A list in no particular order and missing many amazing Canadians! Canadian Dyanism/Exceptionalism needs to be celebrated way more. 🇨🇦
Tag folks/companies I missed.
Tech/Investors
@tobi
- Shopify
@gc
- Uber
@apoorva_mehta
- Instacart
@zatlyn
- Cloudflare
@rxin
and
@matei_zaharia
I launched a podcast called The Hard Part, inspired by
@HarryStebbings
and
@patrick_oshag
. I have seen a lack of great podcasts focused on Canadian founders, leaders and investors.
Is anyone writing a Walter Isaacson-style book on
@tobi
and the
@Shopify
story?
If not, it should be done. There is so much history to be captured, told and inspire others.
Just released the 100th episode of The Hard Part with Evan McCann today!
It has been such an amazing journey over the last year and a half. A huge thank you to all the amazing guests for their time and insights. Also for all the listeners for their feedback and suggestions.
I have exciting news! I am launching my own advisory and fractional agency called Cold Start.
Cold Start will help build sales playbooks, GTM strategies, outbound sales processes, ICP identification, sequence and content creation, hiring, compensation, and launch tech tools
If you ever are in Calgary or you’re passing through on the way to the mountains you should stop by THE spot for creators, builders and tech folks.
House 831 is live!
Very early stages of planning but going to do The Hard Part podcast meetups in Toronto and Waterloo in the fall!
Will be for guests + friends of the pod. Also planning one-off breakfasts, coffees, lunches and dinners.
Thinking of hosting stuff at Othership and other cool
Shoutout to everyone who isn’t in “top tier” type tech ecosystem who hosts meetups, walks, fireside chats, opens physical space for builders, demo events, speaks with students, etc.
Need more of the positive energy to create change versus complaining and doing nothing.
S2E17 with Jim Pattison the Chairman and CEO of The Jim Pattison Group. JPG is a multi-industry conglomerate with sales over $12B a year and more than 50,000 employees, JPG is one of the largest private companies in Canada.
The future of Canadian tech is bright 🇨🇦. Obviously has its challenges but so many folks pushing and building amazing things. I am very optimistic and bullish.
We have a huge gap in Canadian tech content creators! So much room for folks to make their mark.
@talbschwartz
is crushing it on Canadian fintech
@reistjustin
with Canadian climatetech
Still many popular American models that would crush it in Canada like Acquired, Not Boring,
I have three exciting announcements about The Hard Part 🇨🇦🚀
Season 3 launches on Monday, January 30! It will feature 2 episodes a week. Guests include top Canadian founders and investors from fintech, AI, CPG, DTC, health tech, gaming, web3 and more.
The first Calgary Tech Showcase will be held on Tuesday, June 11!
Andrew Browne (
@abrowne2789
) and I are pumped to host a top-notch demo event. Calgary Tech Showcase's vision is to become the centre point for builders, founders, and creatives to gather in Calgary with a mission
Confirmed I’ll be in Vancouver for Web Summit Vancouver next May. Trying to book either Revolver or Nemesis out for a few hours the first day morning.
Ideally this will be community driven. If you’re down to come/support let’s chat.
Gonna make this the best event possible.
I’m going to do the Allen & Co Sun Valley Conference/Coatue’s East Meets West Conference but for Canadian tech.
A small curated conference with off the record deep convos is highly needed.
"This is the first podcast I've done. It'll probably be the last one, frankly." - Adam McNamara (
@adammcnamara
) is the Founder and Angel Investor at his family office McNamara Family Investments.
Adam previously Co-Founded Select Start Studios (acquired by Shopify), was a VP
Vancouver tech's biggest alpha is the people who have "made it" and choose to live in Vancouver area, Vic and Whistler.
Former CTO of GitHub, Chairman of SkySkanner/Former CEO of Booking dot com, Former President of EA, Xbox and CEO of Zynga,
@dkhos
's uncle the founder of Future
Who in Canada is doing cheque writing at the first meeting? Who in Canada is investing in people + ideas not data + markets?
Talked to a lot of Canadian VCs, wonderful people, great finance folks, but they're not investing in people + ideas. Who is investing in people + ideas?
One year to the day that I released the first episode of The Hard Part! Thank you to all the amazing guests and listeners! I appreciate all the support and kind words over the past year. Really excited to keep putting out great episodes with great guests! More to come! 🇨🇦
After quite a few chats with founders. A founder matching platform similar to YC would be high impact for Canadians.
Top devs + top non-technical founders. Highly curated.
Could see this doing well!
So much fomo with
@socraticainfo
,
@newdemos_
with
@internetvin
and now
@NovusOrg
hosting unreal demo events in Waterloo, Toronto and Vancouver.
I’m gonna do this in Calgary. Who wants to help? It’s time to build Calgary!
