It’s only $2M, so why get worked up?
I’m referring to the decision by FedDev Ontario to give $2M of your tax dollars to some associations of angel investors. Four groups are getting $50,000 each to develop websites and promote their organizations in order to expand their memberships and attract additional investors. A national organization (NACO) and its Ontario affiliate (NAO-Ontario) scored more than $1.8M.
While the press release claims that this money will “attract greater angel investment” and uses language like “increasing the investment pool”, call me cynical.
If the investors who are members of these associations actually believed that the money would have a benefit, why aren’t they ponying up the risk funding themselves?
Would any of these investors put money into a company that didn’t have its own website? Are their investments going to be looking for the government to fund their promotion?
Why is the government picking these associations to support over any other associations or groups of angel investors?
Sure, it is only $2M, but as I wrote a couple weeks ago, (and echoed this weekend by Michael Geist) this seems to be yet another play being run without an overall Digital Strategy.