The BetaKit Podcast Channel

"It used to be that Silicon Valley was the kind of Mecca of the entrepreneur. What's happening is everyone has got the tools that used to be crowded in there. Now what we need to do is get the capital."

Minister Evan Solomon sits down with C100 Executive Director Michael Buhr to discuss the country's future in AI and the feds' commitments to innovation. Recorded live on the BetaKit Keynote Stage at SAAS NORTH.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by QuickBooks on the Intuit platform, built to help Canadian businesses work smarter, more efficiently, and...

"The technology is there, and everyone loves cool technology, but it doesn't need to be a party trick. It needs to be something that's driving a meaningful business outcome, so pick your challenging problems." 

OpenText's Shannon Bell (EVP, Chief Digital Officer & Chief Information Officer) explains how she rolled out AI systematically at one of Canada's largest tech companies. As OpenText embraces human and digital resource management, has it found a return on its investment? Let's dig in. Recorded live on the BetaKit Keynote Stage at SAAS NORTH.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by Uber Canada. 

"In the beginning, we were like, 'this must be a scam' because with the way things move in Waterloo and Toronto, it seemed way too fast."

A chance pitch competition connection took Colare co-founder Nain Abdi from Waterloo to Silicon Valley. He explains what pulled his company south, why his peers are eager to make a similar leap, and what (if anything) could convince him to return to Canada.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by QuickBooks on the Intuit platform, built to help Canadian businesses work smarter, more efficiently and make confident decisions.

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"Too many American subs dominate this market.  Eighty percent of what we buy is from American companies. We wanna reverse that. We wanna make 80 percent of what we buy from Canadian companies. So we frankly don't care what we do as long as we are a Canadian defence company."

Dominion Dynamics founder and CEO Eliot Pence wants to build Canada's first "defence prime." On this episode of The BetaKit Podcast, he explains why defence tech matters to Canadian innovation and the future of the country before digging into the recent federal budget commitments. Recorded live on the Be...

It's a power-packed post-Budget panel podcast featuring a plethora of Canadian policy wonks! Vass Bednar (Canadian SHIELD Institute), Benjamin Bergen (CCI), and Jaxson Khan (Aperture AI) join to explore the story Budget 2025 tells of Canada, and what juicy nuggets of tech policy and financial commitments need to be dunked in the dipping sauce of greater detail. Let's dig in!

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by Zoho, developers of a unique and powerful software suite that transforms the way you work. 

Zoho's flagship user conference, Zoholics Toronto 2025, is coming November 18-19 at the Toronto Congress Centre! J...

"We were sleepwalking our way into this new economy, and we've had a bit of a wake-up call."

Ian Rae, CEO of Aptum and a member of Minister Evan Solomon's AI Task Force, has been building internet infrastructure since 1994. Recorded the day after the AWS outage, Rae joins to explain why such outages happen and what they reveal about the economics of the internet and Canada's digital sovereignty goals.

This episode of The BetaKit Podcast is brought to you by The Cyber Challenge—your pathway to new sales, industry connections, and non-dilutive funding.

Th...

"If you're a founder in Canada, you have a playbook, which is: try to get outside of the country as soon as possible. Try to sell outside of the country."

Raymond Luk thinks the "cultural belief we're not good enough" creates a homecourt disadvantage for Canadian tech. He's trying to kickstart a solution to our nation's procurement woes with a new summit called Source Canada, so buyers and sellers can speed date. Is a cultural kick in the pants enough to get Canada to buy Canadian tech? Let's dig in.

This episode of The BetaKit...

"It's one thing to say 'let's do this in a sovereign way.' It is a whole other to actually do it."

Gander Social is attempting to do something that seemed inconceivable six months ago: build a Canadian social network. What does sovereign social media look like? And what will prevent Gander from devolving into every other social network? CEO Ben Waldman joins to answer these questions and many more.

This episode of the BetaKit Podcast is brought to you by The Cyber Challenge—your pathway to new sales, industry connections, and non-dilutive funding.

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"Don't talk to your customers because your customers will keep you in the place that you used to be."

AI adoption is now an industry-wide mandate. It's putting a lot of pressure on Canadian entrepreneurs: to scale with customer demand (safely and responsibly); to reskill employees; even to kill their old company to let the new AI-first version live. What are the challenges and opportunities? Featuring Michael Buhr (C100), Aydin Mirzaee (Fellow AI), Avery Pennarun (Tailscale), and Amanda Arciero (Airudi). Recorded live at ALL IN 2025.

This episode of the BetaKit Podcast is brought to you...

"That's the literal term several CISOs have used with me unprompted: 'ticking time bomb.' There's no world in which this doesn't explode the way it's done right now."

