More mature Canadian tech ecosystems have the greatest need for this type of capital, while less mature regions are still
building early stage financing capacity.
The firm
provides early stage financing, hands - on assistance, and strategic connections to innovative companies confronting the world's most important energy and environmental issues.
Legal costs
of early stage financing should be cheap — this is one of the final remaining arguments for convertible debt but even Paul acknowledges that this is no longer necessarily the case:
«We thought this accelerator needed a corporate business law firm because they are strong on the art product side and we thought because we are mid-market and entrepreneurial it was a good fit,» says Jamie Firsten, partner at Cassels Brock who focuses
on early stage financing for emerging tech companies.
However, much of the growth has been in late - stage funding, which raises concerns about whether Canadian start - ups will have
the early stage financing they need to thrive.
The Small Business Investment Company in the US has used government - backed guarantees to provide critical,
early stage finance to some phenomenal business success stories, like Apple and Intel.
Orrick made seed docs available for
early stage financing, and Cooley (also mentioned in the above section) has done so more recently.