What The Tech?

Boast AI

How are founders, startups and innovators from across the globe accelerating progress and extending their R&D runway? On What The Tech? we talk with some of the brilliant minds behind new and exciting tech initiatives to learn what it takes to tackle “technological uncertainty” and, eventually, change the world.Brought to you by the R&D tax experts at Boast AI. Boast AI's What The Tech podcast was recently ranked #8 in Feedspot's Top 70 Venture Capital Podcasts on the Web ranking! Listen to What The Tech and other leading podcasts for the latest guidance and startup strategies. 

  1. 5d ago

    Why We Lost the "Third Space" And How Blurrt Is Bringing It Back

    In this episode of What the Tech from Boast.AI, we sit down with Benhur Bosco, Founder of Blurrt, a Vancouver-based entrepreneur and filmmaker who spent the pandemic discovering that human connection—not content, not vanity metrics—is what actually matters. What You'll Learn: → What happened to Benhur during the pandemic (isolation, ego death, and what came after)  → Why social media failed to replace the "third space" we lost during lockdowns  → The difference between connection and performance (and why social media optimizes for the wrong one)  → How vanity metrics (likes, follower counts, profile pictures) actually prevent real connection  → Blurrt's radical solution: voice-based conversations without performance layers  → Why voice changes everything (emotion, vulnerability, authenticity without visual curation)  → How Blurrt solves the Gen Z isolation crisis (letting young people be themselves, not perform)  → Building from authentic pain, not cynical opportunity (why founders should solve problems they feel)  → The ecosystem approach: bootstrapping + government funding (IRAP, SR&ED, BCIDMTC)  → How Claude helped Benhur prototype and iterate rapidly  → The 18-month runway: from prototype to V1  → Why "rationales and opinions" divide us, but "human emotion and experience" unite us  → The role of voice in fostering real humanity (the ups and downs you hear in a voice, not the curated image) About Benhur Bosco: Benhur is a Vancouver-based founder, filmmaker, and honors graduate of Vancouver Film School. He spent years in Hollywood and the film industry before the pandemic forced a confrontation with identity, purpose, and what actually drives human connection. That realization sparked Blurrt. He's building from authenticity, not cynicism—solving a problem he felt acutely during isolation. About Blurrt: Blurrt is a voice-based platform for authentic human connection without vanity metrics. Instead of likes, followers, and curated images, Blurrt enables asynchronous voice conversations across multiple threads. No profile pictures. No performance layer. Just voices, humanity, and organic community formation. Users can share thoughts, respond with voice notes, and watch conversations evolve naturally. Currently in prototype/early access phase with an 18-month runway to V1. Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

  2. Aug 28 ·  Bonus

    A Tale of Two States: California's R&D Cap vs. New York's Talent Surge

    California is tightening its R&D tax credit cap. New York just overtook San Francisco as the country's top hub for new tech jobs. In Episode 1 of Office Hours, Boast's Ashley Crawford (Director of Customer Delivery) and Mfon Ubaha (Head of Partnerships) join host Paul Davenport to unpack both stories, plus EY's newest CFO survey on the "ownership gap" in R&D investment, whether AI is actually ready to handle your R&D tax credit claim, and the two filing deadlines every claimant needs on their calendar right now. Office Hours is a new weekly companion series to What The Tech, going deep on the R&D tax credit news shaping how CFOs, founders, and finance teams plan for innovation funding. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome to Office Hours, Episode 1 0:01 What's on Ashley and Mfon's radar this week 0:03 California's R&D tax credit cap fight 0:07 New York's talent surge and "a tale of two cities" 0:10 Is the pushback on California's biggest employers fair? 0:13 EY's CFO survey and the R&D "ownership gap" 0:15 Is AI ready to handle your R&D tax credit claim? 0:19 Rapid-fire: filing deadlines and the #1 last-minute mistake 0:21 Action items and where to go next Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

    A Tale of Two States: California's R&D Cap vs. New York's Talent Surge
  3. Aug 24

