The Journey from Founder to VC: Etienne Merineau's Path

Transcript

Nectar: It. Happy to catch up, man. Good excuse to meet. I know we've known each other for, I don't wanna say how many years, but it's been a long time. I'll ask a question to kick things off. You just closed the fund. Why the hell did you wanna start a fund? 

Etienne: Good question. I think you.

Life arcs or career arcs, or some of it is there's a little bit of magic, a little bit of organic serendipity. And the vc I would say the VC path for me was not necessarily something I expected necessarily in my life at this stage, but, I built a company from scratch experience, the bootstrapping game, then raising a little bit of of money then the exit.

And it was a whole like founder whirlwind. Then once I exited people were like, what's next? People expect you to build right away something. And I wasn't quite ready. It was like the transition phase anyway, at first. You gotta go work for the acquiring company first and then you take a little bit of time off.

True story. I actually took just two weeks off. My wife wanted me to take it maybe a year. But anyway, and then I, but I just started tinkering a little bit, not really knowing. I started to work with my buddies at Work Leap, help them with their innovation labs and more as a consulting gig which.

Help me see something else. And also a well-oiled machine, scale scale up or, unicorn from the inside. And then the what's next itch started to maybe that's three years in that started to really come back. So I was very open-minded at that time and you'll find me esoteric, but the universe sent me a couple of opportunities.

Very different. So it was good benchmarking. And one of them was Lewis, the founder of Telegra Hill Capital out of Barcelona. He was in town. They've done a dozen investments in Montreal. And little did I know, we were introduced via, an entrepreneur friend or mutual contact and connection.

And yeah, we met, we just vibe, we just, EE identified a gap locally at the pre-seed stage, and I identified it as a founder. He was like you'd make, you heard my story, whatnot. He's you'd be an amazing vc. I'm like, really? Like I, I didn't see myself as a, I was doing a little bit of an angel investing, but I didn't see myself as a vc.

And then we, yeah, we just vibe on the values, the vision, the, especially the gap in the market, and it felt like I'm a zero to one guy. Like I love building, I love when it's crappy and messy and uncertain and you gotta fight for your life. It felt angel investing. I made a little bit of money, but I didn't have enough money to cut big meaningful checks.

So it felt like going to VC side and raise actually a sizable round and fun. I could have the platform and impact to move the needle locally, and that's really at the end what. Seduced me and made me like jump the, the fence, quote, unquote. 

Nectar: I see you obviously as a, a founder, right?

Like you're, you founded this new fund and obviously founded, co-founded heyday. How was it when you sold and then like you're part of a bigger company, Hootsuite. How did that transition happen? Maybe on the personal side of it, right? I imagine it was not easy or maybe it was right.

So I'm like, we haven't spoken about that. Yeah. That part. And then maybe question one B is. How you think about that now as like your new DNA as as a co-founder of Telegraph? 

Etienne: Yeah, it's a two pronged question and there's a few details there, but I would say like the first part, how do you feel after the exit?

It's a weird thing, right? There's a lot of it, glamorization of exits and whatnot. And of course it's a great event and it's a life changing event in life, and it changed my life for the better. But in the moment, it became bittersweet because at first we were all exhilarated, right? Like the, it was 2021, the height of 2021.

Everybody and their grandmother was going, IPO. There were SPACs, there were weird stuff happening. And we got acquired by Hootsuite out of Vancouver. Hootsuite is a, as you probably know, leader in social media management like a platform for brands to manage their socials and unicorn King, unicorn, big revenue.

So IPO Prime at the time. But the growth was a little flat-ish. Like it was like single digit, more than double digit or close double digit. So they needed a shiny object. That's what I realized after the fact. But they needed a bit of a shiny object to go IPO and that was hated.

They acquired us for the AI story and also together. Like the strategy that I put together for both the both companies that in the end never really materialized, but was like, okay, social commerce is the next frontier. How do you scale that? You need AI automation to manage every customer touch point, right?

So the synergies between the two companies were very promising. And then. The goal was like, okay we get acquired, we go IPO, we raise $2 million and we execute on the vision. So people were very excited. We arrived there like rock stars, red carpet kind, and I was like speaking at town halls in front of the old company about the five year strategy, sorry, and whatnot.

