1. TIE INSTITUTE
www.jimdewilde.net
www.twitter.com/jimdewilde

2. HOW TO BUILD DURABLE COMPANIES IN A
GLOBAL ECONOMIC REALIGNMENT
• Lean Startup ERIC RIES (buzzwords CONTINUOUS INNOVATION ZERO
WASTE)
• Entrepreneurship is a team sport
• Strategic ventures: pick a space (commercialization of smart materials)
• Strategic ventures: build a management team
• Strategic ventures: do the financial engineering

3. FINANCIAL ENGINEERING IS ABOUT MORE THAN
RAISING MONEY
• For a plane to take off, it needs:
• GOOD DESIGN
• A FULL FUEL TANK
• A SKILLED PILOT
• AND A RUNWAY

4. FINANCIAL ENGINEERING – WHAT VCS DO
• Governance
• Innovation ecosystems
• Corporate ventures (exits are likely acquisitions. What does MONSANTO
want? What will CISCO buy?)
• You can always give away equity to build a team.

5. INC MAGAZINE -11 IDEAS TO WATCH IN 2011 +
BEST ENTREPRENEURSHIP TEACHING
• http://www.inc.com/ss/11-big-ideas-watch-2011#0
• http://www.cnbc.com/id/44581554/Startup_Lessons_From_a_Pro_Eric_Ries_on_The_Lea
n_Startup
• http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110401/the-10-best-entrepreneurship-courses-of-
2011.html

6. COMMERCIALIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE
• AGRIFOODS AND NUTRITION BETTER THAN DIGITIAL MEDIA
• COMMERCIALIZING NEW MATERIALS
• FIND SCIENCE THAT NEEDS COMMERCIALIZING
• BUILD THE TEAM (marketing, finance, inventive source, strategist)
• KNOW THE COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT

7. WHAT IS MOST LIKELY TO GO WRONG –
WARNING SIGNS
• “we have no competition” EITHER IT IS A DUMB IDEA or YOU LIVE IN A
BUBBLE.
• “no one will give us the valuation we want” YOU ARE FOCUSED ON THE
SHORT TERM. If it is a $100 million company, it doesn’t matter if the
valuation is $5 or $7 million for the first round.

8. CHALLENGES TO VC IN TORONTO?
• A confusion of incubation / graduate school and commercialization
• An absence of science parks / incubators
• An absenece of collaboration
• A mine in Mali gives more return on investment than technology
• There is not enough CIRQUE DU SOLEILs or QUADRALOGICS or
BALLARDs to show us that it works. Ontario has OPENTEXT and RIM.
• Corporate venturing provides exits and strategic guidance (MDS
VENTURES becomes LUMIRA)

9. THIS IS THE ENTREPRENEURIAL MOMENT
• Financial engineering
• Venture capitalists add value more than capital (strategic guidance and
networks)
• Conventional categories are shifting: think SMART MATERIALS and
AGRIFOOD.
• Understand what else is out there. There are 1000 mini-GROUPONs.
Innovation is global. Competitors and collaborators are in Casablanca and
Cartagena.

10. FINANCIAL ENGINEERING IN A SLOW GROWTH
ECONOMY
• Ontario needs specialized funds: CREATIVE INDUSTRIES FUND FOR
TORONTO, SMART MATERIALS FUND FOR SOUTHWEST ONTARIO,
DIGITAL HEALTH FUND, AGRIFOODS FUND, GREEN MINING FUND,
MOBILE BANKING FUND.
• Corporate venture ensures commercialization. A SMART MATERIALS fund
needs an anchor.
• Financial engineering seeds sophisticated investors to grow a company to
scale. Ontario has global reach through its citizens and access to global
capital markets through its financial institutions. We need to organize both
to finance a start-up economy.

11. UNIQUE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES FOR
ONTARIO
• Global teams
• Teams that think globally.
• Waterloo cluster
• University research base for next generation value creation (agriculture,
materials, nanotechnology)

12. HOW TO BUILD A $1 BILLION COMPANY IN
ONTARIO
• Consolidate the intellectual property in one area (digital health)
• Find a management team which understands global competition.
• Ensure the financial engineering provides a runway.
• Leverage the global reach of Ontario.