More than 4 years ago, b5media started. More than 3 years ago, I met Rick Segal to talk about somehow getting a bit of cash into the company. We were originally talking 30-50K, hah. 3 years ago, Rick and JLA Ventures and Mark and the Brightspark crew decided to invest a lot of money in a little company with a very, very young CEO.

In many ways,  Rick was incredibly smart and did his best to raise a dragon. He gave me and the b5media team space, let us eat whatever we wanted, let us roam in the backyard til we were ready for the big bad world, taught us to fly and occasionally fed us pigs and chickens whenever we got tired or sick.

Rencontre avec Shel Israel et Rick Segal (21 o...
Image by damienvanachter via Flickr

When you’re just starting your first VC-backed company, there is just so much  you don’t know, are  afraid of, don’t think to be afraid of, etc. Rick was amazing at always choosing his companies first, always choosing his CEOs first, always giving you his straight up opinion and always, always, always going to bat for you when you needed him to.

So it’s with a bit of sadness, but mostly excitement that I’m welcoming Rick back to the startup world after his announcement that he’s leaving JLA. Most folk either don’t know or have forgotten that Rick was a startup guy long before he was a VC. Dunno why, it’s probably becuase his polo shirts totally make him  look like a VC and not like a startup guy ;-)

If there’s a type of VC Canada needs more of, it’s the type that Rick was (minus the polo shirts, please?).

Either way, Rick was fantastic for me personally, amazing for b5 and I know he’ll do great things for the startup community now that he’s back on the more glamorous side  of the fence, lol.

So Rick, thanks for teaching me what to eat, what not to eat, how to fly and where to take a dump.  I’d be a much poorer and sicklier dragon if you hadn’t helped raise me :)