Canada’s Top Companies To Watch 🇨🇦

We are beyond thrilled to announce this year’s list of Canada’s Top Companies. This coverage is dedicated to all the founders, innovators, and leaders across the country who are building a better future in Canada. A huge thank you to all the founders and their teams who shared their stories with our community. Massive congratulations to these incredible teams; we know you are bound to do amazing things. Check out the full list here:

60. Shomigo Markets
59. Savant Recruitment
58. Toronto Tech Fest
57. Joypad
56. Biiibo
55. JobBliss
54. MavenMind
53. QuantigoAI
52. NeuraVue
51. Cansulta
50. Karla Rewards
49. Toast
48. SimpliCity
47. Navio
46. PolyCareers
45. Alt Grocery
44. Tenure
43. Deeded
42. wrksourcing
41. ARKI
40. Surex
39. Salubrum
38. BrightIron
37. RideAlike
36. RealSage
35. Motiv
34. Privy Reviews
33. Souqh
32. Equivesto
31. The Venned Group
30. Binoloop
29. SingleKey
28. Discrepancy AI
27. Nü Benefits
26. Boast
25. Maple
24. Vetster
23. 409.ai
22. Fortay
21. Whistle Technologies
20. Crafty Ramen
19. Blanka
18. Shinydocs
17. Edgecom Energy
16. Part3
15. Huex Labs
14. CruxOCM
13. Standard Field Systems
12. Truly Financial
11. Railz
10. FutureVault
9. Gambit Technologies
8. Wisedocs
7. Cove Neurosciences Inc.
6. Stay22
5. Purity Gas
4. ZayZoon
3. Airfairness
2. Chocolate Soup
1. Bidmii

60. Shomigo Markets

Founders: Alykhan Kara
Website: https://www.shomigomarkets.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Shop local online and in person for unique, handcrafted products.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Reaching the right audience

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
We can increase access to capital, enhance education and training, foster community collaboration, improve infrastructure and support services, promote diversity and inclusion, strengthen market access, provide government and policy support, and raise awareness of success stories.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Keep trying and pivoting. It’s a much longer process than people think.

59. Toronto Tech Fest 

Founders: Michael Liu, Mell Truong
Website: https://www.torontotechfest.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Toronto Tech Fest is the biggest unconference (a decentralised week of events) in Toronto. We’re bringing together thousands of top founders, innovators, startups and organizations from around the world to connect, explore, and build together.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
One of the most significant challenges in scaling Toronto Tech Fest is operating with limited budgets and resources – and doing something that hasn’t been done in recent years for the community. This constraint forces us to be resourceful and creative in finding ways to fund and execute the event. We relied heavily on community support, in-kind donations, and leveraging existing resources. This experience underscored the importance of building strong relationships within the community and highlighted the incredible generosity and willingness to collaborate that exists within the Toronto tech ecosystem.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
We need to help support innovators at their earliest stages. That means giving more young people opportunities to participate in entrepreneurship, fostering a robust community to help support startups as they grow, and creating a national framework that rewards founders for creating outsized value and taking risks.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Make sure your product/service fills a large gap in the market. Also, figure out how to clearly articulate why you’re different or how you can be of value/solve a particular problem. Then be relentless with networking, building connections, and getting out there! Grit, and determination will help you stand out from the rest!

58. Savant Recruitment

Founders: Jessica Smith
Website: https://savantrecruitment.ca

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Savant Recruitment doesn’t just build your engineering team, we build your business. We leverage proven assessments like Coderpad to identify elite engineers who fit your needs. Reduce your time to fill by 50% and free up resources to focus on what matters – growing your business.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Canadian Economic Conditions

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
More access to capital while addressing regional imbalances.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Conduct thorough market research before you decide to launch anything.
Data will drive your decision making in your business, so be prepared to go through the ebbs and flows of what’s going on in the markets. Build your network. Get involved in your communities.

57. Joypad

Founders: Muhammad Jaffar
Website: https://www.joypadstudios.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
JoyPad is a design and development studio committed to pushing boundaries and crafting extraordinary digital experiences. Our team consists of global talent with decades of experience in over 50 industries, passionate about making products that make our world a better place.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
The biggest challenge we’ve faced in scaling Joypad Studios has been managing rapid growth while maintaining the quality and personalized attention that our clients expect. As our client base expanded, we had to quickly onboard and hire new designers to meet demand while trying not to compromise our high standards. Balancing the needs of a growing team with the expectations of our clients required us to refine our internal processes, improve internal communication, and invest in proper training.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
To grow the Canadian startup ecosystem, focusing on mentorship and communities is vital. With Techstars Toronto pausing their accelerator, it’s more crucial than ever to create robust mentorship programs. These programs provide guidance, advice, and support to local startups. Opportunities from these mentorships or communities can lead to finding new customers or connecting with the right people to help elevate your startup to the next level.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Just start – begin with something simple. Every step counts. Don’t wait for the perfect moment; take action, learn from your experiences, and keep moving forward. The most important thing is to get started and stay persistent.

56. Biiibo

Founders: Roger Sabat, Alex Sabat, Amanda Sabat
Website: https://www.biiibo.com

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Biiibo is an on-demand marketplace and platform for construction supplies that streamlines the purchase and delivery of materials in the construction industry. Through the Biiibo app, homeowners and professional contractors can better manage their renovation projects, find the supplies they need, and order their materials ahead of time or on-demand within the same day.

55. JobBliss

Founders: Angie Kramer
Website: https://jobbliss.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

JobBliss is a platform for companies to manage and collaborate with contractors, freelancers, and vendors, providing project oversight, invoicing, and real-time collaboration.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

Finding skilled talent to support with growth, especially with SaaS experience in the Canadian market.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

Provide tax incentives for Canadian companies to work with startups, lowering the barrier of entry for emerging ideas to achieve feedback, revenue and product market fit.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

Build a network of experts in your industry that understand the Canadian market.

54. MavenMind

Founders: Anastasia Artemova, Yuliya Slavnova
Website: https://www.mavenmind.ai

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Training job seekers to land their next opportunity and get a raise

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

Navigating the multitude of unknowns, and learning to make decisions based on the limited amount of knowledge and information available at any given moment. Over time we’ve learned that perfect is the enemy of good, and the speed of making decisions has a great impact on our early stage progress.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

I find that Canadians are very conservative and risk averse. One way to inspire more risk-taking is to normalize failure and share more stories of founders and startups that did not succeed right away, but persevered. Failure stories are as important as success stories.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

Just take that risk. No matter the outcome, you will always be better, smarter, safer, richer at the other end of it.

53. Quantigo AI

Founders: Nasib Ahmed
Website: https://www.quantigo.ai

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.


Quantigo AI provides high-quality data labelling services to empower companies to build on the foundation for training their machine learning models.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

The biggest challenge we’ve faced in scaling the business has been managing the balance between rapid growth and maintaining the high quality of our training data. Ensuring that we continue to deliver precise, high-quality data while expanding our client base and services has required significant investment in both technology and talent. We’ve had to continuously innovate our processes and tools to handle larger volumes of data without compromising accuracy. Additionally, recruiting and retaining skilled professionals who align with our commitment to excellence has been crucial in overcoming this challenge.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
Accessing capital can be a real challenge for Canadian startups, especially when it comes to securing grants. Despite government efforts to promote innovation, many startups find the grant application process to be highly competitive and complex. On top of that, there’s a limited supply of venture capital compared to ecosystems like Silicon Valley, which makes it even tougher for early-stage companies to get the funding they need to grow. This financial strain can seriously hinder their ability to compete on a global scale and stifle their potential for innovation. To create a stronger startup ecosystem, it’s crucial to simplify the grant application process and increase the availability of both public and private funding sources.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Leveraging available resources and building a strong network are crucial steps for Canadian entrepreneurs. Take full advantage of government grants, tax credits, and support programs such as the Canada Small Business Financing Program and the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax incentive program. Additionally, connect with other entrepreneurs, mentors, and industry experts through networking events, startup incubators, and accelerators. Organizations like MaRS Discovery District, Communitech, and Ryerson’s DMZ offer valuable support and connections that can help you navigate the challenges of starting and growing your business.

