Managing Partner @ Leaders Fund. Formerly VP @ https://teapaw.org/t.co/dUR9DSanZN; co-founder of Rypple and Workbrain.
Toronto
Joined February 2008
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- Followers876
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dstein retweeted
We are thrilled to share that @ada_cx and @dialpad are merging to create a new leader in agentic customer communications!
The companies of the future will be teams of people and AI agents, serving customers who increasingly have agents of their own.
Together, we’re going to power new experiences customers should expect, the collaboration businesses will need, and the communications that will make it possible.
Ada has served more than 1 billion people and deployed more than 500 customer-facing AI agents that handle complex interactions. Dialpad, founded by members of the Google Voice team, powers more than 50,000 businesses around the world.
As one company, we will make entirely new customer experiences possible: people and AI agents working as one team around every customer anticipating needs, taking on complex work and doing more than customers thought to ask. Together, we have the reach, resources and technology to bring that future to billions more people, faster.
Read Mike’s letter on what we’re building: ada.cx/full-stack-with-dialp…
dstein retweeted
US voters just rejected data centres everywhere they got the chance.
That investment has to land somewhere.
Clean hydro. Open land. Cold winters.
That's Canada 🇨🇦
This is a massive opportunity for us. Generational.
Accurate measurement is first step in levelling up.
Introducing Benchmark Canada, a new project letting Canadians 'know when to be upset.'
Countries don’t typically get report cards, but there are hard facts that can be collated, assessed and compared. Benchmark Canada brings together more than 40 different metrics that measure this nation’s performance across the economy, health care, immigration and others nationalpost.com/news/lettin…
dstein retweeted
Mattamy Canada CEO Brad Carr's suggestion? 👀
Stop taxing homes out of existence.
"Governments tax cigarettes heavily to reduce their consumption. Today we are applying the same approach to housing, with taxes now accounting for 36% of the purchase price of a new home in Ontario."
Read more at buildcanada.com/memos/housin… 🏠
dstein retweeted
This is a going to be a great week in Toronto!
torontotechweek.com/
dstein retweeted
for anyone who hasn't been paying attention... C-22 is a terrible idea
C-22's architecture is most similar to laws in place in China, Russia, India and Vietnam
among allied democracies, the closest analog is Australia's TOLA Act (2018), which Australia is now amending due to the economic harm it caused
Google warns lawful-access bill could create major cybersecurity risks theglobeandmail.com/politics…
dstein retweeted
Congrats!
Thrilled to be on board as an indie investor.
We’ve raised 25M to build the world’s first Personal Intelligence.
Introducing Vellum: AI that belongs to you.
My assistant @ash_vellum has his own X (like grok), tag him and he'll answer.
dstein retweeted
disappointing to see that there is not a single founder, startup CEO, tech entrepreneur, VC, or innovation-economy builder on this committee
this is an old-economy 🦕 list:
> 12 legacy-industry executives or industry association leaders (aluminum, auto parts, steel, rail, pipelines, mining, agri, dairy, forestry, manufacturing, chamber)
> 5 former politicians or current provincial premier
> 2 labour leaders
> 1 bank CEO
> 1 Indigenous business association CEO
> 1 cultural industry executive
> 1 academic / US-politics specialist
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new advisory committee on Canada-U.S. economic relations has been announced. To be chaired by Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc. #cdnpoli
dstein retweeted
Lindsay and I wrote a piece for the @nationalpost on the Montreal hospital (@HGJF_JGHF) building faster and cheaper than government, and why that builder mindset may be the future of healthcare and philanthropy.
nationalpost.com/opinion/opi…
dstein retweeted
If bigger government meant better results, Canada would be crushing it.
We’re not.
So what are we actually optimizing for?
dstein retweeted
Ridiculous idea
Majority of Canadians open to joining EU, new poll suggests theglobeandmail.com/canada/a…
dstein retweeted
The New Drata Experience is here. 🔭
We rebuilt the Drata platform on a modern foundation designed for enterprise-scale GRC+A, connecting people, processes, controls, and AI-driven insights into a single constellation. When you can clearly see how everything relates, you can move faster and make better decisions with confidence.
A more powerful way to manage trust. 💫
Explore what’s new and why we built it: okt.to/2F5XVR
dstein retweeted
i’ve seen from inside government how challenging it can be to move from intention to progress
our latest @buildcanada memo, signed by 40+ of canada's leading entrepreneurs, is a call to push beyond that discomfort, move fast, and focus on delivery
dstein retweeted
one more thought, in the spirit of pushing us to be bold.
if the government is actually serious about grocery prices, the hard call is dairy and eggs. supply management there amounts to state-backed price setting.
roughly 10–15% of grocery spend goes to dairy and eggs, more for lower-income households.
fix that and you lower prices. keep avoiding it and grocery costs stay politically managed, not market-based.
what most Canadians don’t realize is that this GST credit expansion will cost taxpayers approx. $9.4B.
it will juice demand in a grocery market with tight supply and a few dominant players, with a real risk that prices will adjust, rather than providing relief. it's a measure that will be electorally popular with voters in a (possible) spring election but will have little structural impact.
if the goal were really to lower prices, we’d be forcing more competition, speeding new store and warehouse approvals, fixing logistics, and raising productivity instead of mailing cheques.
dstein retweeted
@dstein and I were asked by the Canadian government to testify on the health of the startup ecosystem in Canada.
Last week we showed up to share our views. This quote sums up our message well:
"Just imagine if the vast majority of comp sci graduates from @Harvard and @MIT moved to Canada to start their companies. The US gov't would be doing everything in their power to reverse the trend"
@RaquelDancho @leadersfund
Potential is here. Let's look aggressively to harness it!
“National pride is not enough to keep founders here. The only real solution is to make Canada a place where ambitious entrepreneurs believe staying is the best choice for their company and their future.”
wisdom from @dstein leaders.vc/canadianstartups
dstein retweeted
🚨 GC STRATEGIES AUDITOR GENERAL REPORT OUT TODAY
$64.5M in federal IT contracts went to a company that doesn’t do any IT work.
GCStrategies was a middleman—subcontracting all the actual work.
And 46% of the time, the gov’t couldn’t prove the work was even done.
Post election, while politicians are focused on "elbows up," Canadian tech needs to stay "heads down" to outperform in 2025.
Thoughts on key focus areas: linkedin.com/feed/update/urn…
