Comment by apike

My experience raising in Vancouver is that there are two angel communities.

There is an easier to find Vancouver-centric investor group that behaves as a you describe. Many of these investors didn’t come up as tech founders. I was advised not to waste time with them, so I don't know if there are some gems in the rough there or not.

Then there is a quieter group that got their capital from building serious tech businesses. This group spends more time connecting outside Vancouver – Bay Area mostly, but also Toronto and globally. These folks do write early-stage cheques and can be very helpful advisors, but they're not full-time angels who are spending time on deal flow. They're mostly focused on building their next thing, so it’s more difficult to earn their attention.

So yes there are questionable actors, but there are also very legit folks doing great work, and it’s possible to go to an event or dinner party that only really has one or the other. Hope that’s helpful to any other founders building in Vancouver!