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Nolan Watson is the President and CEO of Sandstorm Gold (TSX:SSL)

There is so much networking potential at the Subscriber Investment Summits.  Case in point: Bitgold (XAU-TSXv).

I recently visited Toronto and the buzz on Bay Street was still all Bitgold, a month after the web-based payments and savings platform for gold launched on the TSX-V. Shares in the startup--less than one year old--soared to $8 before retreating.

Bitgold announced an $18 million bought deal financing May 29 at $3.65 per share, well above the most recent 90 cents financing price. Early investors are happy.

One such investor was a presenter at our October 2014 Subscriber Investment Summit in Vancouver--Nolan Watson President and CEO of Sandstorm Gold (SSL.TO).

Watson gave an unconventional presentation that day. While his 14 contemporaries went through their usual slides telling their corporate story, Watson skipped the Sandstorm story and instead shared a big idea for making gold useful again with technology. He barely even mentioned his company.

A video of Mr. Watson's speech on CEO.CA was forwarded to the Bitgold co-founders, who became wary that Sandstorm was working on a competing platform.

They invited Watson to participate in one of Bitgold's early funding rounds. Mr. Watson wrote a quick $200,000 check on Sandstorm’s behalf. Just six months after the Summit the position is worth millions!

Fast forward to the last week of May 2015--I’m in Toronto at the Ritz Carlton that Thursday night, and I'm having a drink with another early Bitgold backer. He's still wrapping his head around the fact that he had the guts to back Bitgold at what then seemed like a high valuation.

“You never find a venture deal that's perfect, and when you think an idea has legs and the people are smart, you step up and take the flyer,” he said.

Sometimes it doesn't work, and then other times it does.

Given Sandstorm's experience, we’re expecting future Subscriber Investment Summit CEOs to consider sharing a big idea, and not their usual slides.

Corporate presentations may never be the same.

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