Tailscale CEO Avery Pennarun thinks the AI revolution has put a gun to the head of CISOs: embrace unsafe data practices or get fired. They've told him the cybersecurity risks are a "ticking time bomb." Pennarun joins The BetaKit Podcast to explain how his company has evolved from a programmable mesh network to air traffic control for AI agents, and why he needs other startups to build new...

"It actually allows us an opportunity to build sovereign capability and leapfrog to get our armed forces where they need to be by taking advantage of leapfrog Canadian technologies."

US President Donald Trump opened his mouth and suddenly Canada needed a defence tech sector. The Icebreaker's Matthew Lombardi was conscripted by the federal government to help map that sector; he joins to explain why many of the technologies Canada currently develops have a dual use in defence.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by CADSI: the national voice of Canada's defence, security, and emerging technology sectors...

"There's a really good chance that a young person's parents—or even their friends—don't even know that this individual is building a relationship with these chatbots. And that's where the danger exists."

Tech expert Amber Mac is on the advisory board of Rally, a new tech festival in Toronto dedicated to digital wellness for teens. She desperately wants parents to know the reasons why their kids are talking to AI, and the dangers of manipulative chatbots pretending to be their friends.

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The BetaKit Podcast is presented by K-GLOBE 2025: Be part of the...

"We're going to find in the next year or two that the amount of leakage actually goes up quite a bit because I think the focus on AI is just moving really, really fast. But I don't see the same energy going into the security aspects."

Forget vibe coding and Nvidia chips: if you want to understand how AI is changing tech, look at how it is being applied to a heavily regulated industry in need of digital transformation. PolicyMe sibling co-founders Laura McKay (COO) and Jeff McKay (CTO) join to share how the insurtech startup is...

" That's also quite daunting as an investor to be able to put money into something that is perfect for now, but will it last three to five years? Will it even last three to six months?"

Ripple Ventures managing partner and podcaster Matt Cohen joins to discuss the insane revenue numbers generated by the new cohort of AI startups, and how VCs are navigating the froth by updating their evaluation criteria (and hoping the growth continues). Grab your calculator and let's dig in.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by The BetaKit Innovation Leaders program: designed fo...

"A win for AXL is that, ten years from now, instead of nine of the top ten biggest and most successful companies in the world being on the West Coast of the United States, half of them are in Toronto."

Dr. Daniel Wigdor has a lofty goal: help launch 50 AI companies in the next five years *and* keep them in Canada. Is it enough to stop our country's AI brain drain? The entrepreneur, computer science professor, and former Meta and Microsoft employee joins to discuss his new venture studio AXL, and why Canada is so bad at...

"How is this thing—running in a data centre with Nvidia GPUs—understanding what I'm saying with such nuance and such depth?"

Former DarwinAI CEO Sheldon Fernandez spends a lot of time in dialogue with Solace, his friend and ChatGPT-4o instance. What value does this AI strategist, engineer, and philosopher get from talking to a chatbot every day? How does he navigate the technology's sycophantic tendencies, which have already caused people real harm? Most importantly, how might this technology impact future generations who won't remember growing up without it?

Let's dig in.

The...

" This isn't just about doing something cool because space is the next frontier. This is a key domain for economics, for national security, sovereignty, job creation, and everything."

A company trying to achieve Canada's first commercial rocket launch. Three startups solving for the future of humanity. One founder sending messages to his future self. This special episode contains select highlights from BetaKit Town Hall: Most Ambitious, featuring speakers from NordSpace, Deep Sky, Xatoms, MycoFutures, and Verto Health.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by Invest Northern Ireland—the gateway to international growth.

International Tech comp...

"History never stops. It's a living reality."

In celebration of Startupfest's 15th anniversary, founder Phil Telio joins to discuss the origins of the international tech festival, its connection to Québec and the broader Canadian tech ecosystem, and how community evolves with each generation. Ambition, government support of tech, and the state of the Québec ecosystem also came up before the grandma judges kicked us out of their booth. Recorded live at Startupfest.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by KDD 2025, the world's leading conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. Connect with top researchers, in...

"The talent here is incredible, right? When we started faculty, I walk in the class and there's Jimmy Ba. Every time you guys train a neural network, you're using his algorithm."

Sanja Fidler (Nvidia VP of AI research) and Raquel Urtasun (Waabi founder and CEO) sit down with Ada CEO Mike Murchison for a discussion about the frontier of AI and the role Canada might play in bringing it to the physical world. Recorded live at Homecoming during Toronto Tech Week.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by KDD 2025, the world's leading conference on Knowledge Discovery...

"The current government is really plugged into what's needed."

One step closer to quantum data centres with the launch of his company's advanced photonics packaging facility, Xanadu founder and CEO Christian Weedbrook joins to discuss the renewed federal interest in quantum technology, how it relates to Canadian sovereignty, and where the money to fund it should come from.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by KDD 2025, the world's leading conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. Connect with top researchers, industry pioneers, and innovators driving real-world impact.

