Traditional Loan Lending vs. Partnerships and Collaboration

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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: It's the Canada's Podcast Network.
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: Hello everyone, I'm Angela Faye, Hub Builder and Co-host of British Columbia's Podcasts.
[00:12] SPEAKER_02: Part of the Canada's Podcast Network,
[00:15] SPEAKER_02: you've source for great insights from entrepreneurs from across Canada.
[00:18] SPEAKER_02: We talked entrepreneurs who are making it happen here,
[00:21] SPEAKER_02: so you can listen, discover and engage.
[00:24] SPEAKER_01: First of all, wearing the venture capitalist hat is a founder and managing partner, Mike Winterfield,
[00:32] SPEAKER_01: of impact, sorry, active impact investing.
[00:35] SPEAKER_01: And of course, wearing the angel investing hat today is Grant Lawrence of Valhalla Angels.
[00:41] SPEAKER_01: And Jill, I've just put you under the nithub all of niche funding because you wear so many hats
[00:46] SPEAKER_01: and I've had so many different platforms that you've represented in the past.
[00:49] SPEAKER_01: You're currently CEO of Women's Enterprise Center here in British Columbia.
[00:53] SPEAKER_01: Tell me how you know each other.
[00:58] SPEAKER_00: Mike Founder's Institute. We're brought in as mentors and presenters to help the brand new startup.
[01:06] SPEAKER_00: So we hit it off there. That was what eight months ago.
[01:09] SPEAKER_00: So it seemed like about eight months ago.
[01:11] SPEAKER_00: And Jill and I bumped into each other.
[01:13] SPEAKER_00: Jill has tried to remember when we first connected at a forum in Clono or
[01:21] SPEAKER_03: I think Laurel Doug was actually introduced us.
[01:23] SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay, Laurel.
[01:24] SPEAKER_03: Like probably too close to two years ago maybe.
[01:27] SPEAKER_03: Which is great. And you've been so supportive of trying to engage more women to participate
[01:31] SPEAKER_03: as angel investors.
[01:33] SPEAKER_03: So really appreciated that.
[01:35] SPEAKER_03: And then Mike and I have known each other a couple of years with a lot of common connections.
[01:40] SPEAKER_03: And a shared passion for social impact and making a difference in the world.
[01:44] SPEAKER_03: So I think a couple of coffee chats and intention for more.
[01:49] SPEAKER_04: Absolutely. I was going to say we definitely did get a direct introduction when I first
[01:54] SPEAKER_04: moved into the world of angel investing and venture capital and impact.
[01:59] SPEAKER_04: But I would say it would have been very hard not to meet Jill because she was basically
[02:03] SPEAKER_04: every startup event that I went to for about a two year street.
[02:09] SPEAKER_03: There we go. Yeah.
[02:10] SPEAKER_03: So shared passions for sure.
[02:12] SPEAKER_03: I think I'm going to screw it.
[02:13] SPEAKER_01: Well, and maybe just a little bit of insight on to each one of your
[02:18] SPEAKER_01: current business venture.
[02:20] SPEAKER_01: What do you work?
[02:21] SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
[02:22] SPEAKER_01: Obviously, as entrepreneurs, we tend to wear multiple hats.
[02:25] SPEAKER_01: But you know, why we're at the table today?
[02:28] SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
[02:30] SPEAKER_00: Go ahead, Jill.
[02:32] SPEAKER_03: Well, I've just stepped into a new role in the last two weeks.
[02:35] SPEAKER_03: As in terms of CEO of the Women's Enterprise Center.
[02:38] SPEAKER_03: So provincial nonprofit organization supporting women entrepreneurs with business advisory services,
[02:44] SPEAKER_03: training, and loans.
[02:46] SPEAKER_03: So that's been an unbelievable experience as you can imagine.
[02:50] SPEAKER_03: Just diving in.
[02:52] SPEAKER_03: And just deepening our support for entrepreneurs who need it so much more during these difficult
[02:57] SPEAKER_03: times. But as you know, my background and passion has certainly been looking at new models,
[03:02] SPEAKER_03: increasing diversity in the investment sector to better support all entrepreneurs.
[03:06] SPEAKER_03: So yeah, so great.
