BUILDERS PERSPECTIVE 🔨 

A few weeks ago a founder sat down with Tyler Handley for coffee and asked the question every consumer founder asks right now: should I build a community?

Tyler co-founded Inkbox, scaled it to 44% aided brand awareness with under-40s in the US, and sold it. His answer was "Not like you're thinking about it."

On stage during Tech Week, Michelle Romanow said the quiet part out loud. "I don't love community as an advantage, but I do love... distribution as an advantage." Then she named the proof: "Comfrt has a Discord channel with 50,000 creators that are posting 40 pieces of content today and they're making a billion dollars in sales selling the most undifferentiated product, which is hoodies."

A hoodie. No product moat. The moat is the distribution.

Tyler's version: "good product, good product, the right price point, with the right distribution, like the right placement. That's all that really matters, and the community will come naturally out of it." His caution: community brands get built around real niches like running or Strava, "but if you're selling something that's a little bit more of a commodity, it's really hard to build a community. People don't really care."

That's worth sitting with, because the whole ecosystem keeps repeating "community is the new moat." The two people in this conversation who have exited consumer companies told you to go build distribution first, and let the community arrive on its own.

If you're building something consumer right now, reply and tell us what you think your real moat is. We read every one.

📅 The next Together Toronto is July 6. Romanow and Handley are the kind of builders who show up in this room. Early bird pricing is live now and the lineup drops next week.

STARTUP OPPORTUNITIES TO SHINE ⭐️ 

$66M in federal compute funding just went to 44 Canadian AI companies. The AI Compute Access Fund is offsetting the cost of high-performance computing for Canadian SMEs building in life sciences, fintech, energy, agriculture, and more. If you're building with AI and haven't looked at this program, now is the time. Learn more here

Looking for funding, mentorship, or commercialization support? IRAP, Lab2Market, Canada Foundation for Innovation, CAN Health Network, ventureLAB - All active federal programs open to Canadian founders right now. See what fits

NEXT BIG GIGS 💼 

Find your next "big gig" in tech - in this section we're featuring a short-list of interesting job opportunities from our job board. See the jobs we're highlighting today:

• myAbode, the platform behind Property.ca, Condos.ca, and MrLoft.ca, is hiring its first Head of Product in Toronto

• Storyteller wants a Client Delivery Manager - fully remote across Canada, working closely with major sports clients
  

• Helcim is hiring across 10+ roles in Calgary across engineering, product, and operations

• Alma Care is hiring an AI Product & Systems Lead in Toronto - hands-on, AI-native, no traditional engineering background required

• Questrade Financial Group is hiring across 30+ roles in Toronto across engineering, compliance, product, and operations

Have a job you want to share? Currently looking to find your next gig? Check out the full list of jobs we curated just for you on our job board

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THE ROOM WHERE DECISIONS GET MADE

Stop solving alone. Join Peerscale by TechTO. The hardest part of leading a growth-stage company isn't the strategy - it's finding people who've been in the same seat and will tell you the truth.

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• Tight peer groups that give you real, tailored insight - not generic advice

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• An annual retreat built around the decisions that actually matter.

  • This year’s retreat is happening next week from June 17-19. If you qualify to join Peerscale and are interested in attending the retreat for a more immersive experience, please reach out to [email protected].

• A network of 100+ growth-stage companies with over $4B in collective exits

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