52. NeuraVue

Describe what your company does in 140 characters:
NeuraVue specializes in AI-driven safety solutions for senior homes, offering real-time detection of falls, abuse, and emergencies.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
The biggest challenge in scaling NeuraVue has been navigating regulatory requirements and ensuring data privacy and security while integrating our AI solutions into various senior care facilities. Balancing innovation with compliance and privacy concerns requires constant vigilance and adaptation.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
To grow the Canadian startup ecosystem, we need to enhance access to funding, foster stronger mentorship networks, and streamline regulatory processes. Increasing collaboration between startups, established businesses, and academic institutions can drive innovation and provide startups with the resources and support they need to thrive.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Focus on understanding your market deeply, build a strong network of mentors and advisors, and prioritize customer feedback to refine your product. Additionally, leverage government grants and programs designed to support innovation and growth in the Canadian startup ecosystem.

51. Cansulta

Founder: Alexandra Kapelos-Peters
Website: https://www.cansulta.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Cansulta offers flexible, on-demand consulting solutions from vetted & verified experts. Hire by the hour, project, or get fractional support with no commitment & low risk.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

B2B customers & business clients are reluctant to try new ways of working, and prefer to keep to stick to the norm and follow tradition even though its less effective.  No matter how well you think your business is doing, we can always do better, improve, and optimize, and we ALL have gaps to fill and lack the time and expertise to do everything we need and should to thrive.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

Probably no surprises or anything too unique here! We need to improve access to diverse funding sources, foster strong mentorship and support networks, and streamline the regulatory environment. Promoting educational initiatives that bridge academia and industry, ensuring inclusivity, and encouraging global connectivity are also crucial. Building a vibrant community through local hubs and events can further drive innovation and collaboration.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
*

Do your research! Test the market and validate the need for your product or services! Leverage the many support networks and resources available. Focus on building strong relationships with mentors and industry experts who can guide you through challenges. Take advantage of government grants and funding programs, and don’t hesitate to seek out angel investors and other supporters & backers. Prioritize understanding and navigating the regulatory landscape to avoid pitfalls. Embrace inclusivity in your team and operations, and think globally from the outset. Lastly, immerse yourself in the startup community—networking and collaboration are invaluable for growth and innovation.

50. Karla Rewards

Founders: Robin Gray
Website: https://www.karlarewards.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

We help newcomers and international students build a strong credit score every rental payment while building financial literacy

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

During the early stages, we struggled with meeting with literally anyone and anything (literally we got booked by an email sales bot) who wanted to meet with us. We learned that focus and being extremely selective with your time and focusing with what’s in front of you (existing customers!) will go a long way and you’re also more likely to make meaningful connections when you are 100% present and focus on the mission.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
Giving access to credit to Canada’s future generation is extremely important. Credit opens doors in terms of trust worthiness, access to car loans and even access to affordable housing.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
1. Be authentic. People are drawn to authenticity and high energy
2. Don’t raise until you’re able to say “We do “X amazing thing” because of “X significant problem” and we target “X specific market” in “X specific provinces/states”
3. Don’t seek too much advice from people who aren’t willing to be your paying customers

49. Toast 

Founders: Marissa McNeelands, April Hicke
Website: https://www.trytoast.ca/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Toast empowers women in tech and enables diversity within tech teams by getting women jobs at companies we trust.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
The biggest challenge has been integrating advanced technology solutions to streamline operations while maintaining a personalized and inclusive experience for our clients and members.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
We can grow the Canadian startup ecosystem by fostering collaboration between startups and established companies, enhancing access to funding, and providing mentorship programs that emphasize diversity and inclusion.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Our best advice is to leverage Canada’s diverse talent pool, seek mentorship, and build a strong network. Focus on solving real problems with innovative solutions and stay adaptable in the ever-evolving market.

48. SimpliCity

Founders: Briana Sim, CEO and Ian Sim, CTO
Website: www.simplicitycms.ca

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

SimpliCity is the only composable content management and digital services platform purpose-built for Canadian municipalities.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
The challenges are two-fold: 1) On the funding side, investors are cautious of investing early into a company who is focused on solving problems for the slower-moving government sector. They want to see a higher volume of success. 2) On the sales side, government organizations are more risk-averse and despite saying they want to support smaller businesses, they often only want to do business with those who already have hundreds of customers and an iron-clad history (which no longer makes them SMEs). We have the patience, optimism, and stubbornness to work through these scaling challenges because we believe in our mission in making a positive difference in our communities, and what better place to start than with government bodies that serve the public.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

More than anything, we need champions and advocates for each startup to introduce folks to their networks and provide solid advice. Structurally barriers need to be removed for underrepresented groups to thrive in the startup ecosystem – education, funding, support in all forms. Canadian startups of all sizes and industries need to be highlighted throughout Canada and globally to show the depth and breadth of issues we’re tackling.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

If you have a passion, a unique way of seeing the world, and you want to make an impact, don’t let anything stop you. Starting a business is not taking the easy path and you will be knocked down more than you can imagine. However, the inner strength and confidence that grows as you keep moving forward will fuel you to achieve things you would never have thought was possible.

47. Navio

Founders: Brooke Finlay
Website: https://navioimmigration.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Navio is unlocking infinite possibilities of human potential and co-creating a better world by making immigration legal services more affordable and trustworthy.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Access to exposure and capital.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
Shifting the paradigm of what professional success looks like and creating more centralized support systems to help founders de-risk their ventures and achieve success in the early stages of startup.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Focus on solving a pressing problem. Not all problems need to be solved. Make sure people are willing to pay to solve the problem then build your solution based on what your target audience desires, not what you think they want or need.

46. PolyCareers

Founders: Virginia Poly and Asif Chowdhary
Website: https://polycareers.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
PolyCareers is an innovative AI-driven job portal designed by experts in the recruitment industry to streamline the hiring process for both companies and candidates. Our platform offers a suite of powerful features that makes the recruitment process more enjoyable.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
Talent retention and funding opportunities are on the top of the list.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Conduct thorough market research and develop a solid MVP to ensure your idea meets a real need and is financially viable.

45. Alt Grocery

Founders: Tom Pischel
Website: https://www.altgrocery.ca/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
AltGrocery.ca connects Canadians to local and affordable groceries, promoting transparency, supporting small businesses, and ensuring food security.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Upon launching in late April, much of Canada was choosing to boycott large grocery chains, making it crucial to move quickly and update data efficiently. Since we rely on crowdsourced recommendations from cities and provinces across Canada, it was necessary to scrub that data, perform due diligence to ensure accuracy, geocode it, and integrate it into our database. This process was incredibly time-consuming.
Building a national website in such a short time was a first for me. However, by implementing automation, I was able to streamline the onboarding process. Within the first week of launch, we had 101K visitors, which crashed the map feature. This issue had to be quickly revisited and fixed to handle the high traffic.
The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is managing rapid growth, scalability, and funding. AltGrocery.ca started as a venture project and is currently funded by generous donations and organic marketing efforts. To support local businesses and continue growing, we will likely need to rely on sponsorships and affiliations. Balancing these demands while ensuring small shops get noticed and users have a good experience requires constant innovation and improvement of our technology.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
To grow the Canadian startup ecosystem, we need to foster a culture of collaboration and support. This can be achieved by:
Increasing access to funding and resources for early-stage startups
Enhancing mentorship programs to guide new entrepreneurs
Encouraging partnerships between startups and established businesses
Supporting initiatives that connect Canadian startups to international markets.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Start with a problem that affects a broad audience and focus on creating a meaningful impact. Leverage the power of community and crowdsourcing to build a strong user base. Prioritize transparency, quality, and authenticity in your offerings. Network actively within the startup ecosystem and seek out mentors who can provide guidance. Stay adaptable and be prepared to pivot when necessary. Timing is crucial too; find out the current needs of the people—affordable food, for instance, is a pressing issue that everyone is concerned about.

44. Tenure

Founders: Jonathan Hillis
Website: https://tenurefi.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

We provide employees with personalized rewards and benefits and offer leaders actionable insights for proactive engagement and retention.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

The biggest challenge we’ve faced in scaling the business is ensuring robust security and compliance measures when entering new global markets. Each market has unique regulatory requirements and data protection laws, which necessitates thorough research and adaptation of our practices. Implementing these security and compliance measures in a scalable fashion has been critical. We needed to design our systems to not only meet the stringent standards of today but also to be adaptable for future requirements as we continue to expand. This involved significant investment in technology, staff training, and continuous monitoring to ensure compliance and protect our users’ data across various jurisdictions. Balancing these needs with our growth objectives has required meticulous planning and a proactive approach to potential regulatory changes, ensuring that our infrastructure can support our expansion without compromising on security or compliance.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

Growing the Canadian startup ecosystem can be achieved through several key strategies:

Increase Funding Access: Enhance access to funding by encouraging more venture capital investment, government grants, and support from angel investors.