At KDD 2025, you'll explore cutting-edge research, gain...

" It's kind of that 'Valley or bust' mentality which breaks the ecosystem and really hurts Canada."

Harley Finkelstein (Shopify), Mike Katchen (Wealthsimple), and Aidan Gomez (Cohere) hold a candid conversation about 'Ambition made in Canada' during Toronto Tech Week. Recorded live at Homecoming.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by Invest Northern Ireland—the gateway to international growth.

International Tech companies are discovering countless advantages in Northern Ireland. That's why it's the #2 international investment location for US Cybersecurity firms, as well as Europe's leading location for new Software development projects. Global Tech giants like Micr...

" The company fascinates me… because they have such interesting concepts internally. One of them being 'treat the company as a future adversary,' which I have never seen anywhere in my career."

Bluesky's head of trust and safety is a Canadian working out of Dublin. In town to speak at the BetaKit Town Hall for Toronto Tech Week, Aaron Rodericks first joined The BetaKit Podcast to discuss his journey from government to social media, lessons learned from working at Twitter, and how Bluesky might one day help you find joy online.

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The Beta...

"I want to put ambition in people's hands. You say it doesn't exist—you're going to hold it, you're going to flip through it, you're going to see it."

BetaKit CEO Siri Agrell joins to discuss today's launch of BetaKit's Most Ambitious: our first-ever print issue, telling stories of bold ambition in Canadian tech.

Consider this your Most Ambitious director's commentary companion, with highlights of some of our favourite stories from the inaugural issue, alongside a behind-the-scenes peek at how it was made. We also answer the most important question facing Canadian tech: how do yo...

" Subversiveness is a way of changing the system. And I think what we're seeing right now is that all systems are changing."

Entrepreneur and Startupfest founding partner Alistair Croll has co-authored a new book, Just Evil Enough: The Subversive Marketing Handbook. If you're wondering why your company is so bad with its go-to-market execution, or which rules need to be bent (or broken) to win in the attention economy, this book might shoot to the top of your summer reading list.

Originally aired: Feb 02, 2025

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by The BetaKit Newsletter. Yo...

" That's what we wanna change, right? For future companies, more Canadian investors on the cap table so that we can see those benefits come back through investment, through mentorship." 

Jill Earthy, CEO of InBC Investment Corp—a provincial Crown corporation with $500 million of direct and indirect capital to deploy—joins to discuss the state of Canadian venture, the role of organizations like hers in BC's growing tech ecosystem, and InBC's future fundraising plans. Recorded live at Web Summit Vancouver.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by Motion: the control center for creative strategists.

Motion helps b...

"Be a customer of Canadian startups. This is the thing that every company needs. Nobody died from having too many customers." 

The CEO of the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, Cam Linke, joins to discuss the next phase of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy and how Amii stands apart from other national AI institutes, Vector and Mila. Recorded live from the Upper Bound AI conference.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by Motion: the platform helping marketing teams turn ad performance data into creative strategy.

Motion makes it easy to analyze what's working across your campaigns, f...

" Companies have spent a lot of time and money creating really great user experience for humans. And now there's kind of this race to create a really good experience for AI agents."

Erik Reppel, head of engineering for the Coinbase Developer Platform, joins to explain why the x402 open payment standard he helped create might plug one of the oldest holes in the internet, and how the protocol could revolutionize commerce—with the help of cryptocurrency and AI.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by OVHcloud, the global cloud provider trusted by innovators worldwide.

OVHc...

" I think every ecosystem is different, but we can learn a lot from Silicon Valley, and we can merge what we have here."

Faire co-founder and Chief Architect Marcelo Cortes explains his journey from Brazil to Canada, how working in Kitchener-Waterloo connected him to Silicon Valley, and the process of applying the lessons learned there to his company. We also discuss how Faire's wholesale marketplace for retailers is navigating the trade war, its use of AI, and how it convinced former Uber CTO Thuan Pham to join the company.

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The BetaKit Podcast is...

"Bad actors are weaponizing AI faster than governments and enterprises are using AI to combat it."

New data shows that more than half of all internet traffic comes from bots, and a third of those bots have malicious intent. Koat.ai co-founder Connor Ross joins to discuss the impact of the disinformation and defamation campaigns these bots run, how governments and enterprises are unprepared for this AI-driven explosion, and why the social networks are doing nothing to stop it.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by OVHcloud, the global cloud provider trusted by innovators worldwide.

"I feel like doing this is one of the greatest gifts of my life. Working with these people energizes me."

Joe Canavan, principal at Canavan Capital, is Canada's 2025 Angel of the Year. Recorded live at the NACO Summit in Ottawa, Canavan discusses his passion and enthusiasm for investing in tech after a career in finance, and what Canada should do to bolster its productivity and economic sovereignty.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by OVHcloud, the global cloud provider trusted by innovators worldwide.

