You’ll often hear that diving headlong into entrepreneurship calls for bravery. But as Amanda Horn shows, it’s really about having conviction, and believing strongly in both your own abilities as well as the outcomes your innovative ideas can help drive.
Amanda is the founder of Loless Blue Beauty, a sustainable shave and body care company that’s reimagining beauty products and personal care routines to use less water, less plastic and less waste, creating the next wave of eco-conscious consumers.
And while Amanda strives to protect both human and the planet’s water resources with Loless, she also plays a big role in the larger Blue Economy, which is booming in Eastern Canada.
She’s a Mentor focused on Ocean Science Communication & Brand Storytelling for the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, a Blue Standard Consultant for Oceanic Global, Advisory Board Member for The Canada Node for the UN Ocean Decade Global Early Career Ocean Professionals Programme, and a consultant for the Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition.
And all of this in just the past couple of years!
Needless to say, Amanda knows the Blue Economy well, and I can’t wait to pick her brain on what it takes to build a business that supports and benefits from the Oceans in 2024.
As Amanda explains, to be a founder is to be human. Not every day is a great day on the startup journey, but it’s critical that you document your wins and recall them when times are tough.
It’s also critical that you seek out community partners who are going to be with you during those down times. Whether it’s mentors like Amanda, accelerators or incubators within the Blue Economy ecosystem, or R&D tax credit solutions like Boast: People, not products, make all the difference.
That’s key to our mission at Boast. While we leverage the latest technology to help streamline operations, it’s the incredible people on our team who bring years of tech know-how and fluency in navigating tax code that sets us apart from any other R&D tax credit solutions.
Republic First Bank of Philadelphia was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) last week, marking the United States’ first federally-managed bank closure of 2024—and giving many in the finance space a bout of deja vu.
That’s because it was just over a year ago that bank closures were trending, with the similarly-named First Republic Bank being among a trio of lending institutions whose closures rocked the tech and startup space.
But there are key differences between the situation folding out today compared to a year ago, when it seemed for many founders like the bedrock of the startup ecosystem was starting to erode.
While the silver linings of any bank closure may feel like a stretch, business leaders in the innovation space can largely rest assured that this latest closure won’t shock the system in the same way that last year’s closures left many CFOs and founders scrambling.
While many of the same economic conditions that arguably tipped off the domino effect of closures persist today—stubborn inflation, high interest rates—Republic First’s closure is on a different scale altogether.
What made last year’s closures such a shock to the tech and startup community was the sheer size and scope of the institutions affected. First Republic Bank, for instance, had $232.9 billion in assets (and $104.5 billion in deposits) upon seizure, while specializing in a high-net-worth client base.
In that same vein, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) catered their services to the tech and startup community, holding roughly $209 billion in assets when it was seized back in March.
Although SVBs services were specialized, they clearly weren’t a small bank in the traditional sense. In fact, more than 40 percent of U.S. venture-backed technology and healthcare companies were customers of SVB at the time of seizure.
It was a similar scenario when the FDIC took over Signature Bank just a few days after SVB fell. Akin to SVB’s cache among the startup community, Signature had been characterized as one of Wall Street’s most crypto-friendly lenders of the past decade before it was shuttered.
In 2022, the Signature team had even tried to “cash out” of their crypto- and blockchain-dominant portfolio as they anticipated waning market attitudes toward the sector—which ultimately came to pass. By December 2022, the writing was arguably already on the wall for Signature, as the bank had total assets of roughly $110 billion and total deposits of about $83 billion.
Fast forward to 2024, and the Republic First scenario paints a story of more personal, localized banking. For starters, Republic First was a primarily consumer bank, operating 32 branches across Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.
To that end, Republic First counted $6 billion in assets and $4 billion in deposits as of January, which is only a small slice of the 10-figure totals from SVB, Signature or First Republic.
Further, much of the trouble for Republic First stems from their mortgage loan portfolio, which had “declined substantially in a rising rate environment,” according to a presentation the bank shared with investors last year.
Despite early transparency around the state of the bank’s finances at the close of last year, however, the bank’s attempts to find a buyer before seizure failed as leaders missed key deadlines and plans to shore up assets ultimately failed. Not only was the bank de-listed from NASDAQ in August, but earlier promises of cash infusion from the Norcross-Braca Group failed to materialize as Republic First leaders missed key shareholder deadlines across 2023.
All of that is to say that many of Republic First’s troubles aren’t breaking news to those who had been in business with the bank (although the closure is still frustrating and worrisome for direct customers). In that same vein, Republic First wasn’t in the direct business of funding tech companies or startups—in fact, their specialization in providing mortgages in the consumer lending market is what ultimately led to their seizure.
But with headline-grabbing bank closures now occurring on a seemingly annual basis, it’s worth reminding finance leaders at companies of all sizes about the importance of a diversified capital strategy in the face of potential institutional failure.
