(Canadian) Venture Capital Breakdown

There is an interesting article in one of Canada's national newspapers that has caused quite a stir among the Canadian VC and startup community.

Also, a rebuttal by Rick Segal, a partner with JLA Ventures: http://ricksegal.typepad.com/pmv/2009/05/never-let-facts-get...

and a response by Andrew Lai, an entrepreneur interviewed in the original article: http://simplyalbert.blogspot.com/2009/05/venture-capital-bre...

I am a Canadian entrepreneur with some pretty fresh and relevant thoughts of my own as we are in the process of raising capital (in CleanTech, not webapps) but before I share my perspective I would like to hear what others think.

I actually pointed this out to Rick Segal (quoted in the article) via a tweet as the catch-22 of Canadian Venture Capital. Kevin Talbot talks about his office at UofT which he expects to be lined-up with students trying to pitch ideas, but the entrepreneurial spirit isn't feeding the system of venture funds. At the same time, Canada is unable to raise significant VC funds because of the lack of Canadian VC's ability to capitalize on investments in the past.

This is a cycle of lack of funds will result in lack of companies getting funded which results in lack of returns.

So, how do we solve this problem for Canada?