Cofoundr’s high-level approach to investment prioritizes portfolio risk management while maximizing opportunities for growth through scaling.

We do this by working with strong business founders and investing across traditional sectors in Manitoba.

Our Investment Approach

We find that successful founders usually share key qualities including:

Knowledge of their target business sector, and often significant experience;

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Good interpersonal skills;

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Clear thinking; and,

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Tenacity and passion.

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Most founders don’t start with all the knowledge needed to build a successful business.

They often need extra support to move beyond the startup stage and turn their idea into a profitable reality.

No matter their skills, founders need to find a strong market opportunity in a domain they understand and feel confident in.

This opportunity should:

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Clearly address an unmet market demand;

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Have moderate barriers to entry to secure the market niche from early competition;

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Be scalable, with $1M+ revenue potential within 12-18 months;

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Likely to be profitable at an early stage; and,

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Ideally exist in the business-to-business (B2B) sector.

To manage portfolio risk, we generally focus on business-to-business (B2B) investments.

We prioritize B2B over retail, restaurant, or business-to-consumer (B2C) ventures.

We also avoid tech-focused startups, as this space is better-served in most Canadian markets and often requires specialized investment and valuation strategies.

Specifically, our priorities for investment are to:

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Make multiple medium-risk investments;

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Prioritize business-to-business opportunities;

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Invest in exceptional founders;

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Invest across sectors;

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Focus on brick-and-mortar businesses;

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Maximize medium- and long-term gains for all partners;

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Ensure that what we bring to the table is complementary to the expertise and resources of the existing founder(s).

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At Cofoundr, we believe it's crucial that the right elements for success are in place from the start for any business to grow.

We want to clarify that Cofoundr never takes a majority ownership in any of our investments. Each founder must have the freedom to run their business their way and focus on what they do best, whether that's account development, industry analysis, tax optimization, manufacturing, or managing human resources.

By sharing risk and responsibility, founders give their businesses the best chance to succeed.

Innovate with Cofoundr

Let’s innovate together.