A powerful (and underutilized) source of non-dilutive funding are R&D tax credits, which CFOs can use to reinvest a share of the capital they’re already put into their product development.
Each year in the US, businesses can claim up to $500,000 to offset payroll, income or any other tax liabilities related to R&D as part of the IRC Section 41 tax credit. That means up to $500,000 in liquid assets can actually stay in your business’ bank account each year if your team is able to secure a successful claim with the IRS.
By combining decades of combined human expertise in navigating tax code—while also being a team of founders in our own right—with a platform that synchronizes key financial, project workflow and payroll data into a single system of proof, Boast leaves no stone unturned in digging deeper to uncover all of your credit-worthy activities.
This could be one of the most powerful bona-fides in your corner when pitching your solution to potential investors.
To learn more about how Boast combines leading technology with years of expertise in the innovation ecosystem for the industry’s leading R&D tax credit solution, talk to an expert from our team today.
While your product and R&D teams are always striving to do their best work, activities that add value to your business aren’t by default eligible for Scientific Research & Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credits.
In fact, separating and categorizing all the work that your R&D teams have executed into project “buckets” is one of the key facets of compiling an accurate, defensible and maximized SR&ED claim.
It’s also an activity that the Boast team loves to geek out over for our clients!
This all starts with first understanding the definition of a SR&ED Project versus what we’ll call in this blog a Company Project.
SR&ED projects involve a group of activities that aim to tackle “scientific or technical advancement” where all the work is in support of the same scientific mission.
A Company Project, on the other hand, are workflows that, in concert, only drive commercial advancement: While these activities may be rooted in R&D, they aren’t driving a unique innovation or broadening understanding of technical themes. Instead, the goal of this work is to increase market value or commercial outcomes, first and foremost.
To put a finer point on it, the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) has a handy 5-part questionnaire that every CCPC should vet their R&D projects through:
The Canadian Revenue Agency
- Was there a scientific or a technological uncertainty?
- Did the effort involve formulating hypotheses specifically aimed at reducing or eliminating that uncertainty?
- Was the overall approach adopted consistent with a systematic investigation or search, including formulating and testing the hypotheses by means of experiment or analysis?
- Was the overall approach undertaken for the purpose of achieving a scientific or a technological advancement?
- Was a record of the hypotheses tested and the results kept as the work progressed?
Of course, it must be said that SR&ED Projects and Company Projects are NOT mutually exclusive. More often than not, in fact, SR&ED Projects are born out of “hitting a wall” with known tactics or technologies that aren’t accomplishing the end goal of a specific Company Project, such as product development.
It’s defining the project GOALS and aligning the activities—from start to finish—within the scope of a SR&ED Project mission that becomes key to delineating activities that may warrant tax credits, from those that are just supporting commercial goals.
This is at the heart of the first question around Technological Uncertainty: For any activities to qualify, the goal of those efforts must be defined from the start.
This now poses the question of what exactly is Technological Uncertainty opposed to what’s just a general Business Problem.
While your team may be trying out certain methods for the first time, for example, if these techniques aren’t contributing to the overall knowledge base—that is, uncovering something totally new and not yet understood—they may be adding business value, but they won’t necessarily qualify for SR&ED.
Trial-and-error, for instance, to understand a product defect is simply Business Problem solving; the components are already built, and you may not understand how things went wrong, but you’re likely just working to identify an error in a known process—not untangling Technological Uncertainty.
Where these worlds overlap is when companies are looking for new ways to accomplish business tasks that call for innovation. Developing a totally new process to more cost-effectively execute R&D, for instance, may be rooted in commercial gains (cutting costs), but the ultimate goal is around net-new innovation to change how your team executes a scientific process.
It all really boils down to communicating the approach—and digging into the Technical Content prerequisite that demonstrates your goals from the start, and your “systematic process for testing hypotheses” that becomes critical.
It’s absolutely pivotal that your activities are not just recorded but contextualized for your claim to pass the CRA’s threshold for SR&ED funding.
This means identifying in depth the individuals who contributed to the process, the relevant investments—both from a payroll and materials perspective— and, finally, evidence that hypotheses were tested and results were analyzed at each step of the SR&ED project for it to potentially qualify.
This may sound like a tall order, calling on stakeholders across multiple departments—from finance to product to HR—to paint the full picture of your innovation and maximize your SR&ED claim.
But accessing the R&D tax credits you deserve doesn’t need to be a time and resource drain on the teams that should be focused on driving innovation.
With Boast, more than 1,500 companies across North America have worked with us to turn what could be a 60 hour process into just a 5 hour time commitment from your team. From there, not only do we strive to maximize your claim, but we leverage AI to seamlessly integrate your key workflow, payroll and financial data into a single platform of R&D intelligence.
