Post by Sean Silcoff

When Michael Buhr invited me to participate in the annual C100 summit in San Francisco this month following the publication of my story on Canada's $100-million club (link below), I thought it would be an interesting opportunity to survey Canadian entrepreneurs about the state of their country after a year of souring moods around leadership, policy and strategy at the political level. Certainly last year's capital gains tax changes angered many tech leaders, and left many pushing for real, fundamental changes that would increase Canada's global competitiveness and make it more of a place where entrepreneurs would want to build companies, and stay. From a bit of a distance, at the epicenter of global innovation on the SF peninsula, I thought it would present an interesting vantage point for attendees (150 people, representing a cross-section of prosperous tech company builders from Canada including many who have built careers in Silicon Valley) to reflect on where Canada was going, and the role they played in shaping that. Etc. Then of course Donald Trump came into office. All we've heard about since is an impending trade war that could devastate the Canadian economy. I knew this topic would have some kind of effect on the conference and certainly weigh on the minds of attendees, even though it's still not yet clear if tariffs will affect the digitally transmitted products most of them sell across the Canada-US border. So I reframed my line of questioning around that, and got some some pretty candid answers. Also - I learned how to make cavatelli. Today The Globe and Mail published that piece. The link is below. Thanks to those I interviewed who shared their views for the piece (and others I wasn't able to include due to space restrictions) including Jack Newton, Mike Wessinger, David Wismer, Michelle Scarborough, Jason Smith, Joanna Griffiths, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Michelle Moon, CFA, Anthony Lee, Martin Basiri, Mandy Gilbert, Alison Taylor and Trevor Johnston. And also thanks to Dan Park, who I interviewed along with Martin on a panel at the summit, in advance of telling Globe readers a week later about his company Clutch's rebound. Welcome to the $100-million club: https://lnkd.in/gsb_gFG4 Online car seller Clutch rebounds from valuation write down with new $50-million financing: https://lnkd.in/eASxDPpN