Hit 133 episodes of The Hard Part today! Canadian tech excellence is real. Sooooo many exciting stories to share. Lots more to come, should hit 200 by the end of this year.
Also looking to expand the pod into investing and more IRL and virtual community initiatives.
Thank you
Had a great chat today with 5 other Canadian content creators focused on covering Canadian tech through newsletters and podcasts. Now expanding into helping with hiring, investing and more.
Future is bright 🇨🇦
Some banger episodes with the 12th employee at Instacart, a VC who worked with Peter Thiel, fun convo on Canadian crypto, VC from a Tier 1 US fund and more dropping over the next few weeks!
If you haven't subbed or listened to an episode of The Hard Part yet, then it is time.
I launched a group called Remote Calgary with Ralph Sadowski (
@RalphSadowski
) and Tyler Meema (
@TylerMMeema
)!
I started noticing a trend of top-tier talent in Calgary working remotely. Ralph is at Shopify and Tyler is at Wealthsimple. There has also been an influx of folks from
Remote Calgary membership list is stacked. Senior folks from Wealthsimple, Shopify, KOHO, Ramp, Brex, Stripe, Levels Health, AG1, Faire, Jobber, AngelList, Meta, Bird and much more!
The wave of folks moving from TO, SF, NYC and Van is increasing.
Keep an eye on this group!
A fresh $15M 🥵 🥵 🥵
Super surreal.
Just 7 months after closing our $14.5m B round, we brought on another $15M and some incredible partners in Viola Fintech and Intuit Ventures.
Alright, now back to work. People need access to their hard worked hours.
New episode with
@bwertz
the Founder and General Partner of
@VersionOneVC
! 🇨🇦
In this episode, we discuss...
-why your fund size is your strategy
-why branded categories are too late to invest in
-his Coinbase investment
-his anti-portfolio
Just recorded an episode with CEO of a Canadian semiconductor company, $100M+ raised, producing AI chips to power the future of AI, great learnings in the fabrication, design and production of chips. Dropping soon! 🇨🇦
Who is working on cool projects in Calgary? Feel free to DM me or send this to folks. Working on the first “Calgary Demos” (new better name to come) in June.
Space is locked down. Also support from some top investors and founders in town.
So much fomo with
@socraticainfo
,
@newdemos_
with
@internetvin
and now
@NovusOrg
hosting unreal demo events in Waterloo, Toronto and Vancouver.
I’m gonna do this in Calgary. Who wants to help? It’s time to build Calgary!
S2E14 with
@notionport
from
@vantechjournal
. Vancouver Tech Journal uncovers and tells the stories that matter in Vancouver's tech ecosystem. They have a daily and a twice-weekly newsletter.
Every time I chat with
@mattroberts
I’m guaranteed to learn something new. Need to preserve Matt’s insights and learnings on Canada’s tech and venture ecosystem history. Should be a national priority.
Pod episode dropping soon!
Part of my podcast goal guest list. Will take time but will happen. Missing anyone? 🇨🇦
- Garrett Camp
@gc
- Mark Leonard (has politely declined once)
- Ivan Zhao
@ivanhzhao
- Michelle Zatlyn
@zatlyn
- Matei Zaharia and Reynold Xin
- Jeff Skoll
- Yuri Sagalov
@yuris
- Bryan
House 831 🏠is putting on the best events in Calgary!
We had
@TateHackert
moderate an off the record talk with
@PatrickLor
from
@PanacheVC
and James Povitz from NAventures (National Bank’s CVC arm).
More to come! If you are ever in Calgary and want to join or do a chat hmu. If
S2 finale with
@jasoncwarner
the former CTO of
@github
and current MD at
@Redpoint
just dropped! In this episode, we discuss Jason’s time as CTO of GitHub, how he has built his career while working remotely and his move into early-stage investing.
Canadians have started companies like Ethereum, Uber, Shopify, Databricks, Slack, Roblox, Cloudflare, Faire, Notion and OpenAI! 🇨🇦
That's why chatting with Andre Charoo (
@acharoo
), the Founder and GP at Maple VC (
@MapleVCFund
), was a ton of fun!
Maple backs founders with
One of my previous VC guests had an LP that passed on them last year.
That LP recently listened to our episode together, re-engaged and the VC closed them as an LP.
Love it!
🚨 Web Summit Vancouver 🚨
Last month I flew to Vancouver to meet Mayor Ken Sim & the Vancouver tech community. I was blown away by Vancouver’s beauty and its flourishing tech scene.
Today we’re announcing our first Web Summit in North America, Web Summit Vancouver. We’re
Awesome chat yesterday by Mark Miller the COO of Constellation Software and Exec Chair at Volaris Group!
Debuting on the TSX in May 2006, Constellation (TSE: CSU) has returned over 19,680% to its investors in less than two decades.
Some contrarian highlights!
