Tim Mayeur
VP, Biz Dev Oxygen Plus
What is the most important asset for investing? – Tim Mayeur – Venture Capitalist
“At the end of the day, they might have a great idea but if they just they don’t put anything towards it, it’s not going to go anywhere. So they have to have that drive. They have to realize that it’s about sacrifice early on. You’re gonna put in a lot of time to get things to hook and once you manage to get that perfect product market fit then things may be a little bit easier.”
ABOUT
Tim Mayeur was a leader in the launch of Walmart.ca Ecommerce and the online marketplace for Newegg.ca. He has spent the last 6 years helping B2B manufacturers build-out and grow B2C brands online; these include Refurb.io, Neatfreak.com and OxygenPlus.com. Tim has made over a dozen angel investments since 2017 and manages a private equity portfolio valued over a million dollars.
THE FULL INTERVIEW
Tim Mayeur
The full #OPNAskAnAngel talk
Welcome everybody to our Supporters Fund Ask an Angel. And today we’re very excited to have Tim Mayeur, an investor in early-stage companies join us. Very exciting I’ve known Tim for what feels like years but it’s probably only been maybe just over a year year and a half but it’s been fantastic working with you Tim and learning lots from you. So we’re gonna jump right into it and yeah we won’t slow down, let’s get right to it. So okay so first question we want to ask you is why do you invest in start-up companies?
Tim:
Great question to start with. So you know, why do I invest in start-up companies… I look at it more as I’m investing in people obviously I’m in it to make money at the end of the day right but I view it as a mix of backing good folks that I want to see succeed and you know hiring someone to do an important job and you know somewhere in-between .
Jeffery:
Oh that’s great and it makes complete sense that at the end you’re investing in people, right. And people growth and the best way to get behind those people is to be able to help fund them and move them forward in any direction that they’re gonna take that business. How did you get started in investing into startups?
Tim:
Right so how I got started in investing in startups was… I don’t know, it’s a bit of a fluke I’ve done a whole bunch of other types of investments like domain name investing but how I got hooked into it was a simple Facebook post from an ex-colleague that they shared with me in like 2017 about a friend of theirs that was doing an equity crowdfunding campaign in the US. And so you know I dove into it, I put a little bit of money and then I’m like what is this all about? And I started to do more research and that led to a progression. I started reaching out to people on LinkedIn that I’d been connected with for a few years that you know I considered to be a little bit of a Rainmaker, right, so you know they’re able to pull it off growth and they’re working on a new project. I would acquire in it, you know the chat would turn into, you know, they happen to be doing a fundraise and so I’ll jump on board then then what happened is, I’d later on another tactic [sic] and looking for startups because you know one of the equity crowdfunding companies ended up going through alchemists accelerator program out of California. Then I started to, well, I watched their demo day and then I looked at the other startups that were going through and I ended up investing in another company that went through that demo day. So then I started to just make it a habit of the top accelerator programs attending their demo days and starting conversations and some of them have led to investments and others are just you know good contacts. And then on top of that layered on frequenting events like OPNs and the supporters fund Picthit events and you know that’s kind of rounded me out and I think all those avenues kind of stuck but it was originally just a Facebook share that someone did supporting a startup that they believed in.
Jeffery:
That’s amazing. So when you think about it does your background being in business development, corporate development, and being able to work with a lot of different groups you think that really helped carry you through this because you have an inquisitive mind so you were like, “hey man this seems cool I should dive into this”. But maybe if you were in a different profession you may not have had that same experience or desire to grow into that space?
Tim:
Yeah I think so. I think it’s a combination of things. My background has always been more analytical. I actually started off as a corporate investigator before I got into doing e-commerce. And so you know digging in, doing research into companies even like trying to be a good judge of character as best I can on, you know, who would be most successful. I’ll kind of play a part right, so you got, as an investor, you have to use the tools at your disposal, right, your own skillset and and bring it forward. And where you have gaps, look at ways that you can enhance that whether that’s looking for companies that have been pre-vetted by people that bring a different perspective right.
Jeffery:
No that’s a great point. And having a different perspective and investing is a great way to keep the ball moving forward especially when there’s a lot of companies out there. if you’re not getting feedback all around, you’re gonna find yourself kind of falling behind and not really understanding the direction of a company or why they’re going the direction that they should be as you can add in a lot of insight there so that’s fantastic. So what is your favorite part of investing? It’s such a broad category so…
Tim:
Yeah there’s a lot. There’s a lot there. I would say my favorite part of investing is seeing how the leaders grow their companies over the years. You know hitting a lot of amazing milestones, but also seeing how they grow themselves right by making those tough decisions that they need to make. And you know it could be we’re seeing a lot of startups make pivot because of what’s going on with with COVID 19 and the impact so you know whether making that decision to shift gears and make that pivot or you know sometimes a founder has to make a tough decision and part ways with a co-founder early on and so you know, it’s a lot of those types of moments that shape who they are in their company and then it’s exciting to watch be part of that journey.
Jeffery:
For sure. So it’s it’s kind of like a live sporting event, you get to see all the action going on and decide how long you’re gonna stay and watch and we’re gonna jump in and help out. So I think that’s that’s a great piece to what makes you an investor. How many companies do look to invest in per year?
Tim:
Right so you know since 2017 I’ve done about three to four investments per year. I usually do it around the q-1 q-2 timeframe. Also mentioned in like cheque sizes, I generally do about 10, 25, or 50 K, depending on the situation.
Jeffery:
Okay. That’s great insights and people want to know that right when they’re looking at reaching out to you they want to know that because you’re keeping yourself in this precise format that they have a good chance of getting one-on-one support and growth with you and I can tell you that from the companies that you have invested in, they’re awesome so you’re doing a great job on that side. Any verticals that you like to focus on inside of this package that you’re putting together?
Tim:
Yeah so in terms of verticals I like to focus on. You know from 2017-2018 I was primarily focused on investing in the future of work and so that was remote work tools, HR tech, even some gig economy. You know as a self-employed remote worker, it just made logical sense for me to use that as a starting point. You know, invest in what you know. And timing worked out because some of my bigger investments greatly accelerated because of COVID19. Mandating that people work remote obviously has really helped out a lot of those startups. And then in 2019, 2020, I started to diversify into other areas so I no longer consider myself just focused on in one particular vertical. It’s my job to always be learning right, to rese