[03:08] SPEAKER_03: It's great to be here.
[03:09] SPEAKER_01: Well, and let me respond to is I never actually received financing from Women's Enterprise
[03:14] SPEAKER_01: Center. But I've been a mentor with Women's Enterprise Center before.
[03:17] SPEAKER_01: And the reason I stepped up when asked at the time was I was super excited to
[03:22] SPEAKER_01: that this was a funding partner legitimately that also offered mentoring in the side.
[03:29] SPEAKER_01: And that was one of my natural attractions to Women's Enterprise Center.
[03:34] SPEAKER_03: It's such a powerful combination.
[03:35] SPEAKER_03: I think Grant and Michael Zahood are the same because they're both
[03:38] SPEAKER_03: wrapped their arms around down to partners as well. But I think that is it's not just about the money.
[03:42] SPEAKER_03: It's it's so much more and there's additional services on support. And sometimes it's you don't
[03:46] SPEAKER_03: even need the money. It's about the additional support. And then you need the money later. So it's
[03:51] SPEAKER_03: it's it's such a yeah, I feel like Women's Enterprise Center is still a bit of a hidden gem
[03:55] SPEAKER_03: for some companies around the problem.
[03:58] SPEAKER_01: Grant?
[04:00] SPEAKER_00: Sure. So we've gone, obviously, our forms which were monthly and four cities
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: bringing together startups and angel investors has moved online. By chance we'd already
[04:12] SPEAKER_00: been doing some online combination of in person and online with investors that said,
[04:18] SPEAKER_00: hey, how do we join? But we live in white horse. Okay, you're not flying down anywhere
[04:23] SPEAKER_00: and monthly to meet. So we did already have some good experience there. This week we did our
[04:28] SPEAKER_00: all four cities in one and we had over 115 people online. So it was a pretty busy session. So I
[04:37] SPEAKER_00: think that's indicative of leading a little bit into the the financial side of the interest of the
[04:44] SPEAKER_00: angels. We'll see what happens in the next 30 to 60 days if they still are writing checks.
[04:51] SPEAKER_00: And I went and did some research for this that I can give you some history of what happened during
[04:57] SPEAKER_00: 2007 and 2008 and also 2000, you know, during the 9-11 if you want to dive into those.
[05:03] SPEAKER_00: So we do have some historical information we can look for. Awesome.
[05:06] SPEAKER_01: All right, absolutely. Let's go back and reminisce a little bit about past experience and how
[05:10] SPEAKER_01: we can learn from it. Mike, what are you doing right now? Well, as Grant mentioned, the way that we
[05:15] SPEAKER_04: met was through through Founder and Suites. So I do do some work to support a handful of the
[05:20] SPEAKER_04: current accelerators and incubators, Founder Institute, Spring, CDL-S, Convention and C and a
[05:26] SPEAKER_04: handful of others. But I do that mostly to stay as close as possible to the startup community.
[05:32] SPEAKER_04: My day job is as you mentioned, as the management partner of active impact investments.
[05:39] SPEAKER_04: So we have we have $10 billion in assets under management right now and it's an impact
[05:45] SPEAKER_04: disease. So we're a certified decore based out of Vancouver and we're deploying money for the
[05:51] SPEAKER_04: most part across Canada, although we are flirting with our first US investment right now.
[05:57] SPEAKER_04: But certainly it's a coast to coast coverage in Canada. Been operating for about two years now
[06:03] SPEAKER_04: and we have made eight investments at that time and our investments, the single most important
[06:12] SPEAKER_04: and first criteria is that they have to solve an important environmental or social issue.
[06:20] SPEAKER_01: Pretty apt right now actually. Can I take a moment? I'm going to delve straight into Grant and I,
[06:28] SPEAKER_01: you know, what I was talking to Grant, probably the one question that is pressing right now is,
[06:35] SPEAKER_01: is there money right now? So cash flow is king right for business. So is there money out there
[06:42] SPEAKER_01: right now in any of your pots that is not yet deployed? What kind of dollars are we talking about?
[06:52] SPEAKER_01: And what is the probably most important way to connect with you in order to maybe have access
[07:00] SPEAKER_00: to it if there's anything there? Go ahead Mike or. Go ahead, Joe. So if you look back at our last
[07:11] SPEAKER_00: calendar year and we're very transparent, we hate we self-report and we have it up on our website.
