Mary Richardson was elated when her 2SLGBTQIA+-focused dating app, Bindr, won a prize at Montréal’s Startupfest in 2024. The connections she made were a bonus: she met Vancouver-based Bradley Breton, who became an investor in Bindr. She returned to Pennsylvania with cash winnings and a new Canadian network.
Richardson has had a busy year since. Alongside Breton and her Bindr co-founder, she spun out a marketing software tool to found ColdStart, another United States (US) company, which she says has generated over $1 million in revenue so far.
But under the current US administration, Richardson says growing anti-2SLGBTQIA+ sentiment and a wider retreat from diversity and inclusion initiatives have thrown a wrench into her success. Now, she’s considering a move up north, where she says the climate is more inclusive and more economically viable. And she’s not alone.
Mary Richardson
“We’ve had people laugh in my face at conferences. Investors put their hands up and turn away as soon as they see that there’s anything queer.”
As the US administration targets all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and large corporations follow suit, some queer American tech founders say they’re weighing a move to Canada to ensure the success of their businesses—and their ability to live openly.
When US President Donald Trump regained office in January, he swiftly moved to erase mentions of DEI from all aspects of the federal government via executive order, calling them “radical and wasteful.” This included all “equity-related” grants or contracts.
Though a broader wave of corporate pushback against DEI initiatives had already begun, the executive order spurred a flurry of rollbacks, including in tech. Top companies such as Meta, Amazon, Google, and Accenture ended programs that promoted equitable hiring practices.
In an interview with BetaKit, Richardson said these political changes have “directly impacted” how her companies are doing business, making the US a worse place for her and her founders to build a company.
“We’ve had people laugh in my face at conferences. Investors put their hands up and turn away as soon as they see that there’s anything queer,” she said.
Other ColdStart customers have reached out to Richardson to work with them, she said, but only if she and her co-founders remove “everything Bindr-related” from their pages. Meanwhile, the company has had to note in contracts with fellow queer-led businesses—to whom it offers discounts—that if the client company is “made illegal or disbanded” by the US government for being 2SLGBTQIA+-related, then they can void the contract with no repercussions.
The loss of business opportunities, coupled with the political climate, has pushed Richardson to consider moving the ColdStart executive team to Vancouver.
“Canada is where we found the most acceptance for us as founders, as people,” Richardson said.
She said she hasn’t received pushback from Canadian investors about running a startup geared towards the queer community. After winning the $60,000 Startupfest award in 2024, Richardson came back as a judge for the 2SLGBTQIA+ Prize in 2025, whose winnings had been upped to $100,000.
“It’s unfortunate that in this climate… you will have to hide to protect yourself and the company.”
Naoufel Testaouni
QueerTech
Another US-based queer founder, this one of a cleantech startup, also believes Canada would be a more stable place to build a company like theirs. They told BetaKit that mass federal layoffs instigated by the formerly Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency led to funding delays for the startup’s ongoing government contract. BetaKit agreed not to name the founder, as they fear retribution related to the contract.
Concerns about the DEI crackdown deterred the founder from submitting a federal grant application, which had encouraged them to include the diversity of the team on the proposal, in November of last year. When Trump took office and sought to wipe all mentions of DEI from federal government communications, however, the founder said they didn’t want to count on funds that could be pulled in the future.
The founder said their company also has concerns about the rollback of environmental regulations and the crackdown on immigration potentially affecting talent considerations for the majority-immigrant team. They see Canada’s stable political environment, immigration policies, climate policies, and acceptance of queer people as welcome contrasts.
Naoufel Testaouni, CEO of Canadian non-profit organization QueerTech, told BetaKit in an interview that he anticipates many queer founders in the US will have to hide their identities to put their businesses first.
“As a founder, your priority is to the company you’re founding and the idea you’re building,” Testaouni said. “And it’s unfortunate that in this climate… you will have to hide to protect yourself and the company.”
An opportunity, and a warning, for Canada
The co-founders of Canada’s only 2SLGBTQIA+-focused venture capital (VC) firm, Misfit Ventures, say they have connected with several more queer, US-based founders who are unwilling to speak out for fear of retribution or lost business.
Mandy Potter, Misfit Ventures co-founder and managing partner, said the situation could spell an opportunity to bring tech talent to Canada.
Her co-founder Doug Lui argued that the Canadian government and tech ecosystem should take advantage of this “reverse brain drain” opportunity by loosening visa requirements for 2SLGBTQIA+ founders who want to move to Canada.
“Our diversity fuels our creativity, and our values fuel our relevance. If we let anti-DEI rhetoric or LGBTQ erasure take root, we lose both.”
Dax Dasilva
Lightspeed Commerce
US-collected data shows that queer tech founders tend to outperform their cis and hetero counterparts. Despite receiving significantly less funding on average, LGBTQ entrepreneurs create 36 percent more jobs, generate 114 percent more patents, and achieve 44 percent more exits on average, according to data collected by Startout Index from 2000 to 2022. Potter said this kind of data, based on sexual orientation, hasn’t yet been collected in Canada. However, Misfit Ventures is exploring collaborations with organizations to compile the information.
Dax Dasilva, founder and CEO of e-commerce company Lightspeed, wrote in an email to BetaKit that founders coming to Canada should be met with clear pathways for visas, better integration into the business community, and immediate access to funding opportunities.
“The opportunity is here, we just need to remove the friction,” Dasilva said.
The political environment for the queer community is not perfect in Canada, however, as there are worries of a cultural ripple effect from the US.
In addition to co-founding ColdStart and serving as a QueerTech board member, Breton is an angel investor focused on queer-led ventures. Though Canada is more friendly policy-wise to 2SLGBTQIA+ founders, he said, the same can’t be said for the investment landscape.
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“Our reliance on the US for investment capital makes us very vulnerable to shifts like this in US opinion,” he said. On average, US investors participate in as many as two-thirds of deals above $50 million CAD in Canada, according to a recent CVCA Intelligence report.
Canadian tech itself had a mini-reckoning in February about how it was treating racialized, queer, and otherwise marginalized people in the ecosystem. More than 350 members of the tech ecosystem signed an open letter calling for Canadian tech to uphold the values of diversity and inclusion after some companies, including Shopify, had ended related initiatives. Testaouni told BetaKit that Pride organizations across North America are losing money as corporate sponsors drop out, including from Toronto Pride.
“I think recent events have highlighted how important it is for [people in] the Canadian tech industry to continue to support one another,” Dasilva told BetaKit. “Our diversity fuels our creativity, and our values fuel our relevance. If we let anti-DEI rhetoric or LGBTQ erasure take root, we lose both.”
It’s just not about acceptance, Breton added. Founders and tech workers shouldn’t be afraid to share and celebrate who they are in a business context.
“The visibility component is really important,” Breton said. “That’s what makes people comfortable in the tech space and the founder space…to [live] their truth.”
As Breton’s co-founder Richardson explores a move to Canada, the uncertainty continues for their company. Much of what fuels her anxiety is “fear of policies and fear of what may happen” with the unpredictable nature of the US administration, she said.
Since Richardson spoke with BetaKit, concerns about the future of 2SLGBTQIA+ rights in the US have only risen. The US Supreme Court has been asked to take up a case this fall that could overturn its 2015 landmark decision that currently protects same-sex marriage.
“There’s a world where I might have to go back in the closet if I stay in the US,” Richardson said.
Feature image courtesy Lennon Kong via Unsplash.