Philippe Roireau

Important fact about most startup (and VC) success stories. It is convenient to overlook this, but the best companies and products are not built on any specific timeline. The best people win, and that is the only thing that has consistently and repeatably truly won over the test of time.

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Some VCs call it "diversification" when it is really just a lack of conviction.  They spread their investments in as many companies as possible and hope one succeeds—” spray and pray,” as it's called. At Bonfire Ventures 🔥, we do the opposite: Instead of chasing every shiny opportunity, we invest in fewer companies and go all in. We are a low-volume, high-conviction, high-support investor, and as Fred Wilson says, "That is who you want on your side." We invest in 8-10 deals per year, with a first check of $2-4 million each, and reserve plenty of follow-on capital. Why? Anyone can write a check. The real challenge—and the actual value—is in the subsequent and ongoing partnership. You can’t build meaningful relationships with founders, provide hands-on support, and be there for the good days and the bad if you're juggling a hundred projects. You need to know the founders, the market, and the business inside and out. That's what we do. During my investment banking days, I learned that you can’t work with every company that knocks on your door. You pick the ones you truly believe in, where you can see the potential in both the people and the product. Scopely is a prime example. We didn’t just invest in 2012. We worked closely with them and rolled up our sleeves. That partnership turned into a $5 billion cash exit in 2023. That’s what happens when you focus on quality over quantity. At Bonfire, our founders aren’t just another check in a portfolio. We’re not in the game of betting on every horse - we’re here to invest in the right ones - and then we go to work. How do you decide where to focus your energy? What drives your decisions, whether you're building a business, launching a project, or choosing investments?

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Facts about BDC and why you should avoid them as a Black led startup. According to Crunchbase:  Total investments: 697 Total white investment: 695 Total black/women investment: 2  My experience with BDC: I have no problem paying for the application. But when financial institutions decide to invest in a startup and have a risk department review - that is a red flag. Every damn startup is risky - so what exactly are you looking for and taking the application fee upfront?  They pull you in with a term sheet and take a 1% application fee of the money upfront before determining your risk factor.  You have a sales pitch from their analyst who poured their heart into building their case for your business. My problem is when they demand confidential documents, some information has nothing to do with their decision. They have no clear guidelines on what you should provide, and the decision is based on a handful of people in the "risk department." There is no proper representation of people of colour. Everyone knows BDC is run by top management -aka "risk department". Why steal innocent startup money through application fees, and collect a lot of data and share it with government agencies without prior written consent? That is an abuse of startup data; they have no NDA and do not disclose who they share the company data with. That is privileged information, and there should be a class-action lawsuit.  Instead of advising the startup of the risk of losing the application fee and who they share their information with, they expect you to give privileged information without equal rights.  Think of BDC as a money-making data farm. The question still remains: who else has my company information, and for how long? I don't need your money - I just hate thieves.

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Would you move your startup for $10+ million benefit + 50% ish cap gains tax to the 🇺🇲? I did it before, why not again? #SiliconValley "Budget capital gains changes are a tipping point for Canadian #startups: survey." MaRS Discovery District, Communitech, Invest Ottawa survey of #Entrepreneurs and Founders. Canada is a great place to incubate companies with a huge quantity of early stage private and public capital and terrific policy support. So why go anywhere else as a founder once you have incubated in such a great place for entrepreneurs? #capitalgains, capital gains, capital gains. That's what this video is about. Thank you to Krista Jones and Christine Bomé and all my friends at MaRS DD for leading from the front. This survey gave me hope that Canada will once more be able to be an innovation champion. Please read the survey! https://lnkd.in/gqMm6yu7