Streamline Regulations: Simplify regulatory processes and reduce barriers to entry for startups, making it easier to start and grow a business.

Raise Awareness: Increase awareness of Canadian startups through marketing campaigns, participation in international tech events, and highlighting success stories to attract investment and talent.

By implementing these strategies, Canada can create a more vibrant and supportive ecosystem that enables startups to thrive and succeed on a global scale.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Truly understand the customers problem you are trying to solve. Do an abundance of interviews, research, and surveys. Don’t give your product away from free, you need supporters that see the value of you startup and how it will help them, if its solving their problem they will pay.

43. Deeded  

Founders: Reuven Gorsht
Website: https://deeded.ca/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Deeded simplifies real estate transactions with seamless online closing services for home buying, selling, and refinancing across Canada.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Introducing a new concept to the market takes time to adopt

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
To grow the Canadian startup ecosystem, we need more capital, risk taking, and tax friendly incentives for entrepreneurs.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Focus on solving real problems, find PMF before raising, build a strong network.

42. wrksourcing

Founders: Tyler Cameron
Website: https://wrksourcing.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
wrksourcing is your trusted virtual assistant and workflow solutions partner supporting entrepreneurs and business owners who are committed to growth.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
The biggest challenge I faced as I grew my business was securing capital. We had a clear vision of our growth strategy but needed to ensure we expanded at the right pace.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
Growing the Canadian startup ecosystem can be achieved through education, access to funding, and promotion.

Education: By educating startups about available resources, where to seek advice, and how to navigate the early stages, we can strengthen the foundation and increase their chances of survival.

Access to Funding: As I mentioned earlier, funding is crucial. Ensuring startups have access to the necessary capital will support their growth.

Promotion: Highlighting the success stories of Canadian startups will continue to showcase how startups are thriving here in Canada.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
My best advice for those starting a business in Canada is to not neglect the foundational aspects of your business. While it’s important for startups to move quickly, it should not come at the expense of the key pillars. This includes documenting processes, conducting thorough market research, and implementing the proper tech stack and resources for example. These elements will evolve as your company grows, but not giving them the attention they need before launching can ultimately determine whether a business succeeds or fails.

41. ARKI 

Founders: Natalia Bakaeva, Mehdi Karamnejad
Website: https://www.getarki.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
ARKI empowers architects through referenceable design knowledge and acts as an AI Archivist, taking care of tedious details and enhancing professionals 10x to design complaint buildings faster leveraging their existing internal design data.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

The most significant challenge in scaling our business has been ensuring the seamless integration of our AI tool with the various design software used by architectural firms while maintaining rigorous data privacy and security standards. Additionally, we’ve faced hurdles in identifying and engaging innovators and early adopters, which are crucial for early-stage feedback and product refinement. Addressing the technical concerns, particularly around the functionality and integration of our product into existing workflows, has also been a complex part of our scaling journey. Our technology is rooted in innovation, and we continually delve deep into research and development daily to push the boundaries of what our AI can achieve in the architectural data space.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
To grow the Canadian startup ecosystem, we need to foster more collaboration between startups, academia, and government, increase access to venture capital, and enhance focused and specific mentorship programs for entrepreneurs.

40. Surex

Founders: Lance Miller CEO, Matt Alston COO
Website: https://www.surex.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Surex is an online insurance brokerage, allowing Canadians to Compare, Save and Purchase Car and Home insurance all online.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Differentiate your brand. Surex prides itself on differentiating how we do business from other more traditional broker models. Our clients are assigned to a dedicated advisor to ensure they have one point of contact to assess and assist in their changing insurance needs

39. Salubrum

Founders: Osama Usmani and Osama Usmani
Website: https://www.salubrum.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Salubrum is on a mission to evangelize the North American healthcare system to medical tourism. We do this in two ways: For patients we build digital tools, like our Travelwise Passport, to make their medical tourism experience safe, affordable and easy. For payors we build compliance products that allow them to leverage medical tourism for their referrals.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Figuring out innovative ways to improve market penetration for medical tourism in North America.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
Have pension funds and endowments increase funding to the innovation economy.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Do not underestimate the power of the simple yet efficient, Gmail > ChatGPT > Linkedin, work stack.

38. BrightIron

Founders: Mandeep Saini
Website: https://brightiron.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
BrightIron offers bookkeeping, accounting, Fractional CFO and HR support that can scale with startups as they grow.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Similar to many growing companies, our biggest challenges have always been surrounding talent acquisition and scaling operations. Attracting top talent that have experience working as operators in startup companies, have a client first mindset, and an ability to work in an entrepreneurial environment has been challenging as it is a fine balance between ensuring we have the right people to meet client demands while maintaining our high service standards. Scaling operations as our business grows has also been a challenge as we are constantly trying to improve our processes to increase efficiency without sacrificing quality. Balancing these elements while managing costs and optimizing performance is essential for our sustainable growth and success.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
The Canadian startup ecosystem has grown exponentially over the past decade, but we are still way behind our American counterparts. We need to make funding more accessible and invest more into support networks for startups. The Canadian funding landscape is very difficult to navigate as there are few options available. We need more private investors, angels, and VCs, alongside increased government support, to support innovation in Canada. This is especially true for early-stage companies that are in the pre-revenue stage of their lifecycle. Similarly, creating a strong mentorship and support network is also important to grow the ecosystem. We need more incubators, accelerators, community groups, and access to experienced mentors to coach and guide startups through their growth journey.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Starting a business anywhere in the world is hard. My best advice would be to utilize all of the resources available to you to increase your chances of success. Actively participate in industry events, try to get into incubators and accelerators, seek out mentors, talk to other founders, and work with industry experts. Engaging with the community and getting as much information as possible will allow you to avoid pitfalls and it will open new opportunities to you.

37. RideAlike

Founders: Zelani Bhuiyan, Abeda Pathan Bhuiyan
Website: https://ridealike.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Introducing the first peer-to-peer car sharing platform for multi-residential communities, fostering sustainable, convenient transport.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
The biggest challenge RideAlike faced in scaling the business was navigating the complexities of insurance coverage to ensure flexibility and protection for diverse usage scenarios, including personal and shared use within multi-residential communities. This required extensive negotiations and adjustments to policy terms to meet both regulatory requirements and user needs.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
We can grow the Canadian startup ecosystem with active support from the ecosystem, government, and corporations. By humbly screening high-potential startups, helping them achieve product-market fit, providing early-stage capital, facilitating pilot partnerships, highlighting their successes in the media, and humanizing the support system, we can foster significant growth.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Surround yourself with mentors, advisors, and peers for guidance and encouragement.
Conduct thorough market research and test your idea with niche groups to ensure it addresses a real problem.
Keep the customer central to your business, adapting based on feedback to meet their needs.

36. RealSage

Founders: Arunabh Dastidar, Gaurav Madani, Zain Nathoo
Website: https://realsage.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
RealSage is an AI-powered decision support system for asset owners and managers. We use advanced Data Science and Machine Learning models to help asset managers make better decisions across their portfolios.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
For those starting a business in Canada, prioritize validating your business idea by conducting thorough market research, seeking customer feedback, and testing your concept through pilot programs or small-scale launches.

35. Motiv

Founders: Clark Lai, Mariya Besedina
Website: https://motiv.digital

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

At Motiv Group, we strive to make the world a better place through digital innovation. We accomplish this by building new technologies, improving business processes, and taking a data-driven approach to innovation strategy. Our focus on innovation is driven by our desire to bring about meaningful change and add value to the world.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Finding the right people and partners along the way

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
Leveraging partnerships and motivating startups to work together
What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
 Fall in love with the problem and not with your idea.