-Buy and hold
Wow! People are interested in this. Just started working on an episode about one of the largest alternative investment firms in the world with a 120 year history that is 🇨🇦. More details coming soon!
My conversation with Elizabeth Yin (
@dunkhippo33
) the Co-Founder and General Partner of
@hustlefundvc
!
Hustle Fund is a venture capital fund investing in founders at the pre-seed and seed stages. They also have Angel Squad, a vetted community of angel investors, who get
🚨 Web Summit Vancouver 🚨
Last month I flew to Vancouver to meet Mayor Ken Sim & the Vancouver tech community. I was blown away by Vancouver’s beauty and its flourishing tech scene.
Today we’re announcing our first Web Summit in North America, Web Summit Vancouver. We’re
The third meetup for Remote Calgary was a huge success! Thanks to
@TateHackert
and the
@ZayZoon
team for hosting us.
Folks from Stripe, Ramp, Shopify, Wealthsimple, KOHO, JET, Lyra Health, PurposeMed and more came out. The group is insanely talented and wants to make Calgary
Anyone building the modern wealth management firm focused on Canadian tech founders + operators?
Grayhawk but with tech domain expertise + network + access.
Full stack with mortgages, financial planning, tax, understanding options, access to LP opps, etc.
I’m really fired up about this.
I do agree Microsoft, Apple, Starbucks and the like are very interesting stories. I love them.
But what if we told them in a similar way about Shopify, Jim Pattison Group, Couche-Tard?
So much of Canadian business history is fragmented in
I think the “Canadian content has a small market” is a myth. It’s that traditionally we don’t share our entrepreneurs and businesses in an exciting way.
Any time a Tobi, Chip Wilson or Bruce Flatt type do an interview with American media it blows up.
We need to do a better job
People always list traits like grit, hardworking, intelligent and stuff, but I think an undervalued trait is being easy and fun to work with. You'd be surprised how much of an edge that gives you.
Going to be the universally sickest space this city has ever seen. Building a lab for people that are ready to be top 5% in the world at their craft or die trying
Keep shooting Vin
Was having coffee in Toronto yesterday with a previous podcast guest.
Someone came up who had met the guest in the past and had been listening to our podcast episode the day before.
So cool to meet listeners IRL.
New episode with
@kkliman
the Co-Founder and CEO of
@gethumi
!
Humi is Canada’s leading payroll, HR, and benefits platform. Serving thousands of Canadian companies, Humi is the best-in-one people platform that your company will love.
In this episode, we discuss...
-Businesses
Curious why there isn't a leading or multiple CPG/DTC VC(s) in Vancouver area. The ecosystem seems to have all the ingredients.
Big brands - lulu, Aritiza, Reigning Champ, Arc'teryx, Herschel, Kit & Ace, Vega
Scaling CPG/DTC brands - Vessi, Monos, SmartSweets, Blume x 2, Duer,
One of The Hard Part's goals is to create amazing content about Canadian founders, operators and investors. With the ability for listeners to learn and become inspired to build.
In keeping with that theme, I am excited to announce an exciting new way for my audience to find and
My conversation with Alex McIsaac (
@AlexMcIsaac333
) the Founder and General Partner of Northside Ventures (
@Northside__VC
)!
Northside Ventures is a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional Canadian founders in the US and Canada with unique insights
The Khosrowshahis are one of the most high-achieving families of all time.
Despite losing a $500M+ biz in the Iranian revolution in 1977, they moved all over the world and—
Went to elite universities
Became elite entrepreneurs, execs or investors
Have $10M to $1B+ net worth
Excited to see House 831 applications open! Amazing work
@TateHackert
.
House 831 is a vetted clubhouse for founders, builders and creators.
This space is perfect if you are early in your founder journey, work remotely or just want to be around other like-minded folks.
My conversation with
@robbfraser
the founder of
@outwaysocks
.
Outway makes performance socks for the pursuit of personal bests
In this episode, we discuss why Rob decided to focus on socks, how he thinks about cash flow and the nuances of designing an apparel product
Just sent out the fifth The Hard Part - Guest + Friends Newsletter, it goes to 350+ pod guests, VCs, FOs, angels, founders and operators.
If you are raising (VC or startup), hiring, launching a product, have news to share or anything else DM me and I can add it to future
A very fun conversation with Alex Kolicich (
@AlexKolicich
) a Founding Partner of 8VC!
At 8VC (
@8VC
), they partner with elite founders to build transformational technologies that create long-term economic and societal value.
They are investors who never stopped being engineers,
For those starting a podcast:
You have to really specialise.
Interviewing other founders is no where near being specialised enough. It will not work.
Interviewing fintech founders about regulation challenges. 100x better.
Find your 1,000 true fans. Crucial.
My conversation with
@DanEbs
from
@GetKoho
In this episode, we discuss Daniel’s early days starting a renewable energy company, why he has focused on helping Canada’s underbanked and how views on building a great team.