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Last month, I talked to +35 B2B founders doing north of $3M. Turns out, most of the time, building a founder brand goes through these 5 phases: (check out the timestamps) 0:01 - founder tries do-it-yourself way We start seeing more of 'thrilled to announce...' & 'we just launched...' posts with brick-sized blocks of text. Corporate-speak is the official language. They don't put much effort in and admit defeat, and we don't get to consume all the subject matter expertize they could've shared. 0:22 - founder hires a ghostwriter Turns into a disappointed very quickly. They have to spend a similar amount of time but the outcome is even worse. Probably because the young ghostwriter learned his trade from a Linkedin guru's course and has ZERO understanding of the subject matter.... They only know how to write motivational 'being a dad taught me these 5 lessons about startups' posts, strictly following what guru prescribed. 0:53 - founder hires a ghostwriting agency The agency is founded by 2 guys that grew their following by posting memes and Twitter screenshots of truisms ('marketing is about empathy', 'talk to customers'...), and now they outsource all the work to cheap ghostwriters, so eventually, the same happens. 1:29 - founder buys a $997 course from a LinkedIn guru It may not be the same course that the young ghostwriter bought, but it's basically the same. All of them are. The course creator grew their following by talking about growing on LinkedIn and joining engagement pods and now shares advice that only works if you want to... sell a LinkedIn course. 1:53 - Raven comes and saves the day Founder realizes they have to do this themselves because this new age calls for a distribution-first founder and they make marketing their top priority. They find that they need to find message-founder fit (overlap of their lived experiences + customer jobs to be done + product offering). They improve their tactical mastery (writing hooks, structuring, better writing). They now have a peer support group and direct access to an expert. They're held accountable because all progress is tracked in a collective dashboard. Their founder brand finally starts growing. PSS. You can sign up for my founder brand community waitlist here and get 30% off when we 'go public': https://lnkd.in/d59AzBG2

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If you're thinking about selling your SaaS company, this is THE episode to listen to. Huge thanks to Francois Lanthier Nadeau for telling his story from start to finish with 0 holdbacks 🙌 This episode is about your power as a seller, necessary buyer due diligence steps, questions to ask your acquirer to determine cultural fit, things to do before signing the LOI, figuring out what "dream exit" means for all the stakeholders, and much more. Live in 2 weeks.

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Over the weekend, Tobi, the founder and CEO of Shopify, discussed the major reason investors passed on Shopify in the early days : market size. I remember that financing round, & I remember having the same concern, & making the same mistake. Living in the valley & driving on 101, the billboards & logo-adorned headquarters of successful companies provide a daily infusion of all the mistakes in I’ve made in guessing how a company or a market might evolve. Years later, I listened as Bill Gurley shared his thoughts about market size. He asked himself a question : whether the startup was increasing, decreasing, or maintaining the market size? (I can’t seem to find the link - but I have it in my notes!) I added that question to my diligence list when meeting startups. Now much later, having seen many companies create categories or reinvigorate aging ones, the question I ask myself has evolved. It’s not as the market size large enough? Instead, it the question is : do we believe this company can create the market? Market size is the output of all the players marketing, selling, building. Their efforts alter, distort, & juice the supply/demand curves of macroeconomics. It’s not a given - not an output or a steady-state CAGR. Often it’s the startups that engender the demand, change the market dynamics, & make markets massive by taking risks with products. When done right, these founders create category-defining businesses like Shopify (now worth $90b)!