This gives our skilled technical and tax experts a one-stop-shop to visualize your innovation, identify every possible SR&ED claim opportunity, and make the filing process simple and seamless.
From there, our team will already have access to the information they need to work on next year’s claim with even less lead time. And should your claim be audited, we have a single source of truth to defend your claim and ensure you get the money back your deserve, with more than double the industry average for successful SR&ED claim defense.
Interested in learning more? Talk to one of our SR&ED experts today.
Canada’s Budget 2024 was met with what can diplomatically be described as a mixed bag of reactions when it dropped last Tuesday.
While many of the spending commitments outlined were as expected—$23 billion towards housing and infrastructure, and even $2.4 billion toward boosting homegrown AI innovation—policy changes (or a lack thereof) drew ire across the tech community.
For starters, the news landed at the height of the INNOVATEwest conference in Vancouver, where many of the founders, funders and ecosystem partners on hand were baffled by both the continued delays to open banking as well as new Capital Gains taxes.
But buried within much of the disappointment were a few bright spots, including more than $600 million committed toward enhancing Canada’s banner Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) program over the next four years.
In addition to that, The Department of Finance also included $3.5 billion in new strategic research grants and more than $2 billion in scholarships targeting cutting-edge technologies—features the government has been touting with a string of news releases to combat the bad press in response to last week’s announcement.
Still, potential SR&ED recipients remain frustrated with the pace of consultations, which will enter a second phase as part of the Budget 2024. This comes as the first phase of SR&ED consultations wrapped last week, a process that had already been delayed following Budget 2022.
We’ll unpack what the line items of the latest budget mean for funding innovation, how leaders in our own innovation community are parsing the news, and strategies for driving innovation in any market.
Despite being one of the strongest economies in the world, Canada remains the only G7 nation yet to establish a formal open banking system as of Budget 2024. While the budget allocated $1 million to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) to oversee the creation of an open banking framework, there were no clear deadlines on when new policies could come into effect.
Implementing open banking has been a budget priority for the Liberal government since at least Budget 2018 when it was first promised, with many hoping Budget 2024 would finally signal a course change.
This was a serious pain point during the Unlocking a Data Driven Economy breakout session at INNOVATEwest, where moderator Michelle Beyo, CEO & Founder of Finavator Inc., emphasized that Canada is notably behind other economies in launching open banking in particular.
“Brazil even has us beat; they launched their own open banking framework in one year back in 2021 and hit 5 million connected accounts in less than 12 months,” Beyo explained, before listing other nations that have seen success adopting open banking.
The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) were optimistic by the steps taken in the budget, however, and despite there being no firm timeline defined by Budget 2024 for an open banking launch, Nick Schiavo, CCI Director of Federal Affairs saw the announcement as welcome news.
“Taking tangible steps forward on open banking is welcome news. Canada has incredible financial innovators, and with the appropriate regulatory framework in place, the sky’s the limit for improved financial services for citizens. The devil is in the details, but in today’s announcement we see a government tangibly moving forward with open banking, and that’s good news,” Schiavo said in a statement.
There were far fewer silver linings in immediate response to the new Capital Gains tax rules outlined by Budget 2024, however.
Effective June 25, 2024, individuals earning more than $250,000 CAD will see the inclusion rate on capital gains jump from 50 percent to 66 percent.
ALL capital gains from businesses and trust will similarly be increased from one-half to two-thirds, while the lifetime capital gains exemption will be raised from $1 million CAD to $1.25 million CAD.
The budget also included a new Canadian Entrepreneurs’ Incentive, which reduces the inclusion rate to 33 percent on a lifetime maximum of $2 million CAD worth of eligible capital gains. To achieve this, the model will increase by $200,000 annually (beginning in 2024) until topping out at $2 million in 10 years (2034).
While the new measures are estimated to immediately bring in almost $20 million in revenue for the government over the next 5 years, many leaders in the Canadian tech community fear the costs will be too high.
One such consequence of the increase in Capital Gains taxation is that VCs may ultimately choose to invest outside of Canada where Capital Gains taxes are lower—which would have a disastrous impact on the innovation community across the country.
This could cause a cascading “brain drain” into the United States with less VC funding to go around in Canada, as founders instead seek incorporation in places like Delaware to take advantage of the more favorable business tax landscape.
“This measure, which effectively taxes innovation and risk-taking, will significantly dampen Canada’s entrepreneurial spirit, stifle economic growth in critical sectors of our economy, and impact job creation. Such policy change undermines Canada’s position to attract the talent needed to grow and scale companies here,” Kim Furlong, CEO of the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association said on LinkedIn.