34. Privy Reviews

Founders: Vanessa Franz
Website: https://privy.reviews/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Privy Reviews was built to help make the influencer industry more transparent. By allowing both brands and audiences to review influencers and creators, this platform helps uplift influencers doing incredible work and provides constructive feedback to those who need it.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Introducing a new idea can revolutionize an entire industry, but it also demands significant education. Many influencers have yet to consider using reviews to bolster their online brand presence, necessitating thorough customer education when introducing this concept. While growth may be slow initially, momentum will gradually build as the idea gains traction.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
As Canadian founders, we should prioritize partnering with and uplifting other startups within our local networks in Canada. Word-of-mouth marketing stands as one of the most powerful tools for brand awareness. By lending support to Canadian startups when appropriate, we not only contribute to their growth but also foster job creation and stimulate innovation within our community. When we collaborate and champion fellow startups, we contribute to the development of a thriving ecosystem that encourages others to pursue their entrepreneurial ideas. This interconnected support network not only strengthens individual businesses but also propels the Canadian startup landscape forward, making it more vibrant and dynamic.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
To succeed as a startup in Canada, it’s essential to conduct thorough market research to understand your industry landscape and identify potential opportunities. Study your competitors closely and ensure you have a clear differentiator that sets you apart. Engage with local startup founders through communities or LinkedIn, as many are willing to share their experiences, including their successes and challenges. Additionally, leverage government programs and resources tailored for startups in Canada, such as funding, mentorship, and networking opportunities, to help navigate the early stages of your business.

33. Souqh 

Founders: Ahmer Rafiq
Website: https://souqh.ca/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Experience a modernized homeownership experience. Simply connect, collaborate and transact with real estate services and home improvement professionals – all using one home ownership hub

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Changes in interest rates over the last year have significantly affected residential real estate market, impacting the bottom line for brokerages and realtors, which are primary customers. The slow down in the overall economy, coupled with increase in inflation and rising cost of homes have affected our ability to accelerate our growth. There is renewed optimism in the market given the last two consecutive rate cuts and we are working towards scaling in new markets such as Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
Access to early stage venture funding continues to remain a major challenges for Canadian startups. We need better access to funding through early stage channels including better crowd funding opportunities, angel investment networks and venture capital focused.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Learn to take your MVP to the market as early as possible. Learn from your customer feedback, iterate quickly, and strive to find product-market fit by understanding a core challenge for your primary customer which they will be willing to pay for.

32. Equivesto 

Founders: Ryan Correia & Alexander Morsink
Website: https://equivesto.com

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
A licensed EMD & online portal for private businesses to raise capital and Canadians to invest in vetted startups, small businesses, real estate, and funds.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
The biggest challenge initially was getting licensed as an Exempt Market Dealer and setting up the technology. That process took us roughly 3.5 years. Since launch, the largest challenge has been communicating with Canadians about private investments. Most Canadians do not have sophisticated investment knowledge, and are also risk adverse, so many do not understand where investing in startups could fit in their investment portfolios.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
The Canadian startup ecosystem compromises two parts, startups and investors. The Canadian space continues to help provide education and programming to new entrepreneurs, but sourcing capital from investors remains difficult. Building a community around your business (who could become investors in the future) is a strong recommendation. Supporting more conversations around the benefit of investing in Canadian startups and private investment in general will help make more capital available.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Remember to build your community and network while you build your business. Building in public has strong benefits to helping connect you with more likeminded individuals, holds you accountable, attracts potential clients, supporters, and suppliers, and positions you well for when you look to raise capital, whether you plan to raise privately or through equity crowdfunding.

31. The Venned Group

Founders: Kendra Johnson
Website: https://www.vennedgroup.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

We prepare, empower and partner with the leaders of today and tomorrow to overcome their communication barriers and achieve exceptional outcomes through transformative soft skills based leadership training.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

Competing technical trainings and upskillings that many employers prioritize over communication or soft skill training.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

Through continuing to re-invest in Canadian companies and collaborate with one another. Cross-promotional efforts are integral to help market. In addition, we need to start educating youth about what it means to be an entrepreneur and ways in which ideas that seem simply that, can be brought to fruition. Building community within the startup ecosystem is the first step in order to share resources and drive awareness!

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

Focus on developing solid business relationships! These relationships will be integral to your growth as you move from year to year and it’s a heck of a lot easier to retain clients than it is to attract new ones. These folks who eventually become your evangelists will be more valuable than your marketing efforts! Make sure in the process, you’re giving and not just taking as well. Provide value, focus on reciprocity to ensure those relationships are feel that there is respect both ways. That, and learn the ins and outs of taxes.

30. Binoloop

Founders: Purvaja Soochit, Kanishk Patel
Website: https://www.binoloop.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Binoloop built the first procurement co-pilot Tally that streamlines evaluations, improves explainability of documents and videos.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Resources and Access to Capital – We are growing very fast and now just opened our pre-seed raise
How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?*
To grow Canada’s startup ecosystem, we need to foster talent through education and immigration, increase access to funding, simplify regulations, expand support infrastructure like incubators and co-working spaces, and promote a culture that celebrates success and encourages diversity.
What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?*
Validate your business idea, network with the Canadian startup community, secure funding, understand regulations, and leverage resources like the IRAP, BDC and others. Embrace innovation, be resilient, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. With determination and the right resources, your Canadian startup can thrive.

29. SingleKey

Founders: Viler Lika
Website: https://www.singlekey.com/en-ca/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters:
Residential landlords and tenants can rent risk-free with SingleKey’s Tenant Screening Report, Rent Guarantee, and lease guarantor services.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Scaling a business is challenging from a few perspectives. One fundamental challenge many founders face is balancing the release of minimum viable products (MVPs) with fully fledged solutions. Initially, we would get lost in the minutia trying to deliver the “perfect” product with all the bells and whistles. What’s important to scaling a business is speed of execution. By refocusing our efforts and listening to our customers, we could release MVPs that customers would purchase, and provide immediate feedback. The value here being that we could iterate quickly and allow the product to evolve naturally into what the market wanted.
Build what customers want quickly, and iterate on feedback as soon as possible. The Perfect Product will keep you spinning your tires on the ground, never taking off.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
As with all ecosystems, there are external and internal factors that impact the potential for growth in the Canadian startup ecosystem. At the environmental level, federal programs such as SR&ED tax credits, IRAP, and CANEX are incredibly beneficial to Canada’s economic growth. These programs focus on developing Canadian innovation and intellectual property, while also offering subsidies to commercialize and export these new products and services. Startups would benefit from increased accessibility to such programs.

Developing and retaining talent in Canada is another challenge to growing our startup ecosystem. Educational programs rewarding creative, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills across multiple functional disciplines would help prepare new graduates. Capstone projects, such as those at many business and engineering schools across the country, currently offer such opportunities. At the firm level, Canada’s economy is too small to act in an overly competitive way. We’ve found the old approach to keeping everything a closely-guarded secret an unnecessary blocker to our innovation. Approaching others in our industry with a partner-focused mindset has led to mutually beneficial innovations and growth.

Finally, firms can also develop entrepreneurial talent by encouraging new ideas, enabling fast recovery from failures, and rewarding the process as much as the outcome, as most innovations and growth come from good hypothesis-testing processes.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Growing a business is extremely rewarding, from seeing your product evolve to seeing your team grow. There are days you will see your vision coming to fruition, and days where it is crumbling down. Focus on building something around a problem you’re passionate about solving. This passion will drive you to the best of times, and carry you through the most difficult ones.
Additionally, bring together a team of people just as inspired as you are to solve the problem you set out to fix in the first place. When you can rely on passionate people, you can accomplish great things at an unyielding pace. As mentioned above, iterating quickly relies on executing upon your great idea. Execution requires a driven, high-performing team.

28. Discrepancy AI

Founders: Lisen Kaci
Website: https://www.discrepancyai.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Custom AI document review and analysis powered by artificial intelligence.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

Building a product that is consistent across all users’ needs. Documents are all very nuanced and different so what users want to extract and analyze from these documents varies. At Discrepancy AI, we want to build custom AI solutions to complex problems. Figuring out how to create a product that can accept every type of document and extract the information the user wants, in the way they want, is especially challenging.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

Having a network of likeminded individuals to support you is one of the best indicators of success when running a startup. The best way to grow the Canadian startup ecosystem is for Canadian founders to support and help one another.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

Try to add value to as many people as you can when building your network. Don’t ask for anything in return but offer assistance to as many people as you can. Often most people don’t forget what you did for them and will repay the favour and keep you in mind whenever the opportunity to make things even presents itself.

