Patrick's posterous http://patricklor.posterous.com Most recent posts at Patrick's posterous posterous.com Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:19:42 -0700 Untitled http://patricklor.posterous.com/3351123 http://patricklor.posterous.com/3351123 (download)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/17125/6a00d8341c028a53ef00e550080ba78834-150wi.jpeg http://posterous.com/people/10Fyg7v2mlz Patrick Lor Patrick Patrick Lor Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:16:28 -0700 A Conversation With George W Bush. http://patricklor.posterous.com/a-conversation-with-george-w-b http://patricklor.posterous.com/a-conversation-with-george-w-b

What you talking 'bout, dubya?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/17125/6a00d8341c028a53ef00e550080ba78834-150wi.jpeg http://posterous.com/people/10Fyg7v2mlz Patrick Lor Patrick Patrick Lor Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:49:58 -0700 Thanksgiving 2008 http://patricklor.posterous.com/thanksgiving-2008 http://patricklor.posterous.com/thanksgiving-2008

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/17125/6a00d8341c028a53ef00e550080ba78834-150wi.jpeg http://posterous.com/people/10Fyg7v2mlz Patrick Lor Patrick Patrick Lor Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:29:07 -0700 "You Can't Let Them Self-Medicate" http://patricklor.posterous.com/you-cant-let-them-self-medicat http://patricklor.posterous.com/you-cant-let-them-self-medicat
Bill Bryant of DFJ & Steve Hnatiuk of Yaletown had a little chat on the state of venture capital in today's environment. Bill came up with the line of conference - read on . . . 

Steve: Is this a good time to start a company? 
Bill: Entrepreneurs don't start companies based on timelines. They start companies because they have ideas and passion around ideas. However, they need to be more patient with the exit, and they need to do more with less money. They'll likely have to build entire companies, from soup to nuts for $12 million. 

Steve: Cleantech is all the rage. Where does that leave software & IT in the eyes of VCs? 
Bill: In the enterprise market, a global market has many global 2000 companies downsizing the number of vendors it is willing to work with. I know of one company that has gone from 950 vendors to 4. This makes it tough for startup enterprise plays. In addition, valuations for consumer software plays based on advertising revenues will be tough.

Steve: How do you manage a near-death experience at a venture? 
Bill: Just like patients that have just had a stroke, you can't let them self-medicate. You need to step in as an investor and help lead the way.

Steve: Do you see huge opportunities in the market turmoil?
Bill: Sure, but the problem is, exits are tougher in this environment. 6 - 8 companies have gone public in 2008 vs. 80 - 90 last year. In the near term, things are going to be tough.

BIll: Investors should take a DNH (Do No Harm) approach. Try to add value, but don't get in the way. 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/17125/6a00d8341c028a53ef00e550080ba78834-150wi.jpeg http://posterous.com/people/10Fyg7v2mlz Patrick Lor Patrick Patrick Lor Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:31:59 -0700 Banff Venture Forum: Day 1 http://patricklor.posterous.com/banff-venture-forum-day-1 http://patricklor.posterous.com/banff-venture-forum-day-1
Presenters from the IT Stream:

Sarath Samaraseka: CEO, www.shopster.com

Ronald Stephens: CEO, www.mingleverse.com

James Hildebrandt, CEO, www.psykoaudio.com


Ben Yoskovitz: CEO, www.standoutjobs.com

Austin Hill: CEO, www.akoha.com

Lunch Keynote: Mike Ritter, Technical Solutions Engineer, PSO Mobile, Google, talks about iPhone vs. Android. Says that 80% of Google staffers carry iPhones. 80% of management carries Blackberries. The remaining 20% of both carry both. Interesting note: iPhone delivers 10 - 50x more advertising revenues. 

Mike talks about his past failures. Lists all the companies he has worked at that have gone bankrupt. One of them is in the process of going bankrupt. Then, he takes a shot a Sun: "Don't know why it's not bankrupt". 

Mike's Top 10 reasons for why startups fail.

Mike's Top 10 reasons for startups succeed.

Mike's Top 10 Inflection Points:
10: Universal Translators
9. Search engines understand what you want to know
8. Augmented Memory (PDAs, etc)
7. Machines learn how to learn.
6. Nano-machines assemble themselves
5. Computing and communications essentially free. (cheap now, will be free in the future. Value will be in the content communicated)
4. People live their whole lives off of the earth (the moon! Google SpaceX)
3. We understand the programming language of DNA
2. We understand how the rest of the body works.
1. We understand how the programming of the brain works. 

Top 10 areas ripe for startups:
10. Cloud & Mobile Computing
9. Harnessing the power of the crowd.
8. Personalized Mobile Services
7. Voice recognition & understanding in real-time.
6. Improving energy efficiency
5. Robots (Both Large and Small)
4. Renewable Energy
3. On-demand manufacturing
2. Machine learning
1. Immortality (health & life sciences)

Thoughts on cloud computing.

Top 10 problems Mike needs solved.

Afternoon session:

Bruce Johnson: CEO, www.Semantifind.com

James Sherret: CEO, www.Adhack.com

Jon Lam: CEO, www.Ph03nixNewMedia.com

Pierre La Lann: CEO, Tribalnova.com


Venture Financing Without Borders: Cross-Border investing - Neal Hill, Great Northern Capital; Bill Bryant, DFJ; Steve Hnatiuk, Yaletown Venture Partners; Charles Lax, GrandBanks Capital.

