Learn from the Best

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. - Henry Ford

10 Questions Anthony Lacavera wants us to ask

Seeing Anthony Lacavera in his casual suit and hip haircut at my formal Bay Street Investment Club made me curious. Yes, Anthony has his book to promote, but what would be his message for the room of mostly public market investors?

I was not disappointed. Anthony challenged the room of influential investors about our shared responsibility for the future of Canada. Anthony quickly picked apart the realities of our laws and our attitudes that if changed, could mean a radically different future for Canada. All of these points are expanded upon in his very good book, How We Can Win.

I have entrepreneurs as my client base, and Anthony’s book is giving me a treasure trove of discussion points for my client meetings in 2018. There are stories about Canadians such as heroes I have been fortunate enough to know such as Claudia Hepburn who helped found The Next 36, Michael Serbenis who created the Kobo, Andy Burgess of Somerset Entertainment, Michael Hyatt of Bluecat and Craig Campbell who built a security company. 

There are also discussions about the Canadian-centric issues I have heard too many times and, quite honestly, I have stopped discussing because they do not seem to change. It was refreshing to hear Anthony's passion.

These were my pick of Anthony’s many questions directed to my Bay Street Finance Club. These ten points particularly sparked me and made me grit my teeth. This year, I hope to use these to bring my best to Canada:

1. Why do we think it normal to go for gold when it’s hockey but we are satisfied with being fourth or tenth in business ratings? The Americans go for survival of the fittest but Canadians think it is mean to crush competitors like cockroaches. Anthony says, "We need to start clawing our way up the value chain."
2.  Why do our government leaders go to the Google offices to get their photo ops? Surely, politicians should prioritize their support of Canadian companies such as Hootsuite? Stop by the Hootsuite HQ in Vancouver, politicians, and you will be surprised by the results. 
3. Can we stop being afraid of picking winning companies and rewarding them? This requires we get past the “everyone’s a winner” attitude and to pick one leader and focus the financial rewards.This means putting government funding in large placements into fewer businesses. We need to be comfortable that competition is positive.
4. Why is not one Canadian VC or private equity firm invested into one of the leading Waterloo area companies, Thalmic Labs? Why does it take Americans to do the investing? Thalmic Labs comes out of the Next 36 program and are a great Canadian venture. 
5. Why should we care where investment money originates? Globealive had the government tell him his investors had to get out of his company because they were from a different part of the world. The Middle East is not banned from my bank as potential clients and Anthony's investors certainly cleared the barriers. 
6. Why do we have such difficult inter provincial trade barriers and what does it cost business?
7. Why do most Canadian companies not think of being an export business? They are satisfied with being big enough. 
8. What is Canada known for? Why do we have investors into cannabis but not into Ai, Machine learning? Uber, co-founded by a Canadian, is in MaRS and has a Canadian Ai expert leading it. Surely our VC investments should be going into these tech endeavours but we seeem to like the drug industry more.
9. Why are Canadian entrepreneur leaders not known and celebrated?  We all know Bill Gates or Elon Musk (ironically a Canadian) of America but how about Ryan Holmes of Hootsuite?
10. What can we do to reduce the brain drain of our tech students to America? We are losing our youth to the USA. My son is graduating from Waterloo and is off to Seattle to work for Microsoft so that point really hurts! Ouch.

Waterloo students create WatVision to help visually impaired to read touch screen

The Waterloo student teams create products in their fourth year and I was impressed with my son and his group - WatVision. 

Their product is to help visually impaired people read a touch screen. The idea developed as a visually impaired person talked about how the new coffee maker at work had a touch screen which he could not use, unlike the old coffee machine.  

This product has been created to help a visually impaired person use a touch screen. Check out the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI3hGIS06DM&feature=youtu.be

The video shows Craig demoing how to use our system. Here is a breakdown of how he did it.

1. Start the app and point your phone camera at the touch screen you are trying to use
2. Listen to the app, it will guide you to aim the camera at the entire screen. It will give commands such as “Move Left” or “Move Up” to help the user capture the whole screen.
3. Place the finger wearing the ring on the touch screen and begin exploring!

That’s all it takes, let the app do the reading for you. When your finger moves over text or buttons, the app reads out what its for so you as the user can decide whether you want to use it or not.

Interesting in trying it?

We are looking for participants to try out the system and give us feedback as we continue to develop. If you or someone you know has a visual impairment and would be interested in trying out the Watvision system, contact us at watvisionteam@gmail.com.

Annual Investment Luncheon at The Empire Club

2018 Investment Outlook Luncheon

I was honoured to be invited to join the head table at the Annual Investment Outlook Luncheon held at the Empire Club. We were joined by the CFL players who impressed me with their knowledge of blockchain and crypto-currencies.

@Empire_Club 2018 Investment Outlook Luncheon #gold #investment #outlook2018

Top Forecast awarded by Bay Street Finance Club to Jacoline Loewen

Jacoline Loewen with trophy for #1 Forecast

It was thrilling and humbling to be awarded the #1 Forecast.  There were 150 competing financial experts, many of whom run leading funds and who are pre-eminent names in the investment industry.

My forecast made at the beginning of 2017 was the most accurate. As a result, I get this huge trophy with darts as the symbols on top.  You can surmise why the use of darts as an understanding of the accuracy of forecasts.  Many people have made or lost their fortunes using the forecasts of experts, including Ray Dalio.  My name has been engraved on one of the markers which is an honour to join the list of top forecasters of the Canadian economy.

This finance club has been going since 1929, and will no doubt carry on for another 100 years, and so it is a great honour to be able to win top forecast. I was told that lightening does not strike twice and this is forecasting, after all. However, I have seen in my business that there is some methodology and process that certainly helps to predict the road ahead.

If you are curious about the forecast itself, there were market indicators to predict and a list of stocks to choose as going up or down.

I did have access to my bank's economic views which were different from the Canadian banks, being a global player. No doubt, access to that gave me a proverbial leg up but in the end, I did put in the time and effort to really look at the upcoming year. Now, let's see how my 2018 forecast fares!