Karima-Catherine Goundiam

It was great to gather last night at Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 celebration where I was a guest of fellow Innovation Governance Program cohort member and Fast 50 leader Anders McKenzie. Wonderful to reconnect and/or meet in-person with the Council of Canadian Innovators | Conseil canadien des innovateurs team members Skaidra Puodžiūnas, Gabriella B., and Patrice Oliveira. There was a fireside chat with Anders and PointClickCare's Founder and Executive Chair Mike Wessinger who shared his insights on bootstrapping a new startup, raising financing, focusing on the right markets. Key insights for me were: - don't capital-constrain your business by getting financing too late, and balance with retaining control - don't just chase financing, find the right people to have around the capital table, which means ones who are additive, are the right fit for you, and provide access to the right network - the two most important pieces of advice he gives to aspiring entrepreneurs - (a) focus on one thing, not the many many things, and (b) find true product-market fit for that thing. He also, without prompting, gave an impassioned plea to governments to be more supportive and enabling for Canada's tech, innovation and entrepreneurship sector. Yes, this was driven, at least in part, by the recent changes to the inclusion rate on the capital gains tax (cited as hostile to business) but what came through to me was his love of the country and desire to enable us to create the conditions that will allow us to grow companies here, with all the benefits that come from that. For those wanting to apply to the Technology Fast 50 program - the deadline is June 7 and you can apply here: https://lnkd.in/g5SbDf3g

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I want to give a practical example of the Third party risk and impact in the ecosystem I have spent 2 hours today with Canada Revenue Agency - Agence du revenu du Canada. This is not my first time and I know there are literally hundreds of thousands of people frustrated and stressed about this monumentally inefficient government institution in Canada. This is a 5 month saga of accounting errors -- grave accounting errors - I was slapped with a collection notice and penalties after their accounting errors and then cheques sent for refunding me - but then applying penalties for these amounts they send in the ether (I never received them). But - long story short: 1. CRA has had a broken link for their My Payment tool for a week. Not being able to pay online and exceeding your short interval when one must submit payment results in penalties. 2. CRA has NO NOTICE on their website about this 1 week outage 3. After dealing with my 1 st problem I was "transferred" to IT. No - because "we cannot transfer you at this time due to technical difficulties". 4. I had to re-dial to be told there is a 1.5 hr WAITING TIME to talk to an agent. I called my bank and they said "we are aware of this and we have a workaround" - which I got through in 5+ minutes. Super pleasant experience. When a third party supplier: does not tell you they had an outage, or a breach - the impact on the supply chain is massive. This bank had thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people calling them for this workaround which costs them money and time to work through. The third party hasn't posted on their website that this is an issue: No Accountability and putting the responsibility for at least a temporary fix onto the downstream eco system participants. Don't be like CRA: own your problems, fix them, tell your partners, problem solve together - and if that's not about our work in "privacy" and "cybersecurity" - then I don't know what is! #broken #agency #federal #government #institutions #timewaster #thirdparty #risk #riskmanagement #privacy #cubersecurity #outage #breach #do #better

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An update as we head into the summer heat - Council of Canadian Innovators | Conseil canadien des innovateurs is still measuring what's working (and what's not) inside the ecosystem, this includes the sentiments around access to capital which have been top of mind for all of us lately. We have a short survey for the ecosystem to fill out - we'd love to hear from you: You can complete the survey here: https://lnkd.in/gcR9nMce

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Budget Day 🇨🇦 Canada scores a “C” in innovation. Today, we release the 2024 Innovation Report Card. A National Standard for Measuring Canada’s Innovation Performance. If you believe that innovation drives productivity and prosperity. Then we must measure how Canada performs against top innovation nations. We must understand where we perform well, and where we need transformational intervention. The report was led by Zafer Sonmez, PhD and co-authored by Dan Carpenter , Nicholas Palaschuk , Michael Bassett. The Innovation Report Card (IRC) is free to all Canadians as a publication of the Canadian Centre of the Innovation Economy (CCIE) at The Conference Board of Canada MaRS Discovery District Alberta Innovates DMZ CCRM Ontario Genomics Ontario Institute for Cancer Research Canada's Ocean Supercluster NGen Canada SCALE AI | Canada's AI Global Innovation Cluster Reach out for inquiries, presentations, and media. And join the effort to improve Canada’s innovation performance. #Innovation #Canada #budget2024 #cdnpoli https://lnkd.in/g-gRqQQy

