dmix - Latest Comments in Tech Start-ups + Government Programs = Bad Mix

Re: Tech Start-ups + Government Programs = Bad Mix

Daniel Shapiro — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:28:30 -0000

Hey Dan,

Congratulations on trying! It is by far the most important step! You might be interested in the Canadian Youth Business Foundation www.cybf.ca. They offer 15k low interest loans to young entrepeneurs and a personal mentor. (Full disclosure: I'm a mentor with the organization and I've been fairly impressed overall.)

Best of luck on your journey!

Daniel

Re: Tech Start-ups + Government Programs = Bad Mix

John MacRitchie — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:55:00 -0000

Rule No. 1 in raising any money
- Understand what the group with the money wants in return.

Applies to banks, angels, VCs, Mom & Dad, rich uncles and yes, even the government.

It sounds like you were well beyond the level that this program was designed for. There are other resources around that would be a better fit than picking this one because the closing deadline was coming soon.

My understanding is that they are simply trying to get students to try entrepreneurship as an option. For $3k, you can only expect so much. That first try might lead to a second or third try...

And it is probably not appropriate to paint all government programs with the same brush.

I would also bet that you have more chance of changing Ontario government policies and programs in this area than getting the banks and VCs in Ontario to change their policies.

Good luck with your venture.

Re: Tech Start-ups + Government Programs = Bad Mix

omouse — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:07:22 -0000

Interesting. I was discussing getting $$ from the government for a company with a friend yesterday. $3000 seems like a tiny amount but it's probably more than enough for a web startup. Too bad the government doesn't have tech-savvy people running the show.

Re: Tech Start-ups + Government Programs = Bad Mix

davidcrow — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:10:41 -0000

Dan,

It's great to see Canadian entrepreneurs trying. There are a lot of other programs and support mechanisms in Toronto, not all of them are formalized. I know that Jevon - http://startupnorth.ca/, Leila - http://blog.ideeinc.com/, Stuart - http://tripharbour.ca/ and others (like me) have all provided mentoring for early stage software entrepreneurs.

There is a great community of entrepreneurs building on Rails. Including LearnHub, TSOT, and Unspace.

And I'm happy to buy you a coffee, beer or lunch. You'll have to tolerate a MacBook Pro toting Microsoft Canada employee.

Why not come out to DemoCampToronto18 and meet some of these folks.