Blog

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Venture Capital

Hustling for Seed Money

I gave a talk on entrepreneurship for students at Polytechnique Montreal today and the topic of seed money came up. Seed money are those few dollars needed to pay a lawyer, establish your initial network, find a business model and do all those other things needed to actually raise...
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Entrepreneurship

Leaving Your Mark

Last week I witnessed ancient treasures in London. No, not royal family and their wedding antics (London was a mess…). I am talking about old prototypes from past university collaborations of mine. That reminded me of the first mark I left in the world a long time ago… My...
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Entrepreneurship

Get Out There Even if It Hurts!

Over a decade of entrepreneurial activity in “hard” technologies has left me with a deep repertoire of demo horror stories. I have had boxes blow up, catch fire, over-heat and over-cool, human failure, device failure and some that felt like divine failure. You name it, I’ve suffered it. Maybe...
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IP & Tech Transfer

Forget Software Patents

Software patents have been in the news a lot lately. The US broadened its position on patents a few years ago and introduced so called “Software Patents” to protect software applications directly. The first wave of these patents is now hitting the courts and the lack of precedence decisions creates...
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Entrepreneurship

10 Tips for Student Entrepreneurs

Starting your own company out of university is a tricky business. You tend to have other things on your mind – like getting your degree. Here are some practical tips for university students who want to commercialise their technology. 1. Write Everything Down: Most university ventures are formed around intellectual property...
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Entrepreneurship , People

Start-Up Titles are Dangerous

I got a few questions about titles after my last post on hiring. Titles are always tricky, but particularly dangerous in the startup environment. I am not just talking about the rapidly de-valuing titles such as “Founder” (you aren’t one until you have actually created an entity and business), “CEO” (you...
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Entrepreneurship

Hiring is Hell

Hiring is really hard! Not just the process of find candidates, but the rate at which hires turn into great employees. Over the last decade I have hired upward of a hundred people into new organisations (start-ups or new departments within a large company). Looking back, 10-20% of those turned out to be great performer,...
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