Ensuring the Lawfulness of Digital Signatures for Your Startup Business Plan in Canada

How to eSign a document: digital signature lawfulness for Startup Business Plan in Canada

[Music] thank you [Music] hello and welcome to all future Canadians this is rahmad sabirov managing lawyer of sober of Law Firm today we will be talking about startups how to get your startup ready for the Canadian startup Visa program it's a it's a great topic that I will try to cover as much as I can but I will not delve into the startup Visa program requirements very much I will delve into the topic before the application what do you what needs to be done to to get ready for startup visa application it's not just coming up with a brilliant idea you will I will I will describe what I mean now but this is a great topic that many many of our listeners are curious about how to get your startup ready for the Canadian startup Visa program and of course as usual I will I will get to your questions because I enjoy getting real life questions from you during this live show for those who are joining me for the first time every Wednesday 10 30 a.m Toronto time I go live I connect with my audience try to answer their questions get their concerns and feedback perhaps and improve our shows as we go further if you haven't subscribed to our Channel please do so to stay updated and follow us in different social media platforms okay now uh usually how it works is that I do a quick presentation for maximum 20 minutes and then I'll get to your questions okay so whatever you hear in these live sessions are just my personal views and personal ideas if you need legal advice you need to contact a business immigration lawyer who's experienced in these immigration programs okay um this is the announcement of our topic so get your questions ready and we will get to them after this short presentation okay have you ever thought what you need to be you need to be doing to prepare your startup for the startup Visa program I'm sure that you are aware of startup Visa program in Canada it's usually referred to as SUV program and usually it's advertised as something very easy you will get your PR at the end of the day there's no investment from you and all these Rosy and Flowery ideas that are being presented in the market in this live show you will only get hard facts the real truth total transparency and we will try to address the challenges of this program too okay so let's start one question let's start with this question is having a great idea enough for the startup Visa program let me know your thoughts is it enough to have a great the best idea in the world to my mind based on my experience it's not enough ideas are worthless and unattractive without solid research Market traction and prototype of some sort okay a demonstration of your idea the materialization of your idea is more important than the idea itself you and I have thousands of great ideas per day are they are they worthy of something are they worthy of investment I don't think so so when you make your idea ready and in some shape or form you materialize your idea then it becomes attractive and then you you may approach the designated organizations under the startup Visa program your chances of getting the attention of designated organizations will increase only after your idea is realized at a certain level okay many many people come to me and say oh I have a greatest idea this will change Canada's life or you know the realities in North America and I said what is that idea this they right away they want me to sign an NDA non-disclosure agreement it's like okay I will sign any NDA I don't think this is quite enforceable but anyways and they try to protect the idea which they haven't even materialized they haven't even made any steps toward towards that idea or to bring it to life okay so they are interested the designated own organizations are interested in Real Deals so is the Canadian government okay just a blank idea on a piece of paper maybe the blank uh you know canvas the startup canvas is worthless to be honest you know you how what did you do to bring that idea to life what steps concrete steps did you do to bring that idea to life so that's what we are focusing on today okay ideas are worthless that's my statement unless they are backed up with real Traction in real life okay there are many brilliant brilliant ideas that never materialize so let's see in my view this is the evolution of a startup visa application before the application before the application itself there is a process there is a journey you need to go to one concept development your Innovative idea no matter how great it is needs to be fitted to the market realities in Canada or in North America depends which Market you're going to some people say I want to bring my startup for to Canadian public okay some of them they say My ultimate Target is North America as a whole so a sober look at your concept is very necessary you need to research it thoroughly and understand the realities that you will be dealing in Canada your idea may be flying on a very high altitude in Africa in India in Vietnam in any other places in Europe but Canada is different North America is different the realities in this market is different so thorough research sober look at your concept from the Canadian perspective from North American perspective second pitch preparation and traction you you need to prepare an undeniable pitch okay very attractive pitch and you have to prove that your concept Works in real life you need to have a market traction you need to have some sales maybe of your product or service with a promising concept see how the market reacts because you need to experiment okay I want to do