Just a few blocks away from postelection parties near Parliament Hill, some 500 non-partisan tech giants and seed-stage investors driving Canada toward prosperity were busily striking deals.
There was no talk of 鈥渘ation-building project funds鈥 or “reciprocal tariffs” 鈥 or any election promise 鈥 as our brightest innovators gathered for the annual听National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) summit at the National Arts Centre.
Instead, the gathered听fixated on Canada鈥檚 stale culture of entrepreneurship 鈥 and what to do about it.
I didn鈥檛 even hear U.S. President Donald Trump鈥檚 name mentioned once in two days of mingling with tech and AI leaders. Why? Because 鈥渃ulture eats strategy for breakfast鈥澨 a quote widely attributed to business guru Peter Drucker, who argued that strategic manoeuvring wilts if a firm鈥檚 culture is toxic.
Culture eats government policy, too 鈥 and entrepreneurs always see opportunities politicians don鈥檛.
Daniel Wigdor, a U of T computer science prof who sold his company,听Chatham Labs,听to Meta in 2020, told me at NACO how he imagines a Canada that can leverage its 鈥渄eep expertise in applied computing, building the AI apps atop the platforms others are spending tens of billions to develop.
鈥淟et the Americans win on foundation models,” Wigdor said. “We can happily build atop them and extract all the real value.鈥澨
I heard how Canada鈥檚 young entrepreneurs need to succeed to 鈥減ay it forward.鈥
Entrepreneurs extolled the 鈥淧ayPal Mafia,鈥 who, after the company鈥檚 sale to eBay, went on to become mega-entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley.
Extreme Venture Partners founder Ray Sharma, left, says 鈥渃orporate venture capital is the great unexploited opportunity,鈥 while GreenSky Ventures managing partner Jeff Brunet says AI is accelerating the startup game.
Brian de Rivera Simon/tarsipixstudios.comRay Sharma, founder of global app developer Xtreme Labs, saluted Newbridge Networks founder Sir Terry Matthews, who, after selling his firm to Alcatel for $7.1 billion U.S., founded or funded more than 100 companies, many of them in the Ottawa area.
Dan Burgar, co-founder of the Frontier Collective dedicated to promoting B.C.鈥檚 tech sector, told me Canadian founders need to plot next-generation startup mafias.
鈥淯ntil we have founders who exit, reinvest, and mentor and until success stories compound,” said Burgar, “we鈥檒l keep losing momentum.鈥澨
We don鈥檛 need more government programs
So, how do we get to a place to pay it forward? How do we scale a new culture of risk-taking?
We don鈥檛 need more government programs, said Jeff Brunet, managing partner of GreenSky Ventures and a five-time company-builder who sold his firms to titans including Google, Apple, and HP. Canada already provides substantial support through various initiatives, he said.
At NACO, I learned the elephant in today鈥檚 startup ecosystem isn鈥檛 tariffs or Trump 鈥 it鈥檚 AI.
Artificial intelligence is recasting how we think about value creation, Brunet said.
鈥淔ounders can now test for product-market fit with minimal capital,” he said, “compressing the early-stage life cycle.鈥
Sharma, who also founded Extreme Venture Partners, Canada鈥檚 prolific seed-stage venture capital company, wants corporate Canada to take way more risk to reap听massive rewards.
‘Women are overperforming, but underinvested鈥澨
鈥淐orporate venture capital is the great unexploited opportunity,鈥 Sharma said. 鈥淪ome like Shopify have admirably participated and funded some amazing companies. Others like banks or telcos in Canada drift in and out.鈥
Sharma feels Canadian corporate venture capital should boost investment in startups by at least ten times present levels.
Serial entrepreneur Shelley Kuipers, co-founder and co-CEO of The51, a venture fund dedicated to democratizing access to capital for women, said part of solving the culture problem is to harness the superpowers of female entrepreneurs.
Only two per cent of all venture funding goes to female-led founders.
鈥淲omen are an asset class that is overperforming,” Kuipers said, “but underinvested.鈥澨
Mark Miller, chief operating officer of Constellation Software, told me that entrepreneurial messaging for young people needs to shift from worshipping the big exit to what in Germany is called the 鈥淢ittelstand鈥 鈥 a cultural reverence for small to mid-sized businesses 鈥渇ocused on doing something that really matters to solve lasting problems.鈥
A collective sense of urgency for culture change
What bound every entrepreneur gathered was a sense of urgency for culture change.
Allen Lau is the co-founder of Wattpad and Two Small Fish Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm.
鈥淐anada has a rare opportunity to seize the moment 鈥 by lowering the hurdles for Canadian capital to own our most innovative companies and helping them scale globally,”听Lau said. “Prosperity and jobs will follow.”听
Our biggest innovation hurdle is cultural.
We often think that the behemoth economy to our south should define how Canadians think about a career in entrepreneurship.
Yet Canada can be a nimbler Silicon Valley nation that thinks smarter in the age of AI.
We can tackle tens of thousands of important problems, big and small, that need new solutions.
Yes, keep your elbows up, Canada鈥檚 greatest innovators are saying.
But before you do that, jump onto the rink.
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