We promised you it wasn’t a panel. We meant it.
On October 8th, Edmonton Startup Week rolled into Fu’s Repair Shop for Hot Takes: Edmonton Startup Week Edition, co-hosted with Artemis Canada. Comedian Adam Dyck (host of LRT Takes) handed the mic to founders and investors and asked for the opinions they don’t usually say out loud.
In the hot seat:
Kristina Milke, General Partner, Sprout Fund
Tristan Ham, COO & Co-Founder, Unbounded Thinking
Kristina McDougall, Founder & Managing Partner, Artemis Canada
Nina Karpoff, Co-Founder & Business Development, RNARevive
Here’s what surfaced 👇
1. Selling early isn’t the problem. Selling to the wrong buyer is.
The night opened on a classic Canadian worry: our startups exit too soon. The room didn’t fully agree that’s a bad thing. An early sale can be good for talent and for the wider ecosystem, if Canadian investors hold meaningful stakes. It also frees founders to go build the next thing.
The catch? The buyers swooping in (the “hawks”) are usually not Canadian, and when a company sells too soon, the IP can leave with it. The fix everyone landed on: Canada needs its own hawks, so the cycle of building, selling and building again happens here.
Brought to you by:
Artemis delivers executive and senior talent to Canada’s fastest scaling tech companies, with precision, rigour, and care.
2. We pay for the research. Someone else gets the company.
Taxpayer dollars fund plenty of early R&D. What’s missing is everything after that: pilots, adoption, and real paths to commercialization. So founders do the logical thing and go build in the U.S.
Brain drain came up too, with a twist. Sending new grads abroad for experience is great, as long as there’s something to come home to. Right now, the builders who scale IP after the R&D phase are the ones getting the least support.
3. “Not right now” means no.
Canadian investors are famously polite, and founders pay for it. A soft “not right now” leaves a founder guessing whether to keep chasing or move on. The investors in the room were clear that it usually means no.
Kristina Milke, who completed a VC fellowship, described U.S. investors as more active and more blunt. With far less deal flow in Canada, there are fewer second chances, which makes a clear answer even more valuable.
Investors, consider this your permission slip to be kind and direct.
4. Innovation is a risk, so start acting like it.
Innovation isn’t just shiny new tech. It’s changing how systems actually work, and that means taking real risks, especially in cautious sectors like healthcare. Our risk-averse culture means fewer bold bets, and fewer leaders willing to celebrate a swing that missed. In the U.S., failure is a step. Here, we’re still learning to see it that way.
Don’t miss our next Tech Thursday on October 22nd!
🧠 Topic - AI on the mind: Uses and effects of AI in psychology
This Tech Thursday, we’re exploring where AI and the human mind meet: what brain research and language models can teach us about each other, how AI is already showing up in psychology and mental health, and the ethical questions that come with it.
Featuring:
Geoffrey Rockwell, Professor of Philosophy and Humanities Computing, University of Alberta
Alona Fyshe, Associate Professor in Computing Science and Psychology, University of Alberta
Latoya Reid, Founder & CEO, ReiSpace
Moderated by: Kirsten Sokolovski, Host, Tech Thursday
5. Is AI making leadership too easy?
Here’s where it got philosophical. One hot take: if AI smooths out every hard process, future leaders might miss the struggle that builds real resilience.
The room pushed back. The struggle hasn’t disappeared, it’s changed shape. Younger generations are dealing with affordability, information overload, and having every move recorded and posted. Gen Z was called out as more entrepreneurial than ever, building fixes for systems that let them down. Different struggle, still a struggle.
6. Stop throwing parties only for unicorns.
Tristan Ham brought one of the spiciest takes: the community needs to stop celebrating only unicorns and gazelles. Steady, sustainable businesses are the backbone of Alberta’s economy, and they deserve the spotlight (and the funding) too. The conversation also went somewhere spicier: funding that sometimes follows a founder’s famous background instead of merit.
The Takeaway
The message for the room was simple. Founders, have the courage to say no to a deal that’s too early. Investors, say what you mean. And all of us, get more comfortable with risk.
So Edmonton, which of these hot takes do you agree with? Tell us in the comments below. 👀
Big thanks to Adam, our guests, Artemis Canada, and everyone who came out during Startup Week.
Tech Thursday is presented by Ramp:
Ramp is now in Canada, and has recently opened an office in Toronto. Ramp helps replace fragmented card, expense, payment, and accounting workflows with one AI-powered platform for greater visibility, control, and efficiency.
Tech Jobs Available 💻
A few roles worth knowing about across Edmonton’s startup and tech ecosystem:
Jobber - Hiring across engineering, product, design, data and sales
AltaML - Hiring across software engineering, AI architecture, product and public sector sales
Fleetworthy (Drivewyze) - Hiring across software engineering, product and finance
Promise Robotics - Hiring across software, estimating and production
Alberta Innovates - Hiring across data science, IP and engineering co-ops
ElectionBuddy - Hiring across software development, professional services, sales and marketing
LawDepot - Hiring across AI engineering leadership, product and content
Levven - Hiring across firmware engineering and finance
Softworks Group - Hiring across software engineering and implementation
KV Capital - Hiring across AI engineering and real estate lending
Hiring? 🧐 If you have a role you’d like to share to the Edmonton Tech Thursday community, please fill out this form.
Thank You to Our Incredible Sponsors:
Ramp, Boast, Alberta Innovates, Skip, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG), and Crestview Strategy for making Edmonton Tech Thursday possible.
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