Sure. I apologize. When you were asking me the question I was buying my friend here a drink, because I too was enthralled by the story and like the technology. Maybe he needs some investment. Afterwards I'll talk about the criteria and he can decide whether he's interested.
On the sweet spot in our fund, you can't generalize, because various funds pick different aspects of the spectrum. But we're what we call an early-stage investor. We look for companies that have at least demonstrated commercial acceptance of their product or service. That's why this program is so important. As my friend said, that first sale is critical to demonstrating that there has been commercial acceptance.
Quite often the companies we invest in have no revenue but are on the verge of revenue. We prefer to see revenue, but don't see it in every case. We examine the management team. We look for at least some semblance of a competent, domain-experienced management team that has some skin in the game, so to speak, recognizing that we're going to provide most of the funding, at least initially.
We look for companies that make innovative use of technology where there isn't a lot of competition out there. They're not in a competitive commodity business, but something that gives them an advantage, at least for a short term. We all know that with anything that's successful, the window of opportunity doesn't remain open for a long time.
Most of these companies would focus on large geographic markets, and in some instances the world, but they certainly wouldn't be confined to a small geographic market. For the most part they would be exporters, which is also important and a benefit to Canada to have those dollars coming back to the country.
On the size of deals, we look at anything in the first round from $500,000 to $1 million, recognizing that we'll probably have to do subsequent follow-on rounds. We ask for a board seat. We're minority shareholders. We don't manage the companies, but we hopefully help add value and help the companies as they go through their growth phases.
So have I sold you?