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"Imagine what it would do to the VC business if the next hot company didn't take VC at all."

No need to imagine. Just look North -- this is reality.

Neither RIM (makers of the blackberry) nor Cognos (now IBM) took VC funding.

VC has imploded in Canada and startups are surviving as they have always.

RIM started in 1984 and Cognos in 1969 [!], so I'm not sure what conclusion you can draw from their early histories.

Also, RIM "was financed by Canadian institutional and venture capital investors in 1995" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_in_Motion).