Bruce Croxon of Round 13 Capital on The Rush of US VCs into early-stage Canadian Tech and the challenges it brings for local investors

Bruce Croxon is a legend in the Toronto startup scene. He’s led successful startups as an operator, but also is known as a mentor and investor, and of course he’s also become a bit of a media celeb. It was great to chat with him about the Canadian startup ecosystem, how much it’s grown and where it’s headed.

About Bruce:Bruce Croxon is a Canadian entrepreneur, television personality, and venture capitalist. Croxon is currently a partner at Round13 Capital and co-host of BNN's TV show, The Disruptors. Croxon co-founded the dating website Lavalife and joined the cast of CBC's Dragons' Den from 2011-2013.

Support for this podcast comes from Silicon Valley Bank

“What’s next?”

“What if?”

“Now what?”

Silicon Valley Bank understands these questions can keep founders up at night.

For over thirty-five years, Silicon Valley Bank has helped high growth companies through scalable financial solutions, plus insights and expertise that many other banks just can’t.

In 2019 we opened an office in Toronto dedicated to lending to Canadian businesses and their investors.

Find out more at svb.com/Canada

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In this episode we discuss:

03:42 The Canadian Tech Scene today compared to the late-1980s

07:36 How homegrown capital has changed the game

10:37 Maintaining competitive advantage of Canadian VC

16:51 Helping spark the entrepreneurial spirit in potential Canadian founders

20:00 Is the blitz-scaling style of startups compatible with Canadian Investors

25:51 The changing mindset of Canadian LPs

28:34 Getting into growth stage rounds of companies

31:17 Why founders need to take seriously who they are take investment from

33:34 The next industries Canada investors should back

38:03 Keeping talent local

41:10 What the Canadian government should do to spur startup growth

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