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Or sign-in if you have an account.SpaceX has rewarded those who believed in big ideas. Canada is full of such ideas right now, too. Our lenders should not be watching from the sidelines. Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty ImagesThe most important thing to be gleaned from the SpaceX moment we’re living through is not the supposed injustice of finance. It’s to understand how this series of mega-transactions reveals where value actually lives in the modern economy.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorThe assets that compound fastest today are not oil, real estate or factories full of machinery. The fastest-compounding asset is intellectual property, which is based on the capacity to imagine something that does not yet exist, protect it and build an enterprise around it. The future belongs to whoever stops considering the present as the ceiling.The real question worth asking is not why SpaceX’s founders have made so much money. It is: what are we doing to make sure the next chapter of this story can grow in Canada and stay here as it grows?Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againCanada’s investment culture has been slow to absorb this insight. Unlike American lenders, who are willing to put a stake in a future trip to Mars, ours remain more comfortable lending against a warehouse or funding the extraction of a physical resource instead of the development of an intellectual one.The result is that founders building important new companies in this country are systematically starved of the growth capital they need at precisely the moment their assets are most valuable. Foreign investors see this. We lament that our founders look to the south for investors, but often they don’t have much choice.Our domestic investment community has not yet updated its lens for the economy it is actually operating in. Foreign investors have. Canadian ones need to do the same.As a country, we need to shift our focus from envy to opportunity. This doesn’t mean pouring taxpayers’ money into new-economy companies. The companies generating world-class ideas in artificial intelligence, health technology, clean energy and data platforms are not charity cases requiring government handouts or guidance. They are long-term assets that — in this country’s capital markets at least — are systematically undervalued.SpaceX will have its ups and downs (no pun intended) but right now it has rewarded the people who believed in big ideas before the rest of the world caught up. Canada is full of such ideas right now, too. Our lenders should not be watching from the sidelines.Our problem is not at the startup stage. The companies that need greater support are at scale-up stage — firms with $10 million to $100 million in revenue that are too large for startup programs and too asset-light for traditional bank lending. We need private finance to step up and take a risk.I write from experience. Over 25 years I built two technology companies in Canada — AskingCanadians and Methodify — without relying on venture capital. But in 2021, after we had reached a certain size, I sold both to a U.S. buyer. There was no comparable alternative available in Canada that would enable our companies to scale up and grow.The IP left. The compounding value left. And many of the jobs left, eventually following the capital. I did well. But in a big way, I feel that Canada deserved better.I wasn’t alone. Between 1998 and 2017, the share of Canadian patents transferred to foreign entities climbed from 18 per cent to 45 per cent. It has only accelerated since then.People who only see SpaceX as a story about one man’s ego or one company’s market cap are missing the important point. SpaceX is a demonstration of what happens when a country possesses the financial infrastructure to let its most ambitious ideas mature into enterprises. Yes, the financing is often wild and woolly. But in the end the ideas get funded.Canada needs that kind of story to happen here. Resenting SpaceX and other giant IPOs accomplishes less than nothing. Canada’s private lenders need to build their own version of financing big, bold ideas, so our ideas stay here and grow.Adam Froman is founder and CEO of Delvinia. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.