There are too many zombie companies. It’s quite prevalent in Montreal, and I’m certain it exists elsewhere as well. A zombie company is one that can essentially run forever but never really gains any traction. The company may be leveraging tax credits (which some argue is doing more harm than good) or other financial incentives […]
You Have to Jump First
Startups are founded by people that make the leap before anyone else. If you don’t leap first, you don’t stand a chance of winning. Jump. It’s up to you. No one else can jump for you or before you. If you’re waiting for some form of validation from existing co-workers, family or even worse, investors, […]
Bashing the Competition
When pitching investors, don’t bash the competition. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend bashing the competition under any circumstances – when meeting with prospects, clients, or even internally. It sends the wrong message and positions the conversation around others and not you. Bashing the competition also makes you look petty and foolish. Jason Cohen expresses this […]
The Death of the Business Founder
The commonly accepted structure for startup teams is one business founder and one technical founder. Theoretically it makes sense: one guy builds the product and the other sells it. But it’s not that simple. Some time ago I wrote that founders can’t live in silos. If the business guy doesn’t get the tech side and […]
Year One Labs Invests in Ken and Garry Seto (and Endloop X)
Year One Labs is the early stage seed accelerator that I started with three Montreal-based entrepreneurs – Raymond Luk, Alistair Croll and Ian Rae. We announced Year One Labs in early September. Since then we’ve been busy recruiting the best people we can find to join. It’s quite the experience, and something I hope to […]
10 Frequently Asked Questions about Startups and Why You Should Give a Damn
That was the title of the presentation I gave last night at PHP Quebec. Overall feedback was positive. My goal for the presentation was to convince at least 1 person to start a company. I didn’t ask the audience after if I had accomplished my goal, but I think I moved the needle … at […]
Beware of Too Much Tinkering
More and more people these days are technology tinkerers. They’re messing around, trying new things, jumping from small project to small project, but never settling on and committing to one thing. It’s certainly easier and easier to tinker, which is great; it makes building stuff more accessible and less expensive. And that can lead to […]
Being Plugged In
For entrepreneurs, there’s no excuse for not being plugged in to what’s going on in the startup world, both locally (wherever the entrepreneur is located) and globally. This is especially true for entrepreneurs that don’t live in startup hotbeds like Silicon Valley. Entrepreneurs tend to move more slowly outside of startup centers. There are some […]
Founder DNA – How Investors Evaluate Startup Founders
Are entrepreneurs born or taught? I’d say a bit of both. Environmental and genetic influences are so intertwined for most things (diseases, our health, intelligence, etc.) there’s no simple answer. Having said that, when we talk about founders and startups we often think of it as something intrinsic to the people, something inside them, built […]
A Postmortem Analysis of Standout Jobs
It’s been a number of months since I announced that we sold Standout Jobs. In that time I’ve gone through a myriad of emotions and cyclical arguments in my head about the entire process of starting Standout Jobs, running it and selling it. I’ve read a number of great (and heartfelt) postmortems of late, and […]
Founding Partner at 