Tech Capital Partners Blog

One of the biggest issues we have to deal with as venture capitalists is saying “no” to a lot of people. At Tech Capital Partners we fund about 1% of the opportunities we see. That means we are saying “no” almost all of the time.

The challenge is to do this without discouraging entrepreneurs. VCs say no for a variety of reasons but in our case the biggest reason is that the company is simply not appropriate for venture capital. Most of the opportunities we see don’t require millions of dollars in capital but rather should be grown and built organically.

In these cases we encourage the entrepreneur to stop spending time fund raising and – to steal a tag line from Nike – just do it. Go get that first customer, leverage it and build a nice business. In some cases that is easier said than done but fortunately in Waterloo Region there are numerous resources available to assist.

We encourage all entrepreneurs to join Communitech. For a nominal fee you will have access to educational programs, networking opportunities, peer to peer networks, mentoring by executives in residence and access to events for entrepreneurs.

The Accelerator Centre offers programming and resources for both resident and non-resident clients. Mentoring, education programs and events run by the Accelerator Centre provide entrepreneurs with resources not available in other communities.

Other great events and resources within Waterloo Region are WatStart, BarCamp, Entrepreneur Week, CBET, and StartupCamp. Outside of Waterloo Region the list grows quickly but some notable ones are: Founders & Funders, mesh, OCE, IRAP, MaRS, OCRI, and Toronto Tech Week.

Obviously there are companies that can’t be built organically and are appropriate for venture capital – I will deal with these differences in characteristics in my next post.

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