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I’ve noticed many founders don’t realize how much non-dilutive capital is flying under the radar in Canada. So I’ve shared a list of alternatives you should know about before choosing to raise capital: 1. Business Scale-up and Productivity (BSP): BSP provides funding to help you scale your operations and increase your market reach. It’s a great way to drive growth without sacrificing equity. 2. Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP): IRAP offers financial support for research and development. It’s perfect for taking your technical ideas to the next level. 3. Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED): SR&ED provides tax incentives for technical development. It’s one of the most generous programs in Canada, helping you reclaim a portion of your R&D costs. 4. FedDev Ontario: If you’re based in Southern Ontario, FedDev offers funding to help businesses scale, innovate, and compete globally. It’s a solid option for companies looking to make a big impact. 5. Canada Small Business Financing Program (CSBFP): This program helps small businesses access loans for purchasing or improving assets like equipment or property. It’s designed to help companies grow and invest in their infrastructure. 6. CanExport SMEs Program: If you’re looking to expand into international markets, CanExport provides funding to cover costs related to market research, business travel, and participation in international trade events. 7. Canada Media Fund (CMF): For those in the digital media industry, CMF offers funding for the development, production, and marketing of innovative media projects. 8. Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) Programs: OCE offers various funding programs aimed at driving innovation and commercialization in Ontario. Their programs often focus on collaboration between businesses and academic institutions. 9. Mitacs Accelerate: This program provides funding to support research internships, allowing companies to collaborate with universities to solve specific challenges while benefiting from academic expertise. 10. Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF): Targeted at larger-scale projects, SIF offers funding to support R&D, commercialization, and the growth of innovative businesses in Canada. 11. Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES) Ecosystem Fund: This fund supports organizations that help women entrepreneurs grow their businesses. It’s part of a broader effort to increase women’s participation in the economy. 12. Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC): This program helps Canadian startups by funding R&D projects that address government challenges. It’s a great way to secure funding while working on real-world problems. 13. Alberta Innovates: For businesses in Alberta, Alberta Innovates offers several funding programs to support R&D, commercialization, and business growth. They focus on fostering innovation in sectors like energy, health, and technology. Have I missed any?

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𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱—𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗅 (here is how 👇) More than half of startups fail due to co-founder conflict. Unspoken expectations, unclear roles, and misaligned goals can derail even the best ideas. The solution? Build your co-founding team with intention. Before you dive into your business, align on the critical aspects of your venture and working relationship. A founder agreement is a great tool to guide these essential conversations. Here is a framework to get started: 1️⃣ Personal Goals & Vision What motivates us to start this company? What does success look like, and are we aligned on timelines and growth aspirations (e.g., Unicorn vs. sustainable business)? 2️⃣ Roles & Responsibilities Are roles clearly defined, or do we have skill gaps? How will decisions be made, and how will conflicts be resolved? 3️⃣ Personal Situations Are we financially ready for this journey? How will we manage other commitments and distractions? 4️⃣ Trust & Relationships Have we worked together enough to understand our dynamics? Can we communicate openly, honestly, and constructively? 5️⃣ Equity, Vesting & Investment How will we handle equity, funding, or co-founder changes in the future? 6️⃣ Commitment Are we all ready to go all-in, and what are our timelines? Building the right team and aligning on these areas can make all the difference. 💡 Full Founders Agreement framework available in the comments! (credit to @Talentkick)👇

