Our first guest of 2025 kindly agreed to join us for a second appearance. Jonathan Norris needs no introduction, but we thought it timely to have him back to discuss his 2024 HSBC Healthcare Report and unpack the year that was and the one that might be. Anish and I got insights on the growth of mega rounds, maturity of platform plays, health sectors ex-therapeutics, and reflecting on 2024/2025 (predictions vs realities). Hope you enjoy and if you have any thoughts on potential guests, hit us up! 

Happy 2025 everyone! Hope the first week of the new year has been kind to everyone. To bookend the 2024 season, Anish and I recorded one last show. We spent time discussing Anish’s president-elect prediction, the role of VC and politics, and RBCx’s review of Canadian venture. Look forward to a productive show in 2025. Thanks everyone for listening!

RBCx Canadian Venture Overview

HSBC Healthcare Report

Just before we ring in the New Year over the next 24-48 hours Anish and I decided to drop one final episode to close out the 2024 calendar year. What better way to do that than with an “OG” of Canadian VC, @Cedric Bisson (did I say that right kids?:-)) We touch on several topics on the show including factors driving VC in the future, macro challenges affecting venture capital including the impact of incoming US president-elect Trump, cross-currents relevant to VCs, and sage advice for founders. While we hope you listen to the show please make sure you do so after spending quality time with family, friends, and loved ones during this holiday season. All the best everyone for 2025 and thanks for listening! See you all on the other side. December 30, 2024.

Yes, there’s an election today…but honestly would you rather listen to those talking heads or our guest, Brian Bloom? This episode is pretty focused on the Canadian VC market, but don’t despair, lots of good points to take home. Overall, Brian discusses Canada's move to the global stage for life sciences, the divergence of VC funding within the health domain, how investors are looking at markets, and the general return of capital from various sources. Anish does a great job on this pod and we welcome you all to have a listen.

Hey friends, trust me…you can never have too much macro!! Anish and I are up to it again riffing on where we are as of October 2024. We’re gearing up for some new guests on the pod, but as we do we thought we’d take a few minutes to see what each of us is thinking (or not 🙂). Macro metrics seem ‘sticky’ here with a large rate cut now leaving some questioning if that was too much, too fast? The $USD seems to be gaining strength, and as of this post we are less than 2 weeks away from the US elections. We bring it back to venture with some stats on mega funding rounds for 2024, which might surprise you…at least it did for @anish! Have a listen and as always ping us if you have thoughts on future guests!

Dropping another episode of MacroVC hosted by myself and Anish! This episode was recorded earlier in the year (April 2024) with Tony Barkett from RBCx. Tony brings a broader perspective from the venture ecosystem covering multiple domains. Topics include the effect of macro on company exits and portfolio throughput, doubling down on the ideas of ‘have and have nots’, use of venture debt, changing LP makeup, and trends in (Canadian) venture formation. We really enjoyed chatting with Tony and hope you all get something out of our conversation. Don’t forget to ping us with your thoughts and potential future guests.

Super jazzed that Anish and I got to hear from John Norris from HSBC. While we're in a bit of turbulence right now for the public markets, John pointed out how we (and biotech specifically) are witnessing a tale of 2 cities the 'have and have nots'. John talks about this divergence, insider rounds supporting ventures, a potential looming cliff for some, the tailwinds for biotech/biopharma ventures, and possible outcomes for how all this might play out. NB: This episode was originally recorded in March 2024.

Anish and Amol recap where we are and riff on ideas floating through our heads [lots of space to float in there :-)] We try to summarize some of our guest's thoughts and unpack some of our (loosely held) opinions. In this interlude we talk about the optimism in the venture ecosystem (relative to 2022 and 2023), gold (yes that dumb rock!), what happens to VC deployment strategy and future returns, and lots more. No investment ideas but a lot of random rambling to be enjoyed only over libations. :-))

The first guest on MacroVC is Marc-Olivier Sirard from FTQ. Anish and I were eager to see who the first ‘volunteer’ would be and we weren’t disappointed. Marc-Olivier unpacked several topics including drivers for asset allocation at FTQ, choosing fund managers, the effect of macro on investing cadence, and his perspective on venture over the next 3-5 years. And for those interested, here’s the link to the CVCA report that Marc-Olivier mentioned.