[07:17] SPEAKER_00: I think we did about 8.7 million in funding and I can't remember the number of deals. I want to say 34
[07:24] SPEAKER_00: or so my expectation is we're going to see that drop a little bit but people are going to focus in
[07:31] SPEAKER_00: on what businesses are going to thrive during this COVID. What's it going to look like in the months
[07:37] SPEAKER_00: ahead is an unknown. So we had Francis one company come through that's automating the whole
[07:43] SPEAKER_00: online process for brokers to sell insurance. Well nobody's walking into an insurance company or
[07:49] SPEAKER_00: reals, sorry, a storefront to go and do insurance and it's all over the phone or electronic. So
[07:57] SPEAKER_00: they've started this, just start to explode a little bit which is great. So they're taking
[08:01] SPEAKER_00: advantage of so we'll see money moving into those sectors. The ones that are going to be hit,
[08:07] SPEAKER_00: we've already seen restaurants, you know anything that's gathering with people, shows, trade shows,
[08:11] SPEAKER_00: concepts etc. and they're all trying to adapt. So we'll see I think we'll see money still
[08:17] SPEAKER_00: flowing in and historically during the last recession, they companies that were created there
[08:24] SPEAKER_00: are ended up in the Fortune 500, you know about 250 of the Fortune 500 from the last recession
[08:31] SPEAKER_00: as the figures are being reading. Wow. Yeah so this is a time and opportunity to people take advantage
[08:37] SPEAKER_00: of both the founders if they're going to do a pivot, you know cash is king of course. So they're
[08:43] SPEAKER_00: having to make their runway longer. Right. If their burn rates down, talk to all the important people
[08:50] SPEAKER_00: that are their stakeholders so that the customers, you know maybe you can get better terms on receivables
[08:55] SPEAKER_00: if you have a receivable talk with your banker, look for liquidity as well. So all everybody that
[09:02] SPEAKER_00: touches your company, you need to communicate more with them now and of course your staff is
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: critical to be communicated. So from a money point of view, sorry there's also a government.
[09:13] SPEAKER_00: The NACO has been doing a good job. They had a, they've been doing a good job with their weekly
[09:23] SPEAKER_00: webinars and this this week we had the you know the minister from the Liberals on. We had some
[09:30] SPEAKER_00: some different VCs on talking about what they're trying to do and it ended up being a discussion
[09:36] SPEAKER_00: about what can the government do in addition. So there's lots of points made to help, how do we help
[09:42] SPEAKER_00: the founders that are either just about to start raising money or have just run out of their runway
[09:47] SPEAKER_00: and need that that next round. And I can relate to you some of what took place but I want to take up
[09:54] SPEAKER_01: I just I want to ask as well you said you've already deployed the 8.7 million so obviously you
[09:59] SPEAKER_01: have a priority to look after those businesses that are already filtered through as as likely to
[10:04] SPEAKER_01: survive. What about what's left? Is there anything left right now? So you've got to keep in mind
[10:10] SPEAKER_00: we're not we're not a fund like like Mike has a fund you know you've got a 10 million cap so this
[10:15] SPEAKER_00: is all individual angels making those investments and then reporting back to us saying hey I invested
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: in this company where the founder telling us that. So is there an opportunity for perhaps people
[10:27] SPEAKER_01: who would never invested through an angel network before perhaps because they haven't yet been
[10:35] SPEAKER_01: asked to actually connect with you and say hey listen I'd like to contribute. Yeah we've actually
[10:41] SPEAKER_00: been in this the past two weeks we had like six I think six new members joined and they're all
[10:46] SPEAKER_00: remote so they all know that we're not going face-to-face and they're seeing opportunities a lot of them
[10:51] SPEAKER_00: are I think we're seeing two characteristics come out those that are bold and want to take
[10:55] SPEAKER_00: advantage of those that are conservative and the the bold ones that are going hey there's an
[11:00] SPEAKER_00: opportunity here early and the stock market wow that took a beating so I'm not really going to
[11:05] SPEAKER_00: buy money back there necessarily and so we're seeing new angels come in and that's part of what
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: we're really trying to do right now is expand the capital base given the history of people
[11:16] SPEAKER_00: reducing the amount of deal money they put into deals and valuations are attracting a core
[11:22] SPEAKER_00: at the same time having a wider expanse of more angels because I think we need to be
[11:29] SPEAKER_00: emphasized now across Canada there's there's more more businesses that start with support our
[11:35] SPEAKER_00: economy and the angels and the start of space and there is the big traditional large companies
[11:40] SPEAKER_00: there typically net losers of employees during this these recessions and these starts are the ones
[11:46] SPEAKER_00: that are net contributors to the economy with employment. It'd be interesting to see with the
[11:51] SPEAKER_03: new funding the $250 million through iRap for these tech startups how that supports
[11:57] SPEAKER_01: angel community too. So even just the fact that you mentioned that Jill is important you know
[12:03] SPEAKER_01: there's $2 million in at iRap funding right for tech companies. Just $250 million and
[12:08] SPEAKER_03: and $250 sorry. That's okay. We're talking bigger numbers these days right. Yeah absolutely.
