Alec Saunders SquawkBox

If so, you'll want to attend this session being run by my friends Suzi Dingwall-Williams and Naomi Morisawa de Koeven.  By giving entrepreneurs the information they need up front, Suzi and company hope it will cost them less to do the legals in later rounds. 

Venture Law Line presents Friends, Family and Angels: How to Prepare and Close the Deal (and keep them happy)

A soup-to-nuts review of running a friends, family and angel financing

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

7:30 – 9:30 am.

First Canadian Place – Event Gallery

Main Floor, Yonge and Bay Street

Toronto

Course Overview:

In this 90 minute breakfast session, the team from Venture Law Line will take you through how to structure, paper and complete an investment from your friends, family and angels. We'll teach you the principles for valuing an investment and how to structure, paper and close the deal. The course will also cover special issues (receiving investments from US relatives, deal "sweeteners", RRSP eligibility). We’ll also talk you through the first 90 days after the deal is closed – how to avoid common problems in managing your investors and employees and protecting your assets. Some angels and founders will be on hand to add their views, too.

You'll leave with a CD of handy reference materials and model documents.

To register, email www.venturelawassociates.com to request a registration form.

Seaboard Group popped a piece titled Lament for a Wireless Nation into my mailbox just as I was leaving on vacation. It's a 39 page indictment of Canadian cellular pricing models which leads off with the observation that Canada has the same market penetration for cellular that Botswana and Gabon do.  We lag the developed world dramatically.

Seaboard argues that the Canadian market has done well during periods of competition, noting the high growth that occurred while Clearnet and Microcell were still independent.  However, since their acquisition by Telus and Rogers, respectively, growth has once again stagnated.

Here in Mexico, I dropped into the local Telcel dealer earlier this week and bought a prepaid SIM for M$200, and a M$500 top up.  That puts my rate at M$2.2/minute for local calls and M$5.5 for long distance — roughly 24 cents Canadian and 60 cents for long distance.  Not cheap, but cheaper than Rogers rates in Canada.  Moreover, there is already a debate here about whether Mexican magnate Carlos Slim has too much power in the wireless industry.

And everywhere I look, Mexicans are carrying cellphones.  That's a huge difference from the last time we were here two years ago.

Seaboard's onto something.  Besides, what's not to like about the prospect of lower cellular bills?

One of our favorite day trips in the Yucatan is from Cancun down to Xcaret, an eco-park just south of Playa Del Carman — a 45 minute trip.  Monday we rented a mini-bus and driver for the thirteen of us, and headed there for the day.

Xcaret sits on a rocky bay with beautiful sandy inlets for snorkelling and swimming.  The park also sports a small zoo, with native species like tapir and coatimundi, as well as animals like deer.  The big attraction, however, is the underground river.  Geologically, the Yucatan peninsula is a massive spit of porous limestone.  It has no surface water, except where water from the underground aquifer bubbles to the surface in limestone wells called cenotes.  At Xcaret, snorkellers enter one of these underground rivers at one cenote in the park, and then swim the river until it surfaces at an exit near the ocean about 45 minutes later.  At various places throughout the swim, surface light enters through overhead light wells, which allows views of the river bottom, and surrounding rocks.  The water is clear (cenotes frequently boast visibility in the hundreds of feet), and cool, and the swim is hugely enjoyable.  At the exit, the brackish pools support a thriving and colorful fish population.

The other great attraction of Xcaret is the two hour long night show.  When we we first saw the show 8 years ago, it was a reenactment of the Mayan ball game, followed by a trek over to a natural amphitheatre where troupes of Mexican dancers performed traditional dances from different Mexican states.  It's evolved to a Las Vegas style extravaganza.  Now staged in a massive new theater, evocative of a Mayan ball court, it begins with the ball game, the Oaxacan flaming hockey game (played with a ball soaked in kerosene, it makes the NHL look just a little ordinary), and a short set-piece on the history of the Maya and the conquistadors.   Following an intermission, there are traditional Mexican dances, horse tricks, singers and more.

The night show really is the best part about Xcaret.  It would be hard to justify the steep entrance fee to the park solely based on the other attractions, but you would easily pay that fee for the show alone in any other city.

Here are some photos