Hello and welcome to the BetaKit Podcast’s first AMA episode of 2023!
On these podcasts, we ask you—our listeners—for questions on Canadian tech or tech from a Canadian perspective, and then bring on a special guest to answer them for us.
“I honestly feel as though 2023 is going to be one of those years in Canadian tech where companies are going to have to be accountable.”
For this episode, we have a special special guest, one Amber Mac, host of basically every tech thing other than the BetaKit Podcast. But, importantly, also a Canadian Podcast Awards winner. If you might recall, the last time we had Amber on the podcast, we talked a lot of shit because we were also nominated for the Canadian Podcast Awards. And, well, she crushed us. So Amber is back on the pod, looking for revenge, apologies, and answers.
Certainly, she’s not the only one, as the submitted questions for this week’s episode could be broadly summarized like so: WTF is going on in tech right now?
We have mass layoffs across Big Tech, including Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce, and Google. On the Canadian side, you have Lightspeed, Hootsuite, and Clearco—the latter two having replaced their CEOs (again), with Lightspeed swapping CEOs last year. Oh and then there’s news (exclusively from BetaKit) that VCs are killing or renegotiating funding rounds because LP investors can’t (or won’t) pay up. It’s a lot.
And then you have generative AI like ChatGPT, which continues to be a source of endless conversation—either as the Next Big Thing, or just another on a long list of Might Be Things (including AR/VR, Web3, and the Metaverse).
But it’s not all doom and gloom. In fact, things seem to be booming in Atlantic Canada, and who better to speak to the opportunities there for innovation, talent, and access to funding than PEI’s native daughter?
Let’s dig in.
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The BetaKit Podcast is hosted by Douglas Soltys & Rob Kenedi. Edited by Kattie Laur. Sponsored by Amazon Web Services.