While the VC community is understandably upset by the Capital Gains tax news, Budget 2024 did include $200 million over two years toward the Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative (VCCI), a Covid-era initiative aimed at helping entrepreneurs, startups and scale ups “become the next generation of Canadian anchor companies.”
Although the VCCI targets emerging businesses, however, there are fears that it will do little to support growth-phase businesses as they increase their capital gains and enter new tax brackets.
Ben Bergen, president of Council of Canadian Innovators, echoes these concerns in his own statements responding to Budget 2024, emphasizing that capital gains will do “irreparable harm” to Canada’s innovation ecosystem by ultimately penalizing success.
“The fact of the matter is that the best way to boost revenue for the government is to drive economic growth and productivity gains, and the best possible way to do that is by championing the success of Canada’s homegrown innovators,” Bergen’s statement reads.
As a team of innovators, founders and technologists in our own right, we at Boast strive to give members of our global tech community as much access to the innovation capital they deserve to see their ideas take lift.
This includes working with business leaders at all stages of their journey to tap into non-dilutive funding programs—including SR&ED—to stretch the investments their already making into R&D and product development further than ever before.
So when storm clouds seem to be gathering in response to news around the federal government’s stance on funding innovation, your partners and friends at Boast are here to help you navigate (and capitalize on) whatever the market has in store.
Fortunately, the latest budget didn’t substantially impact the generosity of the SR&ED program, which enables any CCPC driving truly unique innovation to recoup a share of their research and development investments and continue driving market differentiation—and ultimately achieving growth.
Best of all? Boast makes it easier than any other tax credit solution to maximize your claim values without putting a heavy burden on your team. We’ve helped more than 1,500 companies across North America complete more than 4,500+ successful claims—all with an industry-leading audit rate and only 5 hours of commitment from customers on average.
To learn more about what sets Boast apart, talk to an expert on our team today.
| What? | Why? | Who is impacted? |
| Capital Gains tax adjustment Individuals earning more than $250,000 CAD will see the inclusion rate on capital gains jump from half to two-thirds. Businesses and trust will similarly be increased from 50% to roughly 66%, while the lifetime capital gains exemption will be increased from $1 million CAD to $1.25 million CAD. | Arguably, the new framework makes Canada’s tax system “more fair” for startups, while bringing in almost $20 billion in revenue over the next 5 years. | According to the tech community, innovators and investors who are willing to put capital into new businesses. VCs may also ultimately choose to invest outside of Canada where Capital Gains taxes are lower—impacting the innovation community across the country. |
| Open banking launch date still not defined. | Despite being one of the strongest economies in the world, Canada remains the only G7 nation yet to establish a formal open banking system as of Budget 2024. $1 million was granted to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) to oversee the creation of an open banking framework. | Canada and Canadians, as the country continues to lag behind global peers in supporting payments, fintech and innovative banking practices. |
| $600 million to SR&ED over the next 4 years. This includes the launch of Phase 2 of SR&ED consultations. | The government has continued to seek guidance from business leaders on how to enhance the banner R&D tax credit, but remains non-specific on actual action items. | The consultations should be a boon for all CCPCs, assuming funding continues to be offered at least commensurate with current levels. Still, timelines for changes and learnings to date haven’t been shared by federal leaders running consultations so far. |
| $200 million to VCCI | The government will continue to support it’s Covid-era VC fund to help startups and scaleups bring their innovations to reality, despite otherwise tight lending or funding markets. | Canada’s VC ecosystem, as well as startups, who will all benefit from the capital injection through funds-of-funds and direct investments. |
Crowdfunding plays a critical role in modern society, helping people drive creativity and innovation, support social causes and even provide healthcare to individuals and their families—including pets.
But not all digital fundraising platforms are created equal. In fact, many fundraising solutions put barriers between users on both sides of the crowdfunding equation that actually limits how much control they have over funds raised—to say nothing of the capability for users to build community around their cause.
That’s where the team at ConnectionPoint comes in, providing a suite of Federated Fundraising platforms that take out the unnecessary middle men and encourage individuals and organizations to take full ownership of their fundraising journeys.
We welcome ConnectionPoint Founder and CEO Daryl Hatton onto the show to discuss how his team has built the next-generation technology helping organizations, businesses, and individuals create a positive impact in the world through collaborative fundraising. Their solutions ease the process of crowdfunding to be more engaging and socially integrated, offering a rare balance of powerful crowdfunding paired with affordability and effortless usability.
Building this innovative solution has called on Daryl’s impressive experience within the crowdfunding, tech and startup communities. He continues to be an active advisor and partner for an array of innovative social funding and commerce initiatives, and he knows firsthand what it takes to build a successful business by tapping into a wealth of non-dilutive resources.
This includes partnering with Boast to help finance the development of his solution during the height of the pandemic, when venture capital toward philanthropic missions had largely dried up. By leveraging our Quickfund program to advance his SR&ED funding on a quarterly basis as opposed to EOY, for instance, Daryl could keep driving positive outcomes and re-fuel his R&D, ultimately stretching his project development event further.
