CanCon Podcast Ep. 70: Will the government's supercluster competition pit Canada's tech hubs against each other?

When the 2017 Canadian budget was released back in March, the CanCon podcast did a deep dive into its impact on the tech sector. Among the most important funding decisions was a $950 million dollar investment in superclusters. Last week, applications for the nearly-billion dollar fund opened up to accept Letters of Intent from Canadian innovation superclusters. The CanCon team remains cautious as to the impact of the investment and how the nation will be split into winners and losers.

Arlene Dickinson, CEO of Venture Communications, took to LinkedIn recently to suggest that the Canadian government should start taking more chances on women-led VC funds. It is no secret that women entrepreneurs often face difficulties getting VC funding due to gender bias, which Dickinson suggests could be offset by bringing more diversity into the VC field. Matt Roberts, Partner at ScaleUP Ventures, joins the podcast this week to reflect on the Canadian VC ecosystem and his personal experiences working as a VC.

Tune in as CanCon’s podcast crew – Erin Bury, Managing Director of Eighty-Eight, Rob Kenedi, TWG’s Entrepreneur in Residence and host of the amazing #smallrooms podcast, Matt Roberts, Partner at ScaleUP Ventures, and Douglas Soltys, BetaKit Editor in Chief – tries to Merriam-Webster the definition of “supercluster” and goes to bat for women entering the VC world.

Have some hot takes on the topics that we covered? Maybe you want to suggest something for a future podcast! Perhaps you have a burning question about something you read in tech news that we didn’t cover. Email us, post a comment below with the answer or question, or better yet, rate CanCon 5-stars on iTunes and post your thoughts there.