Canadian Early-Stage Fund with Investment Decisions in 48hrs

http://www.mla48.com

by mikejarema • 11 years ago

29 20 11 years ago

faramarz• 11 years ago

  "$110k through investment and government grants 
  in exchange for an equity stake" 

  http://www.mla48.com/take-action/

For how much equity?

vinay427• 11 years ago

I would assume it varies based on valuation.

alooPotato2• 11 years ago

So they get equity in exchange for gov't supplied money? Sounds shady.

giarc• 11 years ago

See kitcar's answer. Sounds like the govt might pitch half and the investors the other.

baudehlo• 11 years ago

It would definitely be more honest to have this on their site. That certainly shouldn't be worth more than a few percent.

patmcc• 11 years ago

And why should mla48 get any equity in exchange for government grants, exactly? That phrasing strikes me as misleading.

themartorana• 11 years ago

Why do drug companies get patent protection on govn't funded research?

(This is something that's been discussed more than once here, I'm putting it out there as a comparison, not an answer.)

jonathannorris• 11 years ago

Canadian VC's have a terrible habit of stringing along founders for months to try and gather more info/data on the companies and never giving a firm answer. It is one of the most destructive forces possible, it causes Founders to waste months chasing money when they should be building their product/teams, I've seen it kill many good companies with great founders who should have been given a chance to build a team/product, not chase money for months. Hopefully this fund will force Canadian VC's move faster, as long as there aren't any landmines in the terms... But with the government money invested I worry about the terms.

jboy55• 11 years ago

IMHO, government money is so tough to divy out. Mainly because there is a large group of people who are cheerleading for the investment to fail. That is, the opposition party and their supporters.

akg_67• 11 years ago

Second this. I had similar experience in 2003-2004. I guess things haven't changed much in last decade.

Another issue was the Canadian VCs being followers. It was funny when I was raising money in Canada. A few Canadian VCs I talked didn't return calls until I sent them email mentioning that I am visiting U.S. VCs tomorrow. The C. VCs called me at 11pm few minutes after I sent emails. I came back to U.S. by end of 2005.

It is most probably handout by politicians to their favorites. I had some interesting experiences trying to get govt funding too in Canada.

currentoor• 11 years ago

It's a pretty interesting experiment, trying to recreate something that happened organically in Silicon Valley.

olalonde• 11 years ago

What do you mean? Investors in the Valley usually give answers within 48 hours?

kitcar• 11 years ago

Just a guess here (I'm not affiliated in any way) but the "Ontario Centers of Excellence" is listed on their partners page - the OCE is a gov't funded body which provides ~$55K of matching funds in the form of grants to early stage companies (i.e. you raise $55K from accredited investors, they provide the other $55K as a grant) - that could be why their max commitment is $110,000.

alooPotato2• 11 years ago

Wow. That is shady to say that they provide $110K in cash for equity stake.

Jack000• 11 years ago

shame it's only in Ontario, I might have applied.

The site's pretty light on info as well. I guess they want people to contact them.

mikejarema• 11 years ago

FWIW, I saw this fund after reading about their first investment [1], I thought the fund itself was noteworthy in its quick turnaround on funding decisions.

Edit: also see [2]

[1] http://betakit.com/orchard-labs-receives-500000-from-the-mla...

[2] https://mapleleafangels.com/blog/2015/6/10/mla48-angel-inves...

MichaelGG• 11 years ago

Are there any VC-type investment groups that aren't chasing huge returns? For instance, I'm working on some technology that could relatively easily get to be a several million dollar company - a similar product was sold to Oracle for $20M. I need about $80K to develop and launch it solidly, though I'm trying to bootstrap (got a $100K/yr verbal commit from a potential customer -- but I need the product first).

Or is it simply not worth looking for outside investors and instead should I just bother family and friends and whatnot?

lamuerteflaca• 11 years ago

Rule of thumb is to not bother family or friends. Not worth it for a lot of reasons. Also because you will most likely fail.

wooyi• 11 years ago

Wouldn't touch this with a 10ft pole.

Canadian Early-Stage Fund with Investment Decisions in 48hrs

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