[12:15] SPEAKER_01: So Jill do you want to just continue what cash flow do you have do people have access through
[12:20] SPEAKER_03: with you. So we're a little bit different because we're a loan fund right so we offer loans up to
[12:24] SPEAKER_03: $150,000 to women entrepreneurs across the province and particularly focus more on
[12:30] SPEAKER_03: industry businesses so not necessarily those faster growth technology companies. So we do still
[12:36] SPEAKER_03: have funds available in fact it's interesting of our existing loan clients right now we have offered
[12:41] SPEAKER_03: relief payments over the next three months due to the current situation they have a choice of
[12:46] SPEAKER_03: either no interest or no principal payment or both and of course most are taking us up on both and
[12:51] SPEAKER_03: that's incredibly important to give them that runway over the next few months and then we'll look
[12:56] SPEAKER_03: at whether we need to extend that or not. On the other hand we've also seen an uptake in loan
[13:01] SPEAKER_03: applications and we're offering a couple of things one you know you can apply now and you have
[13:07] SPEAKER_03: up to six months to actually activate your loan and that's important while credit is still okay
[13:12] SPEAKER_03: and planning ahead so that's really critical and then we are seeing some businesses who are pivoting
[13:18] SPEAKER_03: and are finding new opportunities in this crisis and they need funds to to activate that.
[13:24] SPEAKER_03: So we have up to $150,000 and then we also match we work with EDC for an additional $100,000
[13:30] SPEAKER_03: and the average loan though is about $55,000. So and really the key criteria is first of all you
[13:38] SPEAKER_01: need to be 51% women owner is that right? Yes 51% women and then or so there's more to it but if
[13:45] SPEAKER_03: yes the criteria then that's worth having a look right? Yeah absolutely and we collaborate a lot
[13:50] SPEAKER_03: with other financial institutions as well but as you mentioned earlier it is wrapped around a support
[13:56] SPEAKER_03: right the business advisory support the mentorship support training support and that's so critical
[14:01] SPEAKER_03: and and we have an incredible repayment rate because we work so actively with the clients
[14:07] SPEAKER_03: through situations like this this just happens to be across the board but then it's exciting to
[14:12] SPEAKER_03: see some new some new initiatives by the government too right the rent assistance that was announced
[14:16] SPEAKER_03: yesterday details to follow but that's something that a lot of our clients will be benefit from as
[14:23] SPEAKER_03: well as the wage subsidy and other programs that are being offered. When as I walk past all of the
[14:29] SPEAKER_01: bricks and mortar you know businesses on my street I can't help but literally shed a tear as I
[14:34] SPEAKER_01: think about those people who you know impact our community somewhat you know what's happens on
[14:39] SPEAKER_01: the street and our community so my um tell me about venture capital what's out there what bucket of
[14:45] SPEAKER_01: funding steering into cash flow current cash flow is out there if any. Yeah we're also for us
[14:52] SPEAKER_04: specifically first we're lucky because we we raised our money in advance of that so some people
[14:58] SPEAKER_04: are trying to raise money out so we have money committed from our investors that he can deploy
[15:04] SPEAKER_04: and that that we are that we are deploying so so we had we had deployed a little over three
[15:09] SPEAKER_04: million of our of our tens we have about seven million in dry powder and and we we are continuing
[15:16] SPEAKER_04: to deploy there's there's some easy job there that's kind of press the pause button but we
[15:21] SPEAKER_04: were actually very likely going to do a deal a new deal this month which is your ninth investment
[15:28] SPEAKER_04: um so yeah maybe I can talk a little bit about what we're gearing in venture capital at large