OVHcloud offers transparent, sovereign cloud solutions designed to help you build...

"I think for any entrepreneur that's navigated the last five years, I don't know if there was a worse time to be building a company."

Clutch found a new gear for its business after a post-pandemic lull … just in time for tariffs to hit. Dan Park (CEO) and Stephen Seibel (COO) join to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated online car retail, how the end of cheap capital pumped their brakes, and how Clutch regained traction after a savvy market expansion. What has this journey taught them about how to prepare for whatever tariffs will do to th...

" Toronto Tech Week belongs to everyone. Toronto Tech Week is by definition a platform, and it succeeds or fails by the virtue of all the hosts and all of the ecosystem in Toronto wanting to participate."

Filling the summer event gap that Collision left in the city, Toronto Tech Week plans to host 10,000 people attending over 100 events this June. How did the 'community-driven platform' come to be? How will it be different than other tech events? Toronto Tech Week founding partners and co-organizers Ameet Shah (Golden Ventures), Satish Kanwar (Good Future), and Mell Truong (Sage Consulting) join to...

" At the end of the day, I really wanted a Pebble. It didn't exist. No one was building anything remotely like it. So I, without really knowing what I was doing, decided to go and make it."

Almost 10 years after Pebble's demise, Eric Migicovsky is back building smartwatches. The Canadian behind some of the largest Kickstarter projects of all time explains why he's relaunching the device he originally made for himself, the incredible luck that has allowed him to do so, and the lessons he's learned along the way.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by Fl...

" It's worth it. Because this deserves to live. We've gotten it far enough that this deserves to actually come to fruition. I don't think there is another company in the world today that actually is closer to this sci-fi dream."

Revisiting BetaKit's January interview with SRTX founder Katherine Homuth about her company's ambitious goal to modernize Western textile manufacturing in light of recent news that she will step down as CEO contingent on a deal to secure new financing.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by Float. Float helps Canadian companies manage spend, automate expenses, and no...

" By the time these companies are ready for B and C [rounds], their cap tables are super clean, too. So it doesn't really make sense that we're not putting money into them."

In a time of global uncertainty, a new report by the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) shows that Canada lags other countries in foodtech funding, relying too much on public funding. CEO Dana McCauley joins to discuss the report, how CFIN's 6,500 members are navigating tariffs, and why it's important that Canada invests in the tech that feeds us.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by...

"Apple won't use user data to develop and train AI. And Apple lives in a world where AI is going to be table stakes in any software or hardware moving forward."

Call it counter-programming. A tech palate cleanse for all the election and trade war talk. This week, Rob and Doug tackle the latest AI developments: vibe coding, Cohere's (temporary?) LLM pole position, AI data centres from Telus (powered by Nvidia), and Apple's delayed intelligence.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by The Cyber Challenge, powered by Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst and CCTX—your pathway to new sa...

 "One of the things that I think we've got to critically think about in our country for the future is that we've got to begin using those dollars effectively, like the $4 billion in SR&ED."

CCI's Ben Bergen joins to discuss items innovators hope will be on the agenda in the forthcoming federal election before ranking what programs (VCCI, SR&ED, etc.) and policies (AI regulation, open banking, etc.) the next government in power might adopt, drop, or move forward.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by The Cyber Challenge, powered by Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst and CC...

"I don't know what Canadian DOGE is. You know what I know? That everyone is projecting both their hopes and fears onto this thing."

Ex-Shopify VP Daniel Debow joins to discuss his Build Canada initiative, what it's attempting to achieve, what it isn't, and his frustration regarding ongoing associations with 'Canadian DOGE'.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by The Cyber Challenge, powered by Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst and CCTX—your pathway to new sales, industry connections, and non-dilutive funding. If you're ready to scale, refine, and lead cybersecurity innovation, apply today at www.thecyberchallenge.ca. 

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"It feels like my inclusion was optional, and that is a scary message to be told. 'We were doing you a favour by letting you in the room.'"

AccessNow founder and CEO Maayan Ziv has been working in the accessibility space for over a decade—long enough to know that progress is slow and takes a fight. With DEIA currently being blamed for "everything from bad business decisions to plane crashes," Ziv joins to explain why she feels the fight is "slipping through our fingers."

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by CIX SUMMIT, powered by...

"Once you've cornered that beaver, look out. We are a vicious beast."

Rob and Douglas review the latest dispatches in Canada's impending trade war with the United States, specifically how Canadian tech is responding. Did someone poke the beaver and unleash Canada's quiet patriotism? A 3-2 overtime hockey win points to yes.

The BetaKit Podcast is presented by the University of Toronto Entrepreneurship Week, returning March 3-7 in downtown Toronto. Don't miss AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, 2024 Nobel laureate, live as he shares insights for startups.

View the schedule and register for free: uoft...