Many Canadian founders picture venture funding as a long, slow grind of pitches and paperwork. In practice, a promising round can move from a first conversation to a term sheet within weeks, and the investors leading it are often travelling quickly to keep up the pace.
Why Investors Still Want to Meet the Team in Person
Video calls handle a lot of the early screening now. The final decision, though, still rests heavily on people. In a study of 885 venture capitalists published in the Journal of Financial Economics, investors rated the management team as more important than the product or technology, and credited the team with more of a company’s eventual success or failure than the business itself.
That’s why a partner may ask to visit a startup’s office at short notice, sometimes after only one or two calls. When the company is several provinces away and other firms are showing interest, some investment teams choose to charter private plane flights so they can spend a full working day with the founders and be back for the next partners’ meeting. For many investors, that visit is what turns interest into a signed term sheet.
Speed and Distance Pull in Opposite Directions
A study from the Wharton School and the University of Hong Kong shows how narrow that window can be. Using anonymized smartphone location data from around 21,000 US venture deals, the researchers measured how many hours investors spent in person with startup teams before investing. Deals that were in-demand generally led to less time spent in-person. Doubling the number of rival VCs meeting a startup was linked to a 13 per cent drop in diligence hours, because waiting raises the risk of losing the deal to a faster investor.
Distance had an even stronger effect. Doubling the distance between an investor’s office and the startup was associated with roughly 35 per cent fewer hours of in-person diligence. The study also linked lighter diligence to more uneven investment outcomes, which suggests that time with founders improves decisions rather than just slowing them down.
For investors, it often makes more sense to cut the travel time instead of the meeting. A same-day trip lets a partner see the product working and watch how the founders operate together, without falling behind on the round.
Canada’s Startup Map Is Getting Wider
In Canada, this is becoming a bigger issue as more deals are happening outside the established hubs. The Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association’s Q1 2026 market overview recorded C$936.3 million invested across 104 venture deals, with pre-seed and seed rounds taking 19.8 per cent of capital, more than double the five-year first-quarter average of about 9 per cent. Ontario led on deal count, while British Columbia attracted the most capital.
Earlier rounds put even more weight on the founding team, since there is often little revenue or customer history to analyze. The association’s director of data and product has also pointed to more deals in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick, describing it as a sign of a maturing Canadian market. Many of those companies sit a long way from Canada’s largest venture centres in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
That’s where regional airports can help. The Region of Waterloo International Airport, which serves one of the country’s best-known tech corridors, has a fixed-base operation with a lounge for private jet passengers, so investors visiting Kitchener-Waterloo startups can land within the region itself.
How Founders Can Prepare for a Short-Notice Visit
A fast-moving investor may want to arrive with little warning, and that visit can make a huge impact on the future of their business.
For founders, a little preparation goes a long way. Keep a current data room ready before the round opens, with up-to-date financials, the cap table and key contracts. Line up a few customers who are happy to take a reference call, since investors who travel to meet a team usually want to test what they have heard on the same trip.
Plan what the visitor will actually see. A live product demonstration and time with the technical lead tell an investor far more than a repeat of the pitch deck. Agree on a realistic meeting window and decide in advance who from the team needs to be in the room.
Be honest about weaknesses, too. An investor who makes the trip is trying to reduce uncertainty. Being candid about the risks usually builds more confidence than a polished presentation that avoids them.
Face Time Still Decides the Fastest Deals
Venture capital in Canada moves quickly because good opportunities rarely wait, yet the final call still comes down to how investors read the people building the company. Founders who understand that balance, and who are ready to host a meaningful visit at short notice, are far more likely to see early interest turn into an investment.
