"People in Canada are at their wits' end about areas of our economy having a lack of competition and how it impacts their pocketbook."
The Competition Bureau is the last line of defence for enforcing competition law in Canada. But our system is designed so that the line keeps moving. Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell joins to discuss the tools and powers that would help his Bureau prevent Canada's economy from becoming an endless series of three companies in a trench coat.
Sponsored by Palette Skills.
"Something else that's unique about the Calgary ecosystem...we're hungry. We're really, really hungry."
James Lochrie (Thin Air Labs) and Brett Colvin (Goodlawyer) join for an Alberta tech vibe check, discussing the recent election, big Q1 2023 funding news, and the value of community building.
Sponsored by Palette Skills. Apply now for a transformative 6-week tech sales training program.
"Unfortunately, there's a long history over the last decade that I tend to lean into controversies around any event that we're holding anywhere in the world, especially four weeks out, because the volume of tickets that are booked locally is highest in the final weeks."
BetaKit's one-on-one interview with Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave on the eve of Collison 2023 after the tech conference announced a (one-year) return to Toronto for 2024.
Sponsored by Goodlawyer, your one-stop-shop for all your corporate, commercial, and IP legal needs.
"They're trying to invent the next product category—that's what they want to do. They want to have some sort of hardware to push into the future. They just haven't convinced me that this really is the future yet."
Apple just announced the most impressive—and expensive—AR/VR/MR device ever made. But who is the device for and how will they use it? MobileSyrup editor-in-chief Patrick O'Rourke joins to answer these questions fresh off of strapping Apple's spacial computer to his face.
Sponsored by Goodlawyer, your one-stop shop for all your corporate, commercial, and IP legal needs.
"We are in a time of the worst health care crisis we've seen in Canada. It is really close to a collapse of the system across the country."
Brett Belchetz (Maple) and Alexandra Greenhill (Careteam Technologies) join to diagnose the failings of Canada's health care system before offering a prescription. How can innovators help? Can a balance be struck between public and private care? The doctors will see you now.
Sponsored by Goodlawyer, your one-stop shop for all your corporate, commercial, and IP legal needs.
“That is a deeply unhealthy way to live and to work and it’s ultimately not a successful way to sustain a publication.”
CANADALAND news editor Jonathan Goldsbie joins to discuss the rampant demise of digital media publications launched in the 2000s and how they compare to the slow death of traditional media. Advice for aspiring young journalists comes mixed with an investigation of the ideal media business model in 2023.
Sponsored by Goodlawyer, your one-stop shop for all your corporate, commercial, and IP legal needs.
"This announcement communicated two things: this thing we're getting rid of isn't primary to our mission—it's a side quest, we don't actually care about this; and we have a cultural problem at our company with who we've hired and what they're focused on."
Madeline Stone, retail and e-commerce writer for Business Insider, joins to discuss the future of Shopify's "main quest" after cutting staff and selling off its logistics division. Co-hosts Rob & Doug then take over to discuss whether or not Shopify is the victim of Canada's tall poppy syndrome.
Sponsored by Goodlawyer, your one-stop shop for all your corporate, commercial, and IP legal needs.
"I don't necessarily know if the government understands what an innovation strategy is."
Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) president Ben Bergen joins to answer listener-submitted questions about: the Canada Innovation Corporation, open banking, SR&ED reform, and why the feds are so behind on so many innovation files.
Warning: listening to this podcast could be hazardous to your health while playing any "innovation policy" drinking games.
Sponsored by Goodlawyer, your one-stop shop for all your corporate, commercial, and IP legal needs.
"Once Apple showed up, BlackBerry had to do everything right and get on it on the double. And they did everything wrong."
"And for whatever reason we thought, oh, there's something to this story that feels funny to us."
Losing the Signal co-author Sean Silcoff and BlackBerry producer and co-writer Matthew Miller join to discuss Canada's former tech darling ahead of the forthcoming major motion picture release.
Sponsored by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. Read the Deal Points Report: Venture Capital Financings.
"The goal here is not that Canada is the largest market for AI in the world—it's never going to be that. But if we make it the most willing to try new solutions, or to work with startups, that's where we might have an opportunity."