this I've tried this in in Canada this is what I got if some feedback from the users or customers so talk to stakeholders who will be using your your potential products come up with beta version or whatever version Delta version whatever version just to refine it before you you even think of designated organizations okay before you even think of startup Visa okay test and tweak you need to test there will be mistakes tons of them tons of them mock pitches do do interview practice this is the what you need to do because you need you need to make the first impression very solid with the designated organizations you cannot go back and forth back and forth with them you need to do that experiment with that Brewing before you approach designated organization then of course pitching to designated organization is a third step with some backup research real life surveys research about your product and service and allies in Canada you probably during that research during that Journey you will be making allies you will be making friends who is who will say oh by the way this may fly in Vietnam but in Canada this is so and so and give you real life feedback you can apply after that you can apply for designated organizations now you know startup Visa program eligibility requirements inside out so I will not be touching that but I will be highlighting what possible services or activities you probably be doing before proposing before bringing your being being able to address the designated organizations under the startup Visa so for example you need to first be very trained for interviews by incubators you know incubators being the I would say the less burdensome designated organization among those Do's that are approved on the startup Visa as you know it's incubators Angel Investors VC VC cap VC firms and organizations so first you need to be trained on an interview how to interview with incubators okay now many people in the market they are advertising that oh for startup Visa you don't really need English no you need English you need a very solid English to be able to respond to the interview questions when Angela investor is asking for interview for example they want to know VC is asking for some questions you need to be able to respond in a very persuasive way okay interview support in real time sometimes you need some support often maybe of an expert for example you are the CEO of the startup but you are not a biological by you know biology major or you are not a biochem graduate but you bring an expert who is in biology chemistry or whatever and they you will be doing together so you you have a real-time support during the interview concept Improvement concept Improvement is a iterative process you know you it brings them you you fine-tune your concept and then you do it again you do it again so it it is done before going to designated organization business model development market research Market Market Research you shouldn't underestimate that customer preference consumer preferences in Canada in North America you need to understand that even before thinking about your your concept right competitive analysis is of course part of your business plan a marketing plan Staffing plan execution plan and so on and if your startup involves some kind of Ip related aspect so IP protection and application if applicable uh then incorporation that's a legal side so as you know startup Visa program is for only eligible businesses which means Incorporated businesses in in Canada and so on so you need to see that eligibility legal and tax analysis in in general because they will be asking that question they may be asking that questions during your pitching process right potential buyers and database if you have done some Market Traction in Canada with your startup idea before even going to start a Visa program if you did some Market activities you have some buyers who are interested in your product and your service that's great that's a big big plus what what that proves is your product is needed in the market and only then the designated organization will be interested will this the question is will this concept or product fly yes it flies look I have buyers in in your in your Market that's the answer you want to be giving 5 mining manufacturers suppliers and Developers for usually that's a more prototyping kind of startup you need to create a prototype of something to demonstrate a tangible thing if you're if you are doing some like not software of course but tangible item that that is readily produced by certain manufacturers you may come up with the greatest item in the world but you may not find any manufacturers for them right you need to approach them prototype and say yes this could be produced for this much money and this will be the margin of profit and so on and a professional association it's very important to hook up with professional associations in Canada and North America they may be some kind of your allies in your startup Visa applications uh maybe signing a letter of intent or a memorandum of understanding with the buyers or consumers in Canada getting Canadian contracts that's an ultimate goal you may say by the way my product my my startup product or service already has a contract a valid contract in Canada that's a great statement to make before the designated organizations of course I talked about prototyping website development goes without saying because you need your website up and running visual material creative stuff and presentation speech how you present you have a very small amount of money time and money to be honest to do all this and pitch to The to to the designated organizations you need to be really really prepared before even applying to designated