NACO Podcast

On April 30, 2026, Claudio Rojas, CEO of the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO), testified before the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce and the Economy as part of its study on access to credit and capital markets for small and medium-sized enterprises. In this episode, Claudio sets out a structural argument for why Canada's innovation outcomes are decided at the formation...

This national roundtable presents the findings of Seeding Growth , NACO's landmark white paper on Canada's early-stage capital gaps and the federal government's $750 million early-stage envelope within the $1.75 billion Venture Capital Strategy announced in Budget 2025. The session follows a nine-month consultation with over 250 senior leaders across Canada's innovation economy...

Canada’s innovation economy is at an inflection point. In this National Roundtable hosted by Claudio Rojas, CEO of the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO), leaders from across the capital pipeline examine the structural gaps limiting Canada’s early-stage growth — and what it will take to close them. Following a nine-month consultation process with more than 250 ecosystem leaders — and in th...

“To get to the punchline, the government should set up a co-investment fund that matches angel investments dollar for dollar. It should adopt a national tax incentive scheme that already exists in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. And it should consider replacing the loans that are being made available through its support packages with convertible notes. The Canadian government shoul...

The combined impact of the health pandemic and economic crisis hit hard and fast. This resulted in initial government relief taking what was described as a “people first” approach, with an emphasis on employees at risk of layoffs, and trying to minimize the impact on individuals. –– All of this was focused on helping to flatten the curve. And the curve is flattening.  As provinces begin to slowly...

Innovating at the speed of the crisis is a concept that speaks to the importance of angel investing in early-stage start-ups and scale-ups, as well as the government’s decisive response to supporting the ecosystem. “We’ve already seen our government lead the way innovating at the speed of the crisis with unprecedented collaboration to catalyze and harness the power of the private sector. This leve...

“I use the analogy that you can’t grow a tree without planting a seed. And similarly, there’s no way you can build massive tech companies in Canada without supporting a robust pipeline of young, promising start-ups. Fostering of these early-stage tech companies must be done in Canada by Canadians.” “We need to keep investing in seed and pre-seed ecosystems. I sometimes get concerned when I hear a...

“History is unfolding right before our eyes. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that this pandemic is maybe one of the most important and significant events in human history. We’ve never had a moment where the entire planet has been crippled by a tiny little virus in the way that COVID-19 has impacted us,” said Dr. Kamran Khan, the founder and CEO of Toronto-based BlueDot, on the National Angel C...

“Over the past few months, we’ve been working hand in hand with companies as they retool and rapidly scale up to produce critical equipment such as masks, face shields, ventilators, medical gowns and test kits. This is an excellent opportunity for Canadian innovators. As many of you may have heard, Minister Bains likes to say this often and loudly—our approach to personal protective equipment has...

Sandi Gilbert , CEO at InterGen and Board Chair at NACO moderated a discussion with Abdullah Snobar , Executive Director at The DMZ and Nicole Verkindt , Founder at The OMX on their leadership journeys and insights on sustaining a business in crisis mode. Originally Recorded on April 30, 2020. Click here to join future roundtables .

“About 51 percent of our population are women, and we get four percent of venture-capital funding. Quite frankly, that’s an awful lot of capital to leave, and a lot of people out of the competitive ecosystem underutilized.” “We really need also to remember that when you think about women as a whole, there’s significant underrepresentation of women of color, Aboriginal women, LGBTQ women. These are...

“A lot of people understand diversity is important, but they actually don’t know how to translate that into action and really don’t understand how to bring more diverse perspectives, whether it’s female board members or female executives or female staff,” said Nicole Leblanc, the Toronto-based Director of Investments at Sidewalk Labs. Originally Recorded in September 2019. Sign-up to our newslette...

Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, we had the opportunity to speak with three founders of the Atlantic Women's Venture Fund at the NACO Summit in Halifax. Their words still ring true in the current environment. More so, perhaps. Originally Recorded in September 2019. Sign-up to our newsletter for an invitation to future events.

This untapped segment of the population signifies incredible opportunity for investors and innovators. Increasing access to capital remains a persistent impediment to growing world-class companies. “This generation of women is going to inherit or have earned the most amount of wealth that women in Canada have ever had before,” says Cathy Bennett, entrepreneur and cofounder at Atlantic Women’s Vent...

NACO’s fifth weekly collaborative roundtable on Thursday April 30th focused on activating capital for the next wave of great founders. In partnership with The51 and Atlantic Women’s Venture Fund, NACO welcomed an impressive panel of industry insiders and experts well-versed in the intense need to support enterprises led by women and to remove barriers standing in their way.  In the wake of COVID-1...

I would argue that over the past couple of decades, there has been an overemphasis in the startup world on growth for the sake of growth. Employees hired, companies acquired. There have been startups that I’ve interviewed that can barely explain what they do, and leaders who have been praised for a lack of a moral compass. Today, I believe that we are looking in the rearview mirror at these realit...

Rachel Bendayan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, in a conversation with leading entrepreneurs, Bobbie Racette, Founder & CEO at Virtual Gurus; Dr Franziska Broell, CEO at Motryx; Stephany Lapierre, CEO at tealbook; and Jennifer Wagner, President at CarbonCure Technologies. "I think we're going to get through this, a...

“Everyone knows that post-COVID-19 — the next two years — are not going to look like a month ago. It’s not a switch you can just turn back on. We have glimmers of what that’s going to look like for anyone who’s been to Loblaws or any grocery store, and the question is healthcare providers need help from startups to think about what does the ‘X’ service look like in the post-COVID-19 world? What do...

“What’s changed significantly is how I practice medicine — the delivery of virtual care to patients has increased dramatically. It’s taught me it is possible to do phone and video visits with patients you know quite well. We now need to increase the level of virtual care we provide that we were forced into by this pandemic. I think there will be strong demand for the kind of technologies that will...

We all know the idiom credited to philosopher Plato: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” It means, of course, that new ways of doing things are often created or discovered when there’s a real, intense need for them. And as we navigate this COVID-19 pandemic together, it’s fair to say this adage rings true louder today than in recent history — especially when it comes to the rising number of br...

“We have billions of dollars across Canada right now earmarked for technology, so doesn’t it make sense that the government becomes the biggest customer as we face this economic slowdown for our tech scale-ups and SMEs? “I believe tech procurement is the biggest lever that the government has as an economic stimulus. They definitely need to take some mission critical actions to help our technologie...

“The main takeaways… are the difficulties people are having in projecting a way out of this and building a plan, and the difficulties in taking care of teams right now, as we are locked in self-isolation in trying circumstances.” — Douglas Soltys, Editor-in-Chief at BetaKit  Originally Recorded on April 23, 2020. Click here to join future roundtables .

“Cultivating that strong grassroots ecosystem from the ground up is so important right now… there are a lot of opportunities here to make a stronger ecosystem and it will take us all working together.” — Victoria Lennox, Founder of Startup Canada Originally Recorded on April 23, 2020. Click here to join future roundtables .

“We have really bright minds working on how to solve various aspects of this pandemic… we want to make sure these folks are able to bring their solutions to market sooner rather than later. We’re changing the way we work. We’re deploying funds in a matter of weeks rather than months.” — Benton Leong, General Partner at ArchAngel Network of Funds Originally Recorded on April 23, 2020. Click here to...

"This week’s respected roster of speakers spoke about how we can all do our part — the way we can lean in, support the emergence of new med-tech initiatives and help these small and medium-sized enterprises get their innovations and technologies to market sooner. “It is in precisely these times, as we navigate unchartered waters, that new solutions are needed, that people look to innovation a...