Alex McIsaac from Northside Ventures

Alex McIsaac is the Founder and General Partner of Northside Ventures.

Northside Ventures is a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional Canadian founders in the US and Canada with unique insights derived from past experiences that serve as a competitive advantage in their next venture. They invest in a founder’s first round of external capital, often at the point of company inception and ideation. Their typical cheques are $100K-500K. They believe in a generalist approach to early-stage investing, prioritizing categories that can potentially transform our world's future greatly. Core investment categories include artificial intelligence, B2B SaaS, fintech and cleantech.

Takeaways

Operational experience is valuable for venture capitalists, as it provides credibility and a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by founders.

Learnings from being a founder at NRStor (acquired by Blackstone) and an investor at BDC and Global Founders Capital.

The best founders often have experience working at scaled ventures and have solved hard problems, giving them a competitive advantage in their next venture.

How Alex defines an exceptional founder and what characteristics they have.

Outbound sourcing and dealflow strategies Alex uses.

Raising a first-time fund as an emerging manager and solo GP.

Canadian founders are often more conservative and capital-efficient compared to their American counterparts, but the gap is narrowing as the ecosystem matures.

Northside Ventures aims to back exceptional Canadian founders at the earliest stage and believes in the potential for Canada to produce more unicorns in the coming years.

Chapters

00:00 Early Career Moves and Venture Capital

02:24 Founding NRStor and Building a Business

05:30 Transitioning from Venture Associate to Founder

08:07 Joining Global Founders Capital and Gaining Autonomy

10:05 The Importance of Founders in Investment Thesis

13:53 Evaluating Founders and Their Experience

16:57 Differences Between American and Canadian Founders

20:04 Genesis of Northside Ventures

22:20 Considerations for Fund Size and LPs

25:38 Value Add and Supporting Founders

29:39 Sourcing Deal Flow and Identifying Opportunities

36:00 Investments and the Future of Northside Ventures

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Fasken's Emerging Tech and Venture Capital⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ practice is comprised of 80+ dedicated legal professionals across the Canadian market. We're deeply involved in the startup ecosystem and have worked closely with founders from startup to scale-up to exit. Our team is a leading Canadian law firm for VC financings and tech M&A and act for many of the best-in-class startup and scale-up innovation-based companies and entrepreneurs in Canada.

Given this experience we understand market trends and can assist in guiding your company forward as you scale – we take a holistic and strategic approach to helping our clients achieve their goals and provide the full suite of services including corporate, corporate finance, M&A, commercial, IP, data and compliance, employment, tax and beyond. We are excited to help the next generation of unicorns!