Entrepreneur’s Night in London, Ontario

Entrepeneur’s Night was hosted by BizInc. at Western University this past week. Students from different academic backgrounds and interest gathered to have a look at what kind of ideas and businesses their fellow scholars were up to.

The mini-keynote was presented by Carmen Cigante of TechAlliance, a technology business accelerator based in London. He shared essential pieces of insight with the audience of students, many of which hadn’t heard from an angel investor before.

Cigante emphasized that investors and VC’s want to become partners. They’re not trying to hijack the organization’s success and hog control; in fact, their success is intertwined with yours! Similarly, because investors become partners, it’s important to find an investor that understands your business and your idea. Some interesting numbers:

• Investors aim to have their equity worth 5-10x the amount they’d invested initially within 5 years. This is because…

• Only 1 in 10 ventures each investor invests in really achieves this goal. The majority of investments either wiggles in small amounts of cash, or barely manages to break even.

• Through various loopholes, investors can control your company with just a 20% stake. Don’t be adamant about the whole 51% ownership thing.

These fundamental pieces of insight gave students an idea as to what investors expect. It’s great that students finally hear from the perspective of an investor. Both parties can benefit from more of these exchanges of information and opinions. It’ll prepare students who end up needing to pitch their businesses, and it will give the entrepreneurs criteria when building their business plan. Similarly, the quality of pitches and points that are addressed will be extremely relevant to what the investors are looking for.

One of London’s rapidly growing businesses and the event’s sponsor, Big Viking Games, also made an appearance at BizInc.’s event to recruit. Donning their friendly variant of Viking helmets, they took the stage and welcomed students to join their organization. In a time when other companies are cutting internship positions and training costs, it’s refreshing to see a group of enthusiastic entrepreneurs offer a series of positions to students.

Mayor Joe Fontana made a surprise appearance and took the stage. Fresh from a trip to China, where he was speaking with businesses looking to expand, he spoke briefly about the opportunity to collaborate with foreign businesses interested in coming to North America. He also spoke of his plans to develop a prosperity centre for London, and of his goal to make it the most entrepreneurial city in the world.

Overall, the event hosted an interesting mix of experienced and young entrepreneurs. With all these different initiatives and events (and ambitious goals), it seems like the city of London is excited to experiment with entrepreneurship and startups.