About This Site

My commentary will be very infrequent. Subscribe to the RSS or email feed for this blog if you wish to be automatically notified when new content has been posted.

My primary objectives:

Evangelizing the Entrepreneur

Shortly after the sale of a controlling interest in my startup InQuent Technologies, I spent a considerable amount of time speaking at universities and to business groups about my entrepreneurial adventures. I enjoyed sharing my experiences in these venues. It was mutually rewarding. I believe that entrepreneurship is in the public interest, and I seek to actively promote this belief in Canada and abroad.

With commitments to new ventures and family increasing in the past few years, I have had less time for public speaking. I view this blog as an ideal platform to spread my entrepreneurial gospel and engage a much larger audience than I could reach through speaking engagements.

Encouraging Venture Philanthropy

I believe it is incumbent upon all who achieve financial success to participate in some form of philanthropy. In particular, entrepreneurs who have realized a favorable liquidity event (or multiple events!) have no excuse for not participating in philanthropy, whether their involvement be active or passive.

I established my private charitable foundation nearly six years ago at the age of 24. My foundation has since distributed millions of dollars in traditional and venture-oriented grants to primarily Canadian charities. It has been a vehicle for participatory philanthropy that has provided my family and I enormous personal satisfaction.

It is one of my objectives to use this blog to discuss contemporary philanthropy and encourage/guilt/goad other successful entrepreneurs of all ages to support their communities through strategic charitable giving.

Comments

[Martin Gibb]

You spoke at the University of Manitoba b.com graduating class dinner a few years ago. Your story was impressive, I look forward to hearing more. I have also recently moved to Toronto so if you're looking for an analyst / MBA with tireless work dedication, I'm your man! E-mail me at gibbmartin@gmail.com.

[Rob]

Jesse,

How do you balance these two philanthropy approaches:

1) The Warren Buffett approach of philanthropy (a single mass donation towards the end of a lifetime) whereas an entrepreneur builds the largest possible amount of money, knowing that his investments will always grow more quickly and be better managed than that of a charity, making for a higher net investment?

2) An ongoing approach of philantrophy whereby each year the entrepreneur gives a percentage of income / gains made?

I personally believe in the former means. Building a large fortune through smart investment, and then making a large (and more meaningful) donation.

I do not believe in large inheritances for next generations -- I believe that when I have children I will provide them the means to succeed and become successful (knowledge, education, strong upbringing etc) but not the money to never work.

Would be interested in your thoughts.

[JR]

Good questions Rob - I plan on addressing these issues shortly in a post on philanthropy.

[Austin Hill]

Hi Jesse,

I couldn't agree with you more with respect to entrepreneurs giving back. We have many friends in common from the ISP business. It is great to see that we are both now focusing on venture philanthropy and angel investments in our new projects.

Canada could use more entrepreneurs like ourselves giving back and encouraging new models of philanthropy.

I would love to connect next time I'm in Toronto.

[Michael Nurse]

Hi Jesse,

Venture philanthropy or social entrepreneurship is a great topic for a blog. I'm an aspiring entrepreneur myself and when I have succesfully liquidated a position in my venture, I am planning to set aside a pool of capital to fund scholarships to undergraduate business programs targetting underprivileged high-schoolers. I plan to differentiate my foundation by including some seed financing with the scholarship that is invested upon graduation in a business that concept that was developed in the summer between 3rd and 4th year. Still needs some planning on my part to figure out a lot of the details... but then again, I've got some time to do just that since I have a long way to go before I have the cash to sink in to this (seeing as I haven't even raised financing myself yet let alone built a succesful company.)

Right now, I've got a great idea and a dream... It's just kind of funny that the dream isn't what I expected it would be (ie I expected to be dreaming about buying a private island, maybe a jet and certainly some kind of super-eccentric collection like; i don't know - maybe roofing shingles from famous architectural landmarks) instead I'm really excited about what I might be able to do for others one day. Who knew?

Any way, I just wanted to leave this quick note to say that I really admire your perspective on what's important and am very impressed with what you have been able to accomplish... Now fingers crossed that I can say the same about myself in a few years.

Cheers

[Jan Steen]

Hello Jesse Rasch:

I envy your rewarding philanthropic capacity, and that at such a ripe young age. Although financial success has so far eluded me, at 67, I continue my entrepreneurial upbeat attitude to life.

Ciao, and thanks.
Jan Steen

[Hany]

Hi Jesse,

I am very interested in your blog and equally impressed with your entrepreneurial and philantropic activities and would like to invite you into our list of entrepreneurs managed by famous hedge fund manager Victor Niederhoffer since I understand you are a capitalist at heart.

You can read more at dailyspeculations.com. It is just about sharing knowledge in a Franklinian way.

Regards,