Barn Ventures
Publications
What we’re paying attention to, written down.
Essays on what Canada produces, where its founders go, and how to keep more of them building here. Not a blog — a small set of arguments we think are worth making well.
The Conveyor: How US Capital Recruits Canadian Founders — and What It Produces
An update to “The Great Canadian Founder Drain.” The US has built a program for every stage of a builder’s path, from high school to repeat founder — and the data shows where it lands them: 517 US companies, ~$414B raised, 56% in San Francisco.
Read →The Founder Friction Ladder
The full version of the conveyor’s five rungs — every California program that recruits founders, mapped from high school to repeat founder, with what each offers and the exact friction it removes. A reference map of the machine.
Read →Built to Support, Not to Capture
Canada runs more founder programs than a single US state and captures almost none of the upside — only 4 of ~100 take equity, and just 2 are built so the people who do the work share in the outcome. Why the support is built to support, and what’s starting to change from the bottom up.
Read →The Canadian Friction Ladder
The data behind Built to Support: about 100 Canadian founder-support programs placed on the same five rungs as the California ladder, tagged by whether each captures value. A reference map of who keeps what.
Read →Building something early, or want to talk? We’re easy to reach.