Karamdeep,

I notice you're an Ivey grad - very cool, so am I. Next time you're in Toronto I'd love to chat - I write quite a bit on Canadian entrepreneurship. A notable example:

http://www.myplanetdigital.com/digital_strategy/blog/why-can...

enjoyed the article...i'll be back in town late next week, drop me a line: [email protected]

That's great and I have indeed heard good things about iNovia.

Granted I mostly dealt with Ottawa VCs who have all made their bank during the heyday of the tech bubble in telecommunication industry. We were speaking completely different languages and had completely different ideas about each others roles.

Between iNovia, Real ventures and seeds such as Year One Labs things are looking to get much better here quickly. I'm excited.

i think part of the process is opening a dialogue with entrepreneurs such as yourself on what we can do to create the type of environment that is more conducive to the birth and growth of companies like shopify...i think that's been talked about for a long time - but the truth of the matter is that people have been afraid to really speak their mind in case they jeopardize future funding relationships. it's going to take a lot of hard work, but i can tell you that guys like my boss chris, mark over @ real, and ben @ yearone are working their asses off 24/7 to make that happen. i'd love to just sit down and pick your brain on what the last few years have been like for you, and what could've been done to make those a bit easier. let me know if you're interested.