And then boom, the IPO window closed, right? Co coveo got the last spot on this, the TSX and Hootsuite fell to. Execute. Its its IPO. So then instead of managing growth and, building the future vision, we just, man started to just fire half of the company slowly but surely. So it was a year of, it was a bipolar year.

'cause you start get, you get acquired, you get super excited and then you get depressed and oddly enough you got a bit of a financial windfall. But that was the most miserable year of my life. There was a big. Post-acquisition blues and you feel a little lonely. Of course.

The founder grind is always a lonely journey, but especially so is you feel like everybody's is you should be happy you made money. But it's money's not everything, right? Founders are purpose driven more than money driven, although, if you do well, you're gonna have.

Money as an outcome, which is great. So that was a weird phase of my life where, you know and there's still battle scar of that, but it's also comes with the territory. Once you sell your company, you also lose control a little bit over the destiny of, what's coming next? So that was the first question.

I already forgot the second one. The second one was, how do you feel in your new identity as a vc? Was that it? 

Nectar: Yeah. May maybe double click on it. 'cause it's also maybe a personal reflection. As, we're wearing the same hat, starting companies and now starting funds.

And I've, yeah, I've had to come to grips with oh, shit, I'm looking at the term sheet. It's 10 year journey and this is not a, overnight thing. So it's it's definitely a long term project. So coming to grips with a personal identity of okay, this is the thing that I believe in.

And having the choice and we can maybe share Yeah. Like a little bit. I know we've done this offline of like just sharing, crying over like the pain of raising a fund in the worst possible time. But it also definitely, at least for me, definitely. Question me, do I really wanna do this?

There's so many other things I could do in my life. So that's why I'm reflecting in, looking in the mirror, reflecting the question to you of how did you come to grips? Okay, this new job, is this something you really I want to do? And and tying it to your identity.

Etienne: Yeah. No, it's a good question. Again, I think it's like. The founder, the founder, grit comes both from being resilient and also a little bit naive, right? Being an idealist. So of course sometimes like you build your resilience through like the hurdles. But if you knew all the hurdles beforehand, would you do it right?

Then? It's always a question, but once you're in it, there's a bit of that sun cost fallacy and also resilience, and you keep your eyes on the prize and if you battled through it in the end. The goal is to cross the finish line, which I think we're, I just closed, you're about to close.

So good for you. And now that I, in hindsight, after doing it with my startup and now doing it with the fund, I would call it kinda like business Darwinism, or there's a natural selection where that that like hardship and that, in French I would say's desire, right? That crossing the chasm or I don't know how to really translate it fully, but.

It's like a necessary step to filter out the would bes and the people who are there for the hype and the people who actually wanna build. For the long term. And you mentioned it's a 10 year commitment. Of course they're not gonna, big institutional LPs are not gonna trust you if you're just there for a couple months, right?

If you're, they wanna see that grit in a way. I think it's more of a feature than a bug. A little bit, but it's a different timeline. Like I always used as a founder to raise like a sprint. I was a sprinter and not a marathon. So you raise, you go on, and you have more optionality as a founder too.

You, if it doesn't work in Quebec, you could go in other markets here locally, as you need to work with the timeline that you're given and you gotta keep your eyes on the prize. And the commitment, I think is actually good because it creates alignment with the portfolio companies.

If there was no commitment, then you know I'm selling as a founder, I'm selling equity to you in my company, and maybe you're gone in two years. I'm looking for a partner more than money, right? So I do think it, it aligns incentives, but you definitely need to be intentional because it's not a light decision to take.

There's money, your skin in the game in multiple forms, money, time, sweat, tears. So it's not for the faint of a heart, let's put it that way. 

Nectar: Right Now that you guys have closed and congratulations. And actually maybe before I ask the question of what are you most excited about? Maybe give us the quick pitch and what is telegraph?

Etienne: Yeah, so as I mentioned a little earlier, we identified a gap at the earliest stages. So earliest stages, it's like, it's earlier than earlier, sometimes it's zero revenue. I would say it's zero between zero and 1 million ar. But the sweet spot would be probably a bit earlier than 500 kr. So first money in type of check.