Clément Bourgogne, Chief Operating Officer at Scale AI, joins to discuss Canada's limitations and opportunities when it comes to AI, and why his organization is more focused on supply chains than generative AI.
Sponsored by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. Read the Deal Points Report: Venture Capital Financings.
"So this is the big pitch, right? There are all of these problems in the transport system; we are going to invent these new technologies that will solve it."
Flavio Volpe (Project Arrow, APMA) and Paris Marx (Road to Nowhere) join for a conversation on electric vehicles (EVs) and what the future of transportation in Canada might look like.
Sponsored by Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP. Read the Deal Points Report: Venture Capital Financings.
"Nobody is cheering you on for reaching the top of Everest if you don't make it back down to base camp."
Matt Cohen, Managing Partner at Ripple Ventures and host of the Tank Talks podcast, joins to unpack the complicated spot Canadian startups find themselves in.
Sponsored by Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP. Read the Deal Points Report: Venture Capital Financings.
"The [Canadian] venture ecosystem is never going to get to the right level of maturity if they constantly rely upon the taxpayer to provide them with the capital."
Maverix Private Equity founder and Managing Partner John Ruffolo joins to answer listener questions on the fall of SVB, its impact on the Canadian venture debt market, regulatory capture by new federal bills, and how many VCCIs are too many.
Sponsored by Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP. Read the Deal Points Report: Venture Capital Financings.
"We are in the midst of a new technological payola."
Our Lady Peace's Raine Maida and Senator Colin Deacon join for a frank discussion about Big Tech's leverage over Canadian content as Parliament looks to pass new regulations in Bill C-11 and Bill C-18.
"Let's be blunt about it: we as a country are extremely good at invention ... we're horrible at innovation."
Dan Breznitz, co-director of the Innovation Policy Lab at the University of Toronto, walks through the reasons for Canada's failure on innovation, the origins of the CIC, and who he thinks should be its first CEO.
"There is a special place in hell for investors who intentionally screw over their founders with no empathy for the journey or the challenges that they are going through."
Panache Ventures partner Chris Neumann joins to answer listener questions about his blog writing, the state of Canadian accelerators, and what VCs are talking about.
Sponsored by Invest Ottawa.
"This whole thing with ChatGPT is just history replaying itself. We need to stop viewing tech and innovation as a veritable silver bullet for all the world's problems and instead understand that it can actually scale inequities at warp speed."
Feminuity co-founder and CEO Dr. Sarah Saska walks through the current relationship between DEI and tech, before tracking the dangers of biased data and bad faith users on generative AI.
Sponsored by ventureLAB and Invest Ottawa.
"The deepfake technology that is part of this new rise of generative AI tools I think will have a very deleterious effect on the current state of cyber defences."
Plurilock CEO Ian Paterson discusses the economics of AI cyber threats and Canada's response with Bill C-26.
Sponsored by ventureLAB and Invest Ottawa.
"We all want AI to do our jobs for us—the boring parts. What we're doing here is making computers more human-like, and sadly, they're getting all the fun jobs. Because those are the jobs that don't have to be perfect."
Entrepreneur and author Alistair Croll joins to discuss what will become scarce and what will become abundant in the new economy created by generative AI.
Sponsored by International Women's Week.
"It's not like a light comes down from heaven and says 'now you shall stop your company.' But, man, was it very difficult emotionally."
Entrepreneur and BetaKit Podcast co-host Rob Kenedi explains the process of launching and eventually shuttering his startup, Staid.
"I honestly feel as though 2023 is going to be one of those years in Canadian tech where companies are going to have to be accountable."
Award-winning Amber Mac returns to the award-nominated BetaKit Podcast for the first AMA episode of 2023, answering listener questions about: mass tech layoffs and CEO departures; VCs killing rounds because LPs can't (won't?) pay up; opportunities for tech growth in Atlantic Canada; and the essential 10 minutes talking ChatGPT and 'Next Big Things'.
Sponsored by Amazon Web Services.
"What we're dealing with here is something so profound that the changes it's going to bring are not the kind of thing that the government can alter."
Generative AI could be a wonderful tool. What will be lost in its wake? Canadian novelist, essayist, and cultural commentator Stephen Marche joins to discuss.
Sponsored by AWS.