organizations now the designated organization landscape overall looks like this in my mind incubators let's say I wouldn't say the lowest but the earliest right they hatch your idea if they like your idea they can take you to their incubation program it's a workable concept they believe yeah it could work yeah yeah that's a good idea they get it during the incubation you refine your concept but with the Canadian realities you add some spices and and make it more attractive access to resources through incubators is very key uh this is the what they offer at the end of the day is incubate and hatch your product then come Angels Angel Investors were they are putting down early money let's say early money to grow your concept refine it further initial funding for your activities and so on they now compared to incubators they're getting greater risk because they're putting some of the money real money into your idea it could it's still an empty idea but they are trusting that it will fly they're putting the money so they're getting uh they're getting more risk on their shoulders initial traction could be done with angels money right because you you can say yeah I brought my concept to this stage but from this stage to the next stage I need x amount of money in in case of Angel Investors it's minimum of 75 000 should be secured from Angels then comes the advanced level the big guys the big pockets and so on VCS they say okay now you came from hatching your idea is in a chicken stage let's say like chick stage little chick will fly now okay let me put some more money Let it Fly okay larger investment scaling up the concept now they truly believe in your idea and of course they do thorough due diligence inside out so you need to be ready for that due diligence even before coming to this stage so thorough due diligence and of course VCS realize that putting down the money is the biggest risk and 9 out of 10 startup will never materialize they will they will just Crush only one may fly and then they make up their money into at the exit right so that's the landscape you need to always keep in mind how you when you are addressing the startup Visa program okay another misconception that I hear all the time is oh you don't spend a lot of money on a startup Visa you will get the pr at the end of the day just great idea come to us you know you will not spend your own no you will spend your money and let me show you how you spend your money on on the startup mostly you spend your money to develop your startup in what I mean by that incubation programs they probably um ask for money and before even incubation there is a preparatory work that I mentioned here right this is the work that you need to do Preparatory work probably will range from 50 000 Canadian to 100 000 Canadian that's the budget then legal work you know lawyers involved in all this Inc from incorporation all the way to the application of startup Visa around forty thousand dollars but trust me now you are not using uh investors money for this kind of work huh this is this is your money this is not yet designated organizations money and of course government wants you to have a settlement fund for yourself for your personal needs the founders family must have the money must have the money to for settlements starting at 12 000 around 12 13 000 per person per uh per one single single person family if there's an additional members of the family it will increase slightly and it will go all the way to 30 35 37 000 for um for seven member family so this is more personal cost right those who say that a startup Visa journey is investment free Ching you that idea oh you will not invest it's the Angels who will invest it's the VCS who will invest no you will invest too trust me you will invest into your business if you want to come to Canada Okay then if they are promising you this investment free idea then they're giving you not the full picture not giving you the full picture okay they're being very simplistic to my mind don't be simplistic in the in any immigration matter don't be simplistic just a side note on on that okay incubation of course incubation now uh I'm I'm going with the minimums because incubation is the the lowest cost you will have right incubations are even before the letter of support from the incubator you will have to spend money sometimes for incubation some programs are fee based it's not for free of course there are some free uh incubators but most of them are have fees associated with incubation right now letter of support ultimately is the goal before application it's goal together that letter of support from designated organizations completing the incubation program in in the case of business incubator of the designated incubator may result in getting this letter of support there's a there's a requirement you need to attend online classes you need to refine your concept you need to present your concept there's us there are some to-do items during the incubation it's not just okay I'll give you the incubator money and that that's it you give me the letter of support no not like that you need to follow the incubation program and requirements okay now we come to SUV application very briefly the startup visa application is there are three main events that will happen letter of support that you will get this letter of support is a is a one piece of the bigger puzzle but that's where it starts right and letter of support and your application is done very you know diligently the SUV application is ready now your lawyer will help you to apply that you apply for permanent resident application that's the first step you do after the application keep in mind the reporting requirements every six now three months