News

Interviewing for Character, Part 2 – A Practical Approach

October 8, 2018

How to Uncover Passion

One of our SWO Angels members has a particularly good question that can uncover a lot in a conversation. He asks: “Why did you start this venture?” For him to be interested in investing, the answer must reveal a passion for an outcome that is beyond the entrepreneur’s natural ability to solve. Simple monetary or wealth objectives are uninteresting to this member. There is power in “Why?” questions!

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Seize the Opportunity: How Canada is Empowering Start-ups to Scale Globally

September 27, 2018

SWO Angel CEO, Dennis Ensing has been venturing back and forth across York & Adelaide streets in Toronto yesterday getting sessions in at both NACO's Summit and Elevate's Educate Scale-up track.

This morning my first Scale-up session was a presentation from Dennis Kavelman, former C-suite member of RIM/Blackberry and D2L, now a General Partner with iNovia Capital. 

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The NACO World Angel Investment Summit

September 26, 2018

Peter Cowley, Summit Keynote, shared stories and the lessons he's learned through his decades of experience as an entrepreneur, an active Angel, and a member of the most active Angel group in the UK.

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A Journey to Learn About Artificial Intelligence

September 24, 2018

The day’s journey was simply full of Artificial Intelligence (AI) itself. On route, we used an incredibly advanced GPS app, listened to a tailored Spotify playlist, Googled and found the “best coffee roaster near me”. Upon arriving at the café, I reviewed website analytics composed of thousands stats. I am taking AI for granted daily and we have only scratched the surface of what is possible.

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Investor Meeting Highlights - September

September 20, 2018

This morning (Thursday September 20) we held our first SWO Angels Investor Meeting of the 2018-19 season after a summer recess.

Two ventures presented to attending members in the MVP Lab in the Convergence Centre on Western’s Discovery Park. Both also presented this week to our angel group Alliance partners, Golden Triangle Angel Network (GTAN) and Angel One Network.

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Due Diligence Lunch and Learn Recap

September 12, 2018

About a dozen SWO Angel’s members and sponsors representatives gathered this past Wednesday (Sept 12th) to attend the final session of our 2018 Lunch & Learn series. Effective due diligence is critical to our investor activities – not just to avoid bad investments, but probably more importantly to understand the entrepreneurs’ and venture’s “transformability”.

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Interviewing for Character - Vocabulary and Methodology

August 22, 2018

At the Lunch and Learn, Dr. Crossan gave us vocabulary to use as a common platform to describe the nature of the people in which we consider making an investment. Excellence of character is captured by a set of behaviours that directly influence the development of competence, the commitment to action and ultimately performance. Here are the 11 dimensions of character and their associated behaviors captured in the character wheel:

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Investor Meeting Highlights - June

June 22, 2018

Yesterday (Thursday June 21) we held our monthly SWO Angels Investor Meeting. Three ventures presented to attending members in the MVP Lab in the Convergence Centre on Western’s Discovery Park.

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Lunch and Learn - June 2018

June 15, 2018

Our SWO Angels Winter/Spring session wraps up next week with our monthly Investor Meeting on Thursday June 21 before a summer recess. However, this week we had our long-anticipated Lunch & Learn – “Managing Your Angel Investment Portfolio”.

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Pillar Social Enterprise Spring Showcase

June 14, 2018

On Tuesday evening, members of SWO Angels attended Pillar Nonprofit Network’s Social Enterprise Spring Showcase.

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