Montreal Tech Watch

Founders&Funders, a great success and asset for Montréal startups

By Heri Nov 30th 2007 in entrepreneurship

Patrick Lauzon, executive VP from Canoe, and who also blogs at 01entrepreneur.ca, and Austin Hill, angel investor and entrepreneur, hosted yesterday the Founders&Funders dinner, which gathered 75 angel investors, Venture Capitalists, and startup founders in technology. In essence, the event is very similar to Benjamin Yoskovitz‘s tech entrepreneur breakfast; however, there were more attendees for this dinner and each of them was “hand-picked”. There were also investors who came from NYC and Toronto, and I guess they would have never made it to the monthly breakfasts.

I was invited by Austin Hill, as this was the perfect opportunity to introduce the map and invite companies and founders to be in the database.

I have to say I have never met or worked with Austin Hill or Patrick Lauzon, prior to this week, and I was quite impressed by what they achieved for the event, by reaching out to their respective contacts, by supporting the idea of the technology map, by making sure there was a healthy mix of entrepreneurs, VCs, angels etc. They also made sure founders & funders met, “connected”, and also spurred discussions and debates around the state of technology entrepreneurship in Montréal and in Québec. I don’t know if deals initiated during the event, but it was the perfect formula to make connections, match entrepreneurs, and get things forward. At the end, attendees were asking for another edition soon.

I have been to the Ventures West cocktail 2 weeks ago, which was was a great networking event for VCs, but was little use for everyone else. In contrast, the Founders&Funders dinner was much more productive and successful. Big thanks then to Austin Hill, Patrick Lauzon, and also to iNovia Capital and MontrealStartup who supported the event.

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Comments

  • Denis Canuel November 30, 2007

    I hope this event will “live” for a long time. It’s not easy (if not scary) to meet investors and to make it an informal dinner is a very clever idea. I bet it lowers the stress level for entrepreneurs. I’m also very surprised (in a good way) that people from Toronto and NYC visited Montreal. I’m not sure what to think regarding American investors: either the US market is becoming saturated or Montreal is really becoming a big player? I’m quite surprised that they can’t find enough projects in NYC, Boston and the east coast. Then again, maybe there IS something special about Montreal that they like? That’s a question I would like to ask them.

    Now seriously, who should I beg for to receive an invitation? :)

  • Heri November 30, 2007

    Denis, the dinner is (a bit) more formal than the tech breakfasts.

    btw, a dinner is scheduled each quarter, i am quite sure you will be invited for the next one.

  • PhilG November 30, 2007

    Very nice event, interesting group discussions and very good mix of people.

    Nice meeting u Heri !

  • Patrick Lauzon November 30, 2007

    Thx Heri !

    The people that attended made this event a success and everyone should be applauded for believing in the initiative but also for engaging and making the dinner a special evening. Many people knew of each other by reputation or but had never had a chance to meet and this forum enabled the first encounter . I met several people and will have meetings scheduled until our next event ( date to be confirmed soon ) . Heri your work was alos greatly appreciated and will be the glue to this initiative . Thx ! BTW there were some angels and execs from San Franciso as well ; ) Truely positive for Mtl entrepreneurs as we are seen as having great talent and being very creative .

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