Will Healthy Debate Spur Innovation? This blogger hopes so...

Toronto lawyer Suzanne Dingwall Williams wrote a very interesting piece for the CVCA blog last week,lamenting how often the startups she works with choose to seek investment from American VCs over their Canadian counterparts.

And just this week, fellow blogger Gary Will has taken a different view on the state of startup funding, at least in regards to his hometown and the hotbed of tech activity that is Waterloo, Ontario.

Kudos to both of these thought leaders within the Canadian VC community. My viewpoint on this subject lies somewhere between the two camps represented by Will (the startup workhorse) and Suzanne Dingwall Williams (lawyer to Canadian startups seeking funding and former VC). While it is interesting to note that many recent tech startups in Waterloo have been get off the ground without outside investment, signaling an evolution in the type of businesses that are coming out of places like Waterloo. However, there will still continue to be startups that are more capital intensive and will require outside investment, be it from Canadian or US sources.

I think we can say that the VC industry in Canada, and specifically in Ontario, is suffering from a prolonged hangover from the tech bubble meltdown. The industry has never really gotten back on its feet after the fat days ended, and this has opened the door for increasing competition from American investment dollars. The lack of Canadian funding available to young businesses, or "made in Canada" solutions has threatened the proliferation of a new generation of industry. This is coming home to roost right now in Ontario in particular, with our manufacturing economy at its death knell as a result of the high dollar and and outsourcing of jobs.

Back in February, I wrote an open letter to the members of the Social Investment Organization because I felt that these are the types of business leaders who have the means to affect positive change to Ontario's startup community. It is obvious at this point that we cannot rely on our elected officials to implement policy that will continue to help build innovative companies. And while the SIO and its members do not necessarily focus on startup ventures, or have a mandate to support innovation in Ontario, I thought it was worthwhile to bring to their attention the need for action on this front. If anything, I was trying to get some support to bolster the marketability of Canadian VC and the innovative companies they want to fund.

Suzanne Dingwall Williams got it right when she wrote:

If Canadian innovation is to scale, there needs to be a call to action for all participants in the ecosystem. This is a marketing exercise that needs to be led by you, the VCs. When was the last time you went to a bootcamp? Provided sponsorship dollars to entrepreneur-generated initiatives? Extended your channels in the US to provide a broader network for your portfolio? Many of these events are not immediately accretive to you, but they are vital to community creation. Let me re-phrase that; there has never been a more vital startup community, but it is one being fostered largely without VC involvement. This must not continue.

Well Suzanne and Gary, I sincerely hope I run into you at one of these events in order to further discuss the ongoing challenges and triumphs of Canadian startups and the VC's that want to fund them. Can anyone actually think of a really good event to mark on my calendar where this sort of debate with like minded thinkers is most likely to take place???

Opportunity at your Fingertips

I have been researching an investment strategy for a couple of months relating to everybody's newest best friend; their Blackberry. As RIM, the handset maker continues to launch new products to compete with their competitors, there has been a lot of hype recently about the launch of the new Blackberry Bold handset/ launch of the Blackberry Partners Fund as well as an upgraded outlook for RIM Stock- all good news coming from the Canadian technology golden child.



While each of these developments is positive and very encouraging that RIM will continue to make forward steps with their product offerings, I am still waiting to hear about what could be a very important piece of technology to be integrated with Blackberry technology. Though I do not own a digital leash, and have not yet really found a compelling reason to get one, I am fascinated by the technology and the way people use them. For personal use and business communication they are little marvels of integration. But they also have the potential to be extremely dangerous if they were to fall in the wrong hands.

In a world where corporate information, confidential emails and users identities are being stored and transmitted on wireless handheld devices, the need for IT and physical security has never been greater. At this point handheld security for Blackberry's has consisted mainly of sturdy belt holsters on a significant portion of PDA wearers, as well as time set 4 digit locking mechanisms on the handset. The lock feature provides a sufficient layer of security if employed by the user. However, there's the rub. In the on demand world we live in, few of us have the time or patience to plug in a code everytime we want to send a text or make a call. In my experience, very few of my friends or colleagues properly protect their Blackberry's. Probably too, very few of them have likely considered the repercussions if their shiny black friends were to fall in the hands of the wrong person. The amount of data, corporate or otherwise held on there is staggering!

So what is the solution? It occurred to me that what once was an expensive, ill refined and seemingly far off technology is now at the cusp of being integrated to daily security features. In our post-2001 environment we have seen a shift towards increased security with much written about security technologies such as retinal scanners, DNA passports, thermal imaging etc. The technology that is increasingly being employed in consumer products such as laptops and other pda's is that of biometric Thumbscaning. Lenovo and Sony, as well as IBM have started installing these units in their laptops and the market for them is growing in many other applications.

The question is, when will we see biometric thumbscan technology integrated into Blackberry handhelds? If RIM wants to remain the dominant wireless business communication device, they will have to address this security issue sooner rather than later. Think of how cool it would be to have biometric thumbscanning capability built into the roller ball of that sweet new B'berry Bold! Or even having biometric scanning integrated into a corner of the Apple iphone. By applying your unique user digit (finger) on the interface, the unit would unlock if the biometrics are a match. Non-matching scans would be prompted for the 4 digit (number) code. These types of technologies are on there way.

I would be very interested to find out which company is leading the charge working with RIM to refine the technology to put biometric security features in handhelds. One can only speculate what the contract would do to a small technology firm that gets the contract to manufacture the units to be put into handsets of the future. Authentec is one of the companies claiming to be a leader in this field but I have heard nothing specific about their involvement with RIM. They are a publicly traded company AUTH-Q (US$.

Perhaps someone out there in the vast blogosphere has specific insight as to what the prospects are for this technology and for those of us who are interested in seeing it come to fruition??? More about this topic in the future.

New Beginnings

Greetings and welcome to The Constant Flux blog. A latecomer to the blogging world, I am hoping that this, my first attempt at blogging will serve as a sort of online diary where I can reflect on the ever evolving world I find myself living amongst. In the interest of having an actual focus, I will mainly post about things that other people will hopefully find interesting on this vast information superhighway.

A self described entrepreneur with a keen interest in building businesses, I am fascinated by what it takes to turn a great small business into a really great big business. For the past 2 years I have been working for an Ontario based Venture Capital firm that specializes in technology and financial services sectors. My main responsibilities for the firm include organizing marketing and sales activities for the various companies and investment products. It is a great fit because I have trained as a marketeer of financial services and have a strong interest in technology related ventures. I have learned a great deal through this, my first "real job" and still have much to learn- which is what this blog is all about.

Depending on how you slice it, the Constant Flux blog could be viewed as being entirely self indulgent, essentially me talking to myself through an online publication that at this point in time no one else is reading. Hopefully the Constant Flux blog could evolve to have a purpose! The success of this medium would be measured by my ability to posting and link to content that people are interested in. If you are reading this first post, a sincere thank you for stopping by my new blog. I promise to do my best to create content that has a purpose, is informative and is a source of unique viewpoints about topics that we have a mutual interest in. If you see something on Constant Flux that interests you please feel free to participate and we'll get a bit of discussion going. If there is something on here that you feel is factually incorrect or offside, even better, let me know and we can get a bit of healthy discourse going.

Once again, welcome to my blog! Please come back soon because this page promises to evolve as my understanding of the world around me is in a "constant state of flux".