Any interest in a regular virtual coffee chat for us Canadian Searchers?
October 10, 2023
by a searcher from University of Toronto - Joseph L. Rotman School of Management in Toronto, ON, Canada
I'd be happy to join a regular (weekly or bi-weekly) chat to share insights, tools, navigating our Canadian SMB debt world (SBA dreams anyone?), etc.
Reply here if you would be interested. Only need a handful to get us started.
from University of Toronto in Toronto, ON, Canada
Meeting Frequency: Monthly to start
Schedule: 1st Thursday of the month at 7pm (EST) for 1 hour
Standard Agenda:
1) Attendee search update – 5 min. update by 3 presenters – Total 15 mins.
2) Case Study by Searcher or Topic Presentation by Professionals (eg. Legal, Lender, etc.) – 30 mins
3) Open Q&A – 15 mins
Rotating Meeting Chairs (thanks to all who volunteered. This is the foundation to make meetups work)
1) Shawn Smith
2) Kevin Laleyan
3) Alex Benjamignan
4) Chiranjivee Thakur
5) Elad Barak
6) Zafar Khawaja
7) Richard Auger
8) Ankit Kamboj
9) Tony Cancelliere
1st Meeting: Thursday, November 2 @ 7pm (EST) – I will invite all people who participated in the survey as well as post the meeting link below and on the calendar of events on searchfunder
Virtual Meeting Platform: Microsoft Teams - https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YWZjZjk5ZDMtZTU0ZS00YTUzLWJiNTgtNDBjNjA2ZmMxNjA1%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%224e703c53-5b64-480a-8815-3e79b161e101%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%222ec0ecff-9045-4f3d-877d-d067cd1020da%22%7d
Future Ideas to consider for the meeting (I tried to merge similar ideas)
1) Bi-weekly meetings requested by a few people. (We will start with monthly and go from there)
2) It would be good to have zoom breakout rooms, say 2 to 3 people, so we can get to know more people and have some quick intros.
3) A fixed calendar of topics could help structure it. There could also be a minor(short) segment allocated at each meeting for common/recurring topics of interest
4) It would be cool to hear from people who have successfully already acquired to hear their insights
5) Having a quarterly in-person meeting would be great as well, with the idea of extending the session to 2-3 hours so people can network following the standard agenda
6) Creating a canada specific resource collection
7) Since we might all be in different phases of our search or even different SDE/EBITDA levels, maybe we can have choices of topics selected before calls? For example, I am searching more for mains street businesses, with an EBITDA below $1M, someone looking for M&A over $5M might want to learn from others searching for similar numbers.
8) Consider smaller events as well to support more genuine relationship development
9) Think that these could evolve into in-person meetups. Id rather it not become pitch opportunities for industry folks
10) Touring businesses of searchers who have closed and are now operating
11) Maybe have a large group meeting less frequently, but have a "forum" of 4-6 people each that meets monthly. This smaller group encourages attendance, participation and sharing. Searchers in competing fields should not be in the same forum (which may be hard to do).
12) depending on the sz of the group, 2 approaches. provide valuable content, keep each other accountable (smaller group)
13) confidentiality undertaking requiring all participants keep all info confidential and undertaking not to interfere with other members potential deals, this will facilitate open and candid conversations
14) Slack or other forum to facilitate followups
15) 1 or a small group organize. discuss 1 key topic each meeting
16) If we have a lot of interest, consider multiple groups. Also consider commitment if groups are smaller.
from University of Engineering and Technology Lahore in Toronto, ON, Canada