Replay of Part 3 of the NACO Roundtable on Incubators, Accelerators, and Entrepreneurial Activity "The bigger concern we're really seeing is founders that are pre-revenue or at that very early stage of development. They're the ones that are, are at this point, falling through the gap" John MacRitchie, Assistant Vice-President, Zone Learning and Strategic Initiatives at Ryerson University "Let's move at the speed of trust. Let's move things and audit later if we have to... when we're talking to our institutional partners in government, that's the sentiment that we should all be echoing" Terry ..read more

“We have really bright minds working on how to solve various aspects of this pandemic… we want to make sure these folks are able to bring their solutions to market sooner rather than later. We’re changing the way we work. We’re deploying funds in a matter of weeks rather than months.” — Benton Leong, General Partner at ArchAngel Network of Funds Originally Recorded on April 23, 2020. Click here to join future roundtables ..read more

Replay of the NACO Roundtable on Canadian Angel Activity Good morning everyone. Welcome to today's Roundtable on Canadian Angel Activity. I'm Claudio Rojas, CEO of NACO and I will be your host for today's discussion. Thank you all for making the time to join us.  Entrepreneurs are under severe pressure.  COVID-19 has unleashed a combined health pandemic and economic crisis. The necessary shutdown to stop the spread of the virus has impacted company operations, dried up revenue, and the need for access to capital has never been greater. Today is the first in a series of conversation ..read more

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is based on the book "A Practical Guide to Angel Investing, 2nd Edition" authored by Steven Gedeon PhD and published by the National Angel Capital Organization. Content discussed is for general guidance on matters of interest and should not be taken as professional, legal, business or investment advice. Most angels have enjoyed a successful business career and want to share their expertise and experience with younger entrepreneurs. Of course. They want and expect to gain above market rates of return on their investments. That's what makes th ..read more

“Over the past few months, we’ve been working hand in hand with companies as they retool and rapidly scale up to produce critical equipment such as masks, face shields, ventilators, medical gowns and test kits. This is an excellent opportunity for Canadian innovators. As many of you may have heard, Minister Bains likes to say this often and loudly—our approach to personal protective equipment has been buy, buy, buy, build, build, build.” “We will need Canadian entrepreneurs to lead the way and we’ll need angel investors to activate capital to support them. And while the innovation sector is pl ..read more

Innovating at the speed of the crisis is a concept that speaks to the importance of angel investing in early-stage start-ups and scale-ups, as well as the government’s decisive response to supporting the ecosystem. “We’ve already seen our government lead the way innovating at the speed of the crisis with unprecedented collaboration to catalyze and harness the power of the private sector. This level of speed and a willingness to take bold steps to support the economy can and will usher in a new era of inclusive economic prosperity,” said Claudio Rojas, CEO of NACO. “Many successful companies em ..read more

Sandi Gilbert, CEO at InterGen and Board Chair at NACO moderated a discussion with Abdullah Snobar, Executive Director at The DMZ and Nicole Verkindt, Founder at The OMX on their leadership journeys and insights on sustaining a business in crisis mode. Originally Recorded on April 30, 2020. Click here to join future roundtables ..read more

“About 51 percent of our population are women, and we get four percent of venture-capital funding. Quite frankly, that’s an awful lot of capital to leave, and a lot of people out of the competitive ecosystem underutilized.” “We really need also to remember that when you think about women as a whole, there’s significant underrepresentation of women of color, Aboriginal women, LGBTQ women. These are sisters who I want to include in our fund because by teaching and training and deploying their capital, what we’re going to see are stronger female founders supported. We’re also going to see men thi ..read more

Replay of the NACO Roundtable on Canadian Angel Activity We have the privilege of bringing international insights from Jacopo Losso, Director Secretariat at the European Business Angels Network (EBAN), and Pat Gouhin, CEO at the U.S. Angel Capital Association. Both Jacopo and Pat lead the equivalent organizations of NACO in their respective jurisdictions (Europe and the U.S.). We also have Colin Mason, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Glasgow. Colin is the author of NACO's Annual Angel Activity Report and brings unique perspectives on how angel activity varies over time, alo ..read more

Rachel Bendayan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, in a conversation with leading entrepreneurs, Bobbie Racette, Founder & CEO at Virtual Gurus; Dr Franziska Broell, CEO at Motryx; Stephany Lapierre, CEO at tealbook; and Jennifer Wagner, President at CarbonCure Technologies. "I think we're going to get through this, and we'll get through it by government and the private sector working together and doing whatever it takes in order to get our Canadian economy back on track. I hope that you feel the support of the government ..read more