Contacted about his talk in Hamilton today, CBC Dragon Bruce Croxon was considering scrapping his scheduled speech in favour of taking on Canada’s big banks.
The Toronto-based Dragon, and Director of such HR service providers as Sprigg Talent Management Systems, had just got off the phone with someone from the talk’s sponsor, First Ontario Credit Union when he spoke with Meredith MacLeod at thespec.com
“One of my beefs is the lack of support from the big banks in Canada for small business. It’s a completely different feel at a credit union and there’s not a lot of penetration of credit unions in Ontario,” said the co-founder of matchmaker website Lavalife.
“I’m kind of fired up about it right now.”
He would like to see less regulation of the banking sector to allow for more competition, but acknowledges during the recession Canadian banks “looked like rock stars because we don’t take risk.”
Croxon suggests that the big mainstream banks don’t invest enough in small and growing businesses, even though it’s widely acknowledged that small and medium enterprises are the drivers of the nation’s economy.
“There seems to be this magic number. If you’re not making $3 million as a business for the last five years, you don’t have a chance to see a lender about an unsecured loan.”
Croxon has taken a step into the gap with his Round13, an investor in digital startups. He will write the $1-million to $5-million cheques to scale proven concepts. But he says much more is needed.
“We’re crying about RIM now and Nortel before that, but the reason we don’t have more success stories is that we don’t support them.”
Croxon, who joined the Dragons’ Den panel in 2011 for its sixth season, may take on the big banks when he comes to Mohawk College Wednesday, but he’ll also talk about the lessons he learned building a startup that sold in 2004 for $180 million.
The key to being a “15-year overnight success story” is creating a vision based on core values.
“It’s very effective when you adhere to them and cause you endless trouble when you don’t,” says the Toronto resident.
He and three partners had little business experience when they started a telephone dating service called Telepersonals in 1988. Thanks to the Internet, a shift in thinking about how to meet Mr./Mrs. Right and heavy marketing, Lavalife grew to $100 million in yearly sales.
Croxon says they put a strategic and operational emphasis on hiring open-minded, team-oriented staff. “We weren’t just hoping and praying for it. We made it happen.”
