Cancon Podcast

"One of the things that's funniest in tech is the complete and utter lack of self-awareness." Comedian and podcaster Alexis Gay joins to share her transition from working in tech to creating content that perfectly articulates the absurdities of working in tech. Sponsored by HardTech, Canada’s biggest hardware event, taking place November 9th.

"I think it's hard to beat the optimist out of a VC." The Globe and Mail's Sean Silcoff joins to discuss whether or not the Canadian tech boom is fizzling out. Public policy expert Vass Bednar joins to discuss which Canadian companies are quietly adopting and emulating big-tech strategies to their benefit. Sponsored by HardTech, Canada’s biggest hardware event, taking place November 9th.

"There's a direct relationship between the mental health of the entrepreneur and the performance of the company." Econa founder Dr. Michael Freeman returns to discuss how the current tech winter is impacting founder mental health, and how that is impacting company performance. Sponsored by GSoft and SAAS NORTH.

"Essentially, Amazon has failed to make this company profitable. It doesn’t make money." Streamer, YouTuber, and Novo CEO Devin Nash joins to explain the myriad ways Amazon's experiment with Twitch is failing to make money or anyone happy. Sponsored by GSoft and SAAS NORTH.

“Half a billion dollars for women in Canadian tech. Pretty cool!” The BetaKit Podcast's monthly AMA episode answers listeners' (tough!) questions about bad news coming from Real Ventures and exciting news coming from BDC, with some Elevate highlights thrown in. Sponsored by SAAS NORTH (use code BETAKIT20 for an early bird discount).

“This is the rise and fall of a company that had hundreds of millions of dollars to play with and nothing left to say about it.” Globe and Mail reporter Josh O'Kane joins to discuss his new book, Sideways: The City Google Couldn't Buy, along with BetaKit senior editor Meagan Simpson. Sponsored by SAAS NORTH.

"I’m just concerned about finding tech talent." Nora Jenkins Townson (Bright + Early) and Meagan Simpson (BetaKit) join to explain why over 350 companies are looking to hire Canadian tech talent in the midst of a downturn. Sponsored by Linebox.

"Shopify Pay still uses Stripe and they have some crazy scale." Immad Akhund (CEO, Mercury) and Jon Fry (CEO, Lendflow) join BetaKit's Douglas Soltys onstage to discuss how startups can embed FinTech into their products, increase revenue, and avoid the hidden icebergs. Recorded live at Traction Conference 2022. Sponsored by Linebox and Thinksound.

“Do you really want to get big fast? You take my money, I’m going to poke you in the eye every day going forward.” GrowthX CEO and founding partner Andrew Goldner shares how his Valley-founded early-stage VC firm found product-market fit with Canadian accelerators, common misconceptions founders have of the VC business model, and a bunch of go-to-market tips. Sponsored by Thinksound. 

"It's not as broken as other things." VanHack CEO Ilya Brotzky joins to explain what's causing the 4-6 month waiting period for Canadian tech companies using the Global Talent Stream, and shares a new petition to get the government to make necessary changes. Sponsored by Thinksound.

"I represent a different community that has different needs." Manzil CEO Mohamad Sawwaf explains the cultural, regulatory, and compliance roadblocks that are slowing him from financially serving more than a million Muslims across Canada. Sponsored by Thinksound.

"This was the moment that you knew the hangover was about to kick in." Tech reporter Isabelle Kirkwood joins to walk us through an ecosystem-by-ecosystem breakdown of Canadian tech venture funding in Q2 2022, how it compares to last year, and what it signals for the rest of the year. Sponsored by Thinksound.

"That's the pull quote. 'Amber Mac: things are crumbling.'" Special guest Amber Mac joins to answer listener questions on the award-nominated BetaKit Podcast. Topics include: Shopify's layoffs, Rogers' revenue resiliency following its second outage in the last year, Canada's digital divide and its impact on remote work, and early-stage fundraising tips. Sponsored by Diuca.

"When we look at companies today, I'm reminded of what it was like - just how bleak it was - in that summer of 2000. You can play through that as an investor and an entrepreneur." Mark McQueen, President & Executive Managing Director - CIBC Innovation Banking, compares 2022 with past downturns to track what's changed and remained constant. Sponsored by Diuca.

"Trust, and Indigenous impact measurement, and the wellbeing of Indigenous families sit alongside risk and return. In fact, in our fund, sit significantly above risk and return as investment considerations." Raven Capital Managing Partner Paul Lacerte explains how the firm invests in Indigenous impact entrepreneurs in a culturally safe way. Originally aired September 30, 2021. Sponsored by Diuca.

"Other conferences are phoning it in." Startupfest's Alistair Croll and Olivia Rossi join to explain how Canada's Original Startup Conference has changed in its major return to IRL and the amount of tech they're building to make meeting people easy again. Sponsored by Diuca.

"The worst outcome for Rogers is an actual real competitor, which is what we are. They know we're going to bring prices down and they don't want prices to come down." Globalive co-founder and chairman Anthony Lacavera shares why he was forced to sell Wind Mobile, and explains why it's so hard to repurchase it now as Freedom Mobile as part of the (contested) Rogers / Shaw merger. Welcome to Competitiontown. Sponsored by Linebox Studio.    

"So are you saying that Canadian tech is under-appreciated?" A special Collision edition of our monthly AMA episode, answering listener questions about: the current downturn mood, cool tech we saw at the conference, and the ROI of events for the ecosystem. Sponsored by Linebox.

"Everybody I meet keeps asking me 'where's Shopify?'" Collision's Paddy Cosgrave discusses the conference's second first impression in Toronto, tech downturns, and if Canadian startups can handle the pressure. Sponsored by RBC.

“It’s like you’re getting married and writing your prenup and your divorce agreement on the day you get married.” Elizabeth MacRae (Village Wellth) explains how YouTubers, Boomers, and banks with favourable terms are fuelling an explosion in acquisition entrepreneurship. Sponsored by RBC.