[15:33] SPEAKER_04: and and I would say um it might be good to look at it in three ways so the pace of money going
[15:39] SPEAKER_04: out the door the psyche of the fund manager right now and then the types of investments with people
[15:44] SPEAKER_04: I think are gonna want more um on the page side I would say anybody who's thinking about raising
[15:51] SPEAKER_04: money from VC just keep in mind it's it's our job to deploy money right so there will be some
[15:57] SPEAKER_04: VC's and private equity funds that will press the pause button and we've talked to some that are
[16:02] SPEAKER_04: going to for a couple of months and just wait and see what the world looks like but at the end of the day
[16:08] SPEAKER_04: um all funds have a mandate to the full and money in a certain period of time and so when you press
[16:13] SPEAKER_04: the pause button um you're not gonna press it for a year you'll press it maybe for a few months but
[16:19] SPEAKER_04: but every fund manager's job is to get money deployed and and so they will deploy money at some point
[16:25] SPEAKER_04: this year um and in fact it might even create a backlog of some deployment that should happen
[16:31] SPEAKER_04: and um and when you think about that from a case standpoint um venture capital funds actually do
[16:38] SPEAKER_04: want to deploy money during recessionary funds in fact the vintage years of VC funds that
[16:44] SPEAKER_04: performed the best have been the ones that were able to invest in companies that had reasonable
[16:48] SPEAKER_04: valuation versus you know overblown valuations that happened during you know really kind of
[16:53] SPEAKER_04: rocky markets um on the second point around the psyche I think the one thing for for founders to
[16:59] SPEAKER_04: be sensitive to and to just consider when they're thinking about valuations is that the way most
[17:06] SPEAKER_04: venture capital funds work is investors have committed money but that money the checks have been
[17:12] SPEAKER_04: written yet they they the money gets called as the fund manager fund finds opportunities and so
[17:19] SPEAKER_04: when you think about that when we do a capital call because we come into investment that we're excited
[17:24] SPEAKER_04: about we're asking one of our investors the whole money out of the market sometimes at 20 or
[17:30] SPEAKER_04: 30 percent last then it was worth a month ago and so it's very hard to do that if you can't
[17:39] SPEAKER_04: give them confidence that you're investing in something that you are getting that same type of
[17:45] SPEAKER_04: premium that same type of discount um so I I think just for the founders out there they're really
[17:53] SPEAKER_04: trying to hold the line in terms of their valuation pre-covid um that's going to be a tough
[17:58] SPEAKER_04: conversation to have because there is a pretty tight correlation between startup valuations and
[18:04] SPEAKER_04: public market valuations and then the third thing just in terms of type of investment I would say
[18:10] SPEAKER_04: rather great article the other day in tech crunch and couldn't agree more that um that we need
[18:15] SPEAKER_04: more camel than unicorns right now and so the definition of a camel was was just companies that
[18:21] SPEAKER_04: display it from an estimated amount of resilience so you know we are looking for companies that have
[18:27] SPEAKER_04: a faster path to positive cash flow companies that have a little more traction seem a little bit
[18:34] SPEAKER_04: safer companies that have less financing risk so they've been able to get sort of well-funded
[18:40] SPEAKER_04: well-capitalized during them so for instance we'd be a lot more reluctant to go into a small round
[18:47] SPEAKER_04: of a five hundred thousand dollar round we prefer to go into that two million dollar round right now
[18:51] SPEAKER_04: where we know that that company is going to have some good runway to be able to achieve some
[18:57] SPEAKER_04: some major milestones before the need to go up to market again for more money.
