What can Canada learn from U.S. VCs?

Recently, PricewaterhouseCoopers, NVCA, Thomson Financial Money Tree and the Dow Jones Ernst & Young’s VentureSource reported that the amount of venture capital (VC) invested in the U.S. during 2007 increased to US$29.5B and the amount of VC raised by U.S. VC funds increased to $34.7B in 2007. This represents the strongest year in VC investing since 2000 and the largest amount raised by VCs since 2001. The good times are back! Let the good times roll!

Meanwhile, although full-year data is not yet compiled, based upon three quarters of data (see Q3 2007 VC Industry Overview from Thomson Financial), the amount of money raised by Canadian VC firms declined in 2007 from 2006, and the amounts invested in Canadian companies by Canadian VCs was essentially flat during 2007 relative to 2006, and not rebounding like in the U.S.

So, what can Canada learn from U.S. VCs?

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As a growing number of women pursue careers in science, engineering and technology, the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance’s Women in Technology Forum (CATA WIT) wants to celebrate their achievements.

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I love snowboarding.

Dave’s last visit to Whistler - which line to take?

A decision that I sometimes grapple with on the chairlift up is how to make the best use of the skills that I have for the maximum benefit of society, while gaining personal fulfillment and providing a great life for my family. Seems like a tall order, but it boils down to design and courage. Many of us are fortunate to be able to build a vocation that is limited only by our imagination, but in reality we often restrict ourselves to the options presented by others.

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Collider tunnel at CERN’s LHC.
Originally uploaded by videoschmideo

I recently attended the RCI Public Lecture, Unlocking the Mystery of Mass: Searching for the Higgs Boson Particle. The speaker, Wendy Taylor, is one of over 2,000 physicists working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. She began the lecture with a brief prelude to particle physics, then began to discuss the Why and How  of using the LHC to search for the Higgs boson particle.

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At last night’s Entrepreneurship 101 lecture, attendees learned about the importance of treating your career as something that can be managed, much as one manages a research program or a business.

Yet somehow it seems that managing your career is harder in that it relies on others (namely employers) to co-operate in hiring you for the job that you want. This is particularly challenging when you wish to transition from a research job to a business position.

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Download the reports

Tech trends took centre stage at MaRS this week as Deloitte Canada Research presented its Top 10 Canadian TMT (technology, media and telecom) trends for 08. The Deloitte report offers an overview of likely developments in areas such as IT security, web piracy, online marketing and telecommunications.

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215 Spadina

Check out this Toronto Star article on the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), one of MaRS’ coordinating partners for the 2007 Social Entrepreneurship Summit.

CSI is holding its official launch on February 29th, 2008, even though it has been in operation for four years as a shared space for social purpose enterprises. The event should prove to be an opportunity to rub shoulders with academics, politicians, social activists, business people, members of the community, and the tenants themselves, as well as a chance to scope out the newly renovated 91 year-old warehouse space in which such great work occurs.

Download the report in PDF format

Exerting influence with one’s words in public life — as an innovator in business or a player in the political arena — requires a finely tuned approach to the art of persuasion, particularly if you’ve been tapped by the other team to shed light on a seemingly intractable foreign affair.

Few do it more skillfully and passionately than former industry minister John Manley, also a member of MaRS’ Board of Directors.

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Earth’s lights will be dimmed

The countdown to Earth Hour is well underway. A partnership between The Star and WWF-Canada intends to show the public’s concern for global warming to our political leaders. The ask is to shut off the lights and stop the appliances for one hour in the month of March. The result so far is a great collection of resources and information on climate change and the public policy around this issue.

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This week’s Entrepreneurship 101 speaker, Chris Sullivan from IDC, spoke about market research resources — leading up to how to estimate your market share based on a rational process rather than the usual “Oh, we’ll get about 1% of the market in year 1, 2% in year 2, etc.” He also addressed the question “How do you estimate a market for a product that doesn’t exist yet?” by talking about proxies.

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