Season 1: Some of Our Favourite Moments

Canada's Number One Business-Comedy Podcast looks back at some of our favourite moments from Season 1.

We've sat through an entire season of questionable pitches, unnecessary inventions, and business ideas that should never have made it past the group chat. Now we've collected some of our favourites in one episode.

From rating grocery-store salsa and monetizing prayer to questionable bathroom innovations, animal talent agencies, and other solutions to problems nobody has, it's a collection of entrepreneurial nonsense.

Join Shubh Sidhu, Philippe Burns, and some of our favourite guests as we revisit the pitches, arguments, and moments that made our first season memorable.

No new pitches. No due diligence. Absolutely no lessons learned.

Brought to you in part by our friends at the New Network.

Canada’s Number One Business-Comedy Podcast is back with Keri Lee of BlueMarvel AI, an Alberta industrial AI company helping operators and executives better manage continuous process facilities.

Keri joins Shubh and Philippe at Red Mile Records to talk about growing up on a farm near Longview, picking rocks, baling hay, working in water and sanitation technology, getting pulled into machine learning before it was cool, joining AltaML and eventually helping build BlueMarvel.

Then Keri pitches Bootstraps, a marketplace for wealthy families who want their kids to understand what a hard day’s work actually feels like.

The guys dig into farm chores, cabin jobs, staining decks, knocking down wasp nests, moving dirt piles, TaskRabbit in reverse, Camp Callous, cattle drives, tree chopping, fence building, log driving, and the very real possibility that privileged kids might come home able to fix a light switch.

Then it gets even bigger: an adult version for people who would rather learn how to chop wood, change oil, weld, build a fence, fix a cabin, lay foundation, install a window, or make furniture than take another pottery class.

Also:

• Learn how BlueMarvel came out of AltaML and Spartan Controls
• Shubh tries to make “Brown Marvel” happen
• Philippe’s rich-adjacent friend network comes under scrutiny
• The group debates whether having a billionaire friend counts if they never invite you on a jet
• Keri’s dad is the spiritual head counsellor of Bootstraps
• Philippe suggests the camp version and immediately improves the business
• Camp Callous gets workshopped as a brand
• The guys discover they would pay good money for adult trade-skill classes
• Both the kids’ version and adult version receive perfect 75 salsa scores

Brought to you as always in part by The New Network. Need great people for your startup or scaleup? You need New Network.

Plus shoutout to Center 9, our preferred partner for Microsoft 365, security, identity, Copilot adoption, AI compliance, and M&A migrations.

Canada’s Number One Business-Comedy Podcast is back with Ismail Khalil, founder and CEO of ReadyAI, formerly ReadyCar, an Alberta-born company building AI-powered workflow tools for pharmacies, medical clinics, community hospitals and now vet clinics.

Ish joins Shubh and Philippe at Red Mile Records after driving down from Edmonton at 6AM, matcha in hand, to talk about building ReadyAI from his mom’s basement, working with customers like Rexall, Shoppers and Neighborly, going from early Jobber sales hire to VC to founder, and why more Brown people should probably drink matcha.

Then Ish opens up the future and immediately starts talking about walls.

The guys dig into physical AI, buttonless elevators, restaurant screens, the end of phones, Star Trek, AI risk, sushi orders that never get remembered, Meta’s metaverse pivot, VR skepticism, and eventually Shubh’s practical contribution to the future of humanity: Couch.AI, an AI-powered couch that knows who you are, adjusts to your body, supports your activity, and maybe tells you to stop eating nachos.

Then Ish brings it back to earth with Committee, a fintech idea inspired by South Asian and immigrant community savings circles, auntie networks, e-transfers, emergency funds, wedding money, blockchain, trust, and the very real problem of helping people access pooled capital without getting wrecked by bad actors or predatory loans.

Also:

• Ish explains how ReadyAI is expanding from pharmacies and clinics into vets
• Shubh realizes his entire network is doctors, dentists and medical professionals
• Philippe learns about holdcos
• The guys debate whether the world should become one giant phone
• Shubh becomes weirdly bullish on AI-powered furniture
• Philippe makes it very clear he does not want his couch taking his blood pressure
• Committee gets the kind of reaction Ish probably should have started with
• The guys accidentally recreate every VC rejection line ever
• Ish heads straight from the pod to Banff to sell to 500 pharmacists

Brought to you as always in part by The New Network. Need people? You need New Network.

And shoutout to Center 9, our preferred partner for Microsoft 365, security, identity, Copilot adoption, AI compliance, and M&A migrations.