[19:02] SPEAKER_03: I love that I think that's going to really you know and do you want to hear questions to jump in is
[19:06] SPEAKER_03: you know what's going to change right and where are we going from here and I think we are going
[19:11] SPEAKER_03: to see like that shift a little bit more that's you know slow and steady the resilient company is
[19:15] SPEAKER_03: obviously that are going to emerge and I think that's going to be better for all of us.
[19:21] SPEAKER_04: Well then I think it's an opportunity actually you know and I have to put my impact my my impact
[19:28] SPEAKER_04: plug in here but we have long believed that there would be more resilience amongst impact companies
[19:34] SPEAKER_04: because people are doing it for a purpose beyond just trying to turn a quick profit and so I think
[19:40] SPEAKER_04: for the founders out there right now that are saying look I'm in this for the long run
[19:45] SPEAKER_04: I'm ready to fight I plan on being here a year from now.
[19:51] SPEAKER_04: Well I think I froze up a second for the ones who are determined to be here a year from now
[19:57] SPEAKER_04: you're going to stand out because unfortunately there are going to be some companies to go out of
[20:01] SPEAKER_04: business or the course of next called months and there were a lot of those companies that were
[20:06] SPEAKER_04: sort of hard to tell apart from the other when everybody was doing well you know the saying that
[20:10] SPEAKER_04: the high five votes all votes so I'm trying to talk to some founders about this being a real
[20:16] SPEAKER_04: opportunity for them to differentiate themselves and show that they have the grit that that people
[20:22] SPEAKER_04: expected and wanted to see if they emerge out of this for months and months.
[20:26] SPEAKER_03: Exactly I'm often referenced Zebras versus Zienacorn streak one Zebras are actually real and
[20:31] SPEAKER_03: and the purpose and the profit representing the two stripes right but the camel in this case also makes
[20:36] SPEAKER_00: a lot of fun. Yeah. You mentioned a little bit sorry go ahead.
[20:43] SPEAKER_00: Go ahead. The psyche right yeah both of the investors of EC's and then you're just getting
[20:50] SPEAKER_00: to the psyche of the founders and differentiate themselves and hanging around and I think that's
[20:55] SPEAKER_00: a critical point is you know the founders and their key people need to be out of panic mode to
[21:03] SPEAKER_00: restore their creativity and I think that's where people like yourself might you talk to your
[21:09] SPEAKER_00: founders and you help them along you know St. Jill and same with us you know companies that I've
[21:16] SPEAKER_00: invested with I'm going to be chatting continue chat with help them along because I want to make
[21:21] SPEAKER_00: sure that they're creativity because that's why invested in them. Yeah. Is their creativity their
[21:25] SPEAKER_00: drive their desire to succeed and to be able to take advantage of they they're always leaving
[21:31] SPEAKER_00: under uncertainty already so here's another one. Well that's it that's when their characteristics
[21:35] SPEAKER_03: really come out right the resiliency and adaptability of entrepreneurs which tend to be
[21:39] SPEAKER_01: fairly common so we'll see more of that. So another important thing to me is how to get from idea
[21:46] SPEAKER_01: to actually engage in conversation so I'd like to try and you know make sure that that pathways
[21:52] SPEAKER_01: totally open and clear so Grant you talked about you know another quarterly online event that's
[21:59] SPEAKER_01: hosting would that be one of the better ways to try and connect with you how does how would that work?
[22:04] SPEAKER_00: Yeah so you know they can connect with me obviously LinkedIn email etc and then we're running our
[22:09] SPEAKER_00: monthly forums and we're making we're trying to broaden the attendance a little bit more to new
[22:19] SPEAKER_00: angels we do have select number seats for startup founders so they can see actually what happens
[22:26] SPEAKER_00: in an angel forum so then go okay now I understand for the you'll see in it versus reading about
[22:31] SPEAKER_00: it's a big difference so we gladly can post information and share information about our ones that
[22:38] SPEAKER_00: are our monthly ones and people can you ask for a join in we'll go. When's your next monthly month?
