Pangaea Blog

Pangaea is one of twenty original venture capital funds designated under the new Canadian Startup Visa program. We are excited at the prospects of helping entrepreneurs with world-class advanced materials innovation locate their companies to Canada.

The Startup Visa program was launched on April 1, 2013 by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to help recruit innovative entrepreneurs to Canada. The program provides what I would call a fast track visa process for entrepreneurs with world-class innovation who desire immigration to Canada.

Chances are, some of you have pitched to Pangaea in the past. We probably said "no". Although we invest at a good pace, saying "yes" to the most compelling opportunities, we don't like to waste our time, or yours. So, if we're going to say "no", we'll try to do so as quickly as possible.

I'd like to summarize some of the reasons we say no, grouping them in 4 basic areas: Fit, Management, Momentum and Exit.

The numbers are in, and they ain't pretty. They tell us that 2012 represented the worst year for cleantech investment since the dark days of 2009. Depending on whose numbers you accept, investments in cleantech declined 28%, from $4.6 billion in 2011 to $3.3 billion in 2012 (PWC Moneytree, or MT for short), or 29% in the case of the Cleantech Group’s (CG) numbers. Meanwhile, the venture industry as a whole contracted by only 10%.

If you are thinking about launching, or have recently launched, a start-up here’s some food for thought…especially if you plan on seeking venture capital financing down the road.

Do you want to increase your chances of success?
I’ll assume the answer is yes, so keep reading – and take notes.

As a venture capital investor we see hundreds of entrepreneurs each year. Our objective is to find a few that we can support. But, along the way, there have been some notable standouts who have stumbled before leaving the first meeting. I thought it would be fun to share with you some stories and suggestions on what not to do between the first contact and end of the first meeting.

1. Send separate e-mails to all the partners

Recently we had a company send the exact same pitch e-mail to all the partners at Pangaea. I can understand the entrepreneur’s desire to increase his or her odds of getting a response but this can cause confusion at our end and we ended up passing on the deal partly as a result of the entrepreneur’s stumble out of the gate.