How to Raise Money in Canada as an Immigrant Entrepreneur
Newcomers often arrive in Canada expecting the funding playbook that works in Silicon Valley: a sharp pitch deck, a cold email, a fast yes. On the show, Intrinsic Innovations and Intrinsic Venture Capital co-founder Andrew Sanden explained why that approach falls flat here, and what Canadian investors actually want to see first.
Why Canadian Investors Don't Work Like American Ones
Andrew has spent his career on the other side of the table, evaluating founders instead of pitching them. He started at Innovate Calgary, now Platform Calgary, working on Canada's Startup Visa Program, before co-founding Intrinsic. His caveat up front: every investor is different, and culture shapes how they respond to you.
American investors, he said, sometimes welcome a cold reach out, a phone call, or even a lukewarm introduction. Canadian investors are not built that way. "It's going to take a relationship to be built first before you try to do your pitch on me," he said. He compared it to door-to-door sales: it rarely works in Canada, and it takes months of relationship development before you land a sale, let alone an investment. His advice is to spend a year or two building your product and hitting your milestones, and let an investor watch that journey before you ever ask for a cheque.
Show Up in the Community Before You Ask for Money
Andrew's blunt advice for newcomers hoping to raise money: show your commitment to Canada first. He wants to see a founder present in the community, someone he can run into and get updates from, not someone who takes an investment and disappears.
He also flagged something newcomers often miss about Canadian communication style. Canadians tend to avoid a direct no. "We secretly say no, but we'll always, if we don't want to invest, we're not going to tell you that," he said. That politeness can read as interest when it isn't. His fix is to ask blunt questions. Find out directly whether an investor wants to fund you now, wants an update in six months, or isn't interested at all, rather than guessing from how warmly they respond.
The Habits That Kill Investor Trust
Two things turn Andrew off fast: overconfidence and name dropping. Founders who exaggerate future revenue or lean on names he can't verify come across as arrogant, and it erodes trust immediately. He noted that name dropping can work differently in other cultures, where it signals status. In a Canadian context, he said, it does the opposite: it reduces your credibility.
What works instead is honesty and curiosity. Andrew described entrepreneurs who kept coming back not to ask for money but to ask for advice, share updates, or point out something relevant to his past investments. Over months, sometimes eighteen months, that pattern built enough trust that he invested in sectors he had no prior experience in, simply because he had come to trust the person.
A Track Record from Home Doesn't Automatically Transfer
One of the hardest questions Andrew gets is from second time founders, entrepreneurs who already built and sold a company in their home country and assume that record will open doors in Canada. He was candid that it usually doesn't. "How does an investor in Canada actually see you've done this, you've sold a $10 million company?" he said. Without an established relationship, there is no easy way for a Canadian investor to verify that history, unless it's a brand name company everyone already recognizes.
His workaround is warm introductions through people who are already trusted on both sides. He used the example of an entrepreneur from Germany asking the Canadian trade commissioner there for a connection to someone with ties to Canadian investors. That expat becomes a bridge, trusted in Canada and connected back home, and turns a cold approach into a warm one.
Grants Take Longer Than You'd Expect, and Patience Is the Real Strategy
Government money is another area where expectations run ahead of reality. Canada has real support available, including SR&ED tax credits and non-dilutive grants, but Andrew said founders should treat a grant officer exactly like an equity investor and build the relationship first. For an established founder, that process can take six to eighteen months. For newcomers on a work permit or permanent residency, he said it can take two to three years, partly because of a lingering perception in government that newcomer led ventures carry more risk.
Andrew's other piece of advice was about where to start building community. He encouraged newcomers to connect with their own ethnic community organizations first, since those relationships form quickly around shared background. But he warned against stopping there. Staying inside one ethnic network for customer discovery, he said, is "the same as selling it to your family or your grandma," and it will only validate a small slice of the market. His closing advice for anyone moving a startup to Canada was simple: be patient, be resilient, expect to feel lonely at first, and keep showing up. In his experience, Canadians respond well to people who clearly want to contribute and build.
Key takeaways
- Canadian investors are relationship based, not pitch based. Expect to spend months, sometimes a year or two, proving your commitment before you ask for money.
- Canadians rarely give a direct no. Ask blunt, specific questions about an investor's interest rather than reading into a warm but noncommittal response.
- Overconfidence and name dropping reduce your credibility with Canadian investors. Honesty and curiosity build trust faster.
- A track record from building and selling a business abroad won't automatically transfer here. Look for warm introductions, such as through a trade commissioner in your home country, instead of trying to sell that record cold.