Darryl explains in this episode how Boast helped him retain ownership and not have to compromise in creating the “collaborative commerce” platform that today has helped raise more than $275 million across 200,000 campaigns.
As Daryl explains, the funding landscape in Vancouver—and really across Canada—is significantly more generous compared to what’s on offer in the United States.
But tapping into the wealth of innovation funding that’s available in the Canadian ecosystem still hinges on having partners who can help navigate the hurdles that are inherent to government-backed financing.
That’s because as generous as programs like SR&ED tax credits are, it takes a combination of both technological and tax expertise to craft a narrative that fully delivers.
Daryl and the ConnectionPoint team are the perfect example of what it means to be a team player in the innovation ecosystem, both in Canada and across the Globe. By helping him build a solution that allows other creators to give their team lift, we’re able to share in the pride Daryl feels every day funding innovation and world-changing ideas.
The Boast team took to Vancouver for the first-ever INNOVATEwest, where tech leaders and members of Canada’s innovation ecosystem came out in full force to celebrate BC-based tech excellence.
Along with catching up with some of our favorite innovators on the floor, the Boast crew was all over the Breakout Sessions and attending each keynote, spreading the word about non-dilutive funding to drive growth across Canada.
One early highlight on Day 1 was Control Freak: How to Raise Growth Capital Without Giving Up Your Company, where our VP of Finance Sonny Gill was joined by Devon Thompson, Noah Shipman, and moderator Shamil Hargovan.
While the group had different perspectives on how businesses can achieve growth across industries and specific markets, a resounding theme included the need for founders to be realistic about runways, and ready to make hard decisions about their partners—including funders.
Specifically, companies need to find financing partners who have experience working in both their industries and target markets that can share relevant expertise, helping tackle some of the hardest challenges at any stage of your business evolution.
Part of Boast VP of Finance Sonny Gill’s discussion of non-dilutive funding in 2024 at INNOVATEwest was the topic of runway, and the realities of how founders should budget to drive innovation without over-leveraging equity.
As Sonny explains, many companies only seek out non-dilutive funding as a last-resort, when it should be playing a role in your capital strategy from the start.
It’s not uncommon for founders to see the teams around them evolve as their business grows. In fact, finding new talent that is best equipped to help you achieve your goals is a healthy part of the startup lifecycle. This applies to both the people on your team as well as the different partners you seek out to develop and even fund your innovation.
These were just a few of the nuggets of wisdom shared by our fearless finance leader Sonny during INNOVATEwest 2024 in Vancouver.
Miriam Dong was also on hand to share her expertise throughout the event and at her Breakout Session on Unlocking a Data Driven Economy, where she and her fellow panelists discussed how some of the buzziest new tech can be used as powerful solutions.
Miriam put it perfectly: Innovation is rooted in problem solving, not just deploying the latest, buzzy tech or hopping on the AI bandwagon.
Generative AI continues to be all the buzz, for instance, but as the panel made clear, companies that deliver meaningful outcomes (and value) will stand apart when it comes to funding.
At Boast we’re incredibly proud to help some of Canada’s most innovative businesses seamlessly access the capital they need to achieve growth and solve bigger problems, helping them stand apart from others seeking their own piece of the booming market.
Our tech-enabled services make tapping into SR&ED easier and less time-consuming so teams can focus on R&D while we handle tax credits.
Back on the expo floor, our team was thrilled to be elbow-to-elbow with fellow innovators who embraced Boast’s ethos: Deliver true value with our tech-enabled services.
Our INNOVATEwest neighbors seoplus+ are a perfect example of innovation in action, applying new techniques and tech to solve legacy problems.
Taking a unique approach to addressing technological uncertainty is at the heart of non-dilutive funding programs like SRED tax credits, which reward innovators for taking risks.
No matter what route you go for funding innovation, there are a wealth of resources on hand at INNOVATEwest to guide you through.
Daphné Poirier-Goupil of BDC joined Paul Davenport to discuss what they’re most excited about as this first-ever conference takes off.
We were boasting about Boast with The Firehood at INNOVATEwest Day 1!
Danielle Brewin Graham and Paul Davenport linked up to discuss the funding opportunities for founders at all stages during last week’s event.
When folks at INNOVATEwest think of SR&ED, they think Boast.
That’s because so many members of the Vancouver tech community have come to us this week to learn more about non-dilutive funding—or they already work with us to help accelerate their innovation.
This includes the team at Goodlawyer who continue to be amazing partners helping support innovators across North America.
Gideon Mentie joined Paul Davenport to chat about his experience at the event so far and the amazing collaboration between our two teams.