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The most satisfying moment in entrepreneurship? That first sale to a stranger. (100%) 😋 I HAD A BLAST 😍 recording the last episode of Mind My Business Podcast#12 with David Laschet 🔥 Extensive (co)founder @The Maul, HowIMetMyCofounders , Le Placard and many other ventures!! In this episode, we dove deep into the ups (like your first sale hehe) and downs of entrepreneurship, and the conversation was packed with valuable insights. Here are a few : 1️⃣ Trust Your Instincts: David reminded me that deep down, we often know what needs to be done. The hardest part is listening to that inner voice. Trust your gut—it knows the way, even when things feel uncertain. 🧠💡 2️⃣ Embrace the Process, Not Just the Outcome: I feel "cliche" writing this. But when you get to the top and you look back, what are the best moments that remain? The journey. The problem-solving, the connections, the learning, the memories, the friends made on the way—that’s the real win. 🛠️ 3️⃣ Don’t Fear Criticism—Use It: Feedback, even the tough kind, is gold. 🏆 David pointed out that every critique can be a stepping stone to refine your pitch, your product, or your approach. Learn to filter out noise and focus on what moves the needle. 🎯 4️⃣ Your Network is Everything: Building strong relationships with the right people can be the key to long-term success. 🤝 Having a supportive network of like-minded people can make all the difference in weathering the storms of entrepreneurship. ⛈️➡️🌈 5️⃣ The Power of Perseverance: When things don’t go as planned (and they often don’t), it’s not about giving up—it’s about adjusting and continuing. 🔄 David’s ability to pivot and keep moving forward through setbacks is a powerful reminder that perseverance is non-negotiable in this game. 💪 Wanna hear more from my conversation with David? ⚡ This episode of the Mind My Business Podcast will definitely get you thinking 🎧👇 👉 https://lnkd.in/gNDCqx6E P.S.: Yes, you'll need to flex your French muscles to listen to it 💬🇫🇷... but don't worry, it's worth it! 😅 P.S.S : Stay tuned, very soon we are gonna speak about starting a venture while being young, growing a company, making big mistakes, and even clothes 👚 🤔 YES, In about 3 weeks (yeah I'm a bit lazy to edit and release the episode quickly 😜) , let's embark in a whole new crazy story with Alexandre De Clercq 🔥 for the episode #13 of Mind My Business, make sure to follow up! #Entrepreneurship #StartupLife #Perseverance #TrustYourGut #Networking #BusinessLessons #Podcast

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"It's table stakes for merchants to be everywhere customers are" - Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify Finally a definition of omnichannel that I agree with -- from the lens of the consumer. Shopify & Target announced a partnership to allow select merchants to offer their products on Target Plus, the retailer's third-party marketplace. Why is this such a huge announcement? 1️⃣ It is a stamp of support by two of the largest commerce players that omnichannel is the future You need to be wherever your customers are. 2️⃣ Target brings the power of discovery to Shopify merchants. While Shopify has incredible enablement tools -- it is in the best interest of the merchants to support discovery channels outside of the extremely expensive Meta. Otherwise Amazon will continue to be the beneficiary of brands seeking discovery for their products. 3️⃣ For Target, this partnership provides their consumers with access to top brands that have cemented their success in the DTC world like True Classic & Caden Lane 4️⃣ DTC should not be thought of as separate to retail. They are both shopping experiences for the consumer that should speak to one another. 5️⃣ It cements the importance of marketplaces for both retailers and brands as key growth channels going forward. --- If you still think omnichannel is just a buzz word, you're wrong. If you still think retail & DTC should be thought of separately, you're so behind. Omnichannel is now and the future of how consumers will shop. Brij is building the solution that will help you connect consumer touch points across every channel you sell through. #shopify #target #omnichannel

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Many founders think finding investors is a challenge. But here’s the truth: the best investors are actively looking for deals—including yours. They’re not hiding; they want to find great opportunities. Whether you're in Canada or the US, there are tons of resources that show you who’s investing in your sector. It’s all about reaching out, starting those conversations, and building the right relationships. You’d be amazed at how well buying someone a coffee can propel your business forward. Looking for guidance on finding investors? Drop a comment or DM me—I’m here to help you scale.