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The state of the Canadian venture capital industry? Is the tone set by BDC? For the quarter ending December 31, 2023 BDC venture capital lost $76 million and for the 9 months ended December 31, 2023 BDC VC lost $164 million .... a continuation of recent losses ($640 million for the full year ended March 31, 2023). We should see the full 2024 BDC financial results, for the period ending March 31 2024 in their 2024 annual report in the next few weeks. The link below may be a harbinger of even more troubles ahead. "the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) BDC noted that $6.9 billion CAD in VC funding was invested across 660 deals during 2023—declines of 34 percent and 12 percent year-over-year, respectively, as overall activity continued to return to pre-2020 levels" $6.9 Billion in VC Funding across Canada. And Canada is supposed to be a leader in Ai and other super technologies? (Benchmark- Nvidia market cap is $2.8 TRILLION USD) Chrystia Freeland Andrew Bevan François-Philippe Champagne Colin Deacon doesn't this level of activity seem way low and inconsequential for Canadian venture capital? are the results measuring up? https://lnkd.in/gbB39rMM

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This week the Quebec government released its renewed innovation strategy “Vers Un Québec Innovant” (Towards an Innovative Quebec). This strategy document was crafted for Quebec’s Department of Economy, Innovation and Energy by a committee led by Sophie D’Amours (Université Laval) and and Luc Sirois (Quebec's CIO). The strategy has strong recommendations. The first is to ‘move financial resources from fundamental research to applied research, experimental development and commercialization’. The second recommendation: ‘strengthen the skills of managers re development, management and commercialization of innovation’. Both of these recommendations are long overdue for Canada (let alone Quebec). The remaining recommendations are also realistic and signal likely government action for the coming years. #InnovationPolicy #Quebec #ResearchFunding #AppliedResearch Link to the report and the full list of translated recommendations in first comment. Hat tip: Denis Gauvreau

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“For years, the Canadian government has snubbed innovation and competition to protect their regulated industries.“ Yup! 37 years to be precise. “The lack of decisive action from Ottawa on open banking reflects a broader trend of favouring incumbents over innovation.” Yup! I expect that even the BigBanks are surprised by how effectively their concerns have delayed and controlled the implementation of #ConsumerDrivenBanking (#OpenBanking). But the tide is finally turning. The Competition Bureau Canada now has the powers to enforce competition, go after anti-competitive behaviour and abuse-of-dominance. See an earlier post: https://lnkd.in/ekTv7PZC The next big challenge requires a whole-of-government cleansing of anti-competitive practices, programs, regulations and legislation across all departments and agencies, and through every level of government. Currently, our regulatory regimes (banking, telco, airlines, etc.) are more effectively protecting our incumbent oligopolies from innovative new entrants, than protecting Canadians. #CompetitionMatters Good OpEd René-Sylvain Bédard and Will C..

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So back in 2017, quite literally on a dare, a team of 6 people decided to run FWD50 in Ottawa. I did NOT have "be a free library of hundreds of public sector innovation talks" on my Bingo card. But here we are. Since 2020, we've also been recording, captioning, and publishing our talks. In 2023, our best-attended workshop happened online—with over 850 participants. If you're wondering how AI might impact your job in the public sector, you should watch it. It's called "How to use AI tools for your work in government," from our amazing partners at Apolitical. https://lnkd.in/eeZ5gspA AI is transforming the public service, and this just one of many talks full of practical knowledge about service design thinking, AI, team culture, data privacy, and more. Did I mention this was free? In 7 years, FWD50 has become not just an event where the people building tomorrow’s government go to learn, connect, and recharge; it's also become a great community (I got to see some of them on recent trips to DC, San Francisco, and London!) Anyway, new drop. #ai #machinelearning #publicservice #FWD50 #digitalgovernment

