Tech Thursday Live!

Thursday Media

Tech Thursday Live! is your home for conversations that took place at in-person events hosted by Tech Thursday.

  1. 4d ago

    Banks vs AI Agents, Questrade Becomes a Bank, and Why Mortgages Are Still Broken

    Episode 5 of Tech Thursday Live!, recorded in front of a studio audience in Calgary during Calgary Innovation Week and co-hosted with Questrade. This week we’re getting into Canada’s FinTech opportunity: why your AI agent could move your savings overnight, what happens when switching banks takes no effort at all, and why getting a mortgage is still so painful. Our guests include: Lucas Scheer, Co-Founder & CEO of Purelend, on why lenders check every mortgage twice, why the company was profitable from its first client, and why he won’t give an AI agent his bank login.Andrej Simeonov, Head of Technology at Questrade, on turning a brokerage into a bank, the new grad whose six-week project became Questrade’s AI tool, and why he thinks open banking in Canada is still years away. We also ran round two of the Tech Thursday Pitch Competition, sponsored by BLG, with $3,000 on the line. Juana Attieh of AMLOK and Jonah Chininga of Woveo each had 90 seconds to make their case. Round one winner Agrivanna, pitched by Haden Harrison, is already through to the final. 🗳️ Vote for your round two winner in the Calgary Tech Newsletter by November 18: https://www.calgarytechnewsletter.ca/ News: US voters turning down new data centres, Cohere’s new raise with the Government of Canada on the cap table, and the federal budget’s capital gains break for founders. Hosted by Philippe Burns (Tech Thursday) and Mark Le Dain (Fuelled). Recorded live in front of a studio audience in Calgary. Presented by Ramp. Co-hosted by Questrade. Sponsored by Boast, Skip, BLG, Crestview, and Alberta Innovates. Next show: Wednesday, November 18, the top tech stories of 2026. Subscribe to the Calgary Tech Newsletter for the recap and details on the next one. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome to Tech Thursday Live! 1:50 A rough day for the AI trade and the data centre vote 5:00 Canada or space: where the next data centres go 7:20 Cohere’s raise and the Government of Canada 10:05 The federal budget’s capital gains break 11:00 Banks vs AI agents 13:50 Why FinTech, why now 14:25 Lucas Scheer, Purelend 31:00 A word from Questrade 31:55 Andrej Simeonov, Questrade 46:15 Pitch competition rules 49:15 Pitch 1: AMLOK 52:45 Pitch 2: Woveo 55:50 What’s coming up

  2. Oct 28

    SimpleHedge’s $4M Raise, AgTech’s 40% VC Drop, and Canada’s Low-Carbon Advantage

    Episode 4 of Tech Thursday Live!, recorded in front of a studio audience in Calgary. This week we’re going all in on AgTech: the price swings that can cost a farmer everything, the investors still backing AgTech after deals fell 40%, and why Canada’s farmers already have a head start. Our guests include: • Mark Hlady, CEO of SimpleHedge, fresh off a $4M raise, on why farming can earn you 20% one year and cost you the farm the next, why hedging used to mean faxed forms and 90-day waits, and helping farmers lock in good prices from their phone. • Wilson Acton, Managing Partner of Tall Grass Ventures, on investing in AgTech while everyone else leaves, why agriculture is roughly a third of the global economy, and why Canadian wheat can cross the ocean five times and still match France on carbon. We also ran our first-ever ‘Tech Thursday Live!’ pitch competition, sponsored by BLG, with $3,000 on the line. Haden Harrison of Agrivanna and Katie Friesen of FarmerTitan each had 90 seconds to make their case. 🗳️ Vote for the pitch winner in the Calgary Tech Newsletter: https://www.calgarytechnewsletter.ca/ News: Ottawa’s $1.75B plan for Canadian venture, Grindr buying PurposeMed, and an OpenAI engineer charged with planting a recording device in a conference room. Hosted by Philippe Burns (Tech Thursday) and Mark Le Dain (Fuelled). Recorded live in front of a studio audience in Calgary. Presented by Ramp. Sponsored by Boast, Skip, BLG, Crestview, and Alberta Innovates. Next show: November 5. Subscribe to the Calgary Tech Newsletter for the recap and details on the next one. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome to Tech Thursday Live! 0:48 Ottawa’s $1.75B plan for Canadian venture 3:17 PurposeMed acquired by Grindr 6:17 The OpenAI recording device (and the spy joke) 7:51 Why AgTech, why Canada, why now 9:31 Mark Hlady, SimpleHedge 21:19 Wilson Acton, Tall Grass Ventures 39:57 Pitch competition rules 41:05 Pitch 1: Agrivanna 45:36 Pitch 2: FarmerTitan 49:04 What’s coming up

