We focus on early stage Canadian venture scale technology start-ups. We are industry and business model agnostic with a preference for software companies. If you are building something based on your team's earned insight we want to know about it. Reach out to us to share your vision and educate us on your market.
We are happy to write our first check into startups anywhere from an idea and pre-product to the seed round. We are happy to meet founders early in their journey, so even if you are just starting out feel free to reach out to us.
Our first investment in a portfolio company will range between $250k and $750k. Our overall investment in a company may grow significantly larger over time.
Founding team: For us the founding team is the most important part of our decision. We like to understand why you are starting the business, how you like to work, how you work together and why you are the right team for this opportunity. Key criteria include what is your earned insight, how fast can your team learn and can they figure out how to build and distribute a product the market wants.
Market: We will invest in both blue oceans and red oceans. What we look at in each case is slightly different. In blue oceans the key question for us is why now? In red oceans the key question is what is your unique insight and why is it right? We also focus on understanding the market dynamics and trends instead of the current TAM.
Use of proceeds: How will the funds you are raising change your company and will this be enough to get you to the next stage of your business.
Each team we invest in is different and there is not a specific checklist we are trying to tick off. Instead we try to understand the following:
At a high level we are looking for a unique insight that can create a venture scale business. In more detail we will look at:
We believe there is a lot of bad advice on how to fund raise in the Canadian market. Most companies haven't thought enough about the amount they are going to raise. We want to understand what your plans are for the funds you are raising and how it will change your business. This enables us to better understand how you think.
As we raised our fund we focused on building a community of investors who want to help build the Canadian tech ecosystem. These include active founders, exited teams and business executives. That means any investment we make is supported by a community that want to see our companies succeed.
While the fund's partners, Alex Norman, Doug Penick, and Omar Dhalla, are actively involved with portfolio companies post close, our community of active investors also contribute where they can.
You can see a few of our active investors on our About us page.
N49P tries to identify how they can help companies prior to closing and we will work closely with companies to find ways to continuously help them. Nevertheless we find that the most common areas that we help with are:
We are open to looking at any Canadian based start-up or Canadian founder. The first step is to fill out our application form.
Apply nowWe will review all new submissions once per week. After we review the form we will email you to ask for a video call or to pass on your deal.
These will be approximately 45 minutes and focus on better understanding your team. This is also when we'll start to build an internal investor memo.
When we start building our memo, we also perform additional research into your market and the founding team. We start building a pre-mortem, a backcast and a hypothesis on how we can help the company if we invest. As we write the memo we will reach out to the team with additional questions.
If we decide to invest we will help pull the round together. This may include finalizing the terms of the deal, prepping additional materials for other investors and introductions to other investors.
We are open to looking at any Canadian based start-up or Canadian founder. The first step is to fill out our application form.
We will review all new submissions at least once a week. After we review the form we will email you to ask for a video call or to pass on your deal.
These will be between 30 and 60 minutes and focus on better understanding the team. We pass on about 50% of the companies that make it to this stage. For the other companies we start to build an internal investor memo.
When we start building our memo, we also perform additional research into your market and the founding team. We start building a pre-mortem, a backcast and a hypothesis on how we can help the company if we invest. As we write the memo we will reach out to the team with additional questions.
When we start building our memo, we also perform additional research into your market and the founding team. We start building a pre-mortem, a backcast and a hypothesis on how we can help the company if we invest. As we write the memo we will reach out to the team with additional questions.
We try to make a final decision within 3 business days of the in-person meeting.
We’re happy to meet founders early on in their journey, and would love to hear from you.
Get in touch