Co-founders Bryan Slauko and Jacques LaPointe have discussed what makes Metiquity Ventures different from other venture firms focused on working with founders in Alberta and across the Canadian Prairies.
Metiquity Ventures is a Calgary-based pre-seed venture firm born to modernize the early-stage start-up funding ecosystem.
The firm invests in emerging pre-revenue and early-revenue technology companies which, according to Bryan, are “on the cusp of something great and on the cusp of a lot of growth”.
“They have a lot of potential, but they need some capital to put them over the edge and allow them to really get moving,” he said.
However, Bryan notes that the challenge in Alberta’s technology ecosystem is that there are many companies which grab headline news and attention – “which is great for momentum”, he adds – but not a lot of investment companies or venture firms are focusing on early-revenue companies which need capital to unlock their potential for growth and disruption.
“It’s the hardest time for [startups] to find investment in their in their business, and so that’s really where we focus and we can make a big impact,” Bryan continued.
“We’ve got lots of experience and expertise that helps those founders out and we’re filling a really, really significant investment gap in the ecosystem that will help those vendors get off the ground and get them moving to the next stage of development.”
‘Risk Versus Reward’
On the other hand, Jacques LaPointe maintains that what sets Metiquity Ventures aside is the company’s “risk versus reward” approach to working with startups.
While he notes that many investors are looking into respective markets and trying to decide what’s higher risk – whether that be in public markets, real estate or elsewhere – Metiquity Ventures puts effort into ensuring that investors “feel comfortable” in their actions.
Jacque also remarked that Alberta is “unlike other more mature regions” in that places such as Alberta and across the Canadian Prairies are not known for investing in early stage, although it has been a focal point for other similar regions across the country.
“We’re charting a new path for our region, but it’s not new in the world,” Jacques continued, “and so we have to help [investors] understand what’s happening in this province, in this region.
“That makes it a viable, less risky investment and [allows investors to] realise there are opportunities here.”
However, this ‘new opportunity’ has to be paired with Bryan and Jacques unique experiences within the Alberta tech ecosystem in order to remove much of the risk involved in investing in early stage technology companies.
On the topic, Jacques continued: “A lot of times investors want to know our focus, they want to know our experience, and a lot of it is trust. Anyone that’s investing in venture or startups generally knows that it could be complete risk capital that disappears because sometimes things don’t work out.
A lot of it is about relationships, experience, and trust that we’re doing things in a legal and ethical way, which obviously we do, and that’s one of the key things that has brought our investors to the table,” Jacques concluded.
Investing in early stage also brings a substantially lower entry point, which – when paired with a regional focus on Alberta – Jacque maintains can help successful entrepreneurs-turned-investors who would like to give back to their local community.
Metiquity Ventures co-founding partners Bryan Slauko and Jacques LaPointe have shared the importance of giving back to Canada’s startup ecosystem.
With more than two decades experience as an investment professional, advisor, entrepreneur and director, Bryan remarked that “seeing lots of different businesses from an investment and finance perspective” has influenced the way he approaches working with startups.
However, Bryan also claims that “it is genuinely fun to just give that back to other people and give them the opportunity to succeed”, making the efforts of Metiqiuty Ventures to support early-stage companies and founders in Alberta into a mutually beneficial relationship.
He explained: “Founders want what comes after the investment, probably more than they want the money – they want the help, they want the expertise, they want the insights, and that’s really what gets us excited.
“Working with founders gets us out of bed every day because we do have the potential to fill in a lot of those blind spots people have and help them realise a potential they maybe didn’t know they had,” he continued.
Bryan noted that in situations where founders have had a rough few days (or weeks), the opportunity to speak to experts at Metiquity Ventures can give them some much-needed context into how this fits into their company’s startup journey and reassure them that everything will most likely be okay.
On the topic, Bryan added: “If you just stay dedicated, focus and keep moving forward, it’s fun to see people grow along the way and take advantage of the opportunities that are in front of them to help have a little piece in their success.”
Likewise, boasting more than 25 years of experience, Jacques LaPointe remarked: “I like to succeed, I like to win and I like to help companies do the same.”
As the former President and co-founder of Calgary-based Attabotics, Jacqued led Attabotics through its very first equity and grant funding and the significant investment and growth that followed during his three-year tenure.
While Jacque understands that many entrepreneurs may be able to forge a path for their company in a “longer time than they wish”, he maintains that the efforts of Metiquity ventures “can help them do it faster, and that’s what’s key”.
Jacques continued: “There’s hundreds of ways to chart a path forward and thousands of ways to mess it up, so if we can help [founders] see a different path that is more effective, quicker, faster, more efficient, and gets more attention in the right way, we’ve done our job.”
Metiquity Ventures co-founding partner Jacques LaPointe has lifted the lid on how best for entrepreneurs to get attention from the right investors when trying to build their company.
With more than 25 years of experience, Jacques LaPointe claims that the biggest thing which helped Metiquity Ventures accelerate was “looking through the eyes of an investor”, as opposed to maintaining a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality.
For this reason, Jacques focuses more on the significance of validating the company’s efforts in order to show an investor their potential for success if they choose to invest.
This includes showcasing the company’s value proposition and highlighting that the company is solving a problem within its respective market.
Jacques encourages startup founders to come into market with a video of their concept in order to show prospective investors what they could be investing in.
As the former president and co-founder of Calgary-based Attabotics, Jacqued led Attabotics through its very first equity and grant funding and the significant investment and growth that followed during his three-year tenure.
However, as a director of work and project management solution company Leankor, strategic advisor for Motorweb.org, charter member of The A100 and member of the Institute of Corporate Directors, Jacques admits that there are “a myriad of problems to be solved” when trying to gain the attention of the right investors.
“Companies in our portfolio are all solving a major issue in their industry,” Jacques continued. “These are companies that are changing the way an industry is working, if we can take these companies that are just on the edge of some serious growth or some serious momentum. If we can just take them that a little bit further to their next financing round, that investor can quickly see two-to-three times their money,” he concluded.