantic Canada… the most crucial things we need to be looking at are… matching funds from government… and investor tax credit –Stefanie Corbett, Director of Operations at Island Capital Partners We have had successful applications from companies who have retooled their manufactur...

Replay of the NACO Roundtable on Canadian Angel Activity We have the privilege of bringing international insights from Jacopo Losso, Director Secretariat at the European Business Angels Network (EBAN), and Pat Gouhin, CEO at the U.S. Angel Capital Association. Both Jacopo and Pat lead the equivalent organizations of NACO in their respective jurisdictions (Europe and the U.S.). We also have Colin M...

Replay of the NACO Roundtable on Canadian Angel Activity We have Ginette Mailhot , Chair at Anges Québec , a prominent angel group and member of NACO that does extraordinary work in unlocking capital in the Province of Québec. Also, joining is Derrick Hunter , President and CEO at Bluesky Equities based in Calgary, Alberta. Derrick was recognized this past year as the BDC Angel Investor of the Yea...

Replay of the NACO Roundtable on Canadian Angel Activity Good morning everyone. Welcome to today's Roundtable on Canadian Angel Activity. I'm Claudio Rojas, CEO of NACO and I will be your host for today's discussion. Thank you all for making the time to join us.  Entrepreneurs are under severe pressure.  COVID-19 has unleashed a combined health pandemic and economic crisis. The nece...

What is the role of angel investing in the economy? If there is no capital, there is no company. It's as simple as that. Without investment capital, there would be no new companies and no new jobs. Our economy would be in zero growth mode. This is based on a quote from Carl Furtado from the Golden Triangle Angel Network. Small to medium size enterprises, referred to as SMEs, are defined as co...

Lessons learned from Patrick Lor, Co-Founder of iStockphoto and Managing Partner at Panache Ventures based in Calgary, Alberta.  "I don't know if there's anything secret about this. But, we grew iStockphoto off the side of our desks and eventually iStock became such a success that we sold it for $50 million U.S. A few years later, they were doing about $300 million worth of revenues...

How do you value a company? How many companies do you need in your portfolio? The general suggestion among Canadian angels is 20 companies. Dr. Wade Brooks estimates that you need 40 companies to have a 95% chance of getting the average internal rate of return of 27%. A portfolio of 20 companies would give you a 60 to 70% chance of hitting the average. This is based on NACO data from the National...

Angel investors bring more than capital. The knowledge that you have, your experience, what you've done in your professional life is exceptionally important for helping the next generation of entrepreneurs achieve success.  High potential entrepreneurs in Canada do not need to exit. They do not need to sell their companies in order for the investors to achieve liquidity,  Where only a small p...

We are here with Senator Doug Black, Chair of the Senate Banking, Finance, and Trade Committee.  The innovation ecosystem in Alberta has a tremendous potential. We see an opportunity to transition the risk capital, that has historically been in more traditional industries, to the high growth industries that can contribute so much to the economy. From your perspective, what can we do as a national...

What will you do with the next 20+ years of your life? For most angels, the answer is: "I want to contribute to the good of my community" "I want to continue to do what I love." "I want to be involved in strategy, important deals and major decisions." "I want to lend my expertise." The value of angel groups is that they essentially help mitigate your risk. A...

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is based on the book "A Practical Guide to Angel Investing, 2nd Edition" authored by Steven Gedeon PhD and published by the National Angel Capital Organization. Content discussed is for general guidance on matters of interest and should not be taken as professional, legal, business or investment advice. Most angels have enjoyed a succes...

Built by Angels is a new podcast series that will guide you on the road to venture capital scale and growth. Interested in funding the next big thing? Are you an entrepreneur searching for capital, to fund and scale your company? Are you on the sidelines, wondering how to jump in, while everyone else is building, backing, and supporting the next generation of entrepreneurial companies? Stay tuned,...