six months uh there's a there's a requirement now of progress okay it's not just okay I give you a money let's let me get the pr and then I will start moving no not like that you you start moving with your startup idea right away you don't wait and see one one aspect of that is work permit application once you once you get a letter of support once you apply to your uh to to permanent residency now it's time for for you you should apply it's advisable to apply for work permit to come to Canada and start you know put the shovel into the ground start working okay that's that's what I see a lot of complaints now in the social media and in the immigration Community all startup Visa is 32 months 32 months after that there will be a response and they are sitting and waiting not even touching finger to finger right there's oh 32 months but what are you doing for your startup if your idea if you're passionate about your idea your your you need to be working on your startup maybe you're trying to find some buyers in Canada what are you doing in real life are you just you know you submitted and you're waiting for your PR I don't think that's a good strategy because let me be brutally honest once you get the pr from let's let's think like a government okay let's think like a Canadian government once I give this person a PR on the startup Visa program what is the guarantee that he will he or she will live up to that startup Visa idea will push the idea forward what's the guarantee after PR okay that's the that's the thought process on the Canadian government side and you will see you are seeing now that Canadian government requires a reporting you know every once a while every three months what are you doing on your startup what's the Milestone you achieved so far and what's the genuine that shows the genuineness it's not just the 4pr man PR getting method it's business first immigration second business first immigration second okay that's why you need to start moving your application your startup forward that's the logic I always push forward and it's not a wait and see model okay overall process it's my very bad graphic design skill so overall process at the end of the day looks like this including all the startup life okay the whole startup life is like this develop incubate okay incubate meaning that refine it all the time refine it try to you know tweak it a little bit based on the market feedback apply for startup visa and then you regularly report and then you get the pr you know apply means also the work permit application too right it's not just a PR application and then okay 32 months in 32 months I will be Canadian PR that's that's all I need no you need to push your startup forward you it's not just one touch application you touch your startup many many times regularly on a regular basis the whole idea the whole philosophy under behind the startup Visa program is to bring great entrepreneurs who will be moving the needle forward it's not the passive investors who are coming to Canada just for PR okay it is entrepreneurs with the right spirit with a genuine intention with a great plan to make Canadian economy better to create more jobs for Canadian to make Canadian export potential better right you become a Canadian startup and you start exporting and so on so whoever is trying to give you that impression of startup Visa program equals to passive investment and then you become a PR no never now you will see there are thousands of applications in the pipeline and government is being meticulous on who is genuine applicant who is not genuine applicant who is doing it just for PR who's doing it just to run the business okay so there will be a lot of scrutiny coming up so it all starts well before the startup visa application and each stage requires certain activities to be completed regularly I I will repeat myself it's not wait and see kind of model I will apply for PR through startup Visa I got the letter of support and let me see let me wait for my PR before I do anything realistic and material okay this is not the philosophy now if you need any support on any stage at any stage of this startup Journey we are here to support you at every step we've done it we've done it genuinely and we have necessary uh helpers who are experts in the field to have a sober look on your idea okay to criticize you if necessary you say we that's the even before even before designated organizations start criticizing your idea we should be criticizing your ID and refining it before and making it stronger okay if you have any I any great startup Visa idea and the necessary Capital to realize that idea in Canada in this beautiful country we welcome you to Canada we welcome you to Canada you can work with us we can guide you in the right direction and give you an honest feedback at every step okay all right that was my passionate statement about startup visa and if you now if you have any questions I would love some questions from you let me know where you're joining us from and let me know if you have a startup idea if you do have it let's discuss it so let me go to the questions all right now I will pull all the comments I have lots of comments here let me start with bupinder Nanda hi bupir nernanda from India hello hello Kenya Law Firm helped me can your firm help me in the valuation of a running business if I choose it myself yes we have a I don't do the valuation I have a certified valuator with whom I have good connections he will evaluate it for you okay I'm not a valuation firm but we have the right people who can evaluate it for you okay it's a fee based service but valuation can be done yes uh you might remember uh I asked you the last week about medical equipment business in