Canada’s struggle to leverage its innovations is widely acknowledged. However, in the burgeoning AI race, it represents a significant issue that could exclude the country from the next tech era—an era that we helped to initiate.
So, why is this happening, and how can we prevent it?
“A win for AXL is that, ten years from now, instead of nine of the top ten biggest and most successful companies in the world being on the West Coast of the United States, half of them are in Toronto.”
Dr. Daniel Wigdor
Dr. Daniel Wigdor, an entrepreneur and computer science professor at the University of Toronto with experience at global tech giants like Microsoft and Meta, has witnessed the cultural and structural issues hindering Canadian innovation. We discuss these challenges in this episode.
He proposes part of a solution: a new venture studio called AXL, which aims to launch 50 AI companies in the next five years, ensuring they remain in Canada. The studio has secured corporate partnerships with Dentons and RSM Canada to develop AI-powered innovations in legal services and tax and accounting, respectively.
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Is one venture studio enough to stop Canada’s AI talent and IP exodus? Probably not, but Wigdor makes a strong case for the value of targeted capital to bridge Canada’s academic-entrepreneur divide. His human-computer interaction company, Chatham Labs, was acquired by Meta (a relationship that did not end on the best of terms). This adds weight to his perspective on the decision facing Canada’s bright minds today: stay or join the Big Tech mothership.
“Fundamentally, an entrepreneur is someone who isn’t meant to have a boss,” he told me.
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