Alison Kaizer, a partner in talent at Golden Ventures, took to the main stage at Uniting the Prairies 2026 on April 30 in Saskatoon to break down how one of Canada’s top seed-stage funds builds what she calls a “talent engine” for early-stage founders.
“It’s really on the company to build the muscle of attracting and closing the best talent.”
In conversation with her partner, the founder and creator of Boardy AI, Andrew D’Souza, Kaizer framed hiring as one of the most misunderstood parts of company building, and one that founders must treat as a core capability, not a function to outsource.
“I’m there to answer questions, sit in on interviews, and help founders avoid the pitfalls that happen repeatedly,” she explained.
D’Souza, who moderated the discussion, noted that Kaizer’s ability to quickly connect founders with the right people was part of the inspiration behind his own work.
“She’s talking to so many people, and she can connect them with so many people,” he said, describing the scale and consistency of Kaizer’s approach.
Kaizer described her work across more than 80 active portfolio companies as split between strategic guidance and direct candidate introductions. Over the past year, she has spoken with hundreds of candidates and made more than 1,000 introductions across Golden’s network.
“We have teams that have 14 people, and I found nine of those people,” she said. “The value is really there, especially when you’re dealing with an early-stage founder that doesn’t necessarily have an employer brand yet.”
But her goal isn’t to become a long-term hiring solution for founders.
“It’s really on the company to build the muscle of attracting and closing the best talent,” she said.
Instead, she often introduced founders to strong candidates early in the process, not necessarily to hire, but to help them calibrate.
“I’m going to introduce you to a few people that I think are amazing… to understand what great looks like,” she explained, speaking about her process.
AI reshapes hiring signals
A central theme of the session was how AI is reshaping hiring signals and making traditional indicators like resumes less reliable.
“Especially with technical hires now, past experience sometimes is not indicative of future success—and sometimes can actually be prohibitive, because someone that’s so ingrained in doing things a certain way might not be able to unlearn and adapt,” noted Kaizer. Instead, she emphasized learning ability as the defining trait for early-stage hires.
“The number one skill that matters today, more than ever, is learning aptitude, curiosity, a desire to test, a desire to look at a new way of doing things, as opposed to just leveraging the historical playbook,” she said.
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To assess that, Kaizer encouraged founders to create real-world scenarios, rather than relying on interviews alone.
“The best way to test whether someone is going to be a strong, very-early-stage hire is to give them an AI tool they’ve never worked with, and sit down in a session and see how they’re able to maneuver their way through it— or ask them how they would approach solving an ambiguous problem they’ve never had to solve before.”
D’Souza added that even experienced builders are still catching up to the pace of change.
“We’re getting to the point where it’s embarrassing to say that you don’t use it,” he said, referring to AI tools becoming table stakes across the industry.
Kaizer also pushed founders to rethink how interviews are structured.
“We’re getting to the point where it’s embarrassing to say that you don’t use [AI].”
Andrew D’Souza,
Boardy AI
“I don’t want there to be a one-directional interview process,” Kaizer explained. “I actually want to see if we’re compatible and have some really great data points before we decide that it makes sense to commit to each other in a long-term way.”
That includes collaborative sessions, paid projects, and deeper interaction between candidates and teams before making a hire.
Kaizer shared how AI has already transformed parts of her own workflow, from note-taking to candidate matching. She described building internal tools that combine intake forms, meeting notes, and her company’s open roles to generate tailored introductions for founders: something that previously required manual effort. But she was clear about what hasn’t changed.
“What nothing can replace is my ability to speak to and truly understand a candidate, and then the credibility that comes with me going to a founder and saying, you really need to make time to talk to this person,” she said.
Showing up prepared
Kaizer also offered practical advice for both sides of the hiring equation. For candidates, she warned against applying broadly without intention.
“It’s really about quality, not quantity,” she said. “If you find four or five companies that you’re deeply passionate about and go out of your way to write a really great custom message to a founder, telling them ‘these are the problems I could solve day one,’ you’re going to cut through the noise.”
For founders, she emphasized the importance of showing up prepared.
“The founders that are incredible, where we’re able to really collaborate, are the ones coming in with a point of view. They’re not just looking for me to tell them the answers, but looking to pressure test their ideas,” she shared.
While AI continues to reshape hiring, Kaizer’s message was grounded in fundamentals. Strong teams still come down to judgment, alignment, and execution—all areas founders need to take ownership of early.
Because, in her view, building a company ultimately means building the system that finds and develops talent.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy Brad Best for BetaKit.