Sean Kim

The CRA just posted an RFP asking for a local solution to generate Java code. Canada is finally waking up to what we should have been building all along. We spend $50B+ annually on R&D. Less than 2% of that IP gets commercialized. Over half gets assigned to foreign companies. The gap isn't invention. It's translation. Vision to execution. Idea to Production-Ready code that stays here. When a federal agency asks for local AI tooling to build software, it's a signal. Not just procurement. Recognition that exportable IP and sovereign capability matter. This is the bottleneck I've been watching for years. Brilliant innovators who can't build alone. Risk-averse capital that won't fund pre-revenue deep tech. A translation layer that costs $400k or doesn't exist at all. The RFP is small. The shift it represents is not.

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Ontario Teachers'​ Pension Plan leads Grafana Labs’ $150 million tender offer. “This investment reflects the strong confidence our investors have in our vision for open, AI-powered observability,” said Raj Dutt, CEO and Co-Founder of Grafana Labs. Rick Prostko | Raj Dutt #Secondaries #SecondaryMarket #AlternativeInvestments #PrivateMarkets #Venture #VentureCapital #VC #Deals https://lnkd.in/eGP-b6NN

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Kitchener-Waterloo-based cybersecurity startup Cavelo Inc. has raised a $5 million CAD seed extension round led by existing investor Inovia Capital. 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗦 👉 https://lnkd.in/dv9Qra-G James Mignacca Eldon Sprickerhoff Mandy B. Christina Strambu Abdallah Abid Alexandra Kehayas Noor Jahangir Shaun Guidolin Clay Lambert Logan Campbell Paige P. Katherine B. Etienne Gauthier Kris Shoemaker Katie Walford Larry Meador Kimber P. Jake Slinger Taha Mubashir Matt Koivisto Callum Currie Brendan Reekie Anoop K. Phil G. Nathan Brunkard #Startups #Founders #FundingNews #VentureCapital #CyberSecurity #PrivateEquity

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Gatik CEO Gautam Narang joined SiliconANGLE & theCUBE’s John Furrier on NYSE Wired’s Robotics & AI Leader Series to discuss what it takes to achieve commercial scale and safety in autonomous trucking. In this segment, Gautam walks through our journey from commencing our partnership with Loblaw Companies Limited in 2020, to launching Canada’s first driver-out commercial routes in 2022, to a new 5-year expansion that will scale to 50 trucks serving 300+ stores across the GTA. Stay tuned for more insights from the conversation. For the full interview, check it out on theCUBE + NYSE Wired: https://lnkd.in/gqPwJzQa #AutonomousTrucks #SupplyChain #Robotics #AI #Logistics #NYSEWired Brian J. Baumann David Vellante

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𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗹𝗮𝗴: Canadian Tire confirms an 𝗲-𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 exposing customer PII; 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗱, 𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸/𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗮𝗹𝘁𝘆 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘂𝗻𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱; 𝗳𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝟭𝟱𝟬𝗞 had full DOB; 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱 — E-commerce accounts (Canadian Tire, SportChek, Mark’s/L’Équipeur, Party City) were accessed; data included name, address, email, year of birth, encrypted passwords, and in some cases truncated card numbers; bank and Triangle Rewards systems were not involved. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 (𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹) — An identified 𝘃𝘂𝗹𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 in the e-commerce environment allowed unauthorized access; it’s been fixed, and impact was limited to that database (no crossover to banking/loyalty). 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 — 𝗠𝗙𝗔/𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗸𝗲𝘆𝘀 + forced resets; 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗣𝗜𝗜 (avoid full DOB); 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗲-𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗲𝘅𝗳𝗶𝗹 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘀 (WAF/EDR/DLP with alerting); 𝘀𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 + least privilege; 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘀 & credit monitoring. #databreach #infosec #ecommerce #privacy #MFA

