Monthly Archives: February 2010

Reposted from CEO Fusion – May 29, 2009

Past Fusion Workshop facilitator, John Miers a celebrated communications expert, has just released a new book: “Hit Me Again!… I Can Still Hear Him!: The Secrets of Superb Public Speaking.”

In this book, John Miers explains his singular approach to business speaking – helping speakers discover how to be less self-conscious and more natural while communicating.

John Miers helps people build on their unique personality to become more informal and relaxed. He likens it to having a conversation with a few close friends, a situation where none of us worry about how we present ourselves.

This books shows you in simply, well explained steps how to become an effective natural public speaker.

If the workshop facilitated by Mr. Miers is any indication, this book will be full of tips essential for any CEO.

I often get calls asking for help in coaching CEOs on how to pitch to investors or customers. Might I humbly suggest that this be your first step?

Reposted from NACO Blog – October 22, 2009.

REPOST NOTE: This is a timely repost as I am looking forward to learning more about Rogers Ventures this afternoon from Sean Evans. More to come! -12 Feb., 2009

We were a bit busy, here at NACO, with the National Angel Summit last week, so missed the fact that Rogers Ventures launched. Their mandate?

We invest in technology, entrepreneurs, and Canadian innovation. Rogers Ventures is a venture-style funding mechanism for start-ups with lots of value add. We invest our money, our leverage, our experience, and other strategic contributions to get Rogers Venture portfolio companies on the path of accelerated development and market growth. Technology innovation was fundamental to our founder, Ted Rogers, and remains a strategic pillar of our company today. Rogers Ventures is also committed to supporting community-level programs and initiatives that accelerate innovation momentum in this country. We look for great talent and powerful ideas and invest in their success. We work with the community to support a healthy innovation funnel. We believe that the start-up community and Rogers Ventures need each other right now. It’s about our collaborative success.

If what they say is true, and given their actions so far, Rogers Ventures could be quite a nice addition to the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a partner and co-investor with Angel investors. Welcome!

Reposted from the NACO blog – Jun 8, 2009

Exits have become a very hot topic, for obvious reasons, in the international Angel investor community over the last year. Canada’s own Basil Peters recently released a book on the topic, titled Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors (But Maybe Not Venture Capitalists). I have just received my copy, but from what I have read so far I am quite impressed.

Over the weekend another book on Angel investor exits came to my attention, put out as a free eBook by Dr. Tom McKaskill, called Invest to Exit – A pragmatic strategy for Angel and Venture Capital Investors.

This book provides a detailed examination of the investment and exit opportunities in financial and strategic ventures. Underpinning the creation of value in both of these ventures are the drivers of high growth potential… The major recommendation in the book is that Angels and VC investors should focus on strategic value investments. These investments have very focused exit strategies which generally have lower execution risks, shorter timescales and higher returns than financial trade sale exits or IPO exits.

The book provides a detailed analysis of the product or service characteristics which create strategic value, a set of guidelines for identifying strategic buyers and processes for setting up the investment deal and the strategic sale.

The focus of both of these books reinforces the fact that Angels need to focus on exits, the more strategic the better, from the very earliest stage of due diligence and investment . Hopefully, with the guidance of both of these books, both Angels and entrepreneurs will enjoy “more successful, more frequent and more profitable exits“.

Dr. Tom McKaskill, CPA

Global serial entrepreneur, consultant, educator and author, Dr McKaskill has established a reputation for providing insights into how entrepreneurs start, develop and harvest their ventures. Acknowledged as the world’s leading authority on exit strategies for high growth enterprises, Dr. McKaskill provides real world experience with an educator’s talent for explaining complex management problems that confront entrepreneurs. Recently retired from the Richard Pratt Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Dr. McKaskill is the author of a range of books for entrepreneurs covering such topics as new venture growth, raising venture capital, selling a business, acquisitions strategy and angel investing.

I was asked last night if I had a website. My answer: “Of course, thought it functions more as a blog.” This answer got me thinking, however, and I realised that I have been completely neglgent in posting and cross-posting here for over a year! So, it is now time to catch up on my posting and cross-posting. More to come!