/// ASCENT | startup foundry | we build up world class founders //// ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| a project by
@McMillanLLP
||| 🇨🇦/acc
Who in Canada is doing cheque writing at the first meeting? Who in Canada is investing in people + ideas not data + markets?
Talked to a lot of Canadian VCs, wonderful people, great finance folks, but they're not investing in people + ideas. Who is investing in people + ideas?
btw don't really give af if you're a Waterloo grad, a U of T grad or you went to Vancouver Community College. If you're Canadian and you want to hit it out of the park, call me. Literally know how to build $781MM ARR from scratch. Will teach you: if you're VERY serious.
We asked Jessica,
@TheFirstLadyy
, who has scaled startups from literally zero to millions multiple times... "When it comes to People, what do you think is fundamental knowledge for founders just starting out?" She always nails it! Thanks Jess!! 🥰
Spending September in Vancouver. Beginning the process of spinning up the west coast office.
Will be hosting regular office hours c/o
@bmann
, maybe a meetup with
@tokifyi
? Should be fun!
If you're in BC and want to chat, founders
@ascent
.ca with deck & stage.
Here is what one of our founders said about us:
"You just have to work with ascent. I remember doing a live demo of my product to the ascent team at a networking event because they were curious - not realizing the impact they'd have on my startup from then on.
Having ascent in
Hello, new followers, welcome to the party. This Twitter account is mostly about unhinged raw skills maxing, so feel free to unfollow now if you're going to be annoyed by that.
Who are we?
We're a bunch of founders, operators, engineers, designers, and lawyers who decided
We have our first founder moving to Canada from the States to launch their startup with our startup foundry. Candadaaaland!
The first thing I will do is march them over to Vin and Fahd for indoctrination classes.
Reverse brain drain.
It's working, folks. LET'S GO!
We get some flack because our sugar momma is a huge old law firm. McMillan, doing startup stuff feels sus for sure, but here is the real deal:
@TJHisLaw
and his leadership team genuinely believe in helping make Canada better. Retiring having just worked at the firm is not in the
Enough. Of. This. Bullshit.
What he said is right.
What we need to do is change it.
Find the most 5head, imaginative, ambitious Canadian's you know. Send them to me.
Time to put an end to this BS.
🦦
The biggest brain drain in the world is the one from Canada to the US.
As a result, the biggest and most successful mafia in the world isn’t the PayPal Mafia in America but the ex-Canadian Mafia in the US.
From Berkshire to SpaceX and many companies in between, there are so
Let's all root for
@rootlyhq
- Great Canadian startup, they are IN THE GRIND. Send them happy vibes, bake them cakes, take them over some sativa, whatever, just support them!!! Let's all root for rootly!!!!!
"we're a group of friends and strangers who get together to explore the magic that can happen when creative people get together in a room" very cool
@soto_place
/
@lychkel
People often asking me for the inside scoop on 535 and
@fahdananta
- by way of explaining -
@maloriek
paints the picture incredibly well.
Our take: A great group of people executing good things. 🏄🏻♂️🙇🏻♂️
Tuesday 16th our friend and colleague
@MitchWainer
will be taking over our Twitter. He'll be tweeting a couple of important go to market nuggets & answering your questions all afternoon. Attached is a tiny snapshot of his career. He's a 3 times founder.... ಠ_ಠ
One of the main objections we got in the early days of DeviantART was... ready for it?
.......
"nobody wants to put art on the internet, that's stupid"
no pix on teh inter webs k folks?
In startup,
It doesn't matter how powerful you think you are.
It only matters how powerful you are.
You can only know how powerful you are after the wash.
So get into the arena,
because it all comes out in the wash.
Ha, can't believe they let me take over their Twitter today! I'm Mitch Wainer, co-founder of DigitalOcean and marketing enthusiast. Let's dive into some marketing stuff together and feel free to ask me anything!
Janet is one of the best investors in Canada and you can take that to the bank.
