Reflections on AccelerateTO: A Lawyer Who Loves Entrepreneurs

Tech world - Toronto has arrived and is here to stay!

Written by Arshia Tabrizi, Tech Lawyer (Twitter: @arshia_tabrizi)

Never in the past decade of practising technology and venture law in Toronto did I imagine the start-up landscape would mature to the degree that I would witness such an awesome event as the AccelerateTO gathering on November 9th.  This is despite missing the day sessions and only making the reception at the Royal Ontario Museum. I always missed the energy from my Valley days at Wilson Sonsini (Palo Alto) but now without Toronto has truly arrived on the tech scene in a big way and my guess is it’s here to stay.

What was cool? The crowd, the networking, the positive vibes, the momentum. the sense of possibility, and the venue... holy cow, the ROM was a rocking space! What else? The collective set of skills and know-how, second to none, that we now boast in Toronto, and the emerging ecosystem of local, and, thanks to the C100, Valley-based, mentors, accelerators, venture funds, and service providers (yes, we lawyers are still part of the equation... apologies for the transactional costs). True, our keynote, Chris O’Neill (Managing Director, Google Canada), was having a really tough time speaking over the crowd (respect, folks!); on the other hand; it was a sign of a kick-ass event, and who’d figure, we Canadians can seriously network after all!  Chris’s talk was a testament to all that we have going for us in Canada’s start-up landscape and it even struck a personal chord as he acknowledged Kobo’s $315 m. exit, a company superbly run by my friend Michael Serbinis, whom I first met right after I returned to Toronto from the Valley.

The networking was what really took this event to another level. The perfect mix of smart founders and investors really fed the network effects. I can’t recall in recent times attending a third party event and introducing so many of my clients to each other and investors, and the feedback from all was very positive, both in terms of substantive programming and the reception. It takes a certain caliber of event to bring top-tier VCs and start-ups together and AccelerateTO just nailed it.

I have to give it to Chris Albinson (Panorama Capital) and Anthony Lee (Altos Ventures) for their vision. The C100 has come a long way in a short period of time. While not everyone can make it to 48 hours in the Valley (kudos to Ken Seto and Massive Damage team) or raise cross-border money or get acquired by Google, what the C100 has done for everyone in Canada is to inject a healthy dose of “thinking big” into our start-ups and founders. AccelerateTO took me back to the high I’d feel hanging out with founders and VC’s in the Valley. We always had the tools and knowledge but now we can start to boast the same “culture” of innovation and big thinking as the Valley.

The downside? A dozen of us, including my buddies Sunil Sharma (CVCA/DFAIT) and Peter Evans (Founder/CEO of SpeakerFile) were kicked out (literally) by ROM security at 10 PM. And worse yet? I had to say no to after-party drinks at Hemingway’s on Yorkville... con call in the AM... yup, life of a lawyer!