And. The way I see it and my partners see it as well the same way. It's like it's capital, but with a little plus. So I think, to stand out in the VC game, you need to walk the talk, not just say we're capital and we're, we will help you but actually mean it. That's my personal interest in the, in, in the, in that venture is actually that, it's almost being a co-founder with capital. And on demand, of course, the goal is not to be like in the founder's short and, let them cook, but I have a little bit of operational expertise and battles scar that gave me hopefully a little bit of wisdom in some playbooks and some ways to, I don't have all the answers, but I do I can like.

Try to put bubble wrap around the founder a little bit to avoid some pitfalls and some easy like bear traps to avoid that every first time founder, falls for. So this is like the mindset of let's come in very early, maybe too risky for most, but for us, we're gonna de-risk with a little bit of sweat.

Beyond the capital, a little bit of, knowhow in the trenches. And that's like the philosophy, but more in terms of thesis in terms of space. We're multi, sectorial in the B2B SaaS. Of course, it's 2025. So we're looking for AI driven startups that are really core business, right?

There's a lot of AI hype, as and. New applications that are being built every second. And with tools like lovable, like you can, prototype your way to a semi product in like couple hours. We're looking for core business applications that are, by design stickier, unlock more ROI and maybe the technology is not the moat at the very beginning.

'cause now it's easy to knock off pretty much any software. Because you have a clear, core business application and use case and ROI, because maybe you're focused in the vertical, then you land and expand in that vertical, and then you have more proprietary data in that vertical, and then the AI flywheel starts to turn right?

So technology in the end becomes the moat. Maybe go to market is the first mode, but then these two modes together GTM and product or ip. They compound and they kinda they build on each other. So we're looking for, it, it sounds a little broad, but again, we wanna be a generalist VC solution for these types of B2B founders.

B2B SaaS founders in Quebec. Yeah. 

Nectar: Yeah. Super interesting. So it's Quebec only, yeah. Quebec average check size at entry. 

Etienne: Average would be half a million Canadian. But I would say we like to lead rounds. Again, echoing back to the philosophy of getting involved, we lead rounds mostly take a board seat, help the founder, sorry.

Execute, get the product market fit as fast as possible. And then we keep so we can go up to seven 50 k Canadian when we lead rounds, and then we keep follow on reserves of about a million for, to double click on winner. Yeah. On winners. 

Nectar: I like this concept also, like you mentioned, like almost like a financial co-founder, it's a term I'd like to use too, where it's like you guys are really.

First partners to Yeah. To, to the startups. And and I find that maybe to go back to the question I wanted to ask before, it's like what you like the most, but I was, I'm gonna put an answer for you, but I feel like you're a founder's founder, right? Like in the sense of you really want to help roll up your sleeves and help.

The founding team as much as possible. 

Etienne: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. Look, the reason why I'm doing BC is my joke is I'm like an alcoholic, it's at the bar, but I'm drinking my seven up, like I'm look, but I'm still in the party, so no, I, it's a good excuse to still be in the trenches of course, differently, right?

When you operate one business and it's your baby and you just grind day and night on that business, I can't do that on over 30 com portfolio companies. But at least I know what it takes. I know what it's like. I know the pains, the growing pains. And if I can be, beyond capital, a good counsel and cheerleader I've done my job.

I think as a portfolio manager, 

Nectar: I'm gonna share a story. I dunno if you're gonna remember this, but like how you helped me when my previous company and it was even before we launched, like I was still in the, very much in the ideation phase of PR, right? So people that no, it's like started the magic consulting firm.

And remember we were at some event, one of these meetups. It was like a meetup basically. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I forgot about that. And it 

Etienne: was a responsive org meetup, yes. That I org I core organized. Yes, exactly. You were there. 

Nectar: And I was there. It was like, 'cause we, I was thinking a lot back then.

There was a, this movement of these new crop of kind of like service firms. And I remember pitching, it was like, one of the firms I look up to is this firm doesn't exist anymore. It's called Undercurrent. Yeah. Yeah. We're both 

Etienne: geeks. Undercurrent Geeks. That's it. That's it. Sound boys. 

