[electric]

"Imagine what it would do to the VC business if the next hot company didn't take VC at all."

No need to imagine. Just look North -- this is reality.

Neither RIM (makers of the blackberry) nor Cognos (now IBM) took VC funding.

VC has imploded in Canada and startups are surviving as they have always.

[gruseom]

RIM started in 1984 and Cognos in 1969 [!], so I'm not sure what conclusion you can draw from their early histories.

Also, RIM "was financed by Canadian institutional and venture capital investors in 1995" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_in_Motion).