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Yesterday, I joined FutureFit AI CEO Hamoon Ekhtiari and Assistant Deputy Ministers from across the government at the Canada School of Public Service | École de la fonction publique du Canada to talk about how to make Canada better We had a chance to discuss innovation and productivity and why we need a prosperity strategy for every generation. My message to our public service partners was simple: without smart industrial policy, strong investment, pathways to commercialization, and the collaboration of government and industry, Canadians' prosperity will continue to erode. Canadians per capita are now 25% poorer than Americans, 20% poorer than Australians and 20% poorer than Danes. Now is the time for Canada to catch up with its peers and be strategic about scaling our most promising firms. When examining policy, programming, and funding, Canada's innovation policy just needs a simple framing. Does it lead to 1 or these 3 things: Is it generating ideas (IP) for Canada, retaining ideas (IP) in Canada, and commercializing those ideas (IP) through domestic firms in Canada? If you orientate around those three premises, you get most of the innovation policy stuff right. Wealth and prosperity in the twenty-first century is possible for Canada - as a nation, we just need to fix our orientation!

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Last week, L'Hon./Hon. Amina GERBA, M.B.A., C.Q.🇨🇦 and I spoke about our report on the progress of Black entrepreneurs in Canada. We firmly believe that Canada’s future prosperity depends on the extent to which we embrace diversity, equity and inclusion, not just as a social priority but as an economic one. Homogeneity, be it in venture capital or business, delivers lower investment returns. Homogeneity is a business risk. Why? When you keep applying the same old “solutions” to the same old problems you get the same results. Canada must be globally creative and competitive if we are to implement the innovations necessary to address our stagnant productivity growth. Diversity is an advantage… it is Canada’s competitive advantage. Our collective prosperity requires that we find ways to ensure that Canada harnesses the full potential of this global opportunity. Our report, observations and recommendations can be found here: https://lnkd.in/eCM8BnK7 Senator Gerba and my statements to colleagues in the Senate about the importance of this economic priority can be found in the video below. #Diversity #Equity #Inclusion #DEI #Entrepreneurship #Investment #Innovation #Productivity #Prosperity

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Here is my critique on Government of Canada latest budget. I like to thank Canadian Chamber of Commerce, TD, RBC, Scotiabank - Global Banking and Markets, BMO, Canadian Institute of Forestry / Institut forestier du Canada, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and others for their input! My biggest concern is budget needed to more around productivity as part of attracting FDI. The changes to capital gains taxation will likely influence the management of capital by both foreign and domestic investors.

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#BankingOnClimateChange Canada's top bank CEOS were invited to answer questions related to the committee’s investigation into the environmental and climate impacts of the financial system, but they have declined the invitation and want to send a representative of their industry association instead. * All of Canada’s big banks ( RBC, TD, BMO) committed to be ‘net zero’ in 2021, yet are still amongst the largest funders of fossil fuels in the world and are under-investing in renewable energy. * Canada’s Competition Bureau is investigating RBC for greenwashing. Bank CEOs are amongst the highest paid people in the country and they should be prepared to be held accountable for their decisions. It is vital that CEOs appear and answer questions from Canada's elected representatives. https://lnkd.in/gcUAfNfF

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As someone deeply passionate about leveraging data to address global challenges and create opportunities, I found this article by Statistics Canada to be both eye-opening and crucial. The barriers immigrants face in accessing foreign credit checks in Canada highlight a significant issue that impacts economic inclusion and financial stability for many newcomers. "Immigrants' Access to Foreign Credit Checks in Canada" sheds light on the systemic challenges and the need for better solutions to ensure fair and equitable financial access for all. It's essential for us, as a community and as professionals, to advocate for more inclusive policies and innovative solutions that can help bridge these gaps. By addressing these issues, we can create a more inclusive and supportive environment for immigrants, enabling them to thrive and contribute to our society. Let's continue this important conversation and work together to drive positive change. Read the full article here: Immigrants' https://lnkd.in/g-vYpGKe

