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.