Manitoba yes I remember you Mr Nanda welcome back again here's another question since an incubator doesn't invest any money is the applicant required to approach a VC or Angel for funding later it's not required under the start of Visa program if you are accepted to an incubation program by and issued a letter of support by the incubator that's sufficient enough for startup Visa program but if you really need cash to realize your startup then of course you should come up with money from somehow from somewhere it could be investors Angel Investors it could be VC VC Capital uh VC firms okay you're not required but I I believe you need to secure some funding from somewhere okay what is the ballpark amount money charged by an incubator to support the startup Visa ballpark as I said in my presentation it's around 30 to 40 000 depends I would I would go with the conservative number 40 000 Canadian is for a fee based incubation programs okay all right uh that's a good question and what's the typical time frame for a response from ircc after submission of a startup visa application and my addition is PR application or work permit application which one if it's PR application usual time frame of what kind of response like a decision if it's a decision then at the moment it's 32 months for PR decision permanent residence decision but for work permit it's between four to six months based on our experience work permits are faster these days all right and you can find dear listeners you can find more information about startup and the realistic expectations on our website always check sabirov's Law Firm if you're lost in finding an answer to certain questions go and check um the go and check let me see here we go yeah go and check the website and you will find a lot of answers to your questions on the we have a dedicated section for startups okay start a Visa Canada guide options for startup company starting a business in Canada as a foreign Foreigner as a foreign entrepreneur C11 work permit which is explain which is related to Startup environment and self-employed professionals some of them may qualify to immigration as a you know to start a new business so the whole topic of startups is discussed in this section okay go and check the startup the minimums and so on the process everything is done there and we give we have several videos on startups this one will be another one the new one but we already have a a year ago I think we did we did this video about the dilemmas and challenges of a startup Visa program the biggest challenge is the processing time unfortunately but uh if you are if you are genuine in your intentions to do business in Canada and you're not just focused on getting a PR I think a genuine entrepreneur will regardless of the outcome of immigration will move forward with this business idea with his business idea or her business idea okay uh it's a genuineness is the is the key here bupinder another question last week you told me there are federal programs also available no need to go to PNP enter Enterprises can you suggest anything apart from ICT yeah I can suggest C11 a significant benefit work permit is something that you can come on a work permit and then prepare yourself for permanent residence it will be faster than PNP most of the time okay uh and can you tell me why you don't you're not interested in intra company transfers intercompany transfer could be one of the fastest route um here we go do you help uh business with business plans which are part of the pitch if so approximate fees and charges yes we do help with business plan we have an in-house business plan specialist for our clients but if your business idea is beyond the scope of expertise of our team we have Outsiders who are providing that service the ballpark of a thorough business plan is about 10 to 15 000 for the startup Visa program it depends what kind of business plan you mean is it the startup Visa business plan or ICT business plan C11 business plan so it depends it it ranges from all the way from 5 000 all the way to fifteen thousand so pick and choose depends on the exact idea that you want to realize in Canada okay uh yes we do have with business plans now in the in on our website in the FAQ section uh we have a very thorough FAQ section uh you you can check that uh in on the home page there's uh FAQ here if you go to FAQs uh there are there are many questions about you know startup Visa program buying a business in Canada there are lots of Q and A's that we prepared for your convenience it's a based on our real ex real life experience it's not theoretical FAQs okay all right um let me come back to questions any other questions any other questions I see another question from upender let me see my running business in Canada is small with only five employees so don't need ICT how about the revenue if you have five employees but very impressive Revenue it could still fit into the ICT depends everything is dependent on the thorough analysis of your business and that's why I only I suggest that you get a lot of value if you book a one hour strategy meeting with our lawyers we will go into your each question and try to answer them as much as we can on a one-on-one basis that's a great value for those who are uh seriously considering immigrating to Canada I think that's it for today 37 minutes and two seconds I've been talking to you thank you very much for your active participation and as always I enjoy talking to you let me know what other topics you want me to discuss during this live shows next week we will come back to you again with a great new topic stay tuned subscribe like and share with others sharing is caring as they say see you next week future Canadians talk to you soon bye