What we can learn from high performing athletes
I have been on cloud nine since Saturday night. As a long-time Toronto Raptors fan, my hometeam is headed to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. Throughout this playoff run, I have been thinking a lot about high performing athletes, and what we can all learn from a champion’s psychology. One […]
Entrepreneurial ecosystems: Reflections on Toronto and Silicon Valley
On May 26th, I attended the C2 conference in Montreal, joining my good friend Harley Finkelstein (Shopify), along with Magaly Charbonneau (Password Box), Wesley Chan (Felicis) and Eric Boyko (Stingray) on a panel. The theme was: “Entrepreneurial ecosystem: it takes a village to build a startup”. Harley asked about my experiences growing up in Toronto and […]
Thoughts from the road: building startups and collective ambition outside Silicon Valley
Just a few years ago, if you wanted to do something big, you needed to go to Silicon Valley. It meant frequent flights or moving your company to San Francisco to raise money from Bay Area VCs. Times are changing, and these geographical barriers are beginning to break down. Waterloo has another unicorn with Kik. […]
How to bootstrap your way into becoming a VC
One of the most common questions I get is “How can I become a Venture Capitalist?” I suppose this is because to many people, being a VC is a coveted position: you control large amounts of money and can pick and choose where that capital goes. [But let me tell you that the VC business […]
Can you build “Silicon Valley” companies outside of the Valley?
The big debate among tech circles has always been if it’s possible to build a “Silicon Valley” company outside of the Valley. Is Silicon Valley a physical place or a state of mind? Can upstart ecosystems in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, or Seattle churn out tomorrow’s billion dollar tech companies? Considering a large proportion of Version […]