For the fifth year in a row, Angel Forum was pleased to present the Greg Smith Award to the founder-investor team demonstrating the most grit at our Mountain Summit we hosted on October 8th. After an open and long nomination process, the award was presented to Anton Solonnikov, Founder and CEO of VitaminLab and its group of investors: eFund, WUTIF, WEL Victoria, Nimbus Synergies, Relentless Ventures, numerous individual angel investors and PacifiCan, many of whom were present at the event.

All of our summits in Victoria had a theme and all were focused on investors and entrepreneurs stepping up and actively engage in things that would help our tech sector. With a slowing down in angel, seed and venture investment during 2024 combined with the current threat of tariffs it was clear we needed something that would deal with all this uncertainty. It was time to take action, and the theme for the summit became: BC be Bold.

At Angel Forum we are strong believers in the notion that most successes in our space are driven by the collaboration between founding teams and the investors who back them up. These are very often not easy relationships; they go from the incredible highs to the desperately low and very often things snap which results in boardroom brawls and companies failing.

At Angel Forum we are strong believers in the notion that most successes in our space are driven by the collaboration between founding teams and the investors who back them up. These are very often not easy relationships; they go from the incredible highs to the desperately low and very often things snap which results in boardroom brawls and companies failing.

When it comes to entrepreneurship and investment, Greg Smith never lacked in grit! At BDC he supported companies so early in their journey, many would have coined them (and him!) crazy. Indeed, his investments included some of the earliest cash into companies like General Fusion and Copperleaf. Greg empathized deeply with the plight of the entrepreneur. He never just wrote a cheque.

So, a lot happened in two years and Pieter Dorsman opened the summit on Friday morning by reflecting on this and outlining the challenges and opportunities ahead for both founders and investors. The theme of the summit was ‘Back to Basics’ the goal of which is to understand how angel investors actually work and how they have dealt with the high valuations and COVID-fueled tech boom that characterized the years 2020-22.

Approaching investors and getting this story across is primarily driven by a solid Executive Summary and a Slidedeck or Pitchdeck that mirrors the executive summary. These touch on a number of core points and if you present it in a verbal format it is basically a story you are telling. To get this message across is relatively simple, yet very few companies are good at it!

At Angel Forum we are strong believers in the notion that most successes in our space are driven by the collaboration between founding teams and the investors who back them up. These are very often not easy relationships; they go from the incredible highs to the desperately low and very often things snap which results in boardroom brawls and companies failing.

To provide the necessary foundation, we started off with the “Angel Investing – from first cheque to exit ” webinar on Thursday afternoon. The webinar captivated a record number of (aspiring) angel investors and entrepreneurs.

We continued using the new formula and the model stuck: the number of weekly attendees kept growing, we had no problem finding keen industry experts to talk about their business and Covid-19 impacts and a steady flow of start-ups interested in pitching connected with us.

How a large group of angels and entrepreneurs were able to really take the Victoria investment get together to a new level of knowledge sharing and relationship building.

The event got going on Thursday afternoon with my workshop, Structuring Deals and Term Sheets, which is an evergreen favorite for entrepreneurs, investors and service providers. Demystifying common, preferred, convertible and SAFE deals remains on the top of the list for most, including of course the never ending discussion over valuation. The workshop ended with a panel with two local tech investors, Steve Wandler and Brodie Desimone and from Vancouver Vantec’s Thealzel Lee and Andy Creech who represented sponsor TMX. Not long after that attendees and fresh arrivals congregated at the Indigenous World Winery to sample some of the local wines and amazing indigenous styled appetizers. 

A total of seven carefully curated companies pitched during the day - moderated by Kirk Hamilton - all of them capturing the audience with their enthusiasm, technology and above all strong commercial traction: Cuboh, Interpodia, Vivo Team, Mailchannels, Redlen, Hypernose and Limbic Media. Sponsor E-Fund happily took over the 8th spot following a cancellation from Suva. The presentations sparked quite a bit of discussion and the audience kept going with some strong questions, even after the lunchtime break when audiences tend to get a bit sleepy, not so here in Victoria.  The audience also voted, Redlen, Limbic and Cuboh placed top three and earned slots to present at Angel Forum on April 16 in Vancouver.

WPTC helps private companies raise capital by facilitating investment through self-administered RRSPs and TFSAs. Once the investment has been approved for acceptance by WPTC, their investors can enjoy the tax deferred benefits of RRSPs, and/or the tax-free advantages of TFSAs, while investing in an eligible private company and diversifying their plan portfolio.

Bonsai Growth specializes in providing Non-dilutive funding solutions for Canadian companies, by leveraging Government Tax Credits, Grants and Receivables, to Innovate, Grow and assist with a pathway to Capital Raises.

Entreflow is a boutique consulting firm, a highly unusual team of 25 finance legends, HR leaders and systems ninjas. A licensed public practice CPA accounting firm, and a licensed recruitment agency - they’re different.