This discussion springs from Boris Mann‘s post today, which touches on the need for “fail money” in Canada.  I agree with nearly everything he says, and it can’t be disputed that more active capital is required to continue the growth of the startup economy in Canada and build our web and digital media industries. My reaction though is centred around (1) I hate the term “fail money”

As part of my Queen’s MBA we don’t do a thesis, each student crafts a new venture business plan.  Because I’ve been excited by the potential of the startup accelerator model, I created a plan for an accelerator based in Vancouver and inspired by Bootup, Y-C, and TechStars.  I believe, and I know I’m not alone, that when dealing with very early stage teams it’s IMPERATIVE that the investm

There are lots of dads in the startup scene, and perhaps more than anyone else, we need to keep fit while pushing ourselves hard - building a business and raising a family require not just time, but more importantly energy and attention. Springing from a discussion over beer at the Main Street Daddypreneur Meetup a few months ago, here's some resources on cramming fitness into a schedule with no slack.

“The index fund is a good innovation, not because it has any magic – anone can figure it out – but simply because by owning the market at a very low cost you will, by definition, do better than everyone who owns the market at a very high cost” - John Bogle I think by now we’ve all heard some stats on the poor long-term performance of actively managed funds.  From mid-2004 to mid-2009: S&

“Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything.  Plans don’t accomplish anything, either.  Theories of management don’t much matter.  Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved.  Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.”

Software engineers love rewriting old code.  I’m a software engineer, and whenever I look at my own older code (as in more than  a month or so) I get an instant itch to rewrite it.  I’m a bit embarrassed by it, and I think that for various reasons, I can do it better now.  It happens even more when I look at somebody else’s code, because I also assume they must not be nearly as clever as I.  When so

Here’s a few more resources that have surfaced since my post on Agile Budgeting / Startup Cash Flow Management: Geof Harries (@geofharries of subvert.ca) pointed me at Pulse (pulseapp.com), which encapsulates much of my process in a nice web tool.  I haven’t had the chance to try it out, but it looks like it captures the key steps of estimating, scheduling, repeating, and editing.  One benefit of using ou

Startup Reading is an ongoing reading list of articles and resources that I think will be of great value to startups and entrepreneurs. Taking The Stress Out of Stressful Conversations full PDF $6.50 from HBR There are three common patterns of stressful conversations in this article, and I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing each of them, almost exactly as they play out in the examples.  Stressful conversations

Budgets are a waste of time. In startups and small companies, the business or strategy can change every few months and the revenue and expenses can swing wildly monthly. In an environment of constant change, it’s a complete waste of time to put the effort into an annual, quarterly or even rolling budget. What you can do instead is implement a few monitoring and control systems, so that you always know exactly w

I was having a beer with a friend yesterday, discussing how I’ve crammed my life close to the bewaking point with a toddler, a new baby, an MBA program, a job search, some mentoring and networking, and he asked me what pearls of wisdom I could bestow on him for when he finds himself in a similarly hectic spot.  And I came up blank.  It’s not that I haven’t found shortcuts and processes that let me h