Nectar: And I remember you just giving me like one, like the fact that you knew, like you were in this space, thinking about it, and also just giving me good advice and kind of made me wanna say, fuck, I think I have something here.

And nice. It it helped. I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah, it definitely helped me back then validate, okay there's interest here, right? Just seeing your excitement. And then, like obviously launched the company and everything else, but which, which is not the goal of this podcast, but yeah, remember it would be extremely helpful back then.

Oh, nice. 

Etienne: I didn't know that, but yeah, I tend to founders are like, oh, this guy is weird, but in a good way. I turn VC pitches and brainstorms, right? I try to be very generous and candid with my advice and also brainstorm with founders as if I'm already working in their companies.

First of all, it's a good sanity to check to see if they're coachable. And, but also I need to believe in the business. I need to feel like I could be working for that founder or for that business to make it succeed. Plus post investment. Part of the thesis that's hidden, but that's very real is like I, we need to see gp fit.

So fun and, almost like a fund market fit, I dunno how to say that. Fun startup fit where we feel like we have added value and. And I, it's a dark side. And also probably my biggest quality, but not dark side, but blind spot. I get excited easily. Then it's about maintaining that excitement of okay, we're, we translate the excitement into action, actionable, results.

And that's what I look into founders. 

Nectar: Yeah. Maybe I'll share we're like, this is, I feel like a good therapy session. I'll share things that I find that are difficult for me. I curious to hear you like. Of the new job, like you mentioned, I think we both love working with founders, brainstorming ideas.

Oh yeah. And think of the positive side. I think you have to be optimistic by nature, right? In this job it's what can be especially early stage. Exactly. And I find the two things I struggle with is one is a lot of it at this point is like, it's much more on the quality of the person.

And the founder and that team. And sometimes it's not easy to say I don't think it, it hits the bar, for the type of people we wanna work with. And also just having to say no a bunch. For a bunch of different reasons. So I'm like, oh shit. I'm optimistic, but at the same time we can invest in every single company.

Gotta be choosy, right? Yeah. So like, how have you been dealing with this, with the challenge? 

Etienne: Yeah. It's early. I think the best way to manage it is to always. I hate it as a founder to get misled. A no is not as bad as a maybe sometimes founders need clarity 'cause they need to execute, right?

They don't. So I try to make sure that founders never waste their time with me. And, but a no can become a yes. It's also like it's I don't close doors unless like it's clear that it's off thesis and it just won't work. But sometimes, like you just need a little bit more conviction and it's okay.

And I think you, you gotta be candid with founders and tell 'em, look, you, you heard the highlights. That's actually my format when I give a feedback, highlights lower lights and what's missing, right? To build a conviction. Sometimes it's just we wanna see them execute a little bit more or, but, but we come in at the earliest stages, so of course it won't be a perfect picture, right? So you're right, you're taking a bet on a team that will, I think it's a combination, and it's not rocket science. It's a combination of why this founder, why now, in that space, right? And if the foundering team is like gritty and smart and they have good founder market fit and the space is massive and there is an inflection point right now happening, chances are you'll.

The B2B space. That's why I love the B2B space. You'll find maybe you won't be a unicorn, but you'll find your way, you'll find some kind of segment that you can own and build a good business out of it. B2C is less forgiving. It's like winner take all do or die. Which I don't like as much.

That's why it's off thesis. But yeah. And that's what that's what it's all about. But nobody has a crystal ball, as of course, we're building diversified funds 'cause a lot can happen. Founder in fighting, shifts in the like for example, open ai, like chat, GPT when it resetted like the roadmap for all, every, pretty much every company out there.

But the only constant will be out if founding team will react to that change and instead of getting crushed by it, they will leverage it to build an even better company.

Nectar: Yeah. How have you thought. Building your own firm, your fund, right? Because is like you said, going back to founder, like build mode.

But this time, you're selling a partnership. Yeah. It comes with capital. How, like, how do you approach that thought process? Like you mentioned, I think some parts of it that are interesting, right? Like this notion of partnering very early, but maybe the double click about the building part of what you're trying to do.