    How Yonovo Is Fixing the Cash Flow Problem Draining SMBs

    In this episode of What the Tech from Boast.AI, we sit down with Salman Shawaf, Co-Founder of Yonovo, to discuss why SMBs are wasting thousands of hours chasing invoices—and how AI is finally automating collections. What You'll Learn: → The invisible cash flow crisis: months-long payment delays, forgotten follow-ups, bad debt that compounds  → Why salespeople hate being collection agents (and what it costs your business)  → How Yonovo automates accounts receivable using AI (90%+ accuracy on payment prediction and collection sequencing)  → Salman's origin story: watching his dad chase invoices for 30 years as a wholesale business owner  → The unexpected parallel between Yonovo (invoice automation) and Boast (government funding automation)  → Why both companies solve the same problem: removing friction so businesses get paid what they're owed  → Building community over slides: poker nights, soccer events, World Cup watch parties with other founders  → The "ship fast" culture: Feature requests shipped the next day with AI development tools  → Bootstrapping strategy: Why non-dilutive funding (SR&ED) should be your first capital move, not venture  → The roadmap: From AR to full order-to-cash (AP, forecasting, reconciliation)  → Why hiring lean matters (even as you scale)  → The role of IRL events in an AI-first world (and why they're becoming more valuable, not less)  → How SMBs can reclaim cash flow without hiring more staff Key Insights: "A lot of companies try to solve this, but the tech really never existed until a few years ago. Now you can get 90% there." "I'm an impatient person, so this really works in my favor with the age of AI. We get a feature request from a client and the next day I wake up and get a Slack message from our developer saying, 'Hey, we're done.'" "Boast gets you the money that you're already owed. Yonovo gets you the invoices that you're already owed. The thesis is similar—we both believe businesses deserve to get paid without friction." "As AI gets better, that will actually increase the value of in-person events. People are tired of cold LinkedIn DMs. We're always gonna be human." "The first thing you want to do as a founder is reach for the money that doesn't take any equity away. There's non-dilutive funding available to you, especially in Canada." About Salman Shawaf: Salman is the Co-Founder of Yonovo and a community-first founder based in Toronto. He's passionate about building in-person community for startup founders (monthly poker nights, sports events, casual dinners). His path to Yonovo came from watching his father manage a wholesale business for 30 years—constantly chasing invoices and managing cash flow. He believes the best companies are built by people who ship rather than slide deck. About Yonovo: Yonovo helps SMBs get paid faster by automating accounts receivable and collections. Using AI, the platform predicts payment risk, automates follow-up sequences, and removes manual work from finance and sales teams. Bootstrapped and bootstrapping-focused, Yonovo specializes in AR today with a roadmap to cover the entire order-to-cash process (AP, forecasting, reconciliation). Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

  4. Jul 14

    The Companies That Win This Decade Will Be the Ones That Learn Fastest: Inside Limitless AI

    In this episode of What the Tech from Boast.AI, we sit down with Matthew Dillon, CEO and Co-Founder of Limitless AI, to discuss how AI automation is changing customer discovery—and why the real competitive advantage isn't speed, it's learning. What You'll Learn: → Why the customer discovery phase is moving from Google to AI search engines  → How Limitless AI automates the first step of the customer journey while capturing critical intent signals  → The self-improving loop: how captured conversation data trains AI to be more effective  → Why service-based businesses need enterprise-grade customer intelligence (and why it's now accessible)  → Matthew's entrepreneurial journey: from lawn care at age 10 to AI automation at 21  → How real customer use cases drove product development (not the other way around)  → The R&D investment required to build AI agents ($10K+/month in Claude API costs alone)  → Why SR&ED tax credits matter for bootstrapped AI startups  → Partnership strategy: scaling through e-commerce platforms and agencies  → How SMBs can access the same customer intent data that enterprises spend hundreds of millions to understand Key Insights: "The companies that win in the next decade, they're not just gonna respond faster. They're gonna learn faster. They're gonna learn about their buyers' signals, wants, needs, pain points, objections—and surface those quicker." "It's not about automating for the sake of automating. It's tracking the conversation, understanding what the customer actually asked for, and using that to improve the AI and the product itself." "We didn't develop an idea. We went out, integrated, worked with multiple different businesses, got proof cases, and then built a product around it." Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

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How are founders, startups and innovators from across the globe accelerating progress and extending their R&D runway? On What The Tech? we talk with some of the brilliant minds behind new and exciting tech initiatives to learn what it takes to tackle “technological uncertainty” and, eventually, change the world.Brought to you by the R&D tax experts at Boast AI. Boast AI's What The Tech podcast was recently ranked #8 in Feedspot's Top 70 Venture Capital Podcasts on the Web ranking! Listen to What The Tech and other leading podcasts for the latest guidance and startup strategies.