Baby, maybe we should stay in today

Snowflakes this morning the size of dinnerplates

A crippling Major winter storm with heavy snow and blowing snow as well as some ice pellets is moving in right on schedule this morning.

This is a warning that dangerous winter weather conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.

A massive winter storm has begun over southern Ontario and the stage is set for this dangerous storm to kick into high gear over the entire forecast district today with near record snowfall amounts.

Copious amounts of snow as well as strong winds causing blowing snow are expected. The snow will be mixed at times with ice pellets and freezing rain along and south of a line from grand through the greater Toronto area to Kingston and then along the St Lawrence river Valley to Cornwall.

Widespread snowfall accumulations of 20 to 30 cm are expected in most areas by this evening. Some local amounts of 40 to 50 cm or more are quite likely in a few areas.

This is a dangerous winter storm. This massive snow storm has the potential to cause paralyzing conditions as road travel on any unplowed streets becomes next to impossible today. All motorists who must travel are urgently advised to use extreme caution and plan for much extra time to reach their destination. -http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/warnings/report_e.html?on61

song of the day: Baby it’s cold outside – Ray Charles & Betty Carter

Posted in Archive, canada, weather | 2 Comments

The sorry state of VC in Canada

Paging Mark, David and the crew at StartupNorth. I’ve been talking about this for over a week and forgeting to post it. Mark McQueen of Wellington Financial has a fantastic post about a recent Delloite report revealing the sad state of venture capital AND a detailed set of recommendations on how to fix it.

According to Ruffolo, the results of the global VC survey should trigger alarm bells throughout the industry and government. “If not fixed in the near term, the Canadian VC ecosystem – made up of successive and sequential stages of capital investment from early seed financing through initial public offerings – will collapse. We need the government’s help to pull the industry out of this crisis,” he says.

Why Mark is also so surprised that the BDC, despite perhaps even their best intentions, may have been stepping in to fill some part of this financing gap in recent years, is, a whole other debate. In the meantime though, check out what Deloitte has to say and have your eyes opened to a very real problem with venture financing in Canada.

see also, the comment thread on this startupnorth post for more context.

Posted in Archive, canada, investment, vc | Leave a comment

Last Call for Lift Early-Bird Pricing

LIFT08Reminder, Friday is the last day for early-bird pricing to Lift08. Laurent writes:

a quick email to remind you that the LIFT08 price will go up by 200CHF on Friday. If you want to participate in this year’s event for only 650CHF (390 EURO, 570$, 280£) and get your yearly dose of new trends,
innovative people and ideas, please register before midnight on Friday.

After that date attending LIFT08 will cost 850CHF (510 EURO, 750$, 365£). Register now and join the 215+ persons who already signed up.

Visit http://www.liftconference.com/lift08-registration for more information. Best regards and see you at LIFT!

Oh, and Email me if you want to be on the Lift08 Team Canada email list.

see also the Lift Group on Facebook, and the Lift08 event page.

Posted in Archive, awesomeness, canada, lift08 | Leave a comment