The question to the panel: will you invest in a company that is not within a 45 minute drive or a 2 hour direct flight?
Charles Lax, GrandBanks Capital: Yes, but only if the deal is syndicated to a local firm. Coaching is essential. If they are the lone investors, the venture has to be in Boston. 
Steve Hnatiuk, Yaletown Venture Partners: Proximity is more essential in the seed round, when companies need a lot of coaching. There is more confidence in the strategic direction of firms by the time they raise their series A, so going outside their region is a bit easier at a later stage. 
Bill Bryant, DFJ: international firm: 2 day rule, instead of 2 hour rule. DFJ has investments in 20 companies, and need to take advantage of the opportunities outside of the US.

Other interesting comments: Get ready for a long relationship: average time to exit from Series A: 8.3 years. Don't value your early rounds too high: 70% of all deals exited at under $150M - unlying the reason why VCs look for valuations around $10M - 15M, looking for 10x returns. 

I received a starter deck from Akoha's Austin Hill. Pictured is Christina Paganelli, with the first Akoha game card mission that I completed: donate 1 hour of time. I've spent some time advising Christina's company, Sunflower Organics. Now Christina gets to continue passing on the Karma. 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/17125/6a00d8341c028a53ef00e550080ba78834-150wi.jpeg http://posterous.com/people/10Fyg7v2mlz Patrick Lor Patrick Patrick Lor Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:03:22 -0700 Banff Venture Forum Private Equity Dinner http://patricklor.posterous.com/banff-venture-forum-private-eq http://patricklor.posterous.com/banff-venture-forum-private-eq
The Banff Venture Forum kicked off with a private equity dinner last night, with John Albright of JLA Ventures as the keynote. Also in attendance was the Deputy Minister of Advanced Education and Technology Annette Trimbee, as well as various members of her staff. 

Some great conversations over dinner and in the hallways. Thanks to Randy Thompson, as well as Nicola Burdeniuk and Marc Elrick for all their hard work on this.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/17125/6a00d8341c028a53ef00e550080ba78834-150wi.jpeg http://posterous.com/people/10Fyg7v2mlz Patrick Lor Patrick Patrick Lor Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:02:08 -0700 October 15th STIRR event: Nexopia CEO Boris Wertz http://patricklor.posterous.com/october-15th-stirr-event-nexop http://patricklor.posterous.com/october-15th-stirr-event-nexop
The STIRR crew has been hard at work putting together our next big event - it's happening October 15th, and details are at http://www.stirr.ca 

Above: from L to R, our newest STIRR organizing committee member, Kim McDonald, Sharon McIntyre, and Claudia Moore. Not pictured are Shekhar Parmar and Courtney Sproule. 


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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/17125/6a00d8341c028a53ef00e550080ba78834-150wi.jpeg http://posterous.com/people/10Fyg7v2mlz Patrick Lor Patrick Patrick Lor Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:47:46 -0700 Dinner at Shawn's http://patricklor.posterous.com/dinner-at-shawns http://patricklor.posterous.com/dinner-at-shawns
Shawn Abbott of iNovia Capital invited a few people over to his house last night for dinner and helicopter rides. Donald Trump, Calgary-style!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/17125/6a00d8341c028a53ef00e550080ba78834-150wi.jpeg http://posterous.com/people/10Fyg7v2mlz Patrick Lor Patrick Patrick Lor Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:07:00 -0700 Video From the Nikon D90 http://patricklor.posterous.com/video-from-the-nikon-d90 http://patricklor.posterous.com/video-from-the-nikon-d90

The new Nikon D90 has just been released in the U.S., but we're still waiting our turn up in Canada. I snapped a few thousand pics on a recent family vacation, and was going through camera withdrawal after someone broke into our car and stole my D80. The D90 has a few more megapixels, and a huge screen, but the two breakthrough features are liveview (so you can use the screen as your viewfinder, like a point and shoot camera), and video.

Rather than wait, I decided that I needed one right away. It just so happened that I also needed to meet a few companies in the valley earlier this week, so now, I'm the proud owner of a Nikon D90 (one of just a lucky few in Canada, for another week or so).

The camera feels and functions pretty much the same way as the D80. It shoots amazing videos, but probably won't be replacing your camcorder anytime soon. You see, while you can shoot video with any of your favorite lenses, autofocus is disabled during the capture process. It's great for point-at-one-spot-and-shoot videos, but if you pan the camera and require re-focusing, you'll be doing it manually. Also, it has maximum file limit of 2GB, which means you can only capture 5 minutes at full HD resolution (but obviously more at lower resolutions).

Here's a video shot from the D90, on the plane taking off from SFO.

Download now or watch on posterous
DSC_0007-2.mov (46639 KB)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/17125/6a00d8341c028a53ef00e550080ba78834-150wi.jpeg http://posterous.com/people/10Fyg7v2mlz Patrick Lor Patrick Patrick Lor Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:53:50 -0700 Introducing my newest nephew, Cael http://patricklor.posterous.com/introducing-my-newest-nephew-c http://patricklor.posterous.com/introducing-my-newest-nephew-c Pretty cute little guy!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/17125/6a00d8341c028a53ef00e550080ba78834-150wi.jpeg http://posterous.com/people/10Fyg7v2mlz Patrick Lor Patrick Patrick Lor