Canada is officially on the world stage.
For only the third time in history, the Canadian men’s team is playing in a FIFA World Cup — and this time, it’s on home soil. Whether you’re watching from your couch, a bar, or somewhere with a better view than we managed to find, there’s something genuinely exciting about that. We’re looking forward to seeing how far this team can go.
The World Cup opener is a natural moment to check in—not because there’s a tidy metaphor connecting football to financing (we’ll spare you that), but because it’s summer, the energy in the country is up, and it feels like a good time to say hello.
What We’ve Been Up To
In late May, Jonathan attended the FEI Canada National Conference in Ottawa — an annual gathering of Canada’s senior financial executives, held this year at the Fairmont Château Laurier. A few themes kept coming up across sessions that felt worth sharing.
AI was front of mind across multiple sessions – not as a future concept, but as something organizations are actively wrestling with right now. The honest consensus was that most are still figuring out implementation. The practical takeaway from those who’d been through it: start with internal processes before anything customer-facing, and know your workflow well enough to recognize when the output doesn’t make sense. It was a grounded conversation, far removed from the hype.
That timing wasn’t coincidental. The week after the conference, the federal government released Canada’s national AI strategy — AI for All — targeting increased AI adoption among Canadian businesses from roughly 12% today to 60% by 2034. Whether or not that pace is realistic, it signals that AI isn’t something Canadian businesses can sit on the sidelines with indefinitely. The question most rooms seem to be asking right now isn’t whether to engage with it – it’s how to do so without getting burned in the process.
The funding gap for Canadian startups also came up, in a session on capital partnerships. One entrepreneur shared how difficult it had been to raise $200,000 to get her company off the ground here — while fielding unsolicited interest from U.S. investors simultaneously. It’s a real tension in the Canadian market, and one that reinforces something we think about often: accessible, flexible capital at the right stage can make or break a business.
There was also a candid conversation about mental health among business owners and professionals — a reminder that the businesses we work with are run by people carrying real weight, and that what’s visible from the outside doesn’t always reflect what’s happening on the inside. We don’t take that lightly.
We’re Here When It Matters
If you’re working with a business navigating a cash flow gap, a growth moment, or a financing situation that doesn’t quite fit the bank’s criteria—we’re a straightforward conversation away. No obligation, no pressure.
And if someone comes to mind, we’d genuinely appreciate the introduction.
Enjoy the tournament. Go Canada!
