Craig Elias

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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Is it the fear of #accountability or the fear of being #cancelled that has corporations falling into the category of #greenhushing? Corporations should not and can not conflate the two...and stakeholders should not and can not use a corporations disclosure as a signal to launch an attack. The collective goal of corporations and their stakeholders should be to solve the problems they have influenced or have influence over - #climatechange, #water abundance, #food security, #social #equity and shared #prosperity. This is done by challenging one another with respect and positive intent. If you are a corporation that is not disclosing your goals, targets, ambitions and performance for fear of being "#cancelled", we understand...but remind you that authentic actions built of positive intent, while they may not be bullet proof, is your best defence - and the greatest opportunity to capture the #alpha from addressing your #sustainability challenges. And if you are a corporation failing to disclose because you do not want to be held accountable...well, the risk of not disclosing has historically proven to be more destructive. If you are a stakeholder that has found yourself focused on issue spotting rather than issue solving, recall that greenhushed corporations provide ever more limited data that restricts your means of productive engagement....and isn't that the goal? Productive engagement...? Someone must have written a great song about this in the 60's... #decarbonization #gigacorn #gigacornhunter

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Freeline and Swan to Spur new AAV Development... I couldn't resist. Syncona announced they are combining Freeline and Swan Bio to create Spur Therapeutics to advance the most viable components of the latter two companies' pipelines. That pipeline will be headlined by Freeline's Gaucher program (on the cusp of starting Ph3), and Swan's candidate in adrenomyeloneuropathy. Syncona previously took Freeline private to create new optionality for the company. This was after AAV headwinds had battered the stock and other candidates reached approval first in their prior lead therapies (hemophilia). This shows there's still interest in AAV and its proven delivery capability to diverse tissues and cells. But there is continuing culling in the industry's pipeline. Want to take a look at that pipeline? or think about how it impacts your own prioritization? Reach out and we can discuss! #venturecapital #genetherapy #pharma https://lnkd.in/g8-ZKp4C

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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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Another great #investcanada2024 conference last week. Congrats Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) again and fantastic collaboration with Réseau Capital for curating + delivering such an important ecosystem event that brings together the who’s who in Canadian investing. It’s an interesting macro environment for both founders and emerging VC funds in 2024. The bar for fundraising is higher and the process is more difficult, but it’s an amazing time to build and fund startups. Over the years I’ve been asked what’s made me a successful investor given the number of exits & investor returns delivered. Beyond it being a full-time obsession for decades, one needs to constantly find ways to evolve to founder needs and deliver differentiated value. Earning the right to back and support the best founders is what delivers outsized investor returns. This is easy to say for many investors, but often many fall flat on the everyday execution for different controllable reasons. Reputations are built & lost fast in a more challenging market. Highline Beta's pre-seed VC & venture studio model continues to not only innovate, but also win predominantly because our core investment value is to always “earn the right on the cap table” with the founders that we support. It’s a complete team effort and after 8 years of building out Highline Beta’s foundation let’s us now grow via new vertical venture studios + funds. 🚀

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Would you move your startup for $10+ million benefit + 50% ish cap gains tax to the 🇺🇲? I did it before, why not again? #SiliconValley "Budget capital gains changes are a tipping point for Canadian #startups: survey." MaRS Discovery District, Communitech, Invest Ottawa survey of #Entrepreneurs and Founders. Canada is a great place to incubate companies with a huge quantity of early stage private and public capital and terrific policy support. So why go anywhere else as a founder once you have incubated in such a great place for entrepreneurs? #capitalgains, capital gains, capital gains. That's what this video is about. Thank you to Krista Jones and Christine Bomé and all my friends at MaRS DD for leading from the front. This survey gave me hope that Canada will once more be able to be an innovation champion. Please read the survey! https://lnkd.in/gqMm6yu7

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Dilution is not neutral and shouldn't be viewed as such. It's either positive or negative, good or bad. In the world of VC-backed companies, dilution is such a normalized part of the journey that it is often passively accepted. This often leads to the negative form of dilution such as capital raised for: → inefficient sales and marketing spend → R&D supporting technology searching for a market → layers of unnecessary organizational overhead → supporting broken business models → vanity valuations → etc... However, dilution has a positive and accretive expression as well such as capital raised for: → scaling efficient go-to-market efforts → product and channel expansion with clear ROI → deleveraging and strengthening the balance sheet → accelerating market share gains for a sound business model → transformative investments (e.g. M&A, R&D, capex) → etc... Therefore, dilution should neither be passively accepted nor should it be categorically prohibited. It shouldn't be viewed as always positive or always negative because it can be either. The purpose and quality of the use of capital is what ultimately defines the merit of any dilution. For this reason, capital allocation is one of the most essential responsibilities and capabilities of a CEO. Effective capital allocation leads to dilution being positive. Ineffective capital allocation leads to dilution being negative. It's usually that linear.