24. Nü Benefits

Founders:  Marcus Acaster
Website: https://www.getnubenefits.com

Describe a company in 140 Characters.
Nü Benefits offers group benefits without the high fees and commissions. Keep your employees happy and healthy without breaking the bank.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced while scaling has been overcoming the misconception that using a low-cost broker translates to lower-quality benefits coverage for employees. Many businesses assume that more affordable options come with compromises in plan coverage. We’ve worked hard to demonstrate that it’s possible to provide comprehensive, high-quality benefits while maintaining cost efficiency by cutting out unnecessary administration and servicing costs.”

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
We can grow the Canadian startup ecosystem by fostering collaboration, improving access to funding, and providing comprehensive mentorship programs which is why FoundersBeta is such a valuable organization!”

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Focus on understanding your market, building a strong network, and staying adaptable to changes. Leverage government programs and resources available to startups.

26. Boast 

Founders: Alex Popa, Lloyed Lobo
Website: https://boast.ai/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Boast is the only R&D tax credit solution that combines an advanced AI- and ML-driven platform with decades of human expertise navigating tech and tax code, maximizing access to non-dilutive funding for more than 1000 customers across the United States and Canada.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Our platform significantly simplifies the complex process of claiming R&D tax credits by using proprietary AI algorithms to analyze each customers’ entire R&D digital footprint, ensuring every minute and dollar spent on eligible projects is accounted for.

Over the past year, we’ve significantly enhanced our secure, user-friendly customer portal, providing a centralized repository for all current and historical claim data. With everything customers need to understand their R&D and product development securely stored and readily accessible, Boast empowers our clients to focus on innovation while we unlock the full potential of their R&D tax claim.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
By better leveraging the massive opportunity that government funding can unlock for businesses across Canada to help fuel growth by prioritizing innovation. By optimizing R&D workflows and maximizing innovative initiatives, teams unlock more access to opportunities for non-dilutive funding (ie. SR&ED) that can fuel even greater innovation, better products, and an extended operational runway.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Rather than stretch stakeholders across your Finance, Product, R&D and payroll teams thin attempting to claim a share of the innovation capital your team deserves, work with a partner that can streamline the process while unlocking actionable insights ton help your team drive more innovation and recoup a share of the investments you’re already making today.

25. Maple Billing

Founders: Ruchi Varshney, Aswinkumar Rajendiran, Aravindkumar Rajendiran
Website: https://maplebilling.com

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Maple is an all-in-one revenue management platform leveraged by SaaS businesses to bring together product-led and sales-led billing workflows in one place.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

We’re primary engineering and product leaders, so we’ve been learning a lot about GTM processes especially in this new age of revised GTM tools powered by AI.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

As founders, we’ve grown our careers in Silicon Valley. To grow the Canadian startup ecosystem, the biggest move we can make is to hire in Canada and retain talent in the country. Also shifting our approach to taking a little more risk, but also not growth at all costs. Continuing to build a tight knit community and helping each other whether it’s through investment, being pilot customers and providing mentorship.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

We’ve been back in Canada for 3 years and the biggest thing we’ve learned is that Canadian tech ecosystem is an extremely close and helpful group. We’ve run into companies who have willingly chosen to grow with us as Canadian companies. Also leverage the numerous government grants and credits by keeping the team in Canada.

24. Vetster

Founders: Mark Bordo, CEO and Regan Johnson, CTO
Website: https://vetster.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Vetster connects millions of pets and their owners with digital-first veterinary and pet care solutions through our top-rated global platform.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

Creating Awareness for an Emerging Market > Veterinary Telemedicine is a new and exciting advancement for pet care. With 70% of households now having at least one animal, and a critical shortage of practicing veterinarians, addressing care through technology is paramount. Our biggest challenge is creating awareness for this new mode of care, and to educate people about its efficacy for pet owners and veterinarians.
Complex and Evolving Regulations > The pet health industry is heavily regulated and highly nuanced. From the type of care that can be provided depending on a wide variety of factors and scenarios. Every country and state/province can vary widely. With legislators turning to telemedicine the tides are turning, but we have a long way to go in making this powerful pet care solution available to everyone.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

Invest in Talent Development > Building programs that help companies upskill their teams with mid-career investments to take on advancing technologies and AI. Invest in our infrastructure, immigration, and international relationships so that tech companies can attract and retain the talent we need to build global companies.
Venture Capital Access > Deploy capital quickly and build tolerance for risk in funding opportunities for early-stage startups.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

Treat your investors like you would your customers. Keep them informed, stay connected with them regularly, leverage them in your problem solving. They are your most powerful advocates in future fundraising, partnerships, and strategies.
Cultivate Resilience > Embrace adaptability and resilience in navigating challenges and market fluctuations.

23. 409.ai 

Founders: Mike Magnacca
Website: https://www.409.ai

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
We leverage AI to complete business valuations 10x faster, 50% cheaper, and infinitely easier.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
I find the biggest challenge is the culmination of a million little ones. From building bleeding edge software to handling difficult clients, every day there are a million things to do.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
We have some pretty incredible companies growing in Canada and many founders, including myself, need to do a better job of sharing our stories and success.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Hire for skillset and mindset. In my opinion, having the right people (with the right mindset) can be the difference between failing and thriving.

22. Fortay

Founders: Marlina Kinnersley
Website: https://www.fortay.co/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Fortay.ai is an innovative inclusion and leader coaching-centric Employee Experience platform that helps forward-thinking organizations build diverse, healthy, high-performance cultures for organizational success. With a revolutionary, holistic, human-centered approach, Fortay empowers companies to drive better business, talent, and growth outcomes through modern, survey-based, AI-powered technology.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
As a high-growth startup in the HR Tech space, it’s crucial to stay ahead of trends and integrate cutting-edge AI and machine learning capabilities into our platform. However, this constant evolution requires substantial investment in R&D, skilled talent, and robust infrastructure. Balancing these demands with Fortay’s core mission of delivering a seamless, intuitive user experience has been challenging, but it has also driven our innovation and market differentiation!

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
This requires a multi-faceted approach, starting with increased access to early stage capital. Enhancing government grants and tax incentives for startups, alongside encouraging private investment via venture capital and angel networks, would significantly boost early-stage funding. Additionally, promoting diversity and inclusion within the ecosystem will attract a wider range of talent and ideas, fostering innovation. Implementing policies that support work-life balance and affordable childcare can also make entrepreneurship more accessible to all Canadians. Doing so would create a more dynamic and inclusive startup environment that propels Canada to the forefront of global innovation. Our co-founder, Bohdan Zabawskyj, exemplifies this commitment through his TrueNorthCTO community, a pan-Canadian not-for-profit community of over 2,400 technology leaders that share insights, collaborate and support each other for greater growth.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
My best advice is to prioritize building a strong network from the outset. I wished I spent more time doing this. Connect with other entrepreneurs, industry experts, and potential mentors who can provide guidance and support. Leveraging communities and innovation hubs like MaRS, Communitech, TrueNorthCTO, or Dena Startup Lab, can offer invaluable insights and resources. Definitely take advantage of the various government grants and programs available to Canadian startups. These can provide crucial funding and support during the early stages. The entrepreneurial journey is very hard and challenging, but surrounding yourself with a supportive and knowledgeable network can carry you through the tough times.

20. Whistle Technologies

Founders: Anil Sedha
Website: https://whistle.tech/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Whistle is a SaaS startup unifying business communications and social apps in one place

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

Challenging to grow at the same time as keeping burn rate low. No investors so bootstrapping is challenging.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

We need an ecosystem that first buys from each other and is supported with grants for Accounting and Legal systems which are operational headaches. That way, all startups see instant traction which can then go out and conquer the world.
What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Persevere. It is going to be very tough to get started but will get better over time.

20. Crafty Ramen

Key people: Miki Ferrall, Jared Ferrall, Khalil Khamis
Website: https://craftyramen.com

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Reimagining Ramen by bringing frozen restaurant-quality ramen, ready in minutes, home to noodles heads across Canada and beyond.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Cash flow! Scaling up a CPG company takes a lot of cash between the time is takes us to make our products from scratch, shipping and then finally getting paid by our retail partners. The cash cycles are long and can be easily underestimated.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
A couple that come to mind here:

Cash – whether this is through access to VCs and investors, programs with the banks like BDC or government grants.

Competition in banking – Canada’s banking system today is designed to be risk averse as there is minimal to no competition. We need to open up our banking system so that there’s competition and thus reasons to take risks on lending.