  3. Oct 15

    Canada's Sovereign Satellite Crisis, Kanin’s $100M Raise, and the 3-Year Power Wait

    Episode 3 of Tech Thursday Live!, recorded in front of a studio audience in Calgary. This week we’re covering the physical side of AI: satellites, gas turbines, and the money it takes to build power when the grid can’t keep up. Our guests include:• Kurtis Broda, COO & Co-Founder of Wyvern, on identifying ships from orbit by their paint, getting into NASA’s Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program, and why Canada needs its own satellites watching the Arctic.• Eva Kiefer, President and CFO of Northbase Finance, on matching the right capital to the right asset, why behind-the-meter power equipment now takes three years to arrive instead of one, and financing projects before the PPA is signed.• Daniel Fipke, CDO & Co-Founder of Kanin Energy, fresh off a $100M structured equity round led by S2G with Canada Growth Fund, on turning waste heat into power, what US grid operators pausing new connections means for Canada, and Alberta’s bring-your-own-generation policy. Also the first recipient of the Big Deal Beer. Hosted by Philippe Burns (Tech Thursday) and Mark Le Dain (Fuelled). Recorded live in front of a studio audience in Calgary. Presented by Ramp. Sponsored by Boast, Skip, BLG, Crestview, and Alberta Innovates. Next show: October 22. Subscribe to the Calgary Tech Newsletter for the recap and details on the next one. Timestamps00:00 Welcome to Tech Thursday Live!01:05 RIP the AI toothbrush02:50 Tech news: SpaceX, space data centres, and drugs made in orbit09:55 Founder interview: Kurtis Broda, Wyvern21:05 Cenovus buys Athabasca Oil25:15 Emera and Canadian Utilities merge28:15 Interview: Eva Kiefer, Northbase Finance41:25 A word from Ramp42:20 Founder interview: Daniel Fipke, Kanin Energy54:00 Can AI rescue failed drug trials?56:00 Anthropic’s IPO: bubble or not?59:20 Surprise of the Week

  4. Sep 28

    Clearco's Story, Ultimarii's Fundraise, Taste in AI | Andrew Curtis, Doug Schweitzer, George Bugg

    Episode 2 of Tech Thursday Live!, recorded in front of a studio audience in Calgary. Phil and Mark cover the latest tech news, including Canada's new tax cut on business investment, the banks and pension funds committing billions to Canada, and Apple's iPhone Duo. Our guests include: Andrew Curtis, CEO of Clearco, on recapitalizing the company, the new $100M facility from Macquarie Group, and what DTC brands are seeing heading into Black Friday.Doug Schweitzer, Co-Founder and CEO of Ultimarii and former Alberta cabinet minister, on using AI to get major infrastructure approved faster, fresh off a $13M+ Series A led by BDC.George Bugg, Staff Product Designer at Ramp, on taste in the age of AI, and why he built an AI version of himself and then stopped using it.Hosted by Philippe Burns (Tech Thursday) and Mark Le Dain (Fuelled). Recorded live in front of a studio audience in Calgary. Presented by Ramp. Timestamps 00:00 Welcome to Tech Thursday Live!00:42 Andrew Curtis, CEO of Clearco13:01 Tech news: Digital Transformation Canada17:08 Canada's 6.4% tax rate on new business investment18:51 RBC, CIBC, BMO and Teachers' pledge billions20:48 Blackstone's Jon Gray on Canada's growth22:26 Is Carney leveling up Canadian business?24:05 Founder interview: Doug Schweitzer, Ultimarii33:02 Portage and Radical Ventures close huge funds33:39 Harvey's pivot to AI implementation37:52 Zelenskyy, Carney and North Vector Dynamics39:32 Meta's Muse43:09 The foldable iPhone44:48 A word from Ramp45:12 George Bugg, Ramp, on taste in the age of AI54:46 Founder Myth of the Week55:22 Jobs and wrap