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We're going to Carleton University's job fair in February looking for junior engineers, and I'm keeping the job description vague on purpose. My take is that detailed job descriptions just attract better keyword matchers. When you list "Must have 3 years of experience with Kubernetes, Docker, Python, and React," you're optimising for people who are good at tailoring their CVs to match job postings. What you're screening out are people who might be brilliant but haven't ticked those exact boxes yet. We've always hired for critical thinking skills and a "do things the right way, not the fast way" mindset over specific technology experience. Mindset and critical thinking are very hard to teach. Technology is easy to teach by comparison. AI has made this even more true. Now that anyone can generate code, what matters is whether you can evaluate if that code is any good. Our junior engineers work directly with Fortune 50 customers. They contribute to Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards. They get opportunities that would be impossible at a 5,000-person company with a rigid career ladder. But how do you put that in a posting without sounding like you're making empty promises? So I'm not going to try. I'll say "we do critical infrastructure work that secures millions of users, and you'll have more independence and impact than you'd get anywhere else." If that sounds vague and makes you anxious, you're probably not the right fit. If it sounds vague and makes you curious, we should talk. We've had people stay with us for 15 or 20 years. We treat people like humans, not "resources," and we give them room to grow in ways they couldn't elsewhere. The vagueness is the filter. The people who need a detailed checklist aren't looking for what we're offering. The people who see possibilities instead of requirements are exactly who we want.

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𝗬𝗖 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀. Not because Canadian founders aren't good enough. Not because we can't build world-class companies. Because they want us to incorporate in Delaware instead. Yes — technically Canadians can still apply. They just need to "flip" their company to the US, Cayman Islands, or Singapore first. Garry Tan (YC's CEO — ironically born in Winnipeg) put it bluntly: if you want to raise money, "just convert to Delaware C Corp." Here's why this stings: → Canada was one of only 4 countries YC would directly invest in. Now we're grouped with everyone else. → Dozens of homegrown Canadian companies have gone through YC since 2008. That pipeline just got harder. → This sends a message: build here, but don't stay incorporated here. Aidan Gomez (Cohere founder) said it best: "It's the Valley-or-bust mentality that breaks the ecosystem and really hurts Canada." But here's the uncomfortable truth: 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺. The jobs might stay here. The equity doesn't. We have the talent. We have the ideas. We have government programs designed to support innovation. What we don't have is an ecosystem that makes it easy to build something massive AND keep it Canadian. That's the real problem this decision exposes. What do you think — is this just a paperwork issue, or a symptom of something bigger?

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Thrilled to announce 6 new 🇨🇦 Canadian PII filters now built into LiteLLM (YC W23) - including SSN's, Health card numbers, driver's license and more s/o Jose M. Lopez Lujan (+ 4 more updates this week 👇) 💪 Gemini — normalized response images with missing index handling 🛠️ Anthropic — sanitized empty text content blocks 👋 DeepSeek — mapped thinking config 💸 Azure — added grok-4-1-fast model support

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VERSES® Welcomes Former Amazon Web Services (AWS) Executive David T. Scott to Board G Scott Paterson Steps Down as Company Prepares for the Next Phase of Growth VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VERSES AI Inc. (CBOE: VERS) (OTCQB: VRSSF) (“VERSES” or the “Company”), a cognitive computing company specializing in next-generation agentic software systems, today announced the appointment of David T. Scott, former Head of Global Marketing Strategy, Analytics, and Operations at Amazon Web Services (AWS), to its board of directors (the “Board”). Mr. Scott succeeds G. Scott Paterson, who has stepped down from the Board effective September 30, 2025. “I want to welcome David to the Board at this exciting phase of commercialization and growth,” said Gabriel René, Founder and CEO of VERSES. “His expertise in scaling global marketing and sales operations will help provide important support for VERSES’ ongoing commercial growth. I also want to thank Scott for his valuable contributions and dedicated service during an important chapter of our development.” “I am honored to have this opportunity to join the Board at VERSES,” said David Scott. “The Genius™ product is unique and unlike anything I've seen in the market, and I'm excited to support VERSES in bringing it to market.” Mr. Scott brings more than 25 years of executive leadership experience across global enterprises and high-growth startups. At AWS, he oversaw operations for the 3,500-person marketing team and led strategic growth initiatives. His career also includes senior roles at Twitter, AT&T, PeopleSoft, Honeywell, and General Electric, along with multiple successful ventures as a serial entrepreneur. He currently serves on the board of the marketing platform Marigold and has previously held positions on several nonprofit and industry boards.

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San Francisco-based data security company Okta has opened new infrastructure, hosted within Canada, that will keep customer data in-country. Meanwhile, the Canadian government is still trying to decide how products like this fit into Canada's push for digital sovereignty. #CDNTech

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