Globe and Mail Article on the Breakdown of the Venture Capital Ecosystem in Canada

Globe and Mail, one of Canada's leading newspapers, published an article today on the declining state of the venture capital ecosystem in Canada, featuring interviews from some prominent local entrepreneurs and investors. This is something which we have talked about in detail previously here on Techvibes, noting how much the decline has been (worst in 12 years) and also reporting on other woes facing the Canadian tech entrepreneur when it comes to raising venture funding. Some interesting quotes from the article:

“As an entrepreneur, the odds are already stacked against you..By being in Canada, the odds are even worse ... that's not to say that there isn't great talent here, there's just a lot of great talent that gives up and they relocate.” - Albert Lai, successful entrepreneur who has dealt with both Canadian and US-based investors. Founder of Kontagent.

“We have very few domestic VC firms that have capital available to invest today ”, and on the flip side, “Our university students go to school with the thought process of exiting and getting a job somewhere, not doing a startup.” - Kevin Talbot, Managing partner with RBC Venture Partners and the BlackBerry Partners Fund.

“The country doesn't embrace failure...Somebody doesn't say, ‘This person started these things and they made mistakes, but now they're experienced, so let's try something again.' It starts from there. There's a natural tendency not to take a shot and see what comes out of it.” - Rick Segal, Partner, JLA Ventures.

What do you think ? What has your experience been ?