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From Arriving in Canada at 18 With No Network to Running a $100M Pre-Seed Fund | Make it Click
Guests
Prashant Matta
Prashant Matta is a Managing Partner at Panache Ventures, an early-stage VC fund that backs founders across Canada and the US. He also sits on the board of the Canadian Venture Capital Association and chairs its government relations committee. He was previously an investor at OMERS Ventures and, before that, a product strategist at Samsung.
Description
Prashant came to Canada at 18 with no network and no money.
Today he runs Panache Ventures, Canada's only nationwide pre-seed fund. It has backed 100+ startups, including Tailscale, Clutch and Certn, and is usually the first money in.On this episode of Make It Click, Wilson Cross asks him what it takes to get funded at the idea stage. Prashant explains why he skips board seats, why making lots of bets is "a matter of math, not preference," and why he thinks Canada's VCs and the people who fund them keep each other stuck in a cycle of playing it safe.
They also cover:
- Where Panache invests in AI, where it stays away, and why most AI copilots are hard to defend
- Why more than half of new Canadian startups are now AI-native
- When a Canada-only business can grow big enough to matter
- How a fund gets its investors returns when the IPO market is frozen
If you're a first-time founder, an aspiring VC, or still deciding which one you want to be, this one is for you.