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How to grow a B2C / self-serve SaaS to $50k MRR. My 5 key takeaways 👇 Last week, I hosted the Friday Bootstrapped Dev call in our Skool community. We covered a bunch of questions for the Indie Devs. One member was asking about how to grow and scale a B2C SaaS, specifically a meditation app profitably. Funnily enough, another founder on the call had already scaled his own meditation app to $50k MRR and gave a ton of insights on how to do this with iOS. My 5 takeaways, if you are going into B2C or self-serve SaaS as your first SaaS: • Have a ratio of 1 technical person to 2 sales & marketing professionals • Bootstrapping works when you can actually collect cash - he collect $100/user minimum • Make sure you are at least at 3, even better 4 LTV to CAC ratio (5 means you need to spend more on marketing) • Don’t try to compete in a game you can’t win soon. I.e. $3/m + app payments with high churn aren’t going to make you hit $10k anytime soon, filter out users by price • Track ruthlessly to identify the “Aha!” Moment and optimize everything to push the user to have this experience first There’s a lot more that you can see in the full call breakdown in the free Skool community. (link in the comments) We also went into the different stages of finding product market fit before they were able to make enough money to start on ads. Even though they are at $50k MRR as a bootstrapped team, it took 6 years to get there. Think of that $600K ARR after 6 years of work, likely the first few are losing money or you are barely able to pay yourself to do the project, not to mention the App Store fees (15%), and personally doing customer support, content marketing, emailing, running ads etc. Sounds tiring. I don’t look down on it, $600k is good. But imagine being able to get there in 1/4 of the time, without having all the other people, complexities etc. I want you to understand the importance of the right business OS. To scale the iOS offer, you need ads, and before that, you pay with your life and time to manually convince people to use the app. Many people never leave this stage, and they get burnt out and quit. Game over. Imagine if you were going to play football (soccer) and you have a smaller team, your hands are tied and you are blindfolded when you play. The other team doesn’t have any of these hinderances. Who will win? Let’s play easy(er) games that we can win. ps - it's a lot easier to play this game as a team so check out our free skool community

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Initially, Shopify struggled to raise VC because of 1 misunderstood metric. Today its market cap is $86.5B. 😳 Investors evaluating Shopify were stuck on the fact there were already 10,000 e-commerce merchants, causing concern around TAM. But if you don't get TAM right, you won’t be able to calculate slope, which is what you’re supposed to be investing in anyway. You need to answer two questions to get that evaluation right: → Is this a trend that’s going to continue to grow significantly? → Is this a company that’s capable of catalyzing that growth? If investors had answered the above, they would have seen that the addressable market was likely to grow exponentially—and that Shopify was going to be the primary enabler of that growth. In theory, investors get it. But in practice, it's actually very hard to invest in because you have to be able to understand the dynamics of why that increase will happen. One indicator is the rate and quality of progression in a product’s service, particularly if you're a user of a similar product. AI is a great illustration of how this is happening right now. Its progression rate is astonishing. If a service provider's service is getting better over time, you should invest in it with the assumption that it’s progressing exponentially. That's why I'm bullish on Notion right now. The way they've implemented AI indicates that as AI improves, Notion will accrue increasing benefits. Take their recent announcement that inside Notion, users can call on their other apps for information, reinforcing themselves as the front page of where you do work, making it your OS. I break it all down in the video below. Comment any topics you want me to cover for future Whiteboard Wednesdays. 

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A few prompts to inspire B2B startups to think bigger about their product marketing: ➜ What domain are we buying? (Full credit to ⚡ Sylvain Giuliani on this one) There’s nothing like thinking of a domain name that forces you to succinctly summarize your product's stance or purpose. Ask yourself, what does your product stand for or against? What are the broader themes or trends? Examples: Figma used designsystems .com and Segment used crm-is-not-enough ➜ What’s the headline of the press release? Amazon product managers famously use the 'working backwards' approach by writing a mock press release and FAQ for a new product. Thinking of just the headline forces you to distill the story you want the market to be telling about you. Examples of real headlines from TechCrunch: “Envoy Brings In $1.5 Million To Kill The Lobby Sign-In Book” “This startup believes mobile apps for businesses should work more like consumer apps” ➜ If we were to write a book today, what would be the title? Use this question to identify what unique knowledge your company has that can establish you as a thought leader, and educate the market. Examples: Equals just wrote “The Ultimate Guide to ARR”, Monte Carlo wrote “Data Quality Fundamentals” I’ve found these prompts to be a great way to inspire creativity, as they bring your positioning to life in a tangible way. #productmarketing

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Angel investment is hard. Getting started is hard. Knowing what good looks like is hard. Parting ways with that first cheque is hard. Dealing with the immense amount of inbound is hard. Trying not to disappoint 99% of founders that come your way is hard. It's honestly one of the main reasons we started Table for Ten. We want angels, no matter how new or experienced to find a collaborative environment in which they can thrive - without the pressures of the label 'angel investor'. As our tight-knit community continues to grow, our vision does so too. If you're getting started or just keen to mix up your current angel journey, drop me a message or leave your details in the link below!

