The BetaKit Podcast Channel

"There has never been a more exciting time to found and build a company in Canada."
A *killler* lineup of Startupfest speakers joins for a live recording of The BetaKit Podcast at the Startupfest village in Montréal's Grand Quay. In a rapid-fire talk show format, these luminaries discuss the leading causes of startup death, hard-won lessons in company scaling, the virtues of AI, and why now is the most exciting time to build a company in Canada. Featuring:
Johnathan Nightingale - Co-founder of Raw Signal Group

Fatima Khamitova - Director, Startups at Vector Institute

Vishar Yaghoubian - CEO / Co-founder of Toothpod

Melissa Nightingale - Co-founder of Raw Signal Group 

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The BetaKit Podcast is presented by MaRS Connect.
Discover ground-breaking solutions on MaRS Connect, a curated digital platform designed to accelerate real connections between Canada's top startups and serious adopters, investors, and ecosystem leaders.
Visit MaRS Connect to learn more.

"I am Tron-pilled: I fight for the user. I want people to be in charge of their technology, not the other way around."
Award-winning Canadian science-fiction author, journalist, and tech activist Cory Doctorow is back with a new book, "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI." He joins The BetaKit Podcast to discuss healthy ways people can be assisted by AI rather than conscripted in service to the tech, before pitching the need to jailbreak Canada to help the country reclaim its digital sovereignty. What exactly is a reverse centaur? Let's dig in.
 
The BetaKit Podcast is presented by MaRS Climate Impact 2026: early bird tickets are now on sale!
On November 17 and 18, learn more about climate innovations engineered for scale and join founders, investors, policy-makers, researchers, and industry leaders for two days of breakthrough startup pitch sessions, curated networking opportunities, panel debates and live podcast recordings. 
Register today, and meet the people accelerating the transition to a more resilient, low-carbon economy.
Secure your early bird tickets now!

"The Arctic is the hardest operational environment on Earth for anybody. For any country."
Dominion Dynamics CEO and BetaKit Most Ambitious honouree Eliot Pence joins to discuss his company's plans to become the general contractor for Canada's defence needs, why the Arctic is so important, and why he came back to Canada to build.
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Amid global uncertainty, the path forward is clear: Canada's moment to build is now.
Presented by Uber Canada, DMZ, and National Bank of Canada, BetaKit Most Ambitious is back, telling stories of nearly 100 Canadian innovators strengthening our nation's autonomy, security, and prosperity.
Read BetaKit Most Ambitious now.

"Either we build the innovation here with our entrepreneurs, or we buy it from someone else. And either we make the rules here, or we follow someone else's. Those are the choices we've got as a country."
It's a special Canada Day edition of The BetaKit Podcast! Canada's Minister of AI and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, joins for an extended conversation to discuss the country's refreshed AI strategy, digital sovereignty, and forthcoming social media and privacy regulations.
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Amid global uncertainty, the path forward is clear: Canada's moment to build is now.
Presented by Uber Canada, DMZ, and National Bank of Canada, BetaKit Most Ambitious is back, telling stories of nearly 100 Canadian innovators strengthening our nation's autonomy, security, and prosperity.
Read BetaKit Most Ambitious now.

"If your entire technology is coming from a single country, and that country decides that every now and again they're going to shut off access to you, that's not a foundation you can build on."
The US government just ordered Anthropic to ban access to its most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Seems like now is a good time to talk about sovereign AI.
Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst joins to discuss how Canada's AI champion is built different than the other frontier LLM providers, how Star Trek informs the type of AI future the company is trying to create, and why he doesn't make a point of listening to Marc Andreessen about AGI.
Did the Anthropic model ban prove Cohere is right about sovereign AI? Let's dig in.
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Amid global uncertainty, the path forward is clear: Canada's moment to build is now.
Presented by Uber Canada, DMZ, and National Bank of Canada, BetaKit Most Ambitious is back, telling stories of nearly 100 Canadian innovators strengthening our nation's autonomy, security, and prosperity.
Read BetaKit Most Ambitious now.