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Building a venture capital platform is more than just about money; it's about moving mountains. John Rikhtegar reveals the secrets to orchestrating successful fund-to-fund operations at RBCx. In today's episode of Swimming with Allocators, John shares invaluable advice for corporates venturing into fund-to-fund practices, emphasizing the critical need for alignment at the top. Tune in to learn how strategic alignment, unique value propositions, and deep integration can transform potential into success in the venture capital landscape. Learn from John Rikhtegar how to actively shape the innovation economy and lead transformative fund-to-fund practices that meet the future head-on.

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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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THIS is one of the best analyses I've read on the VC ecosystem as of late. While John Rikhtegar spends the report covering the Canadian ecosystem, I find it as useful - and lots of parallels to the US VC ecosystem and where LP dollars went - for the broader global economy. It's a longer read, but I promise, worth every minute. Some of the notes that stuck out most for me: 1/ 50% of the past decade's exit values were generated in 2020 and 2021. Great liquidity for LPs, but that forced LPs to have an unprecedented amount of capital to redeploy, which made them redeploy quickly to VC, but caused a vacuum and left 2023 and 2024 years far drier for GPs fundraising in market. 2/ From peak in 2021/2022, there's been a 76% drop in exit value in the Canadian ecosystem, 85% drop in Canadian VCs fundraising, and a 77% drop in capital Canadian VCs invest into the ecosystem. 3/ The median exit age of for the top 50 Canadian companies is 12 years. The median time between first financing and its exit for the top 50 is 8 years, leaving a median time of 4 years from a company's founding to their first financing. As such, if a Canadian VC's deployment period is 4 years, it's right to assume as an LP, that you're not going to see the end of the fund till 12 years after you invest. Even if the GP pitches a 10-year fund. 4/ Not all exits are created equal. The top quartile of top 50 exits raised more capital than the lower quartile. The median exit capital efficiency for Canada's top 50 companies for was 7.7X. Meaning the median company exited for $7.70 on every $1 they raised. 5/ Median US exit values are 2X Canada's. That said, Canada is catching up. In the past decade, the US produced $2.6T in exit value, compared to Canada's $56B, only a 46X. Lowest delta on record.

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𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝘂𝗯𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀, 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝘀 will pop up everywhere over the next 5 years. Why? 👇 Alberta Enterprise Corporation (AEC)'s recent $15 million investment in their Accelerate Fund IV highlights a trend: 🎯 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗗𝗼 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿? 1️⃣ 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀: Accelerators often provide seed capital 2️⃣ 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽: Access to entrepreneurs and experts helps startups navigate challenges and scale fast. 3️⃣ 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: Being part of an accelerator connects startups with potential investors, partners, and peers. 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 = 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵. Example: Google Accelerator alumni boast a 𝟵𝟲% 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲, a remarkable number considering that over 𝟴𝟬% 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹. For entrepreneurs, joining an accelerator can be extremely beneficial, offering resources and support that significantly enhance their likelihood of success. But, sometimes they are unnecessary, and a lot are simply just unbeneficial… What's your take on Incubators, Accelerators, and Studios? 🤝 #StartupAccelerators #VentureCapital #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #DragonfruitVentures #AI #StartupFunding #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #Founder #Funding #Business #Investing #VC #Entrepreneur #Startup #Startups #Venture #Bootstrapping #CapitalEfficiency #StartupAdvice