Work for her money because lord knows she will work for you. We are extremely lucky to have her.
"How quickly do they execute? Do they test, learn, iterate, and move on?" - Janet Bannister (
@jebannister
) the Founder and Managing Partner of Staircase Ventures.
In this episode we discussed...
-Working at eBay early days.
-Launching Kijiji in Canada.
-Getting into VC and
Did the midful mile with
@adamchenchew
and
@_sophysun
this morning now at RAG from scratch with
@70by7
The RAG from scratch workshop is A++++ - you're missing out and I'm moving to 225IQ era.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A bit about me: I’ve been building brands and driving growth for years. From DigitalOcean to Welcome Homes, it's been a wild ride. Today, I'll share some key insights from my journey as a 3 time founder.
Finally did it, building in public y'all, Finally made the MVP of that stupid blog thing I've been yatter on about all week. Think it's a pretty good idea but I'm not sure yet, so we'll see...
Starting ascent, someone in the venture industry here in Toronto said "oh that's cute" - You know what
@bradgillespie
said? "let me know when you have demo days I'll fly up" - That frustration you showed last night. We share it. ascent is not CUTE. ascent is very badass.
@bmann
@steventen
Get them the money get them to me. I'll take care of the rest. I just can't do the whole thing end to end,
@MapleVCFund
will always take a pitch from my founders, Janet at staircase, Eric at Yale has been stepping up big for me.
What to know about real robots deployed in the real world. STRONGLY believe we need to figure out how to make Canada the new gen robotics epicenter of the world. This is something we should, in theory, be very good at.
@fahdananta
Spent a solid seven hours last week focusing on the thought: If the population is highly educated, full of risk-takers and forward-lookers, how do we just turn the whole country into startups and everyone into startup employees? Your idea riffs hard off this; love it!🥰
Got to having a few public companies under my belt, because of sleeping on the office floor.
there was a 3 year stretch of 365/24/7 nothing but the startup
work/life balance is for people who want work and life to be balanced, startup is for people who just want the work.
I’m confused about this work life balance debate flaring up every so often.
I 100% understand folks who decide to prioritize other things in life than work.
But I never got how you could argue that hard work didn’t matter. It is so crystal clear that it’s just become a signal
A short circuit happens when I hear "but Canadian founders are just..." Canadian founders are just founders. Founders are founders. Hard as nails and that is that. Cannot tolerate this "Canadian founders are" thing. You build a billion dollar business or you don't. Founders swing
As you approach IPO, prepare for INTENSE scrutiny.
Every decision you've ever made will be under the microscope. Hope you've been keeping good records and making ethical choices.
Remember: It all comes out in the wash.
Just tried
@Boardy_ai
- the AI is SERIOUSLY good. Like by far the best I've ever tried by a mile (and I try everything) - no clue how useful the app itself will be, but the AI is actually mind blowing and I'm never impressed. Interesting work
@andrewdsouza
! 🦦
Want to do something helpful for your country today? Here are 5 founders we work with. Reach out to them, tell them:
ascent said you're a badass founder, I want you to win! Let me know anything I can do to help you.
Then help them.
Give them real help. Lift them up with us.
Be cheap with everything except equity. Give your employees plenty of that, schedule the vest, OKRs and KPIs, keep the vision and mission very sharp. Easy.
Left
@535Toronto
tonight feeling inspired, excited, and at peace. It’s all coming together, and they are the keystone. Thank you! Thank you!! Thaannkk youuu!! ☺️
@fahdananta
As far as gov assistance programs, ElevateIP is pretty great but nobody knows about it and it's super good so, ofc, because it's good they're shutting it down soon.
Biggest volume of pitches I've seen recently is AI agents for dating. Walking through the Eaton Centre right now, and there are two dudes in front of me discussing wanting this.
Product, meet market. 🦦
One of the Ascent co-founders worked in the States for almost 20 years, building from zero to one. They said:
the most stark thing coming to Canada is that every conversation doesn't end with 'How can I help you?'