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"Raising VC money doesn't feel good." At the dog park a while ago, I ran into a founder that I'd coached through Techstars Toronto Accelerator. I asked him how his company was doing. He told me, and it was exactly like founders dream it up: - found PMF - raised millions - scaled the company - and no longer CEO, he sits on the board "Now, I can just walk my dog whenever I want!" "But," he said: "It was not fun." He told me that he'd been asked to speak to a group of early-stage founders and the first thing he said to them was: "Raising money doesn't feel good." (They were all shocked, he said). He talked about all the pressure, conflict and stress of being a VC-backed founder. Since then, I've heard so many similar stories, so I made a decision a few months back: Even though my niche was "tech founders raising money" for 7 years, I was no longer gonna make that my thing. I don't feel right encouraging entrepreneurs to try and create a scalable company anymore, cause I think for 99% of founders it's not even what they want. They've just been sold a dream. And the people who DO want it probably don't need my help anyway. These days, I'm focusing on: - solo business owners - mainly service providers - building a bootstrapped company - focused on sales, marketing, and profitability vs. 'venture scale' I'm continuing to support Ontario accelerators because I love helping entrepreneurs, but in my: - content - speaking - coaching - & community I'm advocating for solopreneurship, bootstrapping, and building an honest personal brand. Thanks to Prateek Sanjay, Toby Egbuna, Melissa Kwan, and others for inspiring me to do this, directly or indirectly. P.S. Yes I did use an unrelated picture of my corgi Mathilda for this. No regrets.

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Canada might be 1/10th the size of the US population, but Canadians still deploy capital into startups, but at 1/25th the rate of the US. If you're a Canadian founder you should meet some notable Toronto venture capitalists, ready to back your journey! 1. Relay Ventures-ventures Focus: Pre-Seed and Seed Stage Ventures Sector: Urbantech, Proptech, Fintech, Sportstech Top Portcos: Boomerang, Bird, Ecobee 2. Real Ventures Focus: Early-Stage Ventures Sector: Tech Enabled Businesses Top Portcos: Mejuri, Integrate AI, Unbounce 3. Radical Ventures Focus: Early Stage Ventures Sector: Artificial Intelligence, Disruptive tech Top Portcos: BirchAI, RoadBotics, Nabla Bio 4. Golden Ventures Focus: Seed Ventures Sector: Agnostic Top Portcos: ApplyBoard, Yesware, tacked 5. Alate Partners Sector: Real Estate, PropTech Top Portcos: Bird, Altrio, PadSplit 6. iGan Partners Focus: Seed Ventures Sector: Digital Health and MedTech Top Portcos: Meta, Akira, Think Research 7. Whitecap Venture Partners Focus: Seed and Series A Ventures Sector: B2B software and Med Tech Top Portcos: GoBolt, Real Matters, Clearwater 8. Ripple Ventures Sector: B2B Software Top Portcos: Wisely, Artemis, Plannuh 9. Loyal VC Sector: Tech Enabled Businesses Top Portcos: MyTM, ZestIOT, Avant Meats, BetaStore 10. Portage Focus: Seed to Series C Ventures Sector: Fintech Top Portcos: KOHO Financial, Albert, League, Clark Ready to connect with the perfect investor for your startup? Drop “LIST” in the comments, and I’ll tailor a personalized investor lineup just for you. Who’s your favorite VC firm in Toronto? Give them a shoutout in the comments! At Thunder.vc, we specialize in matching your fintech startup with venture capital firms that align with your sector, growth stage, and goals. Let’s find the right partner to fuel your growth!

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