B.C technology companies have a chance to shine during the Games – and, after that, on the world stage. The Winter Olympics are upon us. After seven years of planning and preparation, these are exciting days. Billions of viewers will be glued to their TVs watching virtually unknown, mostly amateur athletes do sports that only get attention for 16 days every four years.

I had an interesting chat with a local Internet Media company founder late this summer. He told me that he needed to hire a "face" for the organization that would be more appealing to the masses, specifically the real-time web, social media (Web 2.0) masses... more commonly referred to as Generation Y. He figured that youth trumped experience from the point of view that anyone over the age of 35 would not be acceptable to the Gen Y users of his site.

What value is there in an introduction? In a LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo business world, essentially zero. Then why do people pay fees (therefore implying some value) in an introduction, aka a finder’s fee? I’m sorry if this post is going to anger some of you out there that make money on finder’s fees for investment and/or acquirers. It’s just that I don’t see much value in finding someone, especially when they are hiding in plain view.

Sorry about the delays in posting. Sitemasher (a great product) updated thier business model and, well, uh, I needed to pay someone new. It took a little longer in my busy life to change. Apologies. A new post is coming today and I will get back on schedule.

It was arguably the biggest deal in Internet media ever in Western Canada. Bigger than Club Penguin’s US$350 million purchase by Disney. It was a billion dollar deal that didn’t happen... and Kevin Ham could not be happier. The CEO of Reinvent (figuring prominently today on my list of top Internet Media companies) told his story publicly for the first time last Tuesday at the Vancouver Enterprise Forum. Buried in that fascinating story of how he started his domaining practice in 1999 in London, Ontario, gave up his dream of being a family physician, moved to Vancouver and grew his business to a hundred million dollars a year, was an incredible tale.

Where in Vancouver do you like to meet to give a pitch, look for a job or hear about a company’s progress? Over coffee or at lunch are the main ways to meet in our town. After 15 years of talking to technology entrepreneurs, angels, fellow VCs and plenty of management types looking for jobs in the sector, I have come to like a few key spots around Vancouver’s downtown for coffee and lunch meetings. I thought I would publish my list of favourite hangouts that seem to be popular with the tech types like me. I probably will miss a few excellent spots and see if I can get a discussion going to find a new place to try.

Headline: August 11th 2009 - Severe Contraction in Venture Capital Levels, worst quarter in 14 years.What was the state of the venture capital industry in Canada 14 years ago? In Q2 1995, there were a few VCs in Canada with capital to invest. Ventures West had a small fund, BDC was active, Working Opportunity Fund had been up and running for a few years, Working Ventures and Vengrowth were the newest players in Ontario joining Helix and the uber-angel Terry Matthews, Quebec had a few small funds... and not much else.

What gives? Doom and gloom facts about exits for venture backed companies are everywhere. Yet, inbound acquisition offers are popping up for local technology companies. KITN Media, Vancouver-based owner of the Facebook virtual currency service, Super Rewards, was purchased today for a reported $30M USD after being propositioned by AdKnowledge, a social media monetization company from Kansas City, MO. OK, so M&A hasn’t stopped altogether... but if it hasn’t then who gets bought today? Who gets those inbound propositions?

It may be raining today, but it's about to get hotter again. The weather report? Or the clean technology sector report? The analogy holds true for both. As you have seen on Technically Hip, I like lists. Especially the ones that I get to make.

The noise about the state of early stage investment (both angel and venture capital financing) is getting deafening here in Canada and in the US. From the entrepreneur’s point of view, there just isn’t enough capital. There never has been, nor will there ever be enough capital to fund everyone’s dream... so someone is always grumpy about the lack of capital. But in times where early stage capital investment has dropped significantly (Early 1990’s, 2002-2003 and the past 9 months) there are many who are grumpy. While I am a fervent believer in the funding cycle continuing (we are currently at the low point) and the investment climate improving over time, there is still cause for worry now, especially in Canada. How much time will pass before things improve?