Just released the 100th episode of The Hard Part with Evan McCann today!
It has been such an amazing journey over the last year and a half. A huge thank you to all the amazing guests for their time and insights. Also for all the listeners for their feedback and suggestions.…
I launched a podcast called The Hard Part, inspired by
@HarryStebbings
and
@patrick_oshag
. I have seen a lack of great podcasts focused on Canadian founders, leaders and investors.
I have exciting news! I am launching my own advisory and fractional agency called Cold Start.
Cold Start will help build sales playbooks, GTM strategies, outbound sales processes, ICP identification, sequence and content creation, hiring, compensation, and launch tech tools
Very early stages of planning but going to do The Hard Part podcast meetups in Toronto and Waterloo in the fall!
Will be for guests + friends of the pod. Also planning one-off breakfasts, coffees, lunches and dinners.
Thinking of hosting stuff at Othership and other cool…
Shoutout to everyone who isn’t in “top tier” type tech ecosystem who hosts meetups, walks, fireside chats, opens physical space for builders, demo events, speaks with students, etc.
Need more of the positive energy to create change versus complaining and doing nothing.
S2E17 with Jim Pattison the Chairman and CEO of The Jim Pattison Group. JPG is a multi-industry conglomerate with sales over $12B a year and more than 50,000 employees, JPG is one of the largest private companies in Canada.
The future of Canadian tech is bright 🇨🇦. Obviously has its challenges but so many folks pushing and building amazing things. I am very optimistic and bullish.
I have three exciting announcements about The Hard Part 🇨🇦🚀
Season 3 launches on Monday, January 30! It will feature 2 episodes a week. Guests include top Canadian founders and investors from fintech, AI, CPG, DTC, health tech, gaming, web3 and more.
The first Calgary Tech Showcase will be held on Tuesday, June 11!
Andrew Browne (
@abrowne2789
) and I are pumped to host a top-notch demo event. Calgary Tech Showcase's vision is to become the centre point for builders, founders, and creatives to gather in Calgary with a mission…
Vancouver tech's biggest alpha is the people who have "made it" and choose to live in Vancouver area, Vic and Whistler.
Former CTO of GitHub, Chairman of SkySkanner/Former CEO of Booking dot com, Former President of EA, Xbox and CEO of Zynga,
@dkhos
's uncle the founder of Future…
One year to the day that I released the first episode of The Hard Part! Thank you to all the amazing guests and listeners! I appreciate all the support and kind words over the past year. Really excited to keep putting out great episodes with great guests! More to come! 🇨🇦
After quite a few chats with founders. A founder matching platform similar to YC would be high impact for Canadians.
Top devs + top non-technical founders. Highly curated.
Could see this doing well!
So much fomo with
@socraticainfo
,
@newdemos_
with
@internetvin
and now
@NovusOrg
hosting unreal demo events in Waterloo, Toronto and Vancouver.
I’m gonna do this in Calgary. Who wants to help? It’s time to build Calgary!
Hit 133 episodes of The Hard Part today! Canadian tech excellence is real. Sooooo many exciting stories to share. Lots more to come, should hit 200 by the end of this year.
Also looking to expand the pod into investing and more IRL and virtual community initiatives.
Thank you…
Had a great chat today with 5 other Canadian content creators focused on covering Canadian tech through newsletters and podcasts. Now expanding into helping with hiring, investing and more.
Future is bright 🇨🇦
I launched a group called Remote Calgary with Ralph Sadowski (
@RalphSadowski
) and Tyler Meema (
@TylerMMeema
)!
I started noticing a trend of top-tier talent in Calgary working remotely. Ralph is at Shopify and Tyler is at Wealthsimple. There has also been an influx of folks from…
A fresh $15M 🥵 🥵 🥵
Super surreal.
Just 7 months after closing our $14.5m B round, we brought on another $15M and some incredible partners in Viola Fintech and Intuit Ventures.
Alright, now back to work. People need access to their hard worked hours.
Remote Calgary membership list is stacked. Senior folks from Wealthsimple, Shopify, KOHO, Ramp, Brex, Stripe, Levels Health, AG1, Faire, Jobber, AngelList, Meta, Bird and much more!
The wave of folks moving from TO, SF, NYC and Van is increasing.
Keep an eye on this group!
New episode with
@bwertz
the Founder and General Partner of
@VersionOneVC
! 🇨🇦
In this episode, we discuss...
-why your fund size is your strategy
-why branded categories are too late to invest in
-his Coinbase investment
-his anti-portfolio
Who is working on cool projects in Calgary? Feel free to DM me or send this to folks. Working on the first “Calgary Demos” (new better name to come) in June.
Space is locked down. Also support from some top investors and founders in town.
So much fomo with
@socraticainfo
,
@newdemos_
with
@internetvin
and now
@NovusOrg
hosting unreal demo events in Waterloo, Toronto and Vancouver.
I’m gonna do this in Calgary. Who wants to help? It’s time to build Calgary!
