Most of this isn’t rocket science (unless you are invested in Gary Snoman’s latest fund YouTube – Gary Snoman 2007), but it is pretty darn close. Most new technologies are very hard to develop. It take a lot of smart people, deep pocketed investors who can stomach the risk, and a supportive government and regulatory environment. Anything that helps one of these three categories is a good idea in my books.

I would also say that there is a fundamental accounting problem for start-up companies. Your largest expense is by far your people… but they are also your greatest asset. Accounting doesn’t really have a method of capturing this. If 20 engineers work for an entire year, are paid, say $2M, they most have created something valuable? If it is worth $1 or $100M, it is worth something… but, most of the time, there is no asset recorded on the balance sheet.

In our current knowledge based economy, I think the sophisticated folks at Wellington Financial have figured this out, and are more than happy to support companies with this type of IP.

In areas or countries that are proven centres for innovation, what do they have that we lack? I’m thinking of VC/tech meccas like Boston-Cambridge, Silicon Valley, Sweden, Norway, et al.

With the way things are going in Waterloo I’m thinking the VCs should start sponsoring under-25 poker players from UW. If 3 in 10 win big you’ll still get the RoC to keep your investors happy, no?