As our pal Chris Hobbs of TTT Studios puts it, INNOVATEwest has felt “like running into family members we haven’t seen in a while.”
The community of innovators on the floor during Day 2 was impressive, as we’re spreading the word about leveraging non-dilutive funding to drive even more world-changing ideas.
Chris was the MC over at the AWS Hackathon where he saw some of the amazing tech talent Vancouver has to offer firsthand.
All said, we couldn’t be more thrilled with the great connections we made throughout the event, and we hope to see even more friends and partners next year.
But it doesn’t take an expo for the team at Boast to connect with our favorite innovators across North America. Everyday, we thrive when we get to hear about the innovation driving global change at some of the businesses we work with every day to tap into non-dilutive funding.
To learn more about what sets us apart, talk to an expert with the Boast team today.
This week we welcome onto the show Sophia Wennstedt, Co-Founder & CEO of Blip Energy. At Blip, Sophia and her team are on a mission to redefine home batteries to increase energy resilience for both individuals and communities.
By designing a product to work without typical installation constraints, Blip Energy is able to add millions of otherwise-inaccessible homes to the smart grid network. Sophia’s team is set on finding new ways to manage energy demand, while ensuring that energy stability is an option for all of us, not just folks who can afford a luxury system.
It’s a lofty mission, but Sophia and her team have the background to make it happen, drawing on experience working as a Mechanical Engineer and later as Program Manager at iRobot, before pivoting into the energy space with work at Exelon and Tesla.
All of this is rooted in Sophia’s passion for climate justice and energy equity, which she’s demonstrated through active involvement driving STEM education outreach. It’s a field that’s rife with innovation and opportunity, and I can’t wait to pick Sophia’s brain on what’s in store for her team and the industry in the new year.
Officials from the United States and United Kingdom announced a landmark agreement this week to formally cooperate on testing and assessing the risks of artificial intelligence (AI).
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the latest news around politicians coming together—which landed on 4/1—was an April Fool’s joke.
But given the rapid growth of AI in virtually every business sector and industry, alongside the rise of AI businesses within both the US and UK, it’s actually more surprising that such an agreement hadn’t been formalized earlier.
Signed by US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo and UK science minister Michelle Donelan, this agreement lays the groundwork for how the two governments will pool expertise and technical talent to put guardrails on this rapidly-evolving tech arena.
“The U.K. and the United States have always been clear that ensuring the safe development of AI is a shared global issue,” said Secretary Raimondo in a press release. “Reflecting the importance of ongoing international collaboration, today’s announcement will also see both countries sharing vital information about the capabilities and risks associated with AI models and systems, as well as fundamental technical research on AI safety and security.”
The announcement follows the establishment of AI Safety Institutes (AISIs) established back in November for both the US and UK, which will see “secondments of researchers” from both countries as well as an exchange of data from private sector participants. Private AI models built by the likes of OpenAI and Google, for instance, as well as published reports from Anthropic and others that detail how safety tests inform product development, will all be open to vetting by the new AISIs under the agreement.
While this partnership is a new frontier for AI, it’s modeled on existing collaborations between the NSA in the US and the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which have worked closely together for decades on national and global security issues.
The safety tests developed by the US and UK as part of their AISI collaboration will inevitably have a global impact, as many leading AI businesses were born or are based in the United States before gaining global attention.
That’s not to say that these are the only major economies hoping to put safeguards in place around nascent AI.
While the European Union’s AI Act and U.S. President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI both came out last year, pressuring businesses to disclose the results of safety tests, Canada has also drafted guidelines around the responsible use of AI in government that have laid the groundwork for research into private sector AI locally.
Canada also has both the US and UK beat in finalizing data protections around AI dating back to September 2023—to say nothing of the fact that Canada has the third largest number of AI researchers and investments into new AI companies in the world.
In fact, recent research from EDUCanada shows that more than 35,000 innovative jobs in the field of AI and machine learning will be coming online over the next 5 years, as major cities across Canada—namely Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa—all rank highly in CBRE’s top talent markets in North America.
All of that is to say that businesses on both sides of the border are going to be impacted by the work being done by the US and UK AISIs—and they should seize the opportunity to turn these “safeguards” into truly unique innovation.
While the lack of regulation around AI today can be scary, it presents an opportunity for new businesses to “stake their claim” on the new markets around AI safety that are poised to emerge as more governments partner to understand safe AI deployments.
In that same vein, governments will continue to prioritize innovation funding programs like R&D tax credits or research grants toward businesses in fields where innovation isn’t just an opportunity, but an imperative—as has become the case with AI.
If you’re an AI business, whether you’re working in the US or Canada, there are a wealth of non-dilutive funding opportunities that can help you cover the costs of R&D that’s driving groundbreaking innovation, while carving out a unique space in this growing market.
