I was at breakfast with a friend, who like me, has had a long career in high tech as a senior executive and is now leading his first start-up. He asked "How my business was doing?"

I said, "The demands of my clients are shifting. More and more they are asking me to help them by using my network to recommend someone to fill an employee or leadership position in their company.  Or they are asking me to use my network to get them in front of a senior executive at a potential partner company or at a prospective client. Or they are asking me to introduce them to someone senior that I know in the investment or technology community."

I told him that over the past three years I have personally recommended over a half dozen senior leaders into my clients and recently one CEO said that the person I had referred, which was a critical hire for them, was one of the best hires that he had ever made.

I also shared with him the number of sales leads to senior executives of prospective companies that my clients were receiving just from my talking about them to people in my network.

Finally I told him that more and more, I was finding the value I provided to my clients was being driven by the small things I did, like connecting people, pointing out a way to improve their strategy, suggesting a new approach to solving a problem or providing an idea that changed their direction.

He replied that I was providing Business Acceleration Services 

Business Acceleration Services is a retainer based advisory service. For a monthly fee, I work with my clients on an on-going basis to deliver value across a broad set of specific objectives.

Imagine if you had a trusted advisor who understands your company, its opportunities, challenges, and your team's capabilities. Imagine that you could meet regularly with this advisor to discuss current issues,  pick up the phone to get a second opinion about a decision you are making, access their global rolodex of connections for introductions,  and tap into their 30 years experience as a technology and software executive.

In simple terms, if you are a Business Acceleration Services client, I wake up every morning worrying about your business and looking for ways to add value to it today.

Howard Gwin is  Managing Director for Omers Ventures. Below is an excerpt from his Blog written for DigitalPuck.ca on the current state of Start-ups and VC's in Canada.

"I have been in and around the Silicon Valley for 18 years and there is definitely a much stronger "go big or go home" mindset in Silicon Valley with the funding of companies.  This often results in excess spending on sales and marketing before the product or value prop sings, but it also fosters bigger outcomes for the winners - and a much deeper ecosystem.

In Canada we have systemic issues in the technology landscape.  The total amount of capital to deploy in Canada isn't the issue. The issue, in my mind, is that too little capital has been deployed in too many companies.  Our "peanut butter spread" mindset has garnered several good outcomes, but not many great ones. OK- lots of headwind- so what do we do about it? Toss in the cards? No way.  Instead of worshipping Silicon Valley, we learn from the success model and create our own. Where do we start?

I am a "double down" kind of person.  Anybody who has worked with me has heard me yap about 80/20/80.  I think we need an 80/20/80 attitude in the Canadian tech marketplace.  We need to focus 80% of our energy on the 20% of companies that have an 80% chance of succeeding.  Set much higher bars across all of our ecosystem from mentors, to angels, to incubators, to VCs, to board members, to anyone providing advice to our community.  Mentors must bring value or stay out of the game.  If founders are not coachable, move on to the next opportunity.  If VCs do not bring value beyond money, do not engage with them.  If incubators are coaching, set much higher bars for the outputs your companies produce or shut down."

This is a pretty tough view on what Canada and its tech community needs to do if it is going to compete. However, it is a viewpoint that I agree with 100%. We all know how tough it is to raise investment capital. The drain on CEO's time is enormous and distracts them from building and running their business. You need every advantage to optimize your time and execute along your path. Business Acceleration Services will help.