What’s In This Email

• From Pitches to Policy: CIX Summit Highlights the State of Canadian Innovation

• OpenAI and Anthropic Agree on Something—And It’s Big for AI

• Notable Spotlight: Strut x Sell Vintage

• Notable Plug 🔌

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From Pitches to Policy: CIX Summit Highlights the State of Canadian Innovation

At a time when Canada’s business landscape is facing economic pressure, cautious capital, and rapid technological shifts, events like the CIX Summit are more than just industry meetups—they’re critical checkpoints.

Held in Toronto, CIX 2025 brought together a cross-section of Canada’s business community—from early-stage founders and active VCs to corporate leaders and innovation strategists—to talk about what it takes to build and fund Canadian startups right now.

Against a backdrop of uncertainty, what stood out most was the clarity: build smarter, pitch better, and stay resilient. The conversations were honest, the insights were tactical, and the momentum was real.

Key Takeaways:

1. Canada’s Startup Scene Is Evolving—and Confident

• From fintech to AI to wellness tech, Canadian startups are stepping into global conversations with real traction and real ambition.

• The energy in the room wasn’t just about raising capital—it was about building sustainable, scalable companies rooted in Canadian values and market smarts.

2. Arlene Dickinson Reminded Us Why Storytelling Still Wins

• The Dragon’s Den legend and investment powerhouse delivered as always. Her message? Don’t let the excitement and chance of making money in the US distract you from the opportunity available at home. Investors want to believe in your business, but they also want to believe in you.

3. FinTech Industry Brought the Heat

• Fintech had a strong presence at the summit, with key players like Rasha Katabi offering sharp insights into founder grit, market timing, and the importance of capital efficiency in 2025.

• Float Financial stood out as a homegrown success story that continues to scale while staying laser-focused on customer experience and product refinement.

4. Pitching Is Still an Art—And a Discipline

• Dozens of startups took the stage with carefully crafted pitches. The ones that landed? Clear problem, real traction, strong team, and an ask that made sense.

• Investors weren’t looking for flashy—they were looking for founders who knew their business inside and out.

5. The Real Value? The Hallway Conversations

• Yes, the panels and pitches were great—but as always, some of the best moments happened in between. Founders connecting over shared pain points. Investors giving real-time feedback. Seasoned leaders offering quick, generous advice to first-time entrepreneurs.

The CIX Summit isn’t just a place to talk about innovation—it’s where the future of Canadian business is actively being shaped. In a time when the ecosystem is balancing optimism with caution, events like this remind us that entrepreneurship in Canada is alive, growing, and deeply collaborative.

Whether you're building, backing, or just curious about what’s next, CIX offered a front-row seat to the energy, talent, and vision that’s pushing the Canadian startup scene forward. And if today was any indication, the future looks bold, values-driven, and very well caffeinated.

OpenAI and Anthropic Agree on Something—And It’s Big for AI

In a notable move for AI collaboration, OpenAI has adopted Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP)—a standardized, open-source method that allows AI models to connect more easily to external data sources. The goal? Make AI outputs more relevant, accurate, and useful by giving models better access to the context they need.

This decision marks a shift toward greater interoperability and industry cooperation, even among competitors, and signals a growing focus on building shared infrastructure for next-gen AI tools.

Key Takeaways:

1. Connecting AI to Real-World Data

• MCP allows AI models to tap into data from platforms like content management systems, business software, and external APIs, helping responses become more tailored and informed.

2. A Competitive Yet Collaborative Shift

• OpenAI adopting a standard created by Anthropic—its direct competitor—highlights a broader push toward open standards and cross-platform integration in the AI world.

3. Big Win for Developers

• MCP is being integrated across OpenAI’s ecosystem, including the ChatGPT desktop app and its Agents SDK, giving developers consistent tools to build apps that can work with real-time, external data.

Why It Matters:

AI models are only as good as the context they’re given. By adopting this shared protocol, OpenAI is signaling that the future of AI isn’t just about smarter models—it’s about smarter infrastructure.

The move also sets a precedent for greater collaboration across the AI industry, which could mean faster innovation, better tools for developers, and more useful AI experiences for everyone.

Read the full article.

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🔌  NOTABLE PLUG

🎙️ Get Into It: The Modern Millennial. Host Arpita Mehta uses her own life as a test run to find answers to common questions, featuring actionable advice from experts on topics like health, beauty, self-improvement, and career development.
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📄 Notable Hires: Director, Digital Patient Experience @ Loblaw (Full-time, Canada)

🎓 Hope This Helps: Craiyon AI, is an art generator that creates unique images from text prompts. It uses machine learning to generate new images that don't exist in the training data.

🌍 Notable Destinations: Toronto to Lisbon ($640 821) Dates: June 8-16, 2025. Click here to see the link for this flight.

🧠 Today We Learned: German American gymnast George Eyser won six Olympic medals in one day at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri. Until 2008, he was the only person to compete in the official Olympic Games with an artificial leg.

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Disclosure: While we utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to assist with certain aspects of content development, all information provided in our content is thoroughly vetted and edited by our team of humans. We strive to ensure the accuracy and reliability of all information. However, we recommend that readers conduct research or seek professional advice to make informed decisions. This email may contain sponsored content.