Posts tagged ‘IRAP’

Suggestions for public support to entrepreneurs (troubling facts about MaRS Discovery District – Part 4 of 4)

April 27th, 2010 by Greg Boutin
Sunrise at North Point Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Image via Wikipedia

As my previous posts show, Ontario’s current hub-centric model for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship is expensive, unfair, and ineffective. The Minister of Research and Innovation should take note and explore alternative models, rather than continuing to pour taxpayer’s dollars into an expanding bureaucratic network with high fixed costs and built-in inefficiencies.

The Chamber of Commerce in Ottawa has taken notice too and is criticizing the lack of oversight of OCRI and its expansion in activities it traditionally conducted, according to an article in the Ottawa Business Journal yesterday.

To explore alternatives and fuel a discussion, I have highlighted a menu of options below. As a disclaimer, I am not a policy expert on the matter of entrepreneurship, but a practitioner, so do please consider those as draft proposals for crowdsourced discussion and improvement.

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Starting a Venture in Canada?

February 9th, 2009 by Greg Boutin

Jacqui Murphy of Tech Capital wrote a fascinating blog post today, listing the top resources any venture in Canada should be aware and possibly take advantage of in this downturn economy. Quote:

  1. There is amazing talent on the street right now. Many of these folks have received severance packages and are approaching the job market with “flexibility” in mind. Reach out to these people and engage with them as advisors, employees who are interested in working for equity, and/or potential co-founders/partners. (more…)

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