Practices and Patterns of Informal Investors

Appendix A: Confidential Private Investor Profile

As mentioned in the attached letter, we are working with Industry Canada to establish a national panel of private investors to help guide policy formulation with regard to the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Our role is to act as intermediaries between government and the panel of investors. In part, our role involves collection and interpretation of the panel's insights and recommendations. This requires the collection of background information. Our role is also to maintain the confidentiality of such information and to use it only as a means of providing government with aggregated breakdowns of participants' responses. Hence, your responses, like those of other respondents, will be completely anonymous. We estimate that it will take no more than 10 minutes to complete this background questionnaire – most of the questions are of the convenient 'check-off' variety.

SECTION A: Investment Patterns

1. How often do you invest in private companies?

2. At what stage(s) of business development are the firms in which you have invested?(Check as many as apply)?

3. Please list how many investments you have made during the last two years in each of the following industrial sectors alongside the average size of the investments in each sector.

1. Of the investments listed in the previous question, how many were located:

2. Approximately what proportion of the deals in which you have been (and are nor) involved were made as part of a syndicate?

______%

3. Over the last 24 months, what proportion of your investments were to businesses in the knowledge-based sectors?

______%

4. With respect to your investments in small firms (those with sales of less than $5,000,000 or with fewer than 50 employees), what ROI do you look for from your investments?

5. Over the last 24 months, approximately how many investment proposals have you reviewed?

6. After how many years to do you expect to exit profitably from your investments?

7. At what stage of business development do you expect to exit from the firms in which you have made investments?

8. By what means do you expect to exit from the firms in which you have made investments?

SECTION B: Climate for Private Investment

4. On a scale of 1 to 7, where 1= Not at all and 7= to a great extent, to what extent would each of the following encourage you to make more investments?

5. On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1= not at all and 5 = to a great extent, to what extent do you think each of the following inhibits private investor activity?

What are the three most attractive features about investing in your home province?

What are the three least attractive features about investing in your home province?

Do you think your home province is different than other parts of Canada in terms of investment opportunities?

If YES, what are the key differences?

SECTION C: Personal Attributes

1. What is your full-time occupation? (Check all that apply)

2. If you are not currently the owner or principal of a business, have you been the owner or principal of a business in the past?

3. In what year did you first make an investment in a private company owned by another party.
______

4. What is the level of formal education you hold?

5. What professional designations, if any, do you hold (e.g., C.A., CFA, etc.)
_____________

6. How much capital do you have available for the purpose of making private investments in Canadian SMEs?

7. Given the amount of capital you have available for investment, are you able to find a sufficient flow of investment-ready business opportunities?

8. Would you like a digest of the results of this study?

If YES, please advise us of the best mailing address for you

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Name:________________________________
Company: ____________________________
Address: ______________________________
Tel:________________________________
Fax: _______________________________
E-Mail: ____________________________

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For your convenience, you may tear off this section and mail it to us at:

Dr. A. Riding
School of Business
Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, K1S 5B6, ON

Or fax this section to us at 613-523-2363 OR 613-523-0976

Thank you for you time, experience, and cooperation.