Incubator programs – I am lucky to sit on the board of advisors at the J.F. Wood Centre incubator at the University of Guelph and it’s incredible the business ideas and start ups that come out of there. Funding to support these types of ecosystems can help.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Embrace making mistakes. Create a culture where it’s ok to make a mistake but unacceptable to not learn from it. To do this you must persist. I love this quote from John F. Wood: “A successful entrepreneur is one who persists, perseveres, and pays meticulous attention to detail”

19. Blanka


Founders: Kaylee Astle, Adam Chuntz, Doug Long
Website: https://blankabrand.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Blanka is a platform that automates the process of launching a branded beauty line. With hundreds of high quality products manufactured in North America and with zero minimums or upfront costs, our technology unifies the process of launching a brand – from product selection through order fulfillment.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in scaling Blanka has been managing the complex logistics of supply chain and fulfillment while maintaining high-quality standards across diverse product lines. As demand grew, we had to quickly adapt our operations and technology to handle increased volumes without compromising on the personalized experience our platform promises. Navigating these operational complexities required strategic partnerships, innovative solutions, and a relentless focus on customer satisfaction to ensure sustainable growth.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
To grow the Canadian startup ecosystem, we must create a more supportive environment that fosters innovation and retains talent. This includes increasing access to venture capital, enhancing mentorship and networking opportunities, and offering competitive incentives to keep bright minds within our borders. By building a robust support system and reinforcing the benefits of launching and growing businesses in Canada, we can mitigate brain drain and cultivate a thriving, innovative startup landscape.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
For those launching businesses in Canada, one of the smartest moves is to maximize non-dilutive funding options and take full advantage of SR&ED (Scientific Research and Experimental Development) tax incentives. These programs provide critical financial support without sacrificing equity, giving your venture a financial head start. Leveraging these resources not only eases initial financial burdens but also helps sustain your business’s growth during critical early stages.

18. Shinydocs


Founders:  Jason W. D. Cassidy
Website: https://shinydocs.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Data privacy and information governance software should be quick to set-up, easy to use, and cost effective. Now it is. Shinydocs offers all the essential tools you need to safeguard, organize, and govern your content—at a price 10x less than comparable solutions.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

We need to strategically attract top talent and secure diverse funding sources, including venture capital and government grants, to fuel our growth and innovation in the Canadian startup ecosystem.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
For those starting a business in Canada, start with bootstrapping and take advantage of the numerous resources available, and industry networks, to build a strong foundation for your venture.

17. Edgecome Energy

Founders: Behdad Bahrami
Website: https://edgecom.ai/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

In the face of increasing energy consumption and growing environmental awareness, businesses face the dual challenge of optimizing energy use and reducing carbon footprints. Edgecom Energy stands at the forefront of this evolution, offering a comprehensive Energy Management Solutions suite that integrates Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). The innovative AI Energy CoPilot plays a central role in this suite, utilizing artificial intelligence to provide real-time insights and personalized recommendations, fundamentally transforming the energy management landscape. Alongside tools such as dataTrack™, pTrack®, Demand Response, and NeuraCharge, Edgecom Energy’s array of solutions caters to client’s diverse needs across commercial and industrial sectors. This groundbreaking innovation represents a paradigm shift, empowering clients to seamlessly achieve energy efficiency, cost reduction, and sustainability mastery

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

The biggest challenge has been educating customers on the benefits of peak management and energy management, helping them see that the energy landscape is evolving. By optimizing energy savings, businesses can achieve significant financial and sustainability benefits. Our task has been to shift their mindset to understand and embrace this change.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

The Canadian ecosystem lacks a strong risk-taking culture. Even venture capitalists often act like insurance companies. We need government policies that encourage risk-taking, such as tax deductions for investing in startups and lower capital gains taxes. Most government funding supports early-stage projects in labs or universities, but the greatest impact would come from supporting companies aiming to scale internationally. Programs like CanExport are excellent and should receive increased budgets.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

– Plan for the long haul; a long term, sustainable and valuable business typically takes around 15 years.
– Avoid chasing fads; focus on building something of genuine value for a core audience.
– Don’t focus on the tools which are usually overhyped or under-hyped, focus on the value generated for the customer.
– In the beginning, your primary job should be to talk to customers and see if they are willing to pay for what you are creating.

Nothing else matter if no one will pay for what you’re making.

16. Part3

Founders: Jack Sadler, Corey Stanford, Jess Luczycki
Website: https://www.part3.io

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Part3 is a category-defining platform that brings Architects, Engineers, Owners and Contractors together to administer construction with speed, accuracy, and intelligence.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
We can grow in the Canadian startup ecosystem by leveraging government programs and grants designed to support innovation and entrepreneurship. We need to prioritize talent acquisition and retention by tapping into Canada’s diverse  workforce.

15. Huex Labs

Founders: Anik Seth, Kiran Kadekoppa
Website: http://www.huex.ai/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
HU/EX Labs provides AI-driven analytics, augmentation, and automation solutions to boost efficiency and service quality in QSR and retail sectors.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

Our biggest challenge has been securing growth capital to grow exponentially

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
Reinvest more dollars into midsize tech companies, not just prophesied “unicorns” that rarely turn into unicorns. VC strategy needs to change
What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
*
Be relentless and passionate. Find the right early stage partners to help get your idea off the ground.

14. CruxOCM

Founders: Vicki Knott and Roger Shirt
Website: https://www.cruxocm.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

CruxOCM software automates industrial control rooms, enabling sustainability, profitability, and safety.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Hiring the right people for the right roles. As a first time founder, there was a lot of “I didn’t know what I didn’t know” which meant a lot of miss hires or promoting people too soon in the early days. This lead to fast lessons in leadership to be able to address gaps in the organization as I learned more about what each business function was supposed to be able to accomplish. For example, I am a Chemical Engineer from the energy industry. I didn’t know what a Product Manager was before I started CruxOCM. That made hiring for the role effectively and setting people up for success in that role extremely challenging.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

Less risk aversion as a culture.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

My best advice for those starting a business in Canada is that unless your business it solely targeting the Canadian market, be extremely flexible and establish an entity in the USA as soon as you are able, especially if you are B2B. If you are going to go on the entrepreneurial journey you need think larger and more global to remove all possible barriers to your success. Unfortunately the lack of funding and B2B customer opportunities in Canada make it difficult for first time founders to be highly successful in Canada alone. I applaud the Canadian government for their amazing efforts to nurture entrepreneurs in Canada although, I believe a contributing factor to our dwindling Canadian productivity is due to our cultural risk aversion. It is holding us back as a country, in a broad sense, and is beginning to become apparent in our economy, beyond that of just that of the start-up world.

13. Standard Field Systems

Founders: Sam Jenkins
Website: https://www.standardfield.co/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Standard Field is transforming law enforcement by building a better platform for collecting evidence at the roadside and in the field, starting with the first digital protocol for the Standardized Field Sobriety Test.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
Business development in the law enforcement is unique, very traditional, and very slow, meaning we have to be incredibly strategic in our activities.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

We have a core value in our venture studio, Punchcard that rings true: show up, take risks, and ship product. The best thing we can do as entrepreneurs is build and launch as many products and ventures as we can, but the key is *launch*. The availability of non-dilutive funding is incredible, but we all have to remember that the best funding comes from real customers. And the best ecosystem is built of startups working with those real customers.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

Think global. We have incredible talent and funding sources, but our clients, investors, and even our teams, don’t have to be here — from Canada, with the world.

12. Truly Financial

Founders: Sandeep Todi, Kanchan Kumar
Website: https://trulyfinancial.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Truly Financial is a banking service for startups and online sellers providing free U.S. and Canadian banking, free local and international payments, and big savings in cross-border transfers.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

Finding the right marketing channels to reach customers that provided us with sufficient customer engagement and had sufficient depth to expand the channel was the biggest challenge. Moreover, controlling CAC and churn is always something you have to be on top of as it can undo all the growth if not managed proactively.
How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
3 things:1. We need more risk capital that is willing to bet on Canada.
2. Create an ecosystem for Canadian customers to buy from Canada. This is easy in B2C but harder in B2B.
3. Make it easy for Canadian startups to build in Canada and sell to the world, instead of being forced to move to the US to scale.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

Think global from Day One. Build your network across U.S. and Canada.