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Join me and the teams at NorthstarDAO and Aceocial for a policy conversation about 🇨🇦 #Innovation in the wake of the new federal budget 2024. We will aim to bring together the voices of top founders, investors, builders, and community partners from Canada to discuss and set the future direction of innovation policy nationally. Canada is a famed birthplace of inventors and inventions - yet entrepreneurship is at a lower rate than 20 years ago. Where do we want to go as a digital nation? More on NorthstarDAO: The NorthstarDAO is a Canadian-registered non-profit utilizing a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) structure to mobilize and coordinate entrepreneurial, capital, and policy leaders to co-create, endorse, and advocate policy for emerging technology adoption and investment in Canada. https://lu.ma/efekquo3 Randall Baran-Chong (CPA, CA) Linda Montgomery, CPIR Ben Su Michael Liu

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I had the privilege of contributing to the insightful report "Global Disruption in 4D" released by long-standing Digital Governance Council | Conseil de gouvernance numérique member Deloitte and their Future of Canada Centre. This comprehensive report delves into the significant impact of the talent transformation, the AI revolution, the race to net-zero, and geopolitical uncertainty on Canada's economy and society. The report's in-depth analysis of AI governance and its impact on Canada underscores the critical need for Canada to maintain a meaningful seat at the table in influencing global AI standards, as without robust AI governance measures in place, there is a risk of losing influence and autonomy in shaping AI regulations that align with Canadian values. The Digital Governance Council, in collaboration with the Digital Governance Standards Institute | Institut des normes de gouvernance numérique, is actively involved in shaping AI ethics and standards with several projects and initiatives that include an AI Ethics Advisory Panel as well as the creation of several standards addressing AI. This commitment to AI governance is helping address the challenges posed by global disruptions and facilitating the drive for innovation in AI digital governance, strengthening Canada's digital economy. To learn more about the report and gain valuable insights into the complex issues addressed, I encourage you to download it: https://lnkd.in/eP9YFm3s

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The recent proposals in the Federal Budget regarding capital gains have underscored the importance of up-to-date information, insightful analysis, and how to organize the tech community. Sign up today for the next edition of The Council of Canadian Innovators | Conseil canadien des innovateurs Newsletter, landing in inboxes tomorrow! It is CCI's monthly digest featuring Canadian scale-ups to watch, key stories to follow, major deals being signed, and unique perspectives from our bureaus across Canada. https://lnkd.in/gfAasicg

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🎉We are thrilled to announce that TiE Toronto and Angel One Investor Network is teaming up for NACO Canada #SUMMIT 2024 as proud #community #partners!🎉 Get ready to be inspired and empowered by an incredible lineup of speakers and attendees at NACO Canada Summit 2024! The team at NACO Canada, led by Claudio Rojas, has put together an incredible lineup of speakers and delegates for the Summit. It includes Canada's leading angel investors shaping the future of entrepreneurship and seasoned leaders driving innovation, so this summit will not be missed. Here's a sneak peek of what awaits you at NACO SUMMIT 2024: 🚀 Thought-provoking discussions and round-tables exploring cutting-edge topics such as AI, life sciences, health tech, and hardtech. 🚀 Spotlight on opportunities for women entrepreneurs because diversity is the fuel for innovation! Here are some of the featured speakers & attendees at the NACO SUMMIT: 🌟 Angel Investors from Anges Québec, Archangel Network of Funds, Brightspark Ventures, and many more renowned funds! 🌟 Alex MacBeath, Managing Partner at Island Capital Partners, brings his expertise in financial advisory and corporate growth strategies. 🌟 Benjamin Bergen, President of the Council of Canadian Innovators | Conseil canadien des innovateurs (CCI), will offer insightful commentary on the intersection of policy & technology innovation. 🌟 Debbie Gamble, ICD.D, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer of Interac Corp. and Top 50 Women in FinTech, will share strategies for leveraging cutting-edge innovations to drive the success of the digital economy. 🌟 Emilie Boutros, Managing Partner at TandemLaunch Inc., will share insights on leading the charge in transforming academic innovations into thriving businesses. 🌟 @Isaac Olowolafe, General Partner at BKR Capital and co-founder of Canada's first Black-led venture capital firm, advocating for diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship. 🌟 Kim Furlong, CEO of the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA), will provide deep insights from a venture capital perspective to fuel Canada's innovation ecosystem. 🌟 Randall Howard, prolific serial technology CEO and active angel investor, sharing his wealth of experience in building and scaling high-growth global technology companies. 🌟 Sandi Gilbert, Managing Partner at InterGen, scaling companies & promoting gender equity in the investment community. 🌟 Senia Rapisarda, LL.M, CIM Managing Director at HarbourVest Partners, will share on mobilizing capital to foster growth within Canada's innovation economy. 🌟 Shelley Kuipers, Co-CEO and General Partner at The51, championing a Financial Feminist™️ platform. And this is just the beginning! Stay tuned for more exciting updates starting tomorrow. Calvin Henderson, CFA| Chantalle Freeborough| Vijay Thomas| Mahendra Naik| Bharat Rudra| Adrian Barber| Ana Misra| Suvid Ajmera| Braam Meij #NACOSummit2024 #AngelInvestors #Entrepreneurship

