Yes, I’ve got about 20 posts to write from this trip. Some will likely be self-censored, but I’m hoping to find the energy in the next 2 weeks to write them all :D

Yesterday Rick Segal, one of those guys everyone says “Oh, Rick? Yeah, he rocks!” about, is doing a worldwide trip to find great entrepreneurs.

I love this kind of stuff. One of the things I’ve seen in the last few weeks is a marked increase in overall “entrepreneur health”. I put this in quotes because it’s really a combination of a few things:

1. More young entrepreneurs
2. More original ideas
3. More people being creative with their ideas
4. More VC’s watching (even though most aren’t yet investing)
5. More companies being built around actual business models instead of just features (ie: a focus on the fundamentals)

This is all good stuff. In fact, specifically in Canada, I want to see this fueled over the next few months. Sure, we want to avoid a crazy psycho bubble, but if we can encourage kids from high school on up to think creatively, build businesses, build relationships, think strategically and then to execute on those things … Well, the cultural effect would be dramatic. Entrepreneurialism in Canada has for too long been “let’s build something that will get us bought by an American company”.

Honestly, I think this is hurting us long term, and I want to see us as a community doing more to keep Canadians in Canada, keep Canadian VC returns up, see more Canadian businesses founded for the long haul instead of just for a 2 year run, etc.

I’m not quite coherent yet, I know. It’s been a very draining few weeks, but I’m sure these conversations will keep swirling around (conversations that were started months ago by Rick Segal and others, were planted during CVF and started getting exciting during mesh).

Good times ;-)