  5. Sep 25

    How Questrade is Building a Bank

    Questrade has been building for 27 years. It's one of Canada's first online brokerages, it's now a Schedule I bank, and it has never taken outside money. Recorded live at Model Citizen in Calgary, this conversation covers why Questrade chose the harder path into banking, how AI changed the way the team ships, what the rebrand is really signalling, and why they think the competition is the Big Five rather than other fintechs. Featuring: Hwan Kim (Chief Product Officer, Questrade Financial Group) Andrej Simeonov (Head of Technology, QT Experience Platform) Ralph Sadowski (Product Director) Hosted by Philippe Burns (0:00) Intro and Introductions(1:44) The History and Evolution of Questrade(7:11) Transitioning to a Schedule One Bank(11:36) Culture Shift and Building the Team(19:54) The Experience Platform and AI Enablement(28:36) Investing in Calgary and Tech Talent(32:26) Competing in the Fintech Landscape(38:12) Audience Q&A: Tech, Design, and Strategy Tech Thursday connects the boldest builders in Canadian tech. Events run weekly across Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Toronto. techthursday.ca

  6. Sep 17

    Ep. 1: The Alberta Data Centre Bubble?

    Our first episode in the new live format, recorded in Calgary. Hosted by Philippe Burns and Mark Le Dain, CRO at Fuelled.Graham Harrison makes the case that 99% of Alberta data centre projects will fail, and it has nothing to do with power or permits. Nic Beique of Helcim on raising a $53M Series C, ten years of bootstrapping, and giving the Globe and Mail an exclusive he couldn't control. Sandy Gilbert on why Canadian founders leave, why Canadian buyers say no, and the Eventbrite problem nobody wants to talk about.Also: the coming copper catastrophe, a $500 toothbrush with a camera in it, and why data centres don't have parking lots.Presented by Ramp. With support from Skip, BLG, Crestview, Operator Invites, and Buffs.Next show: September 24th.Subscribe to the Calgary Tech Newsletter for the recap and the full job list.

  7. Aug 25

    GeologicAI: $100M Raised to Make Mining More Efficient

    GeologicAI builds robots that scan drill core and tell mining companies where to dig. They spent their first eight years doing research projects for oil companies in Calgary, pivoted to mining in 2019 against nearly everyone's advice, and raised a Series A thirteen years in from Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy, BHP and Rio Tinto. They're now capital break even, 330 people, and building a new scanning unit every three weeks. CEO Grant Sanden and CTO John Mortimer on the long road to product market fit, buying their own copper mine in Arizona to prove out the product, what a 17 year mine development timeline means for the copper crunch, and why hard science has to come before the LLMs when a billion dollar decision is on the line. Recorded at GeologicAI's assembly facility in Calgary.

  8. Jul 23

    How Rob Khazzam (Float) and Jeff Adamson (Neo Financial) Are Re-Engineering Canadian Fintech

    Five banks own 96% of the Canadian market. The relative cost of banking has barely moved in a century. Rob Khazzam co-founded Float and just raised a $60 million Series B. Jeff Adamson co-founded Skip the Dishes, then Neo Financial, and scaled it to 600 people. Both are building independent technology companies inside one of the most protected industries in the country. In this conversation: how homebuilt fintech platforms are pressuring the incumbents, how early fintech advocacy on NSF fees shifted consumer costs nationally, why Rob runs Float on a day-to-day survival mindset, the "misfit" advantage in hiring against rigid institutional experience, the accountability frameworks from the early days of Skip and Float, why a Schedule I banking license isn't the answer most founders think it is, and what a decade of open banking consultations actually means for who owns your data. Moderated by Philippe Burns, Co-Founder of Tech Thursday. Fireside chat from our first annual Tech Founder's Stampede Summit in Calgary, co-hosted by House831, with help from the C100 and Fintechs Canada, welcoming 50 founders from across Canada. Sponsored by Float, BLG, Boast, RBCx, PNC Bank, and Fortinet.

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Ratings & Reviews

4
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4 Ratings

About

Tech Thursday Live! is your home for conversations that took place at in-person events hosted by Tech Thursday.

Information

  • Creator
    Thursday Media
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    23
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Thursday Media
  • Show Website
    Tech Thursday Live!