Toronto’s Teeming Tech Scene: Good But….

There’s a good article in today’s Globe & Mail about Toronto’s vibrant high-tech community, and how there are so many people engaged in innovation, new ideas and new solutions.

The article puts the spotlight on what I consider to be the strength of Toronto’s high-tech sector – an abundance of optimism, enthusiasm, energy and the belief that change can be implemented if people pull together. As a member of the community, I’m always impressed to see so many people excited about technology and the impact of the Internet on how we work, live and play.

But – and here’s a big but – the reality is there’s a lot more talk than walk.

By that, I mean this energy and optimism isn’t being harnessed as much as it should. For all the great ideas and enthusiasm, the lack of start-up capital continues to be Toronto – and Canada’s – biggest weakness.

I realize the lack of start-up and venture capital is an old story but it stands in stark contrast to what’s happening within the high-tech community. You wonder how much of a difference it would make it there was even a modest number of investors able to provide $250,000 to $1-million of seed capital so some of the great ideas out there could be transformed into businesses.

I wonder, for example, what would happen if there was a Canadian version of Y Combinator where entrepreneurs could get start-up capital, support, mentoring and facilities to get going.

My sense is having this kind of capital would have a major impact on Toronto’s high-tech community. Not only would it provide capital to currently running start-ups but it would encourage other people to take the entrepreneurial leap. This, in turn, would jump-start the community and allow people to get more business experience, which can only be a good thing.

For how, however, Toronto’s high-tech community is going to have to sustain itself on enthusiasm, sweat capital, encouragement from friends and family, the vibrant camp community (DemoCamp, ChangeCamp, CaseCamp, etc.) and online conferences such as mesh and StartupEmpire.

The silver lining is there’s no lack of energy and enthusiasm out there.

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