Etienne: . Look I think it, I'm still new to this game, so I don't have all the answers and I'll figure them out, as I go as a good founder would. I think the building to get to that that, that point, it was still like an 18 month journey, like from the first, let's say even a little bit more from that, the first pitch to the closing.

One thing I do know, I, 'cause I've, it was similar with my co-founders at Heyday, we were very different, highly complimentary, right? So I always look for partners where my strengths are like, we'll compliment theirs and therefore we can all shine in our own way. We don't overstep, we don't step on each other's toes.

And the combination, the classic kind of sum of its parts, is gonna create value. So that was that plus alignment around, vision, values, and of course the timeline, the timing in your life. 'cause it has a lot to play with successful outcome, both on the founding side or on the VC side.

But I think building the fund, building a fund is similar to building a startup, especially when you're an emerging manager. You're the underdog, like nobody. Not that people don't believe in you, but like you have to prove that you're someone that we can believe in, right? So it's baby steps.

And the goal is velo. It is the same as a founder, like you need, it's always baby steps that compound. Then your role is to try to control as much as possible the cadence, like the velocity so that they compound faster and that, you go from zero to one faster, so zero to one, and a startup would be like, from a prototype, let's say an idea to product market fit in a fund, it would be from.

A pitch deck to institutional investors, to actually investing, doing good investments in startups that ladder up to your thesis and that, you're actually delivering on what you sold. Sold them. And that, that's the beauty. Like I think you gotta also have a strong start and start with, we talked about velocity.

As soon as we close, we had an investment signed and ready. Of course we had a little bit of backlog because of the 18 months, but you gotta build you gotta build, I think. With speed, but always staying true to your, the core values of, what you sold, but also in the end, it's not just what you sold to the LPs, but it's what you sold yourself as it to yourself as a team.

If we digress from that we're not playing the role that we're meant to play. 

Nectar: Yeah. We spoke about the fun things of. The job, which I find is learning, meeting, meeting bright people and trying to see how we can work together. And I know offline we've shared a lot of the pains of raising a fund.

You brought up something interesting. It's filter of Yeah. That's used hey, like not everyone can raise a fund. Curious to hear a little bit about the lessons learned, fundraising in particular, that was, like the worst time to raise a fund basically. 

Etienne: Yeah. Yeah, it was the worst time to raise a fund based on the macros and whatnot.

But it's also probably the most exciting time to raise a fund too, right? If you look on the bright side, because there's a bit of a reset in the ecosystem, I think the ecosystem needs a mix of, legacy managers who know their shit. And we've built platforms and there's a few iconic names here locally, like Innovia, for example.

But you also need fresh blood and o and of course I'll preach for my choir, but I think you need o you know, operators. You need folks who have the operational expertise and empathy to connect with founders and to evaluate, especially at the early stages when you're looking at intangibles that get very tangible down the road, but are still a bit intangible at that stage.

I think being a founder yourself helps kind have the right hunches or instincts or, you won't be right each time, but you have. Like the pattern recognition, let's say that an experienced VC would get through experience. You have a little bit of that cheat code outta the gate, then you need to learn the more like the operating, the fun part the fun admin and whatnot.

And that's the beauty with my partnership with my partner, the Lewis and Varun were, we have been in the game for almost 20 years. I think that the main difference between. Fundraising for a fun and the startup I mentioned earlier, it's changing a little bit, your horizon and expectations where I used to approach everything very impatient.

With impatience, the impatience of the founder, running it like a sprint. This journey is more like a marathon. So it's a Yeah, you need to think in decades, not in days, essentially. 

Nectar: Yeah. One other one other element I've learned is that, there is more, I find when you explain the fundraise process to founders oh shit.

Like you have to go through the same thing Oh yeah. As well. 

Etienne: And it's more complex. And it's more political. And but it's good. 'cause I love what we live, we just live nectar. I'm sure you experienced it on, on, on the daily. It creates. I didn't need, I don't think I needed like, all the battle scars to feel that, but it's just good that it, it revives like the understanding of what they have to go through, especially when they're underdogs, when they're just getting started, they're first time founders and nobody's like looking at them.