11. Railz 

Founders: Sohaib Zahid (CEO) and Derek Manuge (CTO)
Website: https://www.railz.ai/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters:
Railz provides quick, normalized financial data from accounting, banking, and eCommerce platforms, empowering financial institutions to make real-time, impactful decisions with ease.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
The biggest challenge has been navigating the complexities of integrating various accounting platforms to provide a unified data service, ensuring accuracy and reliability for all clients. To address this, we’ve invested in building a robust AI-driven data normalization engine, streamlining the integration process, and expanding our technical team to enhance platform compatibility and customer support.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
To grow the Canadian startup ecosystem, we need more support for innovation through government grants, mentorship programs, and fostering partnerships between startups and established corporations to drive collaborative growth.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Focus on solving a real problem, understand your market deeply, and build a strong network of mentors and peers. Always stay adaptable and be open to evolving your business model based on feedback and market changes.

10. FutureVault 

Founders/key people:  G Scott Paterson (Co-founder, Executive Chairman), Daniel Kenny (Chief Executive Officer), Clifton Schaller (Chief Growth Officer), Kristian Borghesan (Chief Marketing Officer)
Website: https://futurevault.com

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
FutureVault is the industry leader of Digital Vaults, helping financial institutions, firms, and advisors become the most trusted partner in clients’ lives.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
There are two challenges that come to mind and both deal with going to market with a new category and paradigm of the way business (and sensitive document handling in our case) has typically been done.

The first, is the notion that other technology providers — many of which have now become fantastic channel and integration partners of ours (think of FutureVault as Switzerland) — had existing functionality that was perceived as being a ‘digital vault’ when it fact it was (and 99% of the time is) nothing more than a list of documents and very limited, basic document handling capabilities. We mean this in no way of being disrespectful, but rather a lack of the market not understanding vaulting capabilities.

The second, plays off the first, was around market timing and overall education of Digital Vaults. We were in fact, well ahead of our time in bringing the Digital Vault concept to the market. Through education, customer success stories, and constant innovation (and now with incredible advancements and integrated AI/LLMs) we continue to demonstrate the power of Digital Vaults in Intelligent Document Processing and bringing massive value across the enterprise, advisors, and helping firms deliver more value than ever before to clients.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
This all comes down to mentorship, access to resources (notably financial backing and access to startup capital), and the power of community in supporting startups and the founders that put everything on the line for innovation.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Seek advice, get yourself out there, become the ultimate champion and advocate for your company, your mission, and your vision. But importantly, be open to change and feedback. And remember, not all advice is good advice — this is where things can become difficult for first-time founders and early stage entrepreneurs taking their first swing(s) at bat.

9. Gambit Technologies 

Founders: Patrick Belliveau, Chris Silivestru, Ryan Burgio
Website: https://gambitco.io/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Gambit Technologies, the company behind AskEllyn, provides a platform for companies and changemakers to quickly build lifelike, conversational AI that captivates and wows their customers. We currently serve clients in healthcare, government, and professional services.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
The biggest challenge has been focusing on the key verticals and opportunities with the most potential, without getting distracted by the numerous opportunities in every industry.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
We need to do a better job of teaching current start-ups the marketing and PR game, to better highlight their successes and struggles, inspiring others to take the plunge. People follow others. We need to make sure we do better in sharing our successes.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Make your idea as real as possible in the early stages. Get to demo. Get to product and start testing. Launch in market. When you make it real, real things happen.

8. Wisedocs

Founders: Connor Atchison, Jenna Earnshaw
Website: https://www.wisedocs.ai

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Wisedocs is the medical record review and summaries AI software for insurance carriers, healthcare providers, laws firms, and TPAs in the claims industry

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

One of the challenges we encountered when scaling the business was the integration of modern technologies within a longstanding industry resistant to change, all while maintaining efficiency and customer satisfaction. As we expanded our operations and leveraged our AI-powered systems and processes, we faced some complications in scaling these technologies and new products with our existing platform offerings, while maintaining the product quality for our customers. Achieving a balance between innovation and operational capacity required careful planning, resource allocation, and clear communication across teams. Additionally scaling to meet the growing demand while upholding product standards required a keen focus on customer feedback and continuous improvement. At Wisedocs, we take pride in our cohesive team and unwavering dedication to prioritizing client needs, ensuring a seamless user experience for everyone on our platform. Overcoming these challenges required strategic decision-making, agility, and a lasting commitment to our core values and objectives here at Wisedocs.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

Advancing Canada’s innovation ecosystem hinges on addressing several critical factors. Firstly, fostering a culture of collaboration and knowledge-sharing is paramount. Wisedocs advocates for partnerships between thought leaders, industry players, and government bodies to catalyze innovation by leveraging diverse expertise. Strategic alliances, particularly within the health claims sector, can significantly reduce backlogs by digitizing processes, as manual methods often exceed the 18-week standard. Secondly, targeted investments in technological research and development are essential. Supporting cutting-edge technologies and emerging industries like Insurtech’s positions Canada as a global innovation leader. With the increasing adoption of AI across industries, including our own utilization of machine learning and generative AI, Canada can drive innovation into the coming digital era.

Lastly, fostering a supportive regulatory environment is crucial. Simplifying regulatory processes and reducing bureaucratic barriers for startups streamlines the transformation of ideas into tangible solutions. By promoting collaboration, strategic investments, and regulatory efficiency, we wholeheartedly believe Canada can lead the way in creating a dynamic innovation ecosystem.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

Our best advice for those starting businesses in Canada is to prioritize three key elements: research, resilience, and relationships. By conducting thorough research to understand your target market, industry trends, and competitive landscape, founders can identify their unique value proposition. By staking your position and validating your business idea through market testing and feedback from other leaders in the space, you can effectively corner the market.
Secondly, showing resilience daily is needed as entrepreneurship often involves facing challenges and setbacks. Stay adaptable, agile, and persistent in pursuing your goals, even when faced with obstacles. Embracing failure as a learning opportunity will ensure you continue to scale and remain committed to your overall vision.

Lastly, prioritize building strong relationships with customers, partners, and mentors. Networking and collaboration are truly invaluable for gaining insights and fostering growth when it comes to starting a business. Surrounding yourself with a supportive network of people who can provide quality guidance and advice throughout your journey will be crucial to your success.

7. Cove Neurosciences Inc. 

Founders: Dr. Nardin Samuel (CEO), Dr. Irene Harmsen (CTO)
Website: https://www.coveneuro.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
Cove Neurosciences Inc.’s CoveConnect™ accelerates brain imaging data analysis, driving diagnostics and therapeutic predictions in precision neuroscience.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
The biggest challenge has been balancing the need for bespoke solutions with developing software tools that can be applied across various disease settings. This requires a strategic approach to resource allocation, ensuring we invest in both tailored client needs and scalable products. Navigating these demands while maintaining innovation and efficiency is crucial. Adapting to diverse clinical requirements without compromising our core technology’s integrity remains an ongoing effort. Our goal is to create versatile, high-impact tools that revolutionize brain data analysis across the healthcare spectrum.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
To grow the Canadian startup ecosystem, we need to focus on increasing access to funding and resources for early-stage companies. This can be achieved through government grants, venture capital, and accelerator programs tailored to diverse industries. Additionally, fostering a collaborative environment through networking events, mentorship programs, and partnerships between academia and industry can drive innovation. Enhancing support for R&D and easing regulatory processes will also help startups bring their products to market more efficiently. Lastly, promoting success stories and celebrating achievements within the ecosystem can inspire new entrepreneurs and attract international talent and investment.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada? 
Starting a business can be both exciting and challenging at the same time. A good piece of advice for future entrepreneurs and business owners in Canada is to emphasize the importance of market research and business planning. Before starting your business make sure to have a good understanding of the market, competition, and customer needs specifically in your industry.

Similar to market research, business planning is also essential before starting your business. Having a detailed business plan that outlines your business model, goals, financial projects, and market strategies is crucial for the success of your business.

