Posts tagged finances
Top 12 lies angels tell
Mar 10th
By Frank Peters
Angel investors are among the leading sources of funding for many technology firms. Knowing how these investors think and evaluate a possible investment is therefore vital for any tech start up seeking funding.
With a nod to Garage Venture’s Guy Kawasaki and his Top 10 Lies of Venture Capitalists, I offer my Top 12 Lies Angels Tell. When I showed a draft to my angel friend Malcolm, he turned to me and said, “wow, this is really cynical!” So let me acknowledge that first.
1. “That was a good presentation!”
I have to say something positive, but you’re not getting me to write a cheque. The fact is, most funding pitches are terrible; they’re more product pitches with an appeal for money tacked on at the end. Read the rest of this entry »
The new risk capital reality: What now?
Feb 18th
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
In our previous post, we explored the massive changes that have occurred in North America and Europe that have led to a contraction of traditional venture capital investment.
These long-term trends have left early-stage companies in a tight spot. They must become increasingly creative to shorten time to market, become more capital efficient and generally figure out how to do more with less. The cash-burn of years past is no longer an option, if it ever was.
Rise of the super angels
All is not bleak, however. While traditional VCs may have become easily spooked by the prospect of sinking cash into an unproven startup, many angel organizations have stepped up to fill the void. Ronald Weissman, chair of the Software Special Industry Group at one of Silicon Valley’s oldest angel organization, Band of Angels, said many angel organizations have come to act like early-stage VCs. Read the rest of this entry »
The new risk capital reality: What’s happened to VC?
Feb 11th
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Sean Parker, the entrepreneur behind Napster and Facebook and himself a venture capital investor, provided a rather gloomy assessment of the VC industry and the future of U.S. innovation in general.
“The risk-reward doesn’t work out in favor of putting money into venture capital anymore,” he said.
And yes, again, to confirm, Parker is himself a VC investor. He went on to say that the contraction of the U.S. venture capital (VC) market means that “innovation could gradually grind to a halt or at least become less effective,” a trend that could serve to erode the ambition and vision of entrepreneurs.
“Ten years ago, venture capitalists would ask the question: Do you want to build a company and flip it or do you want to build a company and IPO it? It’s a trick question. The correct answer was always, ‘I want to build an incredibly valuable stand-alone business and maybe we get bought, maybe we go public but we’re going to build an incredibly valuable company,’” Parker said. “Now it’s actually not clear that that’s the right answer. There’s a lot of venture firms that are clearly interested in building something and selling it either to Facebook, Google, Microsoft.” Read the rest of this entry »
Social game revenues still 30 times less than console games
Jan 25th
Nestor Arellano
Last week, Vancouver-based game studio Propaganda Games laid-off 70 workers after the firm was shut down by parent Disney Interactive Studios. Prior to this, Propaganda already had to let go of 100 people last October when Disney decided to abandon development of a new console game based on its Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
Increasingly, big studios have began focusing attention on social games which in the last two years have emerged as yet another segment of online gaming that threatens the reign of packaged and console based entertainment.
The two main factors that make social games attractive to investors, publishers and game developers is their relatively low cost of development and gigantic potential user base. Read the rest of this entry »
A case for ditching cell phone contracts
Dec 7th
The most detested words in the cell phone industry are “cell phone contract”. The word contract conjures up feelings of confinement, frustration and anger to name a few. 
So what do your choices look like if you don’t want to sign your business up on a new contract, should that contract be detested or does it make good financial sense to sign one?
First of all, we need to realize that today’s cell phones or smart phones are more powerful than computers of a few decades ago.
As a result, they aren’t cheap. I once heard my barber refer to buying a big screen TV or a smart phone and somehow the example just put things in perspective. Spending $600 or more to purchase a smart phone out right is a lot of money and if you are purchasing a fleet of devices for your company, certainly a sizable financial investment. Read the rest of this entry »
Get 100 per cent tax write-off on computer purchases
Nov 17th
With the finicky economy and rising prices, things have not been good for many small and medium sized enterprises.
But as the year closes, it might bring some warm thoughts to business owners that they can take advantage of changes in Revenue Canada’s computer capital cost allowance (CCA) regulations. The CCA is a means by which Canadians may claim depreciation expense on tech products they have purchased for their business.
Nestor Arellano
The CCA rate for computer equipment acquired after January 27, 2009 and before February 2011 has been increased from 55 per cent to 100 per cent with no half-year rule.
The half-year rule allows tax payers to claim only half of the CCA available on n asset in the year that asset was purchased. Doing away with the rule means businesses can claim a full-write in the first tax year that CCA deductions are available. Read the rest of this entry »
Not yet too late for Ontario, BC SMBs to become HST compliant
Jul 14th
Despite a long government campaign to get taxpayers onboard with the HST which came into effect this July 1st, a majority of small businesses in Ontario and British Columbia are opposed to and unprepared for the new tax regime.
Nestor Arellano
More that 54 per cent of respondents in Ontario and 47 per cent in B.C. won’t be ready to comply with the changes, according to recent survey by poll body Angus Reid Public Opinion for Intuit Canada, a tax software developer.
No less than 35 per cent of respondents in both provinces also admitted they don’t understand the need for the new measures. Read the rest of this entry »
Do you have a kick-ass story to tell about your solution?
Apr 8th
If your answer is no, you have a problem…or at the very least, you will probably have difficulty getting people’s attention.
Case in point: “Dragons Den” style events seem to be all the rage these days, providing startups with the opportunity to give quick 5-minute demos. It seems the one thing these events have in common is that most of the companies presenting at them struggle to communicate what they do within the allotted time frame. At one recent Toronto event, after a company had presented for 5-minutes, an angel investor well versed in the tech sector turned to me and said, “I don’t get it”.
Enter: storytelling. Storytelling can be a particularly effective strategy for smaller tech companies with very technical products or those that customers may not be familiar with, and can provide a quick story to frame the discussion and get prospects to the “Ah-ha” moment faster – especially when time is not on your side. Read the rest of this entry »