Just recorded an episode with CEO of a Canadian semiconductor company, $100M+ raised, producing AI chips to power the future of AI, great learnings in the fabrication, design and production of chips. Dropping soon! 🇨🇦
S2E14 with
@notionport
from
@vantechjournal
. Vancouver Tech Journal uncovers and tells the stories that matter in Vancouver's tech ecosystem. They have a daily and a twice-weekly newsletter.
Part of my podcast goal guest list. Will take time but will happen. Missing anyone? 🇨🇦
- Garrett Camp
@gc
- Mark Leonard (has politely declined once)
- Ivan Zhao
@ivanhzhao
- Michelle Zatlyn
@zatlyn
- Matei Zaharia and Reynold Xin
- Jeff Skoll
- Yuri Sagalov
@yuris
- Bryan…
S2 finale with
@jasoncwarner
the former CTO of
@github
and current MD at
@Redpoint
just dropped! In this episode, we discuss Jason’s time as CTO of GitHub, how he has built his career while working remotely and his move into early-stage investing.
One of my previous VC guests had an LP that passed on them last year.
That LP recently listened to our episode together, re-engaged and the VC closed them as an LP.
Love it!
Canadians have started companies like Ethereum, Uber, Shopify, Databricks, Slack, Roblox, Cloudflare, Faire, Notion and OpenAI! 🇨🇦
That's why chatting with Andre Charoo (
@acharoo
), the Founder and GP at Maple VC (
@MapleVCFund
), was a ton of fun!
Maple backs founders with…
Wow! People are interested in this. Just started working on an episode about one of the largest alternative investment firms in the world with a 120 year history that is 🇨🇦. More details coming soon!
The third meetup for Remote Calgary was a huge success! Thanks to
@TateHackert
and the
@ZayZoon
team for hosting us.
Folks from Stripe, Ramp, Shopify, Wealthsimple, KOHO, JET, Lyra Health, PurposeMed and more came out. The group is insanely talented and wants to make Calgary…
My conversation with Elizabeth Yin (
@dunkhippo33
) the Co-Founder and General Partner of
@hustlefundvc
!
Hustle Fund is a venture capital fund investing in founders at the pre-seed and seed stages. They also have Angel Squad, a vetted community of angel investors, who get…
People always list traits like grit, hardworking, intelligent and stuff, but I think an undervalued trait is being easy and fun to work with. You'd be surprised how much of an edge that gives you.
New episode with
@kkliman
the Co-Founder and CEO of
@gethumi
!
Humi is Canada’s leading payroll, HR, and benefits platform. Serving thousands of Canadian companies, Humi is the best-in-one people platform that your company will love.
In this episode, we discuss...
-Businesses…
Was having coffee in Toronto yesterday with a previous podcast guest.
Someone came up who had met the guest in the past and had been listening to our podcast episode the day before.
So cool to meet listeners IRL.
Going to be the universally sickest space this city has ever seen. Building a lab for people that are ready to be top 5% in the world at their craft or die trying
Keep shooting Vin
Curious why there isn't a leading or multiple CPG/DTC VC(s) in Vancouver area. The ecosystem seems to have all the ingredients.
Big brands - lulu, Aritiza, Reigning Champ, Arc'teryx, Herschel, Kit & Ace, Vega
Scaling CPG/DTC brands - Vessi, Monos, SmartSweets, Blume x 2, Duer,…
The Khosrowshahis are one of the most high-achieving families of all time.
Despite losing a $500M+ biz in the Iranian revolution in 1977, they moved all over the world and—
Went to elite universities
Became elite entrepreneurs, execs or investors
Have $10M to $1B+ net worth
Just sent out the fifth The Hard Part - Guest + Friends Newsletter, it goes to 350+ pod guests, VCs, FOs, angels, founders and operators.
If you are raising (VC or startup), hiring, launching a product, have news to share or anything else DM me and I can add it to future…
My conversation with
@DanEbs
from
@GetKoho
In this episode, we discuss Daniel’s early days starting a renewable energy company, why he has focused on helping Canada’s underbanked and how views on building a great team.
My conversation with
@robbfraser
the founder of
@outwaysocks
.
Outway makes performance socks for the pursuit of personal bests
In this episode, we discuss why Rob decided to focus on socks, how he thinks about cash flow and the nuances of designing an apparel product
My conversation with Alex McIsaac (
@AlexMcIsaac333
) the Founder and General Partner of Northside Ventures (
@Northside__VC
)!
Northside Ventures is a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional Canadian founders in the US and Canada with unique insights…
Just finished recording 5 episodes over the last two days. Some amazing guests, excited to release these!
Recording episodes makes me so excited about the Canadian tech ecosystem and the amazing founders.
🇨🇦 founder in the 🇺🇸! Congrats
@igoro
!
