5Q: Rob Chaplinksy, Silicon Valley venture capitalist

Rob Chaplinsky spends a lot of time in coffee shops talking about ideas with entrepreneurs, many of whom he says prefer a laid-back style of doing business.

The 46-year-old Toronto native, who is managing director of Bridgescale Partners in Menlo Park, Calif., has been a venture capitalist for the better part of a decade. He's sunk money into projects like Rypple, a cloud-based human resources company acquired by Salesforce.com, as well as Accelerant Networks, bought by Synopys.More than ever before, says Chaplinsky, Canada is on the map.

That's partly because of the influential C100 group of Canadian execs based in Silicon Valley, of which Chaplinsky is a member. But entrepreneurs north of 49 are also garnering global attention, thanks in part to deals in recent years like Salesforce.com's acquisition of Radian6, a social media monitoring platform, as well as IBM's purchase of Q1 Labs, a security intelligence software company.

Remembering all the C100 mentoring, partnering and investing in entrepreneurs should bode well now for Chaplinsky, who is also looking to drum up some cash for his new big venture, Dryft, which he co-founded with Edmonton-based Randy Marsden.

Marsden co-founded the Swype virtual keyboard that is on millions of Android smartphones. In a nutshell, Dryft's technology can decipher whether a tablet user's fingers are resting or actually typing on the screen. The technology allows for home row keys to effectively adapt to a user's fingertips, or "drifts" to them, to eradicate the always-annoying auto-correct.

Recently, at TechCrunch's Disrupt conference, Dryft was one of 30 startups in The Battlefield competition, which comes with a ton of exposure, the coveted "Disrupt Cup" and a top prize of $50,000. Dryft came in second.

Tell me about Dryft

What we're hoping to do is bring the keyboard to the tablet just like the Swype delivered it to smartphones.

Is this going to take off?

The number 1 frustration for tablet users is terrible typing. Typing on glass is very hard, it's something you can't really trust because there's no tactile feel. We eliminate all that because we bring the keyboard to your fingers.

People must be lining up to invest. Can you talk about that?

We have attracted a lot of angels in the Valley. We're also talking to very large corporate strategic funds. We haven't talked to institutional investors at this point. It's a little early for that.

Changing gears, what kind of investments are you looking at right now?

In venture capital it's very, very simple: just back great entrepreneurs. I don't care what idea they have, they just have to be great. If they're not great, they're never getting my money. It's that simple.

How do you define great?

What's great? Entrepreneurs who are taking enormous risks, putting in their own sweat capital. And they just have a level of charisma where they'll be able to attract even better people than themselves.

What sectors are really hot for you right now?

Cloud computing, mobile computing and big data analytics. Make sure you're in those core sectors and you don't have to worry about your market evaporating.

How does the Canadian start up scene rank in this scene

I go to Toronto and the amount of start up activity and buzz and momentum is 10X what it was two years ago. It's not even close. It's spectacular.

Can Canada be Silicon Valley North?

There is only one Silicon Valley. It's the Valley. And the Valley is so much more magical than any place on Earth. Nowhere can you replicate that.

Why can't Canada replicate that?

Canada is a bunch of fragmented tech hotspots. If you look at the heat map of the start up activity in Canada. You have Toronto, which is probably an eight; Vancouver is probably a four, maybe a five out of 10.Ottawa is a two; Montreal is maybe a three.

Why is that?

You just don't have the volume of success stories. You don't have the volume of capital. Venture capital in the U.S. is probably a $12-$14 billion industry. In Canada, realistically, it's in the hundreds of millions. Canadians are generally risk-adverse. They invest in real estate and oil and gold. They don't invest in risky ideas like venture capital. They have massive pension plans and government-controlled banks.

How can Canadian entrepreneurs work around that?

Think big. Surround yourself with domain experts who are proven success stories. U.S. VCs want to back proven winners. These could be advisors, board members and/or angel investors.  U.S. VCs want to invest in companies that can scale, and entrepreneurs who are thinking big.They aren't interested in small quick-flip companies.  

*Interview has been edited and condensed.