Despite there being more than more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits available in North America today, only about 5 percent of eligible businesses (that is 1 out of 20) are tapping into this readily-available resource.
At Boast, our tech industry experts are among the most talented in North America, leveraging a knowledge of both government tax code and technology to truly speak your business’ “language of innovation.”
This makes the process of communicating the unique and valuable work your R&D teams do every day easy, significantly streamlining the time it takes to create a compelling R&D tax credit or grant claim compared to executing in-house or even working with an accounting firm.
The results? Teams that work with Boast save upwards of 60 hours on average working with our team, who deliver 35 percent more accurate claims on average.
To learn more about how our team can help you stretch your investments into R&D further, talk to an expert today.
The Boast Time Evidence Engine elevates R&D project management by delivering a detailed, cohesive analysis of time and resource allocation during innovation processes. This system allows for precise tracking of each R&D employee’s contributions, enabling the calculation of time spent
By providing a clear, singular perspective on R&D efforts, the Boast Time Evidence Engine empowers organizations to accurately assess performance and make informed decisions based on a comprehensive understanding of their innovation efforts. This tool is not just for managing projects; it allows you to harness data to drive effective, evidence-based innovation strategies.
This latest feature simplifies the preparation of comprehensive SR&ED claims by organizing essential technical, project, and payroll information into detailed Daily Time Evidence reports. These reports are submitted with your SR&ED claim, enhancing its credibility and defensibility in a way unparalleled by other SR&ED services.
To begin leveraging this capability, you need access to three types of customer data that effortlessly integrate with the Boast platform.
To begin, simply integrate your chosen project management software with the Boast platform, either through direct integration or by uploading a CSV file.
For direct integrations, the platform automatically maps all relevant fields, while CSV uploads may require your input for mapping. The platform then analyzes user assignees, change logs, and timestamps from the technical data to create individual worklogs, detailing who did what and when.
Next, our SR&ED specialists collaborate with our customers to establish the project strategy through a comprehensive technical interview. The critical project information gathered in these sessions helps Boast accurately classify worklogs in alignment with eligible and non-eligible projects.
Finally, the Payroll data supplied by our customers assists in determining the employment duration of all project stakeholders.
After processing all three data sets (Technical Data, Project Information, and Payroll Data) with the assistance of our SR&ED specialists, our platform analyzes and generates comprehensive time evidence.
This not only supports claim submissions but also benefits the entire R&D department by arming teams with industry-leading insights.
To learn more about how Boast leverages the latest technology to maximize our customers’ access to innovation tax credits, check out details for our recent Financial Data Hub and Enhanced AI Classifier feature releases.
Creating a successful SR&ED or R&D tax credit claim hinges on being able to “tell the story” behind your innovation. This goes beyond just understanding outcomes, but also detailing the role each player on your team had in pulling your project together and executing R&D.
One of the biggest roadblocks to crafting this narrative is having a single source of truth to capture, understand, and analyze each team member’s contributions.
Until now.
We’re thrilled to launch our latest platform feature, the Boast Time Evidence Engine (BTEE), which enables customers to track, document, and validate the time spent by all stakeholders contributing to your R&D projects.
By working with the systems your R&D teams are already using today, the Boast Time Evidence Engine provides a single source of truth—as opposed to an array of siloed data and tracking systems—to tell the complete story of your innovation.
This goes beyond maximizing your potential access to the innovation capital to extend your product runway. Boast’s Time Evidence Engine also allows you to visualize and optimize your entire R&D operation from a single system of intelligence.
At the heart of this latest product feature are key integrations designed to effortlessly capture and analyze project time-tracking data alongside essential context related to investments This holistic view then unlocks opportunities to transform your approach to R&D project management and optimize your practices, stretching your investments further.
Beyond taking your tax claim preparation to the next level, the Boast Time Evidence Engine sets a new standard in project time tracking and management.
So often teams are either bogged down by too much, disorganized data or fail to find the connections between investments and outcomes due to data siloes. The BTEE breaks down those barriers to passively and actively apply the necessary context to the activities your team is executing.
This is all done with unmatched accuracy. But here’s what really sets us apart:
If you’re not yet partnering with Boast to maximize your access to innovation capital and stretch your R&D runway further, talk to an expert today.
Product evolution is a key component of achieving growth, as businesses need to respond to market needs and new technologies without hesitation to achieve scalable success.
This was something that Peter Monteza learned firsthand, as he kicked off his journey as founder for MyARC by literally bringing the technology he was developing to his target customers and asking “would you pay for this” point blank.
It’s this kind of early customer research and on-the-ground brand building that made MyArc the robust, tech-forward platform that they are today
At MyARC, their mission is to power fitness creators to get their fans fit and make a purposeful living while doing so. They’ve done this by creating a platform that enables fitness content creators to train their fans interactively at scale, from anywhere in the world. MyARC takes care of the boring stuff—progressions, daily stats and tracking—so that trainers can focus on the important part—content, advice and motivation—for their fans and community.