AI coding assistance startup Augment Inc. emerged from stealth today and announced its $227 million Series B round at a $977 million post-money valuation with investments from Sutter Hill Ventures, Index Ventures, Innovation Endeavors,…
My conversation with
@sauddaziz
the founder of
@tryvault
.
Vault is a banking platform built for global Canadian businesses.
In this episode, we discuss Saud’s time at KOHO and Revolut, why he started Vault and the Canadian banking landscape.
Who are the best Canadian operators in tech (north and south of the border)? Looking for folks in sales, ops, marketing, HR, growth, finance and more. Can be at early-stage startups, scaleups or public cos.
Cooking up an operator network/community for The Hard Part.
Anyone else becoming less interested in their wearables? I find I want to use my Apple Watch less and less. Should I switch to WHOOP, Oura ring or something else? I just want simple tracking, no distractions.
My conversation with
@shanemurphmurph
the CEO of
@OwnrCo
!
Ownr is an
@rbcx
company. They are making it simpler and more affordable for businesses to start and succeed. They know that starting and running a business takes a huge effort. By simplifying and automating business…
S2E7 with
@BrandonWaselnuk
. Brandon is the co-founder of
@codexbuild
. Codex is an IDE extension that allows any engineer to attach comments, questions, notes or any kind of content to specific lines of code.
My conversation with
@ssokol94
from
@relayventures
Relay Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in passionate entrepreneurs disrupting and creating new markets through mobile technologies.
S2E13 with
@ZainManji
from Lazer. Lazer is a digital product studio designed to help successful enterprises bring ideas to market faster and more successfully.
My conversation with
@alyssaatkins
the founder of
@hellolilia_
.
Lilia makes the end-to-end egg-freezing process feel fast and easy, working with top egg-freezing doctors and saving you thousands.
New episode with
@joshuagoodfield
the Executive Director of
@VCPlatform
! 🇨🇦🚨
In this episode, we discuss...
-Joshua’s time at
@theC100
-Why is the platform function at VCs growing
-What it truly means to build a community
-What KPIs you should track
Did you know Canadian innovation has created the mRNA vaccine delivery mechanism and insulin?
We dive into that and more with Dr. Anish Kaushal (
@anishkbio
) an Associate at Amplitude Ventures (
@amplitudeVC
)!
Amplitude Ventures works with Canada's most promising healthcare…
The Hard Part has a new supporter!
@FaskenLaw
's Emerging Tech and Venture Capital practice. You'll be hearing more about them on all future podcasts.
Thanks to the Fasken team for sponsoring the podcast and showing their commitment to Canada's technology ecosystem.
New episode with
@JimROrlando
from
@WittingtonVC
!🇨🇦
We discuss...
-Jim's journey at BCE Ventures and OMERS Ventures
-Wittington's close ties to brands like Shoppers and Loblaw
-Managing other investors
-Jim's musical and game-coding talents
S2E2 out now with
@Gavin_K_Dove
. Gavin is the co-founder of . Fluent is a Chrome extension that helps you practice new languages 🇫🇷🇪🇸🇮🇹. It’s a fantastic product!
My conversation with
@MalloryJGreene
the co-founder and CEO of
@Eirene
.
We discuss Mallory’s days as an early employee at Wealthsimple, what inspired her to start Eirene and what it’s like building a business in an emotionally charged space.
My conversation with
@vivekramaswami
a partner at
@MadronaVentures
. Madrona is a seed, early stage and acceleration-stage investor. Investing for over 25 years in startups in machine learning, AI, marketplaces, devops, biotech and across technology.
I launched a private monthly newsletter for The Hard Part Guests + Friends. Feature guest writers, companies hiring and raising, funds raising, insider scoops and more. DM me if you want to be added or have info that could be in it! Currently goes out to 200+ investors, family…
New episode with
@humza_j
from Tamba! 🇨🇦
We discuss...
-Hamza's business acquired by Tiny
-what makes Victoria's tech community so great
-meeting
@hubermanlab
which led to the start of his new business Routines
-the best advice he got from
@awilkinson
New episode with
@DCoolican
an angel investor, previously at
@a16z
🚨🇨🇦
In this episode, we discuss...
-His founder journey starting Frank
-His time spent at a16z
-Nuances of investing in consumer businesses
-Keeping your edge as an investor
Young Canadians put a lot of their hard-earned money towards rent every month. We think that should count for a lot more – like towards your credit score.
In the upcoming year, the job market will see a remarkable influx of former startup founders. I'd highly consider bringing these experienced problem solvers onto your team - their skills are exactly what dynamic organizations require to thrive.
My conversation with
@ruffoloj
the Founder & Managing Partner of
@MaverixPe
.
In this episode, we discuss how John started OMERS Ventures, the story behind his big investment in Shopify and his thoughts on the Canadian tech space.
So much fomo with
@socraticainfo
,
@newdemos_
with
@internetvin
and now
@NovusOrg
hosting unreal demo events in Waterloo, Toronto and Vancouver.
I’m gonna do this in Calgary. Who wants to help? It’s time to build Calgary!