Show notes
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/CanadaSilicon Valley Bank – Built for What’s Next.In this episode we discuss:03:42 The Canadian Tech Scene today compared to the late-1980s07:36 How homegrown capital has changed the game10:37 Maintaining competitive advantage of Canadian VC16:51 Helping spark the entrepreneurial spirit in potential Canadian founders20:00 Is the blitz-scaling style of startups compatible with Canadian Investors25:51 The changing mindset of Canadian LPs28:34 Getting into growth stage rounds of companies31:17 Why founders need to take seriously who they are take investment from33:34 The next industries Canada investors should back38:03 Keeping talent local41:10 What the Canadian government should do to spur startup growthFast FavoritesPodcastsBill SimmonsSpittin’ ChicletsNewsletter/BlogLogic PeakBeta KitTech GadgetAirpodsNew TrendDemocratization of ProductionBookChasing the Scream by Johann HariFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com