[22:44] SPEAKER_00: It's May 12th it happens at 3 30 online but two and a half two hours two and a half hour long
[22:50] SPEAKER_00: um and I gladly provide the information to her I don't know how do you want that. Perfect I
[22:57] SPEAKER_01: can just get an email I'll help help that so that's monthly forums and then is there a kind of
[23:03] SPEAKER_00: bigger event as well? So our our biannual unconference was going to be settled for June and then we
[23:12] SPEAKER_00: pushed it out and we're probably gonna have to push it out of yet I just don't see a break so that
[23:17] SPEAKER_00: on unconference last time we had it in BAM it's going to be in clone of this time probably still
[23:21] SPEAKER_00: will be disdelaid and then we'll move it to Bancuver so we'll rotate that it's a good one we've
[23:26] SPEAKER_00: also opened up our calendars to have asked me anything sessions so the first Tuesday I think
[23:32] SPEAKER_00: I'll send you to calendar first Tuesday of the week and we have an angel 101 session for new angels
[23:36] SPEAKER_00: that want to learn more and then we have a closed session for the uh for the members so we're
[23:43] SPEAKER_01: helping them out further as well. Of course I'm hoping that you know your biannual conference
[23:48] SPEAKER_01: actually becomes virtual. Yeah we don't lose them a mantem on that but um how about you Jill what's
[23:55] SPEAKER_01: the yeah what's the best way that you know both either one-on-one or collectively people can connect
[24:02] SPEAKER_03: with you for real solutions. Absolutely when women's enterprise dot c a we are hosting a number of
[24:07] SPEAKER_03: weekly training sessions and virtual sort of webinars on key topics around you know strength and
[24:13] SPEAKER_03: numbers so really diving into cashflow and financials working with entrepreneurs those are free
[24:18] SPEAKER_03: others on HR and contract issues so definitely check those out and we also have complimentary
[24:26] SPEAKER_03: business advisory services which you can find out more about on the website as well and then we're
[24:31] SPEAKER_03: part of a large organization called WEOC which is women's entrepreneurship women's entrepreneurship
[24:35] SPEAKER_03: organizations of Canada WEOC dot c a w e o c dot c a a number of resources um available on that and
[24:44] SPEAKER_03: includes uh different organizations within each of the provinces and that's really critical many of them
[24:48] SPEAKER_03: have uh loan funds as well but they all have different training and resources and collectively we're
[24:54] SPEAKER_03: looking at doing a national online initiative in early May um where we'll bring together all of the
[25:00] SPEAKER_03: experts from different provinces um and invite entrepreneurs to to join in so happily we'll share more
[25:05] SPEAKER_03: information there okay and i'm always happy to connect on LinkedIn as well okay perfect yeah I should
[25:10] SPEAKER_00: should mention sorry Angie and started like um one of the thing we do do is we we have something called
[25:16] SPEAKER_00: a founders base camp and now that's gone virtual as well it's we're we're about 1200 founders that
[25:23] SPEAKER_00: have gone through and it's really letting them step inside the shoes of investor and understand
[25:29] SPEAKER_00: what an investor is looking at so it's not really there to help you with your pitch that's an end
[25:34] SPEAKER_00: result it's helping you decide what is your capital raise plan and what are the impacts on my
[25:39] SPEAKER_00: business myself my family with those raised plans right so they can go okay I have to do four
[25:47] SPEAKER_00: raises over the next 10 years if this amount what does that mean or mean my company my shareholders
[25:53] SPEAKER_00: all of that um and with each of those there's money the money coming from different sources has
[26:00] SPEAKER_00: different expectations right like my QBC fund is different from an angel person oh hey I hear
[26:05] SPEAKER_00: some of my private money versus where you have to have a return for your investors exactly Mike
[26:12] SPEAKER_01: what about what about you what's the best fastest way to connect with you um or website um usually
[26:19] SPEAKER_04: so on our website that the first thing that's best to do is just make sure that you meet our criteria
[26:25] SPEAKER_04: so you know we have a very specific box on most PC through that we're that we're able to invest
[26:30] SPEAKER_04: within um and so if you if you meet our criteria you can either use we have an intake
[26:36] SPEAKER_04: form that you can fill out pretty pretty quick and you need on the website or the other thing
[26:40] SPEAKER_04: that people can do that that works well is um get uh get referred into us you know it's it's
