A presentation by :

John Stokes, Managing Partner, Real Ventures

About John Stokes

John has a $50M venture capital fund in Montreal focussing on early stage ventures in the web, mobile and wireless space.  Has had a couple of wins in his fund so far, although still feels he is learning.  He got into Venture Capital when he first arrived in Montreal.  He set up a blog one night about the entrepreneurial scene there.   He then got invited to series of start up events and in an eye blink became an angel investor.  He then got 16 entrepreneurs to put in $50K each, matched by a government grant, and started seriously investing with a small fund.  Based on a couple of successes, he then raised a second fund at $50M from private investors, which he now manages.

He aspired to live an entrepreneurial life and feels he has been very lucky to take this path. He feels its an attitude to take your resources and make something more of them than is expected.  Wealth is not your goal, but wealth can usually be a result of meeting your goals.  The path is about  happiness, but not an easy life.  You have to work bloody hard to have a good quality of life

He identified 4 attributes of successful entrepreneurs, which he wanted to talk about:
1. Insight -  Having clarity of vision.
2. People – Find others and make them want to help you succeed.
3. Customers – Really know your customers.
4. Scale – You need to understand how big you can scale your business.

Insight

There is always a unique insight that makes people successful.