It's like it's a volumes game. You need to stay in action. And I think those battle scars are very useful to be empathetic of their journey. Yeah. 

Nectar: And I find it honestly, in some regards, it's even harder. Again, an example, it's like in my previous company, if an investor, a partner, client says, no you lift a middle finger and you keep building, you try, you keep building here.

It's if a big LP says, though I'm selling three people to a PowerPoint, right? It's if a big LP says no, I can't do the job. So my mental model switch very much to oh, okay, this. Has to be, if I wanna do this job and I wanna do well, I have to get good at this skill. Yeah.

And honestly, it's like you have to build trust with LPs. That's what it is. And you like, because they're entrusting you with their money, so it's very necessary 

Etienne: part of the job. You're so and but it's true with founders too, right? I just think, again, the time horizon's a bit different, right?

But it's the same, like when you're gonna invest, you're gonna see a founder, maybe, I don't know. But let's say a, you'll have a dozen touchpoints maybe not all, like face-to-face, but you'll have touchpoints, meaning interactions, online, in person, everything in between, right? And that's just to get to the part where you're building conviction.

I'm not talking about, due diligence and whatnot. And every touch point is either trust building. Or it could be neutral, like not in, just oh, it's status quo, but ideally it's trust building. And it's the same with LPs. They're human beings, right? At the end of the day forget about the money.

It's human beings buying other, buying into other human beings. So it's just trust. Trust. It's just trust based. Not that the numbers don't matter, they do, and the thesis, it does matter too, but do I trust an nectar to execute on what he just pitched me and do I trust that this guy is in it for the real reasons and is committed for long term.

These are the fundamental questions. 

Nectar: Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And maybe to talk a little bit about your partners. 'cause I've had the benefit of knowing Louis in particular for 12, 13 years now. We had invested, back when I was at Google, ive, we invested in a company called Chronol.

And Oh, you were in it. I didn't know you were, we were on the board together's. How I met Louis, I was like, it was a board bd. It was like, oh, there's this guy from Barcelona. I think I'm gonna, sing their praise a bit because I don't think too many people know. And you glossed over it, but it's telegraph is done. I don't know how many investments in Quebec, but it's this, this a dozen 

Etienne: actually over the, chrono golf was back in 2014, but they, and then they had an exit to light speed in 2019. I don't know, first investment, first exit in Canada. So they started to double click on the market.

But since 2018, they've been more active and it's a dozen investments. Two guys outta Barcelona. It's impressive.

Nectar: You asked me how many other funds from other cities have done 12, like early stage deals in Montreal. Like I don't think there's that many, right? So I have to give huge credit to, to Lewis and Varun for that and really sharp guys.

And so yeah, maybe it's just the benefit of the lock of. Co-invested, to together in, in Chronol and seeing them in action and, there's so many more that you mentioned. The other dozen, some really good ones like planned, comes to mind and 

Etienne: Yeah. Yeah. 

Nectar: So yeah, can, and I've seen Lewis operate where, I think planned, going back to the planned example, it's hey, like there was dark times and it was easy.

And being there to support during critical junctions, I think that's what you need from your investor. 

Etienne: Totally. And I think, when you said you're a founder's founder, like for me, this would never work, this partnership if we were not aligned on that. Like we're founder first of course, like we have LPs and we're here to make money.

At some point you need to have some hard conversations sometimes with founders, but if you do it with respect and also strategic alignment and I think every conversation can be had. But that's what I love. I didn't know Louis, right? So I skipped that part for the benefit of brevity, although it's not my number one skill.

I I'm a detail guy. But when I met with Louis, we really vibed, out of the gate I think, business romance outta the gate, just connected on the values and the gap we identified, but then I didn't know the guy, right? So we kinda agreed to do for, I think it was for a quarter, like three months.

Let's do a reverse due diligence on kind of on each other. And as part of, on my side, a big chunk of it was interviewing all the founders in the local portfolio, right? Plan was one of these one of these companies and to your point, plan during COVID, like they, they hit rock bottom.