Ask anyone who has done business in SF or NYC; if the other
@araghougassian
Imagine SF and NYC combined into a new better city, that is Toronto. Imagine SF and Chicago combined into a new better city, that is Vancouver. Imagine Boston and NYC combined into a new better city, that is MTL. Imagine the arctic circle but more boring, that is Winnipeg.
Founders Spotlight:
Canada Computers & Electronics was founded by Gordon Chan in 1991. He started the company to provide affordable computer parts and services, particularly targeting university students who needed cost-effective computing solutions.
The first store was
'Sleepless Founder'
The burnout idol every YC wannabe deserves!
Armed with an overworked laptop and a never-ending cup of Joe, this figurine embodies the glamor of unpaid overtime and VC rejection.
Perfect for those who aspire to endless pitch decks, all-nighters, and living
Seems fair.
plus, if the east end west end Toronto beefing wasn't fun enough, and we want to see a level above even Toronto vs Van... Waterloo vs Calgary would be quiet the thing.
@TateHackert
and
@jrodgers
in the octagon.
🍿
Hey Toronto, Waterloo would like to see itself as an individual ecosystem… the time as a corridor was fun and all but it’s time we went back to building our own thing
Had a great morning walk with some new friends!! Thanks
@_sophysun
@adamchenchew
for hosting mindful miles!
We discussed:
Art as math and math as art
Quantum mechanics
Simulation theory
Free will
Ice cream flavors
Got some sad news.
@TokyoPoliceClub
are breaking up this year.
Here is a banger to ease you into the evening hours.
(if you play this at any event and people don't like it, red flag)
Big news from Boom! 💥 We've just launched our 100% Free Forever plan. Bring energy to your video calls without spending a dime.
And for the power Boomers (no, not those Boomers) we've got new Pro plans: Monthly, Annual, and Lifetime.
Boom is proudly indie and AI-free. We're
Today we announced the
@535Toronto
Community Fund
We will fund interesting and inspiring projects that are in the Toronto (and Canada) ecosystem with $100-500.
Will be public record of donors and funded projects. More details shortly.
@stripe
@slack
@SlackHQ
@github
Peter T says building a startup is kinda like building a cult, but think about what YC/a16z etc have done. For better or worse, they built the startup cult, as in... getting cultish about building startups.
The
@keen_io
founders used to have all the other dev tool founders over
nice try bot, but not even close.
"The best place on earth for people to grow into world class founders"
(See, I'm working on it Dad!
@jrodgers
)
(And Dad2!
@bmann
)
“Hard times create strong people. Strong people create good times. Good times create weak people. And, weak people create hard times.”
― G. Michael Hopf, Those Who Remain
One of the folks running went through the
@urbanxtech
program with
@supermanuelsaez
can confirm he's a great guy, and this is a great read. Self blame is holding you back:
@cattybk
Tracks with what we’ve seen: at around 100/150 people, folks start to be interested in your startup and you inevitably hire some slick ricks. 80% of them inevitably leave after a few months once they realize they need to do real work.
Remember that in startup, roles are extremely fluid. The job you hire someone for today will likely evolve into something quite different within 3-6 months as priorities shift. This makes adaptability a critical trait.
Don't just evaluate candidates based on their current skill
@mwseibel
Michael this is starting to get glib for no good reason. You're a leader in the space and you're not helping right now. The point is good, the delivery is wound up. Chill my dude, chill.
@amplituhedron
Fun fact, Sonique was a vcool skinable mp3 player back in the day, Andrew one of the dudes who built it went on to work on building DeviantART. One of the first use cases for DeviantART was skins, and me, the person behind this twitter, helped build deviantART from there! 🤗
Focus on building a strong brand narrative from day one. Your story is what sets you apart and resonates with your audience. I always made sure our brand voice was kind but honest, we spoke the truth.