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🎊 🎊 🎊 Public Services and Procurement Canada | Services publics et Approvisionnement Canada (PSPC) is making the most of the historic rehabilitation of the Centre Block, demonstrating true leadership in advancing (read: mainstreaming) accessible and inclusive design. The 200 (or so) washrooms in the #CentreBlock and the new Parliament Visitor Centre will be gender-neutral, 70 washrooms will be barrier-free, and 15 washrooms will be universally accessible with extra maneuvering space and their own washbasins. PSPC (in collaboration with the Public Service Pride Network (PSPN) / Réseau de la Fierté à la fonction publique (RFFP)) is also developing an inclusive washroom guide to support the mainstreaming of accessible and inclusive design in other federal buildings. What a fantastic example of 'building better' so that our fixed assets actually meet the diverse needs of the diverse persons who will work there and visit. This type of accessible and inclusive design, committed to and woven into planning at the earliest of stages, really communicates a dedication to wellbeing, safety and respect.

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Solid analysis on startup success rates from 2015 through 2022 authored by Amélie Lafrance-Cooke & Danny Leung - commissioned by Statistics Canada | Statistique Canada and Finance Canada / Finances Canada: https://lnkd.in/eNDCtYea This excerpt says it all about those that started during year-one of the pandemic: 💥 “...newly available data show that despite being smaller, entrants in 2020 carried less debt, had more working capital, were more profitable and were more productive than pre-pandemic cohorts. These characteristics allowed them to survive at a higher rate in their first years and catch up in employment size to previous cohorts at the same point in their life cycles.” Some notable stats: 💥 During their year of founding, 2020 startups realized a 25% greater ‘return on assets’ than those founded from 2015 to 2019. And 2021 startups realized a 74% greater ‘return on assets’. 💥 During their year of founding, 2020 startups realized a 4% less ‘debt to asset ratio’ than those founded from 2015 to 2019. And 2021 startups realized an 8% less ‘debt to asset ratio’. 💥 Year 1 survival rates of the 2020 cohort was 6% higher than the 2019 cohort and year 2 survival rates grew to 8% higher. Why do periods of market downturns and economic uncertainty have a history of producing breakthrough startups? GE - Panic of 1893 General Motors - Panic of 1907 IBM - Panic of 1910 The Walt Disney Company - 19030's Great Depression Microsoft - mid 70's oil crisis Google, Salesforce - late 90's/early 2000's dot com bubble Airbnb, Square, Instagram, Slack, Pinterest - Great Recession of 09/10 ✅ In down markets founders are forced to deeply chip away at their value proposition and land on a needed, well defined/understood, and massive problem to solve - otherwise, there is no funding. ✅ In down markets startups must demonstrate the ability to scale quicker, with less money, and higher margins, thereby accelerating the de-risking of investments - it is this rigorous equation that births and breeds stronger, more resilient, grittier, and more agile founders. ✅ In down markets the allocation of stronger human capital to startups increases, positively impacting the startup’s ability to innovate. ✅ In down markets “first-movers” have more time before “copycat” startups or incumbents begin to move in, unlocking a myriad of commercialization advantages that then result in fundraising advantages - this, as a virtuous cycle, compounds over time. Huge respect for those who choose to play offence 🏒 when the majority are playing defence 🥅 . This quote by William Arthur Ward resonates: "Adversity causes some [people] to break; others to break records."

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