They were in the, event and kind of travel space, right? So that went to zero and many VCs would've, and rightfully so at some point it's part of the VC game. You have a portfolio and you're diversified. And, but the natural instinct for VC would be like to write off a company like this.

'cause you don't know how long COVID will will last. And these guys doubled down Varun and Lewis, they went into the trenches with the founders, helped crunching spreadsheets, extend the runway. And now the company, I think it's last year, raised 35 million USD, series B, and they're on their way.

They add by iconic customers, Amazon, SpaceX Instacart, and everything in between. L'Oreal, I believe. That grit. I think when we're looking for grit in founders, for me, we need to walk the talk. We need to be gritty as investors too. And that proved me that, number one, they're founder first, but also they're gritty investors.

And I often say I'm looking for cockroaches. I want founders who can survive anything like you need VCs. We can survive anything too. To be the real partners in the trenches for you. 

Nectar: Yeah. Said. Said. I've been saying the joke of oh, we should rebrand our cockroach capital.

Yeah. But yeah, that's a little bit of this, there's this guy in Toronto named Fat, his fund is called Roach Capital, which is the same, I love it concept, so love it to get copyright on that. Yeah, dude, I could bug you for hours and I know I always do. Maybe a final question or two.

What's next? Now you've closed, you're starting to deploy. How are you going to build d flow? Like how's, what's your strategy? 

Etienne: Yeah, so far like it, it hasn't been a problem. As there's a lot of supply not all qua quality, but since we launched, I think we have we launched for context now we're what, October 21st?

Today, 2020 second. So we closed, we announced the fund September 25, so that's like a month. We've looked at 120 companies so far. Like we had a lot of inbound that said. Of course there's, it's not all quality. Right now, I would say the deal flow comes, we talked about trust earlier, right? So it's a trust business.

So of course the good news of being a founder, I was already a bit connected with the ecosystem. There's also my generation of founders. Some of them exited, now they're starting new companies. So of course there's gonna be some repeat founders coming out of my personal network or referrals trust base.

And then I, we also want to be the money for first time founders, the underdogs the Davids against what Goliath, how do you say it in English? So we're also, we're gonna have a good mix of first time and repeat founders. The first time founders, I think it's through accelerators.

And again, it's also through Crow investors. So you can and mentors like angel investors. Some of our LPs, are successful entrepreneurs who of course get pitched on the daily some. So it's ama I think you need to build co like small coalitions with diverse viewpoints on the ecosystem.

So co-investors, angels, accelerators, of course, founders. And through it all, maintain a good brand personal brand, right? So being an honest broker being, candid without being too, there's radical candor, but sometimes that's just cover for being a jerk. But I would say candid without the radical side.

Just giving it, being a founder first and a cheerleader and a and honest sounding board. That has been my approach so far. Being generous with feedback and selfless that, we might not invest by, not be for me, but I'll spend the time and I'll give you what I think.

Hopefully there's one thing that can help you in this. And hopefully these baby steps, these micro interactions will build up and create a positive flywheel in terms of deal flow for us at least. I'm pretty, committed to do that and convinced that it will be a net positive in our deal flow.

Nectar: Yeah. You mentioned the supply demand and balance, and I've seen this upfront. It's like there's way too many good people Yeah. Versus the, quantity of capital available. Oh yeah. So I applaud you guys commit to market, especially like you mentioned gap of like really being there at the early stage, which I'm afraid to go.

I'm like, we're not there. We're, we're seed focused. Really excited that you guys are closed. Maybe final question then, it's the end for you is if people wanna reach out, connect what's the best way? 

Etienne: The best way is number one, don't be shy. Don't wait to have it all figured out.

You're an early stage company, of course you have flaws and we're here to look at the. Positive stuff and help you build on the potential and and pair you with either, capital and or mentors to accelerate you. But to reach out, I would say of course LinkedIn. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn, so LinkedIn's a good channel.

Otherwise you can visit our website Telegraph without any so telegraph and English. vc.com. You see the Bootstrap founder here, the the.vc was too expensive for an emerging manager I founded creative.com. telegraph-vc.com. Awesome. Awesome. It's in, is it Dash, Oren? I dunno. You got it.

Awesome, man. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, nectar.