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If you are a #Canadian #startup frustrated by the lack of #investment opportunities and wondering if #SiliconValley is worth the trip ... I wanted to share a few notable comments from #startups that recently participated in our CELS - Canadian Entrepreneurs in Life Science Showcase. To the companies that participated, I won't drop the F bomb and risk being banned from LinkedIn 😆 but feel free to chime in and share, in your own words, why you think your peers need to take a leap ✈️ and visit #SiliconValley. It's really close to 🇨🇦 but in so many ways, a 🌏 apart. ✍️ "A lot of the people we met with will be relevant in the future. CELS made the introduction. We now have to build the relationship." 💰 "Everyone we met with had a friend or a contact that is relevant to us, even if they were not in our space, so basically everyone we met with was relevant!!" 🚀 "The biggest take away was the different mentality. Risk taking is seen positively here! Innovation is seen as a value driver. Investors want to see the BIG idea!" 🎙 "The Showcase format allowed us to have meaningful conversations. There was lots of time for real networking. Everyone asked, 'what is your ask?'. That was so refreshing!" ⏰ "It's just more sophisticated here. Time to market is faster in the US. We didn't have to spend our time explaining the tech and it felt like conversations got progressively better". So the next opportunity to leverage Connection Silicon Valley to build your network here is May 14th to 16th - open to #FemaleFounders. Don't let fear stop you. If you are looking for global capital, #SiliconValley is where you need to be to build the right connections. Register here - https://bit.ly/48SDuzF Or DM me to chat!

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💡 When should you pivot—and when should you quit? In today’s episode of Collisions YYC, Jade Alberts and Sepehr Shoarinejad share their unfiltered stories of entrepreneurship. Both founders reveal how to navigate the rollercoaster of startup life, from managing the highs of landing a client to surviving the lows of missing payroll. They offer actionable advice on how to avoid the most common mistakes founders make, and how to stay grounded when things get tough. 🎧 Tune in now to hear these raw, real, and invaluable insights from Team Awesome: https://lnkd.in/e6CKrASG #TeamAwesome #KeepBeingAwesome #Koridor #Entrepreneurship #SerialEntrepreneurs #YYCFounders

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Despite a growing and robust Canadian tech ecosystem, the country has minted fewer than 30 unicorns in the past decade compared to the US's 700. Should Canadian VCs look to invest internationally? If so, what's the optimal approach to accessing global opportunities, navigating financial and cultural differences, and providing meaningful value? Alternatively, should they focus on strengthening the Canadian tech ecosystem? Is the lack of unicorns primarily a cultural, structural, or financial issue, or a combination? Can VCs play a role in addressing these challenges? Happy to participate in the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) webinar with Mana Hosseini, JD/MBA and Kim Furlong addressing these topics. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Registration link in the comments #venturecapital #startups #investing #canada

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My guest this week on Cleaning Up Podcast was my friend Azeem Azhar, the man behind Exponential View. If you don't know Exponential View, you should. It's a podcast, it's a substack, it's a world view that we all need to think about. Question: what happens when multiple exponential technologies collide: compute, communications, gene sequencing, solar, batteries, AI? Answer: it gets really interesting. So listen now and see what you think! https://lnkd.in/gqizH3vP

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💡 Interesting takeaways (+ my own commentary) from this #SFClimateWeek session on startups engaging with #utilities - Bits (software) and atoms (hardware) will both be required to power #decarbonization and the #energytransition. Enterprise SaaS is a proven business model that needs to complement innovations in deeptech. Start by targeting the customers most open to moving quickly with new approaches - which might be municipal and coop utilities. Referencing those early customers and successful deployments then helps when you start targeting more risk-averse companies, who have higher expectations and potentially more to lose from new technologies. I've seen the latter play out many times in SaaS markets. Successfully penetrating more mainstream (and conservative) segments of a market requires thoughtfully sequencing and orchestrating product development, partnerships & integrations, go-to-market capabilities, and delivery/service capabilities. Would have loved to be at the session to hear firsthand from Adriana Penuela-Useche Louisa White Page Crahan Andrea Sguazzi Giancarlo Savini.

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Generalizing, but operators tend to think in terms of the last three. Entrepreneurs think more in terms of the first three. Few people can run the entire gauntlet. But that’s ok — that’s why you have a team.

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Abundance AND impact? Yes, please! 🌳 Merging historical IRRs of 35% with social impact investing, our search fund is a creative, emergent and exciting way to shape the future of Canadian small business. The New York Times did a great piece on traditional search funds and the opportunities in this space. #regenerativeleadership #canadiansearch #canadiansmb #eta #impactinvesting

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Entrepreneurship is booming, and it's not just for a select few anymore. In both Canada and the U.S., business ownership is becoming more accessible, with people starting companies driven by the desire for meaningful work. In fact, 93% of Canadian business owners in a 2024 poll cited purpose as their main reason for starting a business, even more than financial gain. As entrepreneurship grows, it’s opening new markets and opportunities for both countries, creating industries that benefit everyone involved. This shift shows how business ownership is evolving into something that's bigger than just profit. #Entrepreneurship #WorkTrends #BusinessGrowth

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