[26:46] SPEAKER_04: you know somebody who knows us or one of your investors is willing to
[26:50] SPEAKER_04: about for you kind of like to know people who um who would recommend you
[26:57] SPEAKER_01: great perfect well i'm a little bit mindful of time um so and one thing i just wanted to ask
[27:03] SPEAKER_01: Jill is the advisory still active right now or is it kind of back burner yes um the advisory is my
[27:10] SPEAKER_03: consulting business so it's um yeah website coming soon um yeah it was active and i'm still
[27:16] SPEAKER_03: doing a number of different projects um okay so and including uh yeah i'm working with um i just
[27:21] SPEAKER_03: kind of quickly do a plug for um Ryerson University in the Brookfield Institute for Innovation and
[27:26] SPEAKER_03: Entrepreneurship um talking to Canadian entrepreneurs who are skilled who have scaled their business
[27:30] SPEAKER_03: over the last three years and how they're pivoting so if any companies are interested in participating
[27:35] SPEAKER_01: let me know grant i wouldn't mind just finishing off with some data you said you you can show
[27:41] SPEAKER_01: a little bit of data about what survives crises and you know that bounce back where's the bounce
[27:48] SPEAKER_00: back right what can you share so the the bounce back nobody's really sure we're going to have a
[27:53] SPEAKER_00: slow climb or a you know a very quick v shape or is it going to be u shape um and that's you know
[28:00] SPEAKER_00: each recession has come down at different times and that was one of the topics yesterday was
[28:05] SPEAKER_00: during the 2019 29 recession the the u.s government took about a year and a half to implement anything
[28:11] SPEAKER_00: so the fact that our government's moving so quickly to help and we keep on seeing new announcements
[28:16] SPEAKER_00: so okay but we don't have what we're doing the intake yet and we're not sure of all the variables
[28:21] SPEAKER_00: but to see the moving fast that way is good and to see the fact that the angel groups have come
[28:25] SPEAKER_00: together and told the government here's what else we need to be doing so some of the ideas thrown
[28:31] SPEAKER_00: out there were to provide more to get encourage more access to capitals incentives around tax
[28:36] SPEAKER_00: rates for investors right so that's that's that's an obvious one that's a big one
[28:41] SPEAKER_00: I would also say we maybe we look at what the definition of an accredited investor is a little bit
[28:47] SPEAKER_00: closer so we have younger like that's that's part of the challenge is that the people that have
[28:51] SPEAKER_00: the money to invest are all necessarily a little bit generation older and we we want to get younger
[28:57] SPEAKER_00: of people and we just had our first our youngest angel join is 32 years old like oh my god good
[29:02] SPEAKER_00: an accredited investor that can actually ask different questions and I'll ask old white guys
[29:08] SPEAKER_03: I think we're going to say some more use of some of the online investment platforms as well
[29:12] SPEAKER_03: yeah yeah through this process we're seeing an uptake and some entrepreneurs asking questions
[29:17] SPEAKER_01: about that like SDX or front-funder you know what Jill I think that's worthy of a whole entire
[29:21] SPEAKER_01: another conversation yeah because I know that there's a number out there and it's still this
[29:29] SPEAKER_01: resonates with me because you're real people with real tangible things going back to the core values
[29:34] SPEAKER_01: of collaboration and partnership as means of financing with which all of you and this means of
[29:41] SPEAKER_01: your respective means of financing offer that you know sometimes other institutions don't offer
[29:47] SPEAKER_01: so that was my goal was to leave people with the idea that you are super accessible yes there are
[29:53] SPEAKER_01: solutions out there make it easy for people to connect with you on behalf of Canada's podcast I
[30:00] SPEAKER_01: want to thank you for your time today and hopefully you'll have a plethora and an onslaught of
[30:05] SPEAKER_01: connections through some of our networks thanks and thanks thank you Jill thanks Mike take care
[30:15] SPEAKER_02: okay thanks guys see you later hey there thanks for taking the time today to listen to British
[30:21] SPEAKER_02: Columbia's podcast on the Canada's podcast network we hope you enjoyed the show today make sure
[30:27] SPEAKER_02: you sign up for our newsletters and write a review for us on iTunes connect with us on Twitter
[30:32] SPEAKER_02: Facebook Instagram LinkedIn or at canada'spodcast.com you can check out what other entrepreneurs are
[30:40] SPEAKER_02: doing across the country I'm Angela Faye see you next time