It’s an exciting mission and a powerful platform that’s rooted in Peter’s own experience training as a national-level athlete.
But Peter’s drive and determination go beyond physical health, as he’s proven to be an adept entrepreneur, having taken part in accelerator and incubator programs—including being part of Techstars 2022 cohort—on his journey as a founder.
I’m excited to learn more about what his experiences in the startup world have been like to date and what’s in store for MyARC in 2024.
With My ARC, Peter Monteza and his team have been able to help fitness creators across the globe monetize their content and services and create meaningful careers out of the valuable content they share.
Peter was able to cultivate this platform by working with fitness professionals and creators firsthand to help refine a solution that benefits consumers and creators alike.
As Peter Monteza from MyARC explains, there are both obvious and unforeseen benefits to bringing your technical talent in house.
Not only will you have more control of the technology if you’re own team is building it from scratch and understanding custom environments, but you may also be driving activities that could unlock access to non-dilutive funding (ie. R&D tax credits) that can help your team stretch innovation investments further.
The 2024 Ontario Budget was tabled last week, featuring more than $100 million in commitments toward the Invest Ontario Fund (IOF) and a bevy of research and development initiatives aimed at reversing lackluster growth being felt across Canada.
Inflation and high interest rates have helped fuel the recent stagnation, which have both been cited as contributing factors to Ontario pushing back previous plans to balance the budget until 2026.
This comes after Quebec—facing their largest deficit in history—similarly pushed off their budget balancing plans to at least 2028. In doing so, the province will restructure the Electronic Business Development Tax Credit (CDAE) and the Multimedia Tax Credit (CTMM), rebalancing the refundable and non-refundable portions to a 20:10 percentage split by 2028—and recouping the province $365 million in taxes claimed.
While Ontario’s Budget 2024 prioritizes infrastructure and healthcare, it’s still pushing to maintain the annual $100 million infusion the government gave to the IOF in 2023. Established in 2020, the IOF aims to bolster foreign expansion in manufacturing, life sciences, and tech within Ontario, with a $600 million valuation to date.
Aside from this nine-figure headline, however, many of the additional innovation funding initiatives outlined in Budget 2024 can be read as “keeping the lights on” rather than a full-throated infusion.
For instance, another $12-million was outlined in Budget 2024 to create a Health Technology Accelerator Fund to help healthcare service providers access promising new healthtech solutions developed by Ontario innovators. Plans also included an additional $1 million per year into Ontario’s Regional Innovation Centres (RICs), while the province will also allocate $18 million over three years toward continued operation and maintenance of Ontario’s Advanced Research Computing systems.
Budget 2024 was noticeably light on new initiatives, which was alluded to in comments from CCI president Benjamin Bergen.
“Innovators understand that there are competing priorities and a range of challenges that the Ontario government is navigating, and we did not expect 2024 to be an innovation-focused budget,” said Bergen in a statement.
Of course, Ontario didn’t take measures as drastic as their neighbors in Quebec when they restructured legacy tax programs that many tech businesses in the region have come to rely on.
But without new support from provincial governments, combined with that previously mentioned inflation (plus high-interests and other economic challenges), innovative businesses will become increasingly reliant on existing federal innovation funding programs to achieve growth in the current market.
While it was status quo elsewhere, Budget 2024 did outline steps being taken by the Minister of Finance to work with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) to create rules supporting angel investor groups. This comes as manyangel funds in Canada face fewer federal government resources and are turning to the provinces for a lifeline. The document reads:
“…To encourage early-stage financing, the OSC is working to develop rules to support angel investor groups and broadening sources of capital by adopting a self certified prospectus exemption. To support capital-raising for smaller issuers, the OSC is broadening investment dealer participation in prospectus offerings.”
Although angel investors are essential to help give early-stage startups lift, this funding resource is truly just a starting point, and not a long-term financing solution.
Once more mature businesses in Canada are leveraging ecosystems like the accelerator programs and innovation funds on offer from Ontario to help drive their growth, they need to continue tapping into government resources wherever they can to finance growth.
This includes non-dilutive funding, from grants like IRAP to the banner Scientific Research & Experimental Development tax credit. But accessing these resources shouldn’t become a drain on your human capital in the process.
Boast combines unmatched industry expertise with cutting edge technology to deliver more comprehensive, accurate and valuable R&D tax credit and non-dilutive funding claims. All of this is done with minimal time from the R&D experts driving innovation and growth on your team, with Boast customers saving up to 60 hours on average working with us to claim SR&ED.
Talk to an expert today to learn more about streamlining your access to the funding you need to grow.