6. Stay22


Founder: Andrew Lockhead, Hamed Al-Khabbaz
Website: https://www.stay22.com

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Stay22 helps travel content creators successfully monetize their content, with our travel affiliate program and conversion-boosting AI tools

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

The biggest challenge we’ve had at Stay22 is the ability to pivot quickly and adapt to the market. The world of technology moves fast, and if we don’t move as fast, we get left behind. For example, we were an interactive travel map company until 2020, and then COVID hit. It was a crisis, as travel ground to a halt. Thinking on our feet, we analyzed trends and found a gap in the market, which allowed us to pivot to travel affiliate monetization. That one pivot took us from near-bankrupcy in 2021, to USD$100M in bookings in 2022, USD$250M in 2023, and a projected USD$450M in 2024. However, with Google’s latest search updates, as well as the AI disruptions that have happened since January this year, we find ourselves in another pivot situation. Luckily, during our move from startup to scaleup, we’ve hired some excellent people, all of whom are driving our strong company culture of adaptability and curiosity, and we’re already making moves into our next potential big product. Remember, whenever there’s a crisis, there’s also an opportunity, and seizing that opportunity is the best way to scale up.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
Two things. First, there is a missed opportunity in terms of investment in early-stage companies. We have lots of series A/B/etc rounds, but early stage investment like seed or pre-seed is quite scarce.

Getting private equity involved in these early-stage investments is a key to helping companies get off the ground and get started fast. Second, the Canadian startup ecosystem is home to many wins and lucrative exits. We need people who exited successfully to come back and mentor, to help the new startups avoid the same pitfalls, and grow. In fact, if we pair these two together, and convince mentors who’ve exited to come back, invest AND mentor early-stage startups, we could kickstart a whole series of wins that may never have made it past the ideation phase.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Something unique to the Canadian business ecosystem is the many opportunities for non-dilutive capital. There are a large number of grants available (not loans), which are essentially free money. The downside to these is they require application writing and time spent writing reports, but the benefits far outweigh the downsides. Using these grant opportunities will allow you to keep a bigger ownership of your company, and help you make it to a later stage of growth, at which point you are then free to decide if you want to bootstrap, or dilute for an influx of cash.

5. Purity Gas 

Founders: Alan Hopkins and Chris Styles
Website: https://puritygas.ca/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
We design and engineer nitrogen gas generation systems, allowing manufacturers to generate nitrogen on site for a fraction of the financial & environmental costs of traditional methods.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?
The biggest challenge we’ve faced in scaling the business has been disrupting a longstanding industry with entrenched practices. Convincing clients to trust and adopt new technology and methodologies has required significant effort to break the mold. Alongside securing client buy-in, we’ve also encountered resistance from the supply chain and traditional operations, which are deeply rooted in conventional ways of doing things.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
We can grow the Canadian startup ecosystem by implementing more initiatives like the Haltech Incubator program. This kind of infrastructure supports innovation and companies like ours through enhanced access to grants, strengthened networks and peer groups, mentorships, and skill development. As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to feel isolated. But being a part of a community like this, with like-minded individuals, makes the entrepreneurial journey feel more collaborative and impactful.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Conduct thorough market research to ensure there’s a genuine need for your product or service. Seek out support programs like the Haltech Incubator program. Be agile and open to pivoting based on feedback from your target audience. And don’t be afraid to think big.

4. ZayZoon

Founder: Tate Hackert, Darcy Tuer, Jamie Ha
Website: https://www.zayzoon.com/

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

With ZayZoon, payday finally comes with the push of a button. Employees can use ZayZoon to get paid part of their earned wages when they need. The platform also offers educational resources and tools to help workers break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle. And it works. 89% of employees who use ZayZoon report less financial stress and employers who offer ZayZoon boast a 29% reduction in turnover.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

The answer is always sustainable customer acquisition. Every other problem in a scaling business is an optimization problem. So successfully identifying and executing on an effective go to market is always the biggest challenge and opportunity.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

The simple answer here is we need to have far more major success stories, so that operators and employees get successful exists and found the next round of unicorns/narwhals.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?
Canadians buy slowly. You need to be respectfully aggressive when you go to market and push buyers to make a decision quickly. Be willing to hire talent remotely as well as the talent pool in other cities might be what you need.

3. Airfairness


Founders: John Marzo – CEO, Zohair Khan – COO, David Linardi – CTO
Website: https://www.airfairness.com

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.
We effortlessly secure maximum compensation for flight disruptions, ensuring timely assistance for global passengers. We win, or it’s free!

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

As the team is only three co-founders and only 12 months in the market, our biggest challenge has been workload and growing the team. We have many features to bring to our customers and a limited amount of possible workhours to create them. Thankfully, we were able to secure our seed round funding and plan to on-board a few more team members to our development team. As we grow, I definitely foresee a whole suite of new scaling challenges, but I look forward to meeting them head on.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

With all of the advances in AI and how it will undoubtedly change the landscape on how business is done not only in Canada but worldwide, it will be important to educate those who want to participate. There will be a growing divide between companies that utilize AI and those that don’t, but it will be in our best interest as a country to make it so that anyone who wants to contribute, is equipped to do so.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

Keep an open mind to what problems you want to solve and for which reasons. It’s easy to get caught up in the usual suspect answers like money and success, but truly there is nothing better than to genuinely want to help your customers. You end up interacting with them more than your own family so you better understand that making the most of that relationship is going to give you such fulfilment it’s honestly crazy.

2. Chocolate Soup

Founders: Pj Lowe, Dan Silivestru, Megan Hall
Website: https://www.chocolatesoup.ca

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Chocolate Soup creates custom recognition gifts to increase employee retention, boost workplace culture, and make employees feel valued.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

The biggest challenge we faced in scaling our business has been actually dealing with our business scaling. COVID resulted in over 5X growth over a one year period for us. We had anticipated growth and tried out best to plan accordingly, but found many gaps in our planning. My advice for others that scale exponentially is to take a close look at all of your processes, identify bottlenecks early, and be proactive in implementing automation and efficiency enhancements.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?

Provide more support for very early stage startups. If we can help early founders not make the same mistakes we made, that would go a long way to us seeing more early stage startups make it to maturity. Making government programs like IRAP/NRC available to early stage/low rev companies could also be very helpful in helping Canadian start ups gain advantages in the global market.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

I think my advice would be the same no matter where you start a business.
Solve a real problem, ideally one that you experienced yourself.
Build a product/solution that you’re passionate about. Passion will help you get through the tough times. Focus on building a profitable and sustainable business.

1. Bidmii

Founders: Jon Christensen(CEO), Phillip Stack (CTO), James Christensen(COO)
Website: https://www.bidmii.com

Describe what your company does in 140 characters.

Bidmii is the trusted platform revolutionizing the home improvement industry. We connect homeowners, realtors, and hardware stores with reliable and skilled contractors, ensuring successful renovations and seamless project management. Bidmii takes the stress out of finding contractors for their home improvement projects. Our platform offers a wide network of trusted professionals, simplifying the process from sourcing to selection. For realtors and hardware stores, Bidmii streamlines the contractor recommendation process while protecting your reputation. Bidmii’s reliable contractor network and payment protection feature give them the confidence to assist clients without the risk of liability or negative outcomes. Bidmii provides contractors with a steady stream of quality projects and eliminates payment worries. With our secure payment processing, they can focus on delivering outstanding results and growing their business.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in scaling the business?

There are many challenges that every business faces. Among these, hiring the right talent, building a strong brand identity, and establishing a loyal customer base are common obstacles. At Bidmii, we have identified a particularly significant challenge that sets us apart from other businesses. According to a recent study, a staggering 32% of homeowners in Ontario have fallen victim to renovation scams, with nearly half of those surveyed knowing someone who has also been scammed. By the time a homeowner discovers Bidmii, they are likely to have already experienced a negative encounter with the renovation process. As such, it becomes our responsibility to diligently to regain their trust not only in our contractors but also in the entire renovation process.

How can we grow the Canadian startup ecosystem?
The first priority should be investing in education and skills development. We need to provide access to quality education and training programs that focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. Along with that we need to encourage collaboration and networking by fostering a culture of collaboration and networking among startups, entrepreneurs, and industry experts. We also need to develop a strong ecosystem of support services by offering resources such as mentorship and funding to help startups overcome common challenges. There needs to be a spotlight on fostering a culture of innovation and experimentation by providing resources and support for startups to take risks and try new things. Finally, it is equally important to ensure that the regulatory environment is favorable for startups by simplifying laws and regulations, reducing bureaucracy, and providing clarity on compliance issues can really bolster the backbone of the ecosystem.

What’s your best advice for those starting businesses in Canada?

Take time to conduct thorough market research. Understand your target market, competitors, and industry trends. Part of that needs to be networking and building relationships. Attend industry events, conferences, and meetups to connect with other entrepreneurs, potential partners, and customers. This will assist in your core learning about the challenges that will affect you in the early days of your start up.

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Do you know any stellar companies that should be part of our next coverage? Let us know!