Entrepreneurship 101: Raising capital

ENT 101 had a slightly different format last Wednesday. We had a “fireside chat” in which I acted as the host with two panelists. We discussed various aspects of raising capital in early stage companies.

Our two panelists were Kamal Hassan, CEO of Skymeter, a company in the automobile mobile payment services space who provided a view on raising capital from angels, and Ron McKenzie, CEO of Octopz, a company in the graphics collaboration space who is raising a round of financing from VCs and focusing on the US.

We discussed a variety of issues including how to target investors:

• what materials to provide before the first meeting
• how to structure investor presentations
• the amount effort and time required to complete a financing
• the difference between “pure money” and “value-added” investors
• and more…

Watching the replay will be useful for anyone who is looking to raise capital and does not have too much prior experience with this exercise. I hope you find it valuable.

Because Tony Redpath was “on assignment”, the session was introduced by Peter Evans of the MaRS Venture Group, and since I don’t want to spoil the fun, Peter’s introduction is not to be missed! Suffice it to say it set a humourous tone for the session.

Downloads and Resources

• Class information
• Webcast
• Ent101 Facebook Group
• Presentation: Check out the webcast and presentation from last year’s “What do investors look for?” session

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Tags: ent101, financing, investors, MaRS, raising capital, skymeter