Calgary startup Agrivanna is tackling a practical challenge in livestock management: getting useful information recorded while ranchers are busy doing the work. Its software lets producers speak notes about animals, treatments and herd movements, then review the resulting entries before adding them to their records. The platform is designed to work without cellular coverage and […]
Thought Leaders
Our Thought Leadership series highlights the province's notable domain experts and is meant to offer guidance and insight to our readers. Interested in sharing your knowledge? Reach out with your pitch.
SaaS Had Its Run. Custom Software Is Winning It Back.
There’s a version of business software history that most Calgary founders lived through without ever naming it. Twenty-Five years ago, if your company needed a tool that didn’t exist off the shelf, you built it. That meant hiring developers, standing up servers, and sinking real capital into something you then had to maintain forever. It […]
Why Calgary’s Smartest Growing Companies Are Ditching the Tech Hire
Most Calgary businesses that need tech capability follow the same path. Hire a CTO. Wait for a plan. Then either spin up an expensive in-house team or hand the work to an agency that delivers and disappears. By the time anything gets built, the budget is blown, the fractional CTO has moved on, the agency […]
Navigating Leadership as a Technical Founder
Calgary’s tech founders and technical leaders are incredible innovators with world-class skills. You have vast knowledge and to outsiders what looks like the ability to see the future. So why do so many technical founders and leaders struggle to run their companies? Simply put, being great at innovating isn’t the same as leading an organization. […]
When the Site Becomes the Lab: A New Playbook for PFAS Remediation
The most consequential breakthroughs in environmental remediation rarely begin in a laboratory. They begin in a muddy field, with a team of engineers and technicians staring at data that doesn’t behave the way the textbook said it would. The tension between what the science predicts and what a contaminated site does is where genuine innovation […]
Building a Culture of Ownership in a Gen Z–Led Startup
You can’t manage Gen Z with outdated methods—and if you try, it won’t work. But when you give them empowerment and ownership, you tap into their level of creativity, drive, and impact that’s unmatched. At JamSocial, we didn’t stumble upon this overnight. We learned it the hard way—through half-done tasks, missed meetings, and lack of […]
If We Want Carbon Removal Technology To Work — We Must Encourage Innovators To Think Big
Direct air capture (DAC) may end up playing a critical role in our climate toolbox — but if we give up on the technology now, we will never know. On Monday, Premier Danielle Smith referred to DAC as a potential last mile for addressing carbon emissions. This was promising, given recent news such as Swiss […]
How Canada Can Protect Housing Affordability
The recent election of Mark Carney as Prime Minister represents a critical opportunity for Canada to strengthen its economic resilience, particularly amid escalating trade tensions with the United States. Central to Carney’s agenda must be the immediate pursuit of interprovincial harmonization—a timely reform capable of significantly mitigating the economic impacts of intensifying U.S. tariffs on […]
Navigating the Tech Wilderness: A Roadmap for Non-Technical Founders
Picture this: you’re in Calgary, buzzing with a game-changing app idea, but the tech world feels like a maze. As a non-technical founder, you’re not alone—many struggle to find the right tools, partners, or funding. The good news? Alberta’s vibrant ecosystem, from Regional Innovation Networks to incubators and accelerators, is packed with resources to light […]
Science Says Chronic Stress Is Bad for Business. Here’s Why.
Are You Stuck in Your Amygdala Brain? As an entrepreneur, chronic stress can become your norm. Here’s why this is a problem. When stress takes over, your prefrontal cortex—the part of your brain responsible for strategic thinking, planning, and creativity—shuts down. Meanwhile, your amygdala goes into overdrive, putting you in survival mode. This